For all of my loved ones that will follow me.......My story begins and "Why I am a Democrat"

Your MawMaw Faye is a registered Democrat and will remain one till the day she dies. Having said that we live in America where you have the right to think for yourselves. Your vote is private and personal hardships were endured and many, many lives were given for you to have that privilege. I would fight for your right to vote your convictions. I am one of those liberals that you hear about. I had heard that the definition of a liberal was “compassionate”. I looked it up in my dictionary and found other meanings, i.e., generous--a liberal donation, wisely liberal with his money for comfort and pleasure or he put in a liberal supply of coal for the winter, plentiful, abundant, tolerant, not narrow-minded, sympathetic, free in speech and action or a person favorable to progress and reforms. Please look up your own definition and draw your own conclusions.

Why am I a Democrat? I’ll share with you some basic reasons and influences. My papa lost two homes and farms during the Great Depression”. And the reason why that happened was he had eleven children, he had to pay taxes and he couldn’t make enough money to pay them and feed his children. He had to buy seed and fertilizer from a small country store. He couldn’t make enough on his crops to pay the store’s high prices so he lost his farms. Papa was the finest man I’ve ever known. I was told that a lot of people had their taxes marked “paid’ in the parish office when they weren’t. Consequently they saved their homes and land. Papa was a Christian and lived by the Bible and he never considered that alternative. He lost everything he owned--his farm and home, horses and wagon and his right to vote. Papa then had to turn to sharecropping to feed and clothe his family. That was a very hard life. He had to give half of everything he made to the landowner to pay for the seed, fertilizer and use of the land. My papa was proud and he looked to God for his strength. He never wavered and that took a lot of strength for he was only 5’6” tall and he only weighed one hundred thirty five lbs. He was proud of his family and the way we worked and pulled together. He had seven sons who got up very early in the morning and started work as soon as there was light enough to see. If it was hot they would come back to the house and rest or sleep until lunch. If we lived near a swimming hole they would rest for an hour after lunch, go swimming and go back to work until it was dark. Papa never over-worked his children the way some people did. We always took Sundays off and went to church if it was close enough to walk or if we could get a ride. And they tried to make time for fun. If the boys had worked hard, Papa would take them to Black Lake to fish overnight. They would put out trout lines and fish the next day. Then they would return home with washtubs full of fish. Papa would send word to all the extended family and friends to come for a fish fry. What a supper that would be. You see there was no electricity or refrigeration so all the fish had to be eaten. The ladies would bring cakes and cobblers. I can still taste them now. And by the way, kids, we did have french fries. Sometimes, when it got real hot, Papa would send a couple of the boys to Ashland to buy a block of ice. Again word was sent out to family and friends. They were told to come on over to make homemade ice cream. They would all gather bringing their favorite recipes. The cream was frozen in syrup buckets, the ice was chipped in a wash tub and the kids got to turn the buckets until it was ice cream. Nothing ever tasted so good and again cookies cake and cobblers were made for dessert. Well I have digressed again or as PawPaw would say I have rambled on. Not to my face though he only did that one time...ha-ha.

Papa couldn’t vote. A law had been passed that if you didn’t own land you had to pay a poll tax. Papa never had enough money left after paying his debts to pay this fee so he and Mama couldn’t vote. He grieved over that. Voting was very important to him. Back then Huey Long was elected governor. Some people said he was a dictator and complained that he taxed the rich to give to the poor. I just remember that one of the first things he did was abolish the poll tax. Thank God, my papa and mama could cast their vote again. I just remember that this poor, little sharecroppers’ daughter got good school buildings, free textbooks, paper, pencils and crayons. We also got school buses to take us to school. He also improved roads and built bridges to replace ferries. Charity hospitals were built across the state--from “Big Charity” and the medical school in New Orleans to the charity hospital in Shreveport. For the first time poor people had decent health care and no one was turned away. I will talk more about this later.

My mama had twelve children. They were all born at home--sometimes delivered by a country doctor. I came along when my mama was forty-four years old and papa was fifty-two. To say that I was unexpected is putting it mildly. My mama had grown plump and thought she was going through the change of life. Finally she went to the country doctor to see about the changes she was going through. The doctor panicked. Told her she had a tumor and he sent her to the charity hospital in Shreveport for surgery. Everybody thought she was off having surgery. Well you can already guess what happened. Instead of performing surgery they discovered she was six months pregnant--with me! What a big story! This happened when Mom’s youngest child was eight and a half yrs old. The doctors had Mama come back to the charity hospital for my birth. I could say more on this subject--that will come later. I’m just getting started. So to all you children, grandchildren and future generations these are some of the reasons I’m a proud Democrat. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it--or these are my memories and I’m standing by them.