Windows to the past

By: TONY MARKS
Associate Editor

The landscape of southern Evangeline Parish was once dominated by Acadian and Creole cultures. This was seen particularly in the type of houses that dotted the landscape. Over the years; though, most of this culture has died off. The language is not spoken as often as it was, and the houses have been torn down and replaced. But there is one house on top of the Platin where the traditions and stories of the past are kept alive.
Evangeline Parish Clerk of Court Randy Deshotel has been living in the home of his grandparents Adraste and Edmae Deshotel since 1982. He has done one major renovation over the years while still wanting to keep the same feel to the now 130-year-old structure.
“At that time the house had basically no insulation, and the wiring and the plumbing were very old,” he said. “We decided to remodel, and when we remodeled it we took great care to try to keep it as period as we could to keep it looking like the old Cajun home.”
“The entire exterior is original to the house,” he added. “It had wooden shingles on it, but I could not insure the house with the wooden shingles. I had to remove them, and I put the tin back on. We had it completely insulated and rewired. It has the modern amenities to it, but it’s still the old house.”
The front sidewalk leads into the kitchen on the right side of the house. Deshotel has a pair of rocking chairs in his kitchen that belonged to his grandmother. “Those chairs were given to my grandmother as a gift for her wedding day,” he said. “She was married in 1921 at the age of 15. That’s the original chairs with the original hides on the seats. They’re probably some of the most comfortable chairs you could ever sit in.”
The counter tops are lined with heirlooms that each hold a piece of family history to them. Deshotel took down an old can containing white stones that belonged to his grandfather Clarence Fusilier. According to Deshotel, “he took those stones out of the heads of the gaspergou, and he used them as poker chips.” The can also has Fusilier’s badge from when he was a deputy for Sheriff Elin Pitre.
Another can on the counter top holds old family receipts and checks from the Evangeline Bank. Deshotel said, “One of them is a copy of the check from Evangeline Bank where my dad bought my mother’s engagement ring, and they’ve been married over 50 years now.”
Hanging from the ceiling in the kitchen are various herbs and peppers to be used once they dry, and hanging on the wall in a frame is his grandmother’s bonnet.
The kitchen leads into the living room where Deshotel still has the original fireplace, mantle, and clock. “We originally wanted to put a fireplace with a blower,” he said. Because the fireplace is so small there was none that would fit, so we ended up putting a fireplace with a stove in it. When you use that stove, it heats up the whole house.”
A smaller rocking chair is located in the living room. “It was my dad’s (Dr. Bobby Deshotel’s) rocking chair, and now my grandsons use it,” he said. “It’s all original. The seat is kind of torn and all that, but we don’t want to change it because it’s my dad’s chair.”
The living room like the rest of the house is made up of cypress walls and pine floors. “All of the pine floors and all of the beams came from the Rock Island Railroad Station in Alexandria,” Deshotel said. “The big beam took eight men to put up, and it supports the entire upstairs. All of these little beams are notched into the walls so as the whole house breathes and shifts it moves so it doesn’t pull the nails out.”
Adjacent to the living room is the master bedroom that still has windows that are “original to the house.” According to Deshotel, “When you look through the windows, it’s the old poured glass. It’s kind of blurry looking in some areas.”
The master bedroom leads to the front porch that still has the original stairs that lead to the attic on the second floor. “The attic is now two bedrooms and a bath, but at one time it was a complete open attic,” Deshotel explained. “My grandmother would use that to hang her clothes in the winter and to store her canning goods. The attic was a very functional part of the house at that time.”
Located outside in the back of the house is a 60-year-old barn where Deshotel used to keep his cattle. He now uses it to house his chickens, guineas, and peacocks that roam the yard. Deshotel said that the yard also has old fig trees and muscadine vines “that were always part of the house.”
Deshotel then explained the irony between his old house and being elected clerk of court. “I’ve been blessed with being elected clerk because there’s irony in everything, and I guess God does things for a reason,” he said. “Now that I’m clerk, I’m the keeper of the history of the parish. Everything that goes on in the parish goes through the clerk’s office. Keeping the history of my family and the old house is as important to me as keeping the history of the parish.”
“The house is always going to stay inside the family,” Deshotel continued. “We have an agreement in the family that should something ever happen to me, then the house would go to my children. If it doesn’t, then it would go back to my family. One of the family members would then pick it up because it’s a treasure.”