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!"

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?

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...

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.

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!

Tasse Cafe- les Bus Drivers des Annees Passees

As heard on the Tasse Cafe Radion Program at kvpi.com

Les Bus Drivers des Années Passées

On va quitter ça comme ça... (We gonna leave it like that...)

ti dis ti viens de la campagne? (You say you come from the country?)

le bus à Monsieur Lee Fuselier, il nous a ramené sur le chemin d'Opelousas (Mister Lee Fuselier's bus brought us to the Opelousas road)

Ça c'était eine autre affaire dessus ça  (That was another thing (on that))

let me tell you, dat Belaire don't mess around! You didn't tchiquailler around with him, no, he'd leave you!  (Let me tell you that person descended from Augustin Belaire Fontenot (b. 1798) did not mess around! You didn't waste time with him, he'd leave you!)

Écoute, mon premier bus driver quand j'allais à l'école... ( Listen, my first bus driver when I went to school...)

le premier school bus moi j'ai ride à l'école c'était le bus à Monsieur Doux ( the first bus I rode to school was Mister Sweet's bus)

Mister Doux was always ready to drive the bus somewhere. If you needed something you always could call Mister Doux, cause he was always ready to "do" it!

Oh yeah, he lived right there by slap ya mama.

"Downtown L'anse Belaire" ( Downtown Cove of the Belaires)

Ça fait, on est gone charrer pour le K and B grocery, ça c'est au but du grand chemin... (So, we are going to talk about K and B grocery, at the end of main street...)

j'vous embarrass pas de trop, hein!? ( I don't embarrass yall too much, huh?)

allons parler pour Family Hair and Gifts, àyou tu peut trouver tout les bebelles t'après garder pour...( Let's talk about Family Hair and Gifts, where you can find all of the little play thing you are looking for.)

moi j'ai ride dans bus de Monsieur Le Pipe et là, je drive le bus à Pop à Theophile Road ( Me I rode Mister The Pipe's bus and now I drive the dad's bus on the Theophile road.)

on est gone charrer pour Ardoin's Salvage, mais c'est connu comme le Burn Store. Mike, lui, il a hâlé tout les artiques dessus ça... ( we are going to talk about Ardoin's Salvage store, but, it's known as the Burn Store. Mike, him, he hauled all kinds of articles on that...)

La chasse? Ouais, on a fait ein à la Grande Prairie et ein à la GoYo...le Goyo c'est entre Washington and Grand Prairie, you know the Grand Prairie school? Mais, across from that, that's the GoYo... ( a hunt? oh yeah, we made one at the Big Prairie and one at the Goyo. The Goyo is between Washington and the Big Prairie...)

Ç'etait pas les chemins gravaille, non! Ç'etait ein chemin de terre..(it wasnt gravel roads, no! It was some dirts of earth, dirt roads.)

Uses of the French Mulberry

I love the early fall in Louisiana because French mulberries (beauty berries) are plentiful in the woods and along bayous around here, especially at our  family camp, La Roue qui Pend (The Hanging Wheel) on the banks of the Bayou Vermilion, where I gathered three grocery bags full yesterday.

I need three Winn-Dixie grocery bags full of French mulberries RIGHT NOW to the VIP!

A few years ago, I heard that you could soak the berries in water in the ice box for a "refreshing drink". So I did that, and it is a nice and hebal drink. I had also read somewhere that people put the leaves under their hats to keep the maringouins away, so I tried crushing the leaves up and rubbing them on. That works well in a pinch.  Then I began to make homemade insect repellant with the leaves and berries by soaking them in vodka for a month or two. I also add some crushed citronella leaves and maybe a few drops of lavender or lemongrass oil. 

 
I have been harvesting these berries this year and drying them in the window, giving them out to friends. I add them to cereal, or eat them alone. I read that the berries or a tea from the root or bark is good for stomach upset, and we use the dried berries like that, too.
 

Drying French mulberries

When picking the berries to dry them I wondered if they could be used in jellies. Don't you know, the next day I saw an article about a family that makes jelly and insect repellant from them.

Beauty Berry Jelly

(approximate, fond culotte style)

8 cups French mulberries, cover with water, with a little extra. (5 cups?)

Boil for 20 minutes until they lose their color.

Remove berries, compost.

Add one pack of Sure-Gel( two?), five cups of sugar, and half cup of lemon juice to the infusion liquid.

Boil until it forms a foam on the top, skim for clarity. Check the beautiful color!

Strain with cheesecloth (not necessary, but nice to get the punaises and spiders that may be still floating...)

Pour in sterilized jars and follow canning instructions.

Follow these Fond Culotte methods to a T, or your jelly may not "jel", like mine! I think I put too much water and not enough lemon juice... so I may have gotten a bunch of perfectly sealed French mulberry syrup...

In fact, forget the fond culotte method, I would just click here.

French mulberry jelly

La Roue Qui Pend 

picking French mulberries at the camp

Bayou Vermilion? check mark

French Mulberry patch at the camp.

Cajun Music ECards Part 2

It's the Cajun Blues. I just want to get drunk, and when I get drunk I just want to dance and make love all night long.

Let us search...search...search...

If you wouldn't have listened to the counsel of the others you would be here with me today.

Oh the games people play. It hurts me to see them do that.

Hold my dentures! I am going to show you how to dance.

And then they saw I was mad, dear, they brought back my sled.

Let's go to the Courtableau Bayou, little world. To collect some sticks, ya yaille. To make a fire, baby. To boil fiddler crabs.

Now I got lucky, and I made a pile of money and no matter where I go, everyone wants to date me.

On your left hand, there is a wedding band that says turn, turn turn around.

Every time I pass in front of your daddy's door, your daddy is sitting there with a pipe in his smiling mouth.

Oh, let us talk of drinking, no, not of marriage. Always regretting the pretty times past...

Little girls are so cute, but women are deadly.

Open this door and come her, I want to poison you.

Dear everything.

They stole my sled, dear!

Girls from Ville Platte, I don't know what is wrong with them. They are cute, but they are sneaky.

Let's dance Colinda, dance close, Colinda. Let's dance, Colinda, to make the old ladies mad.

Don't look at that, it's not for you.

Cajun Music ECards

If you always wondered what those Cajun songs were saying, here are some ecards that I made mostly from song lyrics.

Oh the people of Crowley are always in the roads. Always in the roads, looking for trouble.

Dear pretty one, give me that one, and if it ain't that one, I don't want any at all!

Hey Mom, I am always your little boy.

Young people from the country, don't ever get married! Look what I did, always miserable.

Sunday morning, he is all kinds of sick. Pass him the glass of lemonade.

The Mardi Gras are not evil-doers, they are just beggars.

Well look what you did: cut the mulberry branch, so i can see you pass in front of your daddy's porch.

Little or the big, Madame Edward, it's all the same price.

Open that door and come here, I want to poison you!

Go west young man, go west, and go to Mamou. ( For Lu dit LaRose)

And when we get home, Grandmother is going to make a fish stew in the style of the choupique fish.

Oh Madeline! You slept outside! Oh Madeline! Outside in the big fog!

Oh unhappy girl!

We know that the Native Americans have big rights in America.

It's nothing if you tell me no, for to marry you, for to marry you, at St. Mary's Church

You had some, you wont have any more! You had some, you wont have any more! You had some, you wont have any more! What's left is for us!

One problem with the program: it won't allow accent marks. If anyone can fix this, let me know!