Family things…
My Uncle Riley drew these in 1989, based on his memories of growing up on the ‘home place’ in Louisiana in the 1910s and 20sa…
I remember the old home place, it was what was known as a ‘dog run’ house, with a big central hall that ran front to back. That was the ‘cooling’ in the summer, open the doors and windows, and let the breezes blow through. And feather beds. It was a four bedroom house, with a kitchen and bathroom added on the back. Sadly it burned down back in the 1970s. Of the original three houses, sadly today only one is left.
The cotton gin was turned into a sawmill by Uncle Alvin who took over the home place, and he used it to make a living for a number of years as a finished carpenter (he built beautiful cabinetry out of Cypress). The Edward Curtis store was still standing in the early 1970s, but no longer used.
Seeing these brought back a lot of memories… Playing with the cousins at the reunions, butchering hogs and cattle, making sausages, eating all kinds of GOOD food, catching fish in the river, and the women making quilts. And home made ice cream… Oh yeah!!!
Have seen many dog run houses in my youth in the area of Opelousas and the outskirts of smaller towns around. From a cooling standpoint they seem to be the poor man’s alternative to the verandas and floor-to-ceiling large doors and attention to compass direction of the structure. Hmm. I wonder if the dog runs were a predecessor to duplex shotgun houses. New Orleans, were I also grew up, had probably thousands of those.
Bob- You are correct! And I’m betting none of those old houses had closets either! They were ‘taxed’ as rooms back in the day. Yes, NOLA had/still has a bunch too!
Family reunions can be a blast when everybody gets along (well MOST anyway :^) and reminescing of Tymes Gone Past bring a lot of smiles around the table. a few adding some more detail. Someone mentions a memory and a whole flood of emotion occurs.
jrg- Oh so true! Thankfully, the ones that showed up got along!!! 🙂
Your Uncle Riley was quite the artist!
drjim- He did good!
Your post takes me back to my childhood. We had horses, and I think that 2/3 of all activity involved them in one way or another. We had a large garden that I recall now, but took for granted then, with fruit trees and so forth. Times have changed so much that while I lived it, it’s surreal in so many ways as I’m closer to 100 than I am to 1.
Those are some neat drawings.
That is really cool Sir !
True family treasure.
These are terrific!
They’re known as “shotgun houses” in Florida and some other Southern states because you can fire a shotgun through the front door and out the back door without any walls in the way.
Did you have a cutout gourd “dipper” in a bucket of water that EVERYONE drank from?
Have you noticed that some electric cords are now using a material much like old electric wiring? Maybe everything old IS new again!