Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Cajun and Community Coffee Country


On the third attempt (with him spelling it out to me) I realized he was telling me his name was Joe. I only took one shot at his last name and left it alone. Joe was a really, really nice talkative older man (with a mighty strong Cajun accent) who, with his live-in girlfriend, were out dancing for the night. Nice, unlike the man on the other side a me who proceeded to glare at me the whole damn time he and I sat there (damn, can't a man cross-dress in Cajun Country?) . We were at Randol's (pictured at the top). A cajun restaurant/bar with a good sized dance floor. The layout reminded me of some of the Texas Road Houses with the amalgam of added on rooms and low ceilings. Apparently 40+ years ago it was a green house that the owner who also sold seafood out of his truck inevitably put it all together into a restaurant. It was the 1st "dance" typa place in Lafayette according  to Joe who was and ex-vet, ex-truck driver and local who'd lived here pretty much all of his 65 years. He gave me a lot of tips and telling me that I was here for prime festival season. There are 3 festivals just this coming weekend! The "Cattle Festival" (haven't seen cow 1, yet) in Abbeville, the "Gumbo Cook Off" Festival in New Iberia and the "Festivals Acadiens" (Which sounded nuthing like it's spelled to me) here in Lafeyette. Damn, I'm just gonna play a deaf-mute and not get into pronunciations and just shake my head a lot. Well, I've done lucked up and hit it right so I'll be writing down that of which I can understand. Seriously, they have been really sweet and kind people down there so far (other than Mr. Death Stare) so I'll keep you guys up to date. I've been tooling around the area to St. Martinville (pretty church picture above), Breaux Bridge and New Iberia. What's the deal with this weather!? Pretty chilly already. Later gators, S
P.S. the band was a fine Cajun band on this night. Nothing special.




1 comment: