Florence Bray was born November 20, 1902, to Liddy Whisenant Lawrence and Joe Lawrence. She went to school at “Getup”, which is known as “Old Rescue” in the Morgan City-Union Hill area. When Florence was 16 or 17-years old she married John L. Bray and had four children, two boys-Edward and Wilburn, and two girls-Johnnie Bray Westbrooks and Ruth Bray Cooper. They lived on property owned by her family.

  Raising a family during the Depression wasn’t an easy thing to do. Since they didn’t have any sugar, Florence baked pies and cakes sweetened with a homemade syrup from molasses. Water was drawn from a well or brought from a nearby spring.

  When a neighbor ran out of salt or coffee, they would bring a glass or cup to borrow some until they could go to the store or the

peddler ran. Old folks didn’t pay back the borrowed salt-they felt it was bad luck.

  Florence washed their clothes on a rub board and used homemade lye soap. Guano sacks from flour and fertilizer were made into bed clothes, dresses, shirts, hand towels and most everything else. To get different colors and patterns she would trade sacks with her neighbors.

  Ma Bray, as she was called by her family, canned and dried a lot of the family food. Each year they would kill two hogs. Now the hogs they grew were really HOGS-not just over sized pigs. Sausage was ground up and placed in cotton stockings before hanging in the smoke house with the hams and other cuts of meat from the hogs. A cow supplied their milk-if it didn’t go dry. When it did, Ma Bray would borrow milk from a neighbor.

When the cow started giving milk again (or if the neighbor’s cow went dry), she would return the favor by giving milk and butter to them.

  After the crops were laid by, Ma Bray and Pa John would take a crosscut saw and cut enough firewood to last them the winter. One year their hard work was for nothing because someone stole all the wood they had cut.

  Back in those days corn was taken to a nearby mill to be ground up for corn meal. Ma Bray and John would load up the mule and wagon and off to Morgan City they would go. by then their children were grown and had kids of their own. So if the grandchildren saw Ma Bray and Pa John go by in the wagon they would always want to go with them. Pa John always stood up while Ma Bray sat in a straight

chair in the wagon.

  With her eggs and butter (and maybe a chicken), Ma Bray always had a little money for a treat. Five cents would buy a candy bar, a two-dip ice cream or cold drink. A penny would buy a sucker (or a handful of peppermint candy) that would last a kid all day long.

  One day Ma Bray sent three of her grandchildren to the store with some butter and a water bucket full of eggs. On the way they stopped by and picked up three of my children. A couple of days later Ma Bray and I went to the store to pick up a few things. The store owner informed Ma Bray that she had a bill which hadn’t been paid. This baffled her because she couldn’t remember buying anything on credit. After checking the date of the bill we