Butte La Rose - Et Les Entourage
Bonjour.
Park’s annual Cracklin’ (graton) Cook Off starts Friday night, March 28, with a fais do do featuring Nik-L-Beer with special guest T.K. Hulin. Then on Saturday area and local bands will be playing all day long. Call Bubba Castille, 256-0672, for info. Go pass a good time and bring the family.
Peré Pelous made a memorable Mass and eulogy for his friend Percy Bourque last week. We’ve lost another WWII veteran. Percy was a wonderful family man and treasured friend. He was born June 13, 1919, in Iberia Parish near Loreauville, moved to Catahoula in 1921, went to school in Catahoula until the third grade then rode the bus to St. Martinville until the seventh grade. Percy worked in the moss business for 50¢ a day. He worked with Mr. Charles Willis who was the clerk of court in St. Martin Parish in 1938. He quit this and went to school for welders in New Iberia. From there he went to work for Allen Boat Co. in New Orleans.
He and his lovely wife, Emma Lou Latiolais, daughter of Angest and Felicia Latiolais, were married July 20, 1941.
Percy enlisted in the Army on Dec. 8, 1942, and took basic training in Camp Maxie, Texas. He then shipped to New York where he boarded a ship and was sent to Northern Ireland in December of 1943. From there he went to Oxford, England, and went to Wales on maneuvers while waiting for D Day. He was finally sent to South Hampton, England, and in eight days landed in Omaha Beach in France.
Percy was in the combat zone from Normandy, France, to Salzburg, Austria, and when the war ended in Europe, he was sent to Innsbruck, Austria, as a French interpreter (a job he had done throughout the war). He later went to Italy with the French Army and his own company as the interpreter. From there he was sent to the France coast to journey home. Back to the United States, he was sent to Camp Shelby in Mississippi where he was discharged from the Army on Nov. 19, 1945, and came home.
Percy was the manager of the Catahoula Dirt Movers baseball team. His hobbies were boureé (cards), horses and fishing. He loved his wife, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I bet a lot of our younger generation didn’t know that many of our local Cajuns were selected to interpret French for the armed forces during wars and peace times. Times have changed so much and we are so busy with surviving our own daily world that we forget to tell our kids about our yesteryears.
Our next Food for Seniors is set for March 26. Nick Breaux, who coordinates the effort, was not with us last week. Many of us missed him.
The Acadian Memorial in St. Martinville is having its annual Cajun festivities March 14th and 15th. Lots of family fun to be had there.
Next time you talk with a crawfisherman, have him tell you how many times his boat has run into a nest of wasps up in the trees. When the waters rise in the Basin where they fish, it rises up to the tree branches where the wasps have their nest. They often don’t see them till they’ve crashed into them. It’s dangerous.
Johnell Theriot (Mrs. Howard) is back to part-time teaching is Parks. You just can’t keep a good teacher down!
We had a visitor at the Petit Paris Café Sunday from Hungary. He signed the guest book and expressed his pleasure of our Cajun atmosphere and food and his love for St. Martinville.
Amitié à tout.
Cousine Hélène
Contact Helen Boudreaux, the Teche News’ Butte La Rose area correspondent, at helenboudreaux@juno.com.