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Smoke School Stories

Uncle Earl Odon Clarks Louisiana December 29, 2010

Back when I grew up in the 1950s I had an Uncle Earl. Earl was not my actual uncle, but we all called him Uncle Earl, everyone did. My first memories of Earl were when he was in his 70s. My grandfather Roddy White purchased the Louisiana Central Lumber Company in Clarks Louisiana. Roddy sold each and every house in Clarks, and sold a lot of the lumber company to the Catholic Church who ran an orphanage. When I was a young boy I used to play hooky skip school and fish for bream in the old sawmill pond. I would lay down in the bottom of an old aluminum John boat, tie a fishing line to my big toe, and take naps until the fish pulled the string. The Nuns would bring the orphan kids on hikes around the millpond during lunch. Uncle Earl had worked on Roddy’s logging crew, retired, and lived in a 18 wheeler tuck trailer on the mill pond. Earl's home consisted of a bed, a pot bellied stove, a kitchen sink, and a bathroom. Earl said he once played baseball with Dizzy Dean.

One of Earls tasks involved baby sitting for me and my kid brother, Ricky. He would often take us fishing or squirrel hunting. One of my first memories of Uncle Earl involved duck hunting. We were living in Monroe at the time. I went fishing at the millpond and Earl said there had been some ducks flying into the back of the millpond. I asked if he had a gun. He loaned me an old 10 gauge twice barrel shotgun and the shells in the pan by the cast iron pot bellied stove were made of metal. I loaded up both barrels and walked past 14 cotton mouths to the back of the pond as the sun was going down. The wood ducks were flying into the pond. One landed on the water and I shot both barrels. The gun kicked me down on the ground. The duck was still swimming. It was a miracle the dead duck was swimming. I stood back up, pointed the gun barrel to the ground and all of the B-Bs ran down the barrel.

After years of living alone in the truck trailer, Earl told me one day that he had a daughter, and her name was Earl Dean. Earl had lost track of her when she was 5 years old. He found out she was living near Biloxi Mississippi. The next thing I knew Earl Dean and her husband moved to Hurricane Creek off of Old Bethel Church Road, near Clarks. We all went hunting several times. They were Jehovah Witnesses, and they were the only ones I had ever met. In the 70s Earl moved in with Earl Dean and her husband to Wewahitchka Florida. They built a round house out of a silo in a turn row in the middle of a west Florida cornfield. I was in the US Air Force when I heard that Earl was living in a nursing home back in Columbia Louisiana. Earl died there and ended up in a pauper’s unmarked grave on Columbia Hill. When momma found out, she went and purchased a tombstone. This was the story of my Uncle Earl.

There is also an Uncle Earl in Louisiana politics. Earl K. Long, the younger brother of Huey P Long. You can click the link for information about Earl Long. Lloyd Blount, Whitlow Enterprises, told me this story and I will share it with you. Julius Blount was a Louisiana State Representative and Uncle Earl Long was often at the Blount home in Walker Louisiana. Uncle Earl had a meeting to discuss things that needed to be done in the state. One guy asked if he could get his driveway paved. Governor Long said there are not any dead end roads in Louisiana that are paved. Long said if you can name one dead end road in the state that is paved, then I will pave your driveway. The guy thought about it and said Grand Isle. Highway 1 goes into Grand Isle and dead ends into the Gulf of Mexico. The next week the guy’s driveway was paved.