Erath LA Male Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Erath LA Male Conversation

Conversation

I have never had, had never had a conversation with my maternal grandmother because she spoke no English, I spoke no French. Now, I have 11 grandkids and they're very close with their grandmother and I tell them each year, it's like, guys, can you imagine what it would be like that you could never have a conversation with Granny. How crazy that would be. So when I moved here, he was talking about the first thing he learned were cuss words. Well, we lived in a little small trailer near my grandparents and I came home one afternoon, I'm in the bathroom, which was very small, and I'm combing my hair. And my mom yells out, “Bill, what you doing?” I said, “I'm combing my puils.” And she was like, “You're what?” And I yelled back, “Didn't you hear me? I'm combing my puils.” I didn't know that cheveux is hair on your head. Puils are pubic hair. So I'm yelling at my mom, “Leave me alone, I'm combing my pubic hair.” Didn't try and speak French in front of her again until I went, I was a freshman at LSU, taking a French, which I hated. And she said, “That's not how we talk, that's not how we talk.” I said, “This is what I have to do.” But many people in Erath, my peers, at least understand French.

My ex-wife, who went to school here, understood. She didn't speak it, but she understood it. Well, I didn't understand, but I understand a few words. But it's sad. But then I also understand, I have friends in the Hispanic community. It's the same thing with them a lot, where Spanish is not taught, unless you grew up with it. Now, my parents, probably like yours, spoke French, and they didn't want us to understand what they were saying.

Male: That was my grandparents with Danish.

Really?

Female: Yep, and my grandparents with Swedish, so.

But was there any shame to speaking, or do you know?

Female: I don’t really know…

Male: It was before my time that there was.

You know, years ago, Whoopi Goldberg had an HBO special, and one of the things she said when she went overseas, she said, you know, people always say, you know, you've got to speak English, but you're in my country, and you don’t. Then you travel abroad, and it's not your language, and all you want is a little graciousness, you know, a little patience, because you don't speak the language. And it's hard to get people to understand that.

Male: And it's too bad that they wouldn't encourage both, because the ideal is being able to speak.ll

But again, you went through that period again. When you have it legalized that you can't speak it, that's pretty strong.

Female: That's very strong.

Female2: And then you get physically reprimanded when you don't speak it.

Male2: And like the big difference, too, though, is, so when you're an immigrant, you come into the country, like Louisiana, we was already here before it was ever a state. We were here. So it wasn't like we were really immigrants to the United States. The United States basically said, no, now you're part of us. It's the same concept with my mom's side of the family, because she grew up in Hawaii. Same concept. They did the exact same thing to them, too. So I got it on both sides of the family.

Well, it's amazing. We're grateful, I think, that they're trying to expand. And one of the things I do at Christmas with the grandkids is I do a family history thing. For example, my grandparents is Como, Chagua, Vapineau, and, oh, god, Richard. And so they don't have any idea, but each year I'll go through things like that. What were your grandparents' first names? They're not going to remember, but I had one grandson who's in college right now who said, “Papa, I write down the answers every year. Not to cheat, but to keep the information.” He's so much smarter than I was, because I wish I had taped my grandfather and my father, and you forget the stuff that's passed down. Oh, yeah. And there's things now that come up like, god, I could have asked my dad that. I don't know. My cousin just found tons of letters from my grandmother's Chagua side. 1917. It was about the flu. And it's like, wow. Remember handwritten letters that we used to do? So, but yeah.

New Iberia LA Female Conversation

Conversation

Male: There's a lot of history in here, and there's a lot, I don't know if y'all knew, but in 1963 when Hurricane Hilda hit,

Male2: The water tower…

Male: …the water tower was right there by the, where the city hall is.

Male2: Fell on top of the city hall.

Male: And, well, yeah, it was right here, and you notice it's out of town now, but it killed several people.

Male2: It, like, it was a sheriff, it was a chief of police, and a couple of the city council members, if I'm not mistaken.

Male: Probably have some, yeah, I know Marshall Brousseau is the only one that I know that lived, and I didn't know that back then. There was a Bernard and stuff. But, you know, we were in New Iberia getting hit over there by, but anyway, I'm sorry. But there is lots, lots of history here. And, I mean, we've got everything from the jockeys that have, you know, international fame, and had a call, Cousin Doug, and Diem, who just passed.

Male2: Dude, like what, like two years ago? Come on.

Male: About two years ago. Come on. And, yeah. Do we have…

Male3: And then you were just learning about this a little bit. What did you say that it was?

So, this is the tradition of traiteurs, and it's people that treat other people for illnesses, and it's very special. You have to go through a process with it. My mom was one, my mom is one, and my great uncles were one. So, it's that family tradition. It uses prayers, and herbs, and different polstices, but not to treat. So, it literally means to treat, and it was a tradition that was brought over. And you have to go through a lengthy process to become one, but you have to have complete faith, and that's one of the things that's faith-based.

Male3: And is it still going strong, or is it, are there not as many people now?

There's not as many people, but just like with the language, to bring back the Acadian language, there is a push to bring it back. And there's, at Vermillionville, an Acadian village in Lafayette, there's actually classes where they do on traiteurs, and you can see what an Acadian village looked like long ago as well, and they do try to keep those traditions alive as well.

Male: And if y'all aren't aware of the two places she's talking about, you can GPS them, it's Vermillionville, and then Acadian Village. And it's wonderful because they have these old Acadian houses that were moved there. It's like looking at a small village. They often will, depending on the times, they'll have blacksmith actually showing and spinning and everything else. So it's quite, I had taught, I don't know if y'all heard me tell this story about when I was a freshman in high school, we went down to Grand Isle to visit people and fish and stuff, and I ended up breaking my ankle on a ride, but we didn't know it was broken. So my parents didn't want to come back, so they had a traiteur come and lay hands on me that night, but I told her, probably didn't have the faith, because it didn't help, you know. And the next day we found out it actually was broken, you know, when I came to the hospital here.

They'll treat for like sun stroke, and that's one of the biggest ones to take the fever away. And I know with my mom, one of the things is they take on whatever the person had just in a lesser capacity to take it away from that person. So that's one of the things that we believe, you know, and I've seen it work. I've seen it in action. I like Outlander. So like I watched that one, and the healer's there. So it's interesting, and I see a lot of the same kind of aspects on using the herbs and whatnot to heal before there was medicine.

Delcambre LA Male Conversation 1

Conversation

Female: Your family is...

From here. My dad's family is from here and my mom's family is from Hawaii.

Male: How did they end up meeting?

Dad was in the Navy. He got stationed out in Pearl Harbor, well not Pearl Harbor, but around Pearl Harbor when he was a young man and they started dating and got married within like two months.

Female2: Yeah, it was a really, really fast courtship.

Yeah, really fast one.

Male2: And then ended up moving here?

Yeah. After they got married, they ended up in... We ended up in... In Guantanamo Bay, actually, in Cuba for like a couple of... for like about two years, which is where I was conceived. And then after I was born, my dad was getting ready to go back into what's called sea duties, where he would have been on the ship for like a couple of months at a time. And so he was on the verge of about to being able to be getting released from the Navy. So basically what happened is he asked the Navy if they would ship us back to Hawaii. So that way my mom would have both the young kids with her family. They said no. So he said, well, I'm just going to get out. And once he got out, he wanted to move back to Hawaii. My mom didn't want. And so we ended up in Louisiana.

Female2: Which is where the rest of the family is.

Yeah, which is where all my dad's family is from.

Male2: So hopefully he inherited about a thousand acres near Honolulu?

No. My mom inherited... What was it, like a four-bedroom little house?

Male2: That's not worth a million.

I mean, it went for like five something. Five hundred something thousand or something.

Male2: I visited a friend once: “Man, talk like you're from Delcambre.”

What do you mean? I do talk like I'm from Delcambre.

Male2: No, no, no, no, mi chere. They say, “Where are you from?” “Man, I'm from Erath.” And they say, “Man, where you at, Erat?”

That's true. I mean, I guess it just depends who I'm talking to. Because with my line of work, I don't... I have to talk to... I go from all over the state for what I do for work. Orinco is over a large part of the state. And so you have to have different... Talk to different people and say different...

Male2: And the colloquialisms are really cool. Like New Orleans, there's a thing called making groceries. They're going to do groceries. We don't make groceries here. But if I'm talking to my grandkids about taking your toys and putting them away, we'll say, save your toys. And I've had friends from not around here say, what do you mean you save the toys?

What, you mean that’s not a normal thing?

Male2: No, because I remember one lady had said... I asked her, I said, well, what do you say? Well, she said, we say, pick them up. I said, oh, like this? You know, it's sort of a literal thing.

Female: It's only strange because it's not familiar.

Male2: But the other thing that is very common for us is we're in the car, and I need to go to the grocery store. Well, are you going to get down with me? Get down means get out of the car and go in with me, not get down, get down. And, again, it is so common for us. It's just a natural... But, again, there's all these, and I guess they're called colloquialisms or whatever. But it's interesting when you meet other people or you hear other people from another part of the country, which I'm sure in Iowa, not Iowa? Yes. You know, have the same sort of thing.

Male: Well, we're the land of pop. We drink pop.

Male2: We drink pop, too.

Female: Do you? Is all soda pop?

Every Coke is pop. Yeah.

Male2: Do you want a pop? Yeah, so we do.

Female2: Others will say, do you want a Coke? And Coke is different. It just depends on...

It depends on what part of the state you're from. Because we said pop down here, too.

Male2: Yeah, we always say pop.

Female2: Okay, well, what kind of Coke do you want?

I mean, it's the same thing with Coke. So it just depends. So I grew up saying Coke or pop. So if you said, oh, just get a Coke, I knew what you meant. If you said pop, I knew what you meant. We called it both.

Female: So you would use Coke as the general term?

No, I would use Coke for everything, too. So if you said Coke, I expected it to be a Coke or Sprite or root beer or Dr. Pepper or whatever. Same thing with pop. It's the same concept.

Male2: But we never said soda. Do you want a soda? Yeah, nothing like that.

No. It wasn't soda.

Delcambre LA Male Conversation 2

Conversation

Male: And thank you for letting me interrupt you.

Oh, it's not a problem. Not a problem at all.

Male: Appreciate it.

Female: Okay, thank you. Yeah.

It's more than okay. Anytime anybody, like, wants to... I don't know. Especially in, like, the movie industry, because nobody gets the Cajun language right. But it's like...

Male2: Yeah, I don't know who gave Dennis Quaid for the Big Easy. Man, that was horrible.

That was the worst accent in the world. I mean, I get it. It is hard, because we all talk differently. Every... Like I said, every town is different. Every town is a different dialect. As a matter of fact, if you go to Baton Rouge, they don't even sound like they're from down here.

Male2: Well, they're not.

I know.

Male2: Anything north of I-10... It's not Cajun country...

It’s not - Yeah, exactly. So, I worked... I worked with this one place. I was in... Up in Ellick, or Alexandria. And the guys, they called me, and I be Cajun, and I cook crawfish and all that stuff. I'm like, there ain't no Cajuns in Ellick. Oh, no. Yeah. The Cajun country literally stops it. I mean, you don't even... I don't even consider going to Opelousas sometimes, but you technically can.

Male2: Pretty much I-10 does define, and you get up there and there's this Yankee northern accent, or...

Baton Rouge, I find, had that little Yankee accent a little bit.

Male2: Yeah. So, it's funny, because, you know, we think of Louisiana as one. When I was working overseas, you know, I would tell people I'm a Cajun. And they would say, oh, you're from New Orleans. It's like, oh, no, no, no. New Orleans is Creole. Cajun is different. Our gumbo is even different, you know. We cook differently. But, again, people associate, you know, New Orleans as...

Well, it's the same concept with Mardi Gras. When you say Mardi Gras, people think New Orleans Mardi Gras. And then that's not a traditional Mardi Gras. That's a carnival, whereas a traditional Louisiana Mardi Gras was when they used to ride around on horseback, go and collect stuff to make gumbo.

Male2: Y'all haven't... Y'all didn't see any of that. The Correa, the Mardi Gras, the... So, the men on horseback will... And they're dressed in these traditional Mardi Gras costumes where they use... In fact, the elementary school did it this year where all the kids made a traditional Mardi Gras outfit, which really was pieces of garments, old garments. And colorful.

Doesn't Church Point still do one?

Male2: I don't know. There's two or three places that do them. But, so, what happens is they go around on horseback. They're going around to the different houses to get ingredients to, like... So, chasing the rooster or chasing the hen to get that for the gumbo is an important thing. And then they do a big gumbo. And that is what the traditional Mardi Gras around here was.

It was basically a community thing where the community got together. And everybody put in... It was almost like a potluck. So, everybody would put in and you would chase the chicken. And everyone would make a gumbo. And then the whole community would just eat off the gumbo.

Male2: And not that there's any drinking or anything involved.

Oh, yeah. This is Louisiana. That's all we do is drink.

Male2: No, we cook and we eat pretty well.

We do that too, but we drink a lot too.

Male2: So, yeah. It's... It's an amazing...

Female: Oh, that's awesome. That's a great shot, too. Oh, my God.

Female2: They're literally running.

Female: Chasing the chicken. Looks like the chicken doesn't know to be running yet.

Female2: But they'll make the traditional. And it's masks and full costumes.

Female: I love it. But it looks more homemade.

Male2: Oh, yeah. It's very homemade looking. It's very homemade. It's made from scraps and stuff.

Yeah, it's Mardi Gras. It's one of my favorites.

Male2: In Mardi Gras, Mardi is Tuesday. Gras is Fat. So, it's Fat Tuesday. So, that's the Tuesday before Lent starts.

Ash Wednesday.

Male2: And so, at midnight, even in New Orleans, at midnight, the streets have to be cleared. They come down because now you've got to Lent. And so, it's completely...

Female: The partying's supposed to stop.

Male2: Yeah. And, you know, I grew up, I don't think y'all did, but we grew up not having any meat during Lent. Then it was only on Fridays.

Yeah, it was, we did it on Wednesdays. It's Wednesdays and Fridays. Well, it's Ash Wednesday you don't do meat. Right. And it's just on Friday.

Female2: And your dad didn't do it on Wednesdays either.

No. My dad was strict with it. He didn't…

Male2: Yeah. It's funny. It's funny. I mean, we had a storm. My grandmother, my mother would make us meal, and she'd burn a piece of whatever was left of the palm from Palm Sunday, you know, to keep us safe and stuff like that. I mean, there were just so many things. Of course, there were really some very scientific things, like if you swallow a watermelon seed, it's going to grow in your stomach. And some of us believed it, you know, but. My parents didn't grow up with inside plumbing, with electricity. You know, they literally.

My grandparents. Yeah. Actually, matter of fact, my dad might have had electricity until he was older. Because I was 49.

Male2: You know, my father quit school at seven to work in the fields. I mean, especially the guys. And my mother would comment about when she was in high school, they only had one guy left in the class because everybody was in the war.

Female2: Well, that was the thing. They had like these large families. My grandfather was one of 19.

Male2: 19?

She came from the Pellarats.

Female2: I'm a Pellarat.

Male2: Wait, wait. The same mother?

Yeah. Same mother, same father.

Female2: Same father, and my great grandmother was a very tiny little lady, and she popped out 19, several sets of twins as well. But you would have kids to. You needed people to work the farm. So they would either go into the services, work the farm, or go into. Because where we live at, it's the salt mine is right there too. Where the Tabasco factory is. So they would go work in the mines. My grandfather was one that went work in the mines. But he dropped out of school very early to help with the family farm before that.

Male2: Another bit of history. Delcambre is two miles that way. Oh, yeah. Lake Peigneur. And years ago, they were trying to drill for an oil rig, and it popped the salt dome.

Under the lake.

Male2: And the lake emptied into the salt. It still can't be used. And no one got killed. No. There were men working down there, but they were able to get out. But I remember I was driving from New Iberia, and I was seeing this rush of water and hadn't known what happened yet. But you'll see pictures. If you go to Rip Van Winkle Gardens, they have a movie.

They used to take you on a boat too and take you right over the hole back there.

Male2: They had a guy in a fishing boat, a small boat, out there, but he didn't get sucked into the lake.

It was him and his brother. They used to own the little Texaco in Delcambre.

Male2: Oh, really? Okay.

They jumped off the, they jumped out the boat right before the boat into the lake. And the lake actually, that lake actually expanded too. So after it opened it up, the lake actually grew. That lake is bigger than what it originally was.

Male2: I didn't know that. But it literally killed the mine. So we have several. Avery Island is one place where they have a salt mine. It's still mined.

Not no more. They closed it.

Male2: And that's also where I have been to almost 30 countries with work. Every country I've been in, including 14 African countries, has a bottle of Tabasco. I have not been to a country. So every bottle of Tabasco in the world is bottled right there. Now, all the mash is no longer just from here. Actually, when I was in high school, we grew some peppers for the McIlhennys. And because now they get a lot from South Africa because they have the volume.

So many different flavors now.

Male2: But it's also a great place for you guys to go. They have the Jungle Gardens, which is a drive. You'll get to see some alligators out in the thing. And it's all wild.

Take a tour of the Tabasco plant. Try all the different flavors.

Female2: …at Jungle Gardens too. It was donated. It's a huge, massive statue of Buddha that's encased in Jungle Gardens. So it's a different aspect. You wouldn't expect to see that in the middle of this.

Male2: As a kid, 7th and 8th grade, I had a friend of mine that lived on the island. And the most fun we had when I would go is they had the rock quarries. And we would go play army out there and could ride the bike around the island. Now they have it shut off to where if you're not living on the island, you can't go to everywhere that was on the island. But just to hear the stories of the families with the salt mine, the grocery store, you know, and all that stuff, it's amazing.

Female2: See, I actually went to school on Avery Island.

Male2: Did you?

Female2: It closed down a few years after, well, my sister went there too, and then after her it closed. Which was very sad because it, you know, a small elementary school. Because I'm a teacher, so from my standpoint, it's very sad to see that happen. But it was nice. I actually just planned a field trip for my students to go out to tour Tabasco Factory and Jungle Gardens because I'm like, y'all get to see where Ms. Devon went to school at, so.

Longville LA Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Longville LA Female Conversation

Conversation

So, I was born in DeRidder, but I've lived all my life until this January in Longville, which is between DeRidder and Lake Charles. Most of my family is actually Cajun French, and then some of my dad's was a long time ago German. We knew they came over in the 1700s, but all the other parts of the family that we know were French. My mom's grandmother, my granny, who's still alive, actually spoke French until school age, and they, you know. But so, my great-grandfather that I knew until the age of six, he spoke French very fluently. So, all of those have kind of, you know, influenced. But most of the family has lived around this area, like all my family lives in Longville. Some of them, like my grandparents lived… My granny, which is my mom's mother, was from like the Oakdale, Oberlin area. And then on my dad's side, they were from like Sulphur and Carlos.

We do like the main holidays and stuff. My dad's side of the family's Catholic, so my grandma took me to Mardi Gras and all those different types of things. We do like, you know, the typical Louisiana thing where we cook gumbo and jambalaya. My dad and my brothers hunt and stuff like that, because we own a fairly large piece of land and we have like food plots on it. My grandfather used to raise like cows and horses. He's no longer with us, so they don't keep anything anymore. My uncle, I think two years ago, sold off all the cows. We had ducks at one point, and we usually do like a small garden. My mom's father, who's still alive, he actually like farmed for someone else for a very long time until that guy decided he was, you know, done with the farming. But yeah, they had quite a few farmers and I guess ranchers, sort of, in the family. And then a lot of plant work, because the area, that's where all of them went afterwards.

Longville used to be pretty small, and the other town of Ragley is right by it, so they're, you know, one after the other. A lot of people are moving into the Ragley area and it has now started spreading into the Longville area, so there's a lot more houses being built off the highway. And a lot of people are trying to do, like, start businesses and stuff like that. Whenever, whenever I was young, there was like nothing. There was nothing there. My uncle owned like half of the buildings in the town. He owns the gas station and then like the old bank.

Abbeville LA Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Abbeville LA Female Conversation

Conversation

So I was born and raised here in Abbeville, Louisiana. I currently live a few miles down the road in Erath with my husband and my two daughters. My family is originally from Abbeville area. Grandparents, parents, great-grandparents, most of them were born and raised here. A few have been from the south part of the parish, Pequan Island. So, but you know, I like to travel, but always come back home because this is where my heart is. So, but I do like to experience all different aspects, different cultures, cuisine, regions, you know, accents.

Male: Have there been major changes around here since you were a kid?

Well, you know, of course, mom and pop shops have shut down. Um, you know, it's just the way the economy is, but, you know, they are, they do have some bright spots. We have heard that there's some businesses that want to open in the parish. So, you know, local as well as national chains, you know, like Starbucks, we're getting a Starbucks. So, um, but we do have visitors from all around the world. French speaking visitors from France, Canada. You know, we do have visitors from New Zealand, Australia, all over. Of course, you know, hurricanes have driven people from the southern part of our parish to the northern part, you know, insurance rates, flood insurance. But, you know, we still have a lot of great things to see and do here. You know, you can, of course, eat, you know, crawfish, crab, shrimp. Um, and then you can go and see our, what I call our rural outback, marshes, alligators, birds in the southern part of the parish. A lot of our locals don't realize what a true asset we have here, you know, with our culture, our heritage and things like that. So, of course, it's getting people to appreciate what we have. And that's part of my job as well.

Male: Do you feel like you shift the way that you speak depending on who you're talking to?

Yes. My dad lived in Houston and my stepmother was from Texas. And after we spent a little bit of time with them, I noticed I had a little bit more of a Texas drawl, you know. I also am part of our local cemetery tour each fall. And so, depending on who my character is, you know, we might have one of our more affluent residents. So, of course, you would talk like you're very well-educated. I've also been one of our Irish immigrants, so I did have a little bit of an Irish drawl. Of course, if you were Irish, you'd probably say I butchered that. And then I've played my great-great-grandmother, who had a very strong Cajun accent. She spoke French first and then learned English. So, of course, you know, you kind of have to adjust, you know. So, my accent comes out whenever we're eating crawfish. So, it kind of depends. So, who I'm talking to, you know. And there's, you know, some words where I know they're very localized the way we say them here. You know, like things like going to the store, you getting down, you know, save the dishes, you know, things like that. So, but it kind of just makes it funny when you realize what you're asking someone. “Are you getting down?” And they're like, “I don't want to dance.” So, it's like, well. And then when you start to think about it, it's like, oh, yeah, okay. I guess our little local ways of saying things, you know, like New Orleans making groceries, you know, we're going to the store. You say, you know, median, neutral ground, things like that. So, just local terms, you know, like we have the Vermilion River. It's also called a bayou. You know, if someone's from the southern part of the parish, they might be from down below. So, you know, just the little terms. So, that you wouldn't pick up if you were in Iowa or California. So, you know, so different things like that.

Kaplan LA Female Conversation

Conversation

We were raised two miles down the road in Kaplan, you know. My dad was a rice farmer.

Male: How did your family end up deciding to open up a grocery store and then eventually turn it into a restaurant?

I was 19 and my mom and dad said the store’s for sale at the corner will bite if you run it. So me my mom and dad walked in together. This was all groceries and seven years later mama told dad, tear down, the lord told me to tear down the shelves and put tables. So he did. So he was a rice farmer. So he'd come in, he'd cook, he'd go farm. He just didn't think about what you're gonna do. He just did it and if God speaks, you do it. Yeah.

Male: Was he already doing some cooking before that?

Oh he cooked at the house. Oh yeah, he was a, yeah.

Male: But nothing here. He wasn't preparing anything here.

No, it was all groceries. But then when we started the kitchen, he cooked, go farm.

Male: What, what kind of foods did you, did your dad start with?

Oh, it was what we were growing up on. He cooked the round steaks, the duck, fish, shrimp, whatever. He did, you know, whatever, turtle sauce pecan, the garfish, you know, whatever.

Male: We were really surprised at seeing how many things are on your menu.

Oh yeah. Well, I'm gonna tell you a secret. I don't cook. I never have and I don't want to know how.

Male: You never learned how to cook?

I am serious. I never cooked a pot of rice. Before this, I drove a tractor, the rice court, from 12 years old to 29. I know. But now that mom and dad's gone, I realized they were making sure we all had something. Yeah, everybody, uh, my older sister was a nurse. The second one retired as assessor. The third one was already married. They had a catering business, me. And then my younger sister was still in high school. And when she graduated, she came in. So she's the main cook. She had all the family recipes, but I never... It's trouble to fix food.

Male: Okay, so now it turns out we need to hear about this alligator. The picture of you and some other...

Oh, uh, Ryan Doty, Extreme Outdoor Adventure. He was filming around here and he came and put us on TV. It's, it's crazy.

So before he came, did you know anything about Anthony Bourdain coming?

Oh, no, no. I didn't, I didn't even know who he was. I, um, I'm always here. I don't watch TV, uh, and they called me at nine that morning. Cameras showed up at 11. He showed up at one. Yeah.

Male: Right when you were really busy, I suppose.

Well, it was Ash Wednesday. Yeah, it was Ash Wednesday. And, uh, they wanted to come when no one was here. And I said, no, you just wait, you know? And then, uh, I said a picture, you know? Oh, no, that can't happen. I said, what? Take down your cameras. You don't know who you're talking to. But we got a picture with him. But my mom always said there'll be a day when people will be just looking for us. And here it is. That's the only write-up she didn't see. Yeah. And she saw everything else. And like I say, mom did the two things God called her to do. She prayed every loved one into the kingdom of God. Some it took a little longer and Suire’s. It's not my dream. It's not my vision. Uh, I never had one. I'm living her dream. You know, it's true. It's think while I was driving the truck, oh, I'm gonna run a store one day. No, I don't know. I mean, it's, it's crazy.

Male: And I'm sure there's part of it, parts of it that you've really fallen in love with though, yeah?

I work 100 hours a week, five in the morning till closing. It just, it's, um, I've never been married, no children. So God knew who to put in here. It's me and my sister and we get along fine. I mean, she's gone. She left a while ago and that's just how it happened. You know, it's, put God first in your life and just everything. Oh yeah. Thank God we had a praying mama. Oh yeah.

Male: What a big change to make from farming to opening a store even.

Oh yeah. He farmed until he passed away at 84. I guess he farmed till 75 years old, you know? Oh yeah.

Abbeville LA Black Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Abbeville LA Black Female Conversation

Conversation

So I was born and raised here in Abbeville, Louisiana. I currently live a few miles down the road in Erath with my husband and my two daughters. My family is originally from Abbeville area. Grandparents, parents, great-grandparents, most of them were born and raised here. A few have been from the south part of the parish, Pequan Island. So, but you know, I like to travel, but always come back home because this is where my heart is. So, but I do like to experience all different aspects, different cultures, cuisine, regions, you know, accents.

Male: Have there been major changes around here since you were a kid?

Well, you know, of course, mom and pop shops have shut down. Um, you know, it's just the way the economy is, but, you know, they are, they do have some bright spots. We have heard that there's some businesses that want to open in the parish. So, you know, local as well as national chains, you know, like Starbucks, we're getting a Starbucks. So, um, but we do have visitors from all around the world. French speaking visitors from France, Canada. You know, we do have visitors from New Zealand, Australia, all over. Of course, you know, hurricanes have driven people from the southern part of our parish to the northern part, you know, insurance rates, flood insurance. But, you know, we still have a lot of great things to see and do here. You know, you can, of course, eat, you know, crawfish, crab, shrimp. Um, and then you can go and see our, what I call our rural outback, marshes, alligators, birds in the southern part of the parish. A lot of our locals don't realize what a true asset we have here, you know, with our culture, our heritage and things like that. So, of course, it's getting people to appreciate what we have. And that's part of my job as well.

Male:Do you feel like you shift the way that you speak depending on who you're talking to?

Okay, well I was born and raised in Abbeville, Louisiana. My family is actually from all over. I actually did an ancestry.com and uh one of my great uh I want to say ancestors or great-great-grandfather on my dad's side was in uh the slave trade. I didn't even know that. I didn't even know that so I'm like okay I got a great-great-grandfather. All righty and uh on my mom's side uh my great-great-grandmother she was a slave as well so I find it funny he was a slave owner she was a slave and that's how my great-, my great-grandmother was born. So I'm like wow my grandmother said it was like how did you know them like. Ancestry.com. You never you never you never know it's so our roots are like deeply rooted in Louisiana and I never never thought about it because Boudreaux I mean everybody it's a common last name and when you went back the Boudreaux name was part of slave owner but the the slave owner was my grand, my great-grandfather yeah that's that's…

Male: Was that right around here or another part…?

No, it was another part of Louisiana but it it really trips me out I'm like okay all righty yeah it was it was shocking to me what you could find on ancestry.com and cousins and everything and I'm like oh I have cousins here, I have cousins there, like I actually went to Texas, and I actually met one of my cousins and I didn't even know. Like we was in the store and I didn't even know and I'm like she was like wait I know I know that last name and I'm like yeah that's my grandmother. She was like well we're related. I'm like, wow.

Male: You just met this person by chance.

By chance in the mall and didn't even know. I'm like wow I'm like okay it yeah it was shock it was shocking to me to even find that out. I'm like okay and my grandma's like yeah we have family all over. We have family Louisiana, California, Rhode Island of all places, and I'm like okay, so we just all over the place

Male: How long has your family been right around here?

Oh, tuh, puh… because as long as I can remember and yeah my grandmother yeah she she's been here all her life like she never, never went anywhere else yeah she's been here all her life, and her uh her family her dad was a farmer actually. Yeah her dad was a farmer, and her mother I want to say, uh, she she picked cotton yeah picked cotton and peppers I'm like wow, so I see why I don't like to pick peppers even more. Yeah we did it as well but yeah.

Male: Now does your family consider themselves Cajun or Creole

Cajun Creole.

Male: Cajun Creole.

Yeah yeah

Male: And so do you have any food traditions or any other traditions in the family?

We do soulful Sundays, like catfish and macaroni, mashed potatoes, uh red beans and rice, anything we do it, and the whole family comes.

Male: Do you have specific like family recipe that that you have…?

Um, she does a sweet potato casserole and that's passed down a generation to generation but she make me laugh no generation or generation get it. It just her, so yeah basically that's it.

Male: Do you mind telling me a little bit about this town?

Well I'm not really sure…

Male: Like, even how to pronounce it.

Oh Delcambre. A lot of people call it Delcambree but it's Delcambre it's very Cajun but it's a small town everybody knows everybody but everybody comes together. That's the heart of Louisiana. We all come together no matter what no matter what situation, we're there for any and everybody, and we when we greet people we hug. We hug. A lot of people from out of state they do like, uh don't touch me. I'm like I can shake your hand, but I'm a hugger so yeah warm hospitality.

Abbeville LA Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Abbeville LA Female Conversation

Conversation

I was born and raised in Abbeville, Louisiana. Um, my grandmother's family is from Cameron Parish. So Holly beach. So like our accent is more heavy because my grandma always said we had a Texas and a Cajun twang combined. Um, her dad was a trapper for like the senators and governors. So that was his job there. Um, my mom and dad are both from here. My dad's from Maurice. He is a farmer and a crawfish farmer and all those great things. And I've never left the state.

Male: You've never left.

No, never.

Male: What are your favorite things to do here?

Um, hang around people, the culture, um, the food. Um, and I like that our kids are going to experience stuff like that. I feel like our state is, um, more about home life and your family and kind of like sticking with that. Yeah.

Male: And even this part of the state, probably more than other parts, too.

Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Male: So what do you do?

Um, I am an administrative assistant for the oil and gas industry. Um, I actually just got a new job. I started Monday, so I'll be working for Chevron, which is huge over here. It's like a huge accomplishment.

Male: Yeah. Congratulations.

Thank you. I'm excited. And I'll be off on Friday.

Male: How did you arrange that?

That's just what the job has. It's off on Friday.

Male: It's off every Friday?

Yes.

Male: That's a pretty sweet set up.

I know. I'm so excited.

Male: And you have kids who are in school, right now?

Yes. I have two kids of my own. My oldest son is 19. My daughter is 11. Um, she goes to Dozier elementary in Erath. And then Waylon, my husband, has two kids and he has a daughter who's eight and a son who's almost six. And they all go to the same school right now. Yeah.

Male: And where do y'all live around here?

We live in Erath. So if you go past Walmart and stuff, it's back there.

Male: We actually were in Erath even earlier today.

Yep. That's where we live.

Male: Do you live in town or outside of town?

Oh no, we live outside of town. So my dad and them, they farm hay. Well, they cut hay, but they plant rice and they also crawfish farm. And they have like, they're more in the Maurice area going towards Lafayette. Um, did you take a little right down this road? It's like a, I don't even know, but there's like acres of land that they work.

Male: I know nothing about rice farming.

I don't either. All I know is they plant rice, they crawfish farm, and then they cut the hay that grows. Waylon probably knows all about that kind of stuff. I really don't.

Male: How did you get started doing what you're doing right now?

Um, so in high school, when I was a senior, I was in the DECA program, which was, um, an opportunity to go to school for like three or four hours. Cause you had all your credits and then they'd put you in the workforce. So I worked at the Vermillion Parish School Board and that was my first job. And then I wound up working at Air Logistics, which is a aviation company for oil and gas. And I just kept in that industry really. So that's how I found myself here.

Female: Adminstrative work?

Yes. Yeah. Always in the training departments too, for some reason. That's probably been my job for like 20 years now.

Female2: Are you going to be doing that at Chevron, too?

Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. But I'm excited. My last job before this, I was there for six and a half years and it just was not a good turn of events at the end. And then my coworker passed away unexpectedly, and I wound up with a new job that I hated. It was in corporate world. And then I just kept looking and looking and looking. Ask her. And I just discovered this job by coincidence.

Female2: A lot of Snap Chat.

Literally like, yeah, yeah. I didn't even know it was for Chevron. I just thought it was a job and it said you were off on Friday. So I was like, whatever, I'll take my chances. What, what will we be doing?

Female2: Well, you wouldn't have having any flexibility with sick children and needing to leave early and stuff like that.

And it's hard.

Male: Well, congratulations on the new gig.

Thank you. Thank you.

Male: And the Fridays off thing is great, especially having kids.

I know. I know. And if I need like during the weekend, I need a Tuesday off because someone's sick, I can work the Friday. Yeah. Right. Flexible.

Female2: That's flexible. That’s awesome.

So I'm so excited. Yeah.

Female: And you just started this week?

No, I'll start Monday. So I took this week off for myself.

Female2: So the other days you work 10 hours?

Um, yeah, I can go in at seven and work till four. I can go in at eight and work till five. And they feed you lunch and breakfast there too. So like you just work the whole time.

Female2: So Waylon's going to quit his job and come work with you.

He is coming to work with me.

Male2: We changing a bunch of air conditioners out in there.

He's going to be there for like a year. That's crazy.

Female2: Really?

Yeah.

Male2: We got like a year and a half job over there.

Female2: Do you get to eat lunch with him?

Male2: We could. You can feed me if you want.

Kaplan LA Male Conversation

Conversation

(profanity)

They come to this facility where they actually do all their, any kind of training for the, and they house people. They got like some bunk rooms in the back where everybody sleeps, so they don't have to get a hotel or nothing like that, and that's why they have the galley area, so where they feed, and they house for every training facility or training that needs to be trained on in the oil and gas industry.

Male: I suppose it's folks who are only there for a month or two or something like that.

I think that the classes are like a week long, week long classes, two weeks long classes, however long the class takes. Yeah, like they got rid of some people from, they were from Nigeria, he said, and they were there for four weeks. They just come and they got to train them on everything that they need. Yeah. And then they go back and they spread the training over there. I guess that's the way they don't have to get everybody over here.

Male: Yeah. Okay, so now I'm really curious about farming here, about, part of it's just the farming, because all I know is corn and beans, and so part of it's about farming rice and stuff like that, but I'm super curious, because we've driven by so many crawfish farms. Do you mind telling me about the season? We know nothing about it.

No, it ain’t really. I don't know much about it either, but it's a gamble. Crawfish is a gamble. It's hit and miss. You got them, you don't. I mean, start flooding your ponds around September if it's a cool, cool year. You don't want it to flood too hot, because then you got to keep pumping, because your water starts to get stagnant, and then as the crawfish come up, they'll have some babies, and they'll kill off the babies. The big ones will live, but if they don't have enough oxygen in the water, they'll start dying off. If you got to keep, continue pumping and pumping, it's just more money you're wasting, so kind of wait till it kind of cools off to where the water stays cool, and then that's it. They just come out of the ground, have babies, and...

Male: So they come out of the ground. Do you have to add new ones each year, or...?

You can. I stock my pond every year. I put, like, towards the end of the year, I'll put, like, a sack per acre, and I fish probably, like, six or seven acres, but I put ten. Split the difference between the two ponds. And then, it's just to bring in a new breed of crawfish, so it ain't, like, the same ones.

Male: Do they end up crossing with each other?

No, it's just, it's the same crawfish, the pond crawfish. I don't, I don't get none from the basin, because sometimes you get them sand crawfish, and they, they're just a different, uh, different type of crawfish. But the basin actually has larger crawfish. I guess because the water's always moving, it's fresh water, it's always, it's just a fresher water. We have pond water, so the only time you'll get fresh water is when you pump it.

Male: Okay. And then, do you have to grow something in that field to get ready for when you start to fill it with water?

No, I, I have just grass in my ponds. I don't, I don't do the rice. The lady I fish for, she don't want me to plow it or nothing. She said it brings up the bad, the bad dirt, because it's been flooded from Rita, and she said that's bad dirt now. So, she's like, don't plow it, don't plow it, you don't have to plow it, but just let the grass grow. Bush all get burned, and when it comes back, flood it up, and crawfish every year.

Male: And then, when is it that you start putting the cages in to start to catch them?

Well, when you start seeing them. Like, if you start flooding the end of September, the crawfish are going to come out of the ground. You're going to start seeing the bigger ones. They're going to start crawling along, along the levees and stuff, and you're going to see, like, the eggs on the back of them. So, they'll start having babies. After you, in, after a while, you get your dip net, and you kind of scoop it in the water, and you'll see, like, little babies. They'll be the size of, like, an inch long. Normally, about six weeks after that, you could start catching. They'll grow that fast.

Male: Wow. And then, when you're catching them, do you have to check for the ones that still have eggs on them, and then you throw them back in, or what?

Nah, I just throw back the big females, the big, the real big females. I'll chunk them back at the beginning of the season, but towards the end, they all go. So, you get rid of them, because they'll overpopulate your pond, because they'll reproduce year-round.

Male: Do you have to put anything in your pond at all to keep them eating and going?

Nah, I mean, a lot of people put fertilizer. They say that makes big crawfish, but I don't know. Like I said, it's a gamble. Ain't nobody can figure out the crawfishes. If they say they can, they full of shit.

Female: And during the summer, they burrow down into the mud.

Yeah, yeah. The drier, the drier it is, the further they'll go down, like, to the water table. So, like...

Female2: I had no idea.

Male: Neither did I.

They'll go down further, and like, the more it's drought, the drought, the drier it is, they'll just keep continuing going down, go down. And once you put water on top of them, I guess, the pressure, they can feel it, they come back up. But when they come back up, their tails are empty, empty. Like, there's no meat in there. Kind of like a crab. A crab will burrow down in the wintertime, and they'll eat off theirself, and then come out when it warms up.

Male: I never knew that.

Yeah, they like, they just, they eat off of their own meat, because if you, I don't know, this, we have no idea.

Male: And then how long will the season tend to go?

You can fish as long as you want. I mean...

Male: Until it starts getting too hot, or what?

Yeah, getting hot, and you want to continue pumping. I mean, you fish as long as you want, but if people are buying them, go for it. Yeah. And if you deal with the snakes, because that's when they come out.

Male: So he was mentioning this a little bit. So do you mind sharing about the snakes and…

The eels?

Male: Yeah, the eels and the snakes.

Yeah, at the beginning of the year, you get a lot of eels, because they bury down, too, in the mud, like then when it's dry. And they come out first, and they're some slimy bastards. They're nasty. Just kill them and throw them. Towards the end of the year, the snakes come out when it gets warmer. Now, if you use like a pellet bait, the snakes really don't, they don't go after that pellet bait. Like if you use like the pokey fish, or any kind of fishy bait, they'll eat that. They'll get in your cage. And normally when they get in their cage, they don't get back out, because they can't figure it out. Until you pick it up, and it's right in your face. Or it's in your trough, where you dump your crawfish.

Male: And then what do you do?

Figure it out. Kill it.

Male: Yeah, he said you'd pull it up, and then put it back in, until you're ready with the gun, with the 22.

Yeah, yeah. Either a gun or a shovel, yeah. Because they're nasty.

Male: And those are water moccasins, mostly?

A lot of water snakes. Every now and again, you'll get like a water moccasin, but a lot of water snakes.

Male: But you got to treat them like they're water moccasins.

Yeah, I don't deal with the snakes. I don't like them. And the lady I farm the crawfish land for, she's all, you big pussy, it’s just a little snake, you scared of that? No, I don't like snakes.

Female: Yeah, but his son will go and grab those eels and kill them for him.

Oh, yeah.

Male: Really?

Yeah, I'll take the eels. I'll take the eels and stuff, and I'll throw them in the boat and turtles. Like turtles get in the cages. And every time he gets in the boat, he wants to go look around, see which ones he can kill. He gets the shovel, and he just kills all the turtles and eels. Throws them in the water.

Male: Are the eels and the turtles at all a problem? Do they eat the crawfish?

Yeah, some of them crawfish, they'll just go around the cage. Like if you have crawfish in your cages, crawfish kind of just back up on the backside of the cages, and their tails stick out the bottom of the cage. And that turtle just go and will pop all the tails off of them. And you have a cage with just heads.

Male: Just heads.

Yeah. We had some the other day. A bunch, probably two, five-gallon buckets of dead heads. Because the turtles just go around. The turtles are eating them. So we kill the turtles.

Male: So you've got like six or seven acres that you do?

Yeah. I want to say she has 12 acres total, and she lives on about two, and it goes towards the back. And she has a camp in the back that probably sits on about eight and a half, two acres. So about eight.

Male: Okay. How many…

Cages?

Male: I don't even know. How many cages, how many crawfish do you end up getting over the whole season? Now, I know it's got to vary a lot from one season to another.

Oh, yeah. At the beginning of the year, I was doing real good. Price was real good. Doing real good. I was catching four sacks a day. And I'd fish them in the morning before I'd go to work. Get at the pond about four in the morning, fish, come home, take a shower, put the crawfish in my work truck, and drop them off and then go to work, three days a week. Make some money that way. When it's at $4 a pound, bringing in three or four sacks a day.

Female2: How much to a sack?

At that time, it's normally about 32 pounds a sack. They got a few buyers around, whoever's open, whoever wants to buy them.

Male: Yeah. And then the price goes down later in the season, I suppose.

I think you can buy a sack of crawfish now for 60 bucks. But the bait don't go down. So, I really don't. As soon as it starts, it goes, and then it just tapers off. I guess people want them so bad that they, and nobody's catching them, so it drives the price up because everybody wants them. And then once everybody starts catching, then it kind of levels off and comes down.

Female: I think it's just such a tradition. Everybody goes so many months without having it. And then when it seasons, everybody's ready. You know, all the restaurants and everywhere, people are in lines waiting for boiled crawfish or buying the sacks.

Male: Well, even in Houston, it's really big. It's season...

They got a guy, I know, he comes from, he drives to Austin, back over here, and he brings like 80 sacks a trip. And he's selling them. He's buying them here and hauling them to Austin and selling.

Female: He makes at least double…

He really ain't making much.

Female: Oh, he's not?

I don't think so.

Female: You would think he could sell it for a lot more.

I don't know how much the price is.

Female3: They were selling them for $8.99 a pound.

Yeah, but that's at a… the thing is your wholesalers ain't gonna make no money. Your restaurant's gonna make the money because they could charge whatever. You're going to go eat it. You either want it or you don't.

Male: $8.99 a pound doesn't strike me as that much that they're making off of it. For taking it all the way there, all the work that it's got to take, all the expense of driving there.

Oh, the fuel, I mean, he's driving that three days a week.

Female3: Well, he's making something to do that.

Oh, he's got to be making some kind of money, but not like the wholesaler people. I mean, they make their money. I was born in Kaplan, Louisiana. Then we moved to Henry. Well, we lived in Henry for a while and moved to Abbeville for a couple years. Then went back to Henry. That's pretty much where we stayed. And then after Hurricane Rita, kind of messed up the house. We was kind of young and stuff, so we really didn't pay much attention to it. So we kind of had our own thing and bounced around FEMA campers for a little while and got tired of that. And bought a trailer, lived in that for a while, sold that, end up buying my own house. And that's where I've been ever since in Erath. They spoke French in front of us because they didn’t want us to know what they were talking about. So they really… We didn't learn French.

Male: Like even your parents spoke French?

No, they didn't speak French. Just my grandma and them.

Female: Your Aunt Barbara did.

My grandma and them, they would always speak French when we were there because they just wanted, didn't to be in the conversation. Every time they'd laugh, we'd laugh, and they'd laugh back at us like we knew what they talking about.

Female3: “Bon ton ma chew.” “Kiss my fuckin’ ass.”

Male: I'm sorry, teach me that phrase again.

Female3: “Bon ton ma chew.” “Kiss my fucking ass.”

Male: Thank you. That was the most important thing that I have recorded here tonight.