6

Alabama Life in a Shrimping and Oyster Shucking Camp 6

about putting the black jack roots into gin, and she said:

"Remember the time brother had pneumonia and you had some gin,
Pa. Well, this here sister and me kept a tastin' it and when they
went to look for it, it was gone, by nearly night time. We told Ma
that we was afraid we was gettin' the flu, and we'd have to go to
bed. The next mornin' we was all right, so Ma said, 'well I reckon
you ain't gittin' the flu', but we knowed we wer'n't. We had just
got too much gin."

"But railly, Miss it is good to use, to keep from takin'
colds, 'specially after washin' your head. I puts it on the babies'
head and rubs they temples with it.

"I tells you another good remedy" Joe said. "This is for
seven-years itch. Take poke root an' boil down to a strong tea,
then take fat meat grease an' make salve. It shore is strong, an'
you can't put it on too often. The way you does is grease good an'
keep your same clothes on for five days, an' then grease again,
an' it'll git rid of the itch."

When the writer asked Joe why he came to Bayou La Batre,
he said:

"Business got so porely that one of the boys, Sam R., came to
Biloxi, Mississippi, to work in the shrimp and oyster factories,
then he came back to New Iberia an' got the rest of us. But we
didn't stay long in Biloxi, 'cause we heard it was better workin'
here in Bayou La Batre, so us come on here, and here we's been
for thirteen-well, nigh onto fourteen years. But my! work ain't
now like it used to be 'cause the factories used to run nine months
in the year, now we do good to get three months work. Jes take las'

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