Part 3, You should have seen this coming.

Shortly after the Bat Club was disolved and the Fortress, with it's underground tunnel complex was de-constructed, Daddy decided that he needed to spend some MAN TIME with his boys. He apparently didn't want to waste any time as picked the dead of winter to plan a camping trip.

Daddy had a 52 Chevy pick up truck that his construction company used on each house they built. It was a really neat thing as it had tool boxes on the side, a head ache rack, a starter on the floor, a manual choke and throttle sticking out of the dash board and more windows that you can imagine. It even had running boards.

I didn't take a friend along but Daddy let Leland bring a friend that went to grade school with him. I think it was Tommy Mayeaux who we recently lost to cancer.

We loaded the truck with a small wood burning stove, a large tarp, food, a large metal water
container and a large load of shingles that apparently were trim pieces that came off of a job Daddy had been working on.

The 4 of us loaded up and off we went. Roughly 40 miles from Shreveport there's a road just north of Castor, Louisiana where my grandmother lived. There's a bridge there that sits atop Black Bayou and that's the spot Daddy picked as our first camping site. While driving south to the camp site, Daddy put me in his lap and let me hold the steering wheel which was the coolest thing I had done up to that time. I will never forget the view out of the driver's window as we crossed the dam at Lake Bisteneau.

We set up camp in a hurry as the weather was turning cool. Daddy put the wood burning stove in the middle of the tarp turned tent and had us bring the shingles inside the tent. They were narrow pieces of shingle that were easy to throw into the firebox through a small opening in the front that you normally put wood into. I recall it as as being a two burner stove with an exhaust pipe that let the smoke and fumes exit the tent at a hole in the top. It was really cool as I was in charge of keeping the fire going. I loved it and immediately fell in love with camping.

Before we settled in, Bogan showed up with his hunting dog. Bogan was Daddy's painter and I think he came from Ringold, Louisiana which wasn't far from our camping spot. Daddy told us to come to the banks of the bayou and watch what Bogan was going to do. He picked up the dog and literally through him into the bayou. After a very short swim, the dog came back to the bank, shook off the water and returned to Bogan.

Bogan had a duck or a bird of some sort and through it into the middle of the bayou. Without hesitation, the bird dog raced to the bank and jumped in the water, swam to the middle of the bayou and retrieved the bird. It was neat seeing how all that worked as I don't think we had television in Shreveport during those days and I'd never seen anything like that. Shortly after the bird dog episode, Bogan left and we played around the bayou and the bridge throwing rocks and such and howling like Indians.

As dark was felling, Daddy told us to come into the tent. He had his picknic basket open and was beginning to serve supper. I can't remember everything we had but for the most part, it was sardines and crackers with some balogna as a back up mandated by Momma.

I wasn't enamored with the sardines but Daddy said it was "man food" and that when I grew up and my taste buds developed, I would like them alot. He told me that his brother, my Uncle Raymond, was a champion in the food eating department because he married Aunt Glade Lefluer, who was a georgeous woman from Prairie Rhonde, a small south Louisiana village close to Opelousas, a short drive from Lafayette.

I didn't know it at the time but Daddy was planning on sending me for a summer visit to Crowley, Louisiana where Uncle Raymond and Aunt Glade lived. I still remember that summer and speak about it from time to time as I'm still in touch with his daughter, my first cousin Andrea.

In any event, as you review the early childhood experiences I've outlined in this post, be advised that you ain't seen nothin' yet. I'll stop at this point and wait until I get a few more confirmations before proceeding further. Leland said it would be wise to wait until then and not impose a deadline on this story or get ahead of the readers. So, there it is so far. I will you give you a hint and say that there's a trip to Uncle Raymond's house next and then, a meeting with all my Uncles at granny's house where I first heard stories of combat in World War II. Standby.