A Cajun King By Morgen Phillips On April 6, 1932, Joseph W. LeJeune was born into this world in a small 3 room house in Egan, Louisiana. Joseph is my great grandfather. Today, he is 82 years old and still lives in the same area that he lived in as a child. Joseph is the only son of Gustave and Maggie LeJeune. He is one of four children. There were three girls and Joseph. His sisters were, Carrie, Frances and Una, who is his half-sister. In 1938, at the age of six, Joseph started to school in the first grade. The same year, he would lose his left eye to an accident where he stuck scissors in his eye while clipping threads on clothing. Joseph’s family was very poor. There was no running water or electricity in their home. Gustave had a cistern that would catch rain water for the family to use to drink and for bathing. Popa LeJeune, Joseph, would help his mother carry laundry to a bayou about a fourth of a mile from their home to wash their clothing. In 1941, Popa was nine years old. His family was poor so he had to start working to help out. He would work for local farmers digging up sweet potatoes. He was a share cropper, so for every twenty bags he would dig up; he would get paid two bags of sweet potatoes. Also, that same year, Gustave, my great great grandfather, bought the families first vehicle, a 1936 Dodge pickup. In 1944, at age twelve, Popa LeJeune would graze his family’s cattle. They didn’t have enough land to provide food for the cows, so Popa would let them out in the morning to graze on the side of the road. Sometimes, they would graze up to two miles away from home. In the evening, he would drive them back home to their pasture and then gather firewood for their stove for cooking and warmth. A few years later, around the age of sixteen, Popa worked in the rice fields where he would pull coffee weeds, walk the levees and fill in the holes in the levees. This was during WWII in the 40’s, so he would be paid in tokens issued by the government. Each token was about the size of a penny or a little bigger, and had a triangle cut out of the center. It took ten tokens to equal one cent, a penny. He also worked at a local gas station as well. Hard work was just a way of life then. No luxuries or fancy meals. The family usually ate rice and beans through the week and meat on Sunday. The neighborhood was poor as well, so all help was accepted. So whenever someone butchered a calf or hog it would be shared among neighbors. In 1953 at the age of twenty, Joseph bought his first car, a 1951 Ford for the price of $700. A year later in 1954 at the age of twenty one, he went on his first date with a girl from his neighborhood, Letty Regan. On October 8, 1955 he would take her hand in marriage. He also started working digging water wells. A year later in 1956, the couple had their first child, a daughter named Stephanie. Three years later another child, my grandfather, Michael would be born. In 1962, Joseph would start to work in the oilfield. He would start as low man at the bottom and work his way up. He would also over the years have three more children, Jenny, Jeff and DJ. Joseph worked his way up to Rig Pusher, as well as opening his own family saw mill. In 1990, Joseph fell off a rig thirty feet and hurt his back. He was off for over a year and in 1992, retired. In 2006, he was cutting limbs and a branch fell from a tree top and hit him in the face. This caused traumatic injuries to his face and head and he was in the hospital a very long time. Being in such great shape though, he recovered and was once going again. Today, my Popa LeJeune still lives in Egan, Louisiana. He and my great grandmother, Letty, are an energetic, healthy couple who have had an amazing journey together. They have a huge family spreading from South Louisiana to Texas. Some may ask how I see him as a Cajun King. No he may not have the palace or the riches, but he is surrounded by those he loves and that by far is the thing that can make a man richer than any King. My Popa LeJeune is a man who has made hard work a way of life. He has truly made a mark on this thing we call life.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 17:20:11 +0000
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