Sunshine Robertson - Claiborne Parish - photo by Neil Johnson
In 1924, Sunshine Crow Robertson was born in the Harris Community in Claiborne Parish in Louisiana. She was born into a large family comprised of her mother, her father, and seven children.
First, Sunshine tells the story that her family lived on Tough Street. She said it was appropriately named because the further you went, the tougher it got, and her home was next to last on the street. She lived in a dogtrot style house that included a kitchen with a well that kept things cool. In addition to remembering the house, Sunshine remembered that her mother cooked wonderful cakes and pies on a wood stove in which you built a fire. If the fire burned too low, then cakes would fall. Also, they raised all their food in a garden. Her job was to work in the garden, as well as sweep the yard with a homemade broom. As well as helping in the garden, Sunshine assisted her mother in preserving fruit by canning and drying the fruit they gathered from the land.
Second, at the beginning of the Great Depression of 1929, Sunshine was five years old. She began school in the Harris Community and walked a quarter of a mile each day to catch the school bus. She remembers that she had motion sickness and was sick everyday. Sunshine transferred to Gibsland School in Bienville Parish in the third grade. She vividly remembers the Bonnie and Clyde massacre that occurred right outside of Gibsland. The principal of the school had all the children march by the bullet-riddled vehicle, with the sheet-covered bodies of Bonnie and Clyde still inside. Her older brother lifted one of the sheets and saw that Bonnie was pregnant. She thought this was a terrible thing for the principal to do to children. She was troubled with nightmares and had to sleep with her parents for a long while after this incident. I feel she kept her most prized procession, the quilt in the picture above, because it is probably the quilt that was on her parent’s bed at the time of this horrifying experience and it represents security. I agree that this was a terrible thing for children to see. I can only conclude that the principal was trying to demonstrate to the students that crime does not pay, since at the time many people felt that Bonnie and Clyde were somewhat like Robin Hood. In today’s world our children see so much violence on television that I wonder if they would have been as traumatized as Sunshine was. On the other hand, I am sure it would be more traumatic to see violence up close and in real life as Sunshine did.
Also, during the Great Depression years she recalled that they were poor, but they did not know it because everyone was poor. They would trade eggs and butter in town for sugar and flour. Her father did own a car, but it was reposessed. She said her mother was very distressed over losing the car and cried. The next day her father had to hitch the mules to a buggy in order to attend church. Even though there was not any money, Christmas was always a happy time during the Great Depression. They did not have a tree or any presents, but her father would buy a carton each of apples, oranges, and raisins. He would hide them under the bed, and she still associates the wonderful aroma of those fruits with Christmas time.
In summary, Sunshine said that due to the Great Depression she learned to appreciate what she had. She said, “We learned to work. Too much is given today, and people do not know what hard times are.”
