Before I went on vacay, Fredster sent me some gorgeous pictures of Louisiana institutions:  brown pelican, boats, and oysters.  I can’t copy them, as they are for sale, but I’ll enclose the link at the end so that you can feast your eyes.  Both of us have strong attachments to the Louisiana coastal areas – Fredster calls New Orleans home, and I have some delightfully crazoid Cajun second and third cousins on my mother’s side that live in Terrebonne Parish.  I’m terribly afraid that as I watch this underwater geyser of petroleum, I’m watching the end of a culture.

Pat Conroy opened his classic novel Prince of Tides with this statement:  “My wound is geography. It is also my anchorage, my port of call.”  Brother Conroy, you may have been speaking of the Carolina Low Country, but those sentiments are applicable to those of us attached to the Louisiana coast as well.

Louisiana is for all intents and purposes two states.  Above I-10, you really might as well be in Alabama.  Below I-10 lies the Cajun country, twenty-two parishes that comprise a world of its own.  The Cajuns arrived in Louisiana (and Maryland, for that matter, as they both welcomed Catholics) after being expelled from the Acadian region of Nova Scotia in the Le Grand Derangement  between 1755-1763.  It took some time for them to get there, as (typically of expulsions of the period), there was no effort made to keep families together.  Eventually, the largest settlements of Cajuns (Acadian, said quickly with a French accent) were to be found in Louisiana,  and formed a thriving culture.  The Cajuns are their own ethnic group, are clannish, and speak a language that code-switches back and forth between their version of French and English at a dizzifying pace.  They have their own music (zydeco) and a dance style (the Cajun two-step) to match.  They have replaced “t”‘s with “d”‘s and couldn’t care less if you haven’t – it makes sense to them.  Their lifestyle and cuisine revolve heavily around the seafood of the Gulf of Mexico.  For those who don’t fish, their business (such as my cousin’s appliance store) relies heavily on income from the fishermen to keep it going.  If the coastline goes, the Cajun culture may just go with it.

Approximately 75% of our nation’s shrimp is netted in the Gulf of Mexico.  Georgia shrimps off the Atlantic coast, and so do Florida and South Carolina, but they can’t possibly make up for the loss of the Gulf’s seafood nurseries, even if the slick never reaches it.   Shrimp boats are amazing to see, with nets on booms that resemble butterflies.  I’m sorry that I can’t find a picture of one at sunset, when they are absolutely beautiful against a pink and purple sky.  For many years, shrimpers netted both fish and sea turtles (known as bycatch), but most trawlers now have nets equipped with escape mechanisms that permit the fish and the critically endangered sea turtles an egress.  Many of the locals refer to shrimp as “prawns”. 

Another of Louisiana’s industries is oystering.  Now, oysters are caught all up the Atlantic seaboard, but the coastal oysters are said to be plumper and sweeter.  I watched an interview with a Louisiana oysterman, fourth generation. ( These guys work on family boats from the time that they are kids, and go straight from high school into full-time oystering.  Fortunately, the oyster beds are more inland, up the estuaries, but I can’t imagine that they’ll be protected for all that long. )  He seemed almost bewildered, as his view of the world never included this world of toxic oyster beds for the next several decades.  He was desperate to help keep the oil from reaching his beds, and wasn’t looking for a handout – just a way to keep earning a living by the only means that he knows.

I can’t even imagine what’s going to happen to these folks who made peace with the Gulf, the bayous, the gators and the mosquitos to bring forth such a rich culture.  I don’t want to imagine an America without them.  But, until it happens, let’s have a fais do do in honor of the Cajun folks, who have brought so much to (at least mine and Fredster’s) American life.

I give you Beausoleil, playing on Allons Danser, a local teevee show from Lafayette, Louisiana – deep in the heart of Cajun country in Evangeline Parish.  This was filmed at Randol’s, one of my favorite restaurants in the whole world.   It’s sung in Cajun french dialect, and the music takes a little getting used to, but bear with it – you’ll find your foot a-tappin’ to the music.  This video also shows you the Cajun Two-Step.  For however long it may last, bon temps, y’all.  Dat’s da way id is.

Here are Fredster’s links.  Savor the beauty while we have it.  (I know, I know.  This is beginning to sound like On the Beach, but I am way past anxious about this, y’all.)

http://hippics.smugmug.com/Nature/Parish-Birds-211-Pictures/6935156_KAMsE#743064142_5aPei

http://hippics.smugmug.com/Other/Oysters/10216215_wZ5Xa#228843616_ejCTf

http://hippics.smugmug.com/Boats/NEW-All-Boats/6406552_eJuSw#743311685_LLSV2

This is an open thread.