Newspaper, Profile of Vaudie Meredith Kelly, LaSalle Parish La. Copied & Submitted by: Pat Ezell, San Antonio, Texas ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From the Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal , Wednesday, Dec.15, 1999, Section A, Page 11 Thank You to the Times -Signal for allowing the following to be added to the Archives. A Times-Signal Feature...."Citizen Profile" A Very Special Salute Vaudie Meredith Kelly This week's profile reflects on Christmas in yesteryear. "When we were growing up, Christmas was a big event, " says this week's Citizen Profile Vaudie Meredith Kelly, "we looked forward to it more than kids do today and the things we got was stuff you couldn't even play with." Vaudie Meredith Kelly was born on March 28, 1920, just inside of Winn Parish from LaSalle Parish on La. Hwy 124. She grew up at the old homeplace with her family, which consisted of six children, including two sets of twins… Mrs. Kelly being one of the twin sets. Times were much different than they are today, but Mrs. Kelly noted that she was brought up with love, respect and togetherness. At this time of year, when everyone is focusing on Christmas, Mrs. Kelly remembers the days gone by when Christmas was the greatest event of the year. "Christmas was a very special and exciting time at our home," she said, "for two weeks before Santa Claus night we'd just be beside ourselves." Santa Claus night, or Christmas Eve, was looked forward to all year, and everyone believed in Santa Claus. We were grown kids before we ever knew that there wasn't a Santa Claus," Mrs. Kelly said, "and another thing, we grew up thinking that apples didn't get ripe until Christmas…'cause that's what we always got." Christmas gifts for the Meredith children consisted of many fruit, apples, oranges, a box of raisins, a mixture of nuts, and most of the time a long peppermint stick. Other gifts that they might receive would be a pack of fire poppers (fire crackers), or a box of sparklers. Seldom ever did they receive a toy. "I remember that papa always managed to get a hold of a stick of dynamite and he and the two oldest boys would get up early in the morning on Christmas Day and go out to a certain stump and light it," she said, "we called it our Christmas gun and we all looked forward to that every year." Growing up, all the Meredith children attended the Beech Creek School and Beech Creek Baptist Church. Their father was a farmer, who also owned and operated a corn mill and syrup mill, as well as drove the school wagon. Her oldest brother finished the seventh grade and the rest of the children finished the sixth grade, which was common in those days. In 1949 Mrs. Kelly married Otho Kelly and she left her homeplace in Winn Parish to live in Urania for several years. While in Urania, she worked as a nurse at Hardtner Medical Center and then lived in Olla for 32 years. In 1971, Mr. Kelly passed away. For the past several years, she has lived back on her original homeplace property in Winn Parish, while most of her friends are in the LaSalle area. Together, the Kelly's raised two children, a boy and girl, and Mrs. Kelly always reminded them of their heritage from her days growing up in Winn Parish. "When I was growing up, we didn't have much, but we did have love and happiness." Mrs. Kelly said, "homes during that time didn't have all this unnecessary stuff, we just had what we needed." As a child, Mrs. Kelly remembers the day when her family loaded up in the Model T and traveled the 18 long, hard miles to Winnfield to visit the home of a friend, just to hear a radio. "We didn't have electricity, indoor plumbing, or any of those other things, but neither did anybody else," she said, "looking back now I guess I can see that we were rich, but nobody had any money in those days." While they didn't have the modern conveniences of today, they did have love. And not just in their family. Mrs. Kelly remembers the day when the entire community pulled together and helped one another out in times of need. "Even if there was someone in the community no one liked, in time of trouble everyone was right there to help him," Mrs. Kelly remembered. She also recalled a day when going to church meant much more than perhaps it means today. "Everyone went to church every Sunday," she said. "remember when there wouldn't even be standing room in the church and people would stand outside of the windows looking in." Back then people went to church for the real thing, not to show off a new outfit or something," Mrs. Kelly said, "Boy those people would come from miles around on horseback and in wagons, and it wouldn't matter if it was sunny, cloudy, or thundering and lightning, everyone came for church." She also remembered when the children knew what was and was not appropriate in church. "All of us children knew we'd better not fall asleep in church," she said, " I remember having some real good church services back then." Church was such a part of the Meredith's life, that even their pastime games revolved around the church. "One of our favorite things to do was to play church" Mrs. Kelly said, "I remember one time we were in the pasture by the pond and Johnny Cooper, who was about nine or ten years old, was our preacher. He was standing on top of an old stump just a preaching away and behind him was the pond. Well, while he was a preaching, some geese came into the pond and all of us children began watching the geese. Well, Johnny Cooper saw what was a going on and he yelled out to us 'Alright my beloved, you can't go to heaven watching the geese in the pond.' He was a real good preacher and do you know that later on he turned out to be a preacher for real?" But as Mrs. Kelly will tell you, play times for the children came far and few between. Most of the time, if the children were not in school, they were busy working around the house or in the farm fields with their father. "A typical day around our house started way before daylight," she said. "Mama would get up long before any of the rest of us and have breakfast ready when we woke." She continued: "Everybody got up at the same time every morning, and when the table was set it was set for all. Everybody sat down to eat together at the same time, not like today when people drift in and out and sleep till all hours of the day." "There wasn't any grumbling at the table," she said, "no one said "I don't like this or I don't like that", we all ate what we had and ate everything that was given to us. After breakfast, each of the children had certain chores that they had to do. For Mrs. Kelly and her twin sister, that meant milking six cows. We were all young, real young, but we didn't have to be told what to do because everybody knew what they had to do," she said, "and we didn't even think about saying we didn't want to do it." When the children were out of school during the summer months, their days took on a different schedule. Still up before daylight and eating their breakfast, after chores all the children headed out to the fields to work. Everything from hoeing, to picking cotton and vegetables the children would undertake under the watchful eye of their big brother, who was called "The boss". Mrs. Kelly explained that because their father would be busy plowing or doing other work, the oldest son took on the responsibility of making sure the other children did what needed to be done. While in the fields, at 9 a.m., their mother would bring them all a lunch, which would usually be some more biscuits and syrup and a pot of coffee. They would pause for a few minutes to eat and then they would get back to work. At 12 noon, their mother would blow the horn for dinner, and everyone would go back to the house for an hour to eat together. Then it was back to the field, where they would work until 3 p.m., when their mother would bring them another lunch. After that, they would work until it would be supper time. At night, after supper and after everything had been cleaned and put away, everyone would sit on the front porch and look at the stars. Then, their dad would get out the family Bible and the oldest son would read from it. After Bible reading, and prayers, their mother would pump organ and play a few sacred hymns. And just as every night of their lives, everyone would be in bed for lights out at 9 p.m. sharp. "I know it must sound hard, but looking back I don't remember it being that hard," she said, "after all we were just doing what everyone else was doing, working hard was a common way of life back then for everyone." We could go to bed at night and not lock up nothing," Mrs. Kelly said, "everybody (in the community) worked, so no one had time for any 'dirty' work." Mrs. Kelly remembers one time, while the children were working the field, that her oldest sister finished hoeing her row first. When she reached the end of her row she threw up her hands and yelled "I'm the best 'hoer' daddy's got!" "Well, when she said that my oldest brother got a real stern look on his face and pulled her off to the side and gave her a big talking to," Mrs. Kelly said. "Us littler kids didn't see anything wrong with what she had said, but we knew she must have said something wrong by the way she got into trouble. Back then, children never questioned adults or even our big brother, so we never knew why she got into trouble. But we also didn't ever say another word about it and we never said we were daddy's best hoer either." On Saturday's around the Meredith household, there were several weekly activities that took place. One of those activities was the weekly dose of laxatives. Every Saturday, each of the children would have to take a laxative to "keep everyone regular." As Mrs. Kelly put it, "even if you'd been regular all week you still had to take your laxative on Saturday." Another Saturday activity was the weekly baths. "Early that morning, after all the chores were done, we'd fill up the wash tubs and set them out in the sun to warm up the water," she said. "During the day, we'd have to keep moving the tubs from place to place, keeping them out of the shade and in the sun." "That night, we'd carry the tubs into the house and the girls would bath in one in the kitchen and the boys in the other in the back" she recalled. "All of us girls would take a bath in the same water, using the same wash cloth and the same towel, just like the boys." Other Saturday activities included special work details for the girls. This included sunning the beds and scrubbing the floors with lye soap and a corn shuck mop. "Come to think about it, we cleaned everything with that homemade lye soap," Mrs. Kelly said, "we'd scrub the floors with it, wash the pots and pans with it, and even wash our heads and bodies with it." Back in those days, just about everything was either grown and made by hand, and nothing went to waste. "There wasn't much food bought back then, we all raised everything at home in our gardens," she said, "we made our own homemade jellies and jams, ketchup, peanut butter, butter, soap, syrup and daddy even made homemade tar to roof the house with." Just about the only thing bought at the stores was flour, coffee, sugar and rice, according to Mrs. Kelly. Clothes were all homemade as well. Their mother would sew and make all types of dresses and shirts out of feed and flour sacks. "Another thing I remember about back then was the way that everyone in the community was equal everybody helped everyone," she said. "One way that this was done was to swap work. We'd go help another family chop cotton and then they'd come and help us chop cotton. That was just the way it was done back then." At the end of the crop season, Mrs. Kelly's father would operate a syrup mill for the entire community. "Syrup making was the ending of all crops," she said. "Dad would make syrup for the Urania Lumber Company, plus everyone else in the community. He didn't take money for his work, he took syrup. Every third gallon was his for his payment." During the syrup making days, the entire family would get up even earlier than usual, because folks from all around would begin arriving at the Meredith homeplace early to get started making their syrup. "Dad operated a syrup mill powered by a horse," she remembered. He didn't have a thermometer, but he would know exactly how everyone wanted their syrup and made it just to their liking." "Oh how I love to reminisce and talk about those days," Mrs. Kelly said. "We had a good life and we enjoyed life. We didn't have much, but we had each other and more love than anyone can imagine." This was back when Christmas was more than expensive gifts and shopping malls. A time when family meant everything and faith in God was essential. A time when love conquered all and had no limits. A time perhaps, that we need to return to today. This Christmas, why not take a lesson from this week's Citizen Profile, and slow down and enjoy all that God has given you. Why not start a "new" old tradition with your family and take time to enjoy the simple things that life has to offer. We salute this week's Citizen Profile, Vaudie Kelly, for reminding us how much we truly have to be thankful for and that Christmas means much more than the hustle and bustle that American has made it over the past many years.