Mamouian

Mamou is a little country town in Evangeline Parish, just west of Ville Platte. It is an outpost to the north of Acadiana, in the boarder lands near the pine curtain, and a place known for its isolation and rough prairie attitude.  Mamou is remarkable for many reasons, most notably for its contribution to Cajun Music, the work of Revon Reed and "Pascale", and Fred's Lounge, a popular back road stop if you want to party on a Saturday morning. Mamou is amazing because it does not change or modernize much. There are no fast food places in Mamou, but they do sell really good boudin and gratons at T-Boy's Slaughter House. Despite being from VP, I will admit, I like Mamou this way.


Growing up in "big" Ville Platte we usually went to Mamou for the Lundi Gras street dance, where once I got punched in a brawl (one of many to be had on the Mardi Gras streets of Mamou). Now we like to go to Fred's a couple of Saturdays a year to soak up the atmosphere in the low-slung bar, hang with the "Mamouligans", hear live Cajun music, and shoot cinnamon Hot Damn at 9am with Tante Sue, the Octogenarian bartender, grandmother and "sheriff" of the whole operation. 

 Tante Sue sings the Balfa Waltz and shoots Hot Damn. No four letter words, just L-O-V-E and B-E-E-R (but not on the dancefloor) And no kissing.

Small Louisiana towns like to have little rivalries.  Our big one was with Eunice, but we also liked to pick on Mamou people, who we had more contact with, calling them "Yans" or "Mamou-Yans"  meaning "a person from Mamou." Maybe there was also a hint of playful disdain when we called the Mamou Yans "Yans", but it was all in good fun, like the yans were the Mamou mascot or something. It is pronounced nasally, like "yah-n", a very French pronunciation now that I think about it. It rhymes with pain, coin and Adroin. We also called people who whined or complained "yahn-yahns", as in "Quit ya yahn-yahnin!" (Stop your whining).  I think this had less to do with Mamou-Yans than with the sound a whining child makes. We used "yohn-yohn" similarly. 

When I began to learn French, I also began to figure these words out. So, what was a "Yan" exactly, other than a person who comes from Mamou? I had never heard a word that sounded like "yan" in French, but the way people I knew used it, it sounded like its own word. Finally I realized that a "Mamou-Yan" is one word: Mamouian, or a person from Mamou. To people who don't speak French though, they heard the word Mamouian as two words. Its an especially easy assumption to make when 1. you think French is English  2. you consider the tendency for Louisiana French to inflect the last syllable of a word - MamouYAN!

Go went young man, go west and go to Mamou...

"I'd rather be a Mamou Yan than a Mamou Yon!"

La Tour de Garde by the Babineaux Sisters

"Excite-toi pas.

Les voleurs ont parlé bien.

Il y a beaucoup du monde

Qui croit la vie amusante.

On est passé au travers tout ça.

Ça c'est pas ma vie.

Allons pas dire les mentries,

L'heure se fait tard."

-Les Sœurs Babineaux 
Babineaux Sisters

Rogers Catches a Cowan

 Rogers calls in to the Tasse de Cafe' radio program weekly, sometimes a few times a show. It was a little dream fulfilled when I met him tonight at the Cajun Smokehouse, and got to record a little story he told about catching toads by the tail, fish and alligator snapping turtles with his hands in the mud. The mayor introduces him, and he goes on about possum oil, blesses and compliments the crowd, says he got bit twice by snakes and all he did was spit some tobacco on the bites. He then makes a couple of language jokes saying after all that turtle catching he still has all his fingers but he still owes. It doesn’t translate . He is something else! 

Transcript 
(corrections welcome)

Mayor: Y'all finally can put the face with the voice!
Charlie: oh yeah, I know it! I knew who he was.
Rogers: Qui c'est ça que j'dis?
C: Hein!?
R: z'autres veux que j'dis quelquechose?
C: Ouais, Yeah!
Woman: Ti conte!
Jim Soileau: Mais, ein ti conte!
R: Ca fait....j'étais à la maison après assayer de attrapper des crapeau par la tchu.
C: Combien gros t'en a attrappé, Roge?
R: J'ai pu pas n'attrapper ein... l'attrappes et ça gone...(can't understand)...pas l'attrapper...
Woman: Oh my gosh...
R:.. I'm glad to see all of yall! Glad to see all of yall...
Mark Layne: eh, eh, Roger.
R:... an God Bless allllll of y'all...!
Mark Layne: Mister Roger! You were telling us how- me and Jim and Charlie, what do we have to do to have big voices? We have to...we have to drink something?
R: La graisse de uh.. rat du bois!
C: ohh!
M: La graisse de rat de bois!
R...bois...ca siffle!
Women in crowd: whistles, "ça siffle!"
C: A quelle boutique ti peux acheter ça?
R: Ça, ça, quand ti bois ça, ça siffle!
J: Ouais, mais Charlie dit en quelle boutique t'achete de la graisse de rat du bois?
R: Mais, moi, j'ai ça à la maison,  j'suis troisième cousin à Nonc Dud! Troisième cousin à Nonc Dud! heheheh... yes!
J: ...Ça faisait du gratons quand c'après pend les rat du bois pour faire de la graisse ça serve les boules et les gratons du rat du bois l'huile...
R:R:  hehhehehee...Y'all all some nice people...I like ta hear y'all
Mayor: We like to hear you, too!
Mark: Mister Roger, one question, you told us many times that one of your jobs, one of the things you liked to do.. you go into the waters and you used to do...hand fishing, you'd go in there and you'd grab fish with your hands.
R: A lot, yeah! I used to dive all in dere...
Mark: Comment ti dis ça en français?
R: Attrapper les poissons à la main...
M: ok, we...I thought there was a term...
R: To catch fish with ya hands!
Woman in crowd: Choquer!?
R: I used to catch some turtles dat's a jaw was comin like dat, I would see a...a...uh...j'voyais ein couenne après venir, je l'ai (...?glissé?) dans la geulle...tourner la geulle...la j'passait ma main comme ça,...là, quand la tortoue a touché ma main, alle restait tranquille, là qu'a changé de bouts je l'attrappé sa tchu...mis la dans sac...easy easy easy easy easy...
Mark: Plus brave que mon...
R: Là tu mis à les choquer avec les rods de wagon! Et dans la boue je peut connais juliement qui borde sa tête allé , j'fouillé ma main dans la boue, les attrapper la tchu, sortir avec....laughs... et j'ai jamais été moudu par einne! not one of em! Y'a pas ein qui m'a mordu! Yas Sir!
C: Now monte t'as tout tes doigts...
R; oh, yeah, J'ai tout mes doigts...
C: Tout tes doigts...
R: j'ai tout mes doigts...
C: Et tes orteilles ausitte!
R: Ouais j'ai ça... J'ai tout mes doigts mais je dois quand-même!
Woman: Careful of them fingers!
R: Si j'ai pas d'doigts, je te dirais j'ai pas mes doigts, mais là j'ai tout mes doigts et je dois!
C: Et tu dois tout! 
Woman: You neva caught a snake?!
Rogers; No M'am, I got bit two time, one on my finger right there and one on ma leg, and I didn't go to the doctor.
Woman: You musta put some possum grease!
R: I had... I was chewin some tobacco. J'au eu du tabbac, J'ai chiqué du tabac.. Il a (pro...?).. endans, eh? Ca q'a guerrisait... yas sir yas sir, j'étais manière tard mais je dis j'vas aller-les là bas quand-même...Mista Charlie, on a.. c'est des année que je t'connu, oui.
Charlie: Et j'était après t'ésperer, ouais!
R: Yah, Mais, boy, j'ai assayé, oui.
C: Et y'a du monde 'citte ein peu s'informé, il dit, Rogers après venir? J'ai dit j'ai charré avec la semaine passé, il m'a guarantee il été après venir!
R: On yas sir, Mais, J'ai fait mon bes, yah.
C: Ein homme se tein sa parole.
R: That's right, that's right that's right that's right...ya..
C: y'a quelqu'un qui me dit quelquechose, et ca fait pas...
R: Ça fait pas de chose...yah...
C: C'est pas bon, ca!
R: Ça dit allons boire!...Mais, qui ça le "boire"? Par on a dit allons "boire" C'est du bois?
C: J'crois ça été discuté à ce matin avec Jim!
R: Allons tout Boire!
C: Mais, Jim peux repondre sur là..
R; mais, c'est du bois, ça...Allons bois!
hehehehe  heheehehe  ehehehhehe.....

Notre Dame

Tasse de Cafe- Last week of September

Mark Layne Ardoin, Jim Soileau, Charlie Manuel

Just a few snippets from the Tasse de Cafe' Radio Program- Last week of September 2012

H. L. Pitre and sons va être content de pomper vos gas qu'a pas d'ethanol dendas... ils vont check dessous le hood et pomper vos gas... là bas ils sont tout le temps content pour vous servir.

H.L. Pitre and sons will be  happy to pump your gas that does not have ethanol in it...they are going to check under the hood and pump your gas...over there they are always happy to serve you.

Tu connais la difference avec la gasoline qu'a pas la gasoline dedans quand la machine après courir bien!

You well know the difference with gasoline that does not have ethanol in it when the motor is running well!

...Leur cave de bière, tu peux t'imaginer! Vingt-sept dégres! C'est plus froid que la glace!
...Their beer cave, you can imagine! 27 degrees! It's colder than ice! (Mike probably knows about this elusive beer cave in Ville Platte...eh, Milan?)

Les four wheelers, c'est contre le loi de conduire ca sur les chemins
Fourwheelers, It's against the law to drive them on the roads..

West Cypress street will be renamed Edward "Nato" Thomas Street vendredi

Calciseau Paper Mill Reunion at City Hall in Elizabeth

Le city hall va servir comme drop off point pour les souliers pour le monde a LaPlace
The city hall will serve as a drop off point for the shoes for the people in LaPlace (The place)

ça va pas dessous l'aire ça fait, venir 'oir
That doesn't go on air, so come see! (about the Tasse de Cafe' Reunion at the Smokehouse)

le FBI après investiger les membres de school board de la Paroisse St. Landry dans ein sting operation
the FBI is investigating the members of the Saint Landry Parish School Board in a sting operation

Aussi dans les nouvelles à la Pearl River ein mort à ein trailer home on the Pearl River...
Also in the news at Pearl River a death at a trailer home on the Pearl River...

 les Nouvelles du Temps à la minute...
The weather news in a minute...

Mais Comment ça va Monsieur Lapin!?
Well how is it going, Mister Rabbit!?

I'm not gonna trust the weather man, I'm gonna trust Lapin Bertrand!

You remember Dutch Maid Cleanser?

Mais, you ask me a woman's question! I'm a man!

T'après engraisser les ti-cochons?
Are you greasing the piglets?

Painting of the Prairie des Femmes

Your First Cajun French Lesson

If like most young people in Louisiana, you took years of "Perisian" French in high school and felt the disconnect between the class French and the one you heard your parents and grandparents speak at home, this lesson is for you.

I am not an expert in Louisiana French, or a native speaker, but I taught it and have lived among it my whole life. More importantly, I understand the perspective of young Louisianians who would like to learn the "Cajun French" of their grandparents, so that this thing isn't lost.

One thing I noticed is that Louisiana people, myself included, don't like to deal with VERB CONJUGATIONS. I found an easy way to get around that (mostly) and speak Louisiana French more easily.

Using the word APRÈS + VERB INFINITIVE to express action in the process, "-ING" form

How to say things like:

I am doing something.

She is making boudin.

They are acting like the donkey.

What are you doing?

1. First, you have to learn ONE conjugation, just one. In Cajun French.

Etre - To be

j'suis                    I am

t'es                 you are

il/elle est        he/she is

on est                we are

vous-autres est  yall are

ils est                they are

2. Now a list of a few verb infinitives. These are the "to forms" of the verb, the simplest form. These are the things that you have to conjugate, but here, just learn what they mean. You probably already know them.

manger- to eat

boire- to drink

danser- to dance

faire- to make/do

bouder- to make boudin

faire le bourriquet- to act the donkey

dormir- to sleep

marcher- to walk

charrer- to chat

passer- to pass

3. Now, put it all together: This is the equation:

SUBJECT + ÊTRE* + APRÈS + INFINITIVE = sentence

*conjugate, as above in #1

 J' + SUIS + APRÈS + MANGER = I am eating.

T' ES APRÈS BOIRE. = You are drinking.

Il EST APRÈS CHANTER = He is singing.

ON EST APRÈS FAIRE le bourriquet. = We are acting the donkey.

Variations you can read:


Quoi t'après faire? = What are you doing?

QUI t'après faire? = What are you doing? (quoi/qui can mean both mean "what")

J'après faire le bourriquet. I am acting the donkey.  
(sometimes, the "etre" is not pronounced much, so "j'après" sounds like "shha pray")

J'suis après manger. I am eating.

J'suis après manger du boudin. I am eating boudin.

C'après mouiller. It is raining.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I figured this out the language opened up to me a lot.

In French class, you learn that "après" is a preposition meaning "after". That is right.

So, being a good French student, you would read this sentence: 

Moi, J'suis après manger.

as

Me, I am after eating.

And you would be right. In Louisiana, we say we are 'after' doing something. As in, we are in the process of perusing it.

Marie en Grotto

Marie in grotto of bousillage(mud and moss) wall, Prairie des Femmes, Louisiana

Tasse De Cafe- Possum Oil and Souliers

9-21-12 from KVPI.com the Tasse de Cafe Radio Program...

Mark: Qui ti crois de notre temps? (What do you think of our weather?)

Charlie: Elle est après prendre ma voix! (She is taking my voice!)

Rogers: T'as la mal à la gorge? T'as besoin de l'huile de rat du bois! Ti prends ça, ti siflotte à ce matin, eh Mista Char-lay! (You have a sore throat? You need some Wood-Rat (Possum) oil. You take that, you whisle this morning, hey Mister Charlie!)

Bonjour Ferrel! "Feraille!!" (Hello Ferrel..."Iron works")

Bonjour Roger (again) Roger. Rogers. Roge! T'apres changer ton nom?! (Hello Roger, Rogers, Ro-Ger, Roge... You're changing your name?)

 J'ai vu Rogers dans la boutique l'autre jour...Il m'a connaisait pas, mais moi je 'le connaisait qui c'etait....Ca c'etait ein grande charade desous ca...(I saw Rogers in the store the other day, He didn't know me, but I knew who he was! That was a charade on that...)

-Allons charrer pour notre Padna-
-Mais qui, on a beaucoup des padnas!
-Le bougre qui fait la poussiere voler en arierre du countoir...
-Is it Mister YO Happy Blake!?
(Let's talk about our good padna- Who, We have a bunch of padnas! The guy who makes the dust fly behind the counter- Is it Mista YO! Happy Blake?)

We gonna run the Tournoi afta the parade, at two... you might have to  sleep in the horse trailers at the Industrial park.

après drag... (dragging)

ça connaisait pas qui faire...(they didn't know what to do)

ton cafe est bon?
Bon pour mon gorge!
Mais, c'est pas l'huile de rat de bois!
(Your coffe is good? Good for my throat! But it's not the oil of the Wood Rat!)

Ca chaufe le bois chaud! Le bois croche... (it heats the hot wood... the crooked wood...)

Comment ti dit le mot "hickey" (How do yous say the word hickey?)
Ein mormot?! (a hickey!?)

T'as pas besoin de courailler tout partout dans la Ville pour ca vous-autres veux....Steve a toujours la greg chaud a Doug Ashy Building Materials...(you don't need to run around everywhere in town for what you need... Steve always has the coffee pot hot at Doug Ashy Building Materials...

après tout ça...c'est tout les Cadiens comme nous-autres... (after all, they are Cajuns just like us...)

apres attrapper ein trompe (to catch being wrongness? to be wrong?)

Mamou lost Mister Charles "Cho-Boy" Landreneau, he will be missed ("Cho-cho" is the Evangeline Parish word for "suckling pig". Children and babies are called little "cho-cho pigs" sometimes. I think "cho" means fat/innocently greedy.)

Mister Adrass ran the cotton gin in Mamou

"ein ultra-firm neck cream"

et comment ta tasse de cafe?
Oh! c'est bon, mais, c'est pas l'huile de rat de bois dessus ça...( And how is your coffee? Oh, it's good, but it's not Wood Rat Oil on that!)

Hey, how that bout that weather- I worked in the yard all day yestaday- didn't hardly sweat, it was nice nice.

Ok, yall doin a good job! bye! Love you.(this caller told mister charlie and mark that he loved them on air, sha!)

A message from Mayor Vidrine:

-on the Shoe Drive-

We are having a shoe drive for the people in LaPlace, so I want to give the ladies in town the weekend to get their hearts ready and to go through their collages...

...you know, this easily could have been us, and we want to give them shoes so that they can walk in our shoes... so bring your souliers!

- on her experience at the Democratic Nation Convention-

Our boudin's famous now! One of the Kennedy People tried our boudin! Said it was wonderful! Sha, he was so wonderful! I think it was Robert Kennedy's son, the one with a lot of kids? Joseph Kennedy III, I think.

-On a (famous?) man she saw at the convention-

...ooo... dat man was purdy purdy purdy purdy! Lawd, I was close, yeah, with him! He's a beautiful man!

On V.P. possibly being featured on National television:

Look out VP, we might be on 60 Minutes!.. .We want to show real small town America, we have a variety of young, old, French...we want our culture exposed, and not just us, all small towns...we want to show that we don't all have webbed feet and say "choot em" and hunt alligators- There's nothing wrong if that's what you do, though, that's great, we just are not all gator hunters...We eat em, though, yeah!

We want to show how our people live- they still sit on the porch and wave at their neighbors, they help each other, they cook a sauce in the backyard and pass dat on to the kids, on Thursday night, you go to the outdoor kitchen to watch a ball-game and visit...we have the Tasse de Cafe', where anybody in the community can call in at anytime and talk about anything in French- that is the jewel of a community! We are one of a kind. I think we special....and bring some souliers to the Evangeline Parish Courthouse!

Hey Roge! comment ca va encore?
Roge:  Oh, j'apres boire de l'huile de rat de bois, toi?! hahaha...
...Mais, moi veux parler pour notre Mayor, elle après faire un beaucoup bon job, j'ai des cousins dans la famille Vidrine...c'est du bon monde, ca I am glad she said 'souliers' parce que le monde comprends pas "shoes"( Hey Rogers! How's is going again!? Oh, I'm drinking some Wood Rat oil... but I want to talk about our Mayor, she is doing a great job. I have cousins in the Vidrine famille and that is some good people, them. I am glad she said "souliers" instead of shoes, people around here don't understand "shoes")

Ein Autre call, Charlie!

 Vous-Autre one parlé du Road Runner earlier, moi j'ai vu ein road runner ein fois sur le chemin qui va à Cazan's Lake ( yall talked about road runners? I saw one one time on the road going to Cazan's lake...)

Has anyone ever filmed the entire Tournoi?

-yeah, dat fella outa New Orleans, Jaques-Cousteau Undawata thing. He came in the 80's and filmed the whole thing, from the first rider getting his first ring until the last rider left...

La Valse du Vacher by Feu Follet

Valse du Vacher
Cowboy's Waltz
La Bande Feu Follet

Malheureuse, attrape-moi mon cap et mes éperons
Pour moi aller voir à mes bêtes
‘Garde moi misèrer, c’est malheureux de me voir
M’en aller moi tout seul ma chérie

Malheureuse, attrape-moi mon cap et mes éperons
Pour moi aller voir à mes bêtes
‘Garde moi misèrer, c’est malheureux de me voir
Perdu mais dans le bois malheureuse, chérie

Malheureuse, attrape-moi mon cap et mes éperons
Pour moi aller voir à mes bêtes
‘Garde moi misérer, c’est malheureux de me voir
Perdu mais dans le bois malheureuse

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sad girl, catch me my cape and my spurs

For me go to see my cattle

Look how I am miserable

 It is terrible to see me

Going off all alone, my dear

Unfortunate girl, catch me my cape and my spurs

For me go to see my cattle

Look how sad I am, 

it is terrible to see me

Lost in the woods dearest, sad one

Sad girl, catch me my cape and my spurs

For me go to see my cattle

Look how I am miserable

 It is terrible to see me

 Lost in the ill-fated wood

 Copyright :
From Feufollet myspace page

Tasse de Cafe 9-19- Aux Natchitoches...

 Aux Nachitoches par Bee Deshotels

But First: Les (Pas Trop Bonnes Nouvelles) en Français
Bit First, The (Not so Good) news in French

...ein femme de vingt ans d'âge et un homme de vingt-et-un ans d'âge
avait été tiré à mort...
a woman of 20 years of age and a man of 21 years of age were shot to death...

...aux Natchitoches ... ein corps a été trouvé dessous ein house boat...
in  Natchitoches... a body was found under a houseboat...

...une appele d'ein ménace de bomb threat... à LSU campus.. le threat de bomb
a menace of a bomb threat call at LSU campus... the bomb threat...

...il est après dit guilty pour avoir frauder...fait le healthcare fraud
..he is saying guilty for having frauded, did healthcare fraud

Caller:
-oh! I just ran a red-light!
-oh, let's not say that, you're on the air!
-heh, well...
-o...bye now!
-hey, I'm comin to that thing, what time is it?
- September 26th, a week from today from 6-7 at the Cajun Smokehouse
-ok, I'm gonna go, you have to eat dinner?
- well, it's a good place to eat if you want to, but you don't have to...
-I might get me a lil hamburg
- and some french fries....
-Aw ouais!


At the T-Cotton Bowl:
Did the Saints cheerleaders have a good time!?
Oh! they were spectacular! They fit in like a glove with us (people of Ville Platte)

-Y a pas trop des phone call a ce matin.. Ça va doucement...
-c'est le vent nord!
-tu crois!? (It was 61F this morning)
-aw ouais, le monde après grouiller beaucoup doucement.. comme le syrop quand c'est froid c'est moins moins liquide. Ça fait, le monde est comme du syrpo, ça grouille doucement...... il ya du monde à ce matin qui ont les frissons, et ils peut pas user leur ti-doigt pour appeller.........c'est l'heure de sortir leur ti câpot!! ...............pause..............allons parler pour La Ville Funeral home!
There aren't many phone calls this morning... it's going slowly..
- it's the north wind!
- you think!?
- Oh yes, people are moving(grooving) slowly, like syrup, that moves(grooves) slowly...there are some people this morning who are shivering and they can't use their little finger to call! it's time to get out the little coat....let's talk about the Town Funeral Home....

Groucho Marks interviewing Couzan Dud...
I have always represented the downtrodden.... always been a poor boy myself...I made 5 million on Hadicol last year!

Il faut pas fouiller tout partout pour ça t'a besoin...
You dont have to dig around for what you need...

Ils ont parlé pour les grands herbes qui après pousser au bord des chemins et ça fait difficile pour sortir et'oir le taffic qu'après venir sur les grands chemins...
They talked about the tall grass that is growing on the sides of the roads and that makes it difficult to exit adn see the traffic that is coming on the highways...

sinkhole east main and tate cove hospital drive...

Comment on dit le mot "hickey" en Français?
How does one say "hickey" in French?

Mais, là, t'es malpris...
Well, now you're mistaken...

You never heard the rooster crowing at 4 in the morning?
Si le guime chante à 4h du matin, ça va faire le bruoillard sur le bonjour. (There will be fog at dawn)

if the rooster crows in the après-midi, il y aura la compagnie... ( in the afternoon. company will come)

...et si ça chante à ein certain de temps, c'est mauvais...
aw ouais, mais on va pas parler pour ça, ça porte du malheur s'il cris a ein certain temps
and if it sings at a certain time, it's bad...
oh yes, but we aren't going to talk about that, that brings bad luck...


..ils sont accept les cartes de gouvernment, comme alle dit, pour votre smoked meat besoins...
They accept government cards, like she said, for all of your smoked meat needs...

Bayberry Wax

Bayberries on the wax myrtle

about four pounds of bay berries

sifting bay berries

Rough disk of fresh bayberry wax cut with 20% beeswax

A red assassin bug in rendered  bayberry wax

Tasse de Cafe' -Ca fait, Da Thrilla in da Villa

From the Tasse de Cafe' Radio program on KVPI

oldies925.com

Ville Platte's T-Cotton Bowl 

Charlie -si vous-autres veut 'oir les macaques sur la stade... come to the reunion.
Mark -this isn't going to be like when you put us in the sub-zero, huh?
Charlie -mais, no! it's going to be fun...the Tasse de Cafe' Reunion in the back area of the Cajun Smokehouse! Marquez vos almanaque desous ça, September 26 à six heures...

-ein humming bird c'est ein suce-fleur
-ein oiseau de fleur ça appelle ça aussi, hein?
-no, ein suce-fleur.

Me, I love Walmart! I don't wanna start no controversy!

Mais, quitte moi parler pour le K and B grocery ça fait du boudin, ça fait des gratons, du saucisse, et du tasso , oh Lor-Day! on est pas capable de nommer tout les sortes de bonne chose ils ont là bas. Garde ça dans ton idée! Ca c'est ton one stop shop! Le K and B Grocery.

Mouiller ou la plut...et tonne et tonnaire! Ca c'est la même affaire toujours?

Mark est beaucoup populaire!
Mark- oh, mon connais pas pour ça!

The French Tea Room- Yes, it was on Main Street. Who ran that? It was where the Cajun Smokehouse is.

Moi j'peux dire pour le Tea Room, Madame Guillory l'a corru. Rooms upstairs and a restaurant down below

I still remember a few lil tings...

Boscan and I and Hoddle, we all worked at the 'Teater Platte and we drank some grape Nehi, and you had to watch, the others they would put you some hot sauce in your bottle! You had to keep your bottle covered.

T'es brassé tes tours toi aussi...

French Tea Room was originally opened by my Grandmother, Mrs. Aza Guillory(?) it was financed by Mister Guillaume Ardoin who ran Ardoin's next door...

Ti peux la faire arranger si ti veux!

Mais je peux pas crois! t'est reveille'?!

I heard dat in French!

Easy Money! Ca va?!

Asteur on va charrer pour Mista Yo! Happy Blake!

Quitte-moi charrer pour le Burn Store ayou tu peut shop avec tout le vailant monde...Mike, il a passe' avec son merchandise par la porte en arierre, et toi, ti peut passer avec tout ca t'as besoin par la porte en avant!

Steven- I heard that the Yambilee Festival was cancelled so I was wondering if it was coming over here and put with the Cotton Festival, so I was wondering, is the Yambilee Festival going to be turned over here?
-eh, we can't answer that for you, Steven.

Happy T-Cotton Bowl Day! Tonight at the game we gonna have rooster tail and turkey neck sauce (piquant), meatball stew, smoked boudin, cajun smoked sausage, chilli, fried catfish nuggets, jambalaya, hamburgers and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies...it's gonna be a true Thrilla in the Villa!

It's about time yall brought that title back, Ca fait, Da Thrilla in da Villa!

"Fais ton job!" the T-Cotton Bowl motto for Ville Platte High and Sacred Heart football teams

God is gonna get the credit, and we gonna get the results.

Sainte Anne, or How I learned Louisiana French Part 5

In college I kept my interest in French by copying Cajun French songs and French poems into notebooks and trying to figure them out. Then I met a couple of new friends at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette who spoke French: Marie from Vermillion Parish and Jean from Jeff Davis Parish. They were fresh back from a French immersion program at the Universite' Sainte Anne, where they had become fluent. This was interesting to me, so I kept this Sainte Anne place in the back of my mind.

Through my new friends, I was exposed to a local French world in Lafayette different than the one I grew up with. Marie was raised in a rural cane field in Vermillion Parish with her French-speaking extended family in the neighboring pasture, but in college, she roomed with an enigmatic French woman with dark eyeliner and severe bangs. Marie's best friend André, another product of Ste Anne, became a dear friend, also. He was from Kaplan and spoke a beautiful French, so logically, like the way West Africans speak it.
 
Our fun friend Jean hosted weekly "bon temps" poker games where he expounded on the delights and mysteries of the Sainte Anne place and the petit bois (little wood) that surrounded it. We drank and played cards and he spoke French and played Cajun music on the guitar. He said things like "Ta mama m'a dit non, mais ton papa m'a dit Ouais!" (your mama told me no but your daddy told me yes!) He knew a lot about Louisiana French music. His roommate also spoke French, so I practiced and absorbed with them. Jean showed me the music of Canray Fontenot like Les Barres de la Prision, La Table Ronde and a few others. Those were the first songs I began to understand, thanks to good ole Jean.

 

Les Barres de la Prision by Canray Fontenot

Good-bye, chère vieille Mom,
Good-bye, pauvre vieux Pop,
Good-bye, à mes frères, et mes chères petites soeurs,
Moi, j'ai été condamné
Pour la balance de ma vie,
Dans les barres de la prison.

Moi, j'ai roulé,
Je m'ai mis à malfaire,
J'avais la tête dure, j'ai rentré dans le tracas,
Asteur je suis condamné
Pour la balance de ma vie
Dans les barres de la prison.

Ma pauvre vieille maman
Elle s'a mis sur ses genoux
Ses deux mains sur la tète en pleurant pour moi
Elle dit, "Mm-mm,
Cher petit garçon Moi,
je vas jamais te revoir.
Toi, t'as été condamné
Pour la balance de ta vie
Dans les barres de la prison"

J'ai dit, "Chère vieille maman,
Pleure pas pour moi,
Faut tu pries pour ton enfant pour essayer de Sauver son âme,
De les flammes de l'enfer"

Then I took a dry French grammar class at UL where I always sat toward the back.   One day, the director of Sainte Anne, the charming and eloquent Jean-Douglas Comeau, came to speak to us. That day, I happened to sit in the front. His words resonated in my ears. Soon after, my parents and grandparents agreed to send me to the five week summer program to learn to speak French for real. I am thankful they took a chance on me, because this Sainte Anne place was about to change the trajectory of my life.

Before I left, I went to my grandparent's to look at some genealogy from our Acadian  ancestors. They were in Port Royal, Nova Scotia and many other places in Acadie and France. At twenty years old, I had never heard this, or even knew that I had any Acadian blood or was "Cajun". Plus Papa said that our family was one of the only ones in Ville Platte who had any Acadian blood at all, because PawPaw Willie was from Saint Martinville. Most people in Evageline Parish are "straight from France" like they say. Who knew?! I copied the names in my notebook. One was named Joseph dit l'Officier Guilbeau.

So I left the summer of 2002 from the town of Scott (where the west begins) where I met up with Jean's roommate and a few other students and counselors. We drove from Scott to Canada in a van, the five of us. They had all done the drive many times, I was the new one. When we hit Tennessee we stopped at a Cracker Barrel and I saw the Blue Hills for the first time and was all Keyaw! For a girl from Flat Town, it was a very beautiful sight!

I was thrilled to arrive in Canada where the border guards were waiting for me because my Louisiana mother had called to reinforce that her daughter was leaving the country with her blessing. We arrived in New Brunswick and took a ferry that smelled of fish and gasoline across the Bay of Fundy to Nova Scotia. I noticed the French signs everywhere, and the new, rocky coastline. The thinner air was less humid. My hair was bouncy and bountiful. I was in a foreign country!

Off the ferry, we traveled down a long rural coast road with neat houses and little communities like Saulnierville, Comeauville, and Grosses Coques (Big Clams), dotted along the way. It was a bit like home. We arrived at dusk in Pointe de L'Eglise (Church Point!) Nouvelle Ecosse at the Universite' Sainte Anne on the banks of the Baie Ste Marie. The tides of the bay are some of the strongest in the world, and the ocean rose and fell twice daily. We walked out hundreds of feet into the "dry" ocean bed and explored the seaweed, snails, tide pools and rock formations out there. I thought of my ancestors who knew these grey shores. I thought of them feeling the pull of these tides as I was now, even using the great tide to live and thrive there in Acadie.

The first day there we settled into our co-ed(!) dorms and explored the campus. My window in  Beaulieu (beautiful place) overlooked a green meadow, the petit bois (everything Jean had said was true) and the bay beyond. There was no air conditioning in the building. (I was in a foreign country!) The cool sea air came through my window all summer. I wanted to look in the Clare phone book, expecting to see the impossibly foreign names of exotic Canadians. I saw Comeaus, Saulniers (Sonnier) LeBlancs, Heberts, Muises, and Boudreaus. Same names as Louisiana. Where was I? A foreign country?

The second morning there we took a placement test and signed a contract that detailed the commitment it took to learn this language: no English at any time, whatsoever. If you were caught speaking English three times in five weeks you had to leave the program. This rule was enforced. I knew about it, but signing that contract was still surreal. I was relieved, though, when I lifted the pen and spoke French for the first time, I could actually get by with what I knew. People asked me how come I could speak French, and it was only then I realized that it was because I was from Ville Platte, Louisiana. I'd never had that perspective of my home before.

The University of Sainte Anne is an excellent immersion experience. I became fluent in French in a total of ten weeks, over two summers. Our days and nights there were full to the brim with experience; everything we did was new and wonderful to me, especially hearing French all day. I found myself bursting into laughter when I understood something for the first time, thinking it sounded so funny in French. It was like latent joy, learning the words that seemed to echo in my head. Once, a few weeks in to the program, I found myself humming the lyrics to "Johnny Can't Dance" a Cajun song that I had heard and danced to all my life. All of a sudden, I could hear the words, like I could "hear" English. They were more than just sounds. I understood them. Poor Little Johnny, he can't dance. Pauvre T-Johnny. peux pas. danser.  I ran down the hall of my dorm, looking for a fellow Ville Plattian to share the moment with. I found her down the hall and I showed her what we both knew:

Pauvre ‘tit Johnny voulait danser

Pauvre tit' Johnny peux pas danser

Il as essayé, Il as essayé

Mais pauvre ‘tit Johnny peux pas danser

Tout les samedi soir il allais à les soirées

Pour guetter tout les filles danser

Il as essayé, Il as essayé

Pauvre ‘tit Johnny peux pas danser

Pauvre ‘tit Johnny

Pauvre ‘tit Johnny

Pauvre ‘tit Johnny

Pauvre ‘tit Johnny peux pas danser

We took two language classes in the morning. I tried to use my Louisiana French in there, writing things like "pas rien" in my essay, which my teacher marked as wrong. I didn't like that, because I had heard "pas rien" my whole life and I knew it was right. I also was so proud when I showed her my translated lyrics to "La Toussaint" by Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, my favorite song. It's about getting together and putting flowers on graves on All Saints Day. As a Catholic school kid who grew up white-washing graves in the fall as part of religion class, I understood that song really well. I don't know if my teacher knew why I was so attracted to it.

 La Toussaint at the Liberty Theatre- Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys

Le premier de novembre, La Toussaint
On se met tous ensemble
Mettre les fleurs sur les tombes
Pour appeller et honorer nos ancêtres
Honorer leur travaille et leur sagesse

C'est assez d'être enterré dans ses tombes
Chers enfants, enterre-nous pas avec le train et de l'argent
Accordez, accordez avec nous-autres.
Accordez et jouez quelquechose pour nous danser.

After lunch there was a daily workshop you chose (I took arts one year and nature the next). In the afternoon there was an outing to go somewhere. In the evening there were events like the funny olympics, giant musical chairs, bands, shows, games, or films on the lawn. On the weekends there were theme parties like Toge(Toga), Tex-mex, Noel, Halloween, and Retro, at the Château (Castle) the on-campus bar, and since the drinking age in Canada is nineteen, we got the French flowing there nightly. There were activities to participate in no matter what your age or interest. There were always new things to do with interesting people in a new language, living together in a new place. It was sometimes frustrating but always a lot of fun. The two hundred students lived together on campus like les frères and les sœurs. We played softball in teams, swam in the cold bay, and dreamed every night in French. They said that as long as you did it in French, you could do pretty much anything you wanted at Ste Anne.
That was a joke but not too far from the truth.

Of all of the fun I had and lifelong friends I met and wonderful things that I learned while I was up there, what impressed me most was the Acadian people. They were like us Louisiana people, strong. They fished lobsters out of the Atlantic instead of crawfish out of the swamps. They even looked like us. They had the same names as we did, the same manners, it seemed to me. They were indeed our not-too-distant cousins, but I never knew that they even existed. They were the descendants of the Acadians that returned to Nova Scotia after the deportation. Who knew? Well, the country of Canada knew. The Acadians had services in French. I noticed that people there flew the Acadian flag as proudly as some fly the American flag here. They painted it on their barns and cars and even wore it in a variety of ways. The people up there still spoke the dialect of Acadian French, the girls danced Acadian dances, the people cooked Acadian food in the way we cooked gumbo. All of them, it seemed.

Once, I was at the only grocery store in the area, Foodland, that was the local one-stop shop, much like the small town grocery stores back home. As I was marveling in the aisles over a box of Canadian French Little Debbie Cakes, a mother pushing a little girl passed me. It was so normal of a moment that I could have been back home in Louisiana, but when I listened, the mother was speaking Acadian French to the little girl. Then I really wished I was in Louisiana.  In that moment, I knew that outside of all of the madness and mayhem of the college, beyond the songs I copied, beyond the language fading in Louisiana even as I was up in this foreign-motherland trying to learn it, I wanted to teach my own children this language because really, "ti-Debbie" sounded way too good in Cajun French not to.

I'm proud to be a Cajun from Church Point (Nova Scotia...)

A la Prairie Asteur

La Tasse de Cafe: Possums to Moss Mattresses

From the Tasse de Cafe Radio Program: Kvpi.com

First les annonces:

King Cotton! Trent Brigniac va être couroné le Roi du Coton le cinquante-huitième.
King Cotton! Trent Brigniac will be crowned King Cotton the 58th...

The T- Cotton Bowl is sponsoring a Bible Drive for the prisoners in Pine Prairie, these are people from our area in the facility and it doesn't matter if you are Baptist, Catholic, Pentecostal, or even if you don't have a Bible, say a prayer for us and if we do God's work, God is gonna bless our whole town and even if you just want to have a good time and cheer for your team, come on out to the T- Cotton Bowl September 14 in Ville Platte.

La Reunion de la Tasse de Cafe at the Cajun Smoke House in Ville Platte- Mercredi September 26, a 6h a 7h et demie

Blue Messe à Sacre Coeur pour honorer les veterans à 8h

The Evangeline Delta Waterfowl Banquet va prendre place à soir

le Mercredi Show à Pelican Park 6h à 8h et demie

Sauce Piquante Cookoff in Grand Prairie

Allons vous parler asteur de l'Evangeline Bank and Trust Company, la grosse banque avec huit lanes de traffique! ça fait, deal avec la Banque Evangeline ici à la Ville Platte
Let's talk to yall about the Evangeline Bank and Trust Company, the big bank, with eight lanes of traffic! SO, deal with the Evangeline Bank and Trust Company, here in Ville Platte.

Il y avait les matelots de la paille, la mousse, les plumes et du coton (mais).
They had straw mattresses,  some of moss, feathers or corn cobs.

Ma mère a passé sa main endans pour brasser la paille, pour le puff up
My mom passed her hand in the mattress to move it around and puff it up

Mais! C'est mieux de coucher plat par terre!
Well! It was better than sleeping flat on the floor!

ein matelot shuck
A corn cob (shucks) mattress

On l'a chessé la mousse sur la barièrre...
We dried the moss on the fence...

Aujourd'hui la mousse (espangnol) est beaucoup rare dans les arbres, moi j'connais pas qui c'est, les airplanes dans l'air ou quoi...
Today, moss is very rare in the trees, me, I don't know what it is, airplanes in the air or what...

ça détruit la mousse dans les arbres...
It destroys the moss in the trees...

So anyway... that's good information to have...pause....pause... Celebrity Birthdays!

On a perdu l'age à Alvin!
We lost Alvin's age!

Osage Orange- ein boule de bois d'arc- good for keeping roaches out of the cubbord

---my grandfather cooked racoon with sweet potatos

ein plat de rat du bois ça faudrait être ein jeune!
A platter of possum- that needs to be a young one!

If you are having transmission problems, you know, that can happen to the best of us...

T'as jamais été au poulailler et là, tu 'oir desous la couvasse et y'a ein rat du bois dans le nique et il t'as montré ses dents? ça c'est ein maivais affaire!
You were never in the chicken coop and you look under the cover and there is a possum in the nest and he shows you his teeth? That is a bad thing!

Elèves à Pilette

We recently said goodbye to two wonderful people and grandparents. Here are a few details from their home in Pilette.