Cajun Cheer Leaders--A little of our lovely Sherry's past. With some extensive DD I was able to find a lady from Sherry's High School (Black Water High) in Louisiana who was actually a cheerleader with Sherry for the Black Water Swamp Devils. Here is Loretta Prudhommes letter:
Dear Mr. Druss
I do remember Sherry very well. She wuz a cheerleader like me fer the Devils. Sherry an I didn't git along well at furst. I thought she might be uppity. When we wuz both picked fer the cheerleadin squad I thought I better jest talk to her out right. Sherry had bin the Home Comin Queen and gittin to be cheerleader, well there jest weren't much more a girl cud ask from life. Sos I went up to her and said I hoped she weren't feelin too big fer her briches now that she were a cheerleader an all. I tole her that sometimes I thought she were puttin on airs an all.
Sherry said, "You can relax Loretta, I know high school isn't fer ever. I want to get me a good swamp buck jest like you do and settle down. I can't wait to be barefoot in the kitchen, filling up the wood stove with a half a dozen kids hanging on my apron. So you can ease your mind."
Well Mr. Druss the part about bein in the kitchen an all that did make me feel better. It sounded like she had her feet on the ground purty solid there. But I started wondering about the swamp buck part. There jest ain't that many really good swamp bucks around, that is settin yer sights purty high and even so, Sherry weren't showin much interest in them either. Canby Higgenbottom wuz jest crazy about Sherry and he were the prize catch of Black Water High. Canby cud always git a possum or a coon no matter whut the weather wuz like or time of year, he were quarterback of the football team, and he always brung a possum fer the family of the girls he were courtin. Them kind of manners is rare and shows the kind of breedin he had. Sherry never paid Canby no mind though and he wuz the best lookin guy at Black Water. He even bathed more than anyone else, it weren't putting airs on though, Canby didn't do stuff like that, he said it helped his possum hunting.
So I started wondering if Sherry really did want a swamp buck, I means where cud you find a better one than Canby? Still I gived her the benefit of the doubt an we became gud friends.
Sherry were a pretty gud cheerleader and I think we wud have had a gud year, since the Swamp Devils won the state championship and all, if it weren't fer the outfits. Sherry kind of fit hers better than the rest of us cheerleaders. It caused some upset I can say. The principal said that before this all the cheerleaders kind of looked like sacks of taters in their cheerleadin outfits. Sherry didn't. Still we got a lot more people coming to the games than we ever did and that really helped out cause the team wuz able to buy helmets fer the furst time. Some of the old timers said that may have been the difference in the Devils winnin the championship since they usually did real good in the furst part of the season but kind of fell off as the brain damage accumulated. So I guess it wer fer the best.
I kind of lost track of Sherry after high school. She went to New Orleans the last I heared. I got married and got nine kids now so I is blessed. My oldest is playin fer the devils. I am real proud of that, it kind of is like a tradition and I am still helpin the team somehow. Ain't many of them helmets we got from Sherry's cheerleadin days left though so I don't know if the team can git the championship or not this year. They kind of rotate the helmets but still towards the end of the season most of the boys are pretty addle brained.
Sincerely
Lorreta Higgenbottom (Yep I is with the best, Canby and I is together an hoping to be married next June). |
