Claudette Olivier/Ville Platte Gazette
For L’Anse aux Pailles native Donald Johnson, his favorite Courir de Mardi Gras was his first.
Johnson said, “I was 11 years old. Mardi Gras was new to me. I didn’t know anything about that. I was just riding a horse.”
He continued, “We were in L’Anse aux Pailles, at the home of Clavin Manuel. I was riding a gray horse, just like the one I’ve got now. My little brother, Charles, was there, too. He was six years old. He rode on the back of the capitaine’s horse.”
The year Johnson’s Mardi Gras baptism occurred, Harry Truman was president of the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) was signed in Washington, D.C. and country singer Hank Williams Jr. was born in Shreveport.
The year was 1949.
Johnson, 79, may be closing in on 70 years of traditional Cajun Mardi Gras revelry, but he still remembers the details of his first Fat Tuesday in the area where he was born and raised.
“My horse gave me a lot of trouble,” Johnson said. “I was small and I couldn’t fight with him because he was a beast.”
“I always had a mean horse,” he added, laughing.
Johnson, who now resides in Eunice, said the ride started there in L’Anse Aux Pailles and doubled back through Belaire Cove.
“It was almost dark by the time we got back,” Johnson said. “Everything went well on the ride. We had a big gumbo when we got back. It’s the same as Mardi Gras today, just a long time ago.
“We wore costumes — they were some ugly old things,” he said, laughing. “We wore the capuchons. Not everybody wears them today.”
Johnson has since traded the capuchon for a black cowboy hat, and he alternates between a black cape decorated with his name and sequined masks, made for him by one of his children, and a full, two-piece green Mardi Gras costume.
“Everybody loves this cape,” he said. “People ask me where I bought it. My daughter that lives in Texas gave it to me. She made it a long time ago, but I take care of my stuff.”
Johnson also keeps his early Mardi Gras memories alive and well by riding a gray Tennessee Walker named Gray Max.
“My first horse I bought was a Tennessee Walker,” he said. “He was buckskin, and I bought him in L’Anse de Belaire from a man for $50. I had to work day and night to pay for it. My daddy bought it, and I had to pay him back by picking cotton.”
Johnson continued, “I’ve rode all my life and I’ve had Tennessee Walkers all my life. They are smooth, and they are cocky. They love to show off, and I love that. The are active. I love to ride a horse that loves to challenge me. That’s why I always used to ride a stallion, but my kids made me get rid of him last year.”
Johnson’s son David, who went on his first Mardi Gras run at the age of three, has taken over the reins on riding a stallion. His stud is a black and white Tennessee Walker named Domino. The father and son also keep another black and white Tennessee Walker named Highway King Man.
Forty years ago, Johnson moved to Eunice, and with the extinction of the L’Anse aux Pailles Mardi Gras trail ride, Johnson spends his Fat Tuesday on the “run” in Eunice.
“I ride in Eunice every year, and we go to the Duralde ride the Sunday before Mardi Gras,” he said. “We used to ride in Chataignier run before they quit having it.
“That was a good Mardi Gras.”
Johnson’s second-favorite Mardi Gras memory was one of the years the Eunice trail ride passed through Pa-ta-sa.
“We were 2,500 one year, 2,500 Mardi Gras,” he said. “We were spread for two miles. I had my big black stud then. Everybody wanted to pet him.”
Even with all his years of Mardi Gras experience under his capuchon and cowboy hat, Johnson said never been the one to “Capitaine, Capitaine voyage ton flag.”
“I’ve never been a capitaine,” he said, laughing. “They wanted me to, but I just like to ride.”
Johnson said he hopes his son will keep the age-old Cajun — and family — tradition alive when he is gone.
“It’s important to keep it going for young people to know what we have been doing all our lives,” he said. “I’ve been a happy man all life, even with the bad luck I have had. I just like to ride.”
Johnson will take part in the “demander la charité” (ask for charity) in Eunice and Duralde this Mardi Gras, “quand même si c’est une patate, une patate et des gratons” (even if it’s a sweet potato, a sweet potato and some cracklins).
Johnson said, “I’ll ride ‘til I die, as long as I can still get on my horse.”