Crawdads, Persimmons, and Wildplums: Things I Want My Grandchildren to Know

By Juanita Dandridge

Juanita fondly recollects her memories of growing up in North Louisiana with her book Crawdads, Persimmons and Wildplums: Things I Want My Grandchildren to Know." She vividly recalls her growing up times in the wayback settlement of Lonehill, deep in Winn Parish.

In her book, she reminisces about she and her siblings scouring the woods for the tasteful treats of such things as huckleberries, wildplums, wildgrapes, and muscadines, being frightened by a snake hungry for hen eggs, a red fox trying to grab a hen in the chickenhouse and being caught by her dads hunter trap, also community and school makedos of barely nothing, but being lovingly content and having fun.

At her numerous book signings and other purchases by interested people, they are constantly saying that the book brings back such memories of growing up with parents, grandparents and the like, or those people told them about the book. All people have had experiences growing up and the books experiences may remind them of their own experiences. People like the book for their children and grandchildren because they grew up in a time when they knew nothing about such experiences. It is hoped the children will then appreciate more the things they do have.

People like this book so much that they are buying it for their moms, pops, grandparents, children themselves, friends and relatives. Teachers are taking this book to school and reading it to their children. Young and old, black and white, everyone who tastes of its humor and delightful stories seem to like it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 5, 2003
• ISBN: 9781403379436

Juanita Dandridge

Juanita McCarthy Dandridge, dramatis persona, author, and motivational speaker – is a retired teacher. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from Grambling College (now Grambling State University). Through a fellowship grant from Ford Foundation and the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities in 1964 Juanita was selected as a participant in a fellowship program for the teaching of reading at Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia under the direction of Dr. Lynette Saines Gaines. Juanita was one of five teachers chosen from Louisiana for the program that included four or five teachers from each state in the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities. Juanita was a state winner in dramatic/interpretative reading in high school. She continued her interest in drama by participating in the Grambling College Little Theatre Guild. While at Grambling she took all her elective hours in speech and drama. After graduation from college, Juanita taught third grade at Sorrento, Lowery and West Ascension Elementary Schools. Then later she taught reading at Donaldsonville Elementary School until retirement. Juanita has held many positions in civic organizations and she volunteers selectively in many civic and school activities. She is a member of Mount Triumph Baptist Church where she sings in the choir. She has written a book Crawdads, Persimmons and Wildplums: Things I Want My Grandchildren to Know. The book is being assailed wherever it is presented. She has two widely circulated copyrighted poems. The poem "Pearls of Wisdom- Embraced by Thy Grace." is a favorite of people. For several years Juanita has been performing dramatic readings, first in schools, nursing homes and churches. In the past year or two, her scope of areas have broaden to national conventions. Juanita feels it all has been God’s guiding with family, friends, and well-wishers hands that have helped her to grow and command the audience that she now enjoys.

Book preview

CRAWDADS, PERSIMMONS AND WILDPLUMS

THINGS I WANT MY GRANDCHILDREN TO KNOW

By

Juanita M. Dandridge

Illustrations by Alvin Batiste

© 2003 by Juanita M. Dandridge. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

ISBN: 1-4033-7943-2 (e-book)

ISBN: 1-4033-7944-0 (Paperback)

IstBooks-rev. 02/04/03

This book is dedicated to the loving memory of my devoted deceased husband, Thaddeus E. Dandridge and my beloved deceased mother, Josephine G. McCarty.

Cover: Picture of my mother sitting on her porch in her rocking chair with walker. Picture taken by my husband, Thaddeus E. Dandridge, before his death.

Acknowledgment: Winn Parish Enterprise, Winnfield, LA for first publishing these stories weekly at the direction and supervision of Bob Holeman, Publisher, along with Sherri Taylor, News Editor, whose job assignment the stories were and also June G. Rohr, News Editor.

Special Thanks to: Geneva G. Washington, amanuensis, for her most efficient and time-consuming typing skills.

Edited by: Delores Scieneaux

Illustrations by: Alvin Batiste

Special further thanks for continued encouragement and suggestions from my son and daughter-in-law, Melvin and Cheryl Dandridge; granddaughter, Annette Dandridge; sisters, Rosa Williams and Joyce Robinson; aunts, Theresa G. Coney and Darlene Warren; brothers, James and John McCarty; sister-in-law Leotha Dandridge; cousins, Ann and Alvin Glover, Velma Davis, Bernice Wiltz, Louis Keligond, Mama Dorest and Vernita Adams, Mama Willie and Emily Stinson; some of my dear friends Audrey Preston, Doris Ricado, Cheryl McKinney, Mary Ann Edwards, Aline Jackson, Caldonia Pedescleaux, Audrey Octave, Myrtle Martin, Marva Matthews, Hilda Blatch, Helen M. Glasper, and Wareen Lightfoot. The encouragement of many more friends and well-wishers.

Finally, but not least, in the chain of thanks I thank the Almighty God for leading and guiding me, for allowing me to put together these memories.

Thanks, thanks,

Jaunita M. Dandridge

Contents

Growing Up

The Joys Of Growing Up On A Farm

Joyful Days Abound In Lonehill

Dodson-More Memories Etched In Joy

Playtime In Dodson

Me And Egg Gathering

Bozo And The Wild Hogs

The Rattlesnake

My Respect For Lye

I Had To Join Church A Second Time

My Early Morning Chores

Mama And The Chicken Hawk

Mama Lou The Community Doctor

Daddy And The Sly Fox

Burned Uncle Luther’S Pants

Picture Taking

Things That Happened During Early Childhood

Hogs Got In The Watermelon Patch

Aunt And Uncle Almost Drowned Me

My Grandfather-Papa Manual

Baptizing In The Creek

When I Was Stung By A Hornet

My Bout With The Chicken Pox

The Time I Broke A Jug Of Milk In The Well

Don’T Mess With My Dad’S Pea Patch

I Cut Down My Mother’S Crepe Myrtle Screen

The First Time I Ever Rode A Train

Community Entertainment

Fun Chores On The Farm

My Sister And Her Broken Arm

My Driving Chaoses

My Fear Of High Places

My Respect For Stairs

Me And The Attic

My Observances Of Horse Races

My Mother And The Chicken Snake

Fishing By A Great Sportsman

Me And The Big Bad Rooster

About The Author

ILLUSTRATIONS

1.   Joys of Growing Up On a Farm

2.   Pillowcases Made from Floursacks

3.   Goats Eating Mother’s Clothes

4.   Someone set Fire to the Christmas Tree

5.   Crossing Creek on a Fallen Log

6.   Great-grandmother and Mirror

7.   Little Uncle Crawling Under Freight Train

8.   My Baby Aunt and the Swing

9.   Bozo and the Wild Hog

10.   Mama and the Chicken Hawk

11.   Daddy and the Sly Fox

12.   Hogs Got in the Watermelon

13.   Uncle and Aunt Almost Drowned Me

14.   Was Stung by a Hornet

15.   Milking Cows

16.   My Aunt and the Bicycle

17.   Fishing by a Great Sportsman

18.   Me and the Big, Bad Rooster

Growing Up

Growing up in my native home of Lonehill, Louisiana was such a joy. It was located 10 miles from a little town called Sikes, which itself was also located about twenty miles from the city of Winnfield, Louisiana. That little black community of Lonehill was spot-settled back in the deep woods then, miles from a simple loaf of bread, a block of ice or a soda water (excuse me, soft drink-back then we called it soda water). I tell you this because then, we had no electricity or even butane gas, and natural gas is not a remote possibility even now. Also, a loaf of bread (store-bought bread or light bread as we called it) was something you had once in a blue moon, a luxury. Cornbread, biscuits and homemade rolls were the everyday eatings.

So deeply nestled in the piney woods was Lonehill that there were snakes as big as one’s legs, slithering around and reigning in regal fashion supremely. Bullfrogs and crickets sang and chirped you to sleep nightly. Silence was pristinely serene in the morning. You could hear the freight train blowing ten miles away. Late in the evening you could hear your neighbor playing her piano as the sounds wafted over the wooded hills a mile away.

So deeply buried in the forest was the community that many tree branches entwined themselves as they met—like canopies and towered over the little narrow road. Only one car could take the road at a time if it was going in the opposite direction. One car hogged the road if going in the opposite direction because the road was so narrow two cars could not pass each other. The other car would have to take the ditch or back up to an opening where it could get off the road to let the other car pass. Strangers for the first time, many times felt that they were actually stepping back in time to days of the frontier or even close to the primitive era, until they would actually reach the established settlement.

After a soaking rain, it would be impossible for a car to travel on the muddy dirt road with the red sticky clay. The car was always sure to get stuck in the mud. It was a cautionary habit of most people who knew the road to listen at the crossroad for the sound, to hear if another car would be coming on the road before they continued. Today, this type of existence in the wilderness is much sought after by back-to-nature groups, rich and poor. These groups really want to commune with nature and partake of its unpolluted air, waters and forests. But those of us growing up and living out there then appreciated all those amenities of nature and solitude. However, back then, many of the now converts to this style of living looked upon it as out of vogue and backward or country (a word that is now the happening).

THE JOYS OF GROWING UP ON A FARM

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It was a real joy to grow up on a farm and witness little baby calves with their wobbly legs. To see little baby colts that look more like a picture than like real life. But, when you touch them or see them move, you then know that they are not a picture-but that they are really alive. To see little baby goats (kids) and pigs sucking their mother breasts.

Or, when everything is hushed and