Marie Ferry
February 21, 2019
Big Bayou Trivia Bash to benefit Nicholls
February 21, 2019
Last night., I watched, for maybe the twentieth time John Wayne in “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.” They sure made great movies then. Watch it again sometimes. It might bring back great memories. My two favorite movies are “Outlaw Josey Wales, with Clint Eastwood and Wayne’s “The Searchers” My favorite book is “A Tale of Two Cities” and color is blue. Singer? Jimmie Rodgers. Past time/hobby? Writing this column, and here come another one Now you know a heck more about me than you ever cared to, but such information can’t hurt you……I don’t think. Just wanted to start the column with a happy thought because the column itself is sad.
I was still in grammar school when Arimise Cheramie, Jr., (Me Mis) was in high school. He often teased me, a sign that he liked you. He was the class clown that everybody loved, always wore a big smile and he would ruffle my hair when he saw me. He was also kind and seeing mp eating a sandwich without a drink, he would slip me a nickel to buy one.
It was wartime and patriotically, he enlisted. His last words to me were “Tee Roy, (my nickname then), I just joined the Air Force.”
Proudly I shouted: “Shoot one down for me” as he waved goodbye.
That was the last time I saw him. A tail gunner, his plane was shot down over Italy with no survivors. He was Nicholls State University Chef Handy Cheramie’s uncle.. Years later his brother Jimmy Cheramie became my drummer and he too died prematurely leaving a young widow.
Early in the war, across the bayou from us lived Mr. and Mrs. Valmont St Pierre’B frim-ily. Valmont was the brother of Esmire St. Pierre, our neighbor, school bus driver, “ma it re du halle” on Saturday night at Rebstock’s Dance Hall, and an honored WWI veteran.
I met their son Nolta visiting his first cousin Pennington St. Pierre, my Mend and playmate who was dying of leukemia and who did not survive his teen years, another painful childhood memory.
Nolta was draft age but still a kid at heart. I was about 12. he liked me, we bonded and I became MB defacto kid brother.
His brother was Richard and his sisters were Viola and Glorina.
He would often take me to the movies at the Star Theater in Galliano, two miles from where we lived. He’d cross the bayou in a flat boat, pick me up and we’d walk to the theater. Other kids followed him, but he was the big brother I never had and I jealously guarded that.
Returning from the movies we’d cross the bayou again and he walked me hack. This was our routine until, to my grief, he was drafted. He did his basic training and was immediately shipped overseas. I never heard from him again.
One day we heard a chilling scream from across the bayou. It was Mrs. St. Pierre, who had just been informed that her son Nolta had been killed in action.
Our neighborhood was stunned and I was devastated! I had lost two friends in less than a year. The screams stopped and a weird and eerie silence fell. All I heard was someone crying. It was me.
The war progressed and Gold Stars appeared in many other Cajun windows. Many came hack, but Bert man Pit re had lost a leg, Tiges Martin had lost the use of the right side of his body, and Nolta and Aramise had lost it all.
Over 35 South Lafourche boys died in that war. including American Legion Post SB namesake, Anthony N. Griffin, one of the first and Host a cousin and classmate, class of “46, Hubert Theriot in Korea.
The cost of World War II? America: $288 billion, 1910 dollars: Armed Farces casualties 10TJM0; worldwide fatalities: 75 million. Result? Allied victory and peace … for awhile! Moral? When will they ever learn?
Conclusion: A few mare Axis victories and a few more Allied defeats and the outcome might have been differait, and generations of Americans would now speak German or Japanese.
Think about it!
BYE NOW!
Comments are welcomed at leroymartin1929@gmail.com
In this week’s column, Mr. Leroy Mortin looks back and remembers some Cajun Heroes who fought in wars. The cost of World War II was steep around the country, but also locally.
