Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

What jobs have you had?

One summer during college I worked in the Plaquemines Parish Clerk of Court’s office near my hometown. (Yes, parish. Louisiana is the only state in the US that has parishes instead of counties.) At the time, I was an English major on a pre-law track and the courthouse job seemed like a natural fit for summer work. I was home for the summer so I just needed transportation to and from the courthouse each day.

I was familiar with the Clerk of Court’s office because during a previous summer break from school I had worked for my mother’s boss, an attorney who was researching land records for a highway project being completed by the US Army Corps of Engineers. I had gone with him to the Clerk’s office on many occasions, and that is where he taught me how to search the land records to determine the valid ownership of a piece of land. This skill would come in handy several times in my future.

One day I arrived for work to find the Clerk’s office completely empty, doors unlocked, lights ablazing, phones ringing, but not a single person in there. I went out into the hallway leading to the courtrooms and found everyone standing at the open doorway of one of the two courtrooms. There were sheriff’s deputies standing near the door. I asked what was going on and one of the deputies said to me, “Take a look inside but don’t go in!”

Inside the completely empty courtroom, perched high above on a ceiling rafter, was a giant owl, sitting stock still. Occasionally he would pivot his head left or right and once or twice he let out a screeching howl followed by a short chant, “whooo, whooo, whooo.”

Somehow overnight he had found a way into the courthouse and settled himself in one of the courtrooms. When the judge’s staff entered the courtroom to prepare for the day’s docket, they were startled to see the owl perched above the judge’s bench. The judge’s bailiff called the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the very busy state agency that patrols the oyster beds to ensure no one is poaching them or gets the six-foot alligator out of your backyard (a story for another day).

The Wildlife and Fisheries agents suited up in protective gear and went into the courtroom, opened the giant windows behind the judge’s bench area and then used air horns to get him to fly out of the window.

Eventually we all returned to our offices and started our work day. For me, that meant photocopying, typing address labels, making coffee, and doing searches for people calling in for information regarding marriage licenses, death certificates, decrees of divorce, and the other documents that paper a person’s time on earth.

Lunchtime would find me perched on a stool next to Miss Dot in the little kitchen area eating a sandwich from the deli next door (the #1 seller was sliced, cold beef tongue on white bread with mayo) or something I packed from home. Miss Dot had the same thing for lunch everyday, a Sara Lee frozen cheesecake. Yes, you read that correctly. She ate an entire Sara Lee frozen cheesecake every single day.

She couldn’t have weighed 90 pounds soaking wet, smoked like a dragon, and drank enough coffee to sink a battleship. A quick internet search today informed me she died in 1985 at the age of 59, so maybe best not to copy her eating and drinking habits.

My summer in the Clerk of Court’s office taught me a lot about office life, sharpened my secretarial skills, and endeared me to the quaint small town feel of knowing everyone and everyone knowing me.

My ability to search land records, check for liens and mortgages, follow property descriptions that included things like “100 yards past the red tractor” or “220 yards from the large hickory tree” helped me secure employment as a title abstractor for oil and gas companies in Louisiana in the early 80s.

The money for this work was flowing like the oil being pumped out of the ground in small towns all over Louisiana. While it didn’t help me complete law school, it helped me get and excel at legal jobs for over 20 years. Whooo says legal work is boring!