I needed a beer after this week. Work wasn’t bad but I had an annoying cold
that sapped my energy and made this easy week irritating. All the up and down weather mixed with rain
did a job on me. I went to Champagne’s
in Ville Platte and bought a six pack of Bayou Bock. It costs more than usual, probably because it’s
a local beer and not one of the major brands.
It’s a good beer and it took the edge off. I like the look of it also except for the
saying “Lively As A Cajun Two-Step” on the bottle. Covington and Abita Springs are great towns
with unique characters but they’re not Cajun.
But Cajun is popular and I guess anything to help sell the beer doesn’t
hurt. Drink about twelve of them and
you yourself will be lively as a Cajun two-step.
I went to the library and tried to find articles written about
Madame Grand Doigts by Jim Bradshaw. I
like his articles and I think he did write one.
I couldn’t find it. I did read
about Le Petit Homme Janvier on a blog and found it interesting that this
character resembled Old Long Fingers.
The comments are from different regions of Acadiana and they all have a
take on the story. I don’t know which is
worse to see breaking into your house taking your Santa Claus presents away: a
strange little man or a psychotic old
woman with long bony fingers. Anyway, I
went back to reading Jim Bradshaw’s articles and saw one about gomme de mer. A reader says the gomme came from the Atchafalaya
River and not from Holly Beach or Port Arthur.
But I remember Mom and Dad saying
their parents would find the stuff on the beach and not bought at a store in
Holly Beach. But maybe I heard wrong and
they had bought the stuff. I don’t
know. I’ll have to ask. I was finishing up when a friend asked if I
had read Bradshaw’s article about Cajun parents naming their kids all starting
with the same letter. I laughed and said
I did. I looked for that copy also but
didn’t see it. I thought it was just something
Mom and Dad did with us: Mariesha,
Michael, Marcus, Monica, and Matthew. But
as it turns out many people, at least in Acadiana, follow this tradition.