We really hit it off with Peggy after meeting at Heuetta’s, and during the week Peggy called to see if we’d like to spend Friday night at her house after going to see Zachary Richard (pronounced Ree-shard) at Downtown Alive in Lafayette. The next day we’d be going with her and Heuetta to Fred’s in Mamou for Cajun dancing in the morning, then we’d see the Festival Acadiens et Creole in the afternoon. Sounded good to us!
Peggy picked us up right on time (coming all the way from Lafayette to get us), but she needed to check on her mom first. Peggy’s mom’s house is only about 5 blocks from where we are, so we went over with Peggy. We walked in the door, and 6 heads turned to look at us…all women in their sixties and seventies. I will never forget all those heads swiveling to look at us, and my feeling that they were related. When Peggy had to step outside I couldn’t resist asking, “So are ya’ll related?” They all nodded, and I asked, “Sisters?” They nodded again. Peggy later told us that her mom has a number of sisters, and that they always came to Lafayette for the Festival Acadiens. This year was no different.
Since the 6 sisters were planning on attending the festival the following day, Peggy wanted to be sure they were all set, so she went over last minute plans with them. She reminded them “Bennie’ll be there early to help ya’ll with the chairs”. There was a short silence and a puzzled look in the group and her mom said, “What for? We’ve carried our own chairs every other year.” I loved it! It’s SO typical of here – how independent everyone is, up to and including the older folks!
Heuetta works at City Hall doing a variety of jobs, one of which is managing the utility billing for the town. City Hall has a convenient drive-through for paying the bills, and rather than park and have to get out and go in to see Heuetta, Peggy simply went through the drive-through. We laughed and talked and got the final plans set to meet Heuetta in the morning, and drove off. It tickled me no end that we drove through the bill-pay drive-through to make our weekend plans. It seems so relaxed!
Lafayette
After dropping our things off in Lafayette at Peggy’s house (we were going to sleep on a real bed for the first time in months!) we headed out for dinner downtown. Peggy insisted she was treating us, and she picked a Mexican restaurant right near the Downtown Alive location. The restaurant was already crowded with festival-goers.
There were so many choices of things to eat, we had a tough time deciding – we nearly drooled over the menu. After much discussion, we ordered Chilean wine; Bessitos (shrimp stuffed with smoked Gouda, mild red jalapenos, wrapped in apple wood smoke bacon and grilled); Roasted ancho and poblano corn and crab bisque; and shrimp on the half chip (tortilla chip, shredded iceberg lettuce, pico de gallo topped with roasted ancho chipotle mayonnaise, crowned with golden fried Gulf shrimp). We haven’t seen anything like that menu in many, many, many months. The crowd was lively but peaceful, and the whole atmosphere was relaxed, with music everywhere.
After dinner, Peggy gave us a short walking tour of downtown, making sure we each got a beer for the concert. In fact, Peggy had had each of us pick out our own “koozies” – a neoprene holder for our cold drinks – which we chose from a basketful on her counter top at home. We really liked Lafayette – it’s got a really nice small town feel to it, while having all the big city conveniences, and it’s very pretty. It’s got a river running through it, and lots of big trees, and the downtown has a feeling of an older era to it.
Zachary Richard
Downtown Alive is a weekly event in Lafayette – it’s a big music concert held outside in an amphitheater in the center of town. It’s primarily held throughout the fall, winter and spring, as summers here are pretty brutal. This week’s attraction was Zachary Richard, a local legend “made good”. Zachary moved to Canada some time ago, and has had a great deal of commercial success over the years. He was invited back to headline the Festival Acadiens, receiving high honors for his efforts over the years to preserve Cajun music and culture.
The crowd was huge, so we gradually worked our way up to the front so we could hear and see. We ended up spending nearly the entire concert leaning on the gigantic speakers at the foot of the stage, quite literally vibrating with the music – we didn’t miss much that way! The opening bars of music had a haunting ethereal sound, not at all what we associated with Cajun music. It had a distinct Native American sound to it. The band plays a wide variety of instruments, from accordion, fiddle, washboard, and keyboard to acoustic guitar and electric guitar.
The music was simply wonderful. They played ballads, rock songs, Cajun songs and more. The variety was amazing. Zachary Richard himself has a beautiful voice, and he clearly knows how to get the crowds involved. Chelsea and I both really enjoyed every bit of it.
Fred’s in Mamou
“Laisse les bons temps rouler.” (Let the good times roll!)
We’d been hearing about Fred’s in Mamou ever since we got to Abbeville. Fred’s Lounge started after WWII and within few years it was the hot spot of the area. Closely connected to the renaissance of Cajun culture, it’s been a staple ever since. Now open only on Saturdays from about 8am to noon or 1pm, they’ve got live bands and a live radio broadcast. Tante (aunt) Sue (Fred’s wife) is still around (she must be in her 80s), though Fred died in 1992.
At 8:30 on Saturday morning the town of Mamou looks completely deserted, and the solid brick, no-windows exterior of Fred’s looks unprepossessing, if not downright grim. We park the car and head inside, stopping for a photo op on the way in. Inside, the bar takes up half the already small space and the band takes up about a third of what’s left. There are a few booths, a few chairs at the bar, and the rest is a small dance floor. Cigarette smoke wafts freely through the air, the band is already well underway, the dance floor is getting full. We work our way through the crowd at the bar so we can get a good vantage point from which to see the action. After checking out the action quickly, we check out the bar and the shirts above the bar.
The shirts from Fred’s are popular, and reflect the rules set down by Fred himself: “Please DO Not Stand on the tables, Chairs, Cigarette Machine, Booths, and Juke-Box! Thank You. Fred”. Chelsea totally lucked out when Peggy gave her one of the shirts in deep purple.
Tante Sue herself is part of local legend. She wears leather pants, and carries hip flasks of Hot Damn! schnapps that she shares with the lucky ones (we were among the lucky ones). She can frequently be found dancing up a storm on the dance floor.
Tante Sue has a few of her own rules – one of which is ‘no kissing’. Peggy shared a funny story with us before we got to Fred’s. Apparently an acquaintance of Peggy’s, Roy, came up to her and kissed her at Fred’s. Tante Sue immediately swatted him with a flyswatter. Peggy was horrified – she told Ray, “I’ve never been in trouble before at Fred’s!” We laughed at the thought of diminutive Tante Sue hitting a burly biker with a flyswatter. Sure enough, Roy was there the day we were and sure enough, he kissed Peggy again. Peggy hissed, “No! I don’t want to get in trouble again!” Unruffled, Roy responded, “Tante Sue has hit me 2,000 time so far. Until she comes after me with a lead bullet, I’ll keep doin’ it…”
By 9 a.m. beer is flowing freely, the Cajun band is pounding out songs and the dance floor is crowded. Fred’s attracts bikers, locals, and visitors from all over the world, and they are all there for a good time. Peggy treated us to a beer, and I couldn’t believe that I was standing listening to Cajun music, with an ice cold beer in my hand, feeling a slight buzz from the beer, tapping my feet and moving my shoulders to the music, at 9:15 in the morning!
The day we were there was quieter than usual as the Festival Acadiens had pulled many of the usual attendees, but there was still a crowd on the very small dance floor. I love to dance, but I haven’t danced in years, and I completely chickened out at Café des Amis in Breaux Bridge when a stranger asked me to dance. I had been annoyed with myself since then, and I wanted to find someone who’d either teach me to dance, or who’d have patience with my two left feet while I learned the steps.
It was my turn to luck out. A wonderful guy named Dewaine Jones introduced himself and asked me to dance. Dewaine fell in love with Cajun and zydeco dancing about 10-15 years ago, and loved it so much he has become a teacher. How lucky could I be? He quickly taught me a number of dance steps – the Cajun waltz; Cajun 2-step (quick, quick, slow; quick, quick, slow); the country western 2-step; and the much faster zydeco 2-step (quick, quick; slow, slow). He told me to always lead with the right foot and he kept me going around the dance floor for a number of dances.
Every time I turned to the wall, there were Chelsea and Heuetta and Peggy laughing and making faces at me, and taking photos. It was very distracting for learning the dance steps, but it was pretty funny. After Dewaine, I got asked by an older guy (a local) to dance and Dewaine had taught me well enough that I actually followed reasonably gracefully! I was delighted! Chelsea got a chance to dance with Dewaine too, so she and I were both happy by the time we left.
Dewaine is currently from Birmingham Alabama, and comes to Fred’s several times a year just to dance. In Birmingham he works with major computer systems, lately doing project management. I’ve already heard from Dewaine, and he invited us to call him if we are ever in Birmingham. If we were going to be here, that would be a sure bet. Maybe I can talk him into visiting us and learning Latin dances. Then he can teach us those!
We had an extremely fun time at Fred’s and I would SO go back again if I could! It will be one of the high points of our Cajun country sojourn. Fred’s really lives up to the Cajun motto: “Laisse les bons temps rouler.” (Let the good times roll!)
If you’re interested in more detail about Fred’s check out this link: http://www.fredsociety.com/mamou.html.
Le Festival Acadiens
Heuetta and Peggy were completely prepared for attending a festival – there are so many festivals down here in the season that there’s at least one within driving distance every single weekend. We got a great parking spot and loaded ourselves up with our chairs, heading out to find the family. They already knew exactly where to go, so within minutes we settled our chairs, taking off to explore the food areas. The food was definitely one of the high points of this festival! After perusing any number of delicious-sounding possibilities, Chelsea and I settled on crawfish etouffee in a spinach cream sauce, served in a bread bowl. We brought it back, along with a cold beer, to sit with the aunts and to watch the action from our seats in the shade. All six aunts sat in a long row all day long. I’m not sure they moved except to go to the bathroom and possibly to get something to drink. It was just amazing to see the six ladies sitting in a row, watching intently the entire day.
One thing about Cajun country is that Cajuns know how to dance and they love to dance. It is truly an awesome sight to see the huge crowds dancing, all in rhythm, all in time. From a distance, it looks like a wave going through the crowd as the steps are all done in unison. Everybody dances, and I mean everybody – all ages from 2 year olds to 90 year olds. It’s perfectly okay to ask anyone to dance. Women dance with women, guys will dance with guys (though they’re usually more self-conscious about it), old folks dance with young folks, parents of all ages dance with kids of all ages, strangers dance with strangers, cousins dance with cousins – the focus here is on dancing. You’d better not make eye contact with someone unless you want to dance!
Bandanas are everywhere –on shaved heads; on wrists, tied in long hair, and tied around necks to sop up sweat from dancing. Cowboy hats and cowboy boots are everywhere and many, many women wear what are clearly dancing shoes. The older folks here in Cajun country are just awesome – they’re full of vitality and most of them seem ageless. They are clear-eyed and in good shape – there was one older man I watched who had to be in his 80s and I remember thinking that I can’t believe an 80 year old can fill out a pair of jeans and a shirt like that! The older generation here is really inspiring…
The art fair was quite good as well. We spent a good amount of time just wandering, and if we’d had money and a way to transport the things, there were a few items we’d definitely have bought. As it was, I bought a pair of earrings for the trip, as I’ll be sending my current ones home before we enter Mexico. I am delighted with the new earrings – they were very inexpensive and are very bright and lively. We ran into Lynn and Hansford, and Lea and James at the art fair area, and had fun chatting with them.
We were all wearing out from the long days, and Heuetta wanted to bring food home to Kenneth, so we went wandering around the food area again with Peggy and Heuetta, around sundown. I don’t think I will ever forget that hour or so, wandering like little kids behind Peggy and Heuetta. They’d stop in front of a booth and ask us, “What do you think of that?” We’d check out what everyone else was carrying, and then go looking for the booths for anything we saw that looked good.
Heuetta and I really wanted a certain plate – it was something like French fries, but cut in slices. We were delighted when we finally found it – it took some looking! We stopped at the booth and my heart sank. The plates they had looked really greasy and cold and completely unappetizing. Heuetta and I both just stared in silence. Finally the woman behind the counter asked what we wanted, and Heuetta asked if those plates were all that was available. The woman replied yes. Realizing we had to make a decision, Heuetta murmured to me “They don’t look too good…”. I laughed out loud and we moved on, disappointed, but hopeful something else would show up.
We couldn’t feel too sorry for ourselves by the time we finished our search. Chelsea and I finally ended up with grilled shrimp and smoked tasso in cream sauce with penne pasta; crawfish fettucine; and beignets. How awesome is that! We sat that night on our couch, in exhausted happiness, too tired to even watch a movie, and ate that incredible food. What a glorious ending to a glorious two days!