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| El Tigre Yearbook - 1963 |
Persimmons….
Something I forgot to mention on earlier tapes when I was talking about exploring the forests and swamps around the village of Sicily Island was persimmon trees. Every so often we would find persimmon trees in the swamp. If anyone has ever bitten into a green persimmon, they will know what I’m talking about.
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| Green Persimmons |
You could bite into one of those green persimmons and it would draw your mouth up something terrible. I don’t know what was in them but it would almost choke you. After the first frost of the year, the persimmons would begin to ripen. A ripened persimmon was one of the best tasting things.
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| Ripened Persimmon |
My mother loved persimmons. She’d always tell me to bring her some persimmons if I came across any when I was out exploring. I always made a special effort to find her some persimmons.
I remember one persimmon tree that was over in the swamp going towards Peniston’s and Brown’s lakes. It was a great big ole tree. When I got out of school I would walk over there. It was a good ways from my house. By the time I walked over there and made it back home it would almost be dark.
My mother told me about the time they all went out to Grandpa and Grandma Smith’s house back in 1908 or 1909 when she was about nine years old.
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| James Luther Smith |
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| Henrietta D. Smith |
The Smith house used to sit on some land out behind what is now the cemetery just outside town.
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| Smith House: J. L. and Henrietta seated LtoR; Jennie standing |
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| Formerly property of James Luther Smith; farmed by Grandpa Steele |
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| Old Smith house sat at the back of this land |
On this particular Sunday, some of the boys and girls had gone out to a persimmon tree that stood behind the old Smith house. Mother said her cousin Charlie Smith was up in the tree shaking limbs to make the persimmons fall.
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| Grandpa Steele |
Grandpa Steele was out walking around in the fields he farmed that were right beside the Smith house. He saw Charlie and all the other children and decided to sneak up on them.
Once he got close he let out a scream like a wildcat.
Charlie dropped out of that tree and led the pack of children who were running and screaming to get away from that wildcat.
Mother said every time Grandpa Steele told that story he would laugh and laugh.
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| Monroe News Star - 1/31/1956 |
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| Ruston Daily Leader - 11/27/1930 |
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| Sicily Island High School - 2011 |
Today is November 4, 1991. One can imagine this day back in 1915 when my Aunt Nita was born. She was born in the old Steele house which sat on this very ground before it burned down on August the 17th of last year. In fact, where I'm sitting as I make these tapes is probably no more than thirty feet from the spot where she was born.
She was named Lena Juanita after her aunt, Lena Rhoda Steele McLelland. Everyone called her Nita.
Nita was about thirteen years old when I was born. My first memory of her was when I was about three years old. I called her "Nina" up until I was around ten years old.
Nita told me on many occasions over the years that I was the first baby she ever loved. I loved her, too. It always made me feel good when she told me that. It is a wonderful memory to have.
"Nina" and Bruce
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| Lena Juanita "Nita" Steele |
She was a beautiful girl and a beautiful woman.
Nita married William Peck in 1938. They had two children. Will was born on March 6, 1939. Betty was born on May 2, 1944.
Nita died in 1982 in her late sixties. My mother died in 1969 when she was sixty-nine years old. Their mother, my Grandma Steele, died when she was sixty-nine years old. Their sister Lucille [called Dick] is still living. She was eighty-nine this past September. The oldest child named Edna died when she was several months old. She was a little redheaded girl.
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| Mary Allye Steele Edmonds, Lena Juanita "Nita" Steele Peck, Clara Lucille "Dick" Steele Ogden |
All four girls were born in the old Steele house. Lord, I miss that old Steele house. The front part of the old house was over ninety years old. I am enjoying this new house with all its modern comforts like central heat and central air but I still miss the old Steele house. I always will.
All the kids here in the village used to gang up in this old yard and play; particularly in the Summer. We had a lot of pecan trees in the yard so it was shady. Nita’s age group which included Babe Knight, Martin Enright, Eloise Yancey, and Lorelle Seal played in this yard.
Before this time, I’m sure my mother and Aunt Dick had a lot of kids over to play with them. I know the same was true when I was growing up.
My friends, cousins and I played all sorts of games out in this yard. As I’ve mentioned on earlier tapes, my favorite game was Go Sheepy Go. The only thing that I’d say came close to this game was Deer and Dog which we played once I started school. One group would be the deer and they would go hide. The other group would be the dogs and they would go in search of the deer.
The dog group would bark and howl and yelp like dogs when they were hunting the deer. Once the dogs found the deer, the deer group would come out of their hiding places and little boys would be running all over the place.
Deer and Dog was a great game but nothing ever really compared to Go Sheepy Go.
I raised my children here. My children and all of their friends played in this same old yard.
nu%3D3236)6%2B6)%2B%3B)23276%2B6%3B9(7%2B5ot1lsi.jpg) |
| Bruce's children |
Years later, my grandson and his friends played out in the yard.
This old yard has been a playground for well over seventy-five years. Echoes of children’s voices linger on.
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| Monroe News Star - 1/9/1964 |
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| Monroe News Star - 10/28/1932 |
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| Magnolia tree mentioned in the news article |
Wallace O. Cloy was born in Franklin County, Mississippi in 1919. 
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| B25-D Mitchell Bomber |
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| Tablets of the Missing - Manila American Cemetery |
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| Tablets of the Missing - Manila American Cemetery |
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| Tablets of the Missing - Manila American Cemetery |
