Growing Up Catahoula: Joeann Edwards

Interview with Mrs. JoeAnn Edwards

I was born at home on the farm outside Harrisonburg. I was born December 11, 1934 to Mr. Joseph
Roger Buswell and Mrs. Veva Stutson Buswell. Dr. Callahan of Harrisonburg was present for the birth. I
grew up an only child. My mother was raised in Catahoula Parish in the Harrisonburg hills. Daddy was
from around Shreveport. He was a teenager when the family moved to Catahoula Parish. My Daddy
farmed with my Grandpa outside Harrisonburg.
When the state built the levee, they took part of our land. We moved the house and bought 20 acres on
Guthrie Lake. The house was built in the early 1930’s. Today that same house is lived in by my
granddaughter and her family, Addison and Preston Creel. The house has been remodeled and added
on but the main structure is the house where I was born.
My Daddy farmed with two mules named Shorty and Doodles. He fixed me a seat on the cultivator
tongue and I’d sit there with a long switch. Every now & then Daddy would say, “Hit Shorty.” I’d hit his
rump with the switch and Shorty would start pulling his load. Doodle always pulled his load, he was a
good mule. In the evenings, I’d put the mules in the barn and feed them. I was little then but never
worried about the mules kicking. Daddy worked from daylight to dark in the fields, Mother kept the
house, and made the meals. I was excited when I got big enough to go out to the field and take Daddy
his breakfast. Mother made him bacon and bread and I’d take it out to him around 10:30 and go back at
1:00 to take him his lunch. I was about four when they let me start taking Daddy his meals to eat in the
field. Mother always said to be careful and not step on a snake, so I walked looking down at the ground.
I was scared to step on a snake.
One of the funniest things that happened, I was about ten and decided to ride Daddy’s cow horse,
Prince. It was time to take Daddy’s breakfast out to the field and I told Mother I was going to saddle
Prince and ride him. There was water, I don’t remember if it was a big rain or backwater; but, I would
have to wade through the water to get to Daddy. Mother helped me get the bridle on and the blanket
and saddle on him. We tightened the girt up tight. Prince knew the cows because he worked them with
Daddy all the time. The cows were free range cows out on Ben’s Lake area. I get about to the water’s
edge and Prince saw a cow in the lane. Well that horse just went over to the cow and drove it right to
the lot. I called for Momma and she came out and opened the gate; the cow went in and Prince turned
around and went back down the lane. We had a tractor by then and Daddy saw me coming and he
stopped and waited. I got through the water to him and he said, “How in the world did you stay on that
horse with six inches of girt hanging down?” Mother and I didn’t know that whenever Daddy girted up
Prince that the horse would swell himself up and you’d think the girt was tight when it wasn’t.
When I came in from school, the first thing you did was change your clothes. You had church clothes,
school clothes and work clothes. You had church shoes and school shoes, otherwise you went
barefooted everywhere. After school, Momma would send me to the field with a bottle of water, bottle
of coffee and something to snack on for Daddy. I’d walk to the field and Daddy had a place on the draw
bar for me to sit. I’d ride the tractor with Daddy till dark and we’d go to the house. Well one time I fell
asleep and my big toe got caught between the draw bar and the pin that held the equipment on. I was
screaming and Daddy backed up the tractor and got my toe out. It was probably broken, but they didn’t
take me to the doctor. Mother stuck my toe in coal oil and Daddy pushed on it and got it back in shape.
I guess it worked because the toe got alright.

I was an only child and everybody would pick on me and call me spoiled. I really wasn’t spoiled, I don’t
think. Well maybe a little, why not? My uncle had tuberculosis and in those days you had to go to a
sanitarium. While he was there, my aunt and cousin moved in with my grandparents. So I had someone
to play with. When my uncle got well, the family moved back to Shreveport and that left me with
nobody to play with. My cousin Euna Stutson Paul lived down the road. We were on the high side of
the river; the other side was beautiful sandbars. We were between the Louie Bridge and the
Harrisonburg Bridge. When we got older our parents let us walk back and forth to one another’s
houses; so I had someone to play with.
I went to school in Harrisonburg. Mr. Tom Cater was driving the school bus then. It was a pickup truck
with wooden sides and canvas windows. There were benches and whoever was already in would open
the door and you’d climb in and sit on the bench. The Haygoods ran a school boat for the children on
the other side of the river.
The only whipping that my Daddy ever gave me was when I was about 11 or 12 years old and decided to
run away from home. There was a family named Rogers that lived down by the levee and they had four
kids. Mary and I were friends; she would come to my house to play and I would walk to her house to
play. They farmed with my Daddy as share croppers. The houses were not too far away. Well I got mad
at Mother one day; she whipped me for some reason, I can’t remember. Well I decided to pack my
things and run away from home. Momma watched me leave; she knew where I was going. When
Daddy came in from the field, he asked where I was and Momma told him I had run away. She said I
was down at Mrs. Rogers. I was having fun playing with Mary. I looked up and saw Daddy walking
towards us and I knew I was in trouble. He had a little peach tree switch in his hand. He whipped me all
the way home. I’d run ahead of him but then I’d get tired and sit down. He’d catch up and whip me
some more. When we got home I don’t think I got supper, just had to go to bed. I never ran away from
home again.
I remember I got sick once and Dr. Callahan said give her a dose of Castro oil. I heard Momma and
Daddy talking and I knew they were putting the Castro oil in a glass of orange juice and I knew I was not
going to drink it. Daddy and I argued a bit but I knew when to quit arguing. I tried to drink the orange
juice, but it was nasty. I had a big mouthful and I couldn’t get it down and spit it right in Daddy’s face. I
got my butt hand swatted good. I finished the orange juice. Another popular remedy was Grover’s Chill
Tonic. Grover’s Chill Tonic had little pills with it; so Momma decided that I was going to take the pills
because the tonic was horrible. So Momma would give me the pills at bedtime and I’d spit them out
and put them under my pillow. In the morning I’d take them outside and give them to the dogs.
I played basketball in high school. We had a dirt court and it didn’t matter how dusty it was; we got out
there and we practiced basketball in the afternoons. Mrs. Iola Hendricks was our coach. Then the
school built the gymnasium and we got to play ball on the court. I was in the ninth grade when we got
the court. In the tenth grade I got to be on the team. Mrs. Guinn was the team coach. She gave us five
minutes to get from our last class, into our shorts and on the court. She was tough but a wonderful
coach. Mrs. Jean Boyd was the business education teacher. She is the reason I became a business
education teacher; prior to that I was planning to become a nurse. She was a great influence and I loved
her to death. When I was in eleventh grade, my grandpa had cancer and was getting treatments in
Shreveport. My parents would go to stay with him to give grandma some relief. Mrs. Boyd would take
me to her house after school.

I graduated high school in 1953 and was accepted into Northeast Louisiana College. I wanted to go to
summer school, but stayed home because Grandpa was dying from the cancer. My PawPaw taught me
to drive the truck on the turn rows in the field. I took out some fences and rows of corn; but PawPaw
took the blame and that’s how I learned to drive the truck. PawPaw told me to drive the truck and go to
McMillin’s store, (Harrisonburg grocery store) and get him some shrimp. So I did and came home with
some frozen breaded shrimp. PawPaw called me baby girl. He said, “Baby girl cook me them shrimp.”
So I did and they were a little burnt. PawPaw ate every one of the shrimp and bragged on my cooking; I
was just beaming. Daddy asked PawPaw weren’t the shrimp burnt? PawPaw said no they were great
because baby girl cooked them. That was our last real conversation; he passed in the first of August.
Northeast started the semester in the end of August and Mother and Dad carried me up to Monroe in a
pickup truck. Brown Hall was the girl’s hall. I was so excited to finally get to college. The house mother
was a lady originally from Jonesville.
I graduated college in the spring of 1956. Daddy helped me buy a car for graduation. Mr. Aubrey Brooks
was the supervisor and I bugged him every day for a month for a job. School had been started for two
weeks and Mr. Brooks came to the house and offered me a job in Sicily Island because the current
teacher was taking a year’s maternity leave. My starting salary was $205 a month and my car note was
$100 a month.
I used to watch for the insurance man to come collect the neighbor’s insurance payment. I’d make sure
I was sitting out on my grandma’s porch so he could see me. There was a movie theater in
Harrisonburg. At first it was in a big tent and it cost a dollar to go in to see a movie. Daddy used to give
me a dollar and let me take the truck to Harrisonburg to go to the movies. There was a theater in Sicily
Island, Jonesville and Harrisonburg. I was in college and would come in for the weekend by catching a
ride with other students coming home. I was a junior in college and at the movies when Charles first
asked me out for a date. We rode to Sicily Island and had a cold soda after the movie. He came to my
house most every day and we sat on the porch steps and talked. Charles would drive me back to
Monroe to go to college. My Daddy got tired of him coming around and asked if I was going to marry
that Edwards boy. I married Charles Edwards on December 21, 1956 and we spent 53 years together.
We got married at my parent’s home. I wore a pale blue suit with a little blue hat and Charles wore a
navy blue suit. We rented a furnished apartment in Sicily Island for $90 a month. I could walk to school
for my teaching job. We didn’t like living in an apartment. We lived with my parents until we built a
house on the Harrisonburg highway close to Charles’s parents.
Charles ran the State Farm Insurance office in Jonesville. I taught school in Sicily Island from 1956 to
1986. I worked at the State Farm with Charles on the weekends, summers and school breaks. After
retiring from the school, I worked full time at the insurance office until 2010.
We had two children, Karen and Gene, and four grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
You’ve seen a lot of changes over the years, what do you think is the biggest change you’ve seen? Mrs.
JoeAnn: Oh my gosh, I guess the most drastic change has been the school system from reading, writing
and arithmetic to all this other stuff. I think the old way of teaching was the best way. For example my
two great granddaughters can’t read cursive writing; they just print. The school system is one of the
biggest changes; I guess I can see it because I taught school all those years.

What about changes in people from back then to now? Mrs. JoeAnn: There’s not the friendship that
used to be; I mean used to you knew everybody. Now I go out and I don’t know the people. People are
just too busy rushing around. We used to square dance in the streets on Saturday nights. The café had
a juke box they let us play. There was a big revival at First Baptist Church when I was a teenager. Most
of the kids then got baptized in the Ouachita River. People went to church more back then. Church was
an important part of life.
Why do you think you’ve lived such a long life? Mrs. JoeAnn: There’s longevity on my Mother’s side of
the family. Most of them made it into the 90’s and my grandma was 100. The Stutson’s had good
genetics. We had good food growing up; vegetables we grew and home canned. I’ve had a wonderful
life. I had my husband until 2010 and have a wonderful family.
If you or a family member are 90+, we’d like to interview you and hear your stories. Please contact the
paper.

K D Smith