"My father was born in 1900 in Gonzales, when it was mostly agricultural and wooded land," says Gerald A. Bourque, of Destrehan.
"He was placed in the care of an uncle at a young age, and as a teenager worked at a funeral parlor washing dishes.
"One night he finished the dishes and started out in the dark to walk over the pastures to his uncle's nearby farm.
"In a dark, wooded area with a creek running through it, he jumped to the other side and met a 'devil' face: tentacle nose, very small mouth, large jowls, and a double chin.
"He screamed and slashed at it with his pocketknife before he ran away, reaching home safely.
"Next morning his uncle was furious, because someone had slashed the rump of his pet bull with a knife!"
Deep water blues
"The Thursday column about Boy Scouts reminded me of a long-ago camping trip to Lake Kincaid, near Alexandria," says Sonny Punch, of Lafayette.
"As assistant leader, I was in the boat with Fritz, the scoutmaster, his son and my two sons.
"We got stuck on the submerged top of a tall cypress tree. At the bow, I was standing on the top of another submerged tree, with water up to my calves.
"Around the bend came our other assistant leader, Dennis, with his son. He asked what the problem was, and I told him we were stuck on a log.
"He asked how deep the water was. I said, 'It’s only calf-deep to me!'
"Whereupon he leaped out of his boat to help…into about 40 feet of water. Everyone in my boat fell down laughing, but Dennis didn’t think it was so funny!"
When radio was fun
"Growing up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, I discovered clear channel WWL radio as a kid in the early '70s," says Steve, of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
"I grew up learning the names of New Orleans streets thanks to traffic reports, and loved ‘King Edward Cigar Time.’
"But the most amazing part was Bob Ruby’s morning talk show (in the days when talk radio was a different animal than it is today).
"It was smart show that sometimes broke news, and I couldn’t get enough of it. And it was very funny."
Special People Dept.
Josephine Zito, of Plaquemine, celebrated her 96th birthday Thursday, April 4. She was a longtime employee of the Louisiana Department of Education.
The great escape
Sandy Morris got this story from her "file of dumb things kids do:
"My husband, Chuck Morris, tells of this second-grade escapade.
One day at lunch he decided he was going home. He found his kindergarten-age brother on the playground and told him, 'Let's go; we're breaking out of here!'
"They walked home, about 10 blocks from St. Peter's School.
"Their older sister was home, and asked, 'What are y'all doing here?' Chuck's reply was, 'We escaped.'
"She immediately put them in the car and drove them back to school. No one knew they were gone."
New language
"After reading all the malapropisms in your column, I can only quote my father," says Jackie Carnes:
"'It's a catastrophic state of disarray, due to redundancy and similocushoushness (his malapropism for semi-loquaciousness)."
Nancy Reynolds, of Ponchatoula, says, "I have a friend who had carpet tunnel surgery."
Janis, of Denham Springs, says, "When I was VERY young I loved betticorn (spaghetti) and leaning on the cinderwell (window sill) to look outside."
Ben Farrar, of New Roads, says, "My Mom, a first-grade teacher and Sunday School teacher, tells me I was quoted saying, 'Shadrach, Meshach, and a billy goat (Abednego)."