Yeah, I agree with some of the others. North Louisiana is by no means South Arkansas and anyone who believes so should visit this area to prove this to themselves. I'm with the guy who said you'll get busted in the mouth for that kind of talk. Folks from North Louisiana are proud to be a part of this state and are passionate about our Tigers and our Saints. On any given Saturday you'll see tons of LSU gear and flags flying proudly from people's vehicles. As far as Shreveport goes, I refer to it as East Dallas. They have a disturbing amount of Cowgirl fans I find. That beng said, I have friends who live there and I know most of them love their Tigers. I personally live in Monroe. My dad is from North Louisiana but my mom's family is Cajun all the way and I've got nothing but love for the southern part of the state. It is without a doubt where the life blood of our culture resides. I travel to New Orleans at least 2 to 3 times a year for the food, the music, and the people. I know I probably don't speak for everyone in this area but I believe that most North Louisianians realize and appreciate the culture to be had down South. However, I too believe there's too much us and them talk. We all love this state otherwise we probably wouldn't live here in the first place. Now the recruits, I can't speak for. I think the recent trend is more of an anomaly than anything. Hopefully, the change in recruiters will help this. But I don't really think any more players from the northern part of the state have been lost than the southern part. (See Speedy Noil, Landon Collins, Eddie Lacy.....I could go on and on) I personally believe kids are going to go where they feel there needs are being met whatever that need may be. Our recruiting department needs to do a better job of convincing these kids that Baton Rouge is where they need to be. And remember, we can't sign them all.
There's always exceptions. Your dad obviously is one because he went south to find his wife and she trained you well.
The Shreveport crowd tends to be bandwagon fans, whoever is winning is what you'll see flying from cars. Seems to be a ton of new Alabama and FSU stuff flying through S'port these days... more so than I have seen over the last decade.
Culturally, Louisiana is three states. North Louisiana is the same upland south culture that stretches from Texas to Virginia. Chicken fried steak and catfish, protestant, dry parishes, English heritage, southern drawls, NASCAR, country music and rednecks (and blacknecks! Yankees who only know urban blacks are often surprised to see rural southern blacks riding horses and wearing cowboy hats and big belt buckles). The Florida parishes, with the exception of North Shore NOLA transplants, is essentially part of north Louisiana English heritage culture. South Louisiana is Cajun country. Jambalaya and crawfish, Catholic, Acadian French heritage, drinking and gambling, cockfights, Zydeco brothers and swap pop coonasses. Laissez le bon temps roulet. New Orleans is Creole country. Gumbo, red beans and rice, beignets and cafe au lait. Catholics plus Voodoo. Spanish, African, Carribbean, and continental French heritage. Mardi Gras. Above-ground cemetaries. Jazz. R&B. There is some spillover and cultural mixing for sure, but Louisiana is definitely a multicultural stew rather than a melting pot.
Tha That's one of the better break downs I've seen. A large part of the world and country think it's all the same and it definitely is not!
I was going to post the same thing. Great breakdown Red. When I moved to Atlanta in 87 my new friends took to calling me Cajun Dave even though I'm Italian. I fought it for a longtime but then embraced it. One of the guys from Monroe that I met and became good friends with got really irritated when people called him Cajun and he never let anyone call him that. Poor guy could never just let it go and it cost him a bunch of friends. After my mother died a few years later someone mailed me her family tree and I found out that I have a whole bunch of cajun blood in me, who knew?
