Laissez le bon temps roulez (Let the good times roll).

In the late 1700’s, the British officials in Canada loaded thousands of French speaking settlers from the Maritime provinces into ships and resettled them to the swamps, bayou’s and river delta areas of southern Louisiana, an area that Britain still controlled during that time. There the Francophiles intermixed with other cultures that were already there and created a unique new culture called Cajun. Though their language remained primarily French, the rest of their culture underwent major changes, not the least of which was their music. Today that music, heard throughout Cajun country, is called Zydeco.

Hard to explain but impossible to resist, it has become very popular over the past few years with Zydeco music festivals taking place all over the country. Today Margaret and I went to one in Deerfield Beach. Though the day was warm, it was somehow appropriate for the day’s events. As well as the music, the Cajun culture also includes food that is somewhat on the spicy side. So, attired in cool clothing and with bottles of water and doses of Pepcid in hand, we settled into our lawn chairs for an afternoon of music and eating.

Being somewhat on the fringe of the music world, Zydeco music attracts the type of aficionado that is also just a little “out there”… for the most part, in a good way… and from a broad cross section of society. Blacks and whites mostly but a few Hispanics and even a couple of Asians all joined into the mix.

There were two stages set up to accommodate all the bands that were scheduled. One stage would be active for an hour and then the other for an hour and a half, alternating thusly back and forth from noon until 11:30 in the evening. This arrangement therefore necessitated our moving back and forth from one stage to the other each time a band ended its session. But that was ok because the route of travel took us past numerous vendors of the Cajun cuisine. With the smells wafting through the air, it was virtually impossible to get to the next stage area with our hands filled with only the lawn chairs and water. Let’s just say that the inventors of Pepcid earned my deepest appreciation today. More photo's in the gallery.