Artist Henry Watson

Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Artist Henry Watson

Good evening. Good evening. Good evening it’s 4:00 PM. Stand up it’s count time, time for every man and woman to stand up and be counted. Welcome to another edition of Count Time podcast. I am brother LD Azobra. Thank you for joining us today.

Today we decided to take a trip, cross the river and decide to go on a false river. We out here in Point Coupee Parish with one of the not just a legend, pioneer, innovator, artist, salesman, businessman, more importantly, an ambassador for the state of Louisiana. And we appreciate having him today. Welcome to Count Time, Mr. Henry Watson.

HW
Thank you. Thank you. I’m glad you’re here.

LD
I’m glad to be here. When you hear his story, you’re going to be amazed, not surprised because as you all know, these are the kind of people we keep on this show to keep things going, to keep it fresh, keep it new. Tell us a little bit about Henry Watson.

HW
Well, welcome, welcome again. And you couldn’t have picked a better time and a better place to come than on this great city of New Roads on the beautiful False River. So welcome and we’re glad you’re here. Now I’ll just tell you a little bit. I’m Henry Watson Woodcarver. For 43 years I’ve been capturing people’s history and life. once upon a time. You remember that? Once upon a time.

Well, people all got a story. And what you see today is not necessarily what was here 100 years ago. I like to capture what was here 100 years ago and what got me to that point. What got me to that point is I had a grandmother and she died at 92 and the life she lived became my story and I became telling her testimony. So you think about that for a second, telling your grandmother testimony. 

She lived during the time. And I could tell you so many stories about that because it’s passionate for me when I was sit with her and we would talk about the things she did as a little girl and as she grew up in the little country town of Blanks, Louisiana.

And back in the day, the Greyhound buses used to stop there. You had a lot of people live there in the little town of Blanks because they had a saw mill and everything. So a lot of people went to that area to work. They came from everywhere to work at these saw meals we talking about back in the day. So that’s how these little communities got started and people lived up and down there until time came and then people end up moving off and moving out, got better jobs. And then next thing you know is only a few people down live in an area called Blanks.

So most people say, well, where is that? But I’m telling that story because my grandmother lived there.

LD
Now, what was her name?

HW
Her name was ElDora Williams. But here’s the fact. ElDora Hatch Williams. Because a lot of the hatch families still live through Blanks and Lottie. So I always put that in, because when you start saying, oh, I don’t know any Williams, but you say hatch, you say, oh, wait, we know some hatch that live in Lottie.