Terrebonne bicentennial: a time to reflect and celebrate

Terrebonne has changed with age but its parties haven't.

Residents flocked to downtown Houma on Saturday for a parade and festival to celebrate the parish's bicentennial.

Some in attendance said over their lifetimes, Terrebonne has changed.

"The whole parish is one big family, and I just feel that that this parish can rise bigger than what it is," said Beulah Rodrigue, 93, of Gibson. "And I'd like to see it."

Rodrigue said she led the Terrebonne High School Marching Band as a majorette in Houma's first modern Mardi Gras parade in the late 1940s. Parades used to start on the east side of town and cross the Main Street Bridge and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway into downtown.

"When I walked over that bridge and came down Main Street, ... that was the most beautiful sight, and I made a promise to myself that I would give a lot of my life to the parish, and I have," Rodrigue said. "I can still see it, the top of that bridge, looking at downtown Houma."

Rodrigue has dedicated her life to many nonprofit boards, such as those that help veterans and disaster recovery throughout the parish.

Growing up in middle school, she said, she traveled for basketball to each school so that when everyone moved to Terrebonne High, they all already knew each other. Neighborhoods would also get to know one another because there were no refrigerators, so people would fish or trap and sell their food to each other.

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This created a sense of family that spanned the entire parish. Now, she said, people aren't as close anymore, but Terrebonne is still a family.

Richard "Bosco" Chaisson, 68, said he had a much different experience. A member of the United Houma Nation, he grew up on the east side of Houma. In the past, during the years of state-sanctioned racial discrimination, Chaisson said he and other Native Americans couldn't have stood on the steps of the Houma Courthouse listening to music as he did Saturday.

"The only time you got to go in the Courthouse Square was when you had to go to court," Chaisson said. "Besides that, they'd give you a funny look. Going down Main Street, they'd give you the same look."

He said he loved the swamp pop music that was playing live, and took the public transit just to come to the festival. Houma has changed over the years, gradually, he said.

Chaisson said Terrebonne still had many things to improve on, but the fact that so many people with varying complexions could gather for a large party this way was a sign of progress.

"Certain stores in Houma, you had to go through the back door because you couldn't go through the front door," he said. "There's really been a lot of changes for the good, [but] some are still bad."

He hosts a free annual Thanksgiving dinner for the people of Dulac that feeds about 500 people.

Parish President Gordy Dove and other officials said Terrebonne took its worst beating through Hurricane Ida. But he lauded the determination of the parish and its residents for creating the levee system that has protected it from flooding, including during last year's Category 4 storm.

"We took a Cat 4 hurricane, which was really a Cat 5. We've recovered and some are still recovering, but it just shows the tenacity and the resilience of the people of Terrebonne Parish," Dove said.

A time capsule was buried Saturday, filled with photos, news articles, documents, letters, a bottle of whiskey and maps of the flood-protection system. Terrebonne Planning Director Chris Pulaski, who has helped lead the parish's bicentennial events, said these items are important for future residents, educating them on what worked and didn't. He said there will be a bicentennial book published with all the information researched about Terrebonne for the event.

Many mused about what future residents would experience in Terrebonne 100 years from now when the capsule is scheduled for opening, or even if there would be a Terrebonne then.

Parish Councilman Darrin Guidry said he put a letter in the capsule that a third-grader sent to him. The 8-year-old was asking for more recycling options. Guidry said he hopes the author will be alive and attending the opening of the capsule. Maybe in the future, everything will be recycled, he said.

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Terrebonne Parish celebrates bicentennial with parade and festival