Manners is something you get for nothing – and they are nice to have.
My wife and I were eating breakfast in one of our local restaurants the other day. There was a couple at the next table also eating. Just when I started to eat my medium-well eggs, the man at the next table started blowing his nose. That’s where I lost my appetite and left the table. The lady who was with “Mr. Nose Blower” let out a loud belch. So we paid for our breakfast that we didn’t eat and left.
Another time there was a fellow from Bayou Vista (I don’t remember his name) with his grandmother and his 8-year-old son. They were eating spaghetti.
The guy started slurping up his spaghetti, splattering it all over. His grandmother’s face was completely splattered with red gravy – she looked like she had the chicken pox. the little boy started playing with his spaghetti, trying to catch a mouthful at a time. Did you ever hear of angel-hair spaghetti? Well, he had it on his head – the “little angel.”
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Reunions, weddings, and funerals – these just make me up tight. They bring back too many memories. I just want to give you a brief resume of the happenings in Berwick during my lifetime.
As I ride or walk down Second Street south of the railroad track, this brings back so many memories. This street today is so quiet. You don’t see anybody. You can hear the wind blowing through the trees. It seems as though I can hear whispering voices from the past. There was so much fun, music, laughter and gaiety on this street.
I can still hear the pianos, string music and graphaphones playing. Large families would get together and have picnics, house parties and dances.
Families like the Drurys, Watkins, Roders, Scotts, Saunders, Bowmans, Thorgusons, Gashias, Vincents, Lemkes, Robicheauxs and many others would have large house parties every Saturday night.
And at Christmas times, everybody would visit each other’s homes and make merry that special time of the year. I can still hear Charlie Drury and Willie Roder laughing. They really put their hearts into it.
And today, like the author Margaret Mitchell said, “It’s all gone with the wind.”
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Remember when Theodore Roosevelt came to Franklin? Hazel Daigle presented him with a bouquet of Marshal Neil roses on the courthouse steps and Theodore Roosevelt gave her a big kiss.
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I had bad eye sight until I was 8 years old; then I got a hair cut.
* The End *