Butte La Rose et Les Entourage

Bonjour!

Little Rascal Charlie Latiolais gave me his old Gibson acoustic guitar he bought back in 1972 at Romero’s Music in New Iberia. He said he could not think of a better person to give it to. His wife, T-Bob, told me enough about that guitar to make me curious. If only it could talk. I’ll visit her soon for the rest of the story. It spent a year outside weathering Mother Nature and surviving. I know it’s made with good wood.

Terry Guidry was the bearer of the gift and put new strings before handing it to me. I got to say I am happy to have Charlie’s guitar. I do need to get the neck checked out but I have had bad luck with repairs on my guitars that I do not trust anyone anymore. Maybe all I need are pegs but I can order those from the Musicians Friend catalog. I love that guitar. And I do show it off, telling how I got it.

Charlie has a camp in the Basin and he’s always had loads of friends out there for weekend hunts and parties. I think that was his reason for buying the guitar. It is not messed up or massacred and I can only imagine the hands that played it or tried. And now it’s mine.

When entering the new Clerk of Court building and by-passing the Assessor’s Office, the next door is the Clerk of Court. As you enter on the left are the pictures of the clerks of court from well over a hundred years back to now. And there on the bottom right row is the picture of Becky Patin, newest clerk of court, a position the citizens of St. Martin Parish voted her in. Women have come a long way. Becky has been working in the clerk’s office for many years and took her training from a few clerks holding that position prior. She learned the best from the best. No matter what information you are looking for in their court records, it’s there. Records go back to the 18th century. It is amazing. If you have any difficulty finding information, the employees will direct you. Everything is so orderly.

I like to talk about our women who have made a difference for our parish and community. Becky is an example and one of many. These women are incentives for our younger women starting out in search of a profession and can follow Becky’s footsteps to prosperity because there is never a limit when it comes to choosing a career if they so desire. Life has become a two-bread-winner family, so go for it and consider a well paid salaried job.

Moi et Velma Johnson went to Vermilionville recently to take part in a program about traiteur healers and old time health remedies. Velma is a dispatcher for the sheriff. She has beaucoup remedies she has learned from a book published in the early 1930s. One of her uncles is mentioned in that book. It is amazing the way our ancestors survived life back then before doctors came along. And we lived on gratons, hog lard, water from the well in the ground.

And there were traiteurs with chant prayers for everything that ailed you. I call those chants because they were from the Indians. Just like the old days in the western movies when they danced in groups around the fire to heal someone with fever or a sickness. Got healed too! Of course we don’t do that dance!

Á plus tard,

–Cousine Hélène
(337) 228-1714
helenboudreaux@uno.com