• Tioga, Louisiana
By JACK M. WILLIS
Journal Corresponden

When first meeting up with Mike Thompson you would probably guess his age at about 42, or at least I did. But come September 12th, he'll be twice that, and after his actual age revelation, close scrutiny revealed a few tell-tale aging spots on the back of his hands, but other than that no clues reveal his actual age because his hearing is great, his eyes dance as he talks, and he's a pleasure to just sit down and visit with.

An acquaintance had told me about a man in the Tioga area who had a yard full...well, not quite, of Purple Martin nesting boxes atop poles situated at strategic points around his spacious, well-kept yard. and with the help of a relative, I tracked him down.

Michael Thompson was born at Hineston in Rapides Parish on September 12, 1920, and began his schooling by attending Leander Elementary for four years, then Hineston for three years, afterwards attending three years at Forest Hill, and finally got his diploma in 1938 at Oak Hill, which was a brand, new school formed by consolidating schools from the communities of Hineston, Seiper, New Hope, Elmer, Melder and St. Clair in western Rapides Parish. Upon graduation, the country was in the grip of the tail end of The Great Depression with jobs to be had being slim and none. So he relocated to the small farming community of Epps in West Carroll Parish where he went to work with his brother driving a tractor for $10 per week.

Tragedy hit the family in 1940 when Mike's father suddenly passed away, which necessitated him returning to Hineston in May, and entering the Civilian Conservation Corps on July 1st, 1940. After a minimum six-month hitch in the CCC's, he went to work at Camp Livingston for 40 cents an hour, finishing one project, being transferred to Camp Beauregard to another, then on to Esler Field, and then to Camp Claiborne where he ended up working in a Civil Service job in the Mess Hall for one year.

Greetings from Uncle Sam came on December 22nd, 1942 and Mike was inducted at Camp Beauregard and sworn in at Lafayette, Louisiana, and took Infantry Replacement Training at Camp Walters, Texas. After Basic Training, it was on to Camp Stoneman, California, where he and numerous other GIs boarded ship at Pier 7, San Francisco, sailing out westward beneath the Golden Gate Bridge bound for the New Hebrides Island group in the South Pacific.

In late 1944 the South Pacific Theater of Operation's focus was the invasion of the Philippines to wrest the island group back away from the Japanese invaders. As a Communications Operative he was in great demand in the coordination of invasion forces in the area. First it was Guadalcanal, then Luzon and on inland to the capital of Manila on January 5th, 1945, where he remained until the war ended in September.

Upon mustering out in 1946 Mike and his brother bought a "peckerwood" sawmill. Their first project to accomplish was to saw enough lumber to build their mother a new house. Meanwhile Mike had applied for a position with the Veterans Affairs Services hospital in Pineville, was employed in April of 1946, got married in 1947, and retired with almost 29 years of service in 1975. After that he mashed cars and sold them for 13 years until quitting that in 1984.

Since he was a boy he had always erected Purple Martin housing, and when first starting out, he hung one-gallon syrup cans, four to the pole, for the avian homes. He's been living at his present home site for 56 years and has always had Purple Martin families in residence on the property. He stated, "After I got grown I really felt bad about using those syrup cans because I know now that the baby birds must have suffered terribly from the heat. I try to make up for that oversight now, because on all the boxes I've built in the last few years, the roof and sides are insulated to protect the baby birds against the heat."

Some Purple Martin facts Mike has observed over the years are that in order to attract Purple Martins to a newly erected residence, one has to have the new home up and in place by February 1. He states that the earliest scout he's ever seen looking over the 13 housing units at his Tioga residence was documented on February 3rd, and another odd fact is that Mike swears you can set your calendar by them, because on the 15th of July they are gone. He avows that they can be sitting around on the roosts on the various boxes on the late evening of the 14th of July, but next morning they are every one gone until next February. The most Martins he's ever counted in and around the 13 residences in his yard are 96 adults.

Even though the Purple Martins don't devour as many mosquitoes as they're reputed to consume, they do take a toll on the insect populations. Their chirping and carryings on in the late evening just before sunset seem to audibly proclaim that all is at peace, and their melodious expressions have been looked upon in the Deep South by numerous generations as precursors to a good night's sleep.

Back