LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / June 16, 1999

GRETNA – Need a gentle smile or an uproarious belly laugh? Pick up on the latest collection of Cajun jokes and stories, as told by Tommy Joe Breaux in “Cajun Stories My Granpa Tole Me,” recently released by Pelican Publishing of Gretna.

For a resident of Biloxi, Miss., Breaux truly touches the heart of the Cajuncharacter, and there are characters a-plenty in this collection. There’sElmo and Marie Breaux, the regulars at T-Bub’s Barroom, Coo Coo Comeaux, Doc Duplichan, Poo Poo an’ Stinky Arceneaux and a host of others.

This collection of oft-told tales places them all within one cover, great to pull out at a crawfish boil if you wipe your hands first.

For example, there’s the story about the Cajun daddy’s advice to his son before getting married – “Numba one, made sure dat girl could cook good, ’cause dat’s wat you gonna be eatin’ for de ress of you life.

Numba two, made for sure date girl loves an’ wants planty babies for me an’ you mama to play wit’ an’ spoil rotten.

Numba three, dis is de mos important tang – Son, took a long hard look at dat girl’s mama, ’cause dat’s wat she’s gonna look like in 30 years!”

To be fair, there’s always the distaff side, including the mama’s advice to her young daughter and bride-to-be – “Wan you husband comes home afta work sit him down in a tick-tick-tick cushion easy chair, prop his feet high on a footstool, an’ bring him sometang cold to drank.”The young bride often objects, saying it would spoil him rotten, to which Mama replies – “You nava gonna believe how much money is gonna fall out dat husband’s pants in between de cushions in dat chair!” This reviewer has a few other favorites impossible not to share, such as the following: “One day old Gilbear Wiltz’s granson come prop hisself up on his PawPaw’s knee an’ axed him to make a sound like a frog.

Gilbear was surprise at dat request an’ axed him, “Cher, why in de worl’ would you ax me to did somethin’ like dat? De li’l granson say, “Well, PawPaw, I heard my daddy tole my mama dat wan you croak, we gonna be rich!” To hear more and better stories such as that of Achille on the desert island, pick up Tommy Joe Breaux’s “Cajun Stories My Granpa Tole Me,” priced at $8.95 and available at major bookstores.

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