THE PRAIRIE ACADIAN Culture Center in Eunice, Louisiana, will tell everything you need to know about Prairie Cajuns.
While the Serious Person in your group studies this Serious Stuff, sneak out to the lobby and buy a copy of "Humor Cajun Style" by Dave Petitjean. It will be one of the least politically correct CDs in your collection, but one of the funniest.
'Course, I married a good-lookin' blonde girl. Audrey's her name. Love dat girl. You never saw a woman keep a house spick an' span, nuttin' ever out of place.
'Course, for a Cajun, she ain't da greatest cook in da worl'. You know, one time she says, "Dave, I wanta go some place I ain't never been in mah life." I said, "Good, why you don't try da kitchen?"
Mr. Petitjean's most famous bit is about the Cajun Airline, which has one airplane -- a DC-1 with a big crawfish painted on the side. In the story, the plane "got los' like everyt'ang" in the heaviest "fog you never saw."
And dat pilot [who had a chauffeur's license] got scared, and he got on da radio. Now, I want you to know, we got da bes' radio you can fine. A forty-channel job.
And dat pilot jump on dat radio, and he say, "HAP ME! I'M LOS'! PLEASE, SOMEBODY, HAP ME OUT!" And, man, you could hear him everywhere.
The co-pilot went back to calm the passengers.
He say, "We kinda los'. And, uh, I notice we 'bout runnin' outta gas. But," he say, "I check my watch, and look on da good side: We makin' very good time."
The co-pilot served the in-flight meal, gumbo, then returned to the cockpit. Meanwhile the pilot was still working the radio.
[Sotto voce:] "Hap me! Please, hap me! Please, somebody hap me!"
The Lake Charles tower responded:
"Look, boy, we gonna got you in, but dey ain't got much room to see when you break tru. So, boy," he said, "line yose'f up and got on dat runway."
And, man, dey bus' tru dat fog like dat! And dere's da runway! He make a turn like dat! Put dem flap way down! Hit da runway! Burn rubber like you never saw! T'row out da anchor.
Dey did everyt'ing, man, an' dey still run off da end o' dat runway. But dey didn't wreck.
And, man, da pilot wiped da sweat off his face like dat, and he said, "Man," he say, "dat's da shortest runway I never saw in my life."
And da co-pilot looked to da lef' an' he looked to da right there, an' he say, "Right, man. But look how wide dat t'ang is!"
You can book Mr. Petitjean and buy his comedy albums through the Web link above.
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