HAPPINESS EVER AFTER.

This is jokingly called a coonass microwave. Inside is a hog being roasted for a wedding shower at the VFW Post 9822  where we stayed at Duson for a week.  They rent out their hall for receptions, weddings and other special events. I spotted it  mid-morning before going out for the Jam on Saturday.

Folks at the post invited us to attend a wedding shower, but we  returned to the motor home figuring a wedding shower is a personal event and I was about to fix dinner when Richard, on the right,  came knocking at our door and insisted we should join the festivities. It was late and most of the afternoon guests had left by then, so we walked over and joined them.
Here then is the groom and bride to be.  The young people were having fun.

I asked one of the bridesmaids-to-be if this was a tradition.  “Well, yeah”, she said as she smiled and crossed her eyes.

Happiness was evident everywhere.

A frame is set up and a table with costumes is available for everyone to play with.

Mother of the groom was up and tapping her feet,  and half dancing while visiting with family members.

After we ate a marvelous meal with asparagus, dirty rice, green salad with pecans, scalloped potatoes, the roasted pork and more, the pans were just about empty.

Beautiful cakes for dessert with fresh flowers. It resembled a wedding, rather than a shower. A long table spread with gifts and all the elements of a wedding except for the preacher. Wow!

I didn’t get any names, well, I got them all but don’t remember. The guy on the right is from California and he enjoyed talking to someone who knew California. His dad was in the Contra Costa Co. Sheriff’s department so we had a lot in common. He loves Louisiana, but misses his old stomping grounds. Camping at Big Trees, skiing at Kirkwood, and Bear Valley, fishing at New Mellones.

Richard is the grandfather of the bride-to-be.

It was a lot of fun and just another feature of the friendliness of people in Louisiana. (Me, dancing with the commander.) All about us was the message “HAPPILY EVER AFTER.”  To every bride and groom I impart the same wish:  “May you have as much happiness in your marriage as I did in mine.”

As I leave the Motor Home of Fun, I can only say, “I wonder what’s around the bend?”

CAJUN JAM SESSION AT VERMILLION VILLE

Two days ago, we visited Vermillion Ville and watched part of a three hour Cajun Jam. The way it works is the old masters have a musical jam session with young people wanting to learn. The woman in turquoise is leading this particular song. She has a band of her own. And the students are watching her every move very carefully.

And then the student gets to show what he or she can do. There is a lot of praise for these young kids who come to learn and hope to hold their own with the masters who learned at their daddies knees in a similar fashion. Realize, there is no sheet music to follow.  The girl on the left plays guitar and accordion and sings. She has a lovely voice.

This young man, I believe his name is Jacob, was pointed out as the best young fiddle player of the novices. He has attended jam sessions for quite some time, apparently. The established musicians come to help students EVERY Saturday. Some kids travel long distances to attend these sessions because they are invaluable for young musicians to save this Cajun tradition.

This young man, 21 years old, waited his turn to sit in.

When he got his chance, he sang and played very well. It amazes me that there are five accordions, four guitars and nine fiddlers all playing the same song at the same time with no leader or sheet music.

When August Broussard plays and sings, he has a strong voice, and the students listen and try to follow and sometimes watch carefully every move he makes.

When this young fiddle player played his solo, he appointed himself very well. It’s tough to play the fiddle and then sing with it too.

Then, red-faced and embarrassed, he pulled his hat over his head. The audience is there for him and they appreciate how hard it is to be on the “hot seat”. And he will someday be a great musician.

And this second youngest jammer, I believe his name was Dean Chase. He chose an Appalachian song that no one was familiar with. He played several phrases before they “caught it” and played with him. His ear and face were bright red, but he held his place with the jammers. It is hard to do. Commendable.
I loved the jam and wish I lived close enough to watch it often.  I caught some video and you can listen to it at the links below:
http://youtu.be/z2Mz4D5N37A
http://youtu.be/TATGi6UPpwc

VERMILLION VILLE OF LAFAYETTE, LA.

There are two Cajun Villages nearby but the Vermillion Ville, a Cajun/Creole Heritage and Folklife Park has a Saturday afternoon jam, every Saturday. Greats like August Broussard, Ray Landrey and others I don’t know their names take time to help young students learn their great music. August is tutoring Darrien, above. We ran into them when we entered the park.

The park has about 12 buildings along the river in a beautiful park setting that show the Cajun/Creole way of life on a self-guided tour. Cajun houses tend to be small. People spent most of their time outside.

Most of them have stairs leading up to an attic.

The wattle and twig built fireplace heated the house and provided a place to cook.

In hot sweltering Louisiana, a family may have an outside kitchen, with their garden by the door.

A docent demonstrated cooking in a fireplace with a black pot.

The finished dish, grits and grenelles, I think is the name of the dish. It is beef and vegetables in a roux served with yellow corn grits. No tomatoes. She mentioned that most Cajun recipes do not use tomatoes except for a court bouillon.

At the school-house, where a sign on the blackboard reads, “I will not speak French in the classroom or on school grounds.”  A fiddler entertained us and a big contingent of French speakers from Canada, some were unfamiliar with the punishment and edict that tried to force Acadians (Cajuns) to speak only English. He was a humorous old gent named Merlin Fontenot, two months away age 90.
The Vermillion Ville Park is beautiful and we visited about 12 buildings. While Cajun families lived in small house right on the bayou, more affluent Creoles had fancier houses and furnishings.

Regardless of whether they were Creole or Cajun, furnishings were most often home-made like this beautiful cradle.

Trundle beds with mosquito netting for Louisiana summer nights.

And this rather amazing home-made device. A fan you could operate from bed until your arm fell off, or you fell asleep.

A piece of fancier furniture.

It didin’t matter how fancy you lived, when it was cold, you wore a heavy long cloak.

And you still had to light the candles everyday. (Above converted to electric lamps.)

You still had to pull yourself across the bayou with a hand pulled ferry.

There was church on Sunday, work, family and music. Fish in the bayou and herbs in the garden. The park tells its story and we enjoyed it very much.

In the church, a docent was making rosaries from “natural beads.”  Joabs tears. The seeds are picked green, they already have a hole to string them. They need no coloring or preservative.

The finished product.

There is a good French restaurant on the grounds and before going to the jam, I enjoyed a last bowl of gumbo before heading for home.

These two young boys and other older players were learning from the greats. It was fantastic, but we’ve had signal problems on and off all morning. We drive to Baton Rouge today, so I’ll finish blogging the jam tomorrow. I got some good video as well.

NOLAN BARRAS, SKILLED CRAFTSMAN.

Meet Nolan Barras, a skilled wood worker, carver, model builder, stained glass artist, painter, furniture maker, clock maker and probably other crafts I know nothing about. He is uniquely talented to be capable of such varied work and all of it self-taught.

He was just putting the finishing touches on his current project. All of the horses move up and down on their posts. When finished it will have a motor to make it go around and play music.

Here he holds a beautiful wood burning he did.

He has about ten of these carriages, fully assembled and  waiting to be painted.

It all started with this clock. He built it from scratch when he was a young man. He saw a picture of an expensive clock and he thought, I can do that.

Both sides of the clock are hand tooled leather. He got married, had children, worked and never did another wood working project for 30 years. “I always liked doing that clock and I finally got time to play with wood.”

There are clocks all over his house.

He must have had 100 clocks in his house and workshop. Anyplace you could put one.

And if you are going to build clocks, why not a lighted cathedral with figures that travel around a track and go in and out the door.

You can see that pendulum is moving. Luckily, he doesn’t have to hand wind any of these model clocks, they have a battery. Nolan sends for the kit, but all of that filigree work is carved  by him and he has the right equipment to do it. Then he assembles them, sands and paints them.

And, if you are going to make a lighted chandelier?  Why not five of them?  There were two already cut and assembled on the floor just waiting for their bulbs and electrical connections.

The clocks were a dominate theme, but this man’s talent amazed us.

He had hundred’s of crosses, of every size available,  already machine tooled. Why so many, asked Jim?  He said, “I gotta have something to do and this is what I like to do.”  He is 86 years old, and we saw no television in his house. He reminds me of older people who give you the secret of their longevity when you ask.  “Just keep a doin’”, is the usual answer.

He builds dioramas and hand carves and paints all the figures like this Cajun band.

Or this brawling, rip-roaring western bar scene.

Did I mention that he paints?  There isn’t enough wall space so he built rows of screens from which to hang them. 
Every nook and cranny of his house is filled with artwork of one kind or another. The carnival horse on the left is an example of his stained glass work. He did small cathedral kits made from paper. He said he had more trouble assembling paper creased churches than the wooden ones.

Then there are the doll houses with his hand carved furnishings. This one must be five feet long.

The center of this room is filled with buildings. The glass figure of a “female”  butterfly is more of his stained glass work.

Some of the buildings are small; many are lighted.

In some years past he skillfully hand carved and built a credenza. This is the top piece with his initial.

He no longer has room for big projects. At one time he and his wife had a store where he sold his carvings, but it has been closed for many years, and his wife died six years ago.

He hand carves pictures on beautiful woods and shellacs them.

Some of his hand carved pieces are painted and framed like this bowl of flowers. The flower petals are 1/2 and inch thick. Very unique.

With all the ends and pieces of wood, he carves little figures like these. He has them by the box full. He has two places that sell his work. “They sell a little.” he says.

When there is no room on the wall, the paintings sit on the floor and lean against something.

And, if you build clocks you collect clocks, too. He had several old clocks and then this Rube Goldberg type clock. He’ll probably figure out how to build one  some day. He is so multi-talented and skilled. It was a pleasure to meet him and he enjoyed showing us his work. Jim marveled at his eyesight, that he can still see well enough to use fine power tools and sharp carving knives. I’m so glad I got to meet Nolan Barras of St.Martinsville, Louisiana.