The main purpose of our trip to Cajun Country was to visit a place called Fred’s Lounge which John had visited years and years ago and never forgotten. I shouldn’t think there’s anywhere else like this place on earth!! For a start, it’s in this real hick town called Mamou, which seemed to consist of nothing but Fred’s, Miss Diane’s (another bar), a barber shop and the Cazan Hotel (and bar!). Fred’s is only open on a Saturday morning from 8.30 when there’s live music and a local radio show is broadcast from there , complete with adverts and announcements. We got there at about 9 a.m. and when I saw the state of the place from the outside, I entered with some trepidation. Inside though, it was like any other club at 11 p.m.—the music was full blast; couples were up doing this particular kind of Cajun dancing; the place was packed and the Bud was flowing.
So what can you do? We ordered 2 Buds and 2 Bud lights and got into the spirit of the place. More and more people kept coming in and it was only when the front door opened and the sunlight briefly blasted in that you remembered that it was still only something like half past 10 in the morning!!
Tante Sue
The atmosphere in there was brilliant and there was all kinds of people—it was managed by ‘Fred’s’ widow, an 80-year old with the outlook and energy of a 30-year old, called Tante Sue (New Orleans was French before it was sold to the Americans and there is still a wide French influence). She sang a song for us and reminded us from time to time of the rules of the house— no kissing, no smooching, no bad language….”The only four-letter word I want to hear is LURVE”.
We had a visit from the Hell’s Angels who turned out to be really nice though one of the regulars warned John when he saw Debbie talking to one of the bikers to tell her to be careful as “she doesn’t want to be punched out by no biker bitch”. Another time, John was invited to camp in the yard of his new found friend Bill and Debbie had a long conversation with a deaf & dumb person. At one point, Debbie bought this drink called HOT DAMN which turned out to be Cinnamon Schnapps and yes, you guessed it—you took a drink which nearly set fire to your throat and then you drew up one knee, smacked it with your hand and said “Hot Damn!!” Apparently the thing to do was to take a swig and then pass it round—the drink cost $5 and you had one gulp but you certainly didn’t want it back after it had done the rounds of the bar!!
Two of the women took a fancy to Gordon—one of them got him later at Miss Diane’s but the other one arranged for me to dance with a guy in Fred’s so then of course, she danced with Gordon.
I picked the dance up straight away as I thought it was very like an old fashioned waltz (though of course, I would never have admitted to that!). The preferred mode of dress for the dancing seemed to be a short, flared skirt with boots and socks and a lot of the women had really nice figures—must be with working in the fields!! I said to Gordon that I had never seen so many old heads on young bodies. We won the competition for the people who had travelled the most distance to be there (some Cajun cooking aids) and stayed drinking, talking and laughing until about 1-ish.
Hmmmm—maybe a few too many Bud Lights????
We left Fred’s and went next door to Miss Diane’s which was a very similar set-up but not so crowded and then someone from Fred’s came in and told us that everyone was heading to the Cazan Hotel so we tried that out as well. Eventually though, we thought we’d best get on as we had to eat and then find the motel where we were staying that night.
Because of this big music festival—the Arcadian Festival—being held in Lafayette, everywhere was booked as people were visiting from miles around. Debbie had seen a good place to eat in the guide book called The Pig Stand so that’s where we went and then we booked into the Days Motel (only $45 a night but clean and comfortable with 2 double beds in the room), had a couple of hours sleep and then headed out to the festival ourselves.
Unfortunately, by the time we got there, a lot of the craft stalls were packing up and then we had a big thunderstorm but never mind, we heard a bit of the music and we did at least get a flavour of the place. One thing which caught our eye as we were driving around and which we thought a bit odd—the garages were offering a Frozen Daiquiri with your petrol. You wouldn’t normally expect to be offered hard liquor as you filled up but then, this place was a bit different…. Fuel was between $1.20 and $1.30 for a U.S. gallon which is only about 85p and which probably explains why the Americans are so fond of big, gas-guzzling motors!! Anyway, we had another Cajun-type meal in a place with more dancing and zydeko music but, even though the place had come highly recommended, the service was terrible so we didn’t leave a tip and didn’t hang around. We had quite an early night at the Days Motel as we were shattered after our hectic day.
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