Maydell Alleman
White hair, Huge smile, Helping hand! If you’ve spent any time in Duson over the last 50 years, you’ve no doubt run across Maydell Alleman. Don’t recognize the name? Well, that’s because most folks call her Mommom!
At 92, this woman of very humble beginnings has certainly generated a wealth of knowledge and friendships.
50 years ago, Mommom and her late-husband Alcide purchased the land next to what is now the Duson Post Office. They then purchased and moved a house onto that land. The whole process cost $1600.00 And to this day, Mommom is as thrifty as ever!
She learned the meaning of hard work at an very early age. Her schooling was cut short to help put food on the family table. As early as 7 years old, she was cutting sugarcane, picking cotton or plowing fields--earning 50¢ a day!
In her adult years, she landed a job at Trappey’s Fine Foods where she worked for 23 years cleaning potatoes and cutting okra. The pay was better then, having three kids to feed. Those three kids, she says, would be her biggest accomplishment, Nelson, Shirley (deceased) and Jean. Her heart is full for her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren ... even her great-great grandchildren--19 in all. She says her favorite thing to do, to this day, is to cook for the whole crew!
There’s not much she can’t do. She still weed eats her own lawn, she drives--something she picked up in her 50’s by the way!, and she never meets a stranger! Some say the 92-year old has more energy than those most much younger. When asked about how she stays so young at heart, she says, “It’s easy! I ask God to show me the way, to keep me healthy and to keep me in my house.”
The parade committee invites horses, cars and floats to enter the parade line-up, which will begin at 10:45 a.m. at the Out of Limit in Duson.
The parade will step off at 12 noon.
For more information, call Francis Mouton at 519-3467 or the Duson town hall at 873-6754.
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