*upbeat music plays* *music fades* Robin Ann Bazile Garnett: Hi, my name is
Robin Ann Bazile Garnett, this house here was my grandmother’s house, Lebora Johnson Melancon, and
my grandmother was born here. No, my grandmother never left until older. She moved and went to live
with her daughter in New Orleans and she lived there until she passed. She passed away in 2000.
When I came here as a child, I didn’t know her as when she worked.
We called it the yard cause she said the yard, when she worked in the yard which was over on
Felicity. She was a cook there and for many years. But when we came along and were growing up,
she wasn’t there then. She would only go there on holidays; it was Thanksgiving and Christmas. So,
that’s the only time that I remember her going back to Felicity. On those holidays
when they had family dinners, she would go, and she would prepare the meals for their holidays.
When she was working there, her children were kids. She did that for a long time. And
my grandmother was always one that she loved to bake, and she would do everything from scratch.
She was a great cook. She loved to cook. So, we always had good home cooked meals and cakes.
She loved to make cakes from scratch. I have most of her recipes. Learning to cook
was more of watching her, she telling me how to prepare certain meals. And my grandmother,
when we were coming up, she taught us to do things in the kitchen. But my grandmother wanted us to
come and see, “come and see how I’m doing it, set here and watch.” And so that’s how I learned.
Certain times when I would cook something, she’s like, “you don’t do it that way.” And sometimes
I would get a little…I’m like, “okay grandma.” She was just like, “you don’t do it like that.”
You know and I’d say okay and so, cause you had to do it like she did it, cause if you didn’t do it
like she did it, you didn’t do it right. And so, a lot of times when I’m doing things in the kitchen,
I kind of remind myself as her. I feel like her at that moment. I feel like Lebora.
My grandmother, like I said, she was the great cook always. That was her specialty.
And the funniest thing was, I would be so excited when I knew that somebody was coming to visit.
This was like a tradition when anytime she had family coming or visitors, she would whip up
the homemade fried chicken and I loved her fried chicken. But I could remember
this black pot and I wish I had it today. And she would fry this chicken and it’s like
no other. I have not eaten fried chicken and say it tastes like my grandmothers’
ever. And how she would make those apple pies and I would set on the porch with her, and she would
cut up the apples. She had them with a whole lot of cinnamon and she would start marinating them.
Everything she did, it was like she did it from her heart. She perfected everything that she did.
I mean she baked, she cooked, she did it all. A lot of memories. And this is my grandmother’s
kitchen. Right here was actually a nice table set. This was the stove; I can remember the stove was
right here. Her table was there, where she did everything, prepared her water, all that stuff
was there. The refrigerator was right here. She raised three kids here and actually my
oldest brother was born in this house and so you know, we have a lot of history here.
Well, when I grew up, I knew the only two people that lived here was her and her
sister. She had two children. My grandmother also raised her nephews in this house.
This particular room, we couldn’t come in here all the time. This was cousin, who she raised,
room and so this was the room we always wanted to come in because they told us we couldn’t go
in there. So, you know as kids, we always want to do what they say not to do. So, this was
the room we always snucked in and came in. So, when he left well then, we could come
in and be as free as we want to but then we didn’t want too then.
But I can remember this room here, this is where she did her laundry in here also in that corner.
My mom died at an early age, so me and my siblings, my mom had seven of us, we came to live
with my grandmother after that. But before that we were always here. We would visit on weekends.
Sunday we were here and all through the week, a lot of times we were here cause our home was
right down the highway. And so, we practically was here all the time. It was really fun being here.
And I was really close to my grandmother because when it was time for us to leave
and go home, I would always be between going home with my mom and my siblings and my dad or staying
here. And they would be like, “are you coming?” and I would be, “oh no, I want to stay with my
grandmother,” I always end up staying here. And this was her bedroom. Lot of memories in
here. Her bed, I can remember was over here on this side and she had a sofa here, a couch here
and a loveseat here. When I would come and visit, I always would sleep with her. I would
snuggle all under her. There’s a lot of good memories in this room, this whole house really.
I even came back after my marriage and stayed here a little while with my grandmother with
my two kids when I came back with my kids for a little while, it was still good.
I can’t pass here on the highway, St. Joe, and not think about my youth,
you know, when I was growing up. It’s fascinating to see what it’s become now, a tourist attraction.
When I think about my past and how it was you know, it was so full of life
with people living here and kids playing, and it was just fun for us. And everybody got along,
it was just one big happy time. You know I have some really good memories here.
We would go under here actually and play house. And we would make our own dolls, you know, out
of soft drink bottles. We would pull the grass, we would make dolls and then there were other kids,
we even had this, there was like a pool house where we would go over there. Other people were
shooting pool, the children, it was like an activity center right here on this place.
You know there were so many different things to do. You know, we would run on the other side,
we called that going over on Foss, that’s what we called it as children. And we would go visit
other people. We had an uncle and an aunt that lived over on Foss and
we would go and get frozen cups. It was just a lot of fun growing up.
I can also remember every Saturday, we had to go into town you would say,
and we would go to this drugstore, I think it was Mr. Nelson’s or the Russell’s and we would always
get ice cream cone me and my grandmother. Every Saturday morning early, it was always
the butcher, the milkman, so we always had fresh dairy and meat. But you know,
things were just so simple and good back then. So, you know, we have all those memories.
And the house, itself, it was always a peace here. So much to me, serenity. Always calm and peaceful.
As a small child, I could always remember when my mom would bring us, and we would come and visit my
grandmother. I would always like to get in front of the fireplace by the fire in the cold winter.
That would be so soothing to me. To hear my mom and my grandmother conversate and I’m by the fire,
that would always like put me to sleep. This was the front room, and I can remember
for some reason it seemed when I was growing up and coming here, this room was bigger.
There was two full sized beds in this room and a rocker in the middle, and the TV was right here.
We didn’t actually use the fireplace but there was a heater right here.
So, this is where I would sit and let the peace of God just rest upon me and just fall asleep.
And I can remember my grandmother would plant mirliton, it’s a vegetable,
it’s like squash. It’s a tradition here for Thanksgiving, holidays. You stuff it with shrimp,
or you make a casserole out of it. She would also plant her parsley and green onions. She did okra,
she also had a little row of sugar cane, and it was all on this side of the house.
And I can remember some of the stories my mom shared with us, and she did too. As they were
growing up, they also had a watermelon patch. My grandmother always shared, and I can remember
there was a porch here. This house had a porch which was a lot of purpose, and she had a bench
that was made purposely for the porch because she and I would come and set on the porch.
When I was little and even when I grew up and had kids, we would set on the porch,
and she would share a lot of things when she was growing up. During her time when she was little,
you know growing up, about her father and her mother, you know because they
shared a lot of their family stories. So, we spent a lot of time on the porch.
She actually plant that. Somebody gived her the plant and she put it there and it just grew. Now
it was never out of whack like this cause she kept it trimmed down and everything. It would
be so funny because at the end of the porch and as we were growing up and little, she would say, “you
better come away from there because if you fall, you gonna fall in the patch and there’s those
stickers.” So, you know, that is still here. The tree, everything is still here. We would
actually climb this tree. I remember going up to the center and getting halfway up there. And right
here was the water faucet and there was a big cauldron in the yard right in front the tree.
Whenever I do come here, I’m excited because what it is now and it’s a tourist attraction,
many movies has been filmed here and so to me it’s exciting. It’s great to say, “I have history here,
you know, my grandmother lived here, we grew up here coming back and forth as children.” So,
you know, I think it’s an honor. *music gains again*