52 Ancestors - Week 39 - Surprise!

    Yesterday I posted two photos for my birthday and my mother's birthday. One was of Mama standing on her front steps taken in 1918. The other was of Mama and me taken in 1941. The Surprise! today is that I'm going to tell you what Mama remembered about that first photo.

Vera Mary Begue, about 1918

     I made a lot of tape recordings of Mama talking about her memories as we looked through photo albums and through her genealogy papers. She is listed at several different addresses on the U.S. censuses. The family in 1910 was listed at the home of Mama's grandmother, Anna Hathaway Gonzales, at 936 Vallette Street in Algiers. On Mama's birth certificate in September 1912 her family is living at 617 Newton Street. In 1920 the John L. Begue family is listed at 814 Nunez Street, about three blocks away from her grandmother, Anna Hattaway Gonzales, at 936 Vallette Street. "She lived there all of my childhood that I can remember." In 1930 the family is listed at 820 Slidell Avenue.

     Mama said, "I was the third child. Robert was born first. He was born in November 1908. He was named for his godfather and Daddy's best friend, Robert Crombie. Florence was born in October 1910. She was named for Mama's cousin, Florence Schaef, who was her godmother, and Anna Amelia for her two grandmothers. I wasn't named after anybody, just a name Mama liked. I had blonde hair when I was little and hazel eyes."

     "When Mama told the nurse she was going to name me Vera Mary, the nurse said, 'Oh, very merry, be-gay!' A lot of people pronounce it BE-gay, but Daddy always said BAY-gue. I was a blue baby. John was also a blue baby. He was born when I was two in 1914. He was named for Daddy, John Louis Begue Jr."

      One day we talked about the houses she remembered living in. Grandpa Begue was a shipfitter and a plumber. Mama said, "Daddy put indoor plumbing in half the houses in Algiers." He may have been trading plumbing work for rent.

     Mama said, "The first house I remember was on Vallette Street, when I was about four years old, between Newton and Homer. That's where the picture of me and Florence standing in front of the picket fence was taken. Mama made all our clothes. She even made our underwear. She always called them step-ins and crocheted lace around the legs. Then she washed and starched and ironed them, and the crocheted lace was stiff and scratchy. You can see Mama's African violets. She could grow anything."

Vera and Florence Begue, about 1916

     "Leotha was born on Belleville Street in January, 1917, on January second, one day before Little Grandma's birthday. She was named for Mama's friend, Leotha Gautreaux, and for Aunt Mamie's daughter, Mildred. Leotha Mildred Begue."

     "We were living on Atlantic Avenue when the picture of me standing on the steps with the cabbage bouquet was taken. I was about four or five years old. There was some kind of benevolent association that Daddy was president of, and they were having a parade. Florence was supposed to present the bouquet to Daddy when the parade stopped at our house, but she refused. She said it was stupid, so I got to do it. The bouquet was a big head of cabbage with cigars stuck in it. I remember looking down when they were going to take the picture and thinking, 'At least they could have swept up the cigarette butts first!' " 

[I used a digital broom to clean up the cigarette butts just for you, Mama.]