Saturday, August 02, 2014
If You're Happy and You Know It, Make Gumbo
I ran across this piece in the Washington Post that discussed the ratings of the ten happiest and ten unhappiest cities in the US. It was immediately clear to me that six of the ten happiest cities are in or near Southwestern Louisiana: so the higher the percentage of Cajuns in your population, the happier you'll be.
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How interesting, and the results seem biased towards us Southerners! Coastal N. C. had quite a concentration of the happy blue dots--though a North Carolinian, I know very little about this state's eastern coastal region--I've always been more of a Western Carolina mountain boy--and now in the midstate Piedmont--myself. I was really surprised California had so many reds and so few blue dots! Since it tends to be such an American icon as THE state to move to--perhaps that's the problem--too many DID move there! I DO beg to differ with a big, dark blue dot in the Houston, Texas area--I lived there one very miserable year, many years ago, and came to consider it the bunghole of the U. S.! Most HOSTILE people I've ever been around, but my longest job(before getting fired) I had was as a Repo-Man, so that might have had a bit to do with it....But also the NASTIEST environment--flat, hardly a patch of land not totally developed or trashed by humans, and the small patches of scrub that survived were infested with fire ants and typhoon concentrations of mosquitoes unlike anything I've ever experienced--worse by far than anything in Africa! I was right on the coast--water muddy, polluted and trashy for about a mile out, and oil rigs blocked the view of the ocean and sky. Cockroaches were totally dominant over humans in their houses/trailers, and despite all efforts of control, lived in each abode by the millions! Got into EVERYTHING! Hot, humid, oppressive all year, except a brief month or so in Winter when the blue northers hit and the wet cold froze you to your marrow. But only a few days, then the hordes of mosquitoes would be active again, and you LONGED for the cold to return! Did I mention the constant threat of hurricanes? I also lived amongst some part-Cajuns at the time--SPLENDID folk who could cook ANYTHING and make it gourmet! No doubt I ate quite a few of those cockroaches without knowing it! But not even Cajun cooking could enamour me to that miserable, squalid land! I was so glad to escape and get back to my beloved Cherokee mountains in Western N. C. and East Tennessee I cried tears of happiness! Although I DID spend a few really neat weeks camping in a tipi in the Big Thicket just North of Houston--the first decent patch of trees I came to as I was escaping. Until local game wardens found and confiscated my camp deep in the swamp where I was set up, fined me for every penny I had(not much, it was true) and I had to move on. No, not a very good year in Cajun country for moi!....L.B.
Any culture that produces good food and good music is bound to make even a swamp a fun place to be. It's all a matter of priorities...
Jim Cornelius
www.frontierpartisans.com
LB- Haha, yeah, my husband is from Houston. He hates it and moved to SoCal at the first opportunity. He's a pretty happy guy, though.
...let me DO clarify that I am not generally anti-Texas at all--I LOVE some parts of Texas! The Hill Country is beautiful(just like the African Bush country in many ways!)--the Big Bend area incredible, Palo Duro canyon a treasure, the eastern forests and swamps fantastic. I LOVE old swamps, actually, that haven't been "developed"(destroyed) by mankind. My father's side of the family are ALL Texans, too, for whom the sun rises and sets over Texas, by gawd! Where my hotly disputed 1/64th Comanche blood comes from, if true(ahem!)--but HOUSTON area--the WORST environment I personally have ever had to live in/around! I suppose if one preferred to stay in air-conditioned houses/apartments all the time--or shopping malls perhaps, with megaloads of toxic chemicals to keep the roaches slightly controlled, it might be more tolerable--but NOT for the outdoors types! And I will admit my negative circumstances at the time certainly were a negative influence, but in the best of circumstances, I would NEVER choose to live in such a place! I also love most of Louisiana, too. Just don't think highly of that little anus-shaped area on the maps in and around Houston. I really feel sorry for anyone stuck there. But no accounting for taste--I once heard a woman praising Houston up one side, and down the other, saying how she just LOVED it there! I had to speak up, and I told her(making her eyes bug out a bit), "You could not have possibly ever lived,or visited, or even read about ANYWYHERE else on this planet, to have that opinion of Houston!!!!!" Sometimes one has to be rude for peoples' own good.........L.B.
I agree, we have been in Louisiana each fall for 15 years. They are some of the most fun-seeking and happiest people I've met. The men would rather brag about their cooking skills than their trucks, dogs, or shooting skills. I loved hearing the Cajun French spoken. And even the truck stops have 4-5 star grade food, Hunting is a social event. With dogs, people, etc. Falconry is also a social event there, with lots of fun group hawking with our Harris' hawks in a large group after swamp rabbits.
But for the heat it sounds like I should move there... and maybe I should at least spend the winter.
Houston *does* have really good food and birdwatching. I was able to find fun things to do for all the three days I was there, like see a Spoonbill, a Crested Caracara and a big frickin' alligator.
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