Gifts and the Other Side of Town

I got the chance to visit with the sister of an old deceased friend, a man who I learned much French from, and I wanted to pass on a few recordings of his stories in French to the family. I went first to pick up a few boxes of Lost Bayou Ramblers CDs for my husband from Flat Town Music, and with them in the back of the truck, went to a side of my own hometown that I had never been to.

It was the broad daylight in the projects. There were people in the yard detailing the car under a young oak tree, doors open, music playing. Children and cats were at their feet. 

As I came around the corner, I passed a young creole woman with a turquoise shirt and matching tignon, she looked me right in the eye. There was a large gardenia bush in fresh spring bloom with the biggest blossoms I had ever seen. To my back the inner yard was as sparse as the central courtyard of a monastery. There Mrs. Viola was at her door, an elderly woman, large, light skinned. She invited me in. We sat in her comfortable little living room and I gave her the discs and we talked about her brother and family and people. She was one of fourteen children! Her brother came to visit her twice a day, and also when he needed advice.

Mrs. Viola's door

She said her brother was lonely after the death of his wife, and now he was at peace. He had just bought a new truck. He had been through a lot. I said I sensed that. She goes Yeah, you can pick that up. That's like they call that the Saint Esprit. So you pick that up through the Holy Spirit. 

That's a gift you got, she told me. I got a gift too. She said.  

I'd prophsy and all dat, yeah. I didn't know about that because when I was younger they'd say I was crazy, when I would tell them something like that, but I knew what I was saying, but it wasn't of me...because that would come in my mind, in my spirit and I'd speak it out. You born with that, that's a gift, the gift of anointed.

It's not everybody that's gifted, you were given that in your mother's womb, la mère de ta mère. God created you with a gift in your mother's womb, and when you were born, you were ready to face the world with ya gift.

She went on to say that our gifts aren't always evident at first, everything has a time. Sometimes people are bad bad, and then they change.

Everything got a time and a season, like the Bible says. Everything. The winter, les arbres commence à jeter leur feuilles. Fruit tree don't bear year round! Every thing got a time and an appointment.

I believe in that. I told her. I got up to leave, sensing that it was the time.


Viens back. I enjoy your company, she said.

J'vas.

I took a picture of her door, and she offered me a cold cup, which I saw she advertised there.

 

 Thank you for coming, she said. Halleluiah! That is a blessin' to me!

I got the frissons.

As I turned the corner into the cloud of gardenia scented air, I saw the group of people were still around the car with different music. There were a few boys on bikes circling on the road, and the woman in the turquoise tignon was standing "guard" behind my truck full of brown boxes. When she saw me approach under the trees, she turned quick and started walking fast down Jackson street. 

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.....

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...