Columns

I have been told that a true Cajun raised on the prairies can look at a field of growing rice and tell exactly how much gravy it will require to cover the harvested crop.
If that’s so, it is an acquired skill. Cajuns came late to the rice field.
It’s true that rice has become a staple in the south Louisiana diet, but before we had large-scale rice production, introduced mostly by Germans, corn was the staple in Cajun cabins, and that was a choice pretty much forced upon them.

The most important person is you. You are responsible for your well being. It’s nice if others care about you, but you are not someone else’s responsibility. If you don’t take care of yourself, you invite, if not attract, a host of mental and physical ailments.
Taking care of yourself does not mean being selfish or putting yourself first at the expense of others. It’s just the opposite. If you are not OK, you are not in a good position to help anyone else. So when you take care of yourself, you can help others as well.

Elks and Moose and Owls and Lambs all had fraternal orders in south Louisiana in 1913, but a critter that was already becoming iconic had none. That’s why some men in Abbeville decided it was time to create a social and fraternal organization recognizing the crawfish.
“The whole purpose of this order is the exploitation of the backward, but oh so sweet” crawfish, according to a report in the Abbeville Progress.