Halloween and The Slaughterhouse

This is not a new video (recording) we made but it's October. Mom and Dad talking about Halloween in Evangeline Parish. Denise started her new job at the Eunice Superette, aka, "da slaughterhouse." It's a great place and she likes her new job and people there. She's training to be an office manager and will eventually work at the new place opening up soon off 190. They're bringing some competition for T-Boys near by. T-Boys might rule in Big Mamou but the slaughterhouse dominates in Eunice. The new "branch" will concentrate on the retail aspect and the original place will focus more on production and wholesale. That's how I see it anyway. Denise already bought and cooked a good panse there. I see good good times in the future. I think she's getting some T bones this weekend. I'll pick it up when all ready. I had my early run today to Denham Springs and Port Allen. I was running out of hours going to the New Orleans area all week. Good day to end the week. 

Mardi Gras Experiences

Mardi Gras is close. Plan on staying in Eunice. Denise asked me about different Mardi Gras. I have plenty. Been to the country style and city style. My best experience was in L'Anse Grise at Mr. Dowell and Mrs. Pinky's house. I almost broke my neck falling off a horse but it was great. Music, fire and great talking. That's the best type of Mardi Gras. 

But, I'll tell you about a Lafayette Mardi Gras. I was in school in the early 90s. We had a buddy from Hot Springs wanting to go to New Orleans. He hitchhiked down to visit and ended up staying. This was old school no cell phone no Internet days. He "blogged" all the time. Which was writing in a journal he had. Good old days. Anyway, we convinced him to stay. 

We hit the bars.  Back then it was 18 to go. Him, from Arkansas, that was great. We walked, none of us had a vehicle, down to the strip from the USL dorm. The strip had a variety of bars. Frat, motorcycle, weird and just regular. It was great. You just walked from one to the other.  

But I convinced him to take it up a notch. You wanna see really crazy?  OK. I'll show you downtown. Now, back then, Lafayette downtown was nothing like it is now. It was dying. But we walked from the strip to downtown. The craziest place was a bar called Metropolis. 

It was a gay bar they converted to an alternative metal bar. They had a band from Houston, Pantera type - loud and rough. People were moshing, fights were starting, weed was smoked outside, women flashed their boobs for some beads, it was crazy. The bartender had long hair braided up and dyed green. Bro from Arkansas was freaked out. He loved it. He "blogged" the entire thing in his journal. Good, good crazy young times. He said he didn't regret not seeing New Orleans. I told him, if you thought this was something, you have no idea. New Orleans Mardi Gras is insane. But we had a good time. Young and dumb. Now, I avoid city type Mardi Gras and stick to the country. If I could go back in time, I would have shown him that style. 

Well, I'm from Texas and had never been to a Mardi Gras. Didn't even know what that was. I moved here to Eunice in August of 2011. The very next Mardi Gras, I was running in the parade. Mardi Gras is crazy and fun. Got up real early to get started, like between 4 and 5am. Got ready and things prepared and headed to the meeting spot to get registered and settled in our trailer by 6. Between 6 and 8:30, everyone was socializing and drinking. Even got some of the horses buzzing on Jell-O shots. That was Richie that did that. Walking up and down the line of trailers saying hi to everyone and familiarizing ourselves with who was where. Around 8:30, we were moving, Going through back country roads. Everyone still drinking and getting drunk. Talk about crazy! But it was fun! At some point through the route, everyone starts slowing down on drinking, either because of being drunk or because of running out of alcohol. Stopped at points to get baptized and play around in the mud and to chase chickens. I had too much fun playing in the mud and getting baptized, that I missed chasing the chickens.

Walking and jumping from trailer to trailer. Better than going from bar to bar, cause everyone you came across along the way were offering drinks.  Beer, Jell-O shots, and drinking strong stuff out of gasoline canisters. Oh, I forgot to mention, we started out eating boiled eggs. Helps keep you from getting real drunk right away. Also, we snacked and ate throughout the whole trail ride. Boudin, grilled boston butt steaks, hot dogs, and hamburgers. We all paid $10 per person to be able to eat along the way and some of brought our own eggs.

Some people say they won't bring their kids to watch the parade because of drunk people would get and act crazy. But by the time we got closer to town, we all slowed way down and just acted the fools because it was fun and a lot of people liked the ambition that we all showed. It helped get the crowds more excited. We threw beads, mini footballs, cups, flying disks, and lots of other stuff. Afterwards, we'd go visit friends and family who couldn't make it out to see the parade because of different disabilities. We'd dance with them, make them happy, and give them good memories.

Once the parade was over, people would split up and go to there different places where we'd continue celebrating. Cook gumbos, drink some more, laugh, and cut up. I've never experienced anything of the like. It was awesomely amazing. A memory no one could ever forget. For some, it was their last Mardi Gras. And we helped make it the best we could. For others, it was just the beginning of a lot of good and fun memories.

Saucisse et Sirop

Denise will make "New Orleans" po-boys with this sausage from Champagnes. I was surprised to see that because I associate syrup in sausage as a Delcambre thing. But we'll have it all. The  smoked meat tradition of the Northern prairie, good, good stuff from Abbeville (Steen's), Delcambre style sausage and the great New Orleans style food. Not bad for a cooking in Eunice. 

ouragan

Hell or High Water: How Cajun Fortitude Withstood Hurricanes Rita and Ike, by Ron Thibodeaux is a good book. He covers the "forgotten" hurricanes in Louisiana. Rita was overshadowed by Katrina and Ike came through a few years later and also did a lot of damage but it didn't get much attention. Holly Beach was destroyed by Rita and many people lost their homes. He interviewed people there and got their stories told. It was a bad hurricane, Rita, but it followed Katrina too close and New Orleans received the most, if not all, the coverage. 

Up here hurricanes don't affect us too much.  You have to worry about tornadoes more than anything. We go without power and stores close down but it's not that bad. 

Katrina did nothing up here. I was living in Ville Platte at the time and worked in Alexandria at the library. I went about my day as usual. Now for several weeks afterwards we spent 99% of our work helping those people with FEMA applications and other services. Many New Orleans area people went to Alexandria and Ville Platte. I also worked part time at the Evangeline Parish Library and we did the same there, including working on weekends due to so many people needing help. 

I left Ville Platte with friends for Rita and stayed with them in Norco with their family. We watched TV coverage until power went out and we listened to tornado warning sirens go off. They would blare whenever high winds blew. 

Came back to Ville Platte and stayed without power for a day or two and things got back to normal in a week or two. 

For Ike, I was living in Pine Prairie and working for a beer company. I slept when 

Ike passed. There was no power except texting and job said to stay home. It was hot and boring but no real damage. Many stores were closed and a curfew was in. During the day many people ignored the curfew, including me, and I drove around to look. I saw a beer truck at the Y and told them I didn't hear about work. They said only some trucks were running and you could work if you wanted. I was bored and wanted money so I followed them in my car and we delivered beer around the Y and in Mamou. A few days after that we delivered in Eunice, going to whatever store was open and delivering whatever beer we had on the truck.  People thought we were crazy because it was mostly public safety workers and the National Guard out and about. And us, the beer men. People appreciated it though and the company sold a lot of beer. 

But that is nothing compared to what happened in the southern parishes. It's a good book and I checked it out at the Eunice library. 

cigare and guepe

I'm guessing cigare would be the right spelling. Because it sounds like see-gaar. I'm guessing guepe is the codeck too.  These annoying bastards are flying all over the damn place. I killed about five now. The males fight each other and big female gets annoyed when we pass by her nests. 

The big little putain dug several death holes around our place. She paralyses the cigare or cigale and drags it down in the hole for her babies to lunch on when they hatch. Sha, dat's so sweet. Sha guepe. You can do whatever the hell a guepe got to do, just not where we live. And I'm sorry, but I can't stand seeing that cigare laying there, trying to move but unable. So now I have to stomp it. It's gangsta out here in the yard. 

"Them Old Men Were Mean"

I asked about the right way of saying baton plombe and it's (flombay).  Or maybe it was "flambay."  Was talking fast and the talk turned to other peace makers.  Slapjacks filled with lead, brass knuckles and one of the best: a simple hammer.  He told me this man from L'Anse Grise was known for that. He would hit your head with the flat side of the hammer.  He was good at it because he never killed anyone.  Knocked out several, made many cry but all alive.  "Them old men were mean," he told me and laughed.  Now, this is coming from a man in his 70s.  Ville Platte, Vidrine, The Y, L'Anse Grise, Mamou and all other areas around there had their "turf."  

See this video because it's so similar from stories I've been told around here.
"Looking for Trouble," by David M. Brasseaux

My wife's last name is Patenaude

I'm interested in my wife's last name. She's an Hebert (Milan) now but we're both curious about her family. And we both decided to keep my blog subject focused, rather than personal. Save dat for FaceBook. 

I also now have comments enabled. Because if I blog a thought or question without allowing comments... how will I learn?  Meh, makes sense to me. I'm being light after good thought provoking "talks" with the teacher. I'll settle down before posting something in blood up mood. 

Now, her Mom could speak French. Denise would go to school, learn some French and come home talk with her Mamma. Her Mom knew some but her French was slightly different. They lived at the Vermont/Canadian area. 

Interesting, and still related to my now subject based blog. Any leads would be appreciated. I'll have to add Red Cedar, Bayou Woman and others to my blog list because I have time to read now. All good.  

D.I.'s is a good place to visit

I finished school at NSU in Natchitoches.  We would sometimes hang out in the old cemetery close to downtown.  We liked the feel of it and would drink vodka and talk about our class or just talk.  I hanged out with Nick Zakharov and other friends and classmates.  We drank and talked but we never did anything disrespectful.  It was a good place to talk, in an old cemetery at night with the stars and moon.  A witch is buried there and several of my ancestors, which I was completely unaware of at the time.  I walked everywhere and never owned a car during school.  I spent two years at USL-Lafayette and then two in Natchitoches.  I left a party one night and crossed the cemetery because it's on the way towards campus.  I was drunk and careless.  In the cemetery, around some graves, are little gated fences, with spikes on the tops.  I tripped on one and the spike caught my hand and leg, grazed it.  I got up, stumbled back to the dorm and the next day saw that I lost my watch.  A few weeks later I read in the paper that a man walking his dog had a serious accident.  He stumbled, tripped and landed on one of the spikes.  The spike went through the side of his head.  He didn't die.  His dog barked until someone came by and found him. 

Le Nain Rouge, Cadillac and Detroit

I never heard of this folktale until I starting reading The Red Cedar by James LaForest.  The story basically explains how Detroit was cursed because Cadillac beat the crap out of a dwarf.  I love it.  Folklore is one of my favorite things.  And the story is mixed with history also.  Many people don’t think French when they see or hear about Detroit, Cadillac, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Maine and several other places but these places have a French heritage.  Check his blog out to learn more about the Michigan area French.  I’m hoping to find an Avoyelles Parish blog to read and a Pointe Coupée one also.  Hopefully they’ll have blogs that explore the other areas I mentioned.   Today looks nice and I’m heading to aux Village with a catin from Texas.  Hopefully the chevals will be running.  And tomorrow John laFleur and Brian Costello will be signing books in Washington.  I plan to go but I have to work in the morning in Eunice and on top of that I might have the big head and aluminum flu.  I must be allergic to Saturdays because that’s the only time I get sick like that. 

The Nain Rouge of Detroit, a French Canadian folktale retold

Nain Rouge

Marche Du Nain Rouge 2012: Detroit Revelers Kick Out The 'Red Dwarf'

Using Scoop it

Scoop it

I had a Scoop it account but then deleted it because I wanted only one site to focus on.  I prefer the blog world.  I would like, however, to follow a Scoop it site if someone would make one on the topics I find interesting.  At the moment I rely on Google news for current information.  I looked at the new and improved Scoop it but didn't find much on topics I'm mainly interested in. 

Scoop it is free.  Google is very friendly to it and your posts show up quickly on Google searches.  You can blog on it, share a link (which is what most people do) or simply share your blog posts to it much like Google + or Facebook.  People can leave comments, it’s searchable and you can personalize it.  It’s great for people who don’t like blogging and find Google + and Facebook too troublesome to deal with.

It works like this.  You choose a topic.  You can make several different ones.  On each one you choose keywords you want searched and also what areas you want searched: sites, blogs, videos, social media, etc.  It’s best to choose all.  You sign in and Bam!  You have information coming from all over.  You then choose which ones to share or to include in your collection.  I would get information from it and share it also to Google +.  It’s incredible.  Damn, I feel like making another one!  No, no, I want someone else to do it so I don’t have to manage it.  I could just follow it for good reading.

Currently, subjects like Cajun, Creole, Cajun music, Creole music, Louisiana history, Louisiana culture, Cajun French, Creole French, Louisiana French and similar subjects are open.  Try it out and let me know if you do because I would love to follow.

See these Scoop it sites for ideas on what you could do with it.  The Heavy Metal one is by a blogger to share her blog posts.

Nova Scotia Hunting

Just French it

pirates tall ships schooners brigantines brigs and barques

Heavy Metal World

book wish list

I mentioned this before but I want again to throw out ideas so maybe someone will think it’s interesting and actually do it.  I work now in Eunice and ideas that I have in mind really strike me because Eunice is a tourist town.  All you see is Acadian, Acadienne, Cajun this and Cajun that.  I like the mural that says something like Eunice is the gateway to the Cajun prairie.  That kinda makes sense.  Go down to Crowley to see a lot of Acadian descendants, because Eunice is filled with French and Québécois descendants.  They, just like Ville Platte and Mamou, have no museum or anything to showcase the area’s majority history and ancestry. 

Children’s book set in Fort Toulouse featuring a little Fontenot or Brignac girl in some sort of adventure.  She moves with her family to Louisiana and settles around Opelousas, Grand Prairie or Ville Platte.

Novel based on the first Ortego showing his life in Spain and then as a soldier in the Spanish army in Colonial Louisiana.  He has adventures in Pensacola and then settles down around Chicot to raise cattle.

A grand epic on the Guillory family.  Book would show Simon Guillory living in France, going to Quebec and then the life of his descendants in Mobile and Louisiana.

Military life of the Fontenots and then as cowboys raising cattle in Colonial Louisiana.

These are examples of the material a person can use.  The area’s history is fresh material and interesting.  It could sell.  The usual themes could be used but in a different setting with different groups.  And the great thing about it would be that these people were real and they would represent the area realistically.  I worked in libraries and bookstores.  Historical novels are read.  Historical romances are very popular and Western novels are too.   

une vache noire

I almost hit a big damn black cow this morning.  I was slowly waking up, thinking how miserable the day was going to be, when I saw something moving close to the shoulder.  I couldn’t believe it.  It was a poor cow that was loose and rambling about.  I called 911 and told them about it and then told the Mamou route to watch for it when they head that way.  The Mamou route, a different driver, had already hit two deer.  I’m telling you, that little drive from Clearwater to Pine Prairie, or vice versa, can be a wilderness adventure.  When I first started the job I was on the Eunice route.  We were heading down there one morning when, just into Clearwater, we both saw a shape in the road and a “hand” sticking up.  It’s dark.  It’s the bon matin.  The driver, I was the helper then, said really loud, “what the (expletive) was that!”  I said, “I think it, I hope, yeah, it was, a (expletive) alligator, man!”  He said, “are you (expletive) (expletive) me!?”  I said, “No man, it was a (expletive) alligator, I saw the tail and that was a claw sticking up, not a hand!”  We’re professionals and we don’t use expletives at work, however, due to the intense drama of the situation at hand, we (expletive) said a lot of (expletive) bad words to express our anxiety.   Anyway, back to this morning, when I got down at Paul’s I saw a deputy there.  I asked him if they had caught the cow.  He told me they had to catch four of them. 

This is a list of animals I ran into.  The majority of the time it was them that that ran into me, like that deer.  I hate it when it happens because I love animals, especially dogs.  They are accidents.  It’s bad when it’s a deer, cow or horse.  When I was having my car fixed the repair man told me he had seen some bad cases.  For an example he told me of an instance where a deer had rolled over when it got hit and crashed through the windshield, slashing the driver’s neck with its hoof.  It was a terrible accident.

chien/chienne – dog

chat/chatte – cat

rat de bois – possum

poule – chicken

cocodrie – alligator

écureuil – squirrel

canard – duck

aigrette – egret (It didn’t hit but came close.  At last second it veered off and flew opposite)

chaoui – raccoon

tortue – turtle

galette – just kidding

chevreuil - deer

armadillo (no French word for it.  It came late from Texas.  But Mom said Mémère would say “arma-dell)

Bonne Fête Jésus

Matthew recorded our little niece, Stacey Soprano from Breaux Bridge, singing Happy Birthday, Jesus.  She's taking French classes in school and they taught her this song. It was a nice Christmas despite the weather.   Matt used a picture of Saint Nicholas.  St. Nick sat under the Christmas tree with the presents.  He's still there even though all the presents were opened.

Joyeux Noël!

 bonne bière fraide avec gumbo

Un Bon Chrismisse!  I'm glad to have the day off tomorrow.  I worked all day bringing the Chrismisse cheer to the citizens of La Ville.  I started at 5 and finished around 5.  Mais, I was heading to the Y at 6 and the Eunice route passed me, heading back to Alexandrie.  Prendre courage neg!  No work tomorrow and if the damn Krampus shows up instead of Jolly old St. Nick, just shoot the fils de putain. That's my plan anyway.  

Krampus
German is second in my ancestry, French being the majority.  I love folk tales, mythology and all that.  The Krampus and Madame Grand Doigts must be padnas because I'm learning that if you're bad, MGD will not be so nice.

Evangeline Parish was settled only by the Acadians?

I wonder if the 2012 edition of the Louisiana Almanac still has for their entry for Evangeline Parish the “fact” that the parish was settled by exiled Acadians in the Attakapas region.  I hope they changed it because I used to work in a library and we would tell kids to use only authoritative sources for their research papers and projects.  Sources like encyclopedias, almanacs, etc were recommended.  Kids had a “Louisiana parishes” project every year and they each picked a parish for their project.  One of the sources they all used was the Louisiana Almanac.  It’s a great book but the information for the history of Evangeline Parish is drole.  It might have changed, hopefully.  The entry only mentioned Acadians settling the area and that area was the Attakapas region.  No other groups of people were mentioned.  A kid would write this “information” down, put it together with his pictures, etc of the parish, and present it to his class.  I worked there for 8 years.  I wonder how many Rapides and Avoyelles parish kids learned this “history.”  I would tell kids to use other sources for the history of Evangeline, but that was only when I had an opportunity to do so.  Check the book out and see if information was changed.  Send an email or letter to the editor if the information is the same and maybe they’ll adjust it accurately.  They might not.  The 2008/09 edition still had that information but I don’t know about the latest ones.  And kids do parish projects every year.  I thought about this because I looked at the Almanac for something. But I only had the '97 edition to look through.  I'll try to go visit a library for the latest book.     

Louisiana Almanac 

I went to the library today in Alexandria (17th).  The latest edition has same "information," mentioning only the Acadians and Attakapas region.  There is no mention of Evangeline being part of the Opelousas territory, that a small number of Acadians came to the area and no mention at all of the large number of French people settling here.  You would think they would have included that information.  It's like writing an entry about gumbo and somehow neglecting to mention roux and okra and chicken and sausage, etc.  The entry would instead only mention one small ingredient.  Yet people would read it and think that small ingredient made the gumbo.    

Know LA

I like this site a lot: Know LA. It’s an online encyclopedia about Louisiana.  It has video and sound and plenty of images to enhance your reading experience.  The articles are locked down, unlike Wikipedia, and you can trust more the stuff you read.  They include a comment option.  You can share information to them and maybe they’ll look at the facts you give them and adjust their entry.  It’s a nice feature for them to have. 

I spend more time reading blogs, sites and viewing stuff on YouTube.  The Google products I use are Blogger, Reader and YouTube.  I was searching Google Plus and “circling” people but that got old quick.  I’m just not a social network type.  I’m glad I met some of the people there and will stay in touch, but I’m not searching the site anymore.  I prefer searching for stuff on Google and through blogs and websites.  I don’t have a lot of Internet time and I want to spend that little time reading Louisiana stuff and learning some French.  At the rate I’m going I’ll be able to have my first conversation, all en français, with the cute nurses in the nursing home.  It’ll make me beaucoup happy to be able to do that. The cute catins I’ll be rambling to, however, probably won’t understand what the Hell I’m saying, even though the nursing home would be in Mamou or Ville Platte.  I'll end up talking in English again and wishing I had learned Spanish. There'll be Spanish speakers, but French speakers? Unless... 

hag-riding et cauchemar

The idea of being pinned down by a witch is freaky.  I read about this in an essay called Perceptions and Misconceptions in James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux Novels by Patricia Gaitely on the louisianafolklife.org site.  Gaitley  talks about Burke's depiction of traiteurs in his novels and how his depiction of them is sort of mixed with Voodoo and Hoodoo traditions.  I guess he does that to spice his novels up.  Go ahead and check the link out to see what I’m talking about.  I asked Dad about the word cauchemar and he was unfamiliar with it.  The DLF has it as nightmare.   I know traiteurs and I’ve been treated myself when I was a kid.  There’s nothing Voodoo or Hoodoo about it.  It might be in other places.  Things change and evolve.   From what I read Voodoo is a combination of beliefs.  But I think Burke mixes it up for entertainment purposes in his novels.   It’s a good essay on a good site.  I find myself going to this site again and again.

cauchemar

Louisiana Folklife

Cocodrie Hunter: Elbay Fontenot

Vous-autres a déjà vu un cocodrie?

Have you ever seen an alligator?

Maw Maw and Paw Paw

French example from Dictionary of Louisiana French

Paw Paw turned 89 last Sunday.  He was around 60 when these pictures were taken.  He hunted alligators at Miller's Lake in Evangeline Parish.  He told me stories about that when I had visited them in the nursing home.  Him and Maw Maw watch Swamp People but Paw Paw told me they "Hollywood it."  No, we did not eat cocodrie for Thanksgiving today but we ate some at Miller's Lake when he hunted them.

Paw Paw showing us kids cocodrie.  

Paw Paw Elbay Fontenot from Ville Platte, LA

Missouri French and Louisiana connections?

I’ll simply put the link to this video because I’m still not sure when it’s OK to embed a video.  I got permission for the Mamou Mardi Gras post but I couldn’t find a contact for the Dennis McGee and Bois-Sec Ardoin clip.  So I simply linked to the direct source of the film and copyright owners.   That’s a safe bet.   I also keep photos thumbnail size when I “scoop” articles on my scoop it site.  It’s only fair.  I’m sharing something that I find interesting.  The Scoop site points to the interesting site.  It’s not meant to take the place of the site.  Scoop it works differently from a personal blog so I show more videos there.  But it only displays videos that have the embed option on.  But I'm still reading about that.  Any input would be helpful.

Anyway, check this video out about the Missouri French.  Some Louisiana ancestors came from Missouri areas too.  What culture did they bring here to add to the pot of gumbo?

Ethnicity in the Ozarks: The French Community of Old Mine