Contributed by Debi Antley Murphy



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These are some of my memories of my MaMaw and PaPaw Antley who lived in Point, L
A. Mamaw was the daughter of Joseph Nolan and Lucy Guice. Papaw was the son 
of Richard Antley and Dona Buckaloo. Richard's father, James Augustus Antley 
migrated to Union Parish and settled around the Point area in 1850.


As I sit here tonight thinking of Thanksgiving tomorrow it's easy to go back
30-35 years and find myself sitting on the front porch of my MaMaw and PaPaw
Antley's house in Point.  For those of you who have never been to Point, it's
really just a curve in the road with a store, churchs, couple of cemeterys
and a few houses.  Gosh, I can still smell all that food cookin coming through 
the screendoor. The old wringer washing machine is sitting off to one corner 
of the porch waiting for Saturday.  Hangin on the side wall is the big old
wash tub she'd bring in and pour buckets and buckets of hot water into for us
to bathe.  If you listen real close you can hear the mantel clock that PaPaw
wound every Saturday night. The key was in a little drawer inside the clock's
door.  Everything is so quiet you can hear a car coming from miles down the
road.  As it comes in front of the house they slow, blow the horn and wave.
The only people who didn't weren't from around there.  
 
On the other end of the porch sits the well with the old wooden water bucket
and dipper sitting on top just waiting for somebody to lower it down and get
the coldest and best water you've ever tasted. It gets awfully hot in
Louisiana in July and August and that water sure did hit the spot.  
 
If I close my eyes I can see myself walking down the porch steps and turning
around the corner of the house.  There sits the outhouse down through a few
trees. If it's still day light I could even look at the Sears Roebuck catolog
while attendin' to business.  Listen real close and you can hear MaMaw working
the hand pump in the kitchen drawing water in a pan to wash dishes.  I can go
around the back of the house and look in the screen door and there she is
getting the biscuits out of the oven.  There's two meats and a gillion
vegetables on the table from her garden.  Hanging on the wall is an old mirror
with PaPaw's razor sharpening strap beside it. Just as I hear another vehicle
coming she's pouring the tea in glasses.  This one stops and PaPaw comes
through the front door that's placed even with the back for a breeze
to go through.  He'll wash his hands for supper in a old battered tin bowl and
dry em with a towel hanging from a nail. MaMaw won't sit to eat until
everybody is served.
 
Not long after dark we'll take a trip to the outhouse with a flash light, then
climb into one of the five beds in that two bedroom house.  There's one double
bed in the back of the living room, three in the main bedroom and one small
one in the back room. If it's cold weather you'll be weighted down by the
mounds of quilts on the bed.  It's so quiet that you can almost hear the water
rippling miles away on D'arbonne!
 
Daylight finds breakfast already on the table and PaPaw pouring his coffee
into the saucer to cool it.
 
My grandparents got their indoor bathroom in the mid 70's and sold the old 
outhouse to a neighbor down the road.  It was much better than the one they 
had. My heart and gut grows heavy thinking of all that's lost to us now.  So 
many of our old folks are gone as is their way of life.  Excuse the nostalgia 
today, but it seems appropriate as we give thanks to also thank those who came 
before us.  And even as those are sweet sweet memories to me I have to also 
give thanks for the many things I have that make my life so so much easier 
than my ancestors.  
 
I had a beautiful nephew born yesterday, and he'll never know anything of 
their way of life except my memories.  As I Thank God for him tomorrow I will 
also pledge to tell him about our folks that paved the way for him.

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