The Cajuns: Americanization of a People

TWO: Atomic-Age Cajuns

ATOMIC–AGE CAJUNS 23 Moi, J’aime Ike [I Like Ike] —Presidential campaign button issued in Acadiana, 1956 “Allons Rock and Roll [Let’s Rock and Roll]” —Song title, Cajun musician Lawrence Walker, 1959 Around 10 P.M. on March 15, 1957, a fiery meteor emitting a shower of red sparks hurtled over south Louisiana, turning darkness to broad daylight before slamming into West Côte Blanche Bay. Windows rattled, some shattered , and police throughout central Acadiana fielded calls from hundreds of frantic citizens. No, they replied, it wasn’t a midair collision, an oil-rig blowout, a “space ship from Mars,” or “la fin du monde,” the end of the world. It was only a chunk of rock from outer space. Significantly, some Acadiana residents assumed that what they had witnessed was an incoming missile and the flash of an atomic blast. They TWO believed that the Soviets had launched a nuclear attack on Baton Rouge or New Orleans. According to the Abbeville Meridional, for example, a local resident “who prefers not being identified said he thought the meteor was a guided missile . . . sent to this area by the Russians for some destructive purposes .” The same article cited Vermilion Parish resident Preston Broussard as describing the meteor’s impact as “like the explosion of weapons used in warfare.” Lafayette’s Daily Advertiser stated, “Some thought it was . . . ‘an atomic bomb dropped over New Orleans.’” In the rural community of Kaplan, schoolteacher Earl Comeaux was putting his daughter to sleep when he observed “the yard light up as in daytime.” At first the event puzzled him, but as he recalled, “It dawned on me that that was the flash of an A-bomb exploding. Since it was in the east, I immediately thought of Baton Rouge, a prime target of the Russians. They would be after the petroleum plants there.” Comeaux knew more than most locals about atomic warfare: a few years earlier, he had served with the Strategic Air Command (SAC), flying on B-50 bombers that carried nuclear warheads targeted for Moscow rail yards. Waking his wife anxiously, Comeaux told her about the mysterious flash and explained that if the capital had indeed been bombed, the resulting shock wave ought to reach Kaplan at any moment. “Well, no sooner was that said than a great boom shook the house,” he recalled. “I was convinced that we had been attacked by the Russians.” Gathering their children, the Comeauxs huddled around their television, awaiting official word of doomsday. After a long night, they learned about the meteor that had crashed nearby.“How terrified I had been for my family and myself!” he recalled.“How ridiculous my reaction to a natural occurrence.”1 Obviously, Cajuns were as susceptible to Cold War anxieties as other segments of American society. But the Atomic Age brought more than the threat of nuclear annihilation to south Louisiana. It heralded a number of trends and events that moved Cajuns toward mainstream America. For example, Cajuns sought protection from communism in their newfound role as staunch patriots, and they assisted in the vigorous national effort to weed out subversives through McCarthyism. Compulsory military service accelerated the ethnic group’s Americanization, while World War II and Korean War vet24 ATOMIC–AGE CAJUNS erans used the G.I. Bill of Rights to complete their schooling, buy homes, and start businesses. This led to improved economic conditions, as did the booming oil industry, which gave many Cajuns their first good jobs. No longer burdened by rural poverty, Cajuns cast aside the antimaterialism of their ancestors and embraced the age’s rampant consumerism. The most popular luxury item they purchased was a television, which further introduced the ethnic group to an English-speaking world beyond the Cajun homeland. Because of the Cold War, the 1950s represented an era of patriotism and Americanism, and in south Louisiana this meant that many Cajun children continued to be punished for using French at school. As a result, the number who spoke it as a primary language continued to decline. At the same time, older siblings grew discontent with the trappings of their heritage and sought to emulate “typical” teenagers elsewhere. They even created their own distinct genre of rock ’n roll, which in itself served as a powerful Americanizing agent. Moreover, the rise of tourism during the era brought thousands of visitors to Acadiana, eroding its cultural insularity and boosting the commercialization...