Cold, wet but warm friendships nonetheless

One item that no one -- residents or visitors -- will be giving up for the Lenten season is talking about the freezing, wintry Mardi Gras of 2014 in Eunice. Every Ash Wednesday, it’s not unusual to find the parking lot of L’Acadie Inn filled with out-of-state plates from California to New York and all states in between.
Enter Mel and Pat Propst, retirees from Jefferson City, Mo., who agreed that they had been visiting Acadiana for nearly 40 years now. Pat said that she and her husband Mel first stopped at Mulate’s in Breaux Bridge and fell in love with the people, the culture and the area.
Their love of the culture has kept them coming back for Mardi Gras and the promise of escaping wintry Missouri weather conditions. This season, however, the wintry conditions decided to pay a visit to Eunice with more icicles in trees than Mardi Gras beads.
“I remember maybe a few years ago, we had a little snow,” said Mel. “But nothing like this, never any ice.”
“We didn’t do any street dancing,” said Pat. “We are always on the street for dancing. Another couple told us that Steve Riley and The Mamou Playboys moved into The Liberty. But I think it cut down, or curtailed, some of the activities somewhat. But this year, there were more restaurants that had music, Rocky’s being one, and so there wereplaces to go, but not the outside entertainment. The weather was so bad this year, we didn’t go on the run.”
Another retired couple who has been visiting Eunice for about 10 years now, Lynn and Charlotte Almand, from White Oak Lake, Ark., over the years made fast friends with the Propsts. One-upside to their Mardi Gras visit was the reunion of old friends as part of their Mardi Gras tradition.
“I’d never seen everything iced like it was on Mardi Gras,” said Charlotte Almand. “Usually, even if it rains, it’s not that bad here. You can usually just put on a rain coat and go on celebrating. The weather really made things bad this year. We just couldn’t get out and do the things that we’d normally do.”
Despite the weather, the couples did not regret making their annual trek to St. Landry Parish.
Charlotte, for one, was still glad that they decided to come.
“We made friends here, people that we met here years ago,” said Charlotte Almand. “And we come back here and we meet. And we visit with them.”
“It’s kind of like coming home,” said Mrs. Propst. “And we’ll be back.”
Another couple that both couples consider their friends are Lance and Kelly Pitre, the owners of L’Acadie Inn.
Kelly said that she stood outdoors for three hours, in the freezing cold of this year’s Mardi Gras, to register folks for The Faquetaigue Mardi Gras – which is the rural, old-world Mardi Gras run and tradition of chasing a live chicken through the mud of rice fields.
Kelly said that the weather brought about some changes in the annual Mardi Gras run. She said that there were about 360 “runners” in the parade this year. She said that last year’s run had about 500 participants.
“It was over half of what we normally have,” said Kelly Pitre. “It was actually a much better turnout than we were expecting. It started off a little late and they cut the run in half and headed back to Jo-el Savoy’s to celebrate under a tent instead of hanging out in an open field. It was just too much.”
Kelly Pitre said that when she was finished registering participants for the Faquetaigue run, the temperature had dropped considerably. She said that a brown paper bag which was used as a trash receptacle was frozen to the table that was set up for the outdoor registration.
She said the weather may have even been too cold for one of the chickens chased on the run. She said that runners on the run had to call in a second chicken for the tradition.
“Apparently the chicken run was not very successful because the first chicken flew on top of the roof of a house during the first stop,” said Kelly Pitre. “They couldn’t get it down and then started throwing oranges and boiled eggs at the chicken to try and make it come down off of the roof.”
Kelly Pitre said that the weather did not prevent runners on the country parade from coming back to town, caked with mud. The wintry, wet Mardi Gras continued on as chickens were caught, beads were thrown and a good time was passed in spite of the weather.
“Did the weather change things? Not a whole lot,” said Kelly Pitre. “For most of the people, it’s a tradition. So, it doesn’t matter if it’s blazing hot or freezing cold. We’re still going to be out there celebrating.”