Butte La Rose - Et Les Entourage

Bonjour.

For those of you who are looking for a good, safe, friendly Mardi Gras parade, Mayor Sherbin Collette has a message for you:

The Henderson Mardi Gras Parade will be Sunday, Feb. 3, beginning at 12:30 p.m.

The lineup starts at 11 a.m. at Collette’s Boating Center where you will receive a number for your float. Show vehicles will then line up at Guidry’s Catfish. The parade will end in the Henderson park. Those whose floats place first, second and third will be awarded at that time. There will be music and food in the park until 5 p.m. Any questions, please call Sharon at 228-2735 or Gail at 228-7676. Come and pass a bon temp with the good folks in Henderson, La.

Thank you,

— Sherbin Collette, Mayor.

I love Henderson. It is a wonderful little town because the people there are wonderful. It would probably be my third favorite place to live. So go and enjoy and appreciate their Mardi Gras fun.

Someone has asked me would I help to organize a table française in the Breaux Bridge area. That is possible — just as long as I can talk my Catahoulean.

T-Joe and Yola Courville celebrated their 75th year of marriage this month and the union was blessed by Deacon Harris Bergeron. Their little house was wall-to-wall with five generations of family members along with friends. To everyone’s surprise, a special honored guest, WWII veteran Otis Courville, came by in uniform to witness and enjoy the Courville couple’s anniversary and enjoy the family gathering. Several of the daughters and friends sat around the kitchen and drank coffee and talked about old times and had great laughs. We sang some old hillbilly songs and had lots of cakes and goodies to eat. Then they followed that old custom, when company leaves, of the children going around the room and hugging every body goodbye. In the hurries and busies of life, I had forgotten about that tradition.

It was wonderful to have an all-night rain this week. It was a cold night and to hear the rain on the roof, I comfortably lay under the electric blanket with the window open half way. I remember when an all-night rain meant no cotton picking for two days for sure because the cotton had soaked up too much water. Jeanette Latiolais reminded me we were not out of the woods because if we had planted peppers, we’d have to pick them even though it rained.

Through the Louisiana State Land Department, my daughter bought an acre of wooded land behind my camp for the purpose of keeping it wooded. There is plenty of wildlife in the hundreds of acres of woods back there. There are deer tracks, rabbits, squirrel and so on. But a canaille malefactor has gone back there in the past month or so and cut seven of our trees. I am so disappointed. I can’t see the woods back there because of the thickness of the smaller trees and bushes, so I did not know this was happening. A couple of times I heard the sound of some one cutting with a hatchet but did not suspect or realize that my trees were being cut down till I went walking back there this past Monday.

I remember back when we lived on the dirt road and almost every one had a porte de screen, no electricity. You could walk along this road and hear the people talking in their houses, sentir l’odeur de couscous or corn bread or biscuits dan l’air. And sometimes the smell of roasting of coffee beans, the tapping of spoons in the supper bowls and see the peoples shadows on the walls from the coal oil lamps. Sometimes even the sound of a battery operated radio coming from someone’s house.

If you all ever have an opportunity to attend one of Peré Chanh’s masses, you will enjoy being in his presence. He love’s bringing his people together.

Dieu vous bénir.

Cousine Hélène

Contact Helen Boudreaux, the Teche News’ Butte La Rose area correspondent, at helenboudreaux@juno.com.