Cole Vidrine

Born in Opelousas, Louisiana and raised on Bayou Boeuf, I was every bit of a little reprobate, Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn as anyone one could ever be and still am. I guess it is something some of us never grow out of. How I miss the smell of the bayou, a fresh caught catfish and the feel of mud squishing between my toes, but I don't miss the thorns. Life was good, all good for a young rambunctious fellow like myself, until I turned 10 and began to work on the 1600 acres we farmed. Although I left my pole against the shade tree by my favorite fishing hole I knew that day, all fishing rights would then be dictated by weather and dad. That was 44 years ago and I still can remember it all, as if it were yesterday. Since that rude awakening to life I have had quite a few different job titles. Most memorable were the days of being a hardhat commercial diver in the Gulf of Mexico and a diving instructor on San Andreas Island. Here in Cali I have been teaching and enjoying the rewards of seeing my students achieve their goals. That is why I designed Phonicsville. I saw the needs of non-native speakers of English and got tired of explaining what each word meant so I wrote Phonicsville so they could visually see the words they were learning at play and how they gave meaning to speech and written word.