Christmas at DE Camp

The Majikal Ville Platte Exit...(photo courtesy of the beautiful H. Hammonds)

Nothing says MERRY CHRISTMAS like the Sno-Ball van at 
Duos' Corner in Nuba

 

OUAIS!

Love this bowl of Christmas Candy

Major Holiday? You will see smoke rising from L'anse de Tate

Fire Pit at DE Camp

Christmas Eve Moon from the Chicot Woods

Uncle Billy's Bass

Uncle Billy caught this fish at our old camp, on the Ides of March. He died in 1984... Uncle King gave this fish to Uncle Den for the new camp.

We used to call Cabot "The Christmas Tree" in high school

Plenary Indulgence for Willie Eastin and all of his descendants (that's us!)

Was I possibly the only person who received a family heirloom plenary indulgence from Mrs. Pam McGee and my parents for Christmas? Tony Marks? Anyone?

Cher, Je Te Blâme Pas

Mister Allen Ortego, 93, Speaks about Pearl Harbor, French in Ville Platte Schools and La Francophonie 
 

Charlie: Bonjour, qui qu'parle? (Who's speaking?)

Allen Ortego: Ça c'est Allen Ortego. (It's Allen Ortego)

 
C: Monsieur Allen Ortego! Ça c'était un autre àyou pour apprendre à parler en anglais quand i' était à lécole. (Mister Allen Ortego! That was another one who had to learn English when he went to school.)

 
AO: That's right.

C: Uh, huh. et, veux, vous a bien réussi, eh? (And well, you succeeded well, huh?)

 AO: Mais, J'ai réussi manière. (I sotra succeeded.) 

 
C: Well, a roulé tout dans tout partout dedans pays, ça fait, ça doit être travailler! (Well, she rolled you in and all around the whole country, so that must have worked!)

 AO: oh ouais. (oh yeah)

C: uh huh.

AO: J'ai parlé en français à la France, à la Belgique, Switzerland, Africa, New Caledonia. Partout. ( I spoke in French in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Africa, New Caledonia. Everywhere.)

 
C: Tout partout ça parlait français! (Everywhere they spoke French!)

AO: Ouais. (yeah)

C: Uh-huh.

AO: Ça j'voulais dire, quand ils ont annoncé pour Pearl Harbor...J'travaillais à Oakdale, j'té gone le dimanche l'après-midi dans mon char, je l'attrapait dessus radio. (What I wanted to say, when they announced about Pearl Harbor... I was working in Oakdale. I was gone Sunday afternoon in my car and I caught it on the radio.)

 
C: Aww, yeah?

AO: Deux mois après, j'ai join les Marines. (Two months later, I joined the Marines.)

C: Deux mois après! (Two months later!)

Mark: Wow

AO: Et, j'dis à Mom, mais j'dis, "J'crois je vas join in les Marines. et je dis, c'est une branche de ça...y'a pas d'danger.

Mais, cher, j't'blâme pas, a dit. 

(And I said to Mom, well I say, "I think I will join the Marines...it's a branch where...there's no danger. 

Well, dear, I don't blame you, she said.)

M: Aww!

C: Y'avait pas d'danger, eh? (There's no danger, eh?)

AO: -Non. (No)

M: Mister Allen, I wonder if you knew anybody that- or anyone from this area that was there at Pearl Harbor that served, was in the military...

-Tape Cuts- 

AO: ...he (an officer) said what's your name...I said "Ortego". Eh,  "Ortego? You Gotta-Go now."

C: Ortego, Gotta-Go! 

AO: He looked like a Bulldog, he was about six feet six...

C: Oh yaille! Il faisait peur!

M: Wow. He was a big son of a gun, eh?

AO: Then, you didn't ask why, no, when they'd tole you, give you an order, you had to do what they told you. 

C: It was all "yes sir"

AO: 'Specially in boot camp, you know?

C: Uh-huh, and that guy had a bulldog face but I'm sure he could be a bulldog on training as well, though.

AO: Oh yeah.

C:Uh huh! So uh, you learn how to take orders in a hurry.

AO: Talkin about the French... I started school in Ville Platte. Miss Estelle Dardeau was my teacher.

C: Uh huh.

AO: And I wanted to go to the bathroom and I didn't know how to ask her. So I ask her in French. And she said next time, you say, "May I be excused please*?"

C :Uh-huh..

AO: But that was too complicated, so I... my hand and I said "be 'xcused please?"

M: Kinda shorten it down a lil' bit...

AO: Oh yeah...

C: But she understood...

AO: Yeah...

C: at least you didn't ask in French!

AO: That's right...

C: Alright Mister Allen!

AO: I enjoyed talkin' to yall.

C: I appreciate you calling and uh...

M: Thank you for your memories!

C:And uh, we'll be looking forward to you calling again next week.

AO: Next week I might tell you about my experience in New Zealand...

C: Ok, We'll be lookin' forward to it. Thank you Mister Allen!

AO: Thank you.

C: Alright.

 

 *On a side note, I once asked a group of older Ville Plattians how to say, "May I go to the restroom" in Cajun French. They said, "May I be 'xcused please."

Victory Dance Songs and the Ville Platte Two-Step

I went to high school at Sacred Heart High School in Ville Platte, a small Catholic school. We had many traditions, some of which I hear are dying out, but when I was in high school from 1994-1999 we did many wonderful things as a school community.


During football season, we had a bonfire every Thursday night, where the boys brought their jerseys for the girls to wear. Every week you would ask a boy to wear their jersey on game day, while they wore their away jerseys during the day. We'd douse the jerseys we wore with the best perfumes we could find, and exchanged them with the boys after the pep-rallies on Friday

I don't know how we did it, but Friday nights after the game, we would have a "Victory Dance" even if we lost. Those were the best times. As a high-school teacher myself, I can not imagine how our teachers and parents agreed to chaperone the victory dances, or put them on at all! Thanks to them! What memories we made...  

Now, when I hear a Wayne Toups song like the "Two-Step Mamou" or "Take My Hand" I am immediately transported back to the varnished gym floor of the Sacred Heart High School gym. When the French music came on, I uaually danced with my best friend "Cooney", or my boyfriend, "Larry" who were both great dancers. Not too many boys danced to the French music, so mostly girls danced together.  Years later, I heard that Ville Platte girls tend to lead when they dance. Men have said to me, "Oh you do the Ville Platte two-step!" I don't know if that is true, but I am from Ville Platte, and I like to two-step!

At every Victory Dance Jeremy Ortego was the D. J. He has D.J.'d every dance of my life. He's an institution to me, just like these songs are, because he's the one who played them for us... Merci beaucoup Jeremy!

Jeremy Saturday

These are some of the songs that we used to dance to:

Wayne Toups songs:

Two Step Mamou

Tupelo Honey

Sugar Bee

Pauvre T-Johnny (Peux Pas Danser)
New Orleans Ladies (Les Filles de la Ville)
etc.
 

Take my Hand by Wayne Toups

Two Step Mamou




Movin on Up by Keith Frank

 

Dinosaur by Hank Williams Jr.

Desperado by the Eagles

Rose Colored Glasses by John Conlee

The Freeze (If you don't want me to) by Ronnie Milsap

 

The Footloose by Kenny Loggins

The Stroke

 

Ville Platte Memes

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

OUTLAW

Marie de la Prairie Greig

Our Lady of the Prairie Greig Persimmon Tree Chez Mom and Pop

Our Lady of the Prairie Greig Toy Corner

MERCI to MARIE of LA PRAIRIE GREIG for the PHOTOS

Our Lady of the Gas Station

Our Lady is not bound by means!

The Gas Station Mary. She perfectly blends our ancient reliance on the Blessed Mother with our modern reliance on petroleum.  It is nice to see her out there, braving it in the world, bringing peace and dignity to places where she is honored, even gas stations.

Our Lady of the Youngsville Highway Texaco Station

Our Lady of the Youngsville Highway Texaco Station

Our Lady of the Ambassador Wines and Spirits

Our Lady of the Evangeline Thruway Tobacco Plus

Our Lady of the West Willow Shop-Rite

ShopRite at Carencro

Opelousas

"Our Lady of the Petrol. The Virgin reigning over a lighted and landscaped corner of a Shop Rite gas station along the main drag just off an Interstate 10 exit." (via Keith)

Shop Rite aux Opelousas vers Bellevue- day

Shop Rite aux Opelousas vers Bellevue- night

Abbeville Shop Rite photo (credit: Alice Cantrell)

These pictures are from the Lafayette, Opelousas and Abbeville areas. Thank you Shop-Rite Stores (and the Youngsville Highway Texaco Station) for placing Our Lady prominently in the community! Whether she blesses all who buy the petroleum products stored under her feet, or those who pass her on the busy Acadiana highways, it is great to see her where she is needed most.

PS. If I ever own a gas-station, I would do it like this: this.

Full Moon in Prairie des Femmes

This was the moon tonight: 

These were the coyotes and dogs tonight: 

The weirdest thing about this is that after they japped crazily for two or three minutes, they went completely silent. When it goes silent on the recording, it went silent for the night. Not one more bark or howl. You can hear me scramble to get back in the house!

Learning the letter F in Ville Platte

FONTENOT 

 Fontenots dominating, 1982

In my hometown, the name Fontenot rules. In the early/mid 1700s, the children of Jean-Louis Fontenot, a French soldier stationed at Fort Toulouse, left Alabama for the Opelousas Territory, eventually settling in Evangeline Parish. Today, when you tell someone you are from Ville Platte they might immediately ask you if you are a Fontenot. For the record, I am not a Fontenot, nor can I count any Fontenot lineage. For a Ville Plattian, that is hard to do! (I have Fontenette way back, but that doesn't count.) There are 13 pages of Fontenots in the Ville Platte phone book. My cousins are Fontenots, and I have been to a few Fontenot-Fontenot weddings. They say Fontenots can date as long as they aren't part of the same clan, named for the progenitors of a line, LaRose, Pierre-Xenon, Gabriel, Belair, etc. I have even seen the seperate Fontenot basket behind the counter at the pharmacy. There was no room for the Fuseliers and Forets, so the Fontenots got their own basket:

the fabled Fontenot Basket (special thanks to Thrifty-Way Pharamcy in Ville Platte for the photo)

 I thought I had seen everything, until I saw the following precious children on the cover of this month's Evangeline Parish Bonnes Nouvelles, practicing their alphabet and learning their words...Feather, Frog, Fish, Fat and FONTENOT!

F is for FONTENOT!

Paul's Meat Market Commercial

This commercial transcribed in Evangeline Parish French, spoken by Charlie Manuel of the Tasse de Cafe' Radio Program out of Ville Platte Louisiana, KVPI 92.5 FM.

Allez pis visiter avec le vaillant monde qui va apprécier votre business.

"On veux charrer avec vous pour le Paul's Meat Market and Grocery.

Well, on connait de hier c'était une grande fête (Thanksgiving) et j'suis sûr qu'on a toujours le ventre plein depuis hier on avait mangé tous ce bon manger pour la fête, mais Paul dit...

"Pour remplacer ce manger-les et c'est le place pour aller c'est en Paul's Meat Market and Grocery, ça c'est sur le chemin Chataignier juste un peu près un demi-mile en dehors de la corporation de la Ville. Allez pis "chop" avec Paul et Tammy et Silas et vous-autres va trouver la qualité de grocerie et de jardinage et viande de tout qualité ça vous-autres après 'garder pour. 

Parle desous ça, vous-autres va avoir le service personel, pour example, vous-autres peux trouver cet weekend icitte des specials comme ça icitte là là vous trouvez:

 1.un rôti d'épaule de bête sans d'ossaille pour deux piastres et quatre-vingt dix-neuf sous la livre 

ausitte 

2. des cuisses de poulet FAMILY PACK quatre-vingt dix-neuf sous la livre 

3. un rôti d'épaule de viande de cochon ça c'est un dix-neuf la livre 

4. les jambons sans ossaille an average de quatre livres chaque par John Morrel une quatre-vingt neuf la livre

5. le bréchet, deux cinquante neuf la livre

6. les pork chops les coupe des bouts dix livres quatorze piastres et quatre-vingt dix neuf sous 

7. la mayonaise Blue Plate, un jarre de trente-deux onces pour trois piastres et quatre-vingt neuf sous

8. assaisonment Hi-Top a sorti soixante-neuf sous chaque

9. le aluminum foil dix-huit pouce par trente-sept pieds et demi pour un soixante-neuf 

aussi 

10. les Cokes, une boutaille de deux litres pour un soixante dix-neuf et un twelve-pack de douze onces les can, trois pour douze piastres. 

11. Le Vitamin Water, un quarante-neuf chaque

12. et y'en a plein d'autres! 

Allez pis visiter avec le vaillant monde qui va apprécier votre business.

Shop en Paul's Meat Market and Grocery."

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