A Way of Life: Gone with the Flood

Over the years I’ve written many stories. This one is the most difficult I’ve ever written. The past two years have changed my life forever. A life threatening illness and the devastating flood of August 2016. That flood forever changed the face of Central, Greenwell Springs and our surrounding areas. Lives were changed, never to be the same again. We never expected anything like this in our lifetime. This is my story, how I came to live on Hooper Road near Greenwell Springs Road and why it is no longer my home. Like many others there will be no returning. Never do you forget putting 68 years of your life and memories on the curb and seeing your home gutted.
In 1946, Thomas Cecil Campbell purchased two lots at the corner of Hooper and Greenwell Springs Roads. His family had lived there in the “old blue house” since 1934. He paid $3,000 for almost 10 acres. Cecil had been discharged from the army after three years of service during WWII. He worked in construction at that time and made very little money. He paid his loan off at $25.00 a month and at times paid $50.00 when he had extra money. His mother, Mrs. Lassie Campbell recorded those payments on the back of the mortgage. I still have that copy. He was finally able to get a job at Ethyl Corporation. Ethyl didn’t pay a lot in the 1940’s but it was a secure job. I was working at F.W. Woolworth on Third St.
We married on July 7, 1949. We rented a small house (three rooms) for $10.00 a month from Claude Jackson place on Hooper Road. I had moved to Central in 1940. I graduated from Central High School in 1947 and went to work at Woolworth’s.
The Jackson’s sold the small house in 1950 and we had to move. Cecil went to the Charlie White sawmill on the opposite corner from our lot on Hooper Road and brought lumber to start a house. He paid $1,200 for the lumber and construction began. We moved into the house when it was just framed up. The outside was 1” x 12” rough pine boards with batten strips and was stained barn red. The gable ends were open and the studs for the walls were in place. The next morning a bird flew right through the house. As we had the money sheetrock was bought and we had walls but no doors. I hemmed army blankets, hung them on rods and there were doors! This is how the Cecil Campbells began their lives in Greenwell Springs. The house has been added on to, remodeled and evolved into what it is today.
There were a few stories in those days. Jodie Edwards (Central), Elder Long (Blackwater Road), Bert Ezell (corner of Sullivan and Joor) and Nelson Fairchild on Greenwell Springs Rd. I also bought groceries on the way home from work at Winn Dixie. It was located on Florida Blvd. near the Baton Rouge General Hospital. It was small, in a quonset hut. Probably the first Winn Dixie in the area. You could buy a car load of groceries for $20.00. We bought neat at Bert Ezell’s store.
Central and Greenwell Springs were great communities. We knew our neighbors from Greenwell Springs to Plank Road and all in between. Good hard working people we could depend on in troubled times. Our way of life back then!!
When our son Thomas George Campbell (Tommy) was born in 1954 life changed again. I stopped working and we became a one income family. Ms. Campbell had always milked a cow. I pasteurized the milk and made butter. We had laying hens for eggs. Every spring 50 baby chicks were ordered. They were delivered to the Greenwell Springs Post Office. Raised in a brooder, a structure part wood for shelter and a chicken wire run. At eight weeks they were ready for the freezer. In the fall there was a pig for the freezer. Cecil was a hunter so we had venison, rabbit and squirrel. He had a huge garden. Everything was frozen, canned or pickled. We some times had a steer that went to The City Abatoir for processing for the freezer. The abattoir was located near the National Cemetery on Florida Blvd. It may have been on 19th Street about all we bought at a store was coffee, sugar, and flour. Corn was dried and, taken to a mill to be ground into corn meal. We bought cane syrup made by the Fairchild family at their syrup mill. Years later I raised calves on bottles. They were given to Cecil by the McDonald Dairy on Sullivan Road on exchange for work. Sometimes we had as many as 15. That’s tough going in the cold winters back then.
Our son, Tommy, grew up much like we did. He went to Central High School but graduated from Central Private. During Tommy’s high school years I returned to work at Goudchaux’s on Main Street. I worked in the credit office for many years and have many fond memories during that time. It was a rather interesting job, I always knew who didn’t pay their bill.
When Tommy was grown up we have him four acres across the canal from our house. When he married Marcia Bannister they bought an old house on Main Street in Baton Rouge. It was moved on the property and remodeled into a beautiful home. Our only grandchild, Emily, was three years old when sold the property and moved to Baton Rouge. Shortly after they divorced. A way of life once again changed.
For the next 12 years Emily spent a lot of time with us. She had her own little, elevated Acadian style playhouse in the back yard. She and her cousins spent many happy hours in that little house. It still stands there today. These years were some of the happiest times in our old house. Fishing, camping and vacations were the norm.
Jeff and Kellye Couvillion now lice in the house that came from Main Street. They raised their three children, Daniel, Hope and Claire there. I became the “other grandmother”. More Joy!! Sadly Daniel lost his life in an automobile accident leaving his wife Sarah and daughter Olivia. Life changes again.
Cecil died in June 1999 after a long, hard battle with cancer. I lived in my house alone until February 2016. I mowed grass, cut bushes and kept things in good order until July 2015.  Things started going down hill after I had surgery. My neighbor, Perry Leger, started doing all the mowing.
I started falling a lot, hiding it from my family. I was on a first name basis with the Central Fire Department, EMS and the Sheriffs office. The Fire Department even knew where I hid my key outside.
In late January 2016, I slipped off my bed in the night and could not get up. I crawled around on the floor for 12 hours to find a phone I could reach and called for help. I spent time in the hospital and could no longer live alone.. My granddaughter Emily found a lovely apartment for me at Williamsburg Senior Living. My family turned up in masse and moved me there on February 1, 2016. Many tears were shed that day as mu way of life changed forever. Williamsburg is good and there are new friends. It is not home as I knew it for 68 years in my old house on Hooper Road.
I became very ill in March 2016, When major infections got into my blood. It destroyed part of my spine, turning it into mush. After major surgery and five weeks in the hospital I survived. My doctor calls me his “miracle person”.
Then came the floor and my house along with most of Central flooded. Nearly five feet of water , some homes had water to the rooftops. There was still a house full of furniture and other memories in the house. No insurance and no help from FEMA – a total loss!! Everything on the curb and the house gutted.
I sold the house to Hope and Michael Johnson for half the price it was before the flood. Hope is the daughter of Jeff and Kellye Couvillion. They are in the process of renovating and it will become a rent house. My hope is that another family will find it a happy place. For the first time in many generations the property has passed from the Odom – Greenwell and Campbell families.
For the 76 years I lived n the Central, Greenwell Springs community there were happy and sad times, a few hiccups and pot holes, (a few I fell into). Wonderful times with family and friends. I’m grateful for those years! Thanks for the love shown to me.
In my 87th year I may have another story in me. We’ll have to work hard on that one!! A way of life is gone for me. I’ll have to work hard on that one!! A way of life is gone for me and many others. as I rode through Central and Greenwell Springs I could see it will take many years to return to what it once was.
This was written for my granddaughter, Emily so she will know how we lived in the “olden days”

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