Angola to Zydeco
Louisiana Lives
Publication Year: 2011
Angola to Zydeco: Louisiana Lives is a collection of creative nonfiction pieces about the lively personalities who call south Louisiana home. Originally published in newspapers based in Lafayette-Times of Acadiana and Independent Weekly-the twenty-five profiles and features provide intriguing glimpses into the lives of well-known Louisianans such as James Lee Burke, Ernest J. Gaines, Elemore Morgan Jr., Buckwheat Zydeco, Marc Savoy, Boozoo Chavis, Calvin Borel, Santy Runyon, and Eddie Shuler. Author R. Reese Fuller also details the sometimes zany and sometimes tragic subjects that populate the cultural landscape of south Louisiana, from Tabasco peppers to Angola prison to cockfighting.
Fuller brings years of experience in the newspaper industry to bear on this collection, offering behind-the-scenes access not available elsewhere. Of particular note are his interviews with musicians and local celebrities, who reveal how their love of the region has influenced their work. Fuller's natural approach to storytelling creates a book that is a joy to read and truly represents the people of south Louisiana.
Published by: University Press of Mississippi
Cover, Title Page, Copyright
Contents
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pp. vii-viii
Preface
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pp. ix-xi
I landed the job, but I already had other plans. I had arranged to tour Angola, Louisiana’s maximum security prison, with a group of criminal justice students. And this new gig was getting in the way...
Acknowledgments
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pp. xiii-xv
Thanks to all of the people who are featured in these pages. It takes a huge leap of faith to allow a complete stranger into your life to ask you a grocery list of questions. Thank you for entrusting me to tell your...
Angola Bound
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pp. 3-8
Ominous dark clouds lurk in the distance. The tour bus crawls though a field of soybeans, just one of the crops on the eighteen-thousand-acre plantation. The tourists recline in comfortable...
Thanks for the Memories
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pp. 9-13
Joe Burge looks menacing sitting on a barstool behind the counter. He wears a red T-shirt with large dice and cursive white letters that read, “Hi-Rollers—Beau Knows Zydeco.” Next to the cash...
Marc of Distinction
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pp. 14-25
In a field east of Eunice on U.S. 190 sits a large green building surrounded by trees and meandering chickens. If you’re driving sixty-five miles an hour down the four-lane highway toward town, you might...
Line of Vision
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pp. 26-28
Elemore Morgan Jr. sees the fine line between the rice fields and the sky above him. You can call it the horizon. He’ll tell you that it’s where our planet ends and where the limitless...
Down Home with Buckwheat
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pp. 29-33
Tex greets you with an uncertain look in his eyes. He’s either going to go straight for your jugular, or he’s going to lick you to death. His eyes are pools of blue and gray like a cat’s eye marble...
Inside Santy’s Studio
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pp. 34-40
He can tell you the story behind every ax resting at his feet or he could go into detail about all the cats he’s played with, but Santy Runyon would much rather just blow...
A Fighting Chance
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pp. 41-56
It’s a sunny Sunday afternoon, perfect weather for La Grande Boucherie des Cajuns. The pink cheeks of children are painted with butterflies, rainbows, and clouds...
The Return of Swamp ’n’ Roll
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pp. 57-67
The room looks like an electronics morgue. Cables are piled on shelves. A large desk sits in front of a wall draped with wires. On top of the desk is a compact disc player and a plastic owl...
The Man behind Dave Robicheaux
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pp. 68-83
James Lee Burke has seen and heard enough to fill a book. Actually, make that twenty-two books. Burke is best known for his novels featuring Dave Robicheaux, an Iberia Parish...
Signs and Wonders
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pp. 84-92
Greg Kerr runs small ads in the local newspapers with his photo and his phone number. He’s dressed in a white suit with long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and a long, flowing gray beard...
The Last Perique Farmer
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pp. 93-101
Percy Martin farms 235 acres in St. James Parish. With the help of his five sons, the eighty-four-year-old raises tomatoes, bell peppers, and sugar cane. He’s planted twelve acres...
Driving Jimmy to His Grave
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pp. 102-114
Jimmy Martin is being driven to his grave. He rides in the passenger’s seat, heading north on Old Hickory Boulevard through Madison, Tennessee. Driving over the Cumberland River...
Strung Out on a Dream
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pp. 115-125
It doesn’t matter that it’s been raining all week or that the water is rising in the streets. It’s a joy ride for Santeria. Things haven’t gone their way for so long that it’s just part of the journey...
Going Home
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pp. 126-139
When Ernest J. Gaines was a kid growing up on the banks of False River in Oscar, he never dreamed that he would one day build his home alongside the big house of the plantation...
Handfuls of Fire
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pp. 140-146
On a warm September morning, the sun slowly ascends over Avery Island’s harvest. A layer of fog blankets the thirty-five acres of Tabasco pepper plants. About thirty...
Another Man’s Treasure
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pp. 147-154
The community of Hidden Hills near Grand Coteau is aptly named. Behind the wooden-gated entrance, with its no trespassing sign, narrow winding roads surround the thirty-five-acre...
Shelter from the Storm
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pp. 155-158
Outside the Cajundome, a line of cars snakes down Cajundome Boulevard into the parking lots. On the corner of Souvenir Gate, the Lafayette Police Department Mobile Command Unit...
No Room at the Inn
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pp. 159-161
In the parking lot of the Cajundome, Al Pape Sr. and his son, Al Pape Jr., are watching the local news on a small television resting on the tailgate of one of their company’s trucks. The two Avondale...
The Record Man
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pp. 162-174
Country music superstar Dolly Parton has nothing but fond memories of her first producer. “Eddie Shuler was a gifted, special friend,” she says. “With him goes the passing of an...
Don’t You Worry about Boozoo
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pp. 175-184
Anthony Wilson “Boozoo” Chavis lived out his life in Lake Charles, on a few acres he immortalized in the song “Dog Hill.” Born in 1930, he spent his life farming and raising horses...
A Fistful of Hope
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pp. 185-196
A mound of trash, twelve feet long and four feet high, is piled up on the sidewalk—black trash bags, battered blue tarps, an old toilet, rotten boards, a door frame, and broken...
The Forgotten
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pp. 197-207
The clouds, like giant dirty cotton balls, tumble in from the Gulf of Mexico, and the rain pours down. On a two-acre patch of land near Sweet Lake in north Cameron Parish, four campers...
Ride of His Life
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pp. 208-214
The newspapers and sports announcers refer to him by name—Calvin Borel. The jockeys call him “Bo-Rail,” for his preference of riding the rail when he races horses. But his family...
One Day in Jena
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pp. 215-225
Driving northeast on Highway 28 just outside of Pineville, it’s still dark, but the sun’s starting to rise and the horizon is a hue of deep purple. The headlights of eighteenwheelers...
Mourning Elemore
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pp. 226-228
One morning in 2002, while Elemore Morgan Jr. walked through the paintings he had stored in his studio, he told me how he priced his art. It was based upon the emotional...
Index
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pp. 229-240
E-ISBN-13: 9781617031304
E-ISBN-10: 1617031305
Print-ISBN-13: 9781617031298
Print-ISBN-10: 1617031291
Page Count: 192
Publication Year: 2011
