Tidbits About The City of Thibodaux, LA
Football season is near again and everyone loves that. William Taylor knows more about Saints football than anyone and he told me just today that Pete Rozelle decided to have two NFL games on one Saturday night at Tulane Stadium which seated 83,000. It started at 7 PM and around 10 a tremendous rainfall happened and the teams went into the locker room. After the rain passed they continued and the last game ended at 1:30 AM. That’s really loving football. That was in July 1973. This was the FIRST time a football game was played on a Sunday in Louisiana.
I gave a talk to the Rotary Club about the Cajuns and the history of Thibodaux. It was in 1796 that Henry Thibodaux came to this area. He was raised by the Schyuler family in the Northeast and thus the middle name. He bought two lots from a Malbrough and downtown began for Thibodauxville. Rienzi was being built for Queen Maria of Spain as they were at war with France and she would have to escape but that never happened. Thibodaux lived there for awhile but had settled in Terrebonne Parish and is considered the founder of that parish and is buried there in the half way cemetery before you get to the Highway 90 and I 45 crossing.
Woody Falgout (Falgoux) wrote a magnificent history of St. Genevieve Parish and it is now available at CHERRY BOOKS on Canal Blvd. It goes back 50 years when Fr. Newfield started it in an old lumber yard building on St. Mary St.
Over the years many pastors were there and Carolyn Cappell was the principal of the elementary school for 40 years and is now retired. The book has great stories of miracles happening all the time and now the refurbished church is a masterpiece of design. Here are some names of priests you will remember:
Fathers Newfield, Pilola, Danos, Roeten, Naquin, Melancon, Legendre, Todd, and Madden. Fr. Dean Danos has returned and is the present pastor of this historical church.
Remember DIPLOMAT WAY. In research found an article from the Times Picayune from August, 1966 about Harvey Peltier, Sr. and his horse winning the Futurity. He said it was the biggest thrill of his life. The trainer was J.O.Meaux and the jockey was Willie Shoemaker. He paid $67,000 for the horse and that one race won him $195,000.
Remember City Bakery? Watch for a story soon on this remarkable memory. When they closed in December 1985 right before Christmas, they sold 500 dozen do nuts in one day.
Believe it. Watch for TIDBITS next month.
TIDBITS QUOTE OF THE MONTH: “ I would rather think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to come together and make sense.” (Kushner)
