THE BRIDGE

As many of you know, Benny Sylvester is the President of the Cajun Connection for 1998. You may think you know him, but he is a modest man, and there are may fascinating things that he prefers to keep to himself. The truth is, Benny is a dynamic figure. He often impresses his friends by scaling walls or crushing ice in his bare hand. Before turning to the communications field, he wrote award winning operas.

Prior to settling down with Edwina, he used to woo women with his sensuous and god-like trombone playing. Even at his advanced age, he can still pilot bicycles up severe inclines at unflagging speed. He is also an expert in stucco.

Sadly, he is an outlaw in Peru. During the war, using only a hoe and a glass of water, he defended a village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. Unfortunately, the army ant is the sacred bug of Peru.

He is a master of the physical. He plays bluegrass cello. He was scouted by the Saints as a replacement for Archie Manning. When he is bored, he boils hundreds of pounds of crawfish in his yard. He loves urban possum hunting. On Wednesdays, after work, he repairs accordions free of charge.

He is an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless Bourre player. Critics worldwide swoon over his original line of alligator skin evening wear. He doesn’t perspire. He has frequently been caller number nine and has won many weekend passes to Skipper’s and Festivals Acadiens. He bats .400 from both sides of the plate.

Children, like Rickyanne, trust him. He can hurl crawfish into his mouth with deadly accuracy. He once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day, and still had time to help Crawfish Ben prepare one hundred servings of boiled crawfish at Rick’s on the River on a Saturday afternoon.

He knows the exact location of every food item in the Thonotosassa Winn Dixie. He has performed several covert operations with the CIA (Cajun Intelligence Agency). He sleeps once a week. When he does sleep, he sleeps in a chair with his eyes open and sings Jolie Blonde. On weekends, to let off steam, he participates in full contact origami with Edwina. He can make fantastic four course meals using only a turtle and a Cajun microwave. He breeds prizewinning clams. He has won bull fights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. He has played Hamlet, performed open heart surgery, and spoken with Elvis. He is Benny Sylvester, our President.

Just a short note to thank you for an impressive first half year. Can you believe that almost half the year has gone by? All of our outings and events have been financially successful and, more importantly, so much fun. I want to thank all the volunteers, but we could still use more help. All we ask is everyone be ready to give 30 minutes at our events. That way we can all have fun.

We are also very pleased with the newsletter. It has been informative and entertaining, and has really helped us keep the members up to date. However, we feel it still lags in one area, production quality. As of this newsletter, we have adequate sponsorship to pay for the reproduction and postage expenses this year, but we would need additional advertising revenue to add graphics, color, and better quality paper. If anyone knows of businesses that might be interested in placing an ad in the newsletter, please tell them about us and tell us about them. Also, I want to remind those of you that haven’t paid your dues for 1998, this will your last free newsletter. So pay up, we don’t want you to miss out.

I am also so pleased with all the officers of the club. They really shine. You may want to thank them personally. Additional thanks go out to Tom & Vince and the Skipper’s staff, Joe Thibodaux and all his staff at Cajun Cafe on the Bayou, and Rick at Rick’s on the River for all they have done with the Cajun Connection.

If you think the first half year was fun, keep your eyes open for the 2^nd half.

Congratulations members, we are approaching one of the best times of the year to be a member of the Cajun Connection. Many of you have signed up for Fort Lauderdale. If you are reading your first newsletter, the Fort Lauderdale Cajun Zydeco Crawfish Festival is held every year on Mother’s Day weekend. This year the event will be held on May 8, 9, and 10. Most members will be staying at the Fort Lauderdale Hampton Inn. It may be a little late to make plans as you are reading this, but we have included the flyers of the past issue in this one as well if you decide to give it a last minute effort. I wish you luck.

The Club also has some exciting local events planned in addition to the Fort Lauderdale weekend. On May 15 (the Friday after Fort Lauderdale), we will be hosting Rosie Ledet and her band, the Zydeco Playboys at Skipper’s. If you haven’t heard Rosie, we think you will enjoy her. Most members are very familiar with her sexy and energetic musical style. This is a first class Zydeco band, and the dancing will be great. Doors open at 7:00, music around 8:00. We will be serving Macque Choux with Crawfish Tails and Boiled Crawfish.

The great events aren’t going to stop any time soon, either. On Friday, June 5, Skipper’s will be hosting Jesse Leger, Mack Emanual, and the Lake Charles Ramblers. This concert will be a warm-up party for a two-day event that will follow on June 6 and June 7 at Cafè on the Bayou. Joe Thibodaux has plans to create a stage and covered dance floor so he can be ready to host the Lake Charles Ramblers and many other bands on Saturday and Sunday. There will also be plenty of Cajun food, crafts, and various other amusements available both days. It should be a great weekend.

If that isn’t exciting enough, listen to this! The Cajun Connection, Skipper’s, and WMNF will be teaming up to bring Boozoo Chavis and his band to Tampa on July 11, the weekend following the Fourth of July. This is a great opportunity to see a Zydeco legend in action. Boozoo is truly one of the pioneers of Zydeco. Name virtually any Zydeco performer active today, and I will guarantee that they play songs that Boozoo has been performing for decades. Boozoo may be in his seventies, but he can still play high energy music all night long. If you miss this show, you will be missing one of the best dance parties of the year.

We will definitely miss you. Just so won’t be too miserable, let me tell you about some stuff happening that may cheer you up a little.

On Friday, May 8, Beausoleil will be at Frankie’s Patio, giving you the opportunity to do some Cajun dancing to the real thing. However, if Beausoleil is not your cup of tea, you also have the opportunity to dance to the Northern Mexican accordion music of Grupo Vida and the Texas Swing of Don Walser and his Pure Texas Prairie Band at Skipper’s the same night.

The concert at Skipper’s Friday night is a kick-off party for the WMNF Lone Star Festival scheduled for May 9, the next day, at Vinoy Park in St. Pete. WMNF has scheduled at least 12 or more Texas bands that will begin at 11:00 AM and play into the late evening. The genres will range to the previously mentioned Nortegno and Swing, to blues, folk, rock, rockabilly, country, and if it’s possible, more. I am sure that I would be going to Vinoy Park if I wasn’t going to Fort Lauderdale, it sounds like a unique and entertaining experience.

So if you aren’t going with us, you can at least stay busy and get in some quality dancing. But we will miss you anyway.

If you listen real close to old Cajun music you can hear a little French Celtic, blues of African American, fiddle music, and some influence from Spanish America. All this blended together is what we now call Cajun music.

We can thank a jewelry store owner in Rayne, Louisiana for the first Cajun recording made in New Orleans on April 27, 1928. Amadee Breaux and Joe Falcon married into the same family and both played the accordion. Joe courted Amadee’s sister Cleoma. Women performing Cajun music is still rare. Crowds thronged to hear their powerful music and ogle at the pretty petite brunette who could play the guitar and sing.

Then there was Amadee Ardoin who was an African American accordionist, whose passionate singing left a influential legacy to both Cajun and Zydeco music. He played with a white man Dennis McGee. Amadee would make the people cry when he sang. I don’t want to say the singing was bad in those days. I’ll just say it was mournful. Wow!!! Was it mournful. Ha Ha Ha. But he made so many standards that are classics today. I can recall listening to all these songs when I was growing up in Louisiana. They are the same songs you hear at our Cajun outings today.

Tragically, racism caught up with Ardoin at a very young age. He was savagely beaten after a white woman used her handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his face at a dance he was playing. We all know how hot a Cajun outing can get. They rode over him with a Model A Ford, back and forth. Then, they just threw him in a ditch. Ardoin survived, but he could never sing again. One of the great legends of Arcadian music died in a mental hospital in Alexandria, Louisiana.

For more history and pictures you may want to buy FAIS DO DO - A CAJUN ROMP, or the CD CAJUN DANCE PARTY FAI DO DO. For any French interpretation at our outings, just ask me - some are real funny.

The Cajun Connection is jumping head long with both feet into the 90’s!

We want your E-mail address. To keep you better informed with up to date information, we would like to put together an E-mail directory of our members and friends. The addresses on the list will not be given to anyone else, so if you’re worried about junk mail, "it ain’t comin’ from us." Sign up now! Send your E-mail address to kopacz@gte.net (all lower case, no caps.) We’ll set up an E-mail tree and take advantage of this silly ol’ technology to make sure we keep in touch and pass a good time!

Here’s a list of some upcoming festivals. Some we know are good, others, who knows? But if you get the bug (and I don’t mean mud bugs) check them out. You may want to call first, schedules are subject to change.

05/01-03 Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, Breaux Bridge 318-332-6655 This is a biggie! Just ask Benny & Edwina

05/07-09 Cochon de Lait Festival, Mansura, 318-964-2887

Wayne Thibodeaux & Wayne Toups

05/08-10 Cajun Zydeco Crawfish Festival, Ft Lauderdale FL, 954-761-5934 OK, so it’s not in Louisiana, but it may as well be.

05/29-05/31 Jambalaya Festival Gonzales, 504-647-7487 Family entertainment & local bands.

05/31 Blessing of the Shrimp Fleet, Bayou Barataria / Lafitte 800-689-3525 Parade of boats, food & dancing at the St. Anthony church fair.

06/05-06 Mamou Cajun Festival, Mamou, 800-346-1958 Kevin Naquin, Mark & Ann Savoy, Jamie Berzas, Donald Thibodeaux & more.

06/07 French Market Tomato Festival, New Orleans 504-522-2621 R&B, Caribbean, Jazz & more. A real musical gumbo.

Mike and I were fortunate to spend a week in N.O. in January. Mike was working there and I took advantage of the opportunity to join in a dancing adventure. I arrived on Saturday morning after he’d spent a week paving the way. Did he have a full schedule awaiting!!

I got my souvenir shopping done day one, then Sunday we headed off to Westwego’s Fireman’s Hall for their 7^th Annual Cajun Music Festival. Great dancing, food, and music by the Dixie Ramblers and the Jambalya Cajun Band made this a highlight event of our trip. My favorite part was the mixer dances... during the dance periodically a whistle is blown and everyone switches partners, moving on to the closest available dancer. We met lots of friendly locals - in addition to others in town just for the festival. We stayed till nearly closing time, then headed off to Tipitina’s for more dancing to the music of Bruce Daigrepont.

Nightly we hit different dance halls. A favorite is the Rock ‘n Bowl. Inside of an upstairs bowling alley with a large dance floor, we danced the night away to File . Another fun spot is Mulate’s where Jay Cormier played. A nice feature at some of the halls is a bench or rail to lean on, usually at the front of the room. It serves as a place to go when you want to dance and sooner or later someone will come up who wants a partner. I took advantage of it and it worked every time!!

Let me tell you about my dancing buddy Toxie. He was at every dance we attended, starting at the Fireman’s Hall. A short, wiry guy in his late 70’s, Toxie outdances everyone. With no technique but lots of energy and life, he’s occasionally known to say "OK, let’s get down" and proceed to bend his knees till he’s nearly to the ground. He loves showing off his younger partners to his dancing buddies. He told me stories of his younger life and about being old and alone, having lost his beautiful Cajun wife only a few years past. Although lonely, he keeps dancing, saying it keeps him going. I can testify dancing has gotten me through some rough times, as I’m sure it has for many of you. So everybody, lets keep on dancing til we can’t dance no more!!!

We have many new members now, so we thought we would bring them up to date on some facts about the club.

The Cajun Connection is an incorporated non-profit organization. We have approximately 200 members as of this date and we are administered by a board of directors who are elected annually at the year end Christmas party. The board members for 1998 are as follows:

Membership also entitles you to free admission to the annual Christmas Party, as well as the pre-pay price at Skipper’s Smokehouse when you show your card at the door, except when the concert is a fund raiser (WMNF shows, etc.).

The Cajun Connection hot line number is (913) 986-7978.

The mailing address is:
Cajun Connection
P.O. Box 447
Thonotosassa, Florida 33592

Club business is governed according to rules established in a set of adopted by-laws. If you wish to read this fascinating document, contact us and we will send you a copy.

Is there more you would like to know? Call the hot line and we will be glad to get back to you.

Dance lessons will resume on Sunday, May 31 at Come Dancing Studio - located at the rear of Britton Plaza (3802 South Dale Mabry). The fee is $15 for individuals or $25 for couples. Advanced lessons will begin at 6:00 P.M. and beginners will begin at 7:00. The advanced class will be encouraged to stay and help out with the beginners. If it is raining, you must bring an extra pair of shoes because wet shoes and bare feet will stain the dance floor according to the owners. Contact Peggy Hildebrand at (813) 977-4976 by May 25 to confirm that you will be taking the lessons. Advanced payment is preferred.

Well, it pained him very much and also worked on his mind. What in the world was in there? Why the big secret?

Poo Yaille! What was poor Boudreau to do? One day Clotile went to Walmart to buy some new coffee cups. She had just left when Boudreau went to her room, got on all fours and froze in front of the box like a bird dog pointing at a covey of quail. He put the box on the bed and cautiously opened it. Voila! Inside the box were six eggs and $1,000 cash. Satisfied at seeing nothing dramatic, he was about to close the lid when in walked Clotile.

"Boudreau, I tol’ you not to touch ‘dat! What you tink you doing, anh? Damn to hell, you!"

"Mais, Clotile, I’m very sorry. Please excuse me it’s just that for 35 years I tought about the damn box an’ I couldn’t stand ‘dat anymore. I promise to never touch it again. But tell me, what mean those six eggs and all ‘dat money?"

"Well Boudreau, I take pity on you, so, I gonna tol’ you what ‘dat means. See ‘doze six eggs - mais, ‘dat’s the times you was not too good in the bedroom."

Boudreau taught to hisself "Hmm six times in 35 years," and was mentally patting hisself on ‘de back. "What is is ‘de $1,000 for, I gotta know ‘dat too?

"Well, sha’dat $1,000 is the money I have left from all ‘doze eggs I sold."

1. Mix all ingredients together in a large pot; stir well.
1. Cover and simmer about 45 minutes; stir often.

If you'd like to join The Cajun Connection, please email us today!

or complete our online membership form right now!

Please Sign Our

Return to Main Page

Cajun Music | Cajun Food | Cajun Links | Party Highlights | Skip's Calendar

Site designed and maintained by Spycè ©1997,1998

This Bourbon Street Ring site is owned by Tampa Bay Cajun Connection. [ Prev | Skip It | Next 5 | Random | Next ] Want to join the ring? Get the info.

This Cajun Ring site site is owned by Tampa Bay Cajun Connection. [ Prev | Skip It | Next 5 | Random | Next ] Want to join the ring? Get the info.

Return to Top of Page.

This website is a member of The Ring of Fire, > a linked list of chilehead websites. To visit other sites in the ring, click on one of these links. [ Next Site | Skip Next | Next 5 | Previous | Skip Prev | Random ] Click Here for information on how to join the ring or look at a complete list of Ring of Fire members.

---

Get your own Free Home Page