Tee Mamou Mardi Gras Folklife Festival
American Legion Hall Iota, LA
104 Duson Avenue Iota, LA 70543
Iota is so small and out of the way that odds are that you’d never drive through it even by mistake.
Iota, Louisiana, Mardi Gras Day, “Fat Tuesday,” February 17, 2015
I am in the American Legion Hall listening to the plain, unvarnished, below-the-radar Cajun singing that assures that this kind of music isn’t going away anytime soon. The American Legion Hall looks like it’s been here since WWII. And aside from the dates on the plaques on the wall, there hasn’t been a need to change a damn thing since then.
Polished gray linoleum floor, a big American flag pinned to the back wall, plaques along both side walls, it could be an installation piece at the Smithsonian titled, “America Redux.” A few people, mostly local, on one side sit at gunmetal gray folding chairs on two long sets of banged up wooden tables. On the other side – food, of course.
A raised 10 x 8 foot stage is nestled just inside the front door. Men playing guitar, fiddle, and bass join in with teenagers on the crowded stage. Cajun two steps and waltzes like the plaintive strains of “Jolie Blonde” fill the air. The men aren’t the show: the teenagers taking turns singing and playing drums, fiddles, accordions, and guitars are what people have come to see.
In spite of social media, or maybe even with a boost from it, teenage kids are singing the songs their great-great-grandparents sang when they were teenagers themselves. Radio stations like KBON out of Eunice play southwest Louisiana music day and night. I’ll bet there’s all kinds of music on their iPhones, some of it as far from Cajun as Iota is from New York City. Today’s hits will become tomorrow’s history. The Cajun music issuing from the bandstand is birthright material. Its shelf life spans lifetimes.
VIDEO INTRO to the scene
VIDEO1: Cajun waltz
VIDEO2: Cajun two step with a rock n roll intro!
VIDEO3: The Mardi Gras song
VIDEO4: La Porte D'en Arriere, "The Back Door" written by D.L. Menard of Erath, LA. Folklore expert Dr. Barry Ancelet of Louisiana State University/Lafayette says it's the most sung and performed song in the Cajun song book.
Cajun music has been described as “singing the blues and selling the bad times for the good times.” That seems to be the point of “Jolie Blonde,” one man’s plaintive wail at having been abandoned by his woman.
Since the original was sung by Amedie Breaux and his brother Ophy and sister Cleoma in 1928, it’s been covered and rewritten by an incongruous range of singers from country singer Roy Acuff and rock legend Bruce Springsteen.
A man and two women on the other side stand behind two tables ready to serve shrimp etoufée or maque choux in two homemaker sized cook pots and rice in another, soda and water in big red coolers Three bucks a bowl. Made this morning for the Mardi Gras crowd that would duck in and out all day long.
As soon as I put my bowl of shrimp etoufée down, the place empties out. Trucks carrying men and boys are slowly rolling down Duson Avenue, the very short main street of Iota.
In the countryside since early this morning, they’ve been re-enacting the centuries-old tradition of the Cajun Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday”) "courir," begging for food and making mischief. In olden times, the food they gathered would be cooked up in a communal gumbo and be the last big meaty meal the Catholic Cajuns would eat for the next 40 days of Lent.
Today, the men and boys triumphantly show off chickens, roosters and one baby black pig. Luckily for them, the tradition of the communal gumbo has long been discontinued. They’ll be returned to their owners later today. And everyone in town has been feasting on gumbo and all sorts of Cajun food from vendor stalls along Duson Avenue all day long.
“I’ll be back!” I shout, spilling some etoufée on my sleeve as I head for the door. This is the highlight of the afternoon. T
Two hours later, I return to a nearly empty space. First thing I look for is that bowl of food – and there it is on one of the only tables still in place, the rest and all the metal folding chairs having been stacked against the wall.
“Somebody said to toss it but I said no, I think he’ll be back,” says the woman who sold it to me. Country people in Louisiana don’t give up on you unless you give them a damn good reason.
Two other visitors are sitting inside. Of course, we begin to talk. They’re from San Antonio via New Orleans and Pascagula, Mississippi. The New Orleans fellow’s family immigrated to an area near the mouth of the Mississippi River (now Plaquemine Parish) in the early 1700s with a land grant from the King of Spain. Over time, they settled in New Orleans, been there for generations.
“We met at LSU in Baton Rouge when we were both working in administration. When we got a good job offer in San Antonio, we took it and have been there for 20 years,” says the wife. Talking about Cajun history, she says that Cajun country stretches over to Beaumont, TX because so many Cajuns moved west to work in the oil fields back in the day.
New Orleans question solved: "Is Monday still red beans and rice day?" I ask.
“Monday was laundry day for French women in New Orleans. They needed a meal they could prepare without monitoring it, slow cooked the beans during the day to serve over rice at night. It’s still a Monday tradition. LSU still does red beans and rice on Mondays.”
The fellow opines that many of the local people here probably have never been to New Orleans, many of them haven’t gone too far afield from home, are in their comfort zone and stay put. A topic for me to talk up when I return to Iota next year.
Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
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