***Date unknown***
***See AN1-230 for part two of interview***
***Attached link/recording is a dub cassette Maxell Communicator Series C60. Original Memorex a little worse quality/more tape hiss/noise***
***Because the original was catalogued and the dub is linked (due to better quality), the time code may vary slightly from what is in the catalog)***

Ulysse Arceneaux (I)
Born in Carencro in 1897

-Discharge papers. Barry wants to know where they went;
-When the war broke (April 5th or 6th), the recruiting officer came to the Pillion mill in Patterson. Recruiting officer went, a lot of friends left, but 4-5 stayed because they were young and felt bad seeing them go. Big band sent them off;
-May 5th, joining the army in New Orleans a little over 18 years old. Why he didn't go the first time, he was sick with malaria and weighed 135 lbs. Afraid they would take his friend and not him;
-Jackson barracks in New Orleans, then Sam Houston in San Antonio until June. Syracuse, New York until September. New York City by train, landing in Liverpool, England and going to South -Hampton for 5-6 days. Crossing the English Channel into Le Havre, France. Feeding them boiled fish. Cold day like today/yesterday (drizzling rain);
-1st division had the kitchen. Going with the 2nd division, getting a kitchen if they want to help out and peel potatoes. Best meal he had in his life;
-40 hommes, 8 chevaux (40 men, 8 horses);
-Riding almost a day to Abbéville. Talking French to the Frenchmen, serving as a translator. The Company Interpreter. Their French was understandable. Meeting a soldier at the depot, ended up at the truck station. La gare. Asking for "la masion de court," "le palais de justice";
-First stationed in the mountains in the southern part of France, Sila Cote? Government property? Stationed there until going to the front (la demi-lune) for about 15 days;
-Château-Thierry, where they stopped the Germans. French gave up, they thought the Americans were going to kill themselves. They didn't like the other francophone, he was a Lagneaux from Acadiana.
-Ulysse never saw him when they came back. Not telling the other soldiers what the French were saying. Shooting machine guns, stopping the Germans and pushing them back. The turning point of the war;
-Big cisterns of wine, wine all over the streets in Château-Thierry;
-$2 million barrage, shooting for 2 days. Driving there. Going into Germany from there;
-November 11th, day of the armistice. Going home pretty soon. Walking from France through Belgium into Germany;
-Around Thanksgiving Day 1918, they were in Belgium. Brussels. Finding 3-4 dozen eggs for the officers, omelettes;
-Germans didn't want to speak French, the end of his interpretation;
-Ranked as a cook, paying him the salary of a sergeant. $47.60/month. He started at $15/month for the first two months;

-First leaving Louisiana. Drilling them at boot camp in civilian clothes for 4-5 days. Big shot once he got his uniform. Re-enlisting in France, ran out of blanks. He would've stayed in France another 4 years (14:50);
-Pillion mill in Patterson was harder work than the army;
-Building a supply base. Fellows who worked in the offices were working outside. Ulysse didn't have to do that, just stay with the officers and interpret the Frenchmen;
-San Antonio to Syracuse, NY with the 9th infantry. Split into 3 regiments, 9th, 23rd, and another (5-6th marines??). Recruiting people from New York and New Jersey. Norfolk, VA to do ship work. 3 from Patterson, 2 brothers (Alcé and Sidney Lagrange in the 23rd);
-Going right after war was declared, not too much news. Finding out about the war through the newspapers, posts all around the saw mill;
-Joining because all of his friends had left. They felt like slackers. Getting scared over there, bombardments. There when they shot the canons, he thought they hit him and he had a broken leg.
-"Another one coming, run to the cellar. You ain't got no broken leg." Fool or liar if they say they weren't scared;
-Kitchen in the woods in Château-Thierry, sleeping in foxholes. President Theodore Roosevelt's son was shot down not too far from where they could see the plane coming down. German plane on top of him brought him down;
-Not too many airplanes, just fighting planes (2 men: the pilot and the one with the machine gun). No bombers. He wouldn't do it again, but he wouldn't give up his memories;
-22 yrs old when he came back. Pretty rough. $60 and one's month pay, discharged in Mississippi. $100-somewhat dollars, he thought he was rich.
-Working for $1.25 at the saw mill in Patterson. Buying clothes, not enough to buy a suit for church and more because the prices went up;
-Going to visit his brother in Vacherie. Assistant Penny Mill Foreman. Getting him a job grading the molding $5 a day. Closed 2 months after. L.J.'s and working for the railroad;
-Going to be a barber. Italian boy from Pennsylvania was a barber. Cooks worked a day, then had a day off. Going to barber college in New Orleans. Working in New Orleans, then Napoleanville. -Left when there was only enough business for the other barber;
-Coming to Lafayette to see his sister, then Port Arthur/Beaumont to work for a little. Meeting his wife when his sister was working at the store. Made a date with her, going to the barber shop the next morning and meeting a guy he grew up with. Working there for a while, but he didn't like it too much;
-Fellow from Rayne said they needed a barber in town. Working in Rayne in 1920 for a while. Mr. Dorsey had a shop by the depot and offered him $25 a week and room and board for 6 months. -Girlfriend lived in Lafayette. A lot of money back then. Working until 1927, just before the high water. Working for Mr. Broussard;
-Moved from the depot to the city barber shop. Working for Mr. Broussard from 1927 until 1932. Moving to Vermilion Street. Mr. Dorsey moved on Vermilion Street and left the barber shop.
-During the Depression, cutting kids' hair for 15 cents and adults' for 25 cents. 1932 when he went there;

High water of '27 (30:53);
-The levee broke around Morganza. Bringing people from St. Martin Parish to Lafayette. The next day, they were on the side of the road. Leaving the barber shop, moving Dr. Young's office from -Breaux Bridge to Lafayette. 5-6 vehicles got stuck, motorboats to help out. Water came as far as C.O. Theriot with the nice home, the water stopped there. Right by Chrsitian Bros. house. Road to Lake Martin on the left;
-Fellows had tents, cooked there for 3 days. Dan Mouton was in charge. Moving people at night. Store across from Heymann was empty, registering them there and figuring out how many people were there.
-A lot of houses in Crapaudville were vacant since saw mills shut down. Coffee and sandwiches for them, working. Not going home for 3 days and taking naps in between shifts;
-Red cross came, 2 men and 2 women. Glad they came over to relieve them. Just coming to inspect. Taking care of their own people, get out if they didn't come to work. Staying at the Evangeline Hotel for 4 days and not doing anything. Not giving the Red Cross any money;
-Bad accommodations. Big barracks. Shower once a week with a tank. Soap yourself and rinsed/hosed off. Staying in the wooden barracks, American engineers? had that built when they got there;
-2-story building, 14 days going across to France. Nothing to drink. Wine and beer. French people sip wine. Trouble paying with American money, exchanging for French money. Asking for bottles of wine, Americans drinking wine like water;
-Country boy like him didn't know too much about money. Getting paid in francs once they got to France. 5 francs and 50 centimes for $1 USD;
-Joining the army was his first time to New Orleans. People didn't go anywhere, no roads, no transportation. Taking the train to go somewhere;
-He spoke a little English, mostly French. Everyone spoke French in Carencro. Only knew French when he went to Patterson in 1914 (ran him out of Carencro, joke). Picking up enough English working in Patterson. His two brothers lived there;
-Water boy on Plantation by the airport, 2 buckets of water, a barrel, and a little mule. 1 bucket for whites, 1 for blacks. Sugarcane. They wouldn't drink too much when they'd get to the end of the row where the water was. They'd holler from the other end of the field and he'd have to go;
-Not having an easy life;
-Brother talked to the Foreman in Patterson when he got old enough to get him a job at the mill. Started out at 75 cents a day from 6 AM to 6 PM. Raised to $1 a day. A check a day, cashing it in the office. Mr. Watson asking him what he'll do with all the extra money. He wanted to tell him he'd save it, buy the place, and can/fire Watson;
-$1.25. Grading lumber got $1.50 a day;
-Old Man Stenson's restaurant at the Golden Hotel? (Pop Stenson). He was a shipping clerk, making $75/month. He was mean, Ulysse didn't work with him. Stenson was in the lumber yard yelling. Talking bad to the waitresses? Ulysse told him something and he got mad;

-Born in Carencro where the colored Catholic Church is. The church is on their old property (44:34);
-Living in Lafayette after the war. Raised 2 miles on the other side, Bernard Road now going towards Sunset at the second railroad crossing;
-People didn't care about them when they came back, they had just been in the army. They didn't realize what soldiers had been though;
-Men who were on the fronts didn't talk about the war. Missing soldiers dead or wounded. Medics help, not soldiers next to the sick/wounded. Half don't come back. Those who talk about the war probably didn't go to the fronts;
-He doesn't like war pictures/movies because they never show how it really was. Not wanting to see video from the Normandy invasion on tv. It's not an easy thing;
-Frenchmen having their hands out all the time;
-Riding the subway for the first time in Paris, stationed in Germany. Pass/furlough. Not too many to go to Paris. Some to Berns, Switzerland. Ulysse and an older fellow shot dice and won some money. Going to Nancy, France and changing trains to go to Paris.
-He thought the Frenchmen would pull them off the train. Staying in Paris for 3 days, they weren't supposed to go. They should've gone to Berns. One fellow pulled it off before and told them what to do;
-Girls in sidewalk cafés;
-Métro, subway in French;
-Getting on the ship at Brest, came from Germany. Camp on a hill. Wash holes to clean up before going home. Staying there 4-5 days. First good bath since he was there;
-Ulysse just went once into the trenches at the "half-moon" (la demi-lune);
-They knew there were new soldiers? Sazine?, the Italian fellow. Observation port. Germans broke in, they could hear them. Rifles and hand grenades in case they came through. Getting a hand grenade ready, they turned around and went the other way. Bravery because they didn't abandon their post;
-La Croix de Guerre. He doesn't brag about that. He was scared in that trench, He knew they weren't American because he cold hear;
-Mud. Digging trenches. Holes covered up where soldiers slept. Coming at night to bring food. Backpack full of hardtack and emergency rations in case they couldn't get the soldiers food.
-Sandwiches, boiled meat. Camouflage buckets. Sometimes, coffee;
-Frenchman had it hard to dig the trenches. Digging it ahead of time;
-Sleeping in the trenches, staying wet all the time;
-People think he makes some of this up. People like all those war pictures because they maybe forgot what it was like;
-Not too much rivalry between the army and the marines, it started when everyone came back. Everyone was looking for their "coin" "couenne"???;
-Dirty-looking fellow when they came back. Water wagon is coming today, getting ready. Tent over you to go from barracks to streets. Shower. Wiping yourself in the barracks. This guy was always absent. The captain ordered the others to take him out and give him a bath. Getting a bar a soap from the kitchen;

Ulysse Arceneaux