Wild Violets: The Years of Hope

It was a different world. . . . streams and woods teeming with fish and game. . . . peeping baby chicks in the U.S. mail. . . . reading at night by kerosene lanterns before electricity came. . . . swimming in the cold artesian rivers in the summertime. . . . steamboats on the Mississippi! It was the same world. . . . pop music and big bands. . . . dance fads like the Jitterbug. . . . scrimping and saving for college. . . . a little moonshine now and then for one's friends. . . . avoiding the revenuer. . . . shrimping and crabbing at Mandeville on Lake Pontchartrain at dusk. . . . winding the old Victrola and replacing the needles. . . . churning butter and ice cream, too! It was a wild world. . . . floods and hurricanes. It was a hard world. . . . the great depression followed by World War II. . . . dear friends and relatives went to war and never came back. . . . segregation-black wards and white wards at Charity Hospital. . . . blank faced men riding the rails, looking for work, begging for food. . . . lots of chores and homework. It was a loving world. . . . full of relatives and friends, feasts and games, chasing fire engines with an aunt in New Orleans. . . . exploring museums. . . . boarding the steamship, "Robert E. Lee", borrowing flowers from the cemetery for Mom's birthday. It was a world of music. . . . Mom singing the old songs. . . . four sisters in the church choir and the glee clubs at school. . . . listening to the big bands when electricity reached Abita Springs. . . . the songs of the birds when exploring the woods. Come join her in these worlds. You'll laugh and you'll cry.