Louisiana: Broussard's Happenin' Goodwill

Backpack left on trail while owner finds a bush

The need to empty one's bladder can lead to unexpected encounters.

Sometimes it's a dead animal.

If I didn't already have to go, this would have scared the pee out of me!

Or a descanso.

An altar on the other side of a wilderpee

Yesterday, on my way to the Dragon Races in New Iberia, on Highway 182 in Broussard, I noted that I had to go to the bathroom. Hmm, wait til I get to New Iberia - find a McDonald's - or ..... oh, look there's a Goodwill Store, and I need a skillet.

I pulled into the parking spot in front of the entrance and saw a woman taking a photo of a man there. Then a photo of the man and a woman. Then I think the 2nd woman clicked a photo of the man with the 1st woman and the man. Cognitive dissonance. Taking pics in front of a Goodwill? Why? New marketing campaign? Some famous person who shops at Goodwill? Both seemed unlikely.

Walked into the store and asked a man within, "Who is that guy?" - referring to the subject of the 1st woman's photos. "Oh, that's a guy on .... what's that pawn show?"

I suggested, "Swamp Pawn?"

"No, that other one ...."

I suggested, "Oh! Pawn Stars?"

"No .... " 

And a woman shopper offered, helpfully, "Cajun Swamp Pawn."

"Yeah, that's the one," the man said. "He's the guy who comes in with crazy stuff to sell. He's the one who makes that show fun."

This guy is no slouch himself - he's a five-time winner of a local pepper-eating contest. He also plays fiddle at a weekend jam in Breaux Bridge.

I love my job as a tourist-in-residence.

I even found a skillet, and used the restroom, of course.  

Abbeville, Louisiana: Broussard

Yesterday, one of my cultural interpreters and I - let's call him Landry - entered an Abbeville shop that had just opened (more on the shop later), and we met the vivacious Gail.

We started talking about Cajun surnames and I noted how there seemed to be a fairly small stock of same, and Gail went and got the Abbeville phone book, and gave it to me.

Her husband, Billy, said that Broussard was the most common Cajun surname.

Sure enough, there are more than three pages of Broussards in Vermilion Parish, which has a population of 58,700. There are ~ 79 Broussards listed in each column of the phone book, for nine columns, totaling 711 Broussards.

This means that one in 82 Vermilion Parish residents is a Broussard. And really, that's not right because the phone book only counts adults.

Furthermore, 26% of Vermilion Parish residents are under age 18, so I'm going to throw out a wild ass guess and say that one out of every 70 Vermilion Parish residents is a Broussard.

You  may be surprised to learn there are: 

• 10 Paul Broussards
• 3 Pervis Broussards (and a Perfay)
• 5 Pressleys (or Presley) Broussards
• 3 Shane Broussards

And this is only Vermilion Parish. Acadiana encompasses 22 parishes.

According to this source:

By the time of the first census in 1671, there were 47 Acadian surnames (that left descendants).  Many of today's Acadian-Cajuns go back to these families.  These earliest Acadian settlers to leave descendants are in the following table.

The prolific Broussards appeared in the 1686 census.