Transcriber: Erin Segura March 17, 2018
Translator: Jackson Butterbaugh [Begin Tape 4891. Begin Session I.]
SETH MARTIN: My name is Seth Martin and I’m here with Mr. Burnley Blanc Ardoin on Saturday, March 17th, 2018. The first question: Équand la guerre, World War II, a commencé, quelle âge avais-tu?
BURNLEY ARDOIN: Onze ans.
MARTIN: Onze ans. Tu te rappelles comment c’était équand la guerre a commencé? Do you remember what it was like when the war started?
ARDOIN: Yes, indeed. We were butchering, our neighborhood butcher and there was no radio. We had a radio, but it wasn’t connected, so they went to a local grocery store … I’ll tell you in French. I should be answering that in French. But anyway, I want to give you a picture of what’s going on.
MARTIN: Okay.
ARDOIN: I climbed a pecan tree that’s approximately 85, 90 feet high and my dad volunteered me to go up there. My mother had a fit.
MARTIN: [laughs]
ARDOIN: [laughs] But anyhow, I went over there and I put the highest wire on the highest branch in order to get reception. We had these old battery radios, no electricity at all at that time.
MARTIN: [agrees]
ARDOIN: [1:19] It came later. Okay. Quand on était après faire boucherie des neighborhood, des voisins, on aurait partagé la viande au bout de la journée. On avait des saucisses, du boudin, du hog’s head cheese. On aurait dîné et nettoyé tout quelque chose. Les femmes et les hommes travaillaient, des petits. Tout quelqu’un avait un petit job. Premièrement, ils pouviont … on tue le cochon et le mettre dans l’eau chaude et gratter jusqu’à ce qu’il est propre. Et mon père, c’était un boucher. C’est lui qu’était, qui aurait ouvert le cochon et le saigner et tout quelque chose. Équand il avait fini, il aurait pris une scie à main. Il aurait … eusse [aurait] partagé. Et chacun ôtait la peau pour faire des gratons et [les … l’entrer] en dedans et eusse avait fait du boudin et des différentes affaires, the hog’s head cheese, avec ça. Eusse avait de la bonne viande qu’eusse avait dégraissée pour faire des saucisses. Équand eusse avait fini des saucisses, ils l’ont boucané. Et là, là, ils avaient fait des gratons dans la graisse chaude dans les gros vaisseaux. Ils auront mis les saucisses qu’ils boucanaient dedans le can. Ça, c’est bon pour un an ou deux, sans no type of refrigeration.
MARTIN: [agrees]
ARDOIN: And that’s about it. Okay, three.
MARTIN: Number three. Comment tes parents ont réagi à la guerre?
ARDOIN: Okay. La première affaire, le monde était pas trop familier avec des guerres. Ceux-là qu’étaient dans 45 (quarante-cinq), 50 (cinquante) ans, ça se rappelait de la première guerre. Mais, comme il y avait un tas des femmes … dans ce temps-là, les femmes [il faut que-t’elles aillent] pas dans [l’armée et ça] votait pas. Ça peut … et [elles ont pensé] pas trop
pour la guerre. Eusse avait des livings and when … quand eusse avait fini, on avait le radio et on écoutait à Walter Winchell, Gabriel Heatter et Drew Pearson et tout ça. Ils donnaient des
[4:19] nouvelles. Ils auraient donné des nouvelles. Ça fait, on comprendait où la guerre était. Tu connais? Ça fait, la guerre avait commencé dans Pearl Harbor. C’est quand les Japanese a bomb Pearl Harbor. Ils avaient also bomb the West Coast, la Californie. Des là, ils ont été dans les Philippines et ils ont invade ça. Équand ils ont invade là, ils avaient vu ça, c’est une bonne armée, un bon militaire et [eux-autres fouettait]. Et on a eu pour surrender et là, ils ont pris tous les prisonniers. Ils l’amenaient dessus l'île de Japan. Et dans ces temps-là, ils avaient pas travaillé dedans les manufactures de les Japanese. Et ils étaient beaucoup maltraités. Ils allaient pas les donner trop à manger. Et ils attaquaient [mort] dedans les prisons. Équand ils ont revenu pour faire l’affaire, pas tous ces hommes-là, ils avaient perdu all … c’était des esquelettes. Ils avaient perdu des poids. Ils avaient travaillé tout le temps avec proche pas rien à manger et beaucoup brutalisés. Équand ils ont [été librés] dans le temps [inaudible] la guerre, well, ils ont revenus dans leurs pays. Il y a un tas qui est mort [avant]. Ils ont été … ils avaient [inaudible], they got to the state.
MARTIN: [agrees]
ARDOIN: And … mais, dans toutes ces [inaudible], ils avaient tous des maladies. Il y en a quelques qu’étaient estropiés et qui ont eu des jambes coupées ou l’affaire dans l’affaire des guerres. Ç’a été beaucoup maltraité. [What else?]
MARTIN: All right. So, number four.
ARDOIN: Four.
MARTIN: All right. In French: Ton père a travaillé dans une grosserie à [Lebeau].
Parles-moi comment les soldats ont été traités à Lebeau. Your father worked in a store in Lebeau. Talk to me about how the soldiers were treated in Lebeau.
ARDOIN: [7:18] Beaucoup bien.
MARTIN: Beaucoup bien. Five? Quel était l’impact de la guerre sur ta communauté? What was the impact of the war on your community ?
ARDOIN: Proche tout chacun, c’est les habitants et ça était beaucoup tracassés parce qu’ils avaient tous des … comme ma famille à moi avait deux qu’étaient faits pour le draft. Il y en a un qu’était reject et l’autre, ça, lui a 16 (seize) l'année dans World War II. Et on avait deux gendres que mes sœurs avaient mariés qu’a été also dans le Navy et l’armée. On avait moins de monde qu’était après faire la récolte. [Ils voulaient], ç’a fait des petites récoltes et tout chacun qu’était pas fait pour le draft était après regarder pour des bons jobs, les mécaniciens, les forgerons, les soudeurs. Ça travaillait tous dans les shipyard pour des bons jobs. Tu faisais pas un tas d’argent dedans, sur une habitation. Tu travaillais dessus un partage avec le boss, le patron de la propriété. Tu donnais, soit la moitié ou un tiers ou dans les fois, un quart de les profits tu faisais dessus ta récolte. Et en changeant, tu restais dans une maison pour rien. Ça, c’était le loyer. Et t’avais moins de monde pour travailler avec. Tu faisais des plus petites récoltes, parce qu’il y avait moins de monde pour travailler. [Inaudible] travaillaient dedans, dans les clos, ça qu’était regarder pour les meilleurs jobs, hein ?
MARTIN: Question six: pendant la guerre, la récolte a changé? During the war, did farming
change?
ARDOIN: Are you on number six?
MARTIN: Number six.
ARDOIN: No, that’s what I said. They didn’t change. Il a pas changé un tas. Les habitants auraient travaillé moins d’acres parce qu’ils avaient pas toute l’aide qu’ils avaient avant. They
[10:06] could … tous les jeunes hommes étaient gone dans la guerre. Eux-autres était parti en quelque part pour aller overseas.
MARTIN: Okay. All right. Number seven.
ARDOIN: Number seven.
MARTIN: Comment l’école a changé? Tes devoirs ont changé? Did school change? Were there any special classes like shooting, army drilling? Did you not have school?
ARDOIN: On avait pas ça, mais une ou deux fois par semaine, une de les maîtresses d’école aurait eu une classe pour les instruire comment la guerre était [going], comment elle était après [aller] et les noms de les générals et les admirals et tout. Tu connais? Parce que ça, c’est une partie de notre geography. Et elle montrait sur le map ayoù c’était. Après ça, les changements on a eu dans l’école ... on a été dans une bien petite école. Il y avait pas un tas de ça les grosses écoles avaient. Et dans ces temps-là, tu graduais dans l’onzième plutôt de le douze.
MARTIN: [agrees] Number eight: combien souvent les soldats ont été à Lebeau? ARDOIN: Je dirais proche tous les jours. Il y en a qui allait, qu’était après naviguer, entrer dans la maison ou changer de base ou ça était parti pour un camp à l’autre. Ça [venait] dans les bus, des convoys et le train. On avait le train qu’a été sur Highway 71 et le railroad track était en avant. Ça fait, on les voyait proche tous les jours. Et à peu près deux fois par semaine, on les [inaudible] pour les prisonniers d’Allemagne. Ça était parti au Bâton Rouge et Donaldsonville pour travailler dans les clos de canne. Comme je t’avais dit en avant, on les arrangeait un petit lunch dans un paper bag.
MARTIN: [agrees]
ARDOIN: [12:51] On [avait] pas des staple comme aujourd’hui. On aurait tordu l’affaire. Il y avait un chip et un pop et un sandwich ou un hamburger, tous pour 25 (vingt-cinq) sous. Et proche tous les Allemands, et toujours, ça parlait en anglais. Ça parlait deux ou trois langages parce que la France et tous ces petits pays-là -- l’Italie, Spain. C’est bien comme les états ici.
C’est tout dans l’Europe. Ça fait, chacun de les pays, ça travaillait … ça parlait tous les langages. Et ça parlait bien en anglais. C’était des vaillants bougres. Il y en a un tas qui a jamais go back, you know? Ils ont marié des femmes d’ici et ils amenaient aussi des autres [inaudible] ici,
ceux-là qu’étaient pas morts.
MARTIN: All righty. All right, number nine. Quoi-ce qu’était rationné? Ou, la vie a changé à cause de la rationnement? Comment?
ARDOIN: Oui. Ç’a pas changé un tas dedans Lebeau parce que c’est un petit village, peut-être 50 (cinquante) familles. Et le sucre, c’était à peu près … et le café, c’est les deux affaires qu’étaient, je pense, plus rares. Mais, ça fait, [de leur] miel et les autres [inaudible]. Ça fait, leur sirop et [inaudible]. Ils ont improvise. Ils ont changé. Ils avaient adouci leur café avec du miel ou du sucre, ça … équand ça faisait de la crème de glace et … on a pas souffert un tas.
Et le gaz, on avait deux station et ça donnait un coupon. On aurait un coupon. On aurait peut-être acheté cinq gallons et avec un coupon [vous pouvez] peut-être acheter dix gallons. Si le char prendait pas toute l’affaire, il pouvait [ça] donne leur coupon. [Il y avait] pas de refill. [Il y avait] pas d’échange. Ça fait, on perdait [des] [inaudible] et on aurait, si c’était plus que la moitié, on prendait le coupon. Si c’était moins que la moitié, well, on y donne. That’s about it.
MARTIN: That’s interesting. All right, number ten. Il y avait plus de jobs disponibles?
ARDOIN: Beaucoup plus de jobs. T’avais des [inaudible]. T’avais des shipyard et le
[15:42] monde, ils étaient après bâtir des bâtisses pour les soldats et les Navy, Marines, tout partout dans le pays. Dans la Louisiane on avait à peu près, je pense, une douzaine des les military base. C’était proche tous dans le … alentours d’Alexandrie. T’avais six ou sept dans Alexandrie. Mais l’ouvrage était plein. N’importe qui qui voulait travailler pouvait travailler. MARTIN: I want to go back to number eight real quick.
ARDOIN: Number eight?
MARTIN: Oh, wait. Yeah, okay. So, number eight.
ARDOIN: [agrees]
MARTIN: So, were you saying that … so, prisoners, right?
ARDOIN: Yeah.
MARTIN: Prisoners of war?
ARDOIN: Yeah.
MARTIN: So, like … les Allemands? The Germans?
ARDOIN: Les Allemands, yeah.
MARTIN: Ou les Italiens, right? So, Italians? And they all, they spoke pretty good English, right?
ARDOIN: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Most of them, they spoke very good English.
MARTIN: And they worked in the fields?
ARDOIN: They worked in the cane fields.
MARTIN: Okay, okay, okay. I heard “les clos,” but I … okay.
ARDOIN: [17:17] And I guess some of them were fairly well-educated in mechanics and different things and they could be trusted, too. You know? They was kind of like a trustee in a prison.
MARTIN: Right.
ARDOIN: They knew who [to bother]. They’d work in factories and boat, shipyards because they had a lot of knowledge because they had done that prior, 20 years before the war started.
MARTIN: Right.
ARDOIN: So they had a lot of talent and a lot of expertise on a lot of things.
MARTIN: So, going off of that, could you say, in French, maybe like, how they were … how the prisoners of war were viewed or like, treated?
ARDOIN: They were treated royally. I mean, if they worked in a canefield in a family? You want me to answer that in French? Les femmes, elles auraient fait du café, les gâteaux. Et ça les traitait pareil comme si c’était les citizens de les États-Unis, beaucoup bien traités. Mais pas de
… il y en a [qui pourrait être] abusés, peut-être. Mais proche tous les autres [les a] … ils auraient mieux … ils m’ont dit quand j’étais un petit, [il était] meilleur être un prisonnier ici qu'être dans l’armée dans l’Allemagne. In other words, they’d rather be prisoners here than [in] armies.
MARTIN: Right. Well, those are all the questions that I have. If you have anything else that you want to talk about --
ARDOIN: Well, if --
MARTIN: … talk about World War II in Lebeau, or --
ARDOIN: In French?
MARTIN: [19:15] If you have anything else you want to add in French.
ARDOIN: Peut-être on pourrait dire comment on était élevé, comme des petits. On a jamais connu rien d’autre chose que, après on a passé cinq ans, que l’ouvrage. On brossait les chevaux et on avait feed les animaux. On tirait les vaches, même back quand j’étais à Lebeau, je tirais 19 (dix-neuf) vaches deux fois par jour. On aurait pasteuré notre lait. On l’a mis dans des bouteilles et on vendait ça dans le restaurant. Et la même affaire avec les jardins et les clos, c’est tout notre jardinage. Tu pouvais pas acheter des jardinages frais en dedans quelques boutiques, des magasins et des grosseries. Tout ça t'achetais dedans les grosseries, c’était dans un sac ou un baril. [C’était] [inaudible] et il est pas de balance, pas rien. Il aurait des petits bag d’un livre, deux livres, cinq livres. Tu mettais la, tu mettais proche plein et c’est ça un livre. C’était
peut-être pas exactement bon, mais c’était plus ou moins.
MARTIN: [agrees]
ARDOIN: Et autrement que ça, tout quelque chose a été changé après la guerre. [Inaudible] il a commencé, les habitants ont commencé à acheter des tractors, des machineries. Et ils avaient pas ça dans la guerre, parce que toutes les facteries étaient après faire des tank et des airplane et des Jeep et des truck. Mais après la guerre, tout quelque chose a [revive]. On a commencé à faire des automobiles encore. On faisait pas des automobiles. On est pas des manufactures des tire ou d’huile ou de rien. Mais la Louisiane et le Texas et Oklahoma, ils avaient tout le temps plein de l’huile. Mais ça faisait d’autre chose. Il y avait … tu connais? Ils ont, peut-être … ils ont,
peut-être, je sais pas, pour le vendre ou ça c’est … il y en a … et ils avaient un tas de butane et du propane. Mais, il y avait pas de natural gas comme on a asteur.
MARTIN: [agrees]
ARDOIN: [21:50] Dans ces temps-là, tu usais un stove à coal oil ou butane et ils ont pas eu [inaudible] d’oven. L’oven, tu mettais ça dans un stove à bois avec une cheminée.
MARTIN: Oui.
ARDOIN: C’est ça où tu faisais ton pain de maïs ou ton gâteau, n’importe quoi que tu voulais.
MARTIN: Well … how do you say New Orleans in French?
ARDOIN: How do I what?
MARTIN: How do you say New Orleans in French? ARDOIN: New Orleans? There’s some French qui dit la Ville. MARTIN: La Ville, oui.
ARDOIN: La Ville and probably around your country, it’s probably la Ville. Alentours d’ici, de la Ville Platte, [ils l’appellent] la Nouvelle-Orléans.
MARTIN: La Nouvelle-Orléans?
ARDOIN: [agrees]
MARTIN: Yeah, we just learned a lot of the special names for certain … like Chemin Neuf,
New Roads, or --
ARDOIN: Yeah.
MARTIN: … en Ville, New Orleans.
ARDOIN: En Ville, yeah. Il y a un tas qui disait “en Ville.” MARTIN: And then, but if you’re around Ville Platte -- ARDOIN: Mais …
MARTIN: … c’est --
ARDOIN: [23:04] Là, où moi, j’étais élevé dans la Grande Prairie, quand j’étais bien jeune, c’était “en Ville.”
MARTIN: En Ville? ARDOIN: [agrees] MARTIN: Well …
ARDOIN: Chaque petit voisinage, il y a des différents de dialect.
MARTIN: [agrees]
ARDOIN: Encore dans la France, c’est pareil. Il y a plus de dialect en français qu’il y a dans le Chinese language.
[23:28]
[End Tape 4891. End Session 1.] [Total session time - 23:28]
Interviewee: Burnley Ardoin Tape 4891 Interviewer: Seth Martin Session 1
Transcriber: Erin Segura March 17, 2018
Translator: Jackson Butterbaugh [Begin Tape 4891. Begin Session I.]
SETH MARTIN: My name is Seth Martin and I’m here with Mr. Burnley Blanc Ardoin on Saturday, March 17th, 2018. The first question: When World War II started, how old were you? BURNLEY ARDOIN: 11 years old.
MARTIN: Eleven years old. Do you remember how it was when the war started? ARDOIN: Yes, indeed. We were butchering, our neighborhood butcher and there was no radio. We had a radio, but it wasn’t connected, so they went to a local grocery store … I’ll tell you in French. I should be answering that in French. But anyway, I want to give you a picture of what’s going on.
MARTIN: Okay.
ARDOIN: I climbed a pecan tree that’s approximately 85, 90 feet high and my dad volunteered me to go up there. My mother had a fit.
MARTIN: [laughs]
ARDOIN: [laughs] But anyhow, I went over there and I put the highest wire on the highest branch in order to get reception. We had these old battery radios, no electricity at all at that time. MARTIN: [agrees]
ARDOIN: [1:19] It came later. Okay. When we were doing a boucherie we would share the meat at the end of the day. We had sausages, boudin, hog’s head cheese. We would eat and clean up everything. The women and the men worked, the kids too. Everyone had a small job. First,
they could… one kills the pig and puts it in the hot air and scrapes it until it was clean. And my father was a butcher. He was the one who would cut open and bleed the pig and all that. When he was done, he would take a hand saw, and he would split up the pig. And everyone removed skin to make cracklins [and put them in] and would make boudin and other things, like hog head’s cheese, with that. They had good meat that they degreased to make sausage. Once they had finished the sausages, they smoked them. And then, they put the scrapes in the hot grease in big containers. They would put the sausages [that they smoked] in the can. That’s good for a year or two with no type of refrigeration.
MARTIN: [agrees]
ARDOIN: And that’s about it. Okay, three.
MARTIN: Number three. How did your parents react to the war?
ARDOIN: Okay. First thing, people weren’t too familiar with wars. Those around 45 or 50 years old remembered World War I. But since there were a lot of women… at the time, women could not be in the army and they didn’t vote. Maybe they didn’t think too much about the war. They had the livings, and when they were done, they had the radio and they listened to Walter Winchell, Gabriel Heatter and Drew Pearson and all that. They announced the news. So, we understood where the war was. You know? So, the war had begun in Pearl Harbor. That’s when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. They also bombed the West Coast, California. After that, they invaded the Philippines. And when they did that, they saw that there was a strong army and got whipped. And we had to surrender and there they took all those prisoners. They brought them to the island of Japan. And at this time, they had not worked in the Japanese factories. And they were very mistreated. They were not giving them much to eat. And they were attacking
them [dead] in the prisons. When they came back to work, not all those men, they had lost ... they were skeletons. They had lost weight. They had worked all the time with almost nothing to eat and were terribly brutalized. When they were liberated, well, they went back to their countries. There were a bunch who died. They were… they had [inaudible], they got to the state. MARTIN: [agrees]
ARDOIN: And… but, they all had illnesses. There were many who were crippled and who had their legs cut off in the wars. They were terribly mistreated. What else?
MARTIN: All right. So, number four.
ARDOIN: Four.
MARTIN: All right. In French: Your dad worked in a grocery store in Lebeau. Tell me how the soldiers were treated in Lebeau. Your father worked in a store in Lebeau. Talk to me about how the soldiers were treated in Lebeau.
ARDOIN: [7:18] Very well.
MARTIN: Well said. Five: what impact did the war have on your community? What was the impact of the war on your community?
ARDOIN: Almost everyone farmed, and they were really worried because they all had… like my family had two people who got drafted. There was one who was rejected and the other who was 16 at the time in World War II. And we had two men whom my sisters married who were also in the Navy and the army. We had less people harvesting. They wanted ... they did small harvests and everyone who wasn’t drafted was looking for good jobs -- as mechanics, blacksmiths, welders. They all worked in the shipyards to have good jobs. You could not earn a lot of money on a farmstead.You worked on a share with the boss, the owner of the property. You
gave either half or a third or in some cases a quarter of the profits you made from your harvest. And in exchange, you stayed in a house for nothing/no cost. That was the rent. And you had fewer people to work with. You did smaller harvests because there were less people to work. [Inaudible] worked in the fields, the ones who were looking for better jobs, huh?
MARTIN: Question six: during the war, did farming change?
ARDOIN: Are you on number six?
MARTIN: Number six.
ARDOIN: No, that’s what I said. They didn’t change. It didn’t change a lot. The inhabitants would work less in the fields because they had less help than before. They could [10:06] … all the young men were gone at war. They had left to go somewhere overseas.
MARTIN: Okay. All right. Number seven.
ARDOIN: Number seven.
MARTIN: Did school change? How did school change? Did your homework change? Were there any special classes like shooting, army drilling? Did you not have school?
ARDOIN: We didn’t have that, but one or two times a week, one of the school teachers would take a class to explain how the war was going, and the names of the generals and all. You know? Because that’s a part of our geography class. And she showed on the map where it was. After that, the changes that we had in school, we were in a pretty small school. There were not a lot of changes that the big schools had. And at the time, you graduated in eleventh grade rather than twelfth.
MARTIN: [agrees] Number eight: how often were soldiers in Lebeau?
ARDOIN: I would say almost every day. There were a few, who were navigating, who entered houses or changed base or they had left for another camp. They came by bus, convoy and train. We had the train on Highway 71 and the railroad track was in front. So, we saw soldiers almost every day. And about two times a week, we [inaudible] them for German prisoners. It had left for Baton Rouge and Donaldsonville to work in cane fields. Like I told you before, we packed them a little lunch in a paper bag.
MARTIN: [agrees]
ARDOIN: [12:51] We didn’t have staples like today. We would twist the bag. There was a bag of chips and a soda and a sandwich or a hamburger, all for 25 cents. And almost all the Germans, always, spoke English. They spoke two or three languages because France and all those little countries there--Italy, Spain. It’s a lot like the states here. It’s all in Europe. So, in each of those countries, they spoke all the languages. And they spoke English well. They were nice guys. There were a bunch of them who never went back, you know? They married women from here and they also brought others [inaudible] here, those who hadn’t died.
MARTIN: All righty. All right, number nine. What was being rationed? Or, did life change because of rationing? How?
ARDOIN: Yes. It didn’t change much in Lebeau because it’s a small town, maybe 50 families. Sugar and coffee were the two rarest things, I think. So, they used honey and other [inaudible]. So, their syrup and [inaudible]. They improvised. They adapted. They sweetened their coffee with some honey or some sugar… when they made ice cream… we really didn’t suffer ! We had two gas stations and they’d give us a coupon. We would have a coupon. We could buy maybe five gallons of gas and with a coupon, or maybe you could buy ten gallons. If
the car used up all of it, the man could give you a coupon for the rest. There were no refills or trades. So, we lost some [inaudible] and we could, if it was more than half, take the coupon. If it was less than half, well, we gave them it. That’s about it.
MARTIN: That’s interesting. All right, number ten. Were there more jobs available? ARDOIN: [15:42] A lot more jobs. You had [inaudible]. You had shipyards and people, they were making buildings for soldiers and the Navy, Marines, all over the country. In Louisiana we had about, I think, a dozen military bases. It was close to the outskirts of Alexandria. You had six or seven in Alexandria. But there was plenty of work. Anybody who wanted to work could work.
MARTIN: I want to go back to number eight real quick.
ARDOIN: Number eight?
MARTIN: Oh, wait. Yeah, okay. So, number eight.
ARDOIN: [agrees]
MARTIN: So, were you saying that … so, prisoners, right?
ARDOIN: Yeah.
MARTIN: Prisoners of war?
ARDOIN: Yeah.
MARTIN: So, like … the Germans?
ARDOIN: The Germans, yeah.
MARTIN: Or the Italians, right? And they all, they spoke pretty good English, right?
ARDOIN: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Most of them, they spoke very good English.
MARTIN: And they worked in the fields?
ARDOIN: They worked in the cane fields.
MARTIN: Okay, okay, okay. I heard “les clos,” but I … okay.
ARDOIN: [17:17] And I guess some of them were fairly well-educated in mechanics and different things and they could be trusted, too. You know? They was kind of like a trustee in a prison.
MARTIN: Right.
ARDOIN: They knew who [to bother]. They’d work in factories and boat, shipyards because they had a lot of knowledge because they had done that prior, 20 years before the war started.
MARTIN: Right.
ARDOIN: So they had a lot of talent and a lot of expertise on a lot of things.
MARTIN: So, going off of that, could you say, in French, maybe like, how they were … how the prisoners of war were viewed or like, treated?
ARDOIN: They were treated royally. I mean, if they worked in a canefield in a family? You want me to answer that in French? The women would make coffee and cakes. And the Germans were treated the same as if they were United States citizens, very well treated. But not… there were some who might have been abused, maybe. But almost all the others [inaudible] … they should have ... they told me when I was little, it was better to be a prisoner here than being in the army in Germany. In other words, they’d rather be prisoners here than [in] armies.
MARTIN: Right. Well, those are all the questions that I have. If you have anything else that you want to talk about --
ARDOIN: Well, if --
MARTIN: … talk about World War II in Lebeau, or --
ARDOIN: In French?
MARTIN: [19:15] If you have anything else you want to add in French.
ARDOIN: Maybe we could say how we were raised as kids. We never knew anything other than work after we were five years old. We brushed the horses and fed the animals. We milked the cows, even back when I was little in Lebeau, I milked 19 cows twice a day. We would pasture our milk. We put the milk in bottles and sold them in the restaurant. And the same thing with the gardens and the fields, it was all our vegetables. You could only buy fresh vegetables in a few stores. All of it you bought in grocery stores, it was in a sack or a barrel. There was no scale or anything. There would be little one-pound, two-pound, five-pound bags. You filled that almost all the way up and that’s a pound. Maybe it wasn’t exactly great, but it was more or less all right.
MARTIN: [agrees]
ARDOIN: Other than that, everything changed after the war. [Inaudible] it started, the inhabitants started buying tractors, machineries. And they didn’t have those during the war because all the factories were making tanks and airplanes and Jeeps and trucks. But after the war, everything revived. We started making cars again. We hadn’t been making cars. We aren’t tire or oil manufacturers or anything. But Louisiana and Texas and Oklahoma, they always had plenty of oil. But that did something else. There was… you know? They might have had to ... I don’t know, to sell it or something… there was enough of it… and they had a bunch of butane and propane. But, there wasn’t natural gas like we have now.
MARTIN: [agrees]
ARDOIN: [21:50] At that time, you used a coal oil stove or butane and they didn’t have [inaudible] oven. The oven, you put that in a wood stove with a chimney.
MARTIN: Yes.
ARDOIN: That was where you made your cornbread or your cake, whatever you wanted.
MARTIN: Well … how do you say New Orleans in French?
ARDOIN: How do I what?
MARTIN: How do you say New Orleans in French?
ARDOIN: New Orleans? There are some French speakers who say “la Ville.”
MARTIN: La Ville, yes.
ARDOIN: La Ville, and probably around your area, it’s probably la Ville. Around here, around Ville Platte, they call it la Nouvelle-Orléans.
MARTIN: La Nouvelle-Orléans ?
ARDOIN: [agrees]
MARTIN: Yeah, we just learned a lot of the special names for certain … like Chemin Neuf, New Roads, or --
ARDOIN: Yeah.
MARTIN: … en Ville, New Orleans.
ARDOIN: En Ville, yeah. There’s a bunch of people who say “en Ville.”
MARTIN: And then, but if you’re around Ville Platte --
ARDOIN: But …
MARTIN: … it’s --
ARDOIN: [23:04] Around where I was raised in Grand Prairie, when I was really young, it was “en Ville.”