[Granville-Hough] 8 Jul 2009 - Purple Cows

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:29:13 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: PurpleCows - 8 Jul 2009

Purple Cows ôin Louisiana.ö After living for some time in Louisiana, 
Harold Dean Sullivan was able to top any story, no matter how fanciful, 
by what he had seen or done ôin Louisiana.ö One day at school Assistant 
Principal John Burley Howell was conducting weekly chapel assembly when 
he decided to test the group with some current history questions, the 
first of which was: ôHow many of you have been to a place where the 
roads were paved?ö At the time, we did not have a single foot of paved 
road in Smith County. Several students said they had seen paved streets 
in Jackson, or Laurel; but Harold Dean said ôall the roads are paved in 
Louisiana.ö We did not believe a word of it, but Mr. Howell said: ôYes, 
Governor Huey Long has paved all the farm to market roads in Louisiana.ö 
Mr. Howell then asked: ôHow many of you have gone to school where the 
textbooks are free?ö Now, we all knew textbook costs were terrible 
burdens on our parents, and some children dropped out of school because 
they could not afford them. So no one raised a hand, except of course 
Harold Dean, who said: ôI went to school in Louisiana, and textbooks 
were free.ö Now, we surely did not believe that, but Mr. Howell said: 
ôYes, Governor Huey Long has given free textbooks to every school child 
in Louisiana.ö Then Mr. Howell asked his trick question: ôHow many of 
you have seen purple cows?ö We reflected on that a bit, but only Harold 
Dean raised a hand. Again Mr. Howell called on him and he said: ôYes I 
have seen purple cows. It was in Louisiana.ö Then Mr. Howell opined: 
ôGovernor Huey Long has done some remarkable things, but I do not 
believe he has gotten the cows to grow purple skins.ö From then on, 
Harold Dean was known as the fellow who had seen "purple cows ôin 
Louisiana.ö

Which does bring up the interesting point that Governor Huey Long was 
one of the most admired persons in the Great Depressions days of the 
South. In our community, he was especially admired because his family 
had once lived near Mize, where we went to grade school. One of Huey's 
uncles or great-uncles still lived there, and many of us saw old Mr. 
Long doing his weekly shopping in Mize.

When Cousin Maxine Watts was doing her early investigations into 
Sullivan marriages, she contacted the Long family in Louisiana. They 
were very courteous and interested in their Mississippi relatives. They 
invited her to their annual Long reunion in Louisiana, but, so far as I 
know, Maxine never found an early Sullivan-Long connection. There were 
indeed some in later generations in Louisiana.