1. Yep, Everyone Is Completely Obsessed With Mardi Gras
Source: Flickr user horngodess179
The people of Lafayette (like numerous other places in the South) are more than slightly obsessed with the well-known holiday. They go out in droves to parades, balls and festivals for an entire month before the actual holiday even happens.
The formal excuse for this is that the true “Carnival Season” begins on January 6th, which is King’s Day (AKA The Feast of the Epiphany, AKA a date of religious importance the details of which I won’t bore you with here). Whatever. The truth is that it gives the people of Lafayette nearly two full months to eat King Cake, play dress up, and belt out ‘Mardi Gras Mambo’ for the zillionth time.
And then they pretty much all collectively lose their minds on Fat Tuesday and do it all again.
2. Cold Temperatures Are Alien and Terrifying
Source: Mitchel Broussard
Sneaux Day 2014. You’d swear the people were witnessing one of the Kaiju from Pacific Rim emerge from the Gulf, with the amount of distress coming off of social media on that fateful day. Lafayette’s grocery store shelves were wiped clean of mainstays like water, bread, and beer. Pets were brought inside, doors tightly locked. Everyone in the city was bracing for the coming Kaiju attack snowstorm.
And what a surprise: It barely snowed at all. Light rainfall made it more like hail, and it barely stuck to the ground (nor did it cover it in anything over an inch in Lafayette itself) for more than 24 hours. But, hey, everyone got the chance to make the saddest snowmen of all time! (see above) And no one got eaten by trans-dimensional alien monsters. Cherish those good memories, my friends.
Maybe if they block it from their memories for long enough, if it ever snows in the future we can see them freak out all over again. They’re just accustomed to very different weather. After all…
3. Hurricane Days Are To People In Lafayette What Snow Days Are To Everyone Else
Source: Flickr user tobo
The scarier side of Southern living—you know, aside from the accents and rattails—is easily the weather. Nothing makes the people in Lafayette whine more than the bipolar southern Louisiana weather, which (in months other than the dog days of summer) can turn on a dime between sweltering and ever so slightly cool (AKA freezing—see stereotype two).
But then there are the hurricanes. The hurricane season is intimidatingly long and infuriatingly unpredictable. One year can be a monster (remember Katrina), and others can be mild.
Lafayette itself hasn’t been hit bad in a few years, which means any kids in school on days when a hurricane even appears to be glancing in the city’s direction get the elusive and mystical “Inclement Weather Day Off,” to their obvious delight.
Now, is it right to celebrate staying home from school (and maybe even work) because of a possible oncoming doom at the hands of Mother Nature? That’s a debate for another day. Spoilers: It’s totally okay, as long as it doesn’t affect the crawfish haul, because…
4. Crawfish Is The Food Of The Gods
Source: Flickr user AuthenticEccentric
Technically, the eponymous mudbugs can be caught year round. But, if you live in a place like Lafayette, you know that eating crawfish out of season is pretty much like eating fish tacos for breakfast—you just don’t do it, people.
Crawfish season can fluctuate yearly, but the prime time to devour always lies in the springtime when the cold weather hasn’t hardened their shells yet. And with this influx of crawfish comes a whole new reason for the people of Lafayette to celebrate (while they wait for the next Mardi Gras) and drink copious amounts of alcohol: The glorious annual crawfish boil.
You can find these parties celebrating the real end of winter and the oncoming glut of hot summer days all over town. Everyone consumes a staggering amount of the little boiled buggers while drinking beer and dancing more and more amusingly to the music as the night goes on. Now that’s a party.
5. “Y’all” Really Is Their Favorite Word
Source: Wikipedia user Elikos91
“Y’all”: Second-person plural pronoun; contraction of words “you” and “all.” The word actually has an interesting history: its origins date back to the absence of a proper separate second person plural English pronoun. Once “Thou” (singular) and “Ye” (plural) dropped off the face of the earth, “You” was left to pick up the pieces and do double duty as the singular and plural versions of itself.
That sounds all fancy and uppity, right? But then you actually say the word out loud and it loses all sense of decorum immediately. The people of Lafayette really don’t care, and use it like it’s going out of style.
Which is okay because it actually did ages ago, and now it’s just sort of an adorable quirk of affectation the South has generated in recent decades. Like how they’re known for wrestling alligators in swamps, or warring between storage sheds, or Honey Boo-Boo.
Take the above map for example, created from the results of a Harvard survey, it shows the different ways people refer to a group of two or more people. Well look what’s right there in the middle of all that green, y’all.
6. Don’t Question The Guns, Unless You’re Asking Where To Buy One
Source: Flickr user Brit
Guns are undoubtedly a very topical issue right now. Regulation is debated and questioned daily in Washington and all over sites like Facebook and Twitter.
The good people of Lafayette are aware of this, tangentially. However, what concerns them more is whether they own a bigger one than their friends, and they prove their competitive spirit by attending annual gun shows to keep up with all the new models.
While the rest of the nation is hurriedly scurrying around to outdo their neighbor’s 75-inch television that was just airlifted into the house, Lafayette folk just want to make sure that they pick up that 8mm Mauser they’ve been eyeing online. Well, “tomayto, tomahto,” as they say.
7. Everyone In Lafayette Knows They’re About To Be Discovered
Source: Flickr user Guillaume Paumier
It’s no secret that Louisiana has been given such nicknames as “Hollywood South” or “Little Hollywood” in the past few years, thanks to a generous tax credit program that pays 30% of a production’s expenses as long as it is headquartered in the state and spends at least $300,000. Since then a number of big name productions have filmed down south: “21 Jump Street,” “Pitch Perfect,” and “Django Unchained” to name a few.
While Lafayette itself hasn’t been known to attract big names yet, its close proximity to other such towns (Baton Rouge, for example) has led residents to excitedly chatter on about their close brushes with fame, and geek out about the possibilities for more movie productions in the future. The meteoric rise in popularity of shows like Duck Dynasty and Swamp People doesn’t help quell their dreams of stardom much, either.
Just ask Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds. If they ever come back to this town (albeit separately nowadays), they probably won’t ever make it back to L.A. again.
8. People In Lafayette Are Swamp People—Just Not In The Way You Think
Source: Wikipedia user Aaron_charles
There is one so-called “swamp” in Lafayette, Louisiana, but make no mistake, it’s THE swamp. It’s also located in a curious place: The middle of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. People in Lafayette do love hunting, fishing and taking outings on swamps outside of town, but they won’t touch this one.
No one does, because you simply don’t mess with The Swamp. It was quite literally the epicenter of the University as far back as its inception in 1898, when it was used for pigpens and agriculture classes, an open-air theater and Shakespeare productions, and even commencement programs.
Its modern day use as a habitat for for irises, alligators, turtles and myriad bird and fish species is much more environmentally-oriented, but it’s still a sacred hollow for not only UL students, but also every resident of the city. Don’t even try fishing here unless you want a lot more trouble than you were expecting.
9. Lafayette Is Basically The Center Of The Universe
Source: Festival International de Louisiane Facebook page
The term “Acadiana” relates to the French Louisiana area of Southern Louisiana that is home to a large Francophone (French-speaking) population. The city of Lafayette is widely considered the center of Acadiana, and as such, the epicenter of Cajun culture in the state and the United States at large. As a result Lafayette actually garners a heavy amount of tourism due to its vibrant history and thick culture.
Now, there are many reasons small towns inspire loyalty bordering on madness in its residents, be it local sports like football or baseball, classic restaurants and food that people adore, or even being the birthplace of a celebrity. Everyone knows that.
Lafayette folk have the unique predicament of being able to be placed in all of these categories (the Ragin’ Cajuns, stuffed grilled cheese at Johnson’s Boucaniere, and Hunter Hayes, respectively), so they will already fiercely defend their city.
But having the additional stamp of being at the center of what they believe (completely subjectively) is one of the most unique cultures in America means that “humble” isn’t exactly in the Lafayette dialect.
10. Everyone In Lafayette Takes Their Dessert Classic. With Sprinkles
Source: Flickr user joyosity
In 1940, Borden’s Ice Cream Parlors were a dime a dozen in the U.S. Think Baskin-Robbins of your grandpa’s time. Now fast-forward some seventy-odd years to present day, and there’s but one left in the whole country. Guess where? That’s right, smack dab in the heart of Lafayette, Louisiana.
Red Lerille, the owner of one of the biggest gyms in the city, bought the shop in 2009, stating his interest in mom-and-pop businesses like it. He knew that classic spots like this were dying fast, and anything that could be done to stop their decline was worth it.
He bought it from previous owners (the University, actually, which acquired it when then owner Flora Levy died in 1981), put his daughter in charge, and turned it into a legitimate and sacred Lafayette Institution.
The people of Lafayette have enthusiastically embraced Lerille’s effort ever since, and that nostalgia is one of the real reasons it’s still the hot spot it is today. Sure, it’s a lot of hard work for two scoops of mint chocolate chip, but oh so worth it to the people in Lafayette.
