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.

Wild Violets

The Years of HopeBy Alma Arthur

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 Alma Arthur
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4772-6574-1

Contents

Chapter 1 The Great Flood and My Birth..............................................................................1Chapter 2 The Time and Place........................................................................................7Chapter 3 Ancient Oak, Davis Cemetery and Mom's Bouquet, the School Santa...........................................19Chapter 4 Starting school, Fairies, Cutting X-mas Tree..............................................................29Chapter 5 Dad's Story...............................................................................................43Chapter 6 Coming to Terms with the Monster..........................................................................49Chapter 7 Shrimping Picnics at Lake Ponchartrain....................................................................53Chapter 8 Life before electricity—Daily activities............................................................59Chapter 9 Snoopy, the Bully Sheep, Fun and Chores, Star Gazing......................................................69Chapter 10 Abita is Electrified, the Magic of Radio, Wrong Way Corrigan.............................................81Chapter 11 Dad's Brother, Edward, Marries Florence..................................................................89Chapter 12 Mama's Mail Order Chicks Arrive..........................................................................93Chapter 13 Third and fourth grades—Books and the Parish Fair..................................................99Chapter 14 Mom's surprise—the Piano...........................................................................109Chapter 15 Hunting and Fishing with Daddy...........................................................................115Chapter 16 Mrs. Reeter, Shirley's Eyes, Dad's Surgery and Mom's Flower Project......................................125Chapter 17 Fifth grade, the Winds of March, Kite Flying.............................................................135Chapter 18 My Many Trips to New Orleans, Exciting Experiences.......................................................147Chapter 19 1933 Chicago World's Fair as Told by Matt and Norman Ballatin............................................171Chapter 20 Incidents Remembered With No Exact Time Frame............................................................177Chapter 21 1939—The Robert E. Lee, How Green was My Valley....................................................191Chapter 22 Mrs. Reeter Returns, Making Indian Baskets and Caning Chairs.............................................199Chapter 23 Sixth Grade, Baseball, England at War, Dunkirk, Lou Gehrig...............................................203Chapter 24 Attack on Pearl Harbor, December, 1941, Events in early 1942.............................................223Chapter 25 Mrs. Reeter Returns—the Bullet Proof Sweaters......................................................231Chapter 26 First Half of 1942 and Graduation........................................................................237Chapter 27 Albert, Dad's Son is Coming to Visit.....................................................................249Chapter 28 Barnes' Lawn Party, Disc Jockey, News of the War.........................................................259Chapter 29 Freshman Year, Dad's Grim News, Albert's Death...........................................................265Chapter 30 First Midnight Mass, Young Voices in the Choir...........................................................281Chapter 31 Summer of 1943, WWII continues, the Purloined Boat.......................................................287Chapter 32 LSU Football Game, WWII Events, Sophomore Year...........................................................301Chapter 33 D-Day and summer, 1944, Boarding Merchant Ship in Mississippi River......................................317Chapter 34 Junior Year, Battle of Okinawa, Atomic Bombs, and a Tragic Thanksgiving Day, 1944-45.....................339Chapter 35 Senior year, 1945-46, Graduation as Valedictorian........................................................375Chapter 36 Enter R.N. Program at Charity Hospital School of Nursing, 1946...........................................387Chapter 37 Operating Room, My First Formal Ball.....................................................................403Chapter 38 Obstetrics, Psychiatry, Orthopedics......................................................................417Chapter 39 Premature Nursery and the Great Hurricane of 1947........................................................431Chapter 40 Pediatrics, the Miracle Child Returns....................................................................439Chapter 41 New Born Nursery and Seeing "Aida" the First Time........................................................449Chapter 42 Accident Room, T.B. Building, Contagion, Graduation......................................................455Chapter 43 A Few of my Heroes and Heroines..........................................................................471

Chapter One

The Great Flood and My Birth

The time was the waning years of the 1920's; in the distance could be heard the tolling of the bells—the death knell for the "roaring twenties" with its' opulence, excesses, loose morals and speakeasies. The signs of economic uncertainty had been rearing its' ugly head, but the population thought good times would last forever. The setting for this story is a quaint village in the pine forest of southeast Louisiana, part of the "Florida Parishes", famous for its' wonderful air and pure water. It wasn't even St. Swithin's Day which usually was a harbinger of 40 days more rain, but never the less, it had been raining for days, not unusual for June in Southeastern Louisiana. They were not gentle rains, but continual intermittent heavy rains with lighting piercing the sky, followed by ominous rumbles of thunder. John Peters was a tall, sturdily built man of about 40. His face appeared young. It didn't show the effects of countless years of being outdoors in the sun, working, hunting, fishing, gardening and playing. Perhaps the bright blue eyes and the shock of blond hair gave the false illusion that he was a younger man. Today, June 21st, 1929, he had a worried look about him as he gazed at the menacing black clouds. His wife, Mamie, was very near term with her second child, and he was studying his options in case the Abita River rose higher and more water poured into the surrounding woods and over the highway. John had been walking into town every day to check the river. This day, the current ran swiftly, carrying downed branches with it, whirling and banging into the bridge supports. He was worried. His wife, Mary Alma (Mamie), was expecting her child any day now, and, as he stood with his foot on the bottom rail of the bridge, he pulled his hat down and crossed his arms wondering how the midwife, Mrs. Bender, would be able to cross the bridge in her old beat up Model T if the rampaging river were to overflow its' banks. She wouldn't be able to negotiate the current and the high water. He though glumly, that the water would also block him from contacting her when the essential time came. He didn't have a phone. He would have to get her. Still perusing his options, he walked hurriedly to the post office, his fingers filing along the rows of combination boxes until he reached his box, # 205....