Louisiana Questions

When we meet new people, Vince will often jokingly say something like “Don’t pay any attention to her . . she’s from Louisiana. They do weird things.” Almost always the person will have a question about Louisiana. Things like . . Are there really alligators in the streets? Do you like crawdads? Have you ever been to Mardi Gras? Have you ever met the Duck Dynasty people? Do you know how to make a gumbo?

Just for the record – Yes, there are sometimes alligators in the streets, and in your ditches or driveway or yard. I love crawfish. Yes, I’ve been to Mardi Gras when I was young and crazy but would never go again. I have not met the Duck Dynasty people but Chad may have met one or two of them. Yes, I know how to make gumbo and make it often during the winter.

Today when the guys were here planting the trees, Fed Ex came. One of the men said “Oh, your wife has been shopping online!” Vince said “My wife buys the craziest stuff. I believe they’re bringing grits and White Lily flour today.” When I went outside, Vince was in the middle of telling him a story about how good the tapioca pudding and grits were made with the milk with the cream still in it. VInce asked me if we had leftover tapioca pudding in the fridge and asked me to bring the guys some. One of them wanted his warm and the other was fine with his cold so I heated up a bowl for one and the other guy got his straight out of the fridge. They both had eaten tapioca pudding before but not as creamy as this was. One guy wanted the recipe so I wrote it down for him. Both were familiar with the dairy location but only the older guy had ever been there.

The older guy asked about the hurricanes and I told him that I have family there and they all had pretty extensive damages to their homes last year from Hurricane Laura. Then he asked me a question I have never been asked before: Have you ever heard of Marie Laveau? Yes! Vince had not heard of her but, of course, he isn’t from Louisiana. I said “She wasn’t a witch . . she was into voodoo. I came in and googled her. One place they call her a voodoo practitioner. Seems like there’s a sign in the area where her home was located and we saw it once when we were in New Orleans.

What most of us knew about Marie Laveau came from the Marie Laveau song, and I doubt much of that is accurate.

I thought it was funny that in all the years I’ve been asked questions about life in Louisiana, that was the first time anyone ever mentioned Marie Laveau.