Acadiana Profile August-September 2013

40

table des matières

In Every Issue 4 Free-lancing

A Tradition of Excellence in the Graphic Arts

Celebrating 45 years by trent angers

6 Nouvelles des Villes

News Briefs From Around Acadiana

by william kalec

10 De la Cuisine

Late Summer Seafood

by marcelle bienvenu

14 Les Artistes

From the Kitchen to Congress Street

The meteoric rise of Lafayette landscape artist Kelli Kaufman parallels the almost-fantastical nature of her abstract portraits of Acadiana. by william kalec

22 La Maison

Queen of the Bayou Teche

This palatial landmark reigns over New Iberia's revitalized Main Street. by lisa leblanc-berry

70 Personnes d’Acadiana

Friend of a (Man's Best) Friend

Via traditional and untraditional methods, Roger Abshire of Kaplan combines tender care and strict techniques to train elite police- and personal-protection canines. by william kalec

74 Sur le Menu

Poor Boy Preferences

6 Local Favorites by jan risher

78 Visiter

The Best Things to See and Do

10

14

in Cajun Country compiled by judi russell

80 En Français, S’il Vous Plaît

L'héritage des Indiens de l'Acadiana

by david cheramie

Features 32 Atchafalaya Ramblings

Swamp stereotypes and truths

22

by lauren trosclair

36 Swamp Birding in Lake Martin

by jared perro 40 Reality on the Bayou

by annie ourso 47 Taking the Pulse

A guide to Acadiana hospitals, including specialities.

compiled by elizabeth rose

54 Doctor Profiles

Three doctors share their most difficult cases.

2

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

by minh dang

August/September 2013 Vol. 32 No. 4 Executive Editor Trent Angers Managing Editor Sarah Ravits Art Director Sarah George Associate Editors Haley Adams, Lauren LaBorde Intern Shannon Donaldson Sales Manager Rebecca Taylor (337) 298-4424 • (337) 235-7919 ext. 230 Rebecca@acadianaprofile.com Intern Rebecca Wharton Sales Assistant Erin Maher Azar Distribution/Newsstand Manager Christian Coombs Executive Assistant Kristi Ferrante Subscriptions Erin Duhe Production/Web Manager Staci McCarty Production Designer Antoine Passelac Chief Executive Officer Todd Matherne President Alan Campell Executive Vice President/Editor in Chief Errol Laborde

Renaissance Publishing LLC 110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005 (504) 828-1380 • (877) 221-3512 315 S. College Road, Suite 160, Lafayette, LA 70503 (337) 235-7919 Acadiana Profile (ISSN 0001-4397) is published bimonthly by Renaissance Publishing LLC, 110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005 (504) 828-1380 and 315 S. College Road, Suite 160, Lafayette, LA 70503 (337) 235-7919. Subscription rate: One year $10; Foreign Subscriptions vary. Periodicals postage paid at Lafayette, LA, and additional mailing entry offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Acadiana Profile, 110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005.

Copyright 2013 Renaissance Publishing LLC. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the consent of the publisher. The trademark Acadiana Profile is registered.

Acadiana Profile is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photos and artwork, even if accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. The opinions expressed in Acadiana Profile are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the magazine or owner. www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

3

freelancing

by trent angers

A Tradition of Excellence in the Graphic Arts Before a publication becomes a publication, before it goes to press, it passes through the hands of the graphic artists, or the pre-press production people. They’re the ones who prepare and lay out the components – the stories, pictures and ads – in some orderly, presentable fashion.

In my 35 years as editor and publisher of Acadiana Profile, I worked with a total of about a dozen such artists on a daily basis and came to truly appreciate their unique contributions to the publishing process. Some were steady and constant in terms of their work and personalities. Others were high-strung, temperamental, emotionally volatile – which is not uncommon for creative people.

I learned early on that managing graphic artists is like no other form of personnel management. Special care and feeding are required for this unique breed. If you manage too tightly, you can stifle creativity and encounter resistance in ways you never thought possible – which, now that I think of it, is an act of creativity in itself. If you manage too loosely, you’ll never get to press on time.

In this business, we live under deadline pressure – the pressure to perform well in a timely fashion. In my experience, deadlines brought out the best in some and, as you might imagine, the worst in others. Some thrived and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it when

4

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

Acadiana Profile staffers gather for a picture around a groom’s cake decorated with the Louisiana Acadian flag in November 1977. The original artwork for the flag was produced by the magazine’s art director, Al Esteve (second from left), in 1968; it has since been reproduced in countless business logos and by several municipalities. The occasion for this photo was the wedding of assistant art director Steve Angers (left) and Frances Veazey. Others in the picture are (left to right) Trent Angers, editor and publisher; Theresa Angers Ferguson, ad sales representative; Geraldine Angers, bookkeeper; and Bob Angers, publisher emeritus.

we were driving hard to close out an issue and get it to press.

Others seemed to come unraveled, to falter under the weight of having to produce at a level that was out of their comfort zones.

The technological revolution in pre-press production eased the pressure somewhat, making it possible to do in minutes some jobs that used to take hours.

This revolution occurred midway in Acadiana Profile’s 45year history, particularly in the late 1980s and early ’90s, as the artboard and the T-square gave way to the keyboard, the mouse and the monitor.

The tools of the trade changed completely, though the essence of the trade did not. That is, tools are just tools. The tools don’t make the artist. The sharp eye and fertile, creative mind are the artist’s real stock and trade.

The magazine’s first art director was Al Esteve of Jeanerette, an Army veteran and graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute. He did the heavy hauling for us for 17 years, from 1968 through 1985.

For a short while in the early years, George Rodrigue of New Iberia contributed on a freelance basis, producing ads for something like $10 an hour. Rodrigue, now of “Blue Dog” fame, went on to a highly successful career as a painter and today doesn’t sit down in front of an easel to do an original piece for less than $50,000.

But, back to Al Esteve. He was a fixture at Acadiana Profile, beginning when my dad started the magazine in 1968-69. Al produced thousands of editorial pages, hundreds upon hundreds of ads, and dozens of maps and other artwork. He would show up for work early, read the newspaper, line up his work on his artboard, then punch in only when the clock struck 8. He was conscientious, disciplined in his craft and personal life and was a true master of pre-press production. Technically, his work was very near perfect. What a joy to work with a guy like that!

Among his notable accomplishments, his enduring masterwork was the pre-press production of the Louisiana Acadian flag. Using a rough sketch from USL’s Dr. Tom Arceneaux (the creator of the flag), Al produced the cameraready artwork needed for the mass production of the flag. And, boy, was it mass-produced, being used over the past 45 years by scores of businesses, many municipalities and, of course, on the cover of Acadiana Profile for more than four decades.

Al was joined in the art department by my brother, Steve Angers, in 1972 while he was still at USL studying commercial art. Even today, Steve speaks of Al with great respect and gratitude. Al was Steve’s mentor and may have taught him as much under his tutelage as Steve learned while getting his college degree.

Steve became another Al; we sometimes even called him “Al Junior.” Not only was his work technically excellent, but he brought an abundance of fresh, new ideas and an artistic flair to the magazine that made many editions true works of art in the 1970s and ’80s.

Steve worked with Al for about 12 years. Shortly after Steve left the magazine to pursue other business opportunities, Al retired.

A few years later Steve started Angers Graphics and moved back to the building that had been occupied by Acadiana Profile, at the corner of University and McKinley in Lafayette.

With Steve and Al both gone, we hired a few short-termers who were followed by Tom Sommers – a quiet, steady, mildmannered worker like Al. Tom worked as art director for eight years and was followed by two other guys who ran the art department for about a year each.

In 2000 Jonathan Russo came aboard. His work, like Al’s, was technically near-perfect. About the only difference was that Jon did his work on the computer rather than on the artboard.

Jon worked for the magazine for 11 years, until it was sold to Renaissance Publishing in December of 2010.

MAGAZIN Taking over from Jon was ILE E CE OF R Jenny Hronek, and from Jenny was Sarah George. Sarah is the latest in a long line of artists who have taken great pride in the graphic excellence of one of the longest-running regional magazines in the nation. ap P

ACADIA NA

G ATIN BR LE

45

questions or comments about this column can be addressed to tcangers @ cox . net .

sur le web

If you can’t get enough Acadiana Profile, check out our redesigned website. With our new look, everything is easier to read on your smartphone or tablet. Flip through the issue archive, renew your subscription, or read the English translation of En Français, S’il Vous Plaît. You will also find content from all of Renaissance Publishing’s publications, including Louisiana Life and New Orleans Magazine. You can find it at AcadianaProfile.com.

For up-to-the-minute information about Acadiana events, recipes and fun photos, make sure to like Acadiana Profile on Facebook and follow @AcadianaProfile on Twitter.

Attention Festival-Planners!

Help Us Promote Your Event!

Go online to AcadianaProfile.com, and click on “Submit an Event to Acadiana Profile” to let us know about festivals, shows or special events coming up in your town.

Remember, the sooner we get the information, the better able we are to help you.

Want to contact the Acadiana Profile staff by email? Want to see one of your events on Acadiana Profile’s Facebook page? Send feedback to Managing Editor Sarah Ravits at sarah@acadianaprofile. com.

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

5

nouvelles des villes

by william kalec

by William Kalec Hobbyist Wins Duck-Carving Awards ERATH – Grant LeBlanc went from a whittler of wood to World Champion in the course of a weekend.

The 70-year-old hobbyist won two first-place distinctions for his wooden duck and pintail at the 43rd Annual World Championship Wildfowl Carving Competition in Ocean City, Md. After dominating their individual species division, LeBlanc’s two prized carvings were judged against each other, with LeBlanc’s wood duck bettering the pintail (which judges determined floated erratically) to move into the “Best of Show” finals. Once there, judges further dissected LeBlanc’s already-intricate piece of art, claiming a certain feather was painted the wrong color and that the wing-length was less than a half-inch off.

Prior to making his mark at the World Championships, LeBlanc flexed his wood-carving muscle at a regional event in Mandeville late last year. At the 35th Louisiana Wildfowl Festival,

Wood Duck by Grand LeBlanc

LeBlanc (who belongs to the Acadian Wood Carvers Guild in Abbeville) snagged four firstplace ribbons including “Best in Show” for his breathtaking wooden Drake – a labor of love that took nearly a year to complete. Cumulatively, LeBlanc estimates it takes nearly 400 hours of work to craft these award-winning ducks.

Louisiana Spirits Rum Distillery Opens in LaCassine LACASSINE – For drivers commuting between New Orleans and Houston on Interstate 10, Jeff Davis Parish is starting to turn into more of a destination than a pit stop. With its Oil and Gas Park already attracting more than a million visitors a year, local tourism received another shot

(pun intended) with the longanticipated opening of the Louisiana Spirits rum distillery.

Set on 25 postcard-worthy acres of land accented by rows of cypress trees, Louisiana Spirits offers guided tours and rum tasting at its 18,000 square-foot facility. The site also includes a gallery celebrating the state's historic role as a sugar cane producer and rum distiller, a 109 year-old farmhouse (the first home built in Iowa, Louisiana) that has been saved and relocated, plus a gift shop.

Tim Litel, Skip Cortese and Trey Litel founded Louisiana Spirits in 2011. The Litel brothers are from the Lake Charles area and have teamed with Cortese, of Baton Rouge, for the venture. Tim and Skip have worked together over Guest gather for the marriage of Gabriel and Evangeline.

6

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

the past 12 years to build and sell environmental service companies. Tim brings his environmental expertise with specialties in operations, compliance and general management. Skip is a successful entrepreneur with an environmental engineering background and specializes in construction and startup management. Trey brings over 25 years of sales and marketing expertise, with over 10 years in the distilled spirits and beverages industries.

Zoo of Acadiana hosts Giraffe Wedding BROUSSARD – After a brief courtship, dozens of locals attended the celebrity wedding of the season as Gabriel the Giraffe and Evangeline the Giraffe tied the knot at the Zoo of Acadiana. For those scrambling to get the happy couple a belated gift, they’re registered at Ranch Outlet.

Gabriel, a 16-foot giraffe, has been a much-talked about and oft-visited resident of the zoo for years. Last fall, though, Gabriel finally got some company when the zoo acquired 14-foot Evangeline from a Wildlife Preserve in Kansas. The couple worked through a brief awkward phase – zookeepers divided the

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

7

nouvelles des villes Shadows on the Teche Plantation Home

habitat initially, separating the two giraffes – before warming up to each other.

Spots in the wedding party were auctioned off to the highest bidder. Music was provided by the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra. The Zoo of Acadiana is open year-round (although with limited hours in the month of December). For more

8

information on when and how to visit Gabriel and Evangeline, go to www.zooofacadiana.org.

New Iberia Attractions Celebrated at Louisiana Culture Awards Ceremony NEW IBERIA – Two local attractions, Shadows-on-theTeche and New Iberia’s Main Street district, were among

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

13 entities recognized at the Louisiana Culture Awards Ceremony at the Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge.

Hosted by Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne, the event honored individuals, organizations and communities making outstanding contributions to Louisiana's culture.

Shadows-on-the-Teche Plantation Home received the Historic Preservation Education Award. The family home that William Weeks Hall bequeathed to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1958, opened to the public in 1961 to tell the story of those who worked in the sugar industry in New Iberia more than 100 years ago.

The Shadows-on-the-Teche's staff developed these stories as teaching tools for students. They created workshops in which participants can live like their

ancestors in the 1900s (including fishing with bamboo poles).

New Iberia's Main Street – a picturesque thoroughfare complete with beautiful old buildings, antebellum homes and a thriving downtown with shops, restaurants, businesses and museums – received the Historic Preservation Main Street Communities Award.

Thibodaux Regional Medical Center Receives Accolades THIBODAUX – For the sixth year in a row, Thibodaux Regional Medical Center received the HealthGrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award. The annual distinction is given to facilities that rate in the 95th percentile of hospitals in terms of favorable reviews from those admitted.

The HealthGrades website compares similarly to other

publicly Conni graded Castillereview sites like Yelp or Angie’s List. According to the website, more than 225 million people have used the site to find and rate doctors and medical facilities. The Outstanding Patient Experience Award is based on the total scores hospitals compile from sub-categories such as punctuality of care, clarity of instructions and diagnosis and doctor-nurse-patient communication.

LCVC Launches New Apps LAFAYETTE – Finding the perfect vacation destination in Acadiana just got a whole lot easier. The Lafayette Convention & Visitors Commission (LCVC) now offers the new VisitMobile iPhone and Android application.

VisitMobile is the ideal way for leisure and business travelers to effortlessly plan and navigate

their Lafayette experience with an online destination guide, interactive map of the area, and access to valuable special offers from industry partners.

“As technology grows, it is important for us to keep up with our visitors’ desire to have as much access as they can to all the great amenities Lafayette Parish has to offer,” says Ben Berthelot, executive director of LCVC. “This mobile app will be a user friendly way for visitors to navigate their stay in Lafayette. We are pleased to get it launched, and we have more technology offerings on the way.”

VisitMobile provides LCVC’s industry partners real time access to travelers through their mobile phones, and enables LCVC to communicate with visitors while they are planning

their travels, as well as once they arrive in Lafayette. The app allows LCVC officials to update content instantly, such as information on hotels, restaurants, shops and attractions, and convey partner promotional offers. LCVC can view detailed reports of how visitors are using the system in real time. The application was custom-designed for LCVC, incorporating photography, logos and color schemes from its brand.

The iPhone app can be downloaded for free by visitors from Apple’s iTunes Store.

The system’s GPS capabilities turn the visitor’s device into a Mobile Concierge making it easy to find nearby attractions, hotels, restaurants and money-saving offers anytime and anywhere. Using VisitMobile’s exclusive Virtual

Location feature, visitors may also explore different areas of Lafayette by selecting any point of interest on the embedded map to visualize what is around them. ap

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

9

de la cuisine

Late Summer Seafood

By Marcelle Bienvenu Photographed by eugenia uhl One of my end-of-summer rituals is to take stock of what’s in my freezer. There are several quarts of smothered okra to use for seafood or chicken and sausage gumbo to enjoy during the blustery cold weather. Lined up neatly next to the okra are four quarts of maque choux (smothered corn) that I love to pair with roasted chicken for Sunday night dinners. The next shelf is loaded with containers of shrimp and a pack of bell peppers stuffed with eggplant and Italian sausage dressing. Behind a large container of chicken stock, I found a pack of speckled trout from a midsummer fishing trip to Grand Isle – an inspiration for a dinner party before football season goes full throttle! I went to find my husband to discuss a menu.

I found him putting away our beach paraphernalia in our storage building.

“What do you think about an end-of-summer dinner party?” I asked.

“Great idea. What’s your menu?” he inquired.

I told him about the pack of fish in the freezer and asked if he had any suggestions. Without looking up from his task, he replied, “How about mini crab cakes, bouillabaisse and avocado ice cream?” He’s always quick on his feet.

My mother’s crab cake (she called them crab chops) is a family favorite – lump crabmeat bound together with cracker crumbs and bechamel sauce. The bouillabaisse recipe is Papa’s – he was a great “camp” cook and often prepared this dish at our place on Vermilion Bay. The avocado ice cream comes from the days I worked at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. It was usually served on St. Patrick’s Day because of the creamy green color, but I find it particularly refreshing after a seafood meal.

My contribution is another appetizer – shrimp croquettes dabbed with remoulade sauce. Here we go!

SHRIMP CROQUETTES MAKES 16 CROQUETTES

1 pound small or medium shrimp, boiled (reserve about 1/2 cup of the boiling liquid) and drained 2 tablespoons butter ½ cup finely chopped onions ¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon paprika 1 cup milk

½ cup of the shrimp broth 2 egg yolks 2 cups fine dried bread crumbs ½ teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon white pepper 1/8 teaspoon cayenne 1 egg 3 tablespoons water Vegetable oil for deep-frying

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

11

de la cuisine

Peel and devein the shrimp. Chop finely and set aside.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes, or until wilted. Add 3 tablespoons of the flour and the paprika and stir to blend. Add the milk and the shrimp broth, stirring constantly with a whisk until the mixture is thick and smooth. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the shrimp and egg yolks. Stirring constantly, cook for about 30 seconds. Add half of the bread crumbs, salt, white pepper and cayenne. Blend well. Remove from the heat and cool thoroughly. (The mixture can be chilled in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.)

Divide the mixture into 16 equal portions. Shape each portion into a small ball. Roll the balls in the remaining 1/4 cup flour.

Beat the egg with the water. Roll the croquettes in the egg mixture and then in the remaining bread crumbs.

Press to help the crumbs adhere. Shake off any excess.

Heat the oil to 360 degrees in a deep pot or fryer. Fry the croquettes, 3 or 4 at a time, for about 4 minutes, or until they are golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve with remoulade.

REMOULADE SAUCE MAKES ABOUT 2 CUPS

1 cup mayonnaise 2 tablespoons Creole mustard 1 tablespoon yellow mustard 3 tablespoons ketchup ¼ cup finely chopped green onions 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves 2 tablespoons finely chopped celery 1 teaspoon minced garlic 2 teaspoons prepared horseradish ½ teaspoon paprika Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl and whisk to blend. Season with salt and pepper.

Chill before using.

MINI CRAB CHOPS M A K E S 1 2 PAT T I E S

3 tablespoons butter 3 green onions, minced

1 egg, beaten ½ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper 2 dashes hot sauce Cracker meal or bread crumbs for dredging Butter and vegetable oil for frying

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 cup milk 1 pound crabmeat, picked over for shells and cartilage 20 saltine crackers, finely crumbled

12

Heat the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the green onions and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring for 1 minute.

Slowly add the milk, stirring constantly, until the

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and add the crabmeat, cracker crumbs, egg, salt and cayenne.

Gently mix together and set aside to cool completely. (The mixture can be chilled in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.) Shape the mixture into 12 patties.

Dredge the patties in the cracker meal or bread crumbs, coating evenly. Put about ½-inch of equal parts vegetable oil and butter in a skillet over medium heat. Fry the patties until they are golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels.

C R E O L E TA R TA R S A U C E 1 egg 1 tablespoon minced garlic 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon chopped parsley 2 tablespoon chopped green onions 1 cup olive oil ¼ teaspoon cayenne 1 tablespoon Creole mustard 1 teaspoon salt Combine the egg, garlic, lemon juice, parsley and green onions in a food processor. Process for 15 seconds. With the processor running, gradually add the oil through the feed tube. Add the cayenne, Creole mustard and salt, and pulse to blend. Cover and chill in the refrigerator before using.

PA PA’ S B O U I L L A B A I S S E M A K E S 6 – 8 S E RV I N G S

2 ½ pounds firm white fish fillets (such as speckled trout or redfish) Salt and cayenne, to taste 1 stick butter 3 cups coarsely chopped onions

2 cups coarsely chopped green bell peppers 2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced 4 cups chopped canned tomatoes with their liquid 6 bay leaves 1 pound medium-size shrimp, peeled and deveined ¼ cup dry white wine 2 tablespoons chopped freshly parsley leaves Cut the fish into two-inch chunks. Season the fish generously with salt and cayenne.

Melt the butter in a large, deep, heavy pot over medium heat. Combine the onions, bell peppers, celery, and garlic in a bowl. Season with salt and cayenne, and toss to mix. Place 1/3 of the vegetables on top of the butter and spread evenly on the bottom of the pot. Place 1/3 of the tomatoes and 2 bay leaves on top of the vegetables. Place 1/3 of the fish on top of the tomatoes. Repeat the process until all is used.

Add the shrimp on top of the final layer. Add the wine down the sides of the pot. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 1 hour without removing the lid.

Serve in deep soup bowls and garnish with the parsley. In the old days, rouille, a garlic-flavored

mayonnaise was drizzled on top of the soup.

Accompany with hot French bread.

AV O C A D O C R E A M PA R FA I T M A K E S 6 S E RV I N G S

1 large very ripe Haas avocado, peeled, pitted, and chopped 2 ½ tablespoons fresh lime juice 6 tablespoons sugar ½ cup heavy cream 1½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract 4 cups French vanilla ice cream, slightly softened Whipped cream for garnish Fresh lime zest for garnish Put the avocado and lime juice in a food processor blender, and puree until smooth. Add the sugar, cream and vanilla, and blend again.

Remove from the container and stir into the ice cream. Spoon about 3/4 cup of the mixture into each of 6 parfait classes. Cover and put in the freezer until the mixture firms up, about 4 hours.

Before serving, garnish the tops of the parfait with a little whipped cream and lime zest. ap

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

13

les artistes

Coastline | oil and wax on wood panel

From the Kitchen to Congress Street 14

The meteoric rise of Lafayette landscape artist Kelli Kaufman parallels the almost-fantastical nature of her abstract portraits of Acadiana.

BY WILLIAM KALEC Wispy clouds disintegrate among the magnificence of an indigenous sky in which blues and greens fight with reds and purples. Reeds poke up in the foreground like french fries in a carton. The basin water stretches to the undefined horizon, performing a subtle, respectful dance with those dependent of its splendor.

We’ve been here before. It’s so familiar, but because of artistic license, it appears so foreign. These landscapes Kelli Kaufman creates remind us of moments when we briefly divert attention from the road and sneak a look left on a two-lane highway, when Saturday

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

15

les artistes

afternoons at the camp say goodbye to the oncoming evenings, when we go out of town and proudly tell strangers not only how Acadiana looks, but how it feels.

The comforts found in her colors tell us we’ve seen this place before – a scene that could be anywhere, because it looks like everywhere, even though it is nowhere.

“I want this to feel like home when your eyes are closed – what you see in your mind,” Kaufman says. “You can’t find my paintings on a map. When I started out, you could.

Photos were my crutch. My husband is an avid duck hunter, and I’d look at the pictures he’d save on his computer. But that’s evolved. It allows you to do more as an artist. I love an active sky; I love the subtlety of the marsh. It’s representative of Louisiana, but the scenes I paint come intuitively.”

Painted using a blend of oils and cold wax (the combination enhances the dream-like quality of the piece, she explains) Kaufman’s landscapes and marshscapes are now created, housed and showcased in a place that’s ironically very much on the map – 108 West Congress St. in Lafayette, to be exact. In May 2013, Kaufman leased, hustled to restructure, and redecorate a former commercial office so that she could open her very own studio/ gallery just in time for that month’s regular ArtWalk. Though she’s only sold pieces for three years, the 1,500 square-foot facility affords Kaufman the ability to comfortably work on inprogress commissioned pieces while displaying her style to the public via a storefront in hopes of attracting new clientele.

TOP LEFT: Marsh Whisper, oil and wax on wood panel; CENTER LEFT: Marsh Interlude, oil and wax on wood panel; BOTTOM LEFT: Artist Kelli Kaufman; ABOVE: Distant Coastal Showers, oil and wax board.

16

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

portrait by Travis gauthier

600 Silverstone Road, Lafayette, LA 337.981.7600

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

17

les artistes

“The chandelier was installed at noon of opening day,” Kaufman the love, but because we needed something to put on these blank says. “That’s how tight it was. It’s all just a dream. For a long time, I walls. And so that continued throughout life. When the babies were never, never, never even dared born, I’d paint for their rooms. It was all for to dream this dream. This was a a purpose, not pleasure. Although, don’t get hobby – something I did in my me wrong, I enjoyed doing it.” kitchen once the kids were gone

When the family moved back to and something I cleaned up Louisiana, Kelli continued painting but before dinner. I’m still a mom, changed her focus toward the topography and I've still got mom things to of the region. A multi-tasking mom, do, but this studio allows me 6 or Kaufman’s artistic routine was wedged 8 hours a day to escape into this between breakfast and before dinner as beautiful dream.” her kitchen doubled as her work space.

The “dream” has evolved Some days, she’d lose herself in the over time, gradually building process, only to be jolted back to reality in grandeur as the calendar with a quick glance at the clock – knowing pages tore. As newlyweds, her family would be back home any the Kaufmans lived in minute. When the kitchen space grew too Chattanooga, Tenn. Kelli’s cramped, Kaufman moved her operations husband was completing outside to her husband’s wood shed. The his medical residency. Their extra room made it possible to work on Silted Bayou | oil and wax on wood panel house, as you might expect, larger canvases. was unintentionally minimalistic designed – a decision based “But this was still just a hobby,” she recalls. primarily on finances. So Kelli, who received an easel set from That changed in 2010. her husband the previous Christmas, decided to pick up a brush.

Kaufman spent one particular afternoon at an open house “I guess I wanted to make a house a home,” Kaufman says. “And event, touring rooms newly decorated by Jeffery McCullough – a so I set up in a sun room and started painting – not necessarily for local interior designer who also moonlights as organizer of The

18

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

Big Easel, arguably Lafayette’s premier outdoor art show held in River Ranch’s town square. Kaufman attended the festival the previous year, and as she examined the pieces on display, she didn’t see much difference between their work and her own. So, with nobody really bothering McCullough on this day, Kaufman introduced herself.

McCullough asked what Kaufman did for a living. Without hesitation, Kaufman blurted out, “I’m an artist.”

“It’s the strangest sounding sentence that’s ever come out of my mouth,” Kaufman says. “So unlike me. It was definitely a leap of faith.”

McCullough sat her down, interrogating Kaufman on her artistic likes and dislikes: what paint she used, what genres she’d explored or dabbled in, who her style mirrored or complemented. Intrigued by her answers, McCullough asked Kaufman to email samples from her portfolio.

“So that’s where it started, and he emailed back, ‘You’re most definitely in The Big Easel next year,’” Kaufman says. “And now he represents me, and I’m in galleries in Mississippi, Florida and New Orleans, so that was definitely a life-changing day – that one statement ‘I’m an artist’ just launched all this. It’s all happened so fast.” ap

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Nature Walk I; Nature Walk II; Nature Walk III, all with oil and wax on wood panel

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

19

20

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

21

la maison

Queen of the Bayou Teche This palatial landmark reigns over New Iberia's revitalized Main Street.

By Lisa leblanc–berry Photographed by chad chenier

22

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

If only walls could talk. In 1886, a flamboyant New Iberia landowner built a unique, four-story columned mansion that was inspired by the fanciful steamboats of the era. With a grand entrance hall, thick curving walls, soaring French windows, two-story-high rounded bays and ornate balustrades, it resembles a grounded steamboat with its half-circle bow facing Main Street and its stern facing Bayou Teche.

It all started when the sixth mayor of New Iberia, John Emmer, wanted to build the most magnificent house that had ever existed on the bayou as a wedding present for his daughter.

It became the setting for many illustrious parties hosted for prominent locals and served as a magnet for some of the biggest power brokers in the South.

Swords were drawn, plots were hatched, and swinging parties were hosted at the famous Steamboat House. The legendary

LEFT: An oil painting by Leroy Evans in the entrance foyer resides above an antique gilded sideboard that Crittenden inherited from her grandmother. BELOW: An architectural marvel, the mansion was designed to resemble the grand steamboats that traversed the Bayou Teche for 60 years prior to the arrival of the railroad in 1880.

residence drew heavy-weight politicos during the Huey P. Long era, after Lt. Gov. Paul Cyr (who owned the home at the time), was elected on Long’s ticket in 1928. Within months, Cyr became Long’s bitter enemy over a controversial murder case, which resulted in the double hanging of a prominent local doctor and his mistress (the first woman ever to be hanged in Louisiana). Cyr schemed and dreamed at the Steamboat House, his place of respite while in town. In 1931, he unsuccessfully tried to force Long out of office and proclaim himself governor, but to no avail. Four years later, Long was assassinated at the state capitol at the age of 42.

Gov. Jimmy Davis once played “You Are My Sunshine” on a grand piano in the parlor, Gov. John McKeithen headlined a party fundraiser, and numerous movie stars have since tried to rent the place from its current owner, interior designer Kimberly Crittenden.

Keeping the tradition alive, she has also hosted many elaborate, star-studded soirées at the Steamboat House, which is located in New Iberia’s historic downtown district.

“Ever since I bought the house in 1994, movie location scouts have tried to rent it from me so they could shoot major films here, and movie stars have also wanted to stay here during the filming of their various movies, but I have always declined,” Crittenden says.

“Tommy Lee Jones’ assistant repeatedly inquired about his renting this house from me when he was starring in In the Electric Mist, which was filmed in New Iberia,” Crittenden continues. “I didn’t let Jones stay here, but he was always sending his assistant to buy a lot of wine at my shop, just about every night.”

A designer, oenophile and wine merchant, Crittenden is the owner of Kimberly’s Interiors in New Iberia, with a second location in Lafayette. “Selling wine can be rather lucrative if you live around here,” she laughs.

The 2009 film, In the Electric Mist, starring Jones and John Goodman, was based on New Iberia award-winning author James Lee Burke’s racy novel featuring detective Dave Robicheaux as the main character. The movie Heaven’s Prisoners, starring Alec Baldwin, was also based on another one of Burke’s best-selling novels and was also filmed in New Iberia. “The Steamboat House appears in one of Burke’s novels that mentions Main Street,” Crittenden points out.

New Iberia’s Main Street that Burke describes in his novels as “the most beautiful in the country” is receiving national publicity after being named one of CNN’s “America’s Best Small Town Comebacks” in March 2013. New Iberia has also earned a “Great American Main Street Award” from the National Trust for Historic Preservation for its revitalized commercial district. www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

23

la maison

ABOVE: A cheerful sun porch off the kitchen is adorned with a pair of matching red leather chaise lounges and an oil painting by James Michalopoulos. TOP RIGHT: Betsy Barrett Hall’s portrait of Annie Laurie, the owner's daughter, embellishes the formal dining room appointed with a Louis XVI-style table and chairs covered in red chenille damask by Bergamo. BOTTOM RIGHT: The den features a Ralph Lauren sofa near chairs and an ottoman upholstered in Robert Allen tiger print velvet.

At the end of September, the picturesque town celebrates its sugarcane harvest on Main Street with the 72nd annual Sugarcane Festival that is highlighted by a fais do do and a boat parade with fireworks on Bayou Teche. The festival is scheduled just in time for cooler weather, with the beginning of autumn on Sept. 22. It’s a lively celebration worth experiencing, and there are historic walking tours featuring the many beautiful residences in the area.

The three-quarter-mile-long historic East Main Street district, which follows the Bayou Teche as it meanders downstream, features 71 homes and buildings that date from 1890 to 1930.

The Steamboat House is the most famous private residence in the district. The amazing 6,900-square-foot, four-story dwelling has seven bedrooms, four-and-a-half baths,16-foot ceilings and 16-inch-thick brick walls.

24

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the magnificent house was built with bricks from the original owner’s brickyard. In the 1880s and 1890s, New Iberia was home to five brick factories, and Emmer owned one of them. With its 16-inch-thick brick walls that were created in Emmer’s kilns, the Steamboat House is a veritable fortress that recalls the bygone steamboat which flourished for 60 years prior to the coming of the railroad to New Iberia in 1880.

It now features a swimming pool, lighted tennis courts and a quaint guest cottage overlooking the bayou. The current owner’s interior décor is decidedly modern, unlike that of the previous owners who kept it in the Victorian era mode and thus quite formal. It exudes casual elegance, and is tastefully appointed with a combination of old and new furnishings and touches of the Far East. The front yard has an Old South style, distinguished by a

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

25

la maison

TOP LEFT: A vibrant oil painting of B.B. King by Thad Morgan, situated above an antique sofa covered in Robert Allen persimmon silk damask, adds a playful nuance to the formal living room.

BOTTOM LEFT: The master bedroom features an adjacent study that is decorated with Schumacher print linen draperies designed by the owner.

RIGHT: A glass-enclosed sun room offers a splendid view of the grounds.

large, historic live oak facing East Main Street. A captain’s walk adds intrigue to the architectural elements of the stately residence.

“I fell in love with the house for the oak tree in front,” says Crittenden. “It’s really a unique piece of property. I was asked to help the owner with the interior design, and I ended up buying it,” Crittenden says.

“The glass-enclosed sunroom is wonderful for entertaining, and it has the perfect overflow for seated diners,” she notes. “It overlooks a 26

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

garden on the side of the house, with a view of the Annie Laurie oak tree that I named after my daughter. My idea was to decorate the home to make it very comfortable. Since I have an interior design business and a shop, I didn’t have to purchase any furnishings or art.

Whatever I had just fell into place.” She says this modestly, although one look around the residence shows that each room was well planned and designed with an experienced interior decorator’s eye for colors and textures, balance and flow, with a nod to its history.

Strolling around the residence is an adventure. There is the counterpoint of intriguing and clever design elements, from the walls of striped silk damask Stroheim & Romann fabric that Crittenden added to the grand entrance foyer adorned with a framed Japanese ceremonial wedding gown, to the stately pair of lacquered fireside chairs near the antique marble mantel in the living room, and the dreamy sun porch adorned with white wicker furniture and gauzy, white sheer fabric that renders an ethereal mood on breezy evenings.

In the master bath, Crittenden added a mirrored area above the sunken tub and surrounded the room with plantation shutters, designed new wallpaper, added dainty chandeliers and a fanciful Alice in Wonderland vanity chair.

“The former owner had these dreary, old and depressing Victorian curtains that made everything dark in here,” she says. “I wanted to take advantage of all the natural light in the bathroom. The owner even had some of the rooms in the house roped off to visitors. It

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

27

la maison

was just entirely too formal.” The master suite, located off the entrance foyer, has his-and-her baths and an adjoining study.

Looking out of the kitchen window, one can see all the way down to the bayou, while viewing the pool area and palm trees bowing in the wind on rainy afternoons. A breakfast room and an art-filled enclosed loggia flanks the kitchen, which is adorned with a buttery yellow Schumacher wall covering. A formal dining room and a luxuriously appointed parlor add a sense of elegance to the otherwise casually adorned living areas.

Aside from the red long leaf pine floors throughout the house (purchased from a nearby church), Crittenden added smooth Mexican tiles to the kitchen area. A view of the deep back lawn sweeping down to the Bayou Teche can be seen from the kitchen, sun porch and also from the rear deck on the second floor. It offers a splendid view of the pool area, which was redesigned by Crittenden after purchasing the home.

“I completely redid the landscape around the grounds,” she explains. “It was just very plain, and now it looks tropical, like something in a Hollywood movie set. You can just picture being in the islands while standing on the porch.”

“The front porch facing Main Street is one of my favorite places to sit in the morning and in the evening,” Crittenden continues. “When I host parties, I can place tables with candlelight on the porch and all around the sides of the house. It’s unbelievable, with the views of the big oak trees, and the beautiful old columns on the front porch. It’s

28

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

LEFT: Seated on the front veranda, one can imagine the many characters that graced the mansion famed for its grand soirées, political characters and spicy liaisons that have enlivened New Iberia for more than a century. TOP RIGHT: A gold and garnet silk sateen-covered Diva wingback chair adorns a corner of the living room. The adjacent foyer is decorated in walls of striped silk damask Stroheim & Romann fabric. BOTTOM RIGHT: Beyond the pool are lighted tennis courts and a cozy guest house on the bayou.

like going back in time. I can just imagine all the many parties that happened here through the years.”

Like the captivating New Iberia characters found in James Lee Burke’s spicy novels, the Steamboat House resonates a storied past with its own thoroughly absorbing cast of characters and the secrets of their long-ago encounters in the mansion, in the moonlight and in the mist near the bayou. There are many stories still untold. ap

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

29

advertising section

30

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

advertising section

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

31

Swamp Stereotypes & Truths There  is  a place in south central Louisiana that is home to towering bald cypress trees that can be more than 500 years old, a realm ruled by nature and overwhelmed by wildlife, where people come to explore. It is the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area.

32

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

“The Atchafalaya National Heritage Area is a program through a partnership of the Atchafalaya Trace Commission, the office of the lieutenant governor and the National Park Service,” says Debra Credeur, executive director of the Atchafalaya Trace Commission. “There is no place like it – the blend of cultures portrayed through the music, cuisine, language, history and life experiences.”

She continues: “My goals are to preserve the cultures and natural resources that give this National Heritage Area its unique identity and also, to encourage sustainable use of the resources, including economic development.”

The Heritage Area, named in 2006, encompasses nearly 1 million acres and spans across 14 Louisiana parishes: Ascension, Assumption, Avoyelles, Concordia, East Baton Rouge, Iberia, Iberville, Lafayette, Pointe Coupee, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, Terrebonne and West Baton Rouge.

“The basin has always contributed economically,” says Jennifer Ritter Guidry, the assistant director for programming and special projects at the Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and the Lafayette Parish trace commissioner. “Historically, it was a place where people actually lived, worked and survived. That has changed a little over time. There are only a few people that still live in the basin, if any. It is still a vital resource for economic development because people utilize the resources of the basin – fishing, lumber, and many other industries. It is also a place for recreation, so you can make money off of it and go and enjoy it. It is a great draw for visitors.

“Because of those things, it also has a very interesting history relative to the history of the state,” continues Guidry.

“How did we develop the crawfish industry? You can pretty much trace that through the history of the basin and the people who lived and worked there, and that is just one example.”

The heritage area consists of lands that were once roamed by tribes, including

the Attakapas, Chitimacha and Coushatta. Then it was controlled by the Spanish and French, and in the swamp itself, the Acadians, after they were exiled from Nova Scotia and settled in the area.

“The culture of the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area is allencompassing,” says Joy Henry Collette, a park guide at the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park & Preserve – Acadian Cultural Center in Lafayette. “Native Americans were the first there and the first who ever used it. When the Spanish got here they looked upon the Atchafalaya Basin as a great big barrier to not be able to cross. But when the French got here, they looked at it as a place to explore. They learned how to dig out canoes from big logs, they made the first pirogues, and they traveled and explored and looked upon it to see how they could make a buck.

“The Acadians were used to being in a rural place because of Nova Scotia,” continues the vivacious Collette. “They wanted to stay rural and in a slightly uninhabitable place so that no one could bother them again. That’s why they liked this area and the Atchafalaya. They liked the thought that no one could bother them and kick them out again.”

Although Collette is originally from Pennsylvania, she considers herself a “backdoor Cajun.”

“People here say: ‘Oh, I can tell you’re not from here,’ but I’ve been living in Louisiana longer than I’ve lived in Pennsylvania,” says Collette with smiling eyes and a hearty laugh. “I left when I was 18. So when I go home, they say the same thing. They’ll look at me and say: ‘Y’all? What’s y’all?

You’re fixing to do what? Get down?’ I say all those things because I consider myself a Cajun. I mean, I married one.”

But, who exactly is considered a true Louisianian – Cajun or Creole?

Parishes in the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area

“Cajun means that you are of Acadian descent,” she explains. “When I started working here, I was most surprised by the distinct difference between Cajun and Creole. A lot of people think it’s interchangeable. Really, we can all be considered Creole in some way, and anyone can say they are Creole, but not everyone can be Cajun.

Creole is of the colony, so if you are born here you really are Creole. Originally, Creole was a distinction between slaves from Africa or slaves born here. Then it was used as a first generation-born people who lived here. It’s all encompassing of anyone of the colony, not necessarily black or white. It’s anyone of French or Spanish heritage that is born here.”

Collette bristles over what she considers outsiders’ stereotypes of Cajuns.

“Overall, when people come here, and from what I’ve experienced with people coming here they expect to see Adam Sandler as the water boy sitting out on the bench. They’ll always ask: ‘Where can I see some Cajun people?’ I’m like: ‘Walmart! They’re people too; it’s 2013 over here, too!’ Cajuns are everywhere, they are what make this area.”

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

33

There is also a commonality among the people on this artist’s palette of different backgrounds that live within the Heritage Area.

Says Collette of her adopted heritage: “People here are generally friendly and resourceful. Take what’cha got and make somethin’ of it. Work hard; play hard. That’s the way it is here.”

“Adapt, survive and thrive,” says David Cheramie, Ph.D., chief executive officer of the Bayou Vermilion District. “Learn to do what has been done in the past in new ways, learn new things to be done in the new environment and create prosperity not only for oneself but for the community at large.”

The heritage area is the most prodigious swamp in North America, and is home not only to more than 200 species of birds – including the icon of the United States, the bald eagle – but also the American alligator, black bear, nutria and others. The Atchafalaya Welcome Center off of Interstate 10 at the Butte LaRose exit has an array of information for visitors, plus a three-to-four minute movie on the swamp life in the Atchafalaya.

34

“Hands down, our most common question is: ‘How do you pronounce the name of the area?’ and, ‘Where they can see alligators?” says Lauren Holmes, the supervisor of the Atchafalaya Welcome Center.

One employee told a visitor: “You say it like a sneeze! Ah-cha! Fuh-lie-uh!”

“The majority of the comments we receive are about how beautiful the swamp area is, the uniqueness of the cypress trees in the water and the genuine people of the area,” continues Holmes. “People come back from swamp tours and are absolutely amazed by the birds and alligators. It never gets old seeing people’s reactions to seeing an alligator for the first time.”

Welcome Center employees greeted each visitor with: “Hello! How are you today? Where are you visiting from?” To which some replied with: “Bonjour [Hello]! Comment ça va [How are you]? Vous parlez français [Do you speak French]?”

“Oui [Yes]!” an employee responded to the visitors from Lyon, France, who were on their way to visit plantation homes in nearby Arnaudville.

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

One of the best ways to see the alligators is with Guy LeBlanc, a swamp tour guide at Lake Martin in St. Martin Parish, in the southern reaches of the heritage area. He has been giving swamp tours with Champagne’s Cajun Swamp Tours for about three years.

“I like bein’ outdoors, and acknowledgin’ the people on da boat who’ve nevah seen this before,” says LeBlanc with a thick Cajun accent. “We see the birds and the ’gators. They all want to know what they eat. The younger crowd – they’re after the gators. They’re not worried about the birds.

“We get people from Australia, Paris, Madrid, England, Belgium and a lot more than that. They have never been in swamp and they want to know the difference between the swamp, the bayou and the lake.”

LeBlanc transports his visitors on a flatbottomed boat that can seat up to 20 people and glide across waters that are not even knee-deep through a labyrinth of cypress trees. Throughout their trip into the shallow swamp, LeBlanc points out birds like a great egret, an anhinga, a young red-tailed hawk still in its parents’ nest and whistling ducks.

He brings them into the shadow of a 500-year-old cypress tree that is now the oldest in Lake Martin because the 900-year-old cypress had been struck by lightning.

He would shut off the engine, and let his fascinated students cautiously creep through the watery paths and they become immersed in the sounds of the buzzing insects, splashes of turtles jumping off their perches to hide, the intertwined singing of more than 200 birds, all the while gazing into the marsh trying to spot an alligator.

When LeBlanc broke the serene scene to rev his engine and continue the tour, a visitor asked, “Do alligators make any noise?”

“Oh, dey make a li’l hissin’ noise, and dat’s when ya know ya gettin’ too close,” he replies.

LeBlanc then revs his engine again to full throttle, throwing up the muddy water like a blender without its top on, and spotted the first alligator of the tour. He killed his engine and excitedly exclaimed, “If y’all look to y’all’s left, you will notice dat I have awoken

a sleepin’ alligatah! Nah, get ready, ’cause it looks like he’s about t’yawn!”

As if LeBlanc controls the alligator by a remote, it yawns, stretches and glances at the fearfully fascinated group and continues its nap under the sun.

The teacher guides his wonder-filled visitors through a corridor that once was a bayou (or creek). He shows them an old deer stand that is a rusted barrel high up in a tree with a missing bottom, which he now calls “the Cajun basketball goal.”

After about an hour and 45 minutes of traveling the swamp, seeing the 12-foot alligators glide across the water and the roseate spoonbills flying across the sky, LeBlanc’s entourage returns to port. Gid-

dy visitors exit the boat, excitedly talking about what they’ve just seen. A child fearfully says, “No! Don’t feed me to the alligators!” The parents laugh.

Everyone thanks LeBlanc.

Jose Cornelisse of Beverwijk, Netherlands, says she traveled on a road trip with her husband to New Orleans and embarked on LeBlanc’s tour.

“I saw this swamp tour on the Internet,” says Cornelisse with admiration glowing in her eyes. “I’ve never seen a swamp before, and I am very interested in the nature and the animals that live here, the ’gators and the trees.” She sighs.

“Beautiful. Beautiful.” ap

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

35

36

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

i t’s a p ri l , t h e m id d l e o f nesting sea s on i n t h e e s t u a r ia l s w am ps o f so ut h w e s t l o u is ia n a , a s th e l ak e ma rt i n t ou r b o a t d r if t s past a c o t t on f i e ld o f e g r e t s .

“The birds are real, real thick in here this year,” says Bryan Champagne, the owner and one of three tour guides at Champagne’s Cajun Swamp Tours at Lake Martin, a roughly 2,000-acre swampland between Lafayette and Breaux Bridge.

Champagne, 49, has been guiding tours on Lake Martin for 16 years.

The Breaux Bridge native said his business takes up to 50 people a day, sometimes more during the spring when the local festival season coincides with the nesting season.

“The birds start nesting midJanuary,” he says. “They’ll nest probably until the end of August.

The best time to see them, I would say, is February, March, April and May because it’s warming up. When you get to the summer, it gets so hot that the wildlife don’t like to move too much. You have to come out in the early morning or late afternoon.”

A protected rookery makes up the southernmost third of Lake Martin.

It attracts more than 20,000 nesting pairs of herons, egrets, ibises, spoonbills and anhingas annually, according to Judith O’Neale, a Lafayette birder and treasurer of the Louisiana Ornithological Society.

On the cool, sunny Saturday, birdwatchers were queued along the gravel road that traverses the eastern edge of the lake. A row of tripods, spotting scopes and telephoto-lensed cameras made the water’s edge look more like an NFL sideline.

“I’m watching a roseate spoonbill,” says Joseph Welch, a 67-year-old who’s been birding since 1988.

The roseate spoonbill is a tall, stunning wader. Sometimes referred to as the Cajun flamingo, the spoonbill’s plumage is reddish-pink at its wings and tail, fading to a white torso and head. The pigment comes from the bird’s diet of crustaceans, Welch says, which it picks from the water with a shoehorn beak.

Although Welch prefers to bird on the stability of land, more adventurous avian oglers sometimes take to the water, seeking to get closer to their quarry.

“It allows you to get a different perspective of the birds and the nests that are not visible from the land,” explains O’Neale, 78, who has been birding for 44 years.

“It shows you a different environment in relation to all the flora and fauna that survive in the water.”

former professional bass fisherman says. “That’s how I know so much about all the plants and the birds and all that.”

LeBlanc’s tour leaves the dock at Champagne’s and heads due south toward the rookery. As the skiff meanders among the lake’s hardwoods, the engine barely hums above an idle.

“Look to the front right in that big clump of grass over there. That’s called the black-bellied whistling duck,” LeBlanc points out just before a pair goes airborne. “The blackbellied whistling duck and the wood duck are the only two ducks that can land in a tree and make their nest in a tree. All the other ducks have to land on the water and they make their nests in the vegetation. I don’t see no ’gators, yet, but I see a blackcrowned night heron off on the left.”

LeBlanc edges the boat closer to the stocky, blue-gray, much shorter relative of the stunning great blue herons that abound Lake Martin.

LIVING ON THE WATER

Guy LeBlanc has been a guide for Champagne’s Cajun Swamp Tours since 2008. With the forearms of Popeye, and a taciturn confidence reminiscent of Charles Bronson, LeBlanc captains a tour that was both tranquil and informative.

“I did all my living on the water in the Atchafalaya Basin toward Morgan City and New Orleans,” the

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

37

LeBlanc later has no trouble locating the lake’s alligators. More than 20 of them, ranging from 2-foot babies to 12-foot leviathans, were spotted during the two-hour tour. Although the alligators dine on the occasional bird, LeBlanc says they actually help protect the population by keeping eggsnatching predators like snakes and raccoons at bay.

“I was surprised by how many alligators we saw!” says Cynthia Weber, a 62-year-old Texan. “I’ve taken a tour in the Atchafalaya Swamp and only saw two or three.”

The Atchafalaya Swamp, located between Lafayette and Baton Rouge, is the largest swamp in the U.S. and the setting for History Channel’s “Swamp People.”

Known by locals as “the Basin,” it is a nationally renowned wildlife refuge, but its 1.4 million acres make it a challenge to navigate.

38

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

“Lake Martin has most everything the Atchafalaya Swamp has as far as birdlife.

It’s just smaller,” says Stacey Scarce, the curator of natural science at Lafayette’s Acadiana Park Nature Station.

“The Basin’s just a lot more open water,” LeBlanc says. “Over here, it’s so small, it’s just confined.

Over there, everything is scattered.

You can go days without seeing nobody. Just don’t get lost!”

With 29 rookeries, the wooded wetlands of the Atchafalaya Basin serve as a refuge for more than 300 discrete bird species, including the endangered peregrine falcon, Bachman’s warbler and ivory-billed woodpecker, according to the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper’s website.

“There are more birds now than ever,” says Ernest Couret, a thirdgeneration guide in the Basin for more than 24 years. “They come

up from South America, like cormorants, spoonbills, wood storks, kingfishers – the list goes on and on. Bald eagles from the Great Lakes. Between here and Stevensville, there’s about 105 (bald eagle) nesting sites.”

QUICK TO THE RIGHT

Couret’s tour entered the immense swamp directly beneath Interstate 10’s 18.2-mile Atchafalaya Basin Bridge, near the tiny town of Butte la Rose. After cruising down the main canals for about 15 minutes, Couret steers the 14-foot aluminum, flat-bottomed skiff into a narrow channel. Like a teenage boy driving through town on a Friday night, the captain points out wildlife as the boat motors through the swamp.

“Y’all look quick to your right, way above that big log there!”

Couret shouts over the revving of the boat’s 25-horsepower motor.

“That’s an osprey!”

Couret explains that the Basin occupies prime real estate amid the Mississippi Flyway, which is a main bird migration route along the Mississippi River. Devoid of mountain ranges, it’s a popular path for transient fowl from as far north as the Arctic and as far south as Argentina.

“There’s a lake I can take you to in November, and in one afternoon, you might see close to 100 species,” he says.

But Couret withheld the location of his honey hole, citing competition among the increasing number of swamp tours in the area.

Couret, a lighthearted veteran who did three tours in Vietnam, recounts how his grandfather began an Atchafalaya hunting guide service out of his houseboat,

until it was destroyed during the Great Flood of 1927. Couret’s father later guided fishing trips in the Basin, once leading Lorne Greene and Michael Landon from the television series “Bonanza.”

“My family,” he says, pausing for emphasis, “we’ve been at this a long time. Since 1890.”

“We didn’t know what to expect,” says Nora Hawkins, 31, from Kansas City, Mo., who took Couret’s tour. “We had seen the show ‘Swamp People,’ but it’s hard to tell what a place is like from a show.”

“I liked the quiet,” adds Hawkins’ 32-year-old husband, Anthony.

“We hardly saw any other boats out there. I can imagine that if I lived around here, I’d own a boat.”

Having seen about 100 birds, four alligators and one water

moccasin, visitors on Couret’s four-hour voyage returned to the landing, which was bustling with boat-towing pickups and the sounds of Interstate 10’s traffic overhead, an abrupt juxtaposition from the solitude of the Atchafalaya Swamp.

“The Atchafalaya is just so expansive that it was hard to see much wildlife,” says Sean Fowler, a 51-year-old Texan. “I know there’s a lot here because every time we stopped, I could hear them.”

Couret, though, seemed no less satisfied with the morning spent on the water.

“Heck with working for somebody!” he says. “You don’t get rich from doing this, but you sure get a lot of vitamin D.” ap

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

39

f

rom the blatant, bushy, bearded boys of Monroe to the notorious “choot ‘em” motto of the Pierre Part swamps, Louisiana reality television, both ludicrous and heartwarming, proves that life in the Bayou State is incomparable to the rest of the world.

“People are so interested in it because it’s a way of life that’s been forgotten,” says Chase Landry, a cast member from “Swamp People” of Pierre Part. “You

40

know, you turn on the TV, and most reality shows you hear about are on the West Coast or East Coast. It’s not even reality; it’s something thrown together.

This show is all about our history and what we do. There is still an older way of life that’s being lived to this day.”

History Channel’s “Swamp People” is considered a veteran in the world of reality television in Louisiana. The alligator hunters debuted their show in August 2010 and are now in their

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

fourth season. The episodes follow the day-to-day life of Cajuns, especially Landry and his family, as they wrangle alligators, among other critters, in the vast Atchafalaya Swamp.

Because of the overwhelming response across the nation to the first season, “Swamp People” was the catalyst for the birth of more Louisiana reality shows. One of the newest is the CMT show “Swamp Pawn” in Bayou Pigeon, relatively close to the Pierre Part crew.

R I C K P H I L L I P S , “ S WA M P PA W N ”

“It’s a big secret we got down here (in Louisiana),” says Rick Phillips, the main character of the “Swamp Pawn” series.

“The rest of the country doesn’t have a clue. So, it’s kind of opening up. That works great with reality TV, because the main thing they’re after is something that’s never been seen before.”

Phillips is a wholesale seafood dealer and processor and owner of Phillips Seafood, LLC, in Bayou Pigeon in Iberville Parish. He classifies himself PHOTOGRAPH DANLEY ROMERO

as a “middleman,” buying seafood from fishermen and then processing and distributing it to restaurants, businesses and markets. Phillips reveals that “Swamp Pawn” is no different from what he’s been doing for 28 years.

“In my mind, the show is an advertisement,” he says, “educating people out-of-state on how good our seafood is, how special it is, and getting them behind it. That’s why I’m doing it.”

As he read fan letters aloud,

Phillips’ face lights up like fireflies twinkling under cypress trees in the late evening. He expresses sincere gratitude toward his faithful followers and the relationships he has built through the show, especially with his production crew.

“You get these people who’ve been in this warp,” he says. “You bring them down here, and their real selves come out. They love it down here. On the last day the [production crew] were here,

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

41

some of them started crying because they didn’t know if they’d be back or not.

It was real heartfelt.”

Phillips says he and producers strive to keep “Swamp Pawn” as authentic and natural as possible. Before any material is sent to CMT, Phillips reviews and approves it.

“I’m kinda like a producer,” Phillips says with a laugh. “They take what I tell them and come up with stories.

Everything we do can happen, will happen or does happen.”

But Chase Landry admits that after the first two seasons of “Swamp People,” producers began to transform the series into a “soap opera.” He says the show is now more fabricated and different from the way it was when it first began.

“I find the first season was the best because they didn’t try to intervene with anything,” Landry says. “They just let us do our natural thing, they showed us doing our natural thing, and that was all they showed. Now, I find they’re

kinda twisting things around. Our crew kinda gets mad at me because a lot of times I butt heads with ’em,” he adds.

“You know, I’m one to do it cut-and-dry and show it for what it is. We don’t need to fabricate or make up anything. So, I kinda get my butt chewed here and there for going against the grain.”

While discussing their shows, both Landry and Phillips acknowledge the stereotypical misconceptions about life in Louisiana. There will always be people, Landry says, who think Louisiana shows are nothing but “a bunch of back-road idiots that paddle pirogues to school.” The misconception, however, does not seem to discourage these reality TV stars. “I just brush it off my shoulder,” Landry says. “If they don’t know about us, don’t pay us any respect or give us the chance to show them that’s not how it is, then we don’t need to worry about it.”

F O C U S O N T H E FA N S Instead, he says the cast members focus on the fans who built the foundation for the show. Visitors from all over the world have come to the small town of Pierre Part in Assumption Parish to meet the “Swamp People.” Landry says these loyal fans see the show for what it truly is, and they are amazed by the unique beauty of swamp life.

Another Louisiana reality show that has captured national attention is “Duck Dynasty,” A&E’s most-watched series. The show depicts the life of the Robertson family in Monroe and its Duck Commander business. However, what may be even more famous than their duck calls are the long, flowing beards of the Robertson men.

“With the success of shows like ‘Swamp People,’” says Alan Robertson, the oldest brother of the family, “cable networks were looking for Louisiana-based families with an interesting story to make a show about. Our family fit what they were looking for, and the show has really connected with America.”

Robertson is not seen on television but assists the family with both the business and the show.

He said he’s known as “Beard Wrangler” at Duck Commander.

ALAN ROBERTSON, “DUCK DYNASTY” 42

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY ALAN ROBERTSON

Phil Robertson made the first duck call in 1972, says Alan Robertson, and today the family produces 600,000 duck calls a year. He says he believes “humble beginnings to successful business” is one reason people like the show.

“Another thing we hear from fans is that they love the spiritual component that is evident with the prayer and Willie’s voiceover at the dinner table,” says Robertson. “Willie says, ‘At the end of the day, it’s always about family sticking together, even when we don’t always see eye-to-eye.’ Another thing people love is the humor of the show, especially as delivered by Uncle Si.” Robertson stresses that the show is true to the family and its values. He mentions that Kay Robertson often says, “They are just paying us to be ourselves.”

Asked how the show is different from other reality shows, Robertson replies, “There is probably not another show on television that appeals to all ages within a family. The show seems to be loved by children, teens, young adults and the middle-aged, as well as seniors.

It’s bringing people together, and we are very proud of that. The show is also good, clean fun with no profanity or vulgarity, which makes it unique in today’s reality genre.”

Heidi Bordogna, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s assistant director of Moving Image Arts and assistant professor of Communication, says she understands reality television’s fascination with Louisiana life.

“A part of the draw is the tax incentives,” says Bordogna, who is originally from New Jersey. “It’s cheaper to film here. Plus, for some reason, there’s mystique about it. You have everything from Cajun to Voodoo culture to New Orleans and all this stuff.”

The professor also says the reality shows are lucrative for Louisiana because they bring interest and jobs to the state.

“I feel the good outweighs the bad,”

Bordogna says, “but I understand the defensive perspective. If people are concerned about Louisiana being portrayed in a negative way, then certainly it isn’t good. But that’s what viewers are looking for. I think people understand that’s not everybody in Louisiana.”

Phillips from “Swamp Pawn” agrees with Bordogna in that he says his reality show helps promote his business as well as the young fishermen of Louisiana. He describes the fishermen as a “treasure” of the state because there are not many left.

WHERE THE HEART IS Phillips, an erstwhile fisherman himself, said he became a seafood processor and distributor because he knew fishing alone would not provide for his family. He says that when he

retires, he hopes to return to fishing because that’s where his heart is.

“That’s what everybody did around here for 300 years before we got modern,” Phillips reflects. “So, where are we going to get our seafood from if we don’t have fishermen?”

As his bright blue eyes gleam with gratitude, he holds up his stack of fan mail as evidence of those who support his earnest, hard-working way of life in Bayou Pigeon.

“Most of the responses (from the show) that I’m getting are from people 40 and up,” says Phillips. “It’s people that miss the old way in America, the old values. They’re worried about their country. They want to see working, happy, nice people. They’re tired of seeing all the stuff that’s on TV now.” ap

C H A S E L A N D R Y, “ S W A M P P E O P L E ” PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY CHASE LANDRY

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

43

EXPLORE THE LIVING HISTORY OF THE ACADIAN, NATIVE AMERICAN AND CREOLE CULTURES

AUGUST 11 Free Acadian Culture Day AUGUST 26 Les Vues Free Film Series: Trashed SEPTEMBER 1 Free Ccochon de Lait with Horace Trahan SEPTEMBER 21 Free Native American Culture Day SEPTEMBER 28 Seed to Skillet Series: Peppers & Preserves SEPTEMBER 30 Les Vues Free Film Series LIVE MUSIC EVERY SATURDAY & SUNDAY

Historic Homes • Gardens Artifacts • Costumed Craftspeople Gift Shop • Restaurant • Boat Tours 300 Fisher Rd (Across From the Airport) (337) 233-4077 • Vermilionville.org

EXPLORE XPLORE THE CAJUN COAST!

DRAG BOAT RACING LOUISIANA SHRIMP & PETROLEUM FESTIVAL AUG. 30–SEPT. 2 • LABOR DAY WEEKEND • MORGAN CITY

This four-day extravaganza of family entertainment includes continuous live music by local and national acts, a huge arts & crafts show and sale, a Children’s Village, the Cajun Culinary Classic, the traditional Blessing of the Fleet and water parade—all with no gate fee!

AUG. 24 & 25

RUSSO’S LANDING • MORGAN CITY

Morgan City is the perfect place for the whole family to experience the thrills, spectacle and speed of the Deep South Racing Association’s outboard drag racing boats. $10 admission

(800) 256-2931 • www.cajuncoast.com 44

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

45

46

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

TAKING THE PULSE acadia parish

American Legion Hospital 1305 Crowley Rayne Hwy., Crowley www.alh.org This hospital hosts 178 beds, 38 of which are in the psychiatric unit, and it has multiple specialties along with a family practice, including emergency medicine, oncology, orthopedics, podiatry, pain management, physical medication and rehabilitation, radiology, vein therapy, wound care, hyperbaric medicine and the da Vinci Surgical System. It has also partnered with Lafayette General Medical Center to serve the newly renovated Acadiana Cancer Center, which provides chemotherapy along with treating the mind and spirit.

A GUIDE TO ACADIANA HOSPITALS

(INCLUDING SPECIALTIES)

compiled for Acadiana Profile by Elizabeth Rose

PLUS: 3 Doctors Share Their Most Difficult Cases

 Oakdale Community Hospital 130 Hospital Drive, Oakdale www.oakdalecommunityhospital.com This 60-bed hospital houses a Siemens Somatom Sensation scanner that creates 3-D images to reduce radiation exposure and examination time for MRIs, and the American College of Radiology-certified mammography unit uses low-energy X-rays to detect abnormalities. The hospital was also recently ranked in the top 10 percent in Louisiana for heart-failure treatment and offers a variety of non-invasive heart services. It was also recently ranked first in the state for pulmonary care, as well as in the top 10 percent in the state for pneumonia care and medical excellence in general surgery. ascension parish

allen parish

Allen Parish Hospital 108 Sixth St., Kinder www.allenparishhospital.com Allen Parish Hospital serves a 50-mile radius in Allen, Beauregard and Jeff Davis parishes.

Along with rural health clinics in Kinder and Oberlin, APH offers home health post-op care for orthopedic, cardiac and general surgeries and homebound individuals. The hospital offers group and individual therapy and professional counseling in its psychiatric recovery unit for mental illness and addiction.

It works with the National Alliance on Mental Illness to provide a free Family-to-Family Education Program that covers everything from medication side effects to current research on mental illness causes.

Cancer Center for radiation oncology and has accredited cardiopulmonary services including respiratory therapy, cardiac testing, MRI center and a telemetry unit where patients have their hearts monitored for 24 hours a day. They also offer three types of surgeries through their bariatric and weight loss program, including gastric bypass, vertical sleeve gastrectomy and adjustable band. assumption parish

Assumption Community Hospital 135 Hwy. 402, Napoleonville (985) 369-3600 Assumption Community Hospital is a critical access hospital in Napoleonville with six beds. Assumption Community Hospital operates as a nonprofit hospital.

Outpatient services includes a stop-smoking program and breast cancer screenings and mammograms. As part of their community outreach, they also provide health fairs and health screenings to Assumption Parish. calcasieu parish

calcasieu parish

St. Elizabeth Hospital 1125 West Hwy. 30, Gonzales www.steh.com St. Elizabeth Hospital is one of four hospitals in the Franciscan missionaries of Our Lady Health System, and its overall patient satisfaction ranks higher than 90 percent of all hospitals evaluated by Press Ganey. It has partnered with the Mary Bird Perkins

Christus St. Patrick Hospital 524 Dr. Michael DeBakey Drive, Lake Charles www.christusstpatrick.org Named after the patron saint of Ireland upon the insistence of Dr. John Greene Martin, Christus St. Patrick Hospital was dedicated on St. Patrick’s Day in 1908 and joined the Christus Health system in 1999 along with the Sisters of Charity Health and the Incarnate Word health care systems. The hospital offers behavior health services with

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

47

an inpatient geriatric program and outpatient care for seniors and a pediatric unit, as well as a diabetes management center, long-term acute care in the Dubuis Hospital within Christus St. Patrick Hospital. It also houses a rehabilitation center and has a free smoking cessation program available through its website. The hospital has also partnered with Southwest Louisiana Imaging to provide MRI and CT services.

Lake Charles Memorial Hospital 1701 Oak Park Blvd., Lake Charles www.lcmh.com Health care services offered at Lake Charles Memorial Health System include inpatient and outpatient services, as well as a full-service trauma and emergency department. A full range of diagnostics and pathology services available include CT scanning, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, MRI, endoscopic and cardiovascular and cancer diagnostics.

From pediatric to geriatric care, Memorial is a full-service health care delivery system.

Specialty services included cardiovascular, cancer, family medicine, ENT, urology, surgery, psychiatry, rehabilitation, pulmonology, orthopedics and sports medicine, gynecology and obstetrics, neurosurgery, internal medicine and pediatrics.

Women’s and Children’s Hospital 4200 Nelson Road, Lake Charles www.women-childrens.com This 88-bed hospital opened its doors in 1984 and has a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Its 36 specialties include the Surgicare of Lake Charles, which specializes in outpatient surgery, as well as a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence that offers three weight loss surgery options. It also offers services in labor and delivery, pediatrics, women’s health, urology and cardiology alongside a 24-hour emergency department.

West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital 701 East Cypress St., Sulphur www.wcch.com The 109-bed West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital recently launched the area’s first specialized program for breast cancer patients, designating a single nurse or other health professional to help patients navigate the path to recovery. It also boasts a sleep center and both cardiac rehabilitation and cardiology services, along with servicing 48

rural health clinics in Hackberry, Vinton and Johnson Bayou. It is the first hospital in Southwest Louisiana to have computerassisting technology for joint replacement and is home to one of the largest joint replacement programs in the region. It also provides therapeutic equestrian services through the Genesis Therapeutic Riding Center for patients with developmental disabilities or brain injuries. WCCH also participates in Shots for Tots to provide cheap or free immunization for children.

Acadiana. The New Iberia facility’s services include cardiovascular, general surgery, orthopedics, emergency care, obstetrics and gynecology surgery and rehabilitations.

It recently implemented the American Orthopaedic Association’s bone health quality improvement program, helping to identify, evaluate and treat patients with low bone density or osteoporosis.

evangeline parish

Mercy Regional Medical Center (two locations) 3501 Hwy. 190 E., Eunice; 800 E. Main St., Ville Platte www.mercyregionalmedicalcenter.com The nonprofit Mercy Regional Medical Center formed when Ville Platte Medical Center and Acadian Medical Center merged in 2010 and now serves more than 97,000 patients annually under LifePoint Hospitals. Between the two campuses, the hospital offers a 24-hour emergency room, a cardiology center, pain management, imaging, dialysis, gastroenterology, gynecology, obstetrics, oncology and more.

Savoy Medical Center 801 Poinciana Ave., Mamou www.savoymedical.com Located just outside the heart of Mamou, Savoy Medical Center boasts a number of amenities that rival large-city hospitals, including a 24hour emergency room and critical care unit. It also offers patient diagnostic services available 24 hours a day, including mammography and bone-density testing. It also offers services for inpatient and outpatient surgery, mental health for both patients and family members and social services to help with hospitalization, childbirth, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and physical, pedodontic, podiatry, plastic and reconstructive, vascular and urological surgeries. iberia parish

Dauterive Hospital 600 N. Lewis Ave., New Iberia www.dauterivehospital.com This 103-bed full-service facility is an affiliate of The Regional Health System of

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

Iberia Medical Center 2315 E. Main St., New Iberia www.iberiamedicalcenter.com This 101-bed hospital focuses largely on children’s services through the KidMed program and children’s center, aided by a Pediatric Group of Acadiana collaboration that started in April 2012, and an entire women’s health department works to provide breast health, gynecological, maternity and nursery services. The hospital also operates out of a Jeanerette Rural Health Clinic and is partnered with Acadiana Diagnostic Imaging, Iberia Extended Care Hospital and the New Iberia Surgery Center. jefferson davis parish

Jennings American Legion Hospital 1634 Elton Road, Jennings www.jalh.com This hospital recently renovated a 5,000-square-foot area to house the only cardiac catheterization lab between Lake Charles and Lafayette, where Jennings American Legion Hospital can offer interventional procedures along with nuclear stress testing and echocardiograms for those who have recently undergone heart procedures. The 24,000-square-foot medical office building and 32,000-square-foot patient tower allow JALH to provide patients with an emergency room, cardiology unit, surgical care, maternity ward and radiology services.

st. james parish

St. James Parish Hospital 1645 Lutcher Ave., Lutcher www.sjph.org This nonprofit hospital opened its doors in 1955 and has grown to a 20-bed acute care facility that boasts it is “large enough to serve, small enough to care.� The cardiopulmonary department serves every age group, and the radiology department provides ultrasounds, digital mammography, fluoroscopy, nuclear medicine and bone density testing. The sleep center focuses mostly on sleep apnea, and they provide general, orthopedic, endoscopic and ophthalmological surgeries, along with wound care for ulcers, infections and skin grafts. st. john the baptist parish

River Parishes Hospital 500 Rue de Sante, LaPlace www.riverparisheshospital.com River Parishes Hospital offers a full range of services for surgeries and treatments.

The cardiac center boasts a comprehensive program, including echocardiography, an exercise testing vascular laboratory and nuclear studies. The gastroenterology department treats gastroenterological organs and also treats liver diseases, including Hepatitis B and C. It also has an occupational medical center in LaPlace to treat work injuries and illnesses. Surgical specialties include procedures for the head, neck, neurology, gynecology and breast cancer. lafayette parish

Heart Hospital of Lafayette 1105 Kaliste Saloom Road, Lafayette www.hearthospitallaf.net The Heart Hospital of Lafayette is entirely focused on and designed for the cardiovascular health of its patients and was named one of the top 100 cardiovascular hospitals in the country

by Thomson Reuters. Along with a 24/7 heart emergency center, it boasts a 64-slice Aquilion CT scanner in the Chest Pain Center, where patients are taught to recognize and react to the early symptoms of heart attacks. The Heartsaver CT scans the heart while beating to uncover heart disease at its earliest stages, and the HEARTVantage free wellness program is the only free nationally accredited specialized care facility that focuses on heart health for patients. www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

49

Lafayette General Medical Center 1214 Coolidge St., Lafayette www.lafayettegeneral.com Lafayette General is the largest full-service hospital in Acadiana with 353 beds and a team of more than 25 physicians. It was the first telemedicine clinic in the area, and has recently received the HealthGrades’ General Surgery Excellence Award and Gastrointestinal Care Excellence Award. It has also received accolades for neurosurgery, vascular surgery, carotid surgery, prostatectomy, orthopedic services and surgeries, and was the first hospital in Acadiana to perform an open-heart surgery and a craniotomy. The Pavilion center for women and children boasts a Level III NICU, and the hospital also houses centers for cancer, bariatric surgery, chronic care, neurology, strokes and orthopedics.

Lafayette General Surgical Hospital 1000 W. Pinhook Road, Suite 100, Lafayette www.lgsh.us This 60,000-square-foot short-stay hospital is a joint venture with Lafayette General Medical Center and holds four operating rooms along with radiology, EKG and lab services. Their specialties include urology, orthopedics, ENT, ophthalmology, cosmetic surgery, gynecology and pain management.

Lafayette Surgical Specialty Hospital 1101 Kaliste Saloom Road, Lafayette www.lafayettesurgical.com Built in 2004, Lafayette Surgical Specialty Hospital is physician-owned and cares for 8,000 cases annually and was named Hospital of the Year by the Louisiana Nurses Foundation for four consecutive years and named by WomenCertified.com as one of the top 100 hospitals for patient experience. Specialties include neurosurgery, as well as orthopedic, ENT, general, urological, gynocological and plastic and reconstructive surgeries, along with pain management, and radiological and magnetic resonance imaging.

50

Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center 4801 Ambassador Caffery Pkwy., Lafayette www.lourdesrmc.com Our Lady of Lourdes employs more than 400 physicians and moved to its new main campus on Ambassador Caffery Parkway last year, which was the largest building project in the history of Lafayette. Lourdes houses the region’s only burn center for comprehensive burn care from chemical and electrical burns to less serious injuries. Other services include a cancer center, one of five stroke centers of excellence in the state, a chronic kidney disease clinic, wound care center and after-hours clinics in Lafayette, Breaux Bridge and Carencro.

Park Place Surgical Hospital 901 Wilson St., Lafayette www.parkplacesurgery.com What started as the Ambulatory Surgery Center in 1999 has grown to Park Place Surgical Hospital, after joining with Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center in 2003.

Park Place boasts 36 doctors to perform colon, rectal, ENT/otolaryngology, general, OB/GYN, plastic, vascular and orthopedic surgeries, along with occupational and speech therapies.

Regional Medical Center of Acadiana 2810 Ambassador Caffery Pkwy., Lafayette www.medicalcenterofacadiana.com Regional Medical Center of Acadiana is the first in Acadiana to be accredited a Cycle III Chest Pain Center by the Society of Chest Pain Centers, and was a 2012 Top 100 hospital for coronary bypass surgery and major cardiac surgery, and treats patients for a variety of heart conditions. The hospital also specializes in geriatric services with a range of services specially designed for the aging through inpatient, rehabilitation and nursing home programs. Other services include emergency services, hemodialysis, laser surgery, neurology, orthopedics, radiology and medical and surgical intensive care units.

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

University Hospital 2390 W. Congress St., Lafayette www.lsuhospitals.org/hospitals/umc/umc.htm Lafayette General Medical Center recently took over the 117-bed acute care University Medical Center, renaming it University Hospital.

With the new management comes program expansion, starting with a newly opened orthopedic clinic. It has begun switching from paper to electronic medical records, while continuing to be the medical destination for the un- and under-insured. Other services include interventional radiology, orthopedics, ENT, physical therapy, general surgery, infectious disease and OB/GYN. Women’s & Children’s Hospital 4600 Ambassador Caffery Pkwy., Lafayette www.womens-childrens.com Women’s and Children’s is a campus of the Regional Medical Center of Acadiana that specializes in women’s and children’s health care. It began as strictly a birthing hospital, and has expanded to become the secondlargest birthing hospital in the state. Among its children’s services are the only kids-only 24-hour emergency department in Acadiana, Shots for Tots, and specialty centers for asthma, cancer, diabetes, flu and nutrition. The women’s center includes a American College of Radiologydesignated Breast Imaging Center of Excellence. lafourche parish

Lady of the Sea General Hospital 200 W. 134th Place, Cut Off www.losgh.org Lady of the Sea General Hospital caters to patients in South Lafourche through the main campus and medical clinics in Larose, Golden Meadow and Cut Off. Through a partnership with the Cardiovascular Institute of the South, Lady of the Sea provides cardiology and cardiopulmonary services to the area. Other services include diabetes support, home health, an ICU, a renal dialysis center and wound care.

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

51

Ochsner St. Anne General Hospital 4608 Hwy. 1, Raceland www.ochsner.org/locations/st_anne_general One of the Ochsner hospitals scattered across Southeast Louisiana, St. Anne General Hospital recently renovated its maternity suites for state-of-the-art monitoring and boasts many women’s services, including digital mammography, four-dimensional ultrasounds and OB/GYN. The specialty clinic offers cardiology, neurology, urology general surgery and pediatric services.

st. landry parish

terrebonne parish

Opelousas General Health System 539 E. Prudhomme Lane, Opelousas www.opelousasgeneral.com This 241-bed, two-campus hospital serves patients in St. Landry Parish and has a complete cancer center to administer radiation and chemotherapy, and recently introduced the da Vinci Surgical System to perform minimally invasive surgery, resulting in less pain, blood loss, scarring and recovery time.

The Dr. Gerald E. Posner Center for Women’s Health specializes in breast health, the cardiopulmonary diagnostic lab utilizes the world’s first full-volume imaging system for cardiology and the hospital has partnered with area employers to control health care costs through their Wellness Works program.

Physicians Medical Center 218 Corporate Drive, Houma www.physicianshouma.com More than 100 physicians work out of Physicians Medical Center, where surgery is their specialty, performing more than 5,000 procedures a year. Its Medicare patient satisfaction rating is among the top 50 in the country. PMC is the only hospital in Terrebonne Parish to offer weight-loss surgery, performing lap band, gastric bypass and laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy surgeries. PMC is also home to a gastrointestinal laboratory focused on diagnosing colon cancer.

st. mary parish

Thibodaux Regional Medical Center 602 N. Acadia Road, Thibodaux www.thibodaux.com This year, Thibodaux Regional Medical Center was awarded the Healthgrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award; last year, it was the only hospital in the state to earn the the J.D. Power and Associates Distinguished Hospital Award for outstanding inpatient and outpatient experiences. It’s also the only full-service hospital to receive the Press Ganey Summit Award (seven times) for patient satisfaction.

In 2009, TRMC expanded its cancer center and doubled the size of its medical oncology suite and chemotherapy infusion area. TRMC also performs the most heart and vascular surgeries in the region.

Franklin Foundation Hospital 1097 Northwest Blvd., Franklin www.franklinfoundation.org Franklin Foundation Hospital serves western St. Mary Parish and offers multiple clinics including Women’s Health, Medical Specialties and a Family Care Center in Baldwin. It houses a 22-bed critical access hospital and became the first in the area to offer the LightSpeed 16 CT system. Among its other services, FFH offers maternity services and a newborn nursery and an online medical dictionary, a drug encyclopedia and a physician directory accessible through the website.

vermilion parish

st. charles parish

St. Charles Parish Hospital 1057 Paul Maillard Road, Luling www.stch.net Just a 20-minute drive from New Orleans, St. Charles Parish Hospital is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and also operates the Eastbank Medical Office in Destrehan to provide specialties for allergies, asthma, ENT, internal medicine and orthopedics. Other services include an ICU, angiography and vascular procedures, adult behavioral health unit, dialysis and physical, occupational and speech rehabilitation.

52

Terrebonne General Medical Center 8166 Main St., Houma www.tgmc.com Terrebonne General Medical Center opened in 1954 and has since grown to house 321 beds and employ 150 physicians. It boasts a women’s center with a breast center, as well as the Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center. It is home to one of the state’s few accredited stroke programs and was recently reissued its accreditation from the Joint Commission and the Neonatal ICU.

Teche Regional Medical Center 1125 Marguerite St., Morgan City www.techeregional.com This tobacco-free hospital on the east side of Acadiana serves St. Mary Parish with 157 beds and a 24-hour emergency department. It boasts a state-of-the-art heart catheterization lab that uses minimally invasive procedures, seven birthing suites and digital mammograms, along with inpatient rehabilitation, an ICU, a behavioral health unit and a cardiopulmonary department.

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

Abbeville General Hospital 118 N. Hospital Drive, Abbeville www.abbgen.net Abbeville General Hospital opened in 1966 and has 60 beds, an ICU, interventional pain therapy for pain in the lower back and extremities, a labor and delivery unit and surgical services.

AG also has a cancer center through a partnership with Lafayette General, as well as an off-site imaging center accredited by the American College of Radiology and a rural health clinic in Erath. The hospital, clinics and laboratory earned the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval this past fall. ap

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

53

Swamp Stereotypes & Truths There  is  a place in south central Louisiana that is home to towering bald cypress trees that can be more than 500 years old, a realm ruled by nature and overwhelmed by wildlife, where people come to explore. It is the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area.

32

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

“The Atchafalaya National Heritage Area is a program through a partnership of the Atchafalaya Trace Commission, the office of the lieutenant governor and the National Park Service,” says Debra Credeur, executive director of the Atchafalaya Trace Commission. “There is no place like it – the blend of cultures portrayed through the music, cuisine, language, history and life experiences.”

She continues: “My goals are to preserve the cultures and natural resources that give this National Heritage Area its unique identity and also, to encourage sustainable use of the resources, including economic development.”

The Heritage Area, named in 2006, encompasses nearly 1 million acres and spans across 14 Louisiana parishes: Ascension, Assumption, Avoyelles, Concordia, East Baton Rouge, Iberia, Iberville, Lafayette, Pointe Coupee, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, Terrebonne and West Baton Rouge.

“The basin has always contributed economically,” says Jennifer Ritter Guidry, the assistant director for programming and special projects at the Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and the Lafayette Parish trace commissioner. “Historically, it was a place where people actually lived, worked and survived. That has changed a little over time. There are only a few people that still live in the basin, if any. It is still a vital resource for economic development because people utilize the resources of the basin – fishing, lumber, and many other industries. It is also a place for recreation, so you can make money off of it and go and enjoy it. It is a great draw for visitors.

“Because of those things, it also has a very interesting history relative to the history of the state,” continues Guidry.

“How did we develop the crawfish industry? You can pretty much trace that through the history of the basin and the people who lived and worked there, and that is just one example.”

The heritage area consists of lands that were once roamed by tribes, including

the Attakapas, Chitimacha and Coushatta. Then it was controlled by the Spanish and French, and in the swamp itself, the Acadians, after they were exiled from Nova Scotia and settled in the area.

“The culture of the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area is allencompassing,” says Joy Henry Collette, a park guide at the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park & Preserve – Acadian Cultural Center in Lafayette. “Native Americans were the first there and the first who ever used it. When the Spanish got here they looked upon the Atchafalaya Basin as a great big barrier to not be able to cross. But when the French got here, they looked at it as a place to explore. They learned how to dig out canoes from big logs, they made the first pirogues, and they traveled and explored and looked upon it to see how they could make a buck.

“The Acadians were used to being in a rural place because of Nova Scotia,” continues the vivacious Collette. “They wanted to stay rural and in a slightly uninhabitable place so that no one could bother them again. That’s why they liked this area and the Atchafalaya. They liked the thought that no one could bother them and kick them out again.”

Although Collette is originally from Pennsylvania, she considers herself a “backdoor Cajun.”

“People here say: ‘Oh, I can tell you’re not from here,’ but I’ve been living in Louisiana longer than I’ve lived in Pennsylvania,” says Collette with smiling eyes and a hearty laugh. “I left when I was 18. So when I go home, they say the same thing. They’ll look at me and say: ‘Y’all? What’s y’all?

You’re fixing to do what? Get down?’ I say all those things because I consider myself a Cajun. I mean, I married one.”

But, who exactly is considered a true Louisianian – Cajun or Creole?

Parishes in the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area

“Cajun means that you are of Acadian descent,” she explains. “When I started working here, I was most surprised by the distinct difference between Cajun and Creole. A lot of people think it’s interchangeable. Really, we can all be considered Creole in some way, and anyone can say they are Creole, but not everyone can be Cajun.

Creole is of the colony, so if you are born here you really are Creole. Originally, Creole was a distinction between slaves from Africa or slaves born here. Then it was used as a first generation-born people who lived here. It’s all encompassing of anyone of the colony, not necessarily black or white. It’s anyone of French or Spanish heritage that is born here.”

Collette bristles over what she considers outsiders’ stereotypes of Cajuns.

“Overall, when people come here, and from what I’ve experienced with people coming here they expect to see Adam Sandler as the water boy sitting out on the bench. They’ll always ask: ‘Where can I see some Cajun people?’ I’m like: ‘Walmart! They’re people too; it’s 2013 over here, too!’ Cajuns are everywhere, they are what make this area.”

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

33

There is also a commonality among the people on this artist’s palette of different backgrounds that live within the Heritage Area.

Says Collette of her adopted heritage: “People here are generally friendly and resourceful. Take what’cha got and make somethin’ of it. Work hard; play hard. That’s the way it is here.”

“Adapt, survive and thrive,” says David Cheramie, Ph.D., chief executive officer of the Bayou Vermilion District. “Learn to do what has been done in the past in new ways, learn new things to be done in the new environment and create prosperity not only for oneself but for the community at large.”

The heritage area is the most prodigious swamp in North America, and is home not only to more than 200 species of birds – including the icon of the United States, the bald eagle – but also the American alligator, black bear, nutria and others. The Atchafalaya Welcome Center off of Interstate 10 at the Butte LaRose exit has an array of information for visitors, plus a three-to-four minute movie on the swamp life in the Atchafalaya.

34

“Hands down, our most common question is: ‘How do you pronounce the name of the area?’ and, ‘Where they can see alligators?” says Lauren Holmes, the supervisor of the Atchafalaya Welcome Center.

One employee told a visitor: “You say it like a sneeze! Ah-cha! Fuh-lie-uh!”

“The majority of the comments we receive are about how beautiful the swamp area is, the uniqueness of the cypress trees in the water and the genuine people of the area,” continues Holmes. “People come back from swamp tours and are absolutely amazed by the birds and alligators. It never gets old seeing people’s reactions to seeing an alligator for the first time.”

Welcome Center employees greeted each visitor with: “Hello! How are you today? Where are you visiting from?” To which some replied with: “Bonjour [Hello]! Comment ça va [How are you]? Vous parlez français [Do you speak French]?”

“Oui [Yes]!” an employee responded to the visitors from Lyon, France, who were on their way to visit plantation homes in nearby Arnaudville.

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

One of the best ways to see the alligators is with Guy LeBlanc, a swamp tour guide at Lake Martin in St. Martin Parish, in the southern reaches of the heritage area. He has been giving swamp tours with Champagne’s Cajun Swamp Tours for about three years.

“I like bein’ outdoors, and acknowledgin’ the people on da boat who’ve nevah seen this before,” says LeBlanc with a thick Cajun accent. “We see the birds and the ’gators. They all want to know what they eat. The younger crowd – they’re after the gators. They’re not worried about the birds.

“We get people from Australia, Paris, Madrid, England, Belgium and a lot more than that. They have never been in swamp and they want to know the difference between the swamp, the bayou and the lake.”

LeBlanc transports his visitors on a flatbottomed boat that can seat up to 20 people and glide across waters that are not even knee-deep through a labyrinth of cypress trees. Throughout their trip into the shallow swamp, LeBlanc points out birds like a great egret, an anhinga, a young red-tailed hawk still in its parents’ nest and whistling ducks.

He brings them into the shadow of a 500-year-old cypress tree that is now the oldest in Lake Martin because the 900-year-old cypress had been struck by lightning.

He would shut off the engine, and let his fascinated students cautiously creep through the watery paths and they become immersed in the sounds of the buzzing insects, splashes of turtles jumping off their perches to hide, the intertwined singing of more than 200 birds, all the while gazing into the marsh trying to spot an alligator.

When LeBlanc broke the serene scene to rev his engine and continue the tour, a visitor asked, “Do alligators make any noise?”

“Oh, dey make a li’l hissin’ noise, and dat’s when ya know ya gettin’ too close,” he replies.

LeBlanc then revs his engine again to full throttle, throwing up the muddy water like a blender without its top on, and spotted the first alligator of the tour. He killed his engine and excitedly exclaimed, “If y’all look to y’all’s left, you will notice dat I have awoken

a sleepin’ alligatah! Nah, get ready, ’cause it looks like he’s about t’yawn!”

As if LeBlanc controls the alligator by a remote, it yawns, stretches and glances at the fearfully fascinated group and continues its nap under the sun.

The teacher guides his wonder-filled visitors through a corridor that once was a bayou (or creek). He shows them an old deer stand that is a rusted barrel high up in a tree with a missing bottom, which he now calls “the Cajun basketball goal.”

After about an hour and 45 minutes of traveling the swamp, seeing the 12-foot alligators glide across the water and the roseate spoonbills flying across the sky, LeBlanc’s entourage returns to port. Gid-

dy visitors exit the boat, excitedly talking about what they’ve just seen. A child fearfully says, “No! Don’t feed me to the alligators!” The parents laugh.

Everyone thanks LeBlanc.

Jose Cornelisse of Beverwijk, Netherlands, says she traveled on a road trip with her husband to New Orleans and embarked on LeBlanc’s tour.

“I saw this swamp tour on the Internet,” says Cornelisse with admiration glowing in her eyes. “I’ve never seen a swamp before, and I am very interested in the nature and the animals that live here, the ’gators and the trees.” She sighs.

“Beautiful. Beautiful.” ap

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

35

36

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

i t’s a p ri l , t h e m id d l e o f nesting sea s on i n t h e e s t u a r ia l s w am ps o f so ut h w e s t l o u is ia n a , a s th e l ak e ma rt i n t ou r b o a t d r if t s past a c o t t on f i e ld o f e g r e t s .

“The birds are real, real thick in here this year,” says Bryan Champagne, the owner and one of three tour guides at Champagne’s Cajun Swamp Tours at Lake Martin, a roughly 2,000-acre swampland between Lafayette and Breaux Bridge.

Champagne, 49, has been guiding tours on Lake Martin for 16 years.

The Breaux Bridge native said his business takes up to 50 people a day, sometimes more during the spring when the local festival season coincides with the nesting season.

“The birds start nesting midJanuary,” he says. “They’ll nest probably until the end of August.

The best time to see them, I would say, is February, March, April and May because it’s warming up. When you get to the summer, it gets so hot that the wildlife don’t like to move too much. You have to come out in the early morning or late afternoon.”

A protected rookery makes up the southernmost third of Lake Martin.

It attracts more than 20,000 nesting pairs of herons, egrets, ibises, spoonbills and anhingas annually, according to Judith O’Neale, a Lafayette birder and treasurer of the Louisiana Ornithological Society.

On the cool, sunny Saturday, birdwatchers were queued along the gravel road that traverses the eastern edge of the lake. A row of tripods, spotting scopes and telephoto-lensed cameras made the water’s edge look more like an NFL sideline.

“I’m watching a roseate spoonbill,” says Joseph Welch, a 67-year-old who’s been birding since 1988.

The roseate spoonbill is a tall, stunning wader. Sometimes referred to as the Cajun flamingo, the spoonbill’s plumage is reddish-pink at its wings and tail, fading to a white torso and head. The pigment comes from the bird’s diet of crustaceans, Welch says, which it picks from the water with a shoehorn beak.

Although Welch prefers to bird on the stability of land, more adventurous avian oglers sometimes take to the water, seeking to get closer to their quarry.

“It allows you to get a different perspective of the birds and the nests that are not visible from the land,” explains O’Neale, 78, who has been birding for 44 years.

“It shows you a different environment in relation to all the flora and fauna that survive in the water.”

former professional bass fisherman says. “That’s how I know so much about all the plants and the birds and all that.”

LeBlanc’s tour leaves the dock at Champagne’s and heads due south toward the rookery. As the skiff meanders among the lake’s hardwoods, the engine barely hums above an idle.

“Look to the front right in that big clump of grass over there. That’s called the black-bellied whistling duck,” LeBlanc points out just before a pair goes airborne. “The blackbellied whistling duck and the wood duck are the only two ducks that can land in a tree and make their nest in a tree. All the other ducks have to land on the water and they make their nests in the vegetation. I don’t see no ’gators, yet, but I see a blackcrowned night heron off on the left.”

LeBlanc edges the boat closer to the stocky, blue-gray, much shorter relative of the stunning great blue herons that abound Lake Martin.

LIVING ON THE WATER

Guy LeBlanc has been a guide for Champagne’s Cajun Swamp Tours since 2008. With the forearms of Popeye, and a taciturn confidence reminiscent of Charles Bronson, LeBlanc captains a tour that was both tranquil and informative.

“I did all my living on the water in the Atchafalaya Basin toward Morgan City and New Orleans,” the

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

37

LeBlanc later has no trouble locating the lake’s alligators. More than 20 of them, ranging from 2-foot babies to 12-foot leviathans, were spotted during the two-hour tour. Although the alligators dine on the occasional bird, LeBlanc says they actually help protect the population by keeping eggsnatching predators like snakes and raccoons at bay.

“I was surprised by how many alligators we saw!” says Cynthia Weber, a 62-year-old Texan. “I’ve taken a tour in the Atchafalaya Swamp and only saw two or three.”

The Atchafalaya Swamp, located between Lafayette and Baton Rouge, is the largest swamp in the U.S. and the setting for History Channel’s “Swamp People.”

Known by locals as “the Basin,” it is a nationally renowned wildlife refuge, but its 1.4 million acres make it a challenge to navigate.

38

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

“Lake Martin has most everything the Atchafalaya Swamp has as far as birdlife.

It’s just smaller,” says Stacey Scarce, the curator of natural science at Lafayette’s Acadiana Park Nature Station.

“The Basin’s just a lot more open water,” LeBlanc says. “Over here, it’s so small, it’s just confined.

Over there, everything is scattered.

You can go days without seeing nobody. Just don’t get lost!”

With 29 rookeries, the wooded wetlands of the Atchafalaya Basin serve as a refuge for more than 300 discrete bird species, including the endangered peregrine falcon, Bachman’s warbler and ivory-billed woodpecker, according to the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper’s website.

“There are more birds now than ever,” says Ernest Couret, a thirdgeneration guide in the Basin for more than 24 years. “They come

up from South America, like cormorants, spoonbills, wood storks, kingfishers – the list goes on and on. Bald eagles from the Great Lakes. Between here and Stevensville, there’s about 105 (bald eagle) nesting sites.”

QUICK TO THE RIGHT

Couret’s tour entered the immense swamp directly beneath Interstate 10’s 18.2-mile Atchafalaya Basin Bridge, near the tiny town of Butte la Rose. After cruising down the main canals for about 15 minutes, Couret steers the 14-foot aluminum, flat-bottomed skiff into a narrow channel. Like a teenage boy driving through town on a Friday night, the captain points out wildlife as the boat motors through the swamp.

“Y’all look quick to your right, way above that big log there!”

Couret shouts over the revving of the boat’s 25-horsepower motor.

“That’s an osprey!”

Couret explains that the Basin occupies prime real estate amid the Mississippi Flyway, which is a main bird migration route along the Mississippi River. Devoid of mountain ranges, it’s a popular path for transient fowl from as far north as the Arctic and as far south as Argentina.

“There’s a lake I can take you to in November, and in one afternoon, you might see close to 100 species,” he says.

But Couret withheld the location of his honey hole, citing competition among the increasing number of swamp tours in the area.

Couret, a lighthearted veteran who did three tours in Vietnam, recounts how his grandfather began an Atchafalaya hunting guide service out of his houseboat,

until it was destroyed during the Great Flood of 1927. Couret’s father later guided fishing trips in the Basin, once leading Lorne Greene and Michael Landon from the television series “Bonanza.”

“My family,” he says, pausing for emphasis, “we’ve been at this a long time. Since 1890.”

“We didn’t know what to expect,” says Nora Hawkins, 31, from Kansas City, Mo., who took Couret’s tour. “We had seen the show ‘Swamp People,’ but it’s hard to tell what a place is like from a show.”

“I liked the quiet,” adds Hawkins’ 32-year-old husband, Anthony.

“We hardly saw any other boats out there. I can imagine that if I lived around here, I’d own a boat.”

Having seen about 100 birds, four alligators and one water

moccasin, visitors on Couret’s four-hour voyage returned to the landing, which was bustling with boat-towing pickups and the sounds of Interstate 10’s traffic overhead, an abrupt juxtaposition from the solitude of the Atchafalaya Swamp.

“The Atchafalaya is just so expansive that it was hard to see much wildlife,” says Sean Fowler, a 51-year-old Texan. “I know there’s a lot here because every time we stopped, I could hear them.”

Couret, though, seemed no less satisfied with the morning spent on the water.

“Heck with working for somebody!” he says. “You don’t get rich from doing this, but you sure get a lot of vitamin D.” ap

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

39

f

rom the blatant, bushy, bearded boys of Monroe to the notorious “choot ‘em” motto of the Pierre Part swamps, Louisiana reality television, both ludicrous and heartwarming, proves that life in the Bayou State is incomparable to the rest of the world.

“People are so interested in it because it’s a way of life that’s been forgotten,” says Chase Landry, a cast member from “Swamp People” of Pierre Part. “You

40

know, you turn on the TV, and most reality shows you hear about are on the West Coast or East Coast. It’s not even reality; it’s something thrown together.

This show is all about our history and what we do. There is still an older way of life that’s being lived to this day.”

History Channel’s “Swamp People” is considered a veteran in the world of reality television in Louisiana. The alligator hunters debuted their show in August 2010 and are now in their

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

fourth season. The episodes follow the day-to-day life of Cajuns, especially Landry and his family, as they wrangle alligators, among other critters, in the vast Atchafalaya Swamp.

Because of the overwhelming response across the nation to the first season, “Swamp People” was the catalyst for the birth of more Louisiana reality shows. One of the newest is the CMT show “Swamp Pawn” in Bayou Pigeon, relatively close to the Pierre Part crew.

R I C K P H I L L I P S , “ S WA M P PA W N ”

“It’s a big secret we got down here (in Louisiana),” says Rick Phillips, the main character of the “Swamp Pawn” series.

“The rest of the country doesn’t have a clue. So, it’s kind of opening up. That works great with reality TV, because the main thing they’re after is something that’s never been seen before.”

Phillips is a wholesale seafood dealer and processor and owner of Phillips Seafood, LLC, in Bayou Pigeon in Iberville Parish. He classifies himself PHOTOGRAPH DANLEY ROMERO

as a “middleman,” buying seafood from fishermen and then processing and distributing it to restaurants, businesses and markets. Phillips reveals that “Swamp Pawn” is no different from what he’s been doing for 28 years.

“In my mind, the show is an advertisement,” he says, “educating people out-of-state on how good our seafood is, how special it is, and getting them behind it. That’s why I’m doing it.”

As he read fan letters aloud,

Phillips’ face lights up like fireflies twinkling under cypress trees in the late evening. He expresses sincere gratitude toward his faithful followers and the relationships he has built through the show, especially with his production crew.

“You get these people who’ve been in this warp,” he says. “You bring them down here, and their real selves come out. They love it down here. On the last day the [production crew] were here,

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

41

some of them started crying because they didn’t know if they’d be back or not.

It was real heartfelt.”

Phillips says he and producers strive to keep “Swamp Pawn” as authentic and natural as possible. Before any material is sent to CMT, Phillips reviews and approves it.

“I’m kinda like a producer,” Phillips says with a laugh. “They take what I tell them and come up with stories.

Everything we do can happen, will happen or does happen.”

But Chase Landry admits that after the first two seasons of “Swamp People,” producers began to transform the series into a “soap opera.” He says the show is now more fabricated and different from the way it was when it first began.

“I find the first season was the best because they didn’t try to intervene with anything,” Landry says. “They just let us do our natural thing, they showed us doing our natural thing, and that was all they showed. Now, I find they’re

kinda twisting things around. Our crew kinda gets mad at me because a lot of times I butt heads with ’em,” he adds.

“You know, I’m one to do it cut-and-dry and show it for what it is. We don’t need to fabricate or make up anything. So, I kinda get my butt chewed here and there for going against the grain.”

While discussing their shows, both Landry and Phillips acknowledge the stereotypical misconceptions about life in Louisiana. There will always be people, Landry says, who think Louisiana shows are nothing but “a bunch of back-road idiots that paddle pirogues to school.” The misconception, however, does not seem to discourage these reality TV stars. “I just brush it off my shoulder,” Landry says. “If they don’t know about us, don’t pay us any respect or give us the chance to show them that’s not how it is, then we don’t need to worry about it.”

F O C U S O N T H E FA N S Instead, he says the cast members focus on the fans who built the foundation for the show. Visitors from all over the world have come to the small town of Pierre Part in Assumption Parish to meet the “Swamp People.” Landry says these loyal fans see the show for what it truly is, and they are amazed by the unique beauty of swamp life.

Another Louisiana reality show that has captured national attention is “Duck Dynasty,” A&E’s most-watched series. The show depicts the life of the Robertson family in Monroe and its Duck Commander business. However, what may be even more famous than their duck calls are the long, flowing beards of the Robertson men.

“With the success of shows like ‘Swamp People,’” says Alan Robertson, the oldest brother of the family, “cable networks were looking for Louisiana-based families with an interesting story to make a show about. Our family fit what they were looking for, and the show has really connected with America.”

Robertson is not seen on television but assists the family with both the business and the show.

He said he’s known as “Beard Wrangler” at Duck Commander.

ALAN ROBERTSON, “DUCK DYNASTY” 42

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY ALAN ROBERTSON

Phil Robertson made the first duck call in 1972, says Alan Robertson, and today the family produces 600,000 duck calls a year. He says he believes “humble beginnings to successful business” is one reason people like the show.

“Another thing we hear from fans is that they love the spiritual component that is evident with the prayer and Willie’s voiceover at the dinner table,” says Robertson. “Willie says, ‘At the end of the day, it’s always about family sticking together, even when we don’t always see eye-to-eye.’ Another thing people love is the humor of the show, especially as delivered by Uncle Si.” Robertson stresses that the show is true to the family and its values. He mentions that Kay Robertson often says, “They are just paying us to be ourselves.”

Asked how the show is different from other reality shows, Robertson replies, “There is probably not another show on television that appeals to all ages within a family. The show seems to be loved by children, teens, young adults and the middle-aged, as well as seniors.

It’s bringing people together, and we are very proud of that. The show is also good, clean fun with no profanity or vulgarity, which makes it unique in today’s reality genre.”

Heidi Bordogna, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s assistant director of Moving Image Arts and assistant professor of Communication, says she understands reality television’s fascination with Louisiana life.

“A part of the draw is the tax incentives,” says Bordogna, who is originally from New Jersey. “It’s cheaper to film here. Plus, for some reason, there’s mystique about it. You have everything from Cajun to Voodoo culture to New Orleans and all this stuff.”

The professor also says the reality shows are lucrative for Louisiana because they bring interest and jobs to the state.

“I feel the good outweighs the bad,” Bordogna says, “but I understand the defensive perspective. If people are concerned about Louisiana being

portrayed in a negative way, then certainly it isn’t good. But that’s what viewers are looking for. I think people understand that’s not everybody in Louisiana.”

Phillips from “Swamp Pawn” agrees with Bordogna in that he says his reality show helps promote his business as well as the young fishermen of Louisiana. He describes the fishermen as a “treasure” of the state because there are not many left.

WHERE THE HEART IS Phillips, an erstwhile fisherman himself, said he became a seafood processor and distributor because he knew fishing alone would not provide for his family. He says that when he retires, he hopes to return to fishing because that’s where his heart is.

“That’s what everybody did around here for 300 years before we got modern,” Phillips reflects. “So, where are we going to get our seafood from if we don’t have fishermen?”

As his bright blue eyes gleam with gratitude, he holds up his stack of fan mail as evidence of those who support his earnest, hard-working way of life in Bayou Pigeon.

“Most of the responses (from the show) that I’m getting are from people 40 and up,” says Phillips. “It’s people that miss the old way in America, the old values. They’re worried about their country. They want to see working, happy, nice people. They’re tired of seeing all the stuff that’s on TV now.” ap

C H A S E L A N D R Y, “ S W A M P P E O P L E ” PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY CHASE LANDRY

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

43

EXPLORE THE LIVING HISTORY OF THE ACADIAN, NATIVE AMERICAN AND CREOLE CULTURES

AUGUST 11 Free Acadian Culture Day AUGUST 26 Les Vues Free Film Series: Trashed SEPTEMBER 1 Free Ccochon de Lait with Horace Trahan SEPTEMBER 21 Free Native American Culture Day SEPTEMBER 28 Seed to Skillet Series: Peppers & Preserves SEPTEMBER 30 Les Vues Free Film Series LIVE MUSIC EVERY SATURDAY & SUNDAY

Historic Homes • Gardens Artifacts • Costumed Craftspeople Gift Shop • Restaurant • Boat Tours 300 Fisher Rd (Across From the Airport) (337) 233-4077 • Vermilionville.org

EXPLORE XPLORE THE CAJUN COAST!

DRAG BOAT RACING LOUISIANA SHRIMP & PETROLEUM FESTIVAL AUG. 30–SEPT. 2 • LABOR DAY WEEKEND • MORGAN CITY

This four-day extravaganza of family entertainment includes continuous live music by local and national acts, a huge arts & crafts show and sale, a Children’s Village, the Cajun Culinary Classic, the traditional Blessing of the Fleet and water parade—all with no gate fee!

AUG. 24 & 25

RUSSO’S LANDING • MORGAN CITY

Morgan City is the perfect place for the whole family to experience the thrills, spectacle and speed of the Deep South Racing Association’s outboard drag racing boats. $10 admission

(800) 256-2931 • www.cajuncoast.com 44

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

45

46

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

TAKING THE PULSE acadia parish

American Legion Hospital 1305 Crowley Rayne Hwy., Crowley www.alh.org This hospital hosts 178 beds, 38 of which are in the psychiatric unit, and it has multiple specialties along with a family practice, including emergency medicine, oncology, orthopedics, podiatry, pain management, physical medication and rehabilitation, radiology, vein therapy, wound care, hyperbaric medicine and the da Vinci Surgical System. It has also partnered with Lafayette General Medical Center to serve the newly renovated Acadiana Cancer Center, which provides chemotherapy along with treating the mind and spirit.

A GUIDE TO ACADIANA HOSPITALS

(INCLUDING SPECIALTIES)

compiled for Acadiana Profile by Elizabeth Rose

PLUS: 3 Doctors Share Their Most Difficult Cases

 Oakdale Community Hospital 130 Hospital Drive, Oakdale www.oakdalecommunityhospital.com This 60-bed hospital houses a Siemens Somatom Sensation scanner that creates 3-D images to reduce radiation exposure and examination time for MRIs, and the American College of Radiology-certified mammography unit uses low-energy X-rays to detect abnormalities. The hospital was also recently ranked in the top 10 percent in Louisiana for heart-failure treatment and offers a variety of non-invasive heart services. It was also recently ranked first in the state for pulmonary care, as well as in the top 10 percent in the state for pneumonia care and medical excellence in general surgery. ascension parish

allen parish

Allen Parish Hospital 108 Sixth St., Kinder www.allenparishhospital.com Allen Parish Hospital serves a 50-mile radius in Allen, Beauregard and Jeff Davis parishes.

Along with rural health clinics in Kinder and Oberlin, APH offers home health post-op care for orthopedic, cardiac and general surgeries and homebound individuals. The hospital offers group and individual therapy and professional counseling in its psychiatric recovery unit for mental illness and addiction.

It works with the National Alliance on Mental Illness to provide a free Family-to-Family Education Program that covers everything from medication side effects to current research on mental illness causes.

Cancer Center for radiation oncology and has accredited cardiopulmonary services including respiratory therapy, cardiac testing, MRI center and a telemetry unit where patients have their hearts monitored for 24 hours a day. They also offer three types of surgeries through their bariatric and weight loss program, including gastric bypass, vertical sleeve gastrectomy and adjustable band. assumption parish

Assumption Community Hospital 135 Hwy. 402, Napoleonville (985) 369-3600 Assumption Community Hospital is a critical access hospital in Napoleonville with six beds. Assumption Community Hospital operates as a nonprofit hospital.

Outpatient services includes a stop-smoking program and breast cancer screenings and mammograms. As part of their community outreach, they also provide health fairs and health screenings to Assumption Parish. calcasieu parish

calcasieu parish

St. Elizabeth Hospital 1125 West Hwy. 30, Gonzales www.steh.com St. Elizabeth Hospital is one of four hospitals in the Franciscan missionaries of Our Lady Health System, and its overall patient satisfaction ranks higher than 90 percent of all hospitals evaluated by Press Ganey. It has partnered with the Mary Bird Perkins

Christus St. Patrick Hospital 524 Dr. Michael DeBakey Drive, Lake Charles www.christusstpatrick.org Named after the patron saint of Ireland upon the insistence of Dr. John Greene Martin, Christus St. Patrick Hospital was dedicated on St. Patrick’s Day in 1908 and joined the Christus Health system in 1999 along with the Sisters of Charity Health and the Incarnate Word health care systems. The hospital offers behavior health services with

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

47

an inpatient geriatric program and outpatient care for seniors and a pediatric unit, as well as a diabetes management center, long-term acute care in the Dubuis Hospital within Christus St. Patrick Hospital. It also houses a rehabilitation center and has a free smoking cessation program available through its website. The hospital has also partnered with Southwest Louisiana Imaging to provide MRI and CT services.

Lake Charles Memorial Hospital 1701 Oak Park Blvd., Lake Charles www.lcmh.com Health care services offered at Lake Charles Memorial Health System include inpatient and outpatient services, as well as a full-service trauma and emergency department. A full range of diagnostics and pathology services available include CT scanning, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, MRI, endoscopic and cardiovascular and cancer diagnostics.

From pediatric to geriatric care, Memorial is a full-service health care delivery system.

Specialty services included cardiovascular, cancer, family medicine, ENT, urology, surgery, psychiatry, rehabilitation, pulmonology, orthopedics and sports medicine, gynecology and obstetrics, neurosurgery, internal medicine and pediatrics.

Women’s and Children’s Hospital 4200 Nelson Road, Lake Charles www.women-childrens.com This 88-bed hospital opened its doors in 1984 and has a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Its 36 specialties include the Surgicare of Lake Charles, which specializes in outpatient surgery, as well as a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence that offers three weight loss surgery options. It also offers services in labor and delivery, pediatrics, women’s health, urology and cardiology alongside a 24-hour emergency department.

West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital 701 East Cypress St., Sulphur www.wcch.com The 109-bed West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital recently launched the area’s first specialized program for breast cancer patients, designating a single nurse or other health professional to help patients navigate the path to recovery. It also boasts a sleep center and both cardiac rehabilitation and cardiology services, along with servicing 48

rural health clinics in Hackberry, Vinton and Johnson Bayou. It is the first hospital in Southwest Louisiana to have computerassisting technology for joint replacement and is home to one of the largest joint replacement programs in the region. It also provides therapeutic equestrian services through the Genesis Therapeutic Riding Center for patients with developmental disabilities or brain injuries. WCCH also participates in Shots for Tots to provide cheap or free immunization for children.

Acadiana. The New Iberia facility’s services include cardiovascular, general surgery, orthopedics, emergency care, obstetrics and gynecology surgery and rehabilitations.

It recently implemented the American Orthopaedic Association’s bone health quality improvement program, helping to identify, evaluate and treat patients with low bone density or osteoporosis.

evangeline parish

Mercy Regional Medical Center (two locations) 3501 Hwy. 190 E., Eunice; 800 E. Main St., Ville Platte www.mercyregionalmedicalcenter.com The nonprofit Mercy Regional Medical Center formed when Ville Platte Medical Center and Acadian Medical Center merged in 2010 and now serves more than 97,000 patients annually under LifePoint Hospitals. Between the two campuses, the hospital offers a 24-hour emergency room, a cardiology center, pain management, imaging, dialysis, gastroenterology, gynecology, obstetrics, oncology and more.

Savoy Medical Center 801 Poinciana Ave., Mamou www.savoymedical.com Located just outside the heart of Mamou, Savoy Medical Center boasts a number of amenities that rival large-city hospitals, including a 24-hour emergency room and critical care unit. It also offers patient diagnostic services available 24 hours a day, including mammography and bone-density testing. It also offers services for inpatient and outpatient surgery, mental health for both patients and family members and social services to help with hospitalization, childbirth, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and physical, pedodontic, podiatry, plastic and reconstructive, vascular and urological surgeries. iberia parish

Dauterive Hospital 600 N. Lewis Ave., New Iberia www.dauterivehospital.com This 103-bed full-service facility is an affiliate of The Regional Health System of

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

Iberia Medical Center 2315 E. Main St., New Iberia www.iberiamedicalcenter.com This 101-bed hospital focuses largely on children’s services through the KidMed program and children’s center, aided by a Pediatric Group of Acadiana collaboration that started in April 2012, and an entire women’s health department works to provide breast health, gynecological, maternity and nursery services. The hospital also operates out of a Jeanerette Rural Health Clinic and is partnered with Acadiana Diagnostic Imaging, Iberia Extended Care Hospital and the New Iberia Surgery Center. jefferson davis parish

Jennings American Legion Hospital 1634 Elton Road, Jennings www.jalh.com This hospital recently renovated a 5,000-square-foot area to house the only cardiac catheterization lab between Lake Charles and Lafayette, where Jennings American Legion Hospital can offer interventional procedures along with nuclear stress testing and echocardiograms for those who have recently undergone heart procedures. The 24,000-square-foot medical office building and 32,000-square-foot patient tower allow JALH to provide patients with an emergency room, cardiology unit, surgical care, maternity ward and radiology services.

st. james parish

St. James Parish Hospital 1645 Lutcher Ave., Lutcher www.sjph.org This nonprofit hospital opened its doors in 1955 and has grown to a 20-bed acute care facility that boasts it is “large enough to serve, small enough to care.� The cardiopulmonary department serves every age group, and the radiology department provides ultrasounds, digital mammography, fluoroscopy, nuclear medicine and bone density testing. The sleep center focuses mostly on sleep apnea, and they provide general, orthopedic, endoscopic and ophthalmological surgeries, along with wound care for ulcers, infections and skin grafts. st. john the baptist parish

River Parishes Hospital 500 Rue de Sante, LaPlace www.riverparisheshospital.com River Parishes Hospital offers a full range of services for surgeries and treatments.

The cardiac center boasts a comprehensive program, including echocardiography, an exercise testing vascular laboratory and nuclear studies. The gastroenterology department treats gastroenterological organs and also treats liver diseases, including Hepatitis B and C. It also has an occupational medical center in LaPlace to treat work injuries and illnesses. Surgical specialties include procedures for the head, neck, neurology, gynecology and breast cancer. lafayette parish

Heart Hospital of Lafayette 1105 Kaliste Saloom Road, Lafayette www.hearthospitallaf.net The Heart Hospital of Lafayette is entirely focused on and designed for the cardiovascular health of its patients and was named one of the top 100 cardiovascular hospitals in the country

by Thomson Reuters. Along with a 24/7 heart emergency center, it boasts a 64-slice Aquilion CT scanner in the Chest Pain Center, where patients are taught to recognize and react to the early symptoms of heart attacks. The Heartsaver CT scans the heart while beating to uncover heart disease at its earliest stages, and the HEARTVantage free wellness program is the only free nationally accredited specialized care facility that focuses on heart health for patients. www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

49

Lafayette General Medical Center 1214 Coolidge St., Lafayette www.lafayettegeneral.com Lafayette General is the largest full-service hospital in Acadiana with 353 beds and a team of more than 25 physicians. It was the first telemedicine clinic in the area, and has recently received the HealthGrades’ General Surgery Excellence Award and Gastrointestinal Care Excellence Award. It has also received accolades for neurosurgery, vascular surgery, carotid surgery, prostatectomy, orthopedic services and surgeries, and was the first hospital in Acadiana to perform an open-heart surgery and a craniotomy. The Pavilion center for women and children boasts a Level III NICU, and the hospital also houses centers for cancer, bariatric surgery, chronic care, neurology, strokes and orthopedics.

Lafayette General Surgical Hospital 1000 W. Pinhook Road, Suite 100, Lafayette www.lgsh.us This 60,000-square-foot short-stay hospital is a joint venture with Lafayette General Medical Center and holds four operating rooms along with radiology, EKG and lab services. Their specialties include urology, orthopedics, ENT, ophthalmology, cosmetic surgery, gynecology and pain management.

Lafayette Surgical Specialty Hospital 1101 Kaliste Saloom Road, Lafayette www.lafayettesurgical.com Built in 2004, Lafayette Surgical Specialty Hospital is physician-owned and cares for 8,000 cases annually and was named Hospital of the Year by the Louisiana Nurses Foundation for four consecutive years and named by WomenCertified.com as one of the top 100 hospitals for patient experience. Specialties include neurosurgery, as well as orthopedic, ENT, general, urological, gynocological and plastic and reconstructive surgeries, along with pain management, and radiological and magnetic resonance imaging.

50

Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center 4801 Ambassador Caffery Pkwy., Lafayette www.lourdesrmc.com Our Lady of Lourdes employs more than 400 physicians and moved to its new main campus on Ambassador Caffery Parkway last year, which was the largest building project in the history of Lafayette. Lourdes houses the region’s only burn center for comprehensive burn care from chemical and electrical burns to less serious injuries. Other services include a cancer center, one of five stroke centers of excellence in the state, a chronic kidney disease clinic, wound care center and after-hours clinics in Lafayette, Breaux Bridge and Carencro.

Park Place Surgical Hospital 901 Wilson St., Lafayette www.parkplacesurgery.com What started as the Ambulatory Surgery Center in 1999 has grown to Park Place Surgical Hospital, after joining with Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center in 2003.

Park Place boasts 36 doctors to perform colon, rectal, ENT/otolaryngology, general, OB/GYN, plastic, vascular and orthopedic surgeries, along with occupational and speech therapies.

Regional Medical Center of Acadiana 2810 Ambassador Caffery Pkwy., Lafayette www.medicalcenterofacadiana.com Regional Medical Center of Acadiana is the first in Acadiana to be accredited a Cycle III Chest Pain Center by the Society of Chest Pain Centers, and was a 2012 Top 100 hospital for coronary bypass surgery and major cardiac surgery, and treats patients for a variety of heart conditions. The hospital also specializes in geriatric services with a range of services specially designed for the aging through inpatient, rehabilitation and nursing home programs. Other services include emergency services, hemodialysis, laser surgery, neurology, orthopedics, radiology and medical and surgical intensive care units.

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

University Hospital 2390 W. Congress St., Lafayette www.lsuhospitals.org/hospitals/umc/umc.htm Lafayette General Medical Center recently took over the 117-bed acute care University Medical Center, renaming it University Hospital.

With the new management comes program expansion, starting with a newly opened orthopedic clinic. It has begun switching from paper to electronic medical records, while continuing to be the medical destination for the un- and under-insured. Other services include interventional radiology, orthopedics, ENT, physical therapy, general surgery, infectious disease and OB/GYN. Women’s & Children’s Hospital 4600 Ambassador Caffery Pkwy., Lafayette www.womens-childrens.com Women’s and Children’s is a campus of the Regional Medical Center of Acadiana that specializes in women’s and children’s health care. It began as strictly a birthing hospital, and has expanded to become the secondlargest birthing hospital in the state. Among its children’s services are the only kids-only 24-hour emergency department in Acadiana, Shots for Tots, and specialty centers for asthma, cancer, diabetes, flu and nutrition. The women’s center includes a American College of Radiologydesignated Breast Imaging Center of Excellence. lafourche parish

Lady of the Sea General Hospital 200 W. 134th Place, Cut Off www.losgh.org Lady of the Sea General Hospital caters to patients in South Lafourche through the main campus and medical clinics in Larose, Golden Meadow and Cut Off. Through a partnership with the Cardiovascular Institute of the South, Lady of the Sea provides cardiology and cardiopulmonary services to the area. Other services include diabetes support, home health, an ICU, a renal dialysis center and wound care.

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

51

Ochsner St. Anne General Hospital 4608 Hwy. 1, Raceland www.ochsner.org/locations/st_anne_general One of the Ochsner hospitals scattered across Southeast Louisiana, St. Anne General Hospital recently renovated its maternity suites for state-of-the-art monitoring and boasts many women’s services, including digital mammography, four-dimensional ultrasounds and OB/GYN. The specialty clinic offers cardiology, neurology, urology general surgery and pediatric services.

st. landry parish

terrebonne parish

Opelousas General Health System 539 E. Prudhomme Lane, Opelousas www.opelousasgeneral.com This 241-bed, two-campus hospital serves patients in St. Landry Parish and has a complete cancer center to administer radiation and chemotherapy, and recently introduced the da Vinci Surgical System to perform minimally invasive surgery, resulting in less pain, blood loss, scarring and recovery time.

The Dr. Gerald E. Posner Center for Women’s Health specializes in breast health, the cardiopulmonary diagnostic lab utilizes the world’s first full-volume imaging system for cardiology and the hospital has partnered with area employers to control health care costs through their Wellness Works program.

Physicians Medical Center 218 Corporate Drive, Houma www.physicianshouma.com More than 100 physicians work out of Physicians Medical Center, where surgery is their specialty, performing more than 5,000 procedures a year. Its Medicare patient satisfaction rating is among the top 50 in the country. PMC is the only hospital in Terrebonne Parish to offer weight-loss surgery, performing lap band, gastric bypass and laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy surgeries. PMC is also home to a gastrointestinal laboratory focused on diagnosing colon cancer.

st. mary parish

Thibodaux Regional Medical Center 602 N. Acadia Road, Thibodaux www.thibodaux.com This year, Thibodaux Regional Medical Center was awarded the Healthgrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award; last year, it was the only hospital in the state to earn the the J.D. Power and Associates Distinguished Hospital Award for outstanding inpatient and outpatient experiences. It’s also the only full-service hospital to receive the Press Ganey Summit Award (seven times) for patient satisfaction.

In 2009, TRMC expanded its cancer center and doubled the size of its medical oncology suite and chemotherapy infusion area. TRMC also performs the most heart and vascular surgeries in the region.

Franklin Foundation Hospital 1097 Northwest Blvd., Franklin www.franklinfoundation.org Franklin Foundation Hospital serves western St. Mary Parish and offers multiple clinics including Women’s Health, Medical Specialties and a Family Care Center in Baldwin. It houses a 22-bed critical access hospital and became the first in the area to offer the LightSpeed 16 CT system. Among its other services, FFH offers maternity services and a newborn nursery and an online medical dictionary, a drug encyclopedia and a physician directory accessible through the website.

vermilion parish

st. charles parish

St. Charles Parish Hospital 1057 Paul Maillard Road, Luling www.stch.net Just a 20-minute drive from New Orleans, St. Charles Parish Hospital is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and also operates the Eastbank Medical Office in Destrehan to provide specialties for allergies, asthma, ENT, internal medicine and orthopedics. Other services include an ICU, angiography and vascular procedures, adult behavioral health unit, dialysis and physical, occupational and speech rehabilitation.

52

Terrebonne General Medical Center 8166 Main St., Houma www.tgmc.com Terrebonne General Medical Center opened in 1954 and has since grown to house 321 beds and employ 150 physicians. It boasts a women’s center with a breast center, as well as the Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center. It is home to one of the state’s few accredited stroke programs and was recently reissued its accreditation from the Joint Commission and the Neonatal ICU.

Teche Regional Medical Center 1125 Marguerite St., Morgan City www.techeregional.com This tobacco-free hospital on the east side of Acadiana serves St. Mary Parish with 157 beds and a 24-hour emergency department. It boasts a state-of-the-art heart catheterization lab that uses minimally invasive procedures, seven birthing suites and digital mammograms, along with inpatient rehabilitation, an ICU, a behavioral health unit and a cardiopulmonary department.

august/september 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

Abbeville General Hospital 118 N. Hospital Drive, Abbeville www.abbgen.net Abbeville General Hospital opened in 1966 and has 60 beds, an ICU, interventional pain therapy for pain in the lower back and extremities, a labor and delivery unit and surgical services.

AG also has a cancer center through a partnership with Lafayette General, as well as an off-site imaging center accredited by the American College of Radiology and a rural health clinic in Erath. The hospital, clinics and laboratory earned the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval this past fall. ap

www.acadianaprofile.com | august/september 2013

53

one of my most difficult cases

The girl with too many infections

a

fter spending several years in Grenada and New York pursuing her medical career, Dr. Alisha Totina jumped at the opportunity to complete her pediatric residency at Tulane University School of Medicine. After finishing, she joined Bayou Pediatric Associates.

“I always had a longing to return to my roots. There is something unique and special about the Southern lifestyle,” Totina says.

Her passion for medicine began at an early age by observing her father, who is also a pediatrician. Totina remembers quite vividly the allure and intrigue she felt when presented with one medical conquest after another by childhood friends.

“My eyes would twinkle, and my heart would race with anticipation when I eagerly volunteered to remove an unwelcome splinter or patch up a skinned knee,” she recalls. “These encounters, although simplistic in nature, ignited an overwhelming desire to pursue a career built upon extending care and compassion to others.”

As time progressed, the prospect of becoming a physician remained not only enticing, but also as a deeply rooted ambition.

Her interest in pediatrics strengthened during her pediatric rotation in medical school. Furthermore, Totina says she enjoys the complexities and challenges a pediatrician faces.

“Kids are often shy or unable to fully communicate their symptoms or ailments, and you are often faced with gathering information from an anxious parent,” she says. “History gathering is critical and an art.”

One of her most memorable cases occurred when she was still a resident. This case resonates with Totina, because of its complexity, as well as it being her first experience with a pediatric patient dying.

A 10-month-old female infant was presented to another hospital with acute onset of facial and lower extremity edema (abnormal swelling caused by buildup of fluid in the tissues). Family history was significant for the loss of a male sibling at 4 months of age due to an undetermined cause. With no time to lose, additional work revealed the infant was suffering from severe hemolytic anemia and schizocytes (fragmented red blood cells) in the blood. The infant immediately began antihypertensive therapy and red blood cell transfusions to help correct anemia. A clinical diagnosis of atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome was established. Unfortunately, after three weeks of hospitalization, the infant developed a cardiac arrhythmia and died.

by MINH DANG 54

August/September 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

ALISHA TOTINA, m.d.

PEDIATRICS / HOUMA

ST. GEORGE’S UNIVERSIT Y SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, 2007

3 YEARS OF PRACTICE HOMETOWN : HOUMA

“It is hard to lose any patient, and it is even more devastating to lose a child,” Totina says.

Another memorable case involved a 13-month-old female who had been presented to a clinic with a history of recurrent febrile illnesses every three to four weeks since she was 2 to 3 months old.

After several months of recurrent febrile episodes, Totina began to wonder how many infections are too many.

“After reviewing the child’s medical record, it became evident that the child was being treated almost monthly with antibiotic therapy,” Totina says. “Today, in the midst of antibiotic resistance, this is rather alarming.”

The child was referred to an infectious disease specialist, who later diagnosed the child with periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis and adenitis or periodic fever aphthous pharyngitis and cervical adenopathy (PFAPA), a syndrome characterized by periodic high fever at intervals of about three to five weeks, as well as aphthous ulcers (canker sores), pharyngitis (inflammation of the throat) and/or adenitis (inflammation of a gland or lymph node). The child was subsequently treated with prednisone at the onset of fever and illness and has been doing well ever since.

Patient cases such as these often require Totina to work long after the last patient leaves the office.

“Medicine is not only a job but a true calling, one that ignores weekends and nights,” Totina notes. “Having a child name his BuildA-Bear ‘Dr. Alisha’ reinforces that what I do makes a difference in these children’s lives, and providing them with the best care possible makes it all worthwhile.” ap

portrait by LAUREN SELF Photography

www.acadianaprofile.com | August/September 2013

55

one of my most difficult cases

The woman with chronic schizophrenia

p

“

sychiatry is a unique specialty in medicine that blends medicine, philosophy, culture, sociology, neurosciences, psychology, spirituality and humanity such that it positively leads to search for self and purpose,” Dr. Jayendra Patel says.

Patel became enamored of the field of psychiatry while living in India for medical school. After moving to the United States in 1987, he learned that his residency in psychiatry was not recognized, so he repeated his residency in psychiatry at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Following residency, he completed two years of fellowship in schizophrenia and research, and he continued his academic work involving research in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder at Harvard until 2000. In 2010 Patel moved to Lake Charles.

While he was working in Boston as the medical director of a research and evaluation unit, parents of a severely ill 46-yearold woman, who was suffering from chronic schizophrenia, approached Patel. The case would become one of Patel’s toughest cases not only because of its complexity, but also because the parents were close friends with his chairman at the time.

“Success in such situation brings fame, and failure would be disaster,” Patel reflects.

With added pressure to prove his competency as a psychiatrist, Patel delved into the patient’s medical history. She showed symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder during her childhood, and her academic performance and hygiene had declined around puberty with an insidious onset of schizophrenia. With the advent of auditory hallucinations, she was hospitalized during adolescence. Treatment with antipsychotic medication was helpful but did not completely alleviate her symptoms.

The patient was readmitted at the age of 39 after assaulting a 3-year-old. At age 41, all psychopharmacological agents were withdrawn in preparation for a trial of clozapine – a wonder medication that has caused dramatic improvements in the lives of many. However, it has significant side effects that can be lifethreatening. The clozapine was helpful, but unfortunately it caused the patient’s OCD behaviors to worsen, a side effect that is well-known. Clozapine was discontinued but was started again at age 45. However, clozapine alone was not enough, and augmenting it with other medication was also not helpful.

“After reviewing her case, I decided to introduce the thennew antipsychotic risperidone and simultaneously taper her other medications on my unit,” Patel says.

56

by MINH DANG

August/September 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

JAYENDRA PATEL, m.d.

PSYCHIATRY / LAKE CHARLES

MAHARAJA SAYAJIRAO UNIVERSIT Y OF BARODA, 1982

30 YEARS OF PRACTICE HOMETOWN : DAR ES SAL A AM, TANZANIA

During the simultaneous taper of clozapine and introduction of risperidone, there was a progressive and substantial improvement in the patient’s capacity to communicate. Paroxetine was also judiciously added and gradually increased to the patient’s medication to control her compulsive behaviors. After an extensive aftercare plan to ensure that she would comply with the treatment, she was able to move back to a supervised community residence. Five years after her discharge, she continued to take her medications and sustain herself in the community with considerable assistance provided by her family and the residence staff.

According to Patel, her recovery was only made possible with an unusual and creative combination of medications at a time when such concepts were rather new and not well-accepted. He also notes that these combinations could be dangerous, too. “[Psychiatry] is one of the most challenging jobs in medicine; it puts demands on me to come up with creative ways to use medications, combinations of medications, using medications in combination with psychotherapy, working with families and doing this while respecting their individuality, religious and cultural beliefs and restoring faith in themselves,” Patel explains.

He has authored and co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and abstracts. For the last four years, Patel has been recognized by Best Doctors of America as one of the top five percent of doctors in the U.S. He concludes: “I plan to continue working as a psychiatrist in the community, teaching mental health professionals and eradicating stigma, one patient at a time.” ap

portrait by danley romero

www.acadianaprofile.com | August/September 2013

57

one of my most difficult cases

a mother’s last wish

“

essons learned from my father still guide me daily,” Thomas Bertuccini shares.

The lessons ingrained in him by his late father have anchored Bertuccini through the highs and lows of his career as a neurosurgeon. He says neurosurgery is one of the most demanding medical specialties, because it requires stamina, patience, good health and constant learning.

Bertuccini’s insatiable interest in medicine began on a fateful visit to a research embryology lab at Yale University when he was a sophomore in high school.

“I was fascinated with the work being done there, which became the basis for the new developing field of neonatology,” he says. “I decided then that I wanted to pursue a career in medicine.”

His enthusiasm for medicine blossomed further as he took an interest in the nervous system, which stemmed from his experience in brain research while pursuing his master’s degree and his exposure to neurology and neurosurgery while in medical school.

After completing his residency, he began private practice in neurosurgery in 1979. Later, Bertuccini joined some of his colleagues in developing a surgical specialty physician-owned hospital. The hospital has operated for nearly 10 years, and it has helped raise the standard of patient care in the Lafayette community.

An enduring fascination with biology and the nervous system in particular, the opportunity to help others and the intellectual challenge of solving clinical problems motivates him to continue practicing medicine.

“The lay public should understand that while advances in medicine have transformed the safety and efficacy of care, much remains to be learned, anticipated results of treatment can never be certain, and personal responsibility for health status is critical,” Bertuccini says.

Although he has treated many difficult cases and has had the rewarding experience of seeing most patients do well, the toughest cases involve the disappointment, frustration and emotions associated with the failure of treatment for patients with devastating neurological problems such as malignant brain tumors, stroke and chronic intractable pain. This is especially true when the patients are young adults or children who would otherwise have had a long enjoyable life to look forward to.

by MINH DANG 58

August/September 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

THOMAS BERTUCCINI, m.d., f.a.c.s.

NEUROSURGERY / LAFAYETTE

CREIGHTON UNIVERSIT Y SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, 1973

33 YEARS OF PRACTICE HOMETOWN : NEW HAVEN, CONNETICUT

“There will be difficult times when we will fail due to the sometimes inexact nature or limitations of our science,” Bertuccini says. “The rewards of a good or great outcome though, are exhilarating, unparalleled and well-worth the effort.”

One of his most memorable cases involved a young mother with a malignant brain tumor. The patient underwent three operations. Her final wish in life was to live long enough to see her daughter’s third birthday, and that was accomplished. “[As doctors] we attempt to remain dispassionate when treating patients, but when one views each person as an individual rather than just another ‘case,’ our sensitivities to our fellow man are irrepressible,” Bertuccini says.

He plans to continue practicing medicine so long as he remains healthy and can provide excellent care for his patients.

“I hope to remain active in the business of medicine with efforts on the local, regional and national levels and would enjoy teaching medical residents who will be training in Lafayette,” Bertuccini says.

When time permits, Bertuccini enjoys traveling, fishing, reading and most important, spending time with family and friends.

He spends quality time with his mother, sister and youngest daughter, who have all moved to Lafayette, but at the end of the day his thoughts often turn toward his eldest daughter, now living in California, and his son who passed too soon. ap

portrait by travis gauthier

www.acadianaprofile.com | August/September 2013

59

advertising section

60

August/September 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

www.acadianaprofile.com | August/September 2013

61

advertising section

62

August/September 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

advertising section

www.acadianaprofile.com | August/September 2013

63

advertising section

64

August/September 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

advertising section

www.acadianaprofile.com | August/September 2013

65

advertising section

66

August/September 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

advertising section

www.acadianaprofile.com | August/September 2013

67

advertising section

68

August/September 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

advertising section

www.acadianaprofile.com | August/September 2013

69

personnes d’acadiana

Friend of a (Man’s Best) Friend Via traditional and untraditional methods, Roger Abshire of Kaplan combines tender care and strict technique to train elite police- and personal-protection canines. | by william kalec Touting a several-page, single-spaced, 10-point font CV, Roger Abshire is inarguably one of the most respected and requested dog trainers in the world.

Owner and operator of USK9 Academy in Kaplan, Abshire’s alumni have worked on elite narcotics units, explosive detection teams and various facets of police patrol.

They have sniffed out potentially deadly gas leaks at oilfields or other industrial

70

August/September 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

sites, found termites gnawing at home foundations, and a few have been used to seek cancer cells in medical patients.

His techniques are so distinctive and successful that the U.S. government has deemed them “official trade secrets” as experts rate Abshire’s four-legged clients at 99.6 percent efficiency in protection level.

“I’ve had over 5,000 come and go throughout the years,” he says. “Some you hear about after they go, learn about all the wonderful things they’re doing.

But for most, you never hear from them again. And that’s kind of a good thing.

Prevents you from getting too attached.”

It’s a learning process, he says. “Just look at the marks on my arms. I’ve been bitten so many times that when I take a drink of water, it just squirts right out of my body. But I don’t know, it just seems like I have some natural connection with dogs – you either have it or you don’t, and it’s been like that since I was a little kid.

And you always remember the dogs you had a really strong connection with.”

It started with Joe, a German Shepherd Abshire befriended around 10 years old. On the playground or in the classroom, Abshire recalls being shyer than most kids. Never really spoke up much. Rarely raised his hand. An introvert, for sure. But when around Joe, there was an immediate rapport. Faster than you might expect, Abshire and Joe mastered basic obeisance, graduating to tricks both basic and bizarre. Joe could sit, play dead, speak on command, and he also learned how to retrieve beverages and food from the fridge and how to turn the lights on and off.

“It was almost like a cartoon,” Abshire remembers. “I had a little on-and-off motorcycle, and he’d get on the seat and put his front legs on the tank and ride with me around the fields. We’d then play hide-and-seek and I’d whistle to start the game and he’d basically have to use his nose to find me.

“Well, as you might expect, the neighbors noticed. So I started to train their dogs. Guess that was my start.”

From there to today, Abshire has

travis gauthier photograph

www.acadianaprofile.com | August/September 2013

71

personnes d’acadiana

trained dogs for agencies and events big and small. The Breaux Bridge and Brusly police departments staff Abshire’s canines, but so do authorities in Egypt and the Kuwait Ministry of Defense.

The St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office presented Abshire with an Award of Distinction, as did the U.S. Army.

Abshire’s dogs were on security detail at Super Bowl XLV in Dallas, provide personal protection for former LSU star and NFL running back Domanick Williams, but also assist in everyday tasks for those with special needs.

To find canines who suit the skillset required for such ambitious ventures, Abshire makes a handful of trips to Europe a year where owners from various countries – Germany, Netherlands, Czech Republic – bring dogs for the worldrenowned trainer to examine.

“I might look at a couple of hundred dogs to find one,” he says. “It’s almost looking for a needle in a haystack. You have to learn to read the core of the dog.

For example, does the dog have a good set of nerves?

Will anything rock him?

How is his tolerance to big noises? How does he function on a slick floor, a dark room? And the biggest thing is what’s his intensity toward retrieving anything?

“And so you’ll put an object out in the field and gauge how good the dog’s search drive is. Will he give up in three minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes? Or will he continue to search for that object day and night? It’s an evaluation process – no different in finding the next Olympic champion or a musical prodigy. The greats in any field have a core set of attributes from which to build a foundation.”

72

Once dogs are selected, they’re flown to Louisiana and kept at Abshire’s academy.

Formal training commences usually a week later, permitting the newbies to be examined physically for any medical issues, and providing a grace period so the dog adjusts and finds comfort in its new temporary home. Training methods are catered to the dog’s eventual function – police K9 unit, personal protection, companionship and aid to the handicapped – and tend to average eight to 10 weeks. After that, Abshire also trains the human handler.

“You can’t just pick up a dog,” he explains. “This is an art. And just like the dogs, some handlers have strengths and weaknesses. This isn’t entirely natural for all people. I’ve failed people before, so a government agency will have to replace them with someone else.”

Of course, that sounds a bit silly to read, except when crime data attributed to Abshire’s four- and two-legged graduates is also put into print. To date, Abshire-trained canines have assisted

August/September 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

in close to 4,000 arrests, recovered $193 million worth of illegally-acquired cash, sniffed out 2 million pounds of marijuana, 18,000 pounds of cocaine, and 4,000 pounds of crack and 3,500 pounds of crystal meth. In a career littered with anecdotes that bring to life these accomplishments, Abshire shares a story that happened three months ago in Mississippi where a dog-handler team spotted and identified drug-laced cash floating in the gas tank of a car pulled over during a traffic stop.

“It was over $500,000 worth, and the dog picked up the narcotic odor on the money through the seeminglyoverpowering smell of the fuel,” he says.

“And I could go on and on – tracking dangerous suspects hiding somewhere, a whole bunch of different things. So they go on to do great things, and that’s comforting to know after you see them go. You love them, care for them when they’re here, but when they go, you just hope they do great things.” ap

travis gauthier photograph

www.acadianaprofile.com | August/September 2013

73

stock photo

Of course, local poor boy shops have their devotees, but New Orleans excluded, a surprisingly under-discussed rivalry is brewing between Lake Charles and Lafayette’s premier poor boy establishments.

sur le menu

Poor Boys: Acadiana’s Best 6 Local Favorites | by jan risher

Connoisseurs know the necessities required for this Louisiana favorite, a poor boy sandwich: the right bread, meat done just right and toppings the way you want them. The best bread is a yin and yang sort of blissful thing. It’s got to have just enough crustiness to hold up and just enough soft to soak up.

The meat is generally the most debated poor boy feature – and watch yourself should you choose to speak of it openly, because people take their poor boy meat preference seriously. The topping, dressing or debris options are many – from chopped cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes 74

or the precise quantity of a particular mayonnaise or special sauce. Never underestimate the importance of the dressing and its strategic role in the poor boy hierarchy of goodness.

Rarely do you find someone in Acadiana who doesn’t have a strong poor boy opinion. The vast majority from these poor boy parts have as much conviction for their particular poor boy preference as they do on a Sunday morning at church or a Sunday afternoon watching the Saints.

Criticize someone’s chosen poor boy and them’s fighting words.

August/September 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

DARRELL’S 119 West College St., Lake Charles (337) 474-3651 Whether you’ve been there before or not, try discussing poor boys with anyone who’s spent any time in Lake Charles. Use your watch like a timer – within 15 seconds, you’ll be hearing all about Darrell’s. I don’t know what Darrell’s is sprinkling on their sandwiches, but people who have eaten them will throw down over that poor boy’s honor as the best sandwich ever.

Specifically, the Darrell’s Special.

Whether they go there on a weekly basis or people who used to visit their grandparents there in long ago summers, Darrell’s fans don’t play.

For example, Allison Davis Russo spent the summers of her youth visiting her Meemaw and PawPaw in Lake Charles. Years later, living in Virginia, she still gets a craving for a Darrell’s Special.

“During one of those summers, I was introduced to Darrell’s – and all subsequent visits to Lake Charles included a lunchtime outing to Darrell’s. My favorite poor boy was something called the Darrell’s Special – a mix of ham, turkey and roast beef, gravy, cheese and jalapeño mayo. The place is a total dive, but their poor boys are definitely crave-worthy.”

The Darrell’s Special is still as it was and is in Russo’s memory.

Lucie Monk, who is a wizard in her own kitchen and a Baton Rouge chef, says, “Oh, man! At Darrell’s, the combination of meat and cheese is classic, but the way it hits the freshly baked crusty bread is killer – I think that’s the key.”

Eric Britt, who lives in Lafayette, agrees.

“It’s an experience worth the drive,” he says. “My wife threw me a surprise birthday supper there a couple years ago.

I had friends drive from Baton Rouge and Lafayette for the sandwich – not me.”

Britt describes himself as a “food skeptic.”

“You’ll never hear me say that is the ‘best food.’ A friend told me about Darrell’s saying

“It’s the best sandwich ever,” and it’s in a sports bar. I was like, ‘Yeah, right.’ But I’ll try anything – and OMG – the Darrell’s Special. sur They make theirleown bread and a jalapeno menufinish it. A buddy got their mayo. I couldn’t shrimp poor boy, and I sampled. The shrimp are pan-fried, just awesome.”

The moral of this story is, the next time you’re in Lake Charles, you’ve got to give Darrell’s a try.

OLDE TYME GROCERY 218 West St. Mary Blvd., Lafayette (337) 235-8165 Olde Tyme Grocery is the real deal. Its poor boys are as good as Old Tyme is real – and Old Tyme is as real as its wooden floors are worn – and its wooden floors are as worn as its ordering system is haphazard.

Theresa LaCaze Smith has been an Old Tyme regular customer since it opened in 1982.

“I love the oyster, shrimp and roast beef poor boys,” she says. “Now my kids are addicted, too. They, as well as my husband, are meatball poor boy fans.”

Janice Akers is another loyal Old Tyme fan.

“I’ve been addicted to oyster poor boys my entire adult life, and I look for the ones with big, hot, meaty, tender, just-out-of-the fryer oysters, a not-too-thick crunch of breading, high-quality French bread and liberal mayo plus all the other dressings.”

Matt Jones prefers the iconic Olde Tyme shrimp poor boy. He also makes an interesting observation about the faith required in the process of ordering from Olde Tyme. “There is an inverse relationship between how far ahead you order and when you get your food,” he said. “Call an hour ahead, and you will wait 30 minutes once you get there. Call ahead from the parking lot, and it will be waiting for you when you hit the counter.”

because none of it matters when one of their roast beef poor boys is sitting in front of you.

That’s when the stars align and all is well and right with the world.

Yes, their gumbo is great. And even though their sweet potato fries aren’t available at all locations, they’re worth driving across town.

But sweet goodness, when you get that roast beef poor boy, it’s like magic. It disappears.

Aimée Dominique said she prefers Chris’ roast beef poor boy because the flavor is excellent. “It’s juicy, tender and messy, like the roast beef poor boys I grew up eating in New Orleans – and the cabbage stays crispy.”

MR. PO-BOY 860 Grand Caillou Road, Houma (985) 876-9673 If you’re from Houma, you know.

If you’re not from Houma and you’re driving through, don’t let the humble establishment dissuade you. You’ll want to do yourself a favor and go to Mr. Po-Boy – even if the parking lot is crowded.

With direct access to fresh Gulf shrimp, the shrimp poor boys are a great choice, but at Mr. Po-Boy, it’s the roast beef poor boy that almost everybody loves best. They’re sloppy roast beef poor boys with broken up beef in a delicious gravy. There’s a full selection of seafood, chicken and meats sandwiches – and if you’re into that sort of thing, the gravy fries aren’t bad either.

VILLAGER CAFÉ 8400 Maurice Ave., Maurice (337) 898-1554 villager’s café

If you’re looking for your poor boys in a quaint, cozy and country setting, get thee to Villager’s Café in Maurice. The giant spindle tables, homemade fries and Cokes in little bottles are just gravy when it comes to the poor boys. Kristy Robin Landry prefers the Villager Special.

“The restaurant itself has an oldfashioned feel to it,” she says. “My favorite is the villager poor boy. It has a generous portion of ham and roast beef. They add pepper jack cheese and au jus gravy. The peppery cheese gives it a little kick. In my opinion, they add the perfect amount of gravy – just enough to make it juicy without making the bread soggy.”

LOUISIANA PO-BOYS 5445 Johnston St., Lafayette (337) 984-4191 Sitting in the middle of a strip mall on Johnson Street, Louisiana Po-Boys is quietly gaining momentum with its variety of poor boys and loyal following.

Debbie Hanrahan Arceneaux said the Time Plaza establishment is her hands-down favorite for poor boys. “My favorite is the catfish on wheat. It’s to die for,” she says.

Jessica Odah said she prefers the hamburger poor boy.

Don’t discriminate against Louisiana PoBoys because it hasn’t been around forever.

It may not have the history of some of the other establishments, but their poor boys speak for themselves. Just because you didn’t grow up eating them doesn’t mean your children shouldn’t. ap

CHRIS’ POBOYS 1941 Moss Street, Lafayette (337) 237-1095 1930 W. Pinhook Road, Lafayette (337) 234-6333 3755 Ambassador Caffrey Pkwy., Lafayette (337) 981-1818 Chris’ Poboys is understated and some might describe their restaurants as low on ambience and charm – after all, one of them is in a gas station. But if you’re not a Chris’ fan already, don’t let any of that stop you

www.acadianaprofile.com | August/September 2013

75

A gift they won’t forget

No one wants to burden loved ones with funeral expenses. Find out how a Shelter Life policy can make a big difference during a tough time.

A small investment today will give you peace of mind.

Shelter Life Insurance Company Columbia, MO ShelterInsurance.com

76

August/September 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

Richard Leleux, LUTCF 512 Johnston Street (Near Downtown) Lafayette, LA 337-234-5286

www.acadianaprofile.com | August/September 2013

77

visiter

Around Acadiana: Gatherings, carnivals and activities around Acadiana. Compiled by judi russell AUGUST

3 Great Balls of Fire: Delta Blues & Rock ‘n’ Roll in Jerry Lee’s Home Town.

Arcade Theatre, Delta Music Museum, Ferriday. (318) 757-9999.

3-4 Cajun Youth Sports Festival. Erath. (337) 652-5437.

7 Purple Heart Day Ceremony. 102 W. Main St., New Iberia. (337) 365-1428.

14-18 Delcambre Shrimp Festival. 401 Richard St., Delcambre. (337) 685-2653.

17 Arts & Crab Festival. Lake Charles Civic Center, Lake Charles.

(337) 439-2787.

Ride the Bull Kayak Fishing Rodeo. 1618 Louisiana Hwy. 1, (985) 787-2418

29-Sept. 2 Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival. Downtown Morgan City.

(985) 385-0703.

22-25 Duck Festival. 404 Dallas Guidry Road, Hwy. 14, Gueydan. (337) 536-6456.

24 Family & Youth Festival. Lake Charles Civic Center, Lake Charles.

(337) 436-9533.

Arts & Crab Festival

24-25 Lafayette Reggae & Cultural Festival. 110 Softball Drive, Carencro.

(337) 886-0572.

30-Sept. 1 Louisiana Brahman Sugar Classic. 713 NW Bypass, New Iberia.

(337) 365-7539.

30-Sept. 2 Labor Day Fishing Rodeo. LA 319 & Beach Lane, Cypremort Point.

(337) 364-7301.

31 31st Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Music Festival. 457 Zydeco Road,

Plaisance. (337) 290-6048.

SEPTEMBER 6-7 St. Martinville Kiwanis Pepper Festival. Corner N. New Market and Labor Day Fishing Rodeo

E. Madison, St. Martinville. (337) 394-7408.

6-7 Mamou Cajun Music Festival. 98 Main St., Mamou. (337) 789-0646.

6-8 Bayou Lafourche Antiques Show. Warren J. Harang Jr. Municipal

Auditorium, Thibodaux. (985) 413-1147.

7 Louisiana Stock Horse Association Show. 713 NW Bypass, New Iberia.

(337) 365-7539.

7-8 Youth Center Hurricane Festival. 205 West 79th St., Cut Off. (985) 632-7616.

8 Acadiana Barrel Race Association. 713 NW Bypass, New Iberia.

(337) 365-7539.

Horse Show

78

8 Horse Show. 121 Moffet Rd., Houma. (985) 232-5141.

11 Patriotic Day Ceremony. 102 W. Main St., New Iberia. (337) 365-1428.

14 SugaSheaux. 713 NW Bypass, New Iberia. (337) 365-7539.

August/September 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

Best of the Bayou Festival

20-22 St. Theresa’s Bon Ton Festival.

20

4822 Carlyss Drive, Sulphur. (337) 583-4800.

Downtown Live After 5. 7856 Main St., Houma. (985) 873-6408.

21 Delcambre Seafood & Farmer’s Market.

409 E. Main St., Delcambre. (800) 884-6120, ext.6 21

Cajun-French Music Festival. Cyr Gates

Community Center, New Iberia. (337) 364-7975.

21-22 Golden Meadow Family Fishing Rodeo.

310 W, 163rd St., Galliano. (985) 665-4507.

21-22

B.H.P.A. City Championship Horseshoe

Pitching Tournament.

Kemper Williams Park, Patterson.

facebook.com/BayouHorseshoePitchersAssociation 25-29

Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival.

Various venues, New Iberia. (337) 369-9323.

27 Gallery Promenade. 700 Ryan St.,

Lake Charles. (337) 439-2787.

Fall Pops Concert. 5953 West Park Ave.,

28

Houma. (985) 637-3894.

28 4th Annual Promenade d’Art de Franklin.

Main Street, Franklin. (337) 828-6345.

28-29

2nd Annual Best of the Bayou Festival.

7856 Main St., Houma. (985) 876-5600. ap

don’t see your event? go to acadianaprofile.com to submit.

www.acadianaprofile.com | August/September 2013

79

en français, s’il vous plaît

L’héritage des Indiens de l’Acadiana par david cheramie La France possédait autrefois, dans l’Amérique septentrionale, un vaste empire qui s’étendait depuis le Labrador jusqu’aux Florides, et depuis les rivages de l’Atlantique jusqu’aux lacs les plus reculés du « haut Canada. » Ainsi commence Atala de François-René de Chateaubriand, une histoire d’amour entre deux Indiens dans la pure tradition romantique du début du XIXe siècle par le maître du genre en France.

Sa carrière littéraire débutait avec ce livre qui a comme cadre une Louisiane aussi exotique qu’imaginée et qui fait partie d’une plus grande œuvre intitulée Les Natchez. En gros, il raconte la conversion des « sauvages », les non-civilisés, vers le christianisme, première étape de leurs assimilation vers la « vraie » culture.

Ce n’est nullement une monographie anthropologique sur les premiers habitants, mais un éloge éloquent du pouvoir civilisateur des valeurs occidentales, comme c’était la coutume de l’époque.

De ce fait, la description des Indiens qu’on y rencontre est aussi vraisemblable que celle des montagnes et des déserts de notre état, c’est-à-dire, pas du tout. Grâce à ce livre et bien d’autres tels Voyages au Canada de Jacques Cartier ou Des cannibales de Michel de Montaigne, le mythe du « bon sauvage » s’est ancré dans nos esprits à tel 80

point qu’on oublie qu’au fait il y avait des hommes et des femmes réels en chair et en os qui étaient capables de raconter euxmêmes leur histoire, si on avait seulement cru qu’ils avaient une histoire à raconter.

Dans la région qui constitue aujourd’hui le bassin Tèche-Vermilion, certains anthropologues et archéologues pensent que des êtres humains y ont habité continuellement depuis au moins cinq mille ans et peut-être bien plus. Sur les bords du bayou Vermilion, par exemple, jusqu’à l’eau haute de 1927, il y avait une source d’eau fraîche qu’on appelait la source Chargois.

Elle est tarie de nos jours, complètement bouchée par les sédiments apportés par la crue historique du Mississipi. Néanmoins, l’endroit porte toujours ce nom et les vieux Lafayettois se rappellent sinon s’y être baignés petits, au moins des histoires du temps que l’eau coulait. Pendant

longtemps, les élèves de Paul Breaux High School remettaient au principal après chaque bonne pluie des têtes de flèches et des morceaux de poterie qu’ils trouvaient sur le terrain d’école. D’autres trouvailles suggèrent fortement non seulement qu’on habite ici depuis longtemps, mais relativement en grand nombre aussi. C’était probablement un lieu de rencontre où se passaient des échanges de toute sorte.

Des sources d’eau fraîche, en combinaison

August/September 2013 | www.acadianaprofile.com

avec sa position géographique sur un coteau entre le bassin de l’Atchafalaya à l’est et les savanes à l’ouest ont fait de cet endroit un habitat idéal. Ce n’est pas étonnant, malgré ce que l’on peut nous faire croire (ou du moins essayer de nous faire oublier), que les premiers habitants soient toujours là.

La toponymie, la science des noms de lieux, est souvent la gardienne du souvenir des peuples précédents. La Louisiane, en plus de notre héritage français et espagnol, décompte plusieurs noms d’origine amérindienne. Certains sont pratiquement synonymes avec l’état: Bayou, Atchafalaya, Opélousas, Attakapas ou Catahoulas. Petit Manchac, le nom original de Lafayette, avant même Vermilionville, veut dire la petite porte en arrière! Est-ce que D. L. Ménard en savait plus qu’il nous laissait savoir? En plus, quand nos langues européennes nous ont fait défaut pour décrire les nouvelles flores et faunes, les Amérindiens nous prêtaient des mots : chaoui pour raton-laveurs, boscoyo pour genou de cyprès, choupique pour poissoncastor et mamou pour… mamou. Des fois, il n’y pas d’autres mots.

De nos jours, les Indiens louisianais parlent de plus en plus pour euxmêmes. Que ce soit les Houmas ou les Attakapas qui revendiquent leur reconnaissance officielle ou les Koasati ou les Chitimachas qui réclament leurs langues ancestrales, ils sortent de plus en plus de la longue ombre jetée par des années de silence.

Ce n’est pas tellement qu’ils étaient silencieux, c’est seulement que personne ne les écoutait. Enfin, au début les premiers colons européens les écoutaient pour savoir comment construire les maisons en bousillage, quelles plantes on utilisait comme nourriture ou médicament, ou simplement comment survivre dans ce nouvel environnement. Il est plus que temps que nous les écoutions de nouveau. On en a besoin. ap

for an english translation , visit www . acadianaprofile . com .

illustration by sarah george