FRED’S LOUNGE, MAMOU

At Fred’s Lounge, you arrive early if you want to sit. It opens at 7:30 and we were there. In the back corner was a couple we recognized (right) from our visit in 2010. They’ve been coming here every Saturday morning “forever” to dance. No one sits in “their” corner. He taught me the Cajun step in 2010. He told me then, it’s unfair, but the woman dances backward almost the whole time. His wife confided she has a bad knee and doesn’t dance every dance anymore. I have no idea of their age, but their warmth and affection for each shows as they dance. They are a treasure.

This  very informative guy was my seatmate. He is Lewis Landreneau, a regular who knows all the band members and most of the people who come in. His uncle, Cyprien Landreneau played Mamou’s lounge at one time. He showed me his picture on the wall.

He looks like a fun character with a seegar in his mouth.

We watched the band set up.

The drummer has a handful of sticks in his right hand and a case of others to choose from. What do I know? I thought a drummer had one set of sticks and a couple of spares in case one broke.

Everywhere you look, the lounge is covered with pictures. It is fun to look at them, even if you don’t know who they are.

Tante Sue made a pass through the bar after visiting with her “rest home” friends. She is a volunteer at a local rest home and makes her rounds every day.  In the bar they spell auntie Tante. On the wall of ovations they spelled it Tauntie? Everyone likes to have their picture taken with her and she enjoys her legendary status.

Later on, when the bar got really busy, she came back to lend a hand. She plays her accordian on her shirt, and she wears her signature holster from which she sips and wipes the bottle and hands it around if anyone wants a sip. In 2010, when she sold a bottle, she would taste it before passing it on to the customer. And, later still she sang (in French) with the band, talked on the radio, and reiterated her rules for the lounge. One I forgot to mention in my blog yesterday, is the NO MOUTH KISSING. That’ll get you thrown out of the place. You can kiss on the cheek while dancing, that’s it.

She passed around cooked boudin sausage, which is seasoned pork and rice in a casing, wonderful stuff to eat. We took one piece and she insisted we get a napkin and take four more pieces. We normally don’t eat pork, but in Southern Louisiana, all such dietary rules are tempbypassed.

The accordion player is Don Fontenoc according to Lewis. The band is Friends Of Louisiana. His accordion has the signature crawfish design of Martin Accordions, a place we visited and enjoyed in 2010 as well.

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I enjoyed watching the band, the dancers and the people. I took a couple of pictures before the dance floor got too crowded.

This old bow-legged cowboy comes roaring through the door dancing and makes hardy round of the floor before he grabs a brew. A regular, his name is Herman and he really whoops it up. He dances with all the women, young and old and there is no doubt he is having a grand time. When he does a jig I tried to get a video, but about the time you get it started, he’s done with the jig.

After awhile the bar gets so loud you have to shout, even to get a drink. This cute bartender was working our last visit. What a fun time to be sipping a bloody mary, enjoying the music and the circus going on all around you. Loved it!  Thank you Tante Sue for your wonderful hospitality.

Then as we were leaving Mamou, a couple of riders were passing the motor home, just like in my hometown of Murphys. We moved on to Eunice to see a show with new friends from Lake Charles. I’ll blog it tomorrow.

 

LAISSEZ LES BON TEMPS ROULER

Laissez les bon temps rouler, a greeting you hear all over Cajun country. It means let the good times roll, and they do at Fred’s Lounge in Mamou, 10 miles out of Eunice. We arrived by 7:30 in order to get a seat when the bar opened at 8 A.M. Fred’s is only open Saturdays with live music, drinking and dancing. The two couples below were the early birds along with Jim and I. Calvin Daigle, standing closest, brought breakfast from Charlies Place around the corner, a heaping pile of boudin, (boydan) in a piece of butcher paper along with a paper bag of cracklins. The still warm sausage, slightly spicy with a soft texture more like stuffing than meat was wonderful. I believe it had rice in it. The cracklins were inch thick pieces of bacon fried crisp, unlike any cracklins I ever tasted. Calvin and his wife Nonie, (next to the wall,) are regulars at Fred’s. Sally and Mike Wenckus are from Golf, Ill.

Before the musicians had set up to play, a crew of guys out back iced down beer to keep the refrigerators inside full. A couple of guys set up a pot to make jambalaya. Some one asked what time it would be ready? “Oh, somewhere between 9 and 2, he claimed.” No charge for the jambalaya. Its part of the “experience.” We walked out back and claimed a heaping bowl full around noon. Good stuff.

Getting the meat started for the jambalaya.

Nonie & Cal started the dancing before it got crowded. The Cajun musicians were Scotty on Accordion, Jason on Violin, Ray on drums, who also sang, and Smiley on guitar. No fanfare or introductions, Nonie told me their names because she knows them all. They just play, with no breaks from 9 until 2. Sometimes longer. The music is broadcast live  from Freds and a different group plays each Saturday.

After a couple hours the crowd looked like this. Then, later, you couldn’t get back far enough to take a picture. It was necessary to slide between people. I slid by this one guy with a clothes pin and money attached to his beads. He told me it was too crowded to get his money out of his pocket so he carries it “up-front.” Everyone is friendly and polite. No cross words spoken or drunken behavior evident, although the rules are, no standing on the jukebox, bar, or tables. And no kissing on the lips. Leon, in the striped shirt above, told me he kissed his girlfriend and owner,  Tante Sue,  wapped him on the head with her “no kissing” stick.

These two out-of-town women have been friends for 55 years. The Justice Of The Peace, on the left, offered to marry Jim and I, and rescind it for no extra charge, but we declined.

Tante Sue keeps the whole shebang running. Between slapping beers on the bar, counting change, cleaning up a cans, bottles and glasses, she is known to break into dance with the music while playing the accordion on her shirt, reach in her holster for some “Hot Damn”, take a slug and yell “Quinta!” (which means Who Dat?) In fact, she sometimes tastes a new pint of Hot Damn before handing it over to the customer.

This couple pilgrimage to Fred’s twice a year. She once lived in Santa Barbara, CA for four years but couldn’t stay away from Louisiana. They have Targil’s Spices, you can order on line. Everyone is rooting for love-him-or-hate-him Shockey and the Saints, and gearing up for Mardi Gras.

I met Mikell above in line for the bathroom. She is almost ready for Mardi Gras and we coined some folksy wisdom, no matter where you are, be it fancy or folksy, women have to wait in line for the bathroom.