T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection

ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME:   Shine Larson                                  COLLECTION:   4700.0034

IDENTIFICATION:   Resident of Bayou Chene, Louisiana

INTERVIEWER:   Sue Hebert

PROJECT:   Sue Hebert Series

INTERVIEW DATE:   October 4, 1979

FOCUS DATES: 1903-1955

ABSTRACT:

Tape 43.1

Born and raised in Bayou Chene, born in 1903; family background; picking and processing moss; cutting timber; description of a boom; Catholic and Methodist churches in Bayou Chene; his grandfather made syrup; owned a grocery store; trapping, fishing, hunting; people were living on Bayou Chene from “slavery times”; reasons why his grandfather settled on Bayou Chene; teachers came to Bayou Chene from other areas; most children went to school and most people went to church; what weddings were like; high water caused people to leave Bayou Chene especially the flood in 1927; floods in 1912 and 1937; he lost a lot of land when they built the spillway; people were buried on the Indian mounds in the area; has twelve children; use of midwives; Aunt Mandy a “colored” midwife; timber was biggest industry; lumber companies; logging camps;  food they ate at camp, there was a cook there; man who owned the logging contract would be responsible for the camp; his kids played in the yard for recreation; sharks, alligators, turtles, other wildlife; fishing practices, shrimp; people kept cows and chickens; description of people’s houses; politics and elections in Bayou Chene, voting procedures; local saloons, whisky in 5 gallon jugs; traveling in the area, Plaquemine was the closest town; people canned vegetables and some raised gardens; gardens has snap peas, beets, white and red beans, potatoes; people leaving during floods; flood of 1927, he stayed in his house, made a plank walk to keep things dry; moss, feather and shuck mattresses; no electricity, wood stove in the kitchen, butane heaters; moved from Bayou Chene in 1955 because there was no one left there; things are different now, he used to leave his store unlocked, would tie his boat anywhere and no one would take things; outhouses, septic tanks; Bayou Chene was mostly flat; father raised honey bees and sold honey in New Orleans; process of raising bees, collecting and shipping honey; doesn’t know how his dad started doing this; was working on the ferry when there was an earthquake in Alaska or Canada in 1964 that disturbed the water at Bayou Sorrel; the sheriff’s boat sunk during this event, no one knew what was going on.

TAPES:  1 (T43.1)                                                     TOTAL PLAYING TIME:   37 minutes

# PAGES INDEX:   2 pages

RESTRICTIONS:   None