Monday, March 30, 2015

Lafayette: ZydeCO at the Feed n Seed


Feed n Seed, Lafayette, Louisiana. March 2015.

Went to the Feed n Seed for the first time yesterday. Glorious space.

Feed n Seed, Lafayette, Louisiana. March 2015.


Bouncy wood floor, high flyin' rafters, an assortment of odds-and-ends seating that rims the dance floor, a ladies' room restroom with simple affirmations that make you feel good, strong fans to keep you cool, and good acoustics. Oh yeah, and fine music.

Chubby Carrier + Wayne and Same Ol' Two-Step performed - two of my favorite zydeco bands.

Enjoy the dancing in this video - everyone with his and her own stamp on the zydeCO:



A ladies' room message to all who enter:

Feed n Seed, Lafayette, Louisiana. March 2015.




Wednesday, March 18, 2015

The French Connection: The Louisiana and Missouri Dead

Cedar Hill Cemetery, Washington, Louisiana


The French settlers in Missouri and Louisiana (and other parts of the Americas) shared a style of iron grave crosses.

I talked about this when my mother and I visited an old cemetery in what used to be Vieux Mines (Old Mines), Missouri, a village with French roots.

My own French antecedents came to St. Louis, Missouri,  by way of the Quebec area, then to what is now Kaskaskia, Illinois, and settling the town of Florissant, Missouri.  At that time, Florissant was St. Ferdinand, and it was in the upper boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase area.

The cross in the photo at the top of this page is from the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Washington, Louisiana.

The crosses in the photo below are from the St. Joachim Cemetery in Old Mines, Missouri:

St. Joachim Cemetery, Old Mines, Missouri


Here is an iron cross from the French colonial cemetery in Kaskaskia, Illinois, circa 1770 to 1880.
 









Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Where the Hell Am I, Louisiana: The Map App



Part 1

A few years ago, I listened to a family member, let's call her Kiki, explain why she had not yet used the Onstar program in her new car. .... "Because it could take me into a dangerous area and I could end up DEAD!"

At the time, I thought two things:
  1. Paper maps could do the same thing; and 
  2. Hoo boy. 
But I kept my mouth shut.

It wasn't too long after that when Kiki was prevailed upon to try out her Onstar and she loved it!


Part 2:

So here it is March 2015, and I've got a smart phone now. On a fine weekend afternoon, I was fixing to drive from my new digs (oh, I haven't told you where I'm living now, have I?) to the village of Henderson which hugs a levee along the Atchafalaya River. I looked at about three route options on my map application, and selected one.

It was a pleasant day and my map app took me on a wind-y road, which was just fine with me. Then it wanted me to go over a bridge that wasn't there anymore, so I did a few circular maneuvers, asked a gentleman on the side of the road for some guidance, and he directed me to a way around that gone bridge, and then I was taken deeper and deeper into what reminded me of an old Stephen King story of the woman whose mission was to find the fastest way from Point A to Point B in Maine and her quest took her into a parellel universe where time got bend-y.

Until finally my map app carried me to what seemed to be an end of the road, on the other side of a wood-plank bridge with a PRIVATE PROPERTY sign posted, with my map app voice instructing me to go up the levee. Say what??

Near Henderson, Louisiana. March, 2015.



And it was at this moment that I thought of Kiki's dire predictions of murder and mayhem should she surrender herself to her Onstar.

Looking to my left, across the other bank of the bridge, I saw a group of men doing something along the river.

Having now read all of the Dave Robicheaux books (and having read Winter's Bone and watched the movie, based in the hinterlands of my own Missouri ), what might they be doing?  Running drugs for a South American cartel? Dispensing with a troublesome comrade? Or just fishing? Where's the ice chest to tell me all is as it should be?

Winter's Bone trailer:



"Talkin' just causes witnesses."

I crossed the wood-plank bridge with some trepidation and then asked one of the men, "I'm trying to get to Henderson from here ... but I'm confused about what I'm supposed to do now." One of the men said, "Well, you can turn on around here and go back the way you came ..... [insert my mental nervous swallow here] ... or you can go right and it'll take you 10 to 15 minutes to get there."

Because I am genetically programmed to not backtrack, I took a few moments to decide if "turn right" really meant "turn right" or did it mean "go up onto the levee and turn right?" Did the PRIVATE PROPERTY sign refer to the flat road to my right or the levee road up and to the right on the levee?

I chose the flatlander road on the right. When I say road, by the way, I'm talking gravel road.

This met with approval from my map app until a few miles down the road when it really, really wanted me to climb up onto the levee. Finally, I acquiesced and for some more miles drove on the gravel road up top, noticing that the flatland road kept on going on right beside me, down below. Eventually, I overcame the objections of my map app and got back down onto flat land.

All ended well, of course, but I took a different route home.  

I did see this pretty community of beehives on the way to Henderson:

Near Henderson, Louisiana. March, 2015.


Reminded me of Caucasus Georgia, on a visit to an agrarian technical school in Kachreti




Monday, March 16, 2015

Between Here and There, Louisiana: Memories and Flight

At the intersection of Highways 365 and 367 is a trio of crosses in memory of loved ones who died here almost 25 years ago.


Behind them is a marsh crowded with birds that swoop up and around en masse when startled.

Someone takes good care of this memorial.