14 Karat Cajun

June 10, 2013

Today I met a 14 karat Cajun. Mr. Boudreaux is the father of my long time family friend, Angie, who lives in Louisiana and opened up his home to me for a couple of days. When I first arrived, Mr. Boudreaux shared with me many stories of when he was in the rodeo. He did various rodeo activities, but the one that stuck the longest was clowning, which he began in 1966. I looked through a photo album that was full of memories from a vast amount of rodeos Mr. Boudreaux was a part of. He pointed out all of his clowning acts and explained how each of them worked. “It’s all foolery,” he said. When I finished looking through the album, he took me to a smaller house out back that he calls his “Clown Shrine.” Seriously, this place blew my mind. The walls were lined with posters from several past rodeos and the room was filled with all of the props and costumes from the acts I had just seen pictures of. There was a levitating table, exploding microphones, and even a huge canon! Absolutely everything used in Mr. Boudreaux’s acts is homemade and supremely done. He’s spent two years perfecting the canon act and hopes to debut it soon. Two giant barrels sit next to the canon outside, one made of iron and one made of steel. Even though they’re padded inside, he said he would still get banged around pretty bad once the bulls hit him. I can’t even imagine how much of an adrenaline rush it must be to taunt a bull to charge your direction, and then have it slam as hard as it can straight into you. He mentioned that looking at the barrel once he stepped out was a scary sight. Mr. Boudreaux is 69 years young today, and when asked how long ago he quit doing rodeos, he said, “Cowboys never quit. They just start and stop.”

 

Mr. Boudreaux's "Clown Shrine"- Lafayette, LA

 

For dinner, we went to Pizza Palace. I know what you’re thinking, “Italian food in Louisiana?” Nope! This place had the BEST po-boys, EVER. I was delighted to meet the owner, Dale, and his family who worked there. Dale was a great story teller, and a very wise man. He explained that he’s had some beautiful times in Lake Texoma, back closer to my home town, where he knows a woman by the name of Jodie Foster. He didn't know THE Jodie Foster, but this was close enough for Mr. Dale. One time, he was telling his friends that he could get them a connection with some people at Lake Texoma, and when he told them he knew Jodie Foster who lived there, they just didn’t believe him. When he called her on the phone, he said confidently, "Jodie, what you doin’ baby?” All of his friends nearly dropped to the floor in shock. As he cackled away, he said to me, “Now you need to remember, a Cajun never spoils a good story for lack of facts.”

After a drive around town and stories from Mr. Boudreaux about everyone that lived there, we headed back to the house and called it a night.