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"So this is the Yoda"

You must have been a beautiful baby....Gee I wonder what happened. Oh well I was born on the 12th of July 1945,(now you know where the 712 comes from) in the city of Minden,Louisiana. I weighed in at a total weight of 7 lbs 8 ozs. I had a soft fuzz for a head of hair, big blue eyes and big ears. Some say that my ears had already started to look like they didn't belong. But my Mom and Dad loved me very much. Up untill the age of about five I could do no wrong in their sight. Now Minden was a wonderful place to grow up in but then at that age whose to say. I am told that I was a happy baby and was always in to some thing.

My father was a CopperSmith for the Great 'L and A Railroad and Kansas City Southern Rail Line". There was nothing that he could not do with his hands. Guess I got that gift from him. Now my Dad was a great hunter. I can still remember him taking me with him, all bundled up in his back pack. I never did get scared or cry when he fired his gun. But I have to admit that this is one reason that I may be a little hard of hearing to this day. I will be putting more of his pictures in my family album later on so check it out.

Then in Janurary of 1950 tragedy struck my young life. My Mother took my dad to the hospital for a check-up as he was having a little pain in his chest. I never saw my dad again. Mom wanted to take me to the hospital to visit him but they said I was to young. Anyway my dad passed away a few days later and my normal life, with a normal happy family with a father and mother went with him.

I was the third child (baby of the family) of three boys. I use to kid my mom that I was an accident and I was the surprise of her life. She thought that she and dad were to old to have any more kids. Suprise, surprise. The only problem is that my closest brother was 20 years older than me. So I grew up with out the advantage of brothers or a father to guide me. It was my brother Lill that talked my mother in to coming up to Idaho and stay with them till she could get over the lose of dad.

So off to Idaho we went. Now Lill was also a great hunter and I had the time of my life. I had just turned five and he took me Elk hunting and salmon fishing. Thats me with my first fish at the age of five. That fish almost pulled me into the "Snake River". It would have had not Lill grabed me by the belt buckle and reeled me back in. But I fought the fish and finally won. What a prise for a Five year old. As a matter of fact this is where I got my love of the great out doors. I was hiking at age five in the great forests in and around McCall, Idaho. This use to worry my mom something awful. I was absolutly fearless and nothing scared me for some reason. There were wolves, bears and mountian lions in the area that we lived in and when I came home with a bear cub... that was the last straw. Never new if they ever found the mother of the cub, but my mother found me in more than one way. Wonder if the cub got chewed out for carrying on with a human as I did for bringing him home. There are many other tales of my times in Idaho but that can be saved for another time.

When mother got us back home it was time to start school. Now for a women at this time (1950's) work was hard to fine. I can remember mother working late and me getting in all types of trouble not having a father to look after me. She worked so hard and then had to come home to cook for me. Well being the type of person I was I decided that it was time to help out around the place. I decided that I was gong to fix dinner for mother one night. When she got home she hit the roof. Not that she was't proud of me for trying, But GOD YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE KITCHEN. So she decided that it was time to learn to cook and she guided me the right way. Mother never cooked on the weekends when it was just her and I, only when company came did she cook. The weekends were my time in the kitchen, and I also would fix supper at night for us when I was home.

Mother had her hands full with me, so she sent me off in the summers to my family in the bayous and swamps of South Louisiana. I can remember getting lost in the swamps and everyone was looking for me. Well I was gone for three days but I was not lost, I knew where I was but I forgot to tell Gran that I was going to be gone for a while. After this I pertty much had the run of the swamps. We use to go and trap Croks(Alligators), snakes and then either sell them, or eat them. But one of the greatest things was going out on the river and showing them to the tourist that traveled the river. For more on my life in the bayous check out "My Bayou Home"

Any way this about sums up my early years. It was a great life as I see it. Then in 1958 my Mom set the man of her dreams. I always thought that I brought them togeather, but I think I know more now than I did then. I had always been a member of 4-H and was always trying my hand at something. Besides loving the out doors, I had all kinds of pets around the place. Raccoons, fox deer and even a pet skunk (till he got older), never skunked me but I can't say that for others (HaHaHa) Anyway I desided that I wanted a 4-H project and I asked Mr. Gladney for any help or suggestions that he could give me. He was the county agent for Webster Parish and had lost his wife a few years back. He said he would talk to my mom. Any way he got me into the (get this) "The Chicken of Tommorrow Contest". How this was a project where you raised chicks to hens and sold them at auction for profit. Well course he was always around, bringing food and items for the chicks. Course while I unloaded the items he was up having coffee with mom. Oh boy I got them togeather. They were married in 1960 and my life once again changed but that is another story. So follow me to my next page and see my life change again. I will soon have a deicated Page to my to Fathers.



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