00:00:10 - Interview with Milton (?) Chouest; Wednesday, June 13th at their home in Golden Meadow;
00:00:30 - In 1917 she helped start the first school in the area; At 17 years old, Mrs. Chouest taught 1st-3rd grade (125 children); Mr. Scott was the principal; He taught 4th-7th grade all together (35 children); Half of the students came in the morning and half in the afternoon;
00:01:33 - She didn't speak local French; She took some classes in college; Her students didn't speak English; Some were older than her;
00:02:30 - The war broke out and Mr. Scott had to leave, so she became principal and taught 4th-7th grade;
00:02:50 - The children would peel shrimp at the factory instead of going to school; They helped change the laws so children couldn't work at the factory;
00:03:50 - The families in the area were more interested in educating the boys and not the girls; She built the school up; At first, children came from Golden Meadow and Leeville (later from Grand Isle); She coached the boys basketball team for years;
00:04:50 - Their house was brand new; The school only had four rooms, so they wanted to buy the land where their new house was; So they agreed to sell the land if they school moved their house to a new piece of property;
00:06:20 - She started the church; Catholic; She went with Ernest Falgout and his father to the archbishop and asked for a priest; The school children loved her and listened to her;
00:07:00 - Jim Perrin's dance hall (no longer there); They used to dance until 2 or 3 in the morning; Her and the kids would wake up early, scrub down the dance hall, and set up an alter; The priest would travel by boat from New Orleans; They knelt on the floor; She raffled all of her wedding gifts in order to buy an organ and start the church;
00:07:50 - She helped with the choir for 16 years; She would teach the songs to kids after school; She said she could get anything done with the help of the schoolchildren and their parents; The priest was named Father Bell (he passed away);
00:08:30 - Davis asks if their was a school on Grand Isle, but they don't think so;
00:09:05 - Some of the students commuted from Leeville and Golden Meadow; Much later, students came from Grand Isle and Cheniere Caminada; The school got too big; She told the superintendent that she would teach 9th grade at the elementary school salary to keep her boys from going to Cut Off for high school; She taught everything but science because they had no lab;
00:11:00 - The fathers caught shrimp, oysters, and trapping; The would bring the shrimp to be processed; Camps in the marsh made of palmetto; Flatboats; Families would go into the marsh in the winter; Trapping season was about 3 months;
00:13:05 - At first, the school only allowed white children; Once they got the high school, they allowed non-white students;
00:15:30 - Drying platforms started around 1918-1920; No Chinese workers in the area; Trapping in the winter and fishing/shrimping in the warmer months;
00:16:45 - 8-10 families lived at Fala; Sabine; People would come by boat to Golden Meadow to get groceries and supplies; Ernest Vadin; Texas wharf; Lester Plaisance's father had a grocery boat and would go to Timbalier; 10-15 families in Timbalier bay;
00:18:45 - They didn't have any law enforcement; She taught 54 years and never had trouble; Unspoken laws/rules in the community;
00:20:18 - 1917; Lumber yard at Larose; Sawmill; Cypress;
00:21:20 - Great-grandparents from France, Spain, Italy, Germany; During the lumber period there was also a lot in people from the north; Yankee canal; Called it Golden Meadow because there was golden (?) everywhere; Most people around there are French;
00:23:35 - Oil industry brought people from all over to the area; During prohibition, people brought in illegal whiskey; 1929-1930; Bob Collins;
00:25:30 - Story about a terrible storm that opened up the tombs; People would leave right away when there was a storm;
00:26:00 - Different types of houses; Bartering/trading instead of cash; In 1917, there weren't many people; People starting coming there when the oil industry took off; Around 1931;
00:29:00 - She was assistant principal because it was customary to have a male principal; Forced into retirement; She taught in Lockport at Holy Savior;
00:30:30 - Types of boats; Cypress boats; Sailboats; Perdiac, between Leeville and Grand Isle; It was a trapping outfit controlled by outside interests; People were there only for trapping season; Cheniere Caminada –– oyster and shrimp; Tonging oysters; Sell oysters in New Orleans;
00:35:45 - Sailing to New Orleans would take 2-3 days; Beef cattle; Salt meat; Sack of oysters was around $0.50;
00:39:11 - Selling oysters; The doctor had to come by boat from Raceland when she gave birth; Folk medicine; Herbs; If anyone was sick, the whole town would help; Story about her daughter when she was sick; Snake bites and gunpowder; Relying on nature because there weren't doctors; Story about a snake bite;
00:45:00 - Trainasse; Former students;
00:46:50 - The Chouest family; His father was born in Gheens; Lake Salvador; Lumber companies; Her paternal grandparents came from Ireland and maternal grandparents came from Germany; Harvey canal; Germans came in the 1780s; The German coast;
00:50:10 - Him and his brother had to walk for miles to go to school near Bayou Vacherie; Teacher was Lena Bourgeois; His father raised sugar cane; Jone Gheens from Kentucky had a mill;
00:51:05 - Not a lot of rice farming in the area; Bayou Lafourche was plugged at Donaldsonville in 1905, which stopped the fresh water flow; Can't use salt water to flood the field; Switched to corn and cane;
00:52:20 - Trainasses east and west of Bayou Lafourche turned into canals by the current; At Timbalier bay, the coast used to be eight miles south; Story about going there in the summer; Lighthouse is now a quarter mile or mile in the Gulf;
00:54:25 - Her salary was $55/month when she first started teaching; Went up to $130/month when she became principal; In 1917, she moved to teach at the age of 17;
00:56:35 - Smuggling during the Great Depression; Story about Chinese workers being smuggled; In St. Bernard parish, they would go offshore to get alcohol; Story about a smuggler; Bootleggers; Jumped out of the boat and swam 5-6 miles to the coast; Sharks;