Hello from New Iberia, La.–the Queen City of the Bayou Teche, a tiny center of culture in the heart of Cajun country, just a few miles from the Gulf of Mexico. If you’ve read any of David Lee Burke’s mystery series about detective Dave Robicheaux, you know New Iberia. It’s his hometown. The Konrico Rice Mill and Mclhenny’s Tabasco Sauce Company are also in New Iberia.
I blame the fact that I am down here in the land of bayous, sugar cane, live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, 97 degree heat and near 100 percent humidity on both my editor, Rich Schwartzman and Upper Darby Sousa Band founder and director, Thomas J. Hoey.
You see, as Chadds Ford Live is still getting off the ground, the editor and myself have an agreement shall we say, as to my…umm…compensation for this weekly exercise.
It’s not an issue. But I never thought the piece I wrote for the May 28 edition was going to end up costing me a $375 round trip Delta airfare to Lafayette, La. via Atlanta.
It was my May 28 blog on the Sousa Band concert at Longwood Gardens on May 23 and its founder-director, Thomas J Hoey who had contacted me at the Sanderson Museum about Chris Sanderson’s correspondence with John Philip Sousa.
Hoey had e-mailed a link to Sousa’s complete catalogue of works, both published and unpublished including not only his marches but his operas and symphonic pieces. And there among his songs for voice and piano was “The Belle of the Bayou Teche”.
What? How did Sousa know about the Bayou Teche?
I often fly down to Louisiana to visit an old teaching colleague from the 1970s. We remained friends even when he returned to his hometown of New Iberia, to teach in his Alma Mater, Catholic High School. The meandering Bayou Teche (about the size of the Brandywine) forms a loop around his neighborhood on Hilltop Circle.
Hoey then e-mailed a list of all of Sousa’s concert venues. The closest Sousa ever got to New Iberia as far as we know, were two concerts in New Orleans. Today, still a distance of a good two hours by car.
Hoey also contacted a colleague at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. to send a photocopy of the original score of the song based on a poem by O.E. Lynn.
I cannot quote any of the poem to you as it was written in 1911, in a southern dialect and style that is now considered offensive.
So a quick series of e-mails ensued between several of my friends in New Iberia to figure out the Sousa connection. There was even talk of presenting a copy to the new Bayou Teche Museum in New Iberia.
At one point I my Cajun friends – I miss New Iberia!
The answer came—come on down! So $375 poorer, here I am in New Iberia.
Boudin, Andouille, Crayfish, Po’ Boys, crabs, Café au Lait, breakfast at Victors, Sunday Mass, Cypremort Point on the Gulf, Cajun music and fellowship with dear friends. “Laissez les bon temps Rouler!”
And there’s something else about that cursed May 28 blog. It also got me involved…well… maybe that will be the subject of another blog some day…maybe...we’ll see.
About Sally Denk Hoey
Sally Denk Hoey, is a Gemini - one part music and one part history. She holds a masters degree cum laude from the School of Music at West Chester University. She taught 14 years in both public and private school. Her CD "Bard of the Brandywine" was critically received during her almost 30 years as a folk singer. She currently cantors masses at St Agnes Church in West Chester where she also performs with the select Motet Choir. A recognized historian, Sally serves as a judge-captain for the south-east Pennsylvania regionals of the National History Day Competition. She has served as president of the Brandywine Battlefield Park Associates as well as the Sanderson Museum in Chadds Ford where she now curates the violin collection. Sally re-enacted with the 43rd Regiment of Foot and the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment for 19 years where she interpreted the role of a campfollower at encampments in Valley Forge, Williamsburg, Va., Monmouth, N.J. and Lexington and Concord, Mass. Sally is married to her college classmate, Thomas Hoey, otherwise known as "Mr. Sousa.”
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