Things Louisiana Folks Use Newspapers For Other Than Reading Them

Sometimes I have too much time on my hands and such was the case over the past week. I was having a conversation with my wife and talking about newspapers and do we ever see them much anymore. You know now in this day and age of cell phones, the internet, and computers, most people are reading the news online instead of buying a physical newspaper.

Now some people are old school like me and love to have a physical newspaper in their hands, there is nothing like sitting on the floor and flipping through the pages reading the stories, reading the comics, and seeing what is on sale at stores in our area.

Well back to the conversation I was having. I asked my wife, Do you remember what people in Louisiana IE Cajuns would use newspapers for once they were finished reading them? I started listing them for her from my experience of growing up in a Louisiana Cajun household as a kid. Here are some of the crazy things Cajuns and folks in Louisiana use their old newspapers for.

Things Louisiana Folks Use Newspapers For Other Than Reading Them

1. Wrap Christmas or birthday presents with newspapers

Times were tough back in the day and I can remember on several occasions I would receive presents from my parents or paw paw and maw maw wrapped in newspaper. I would be able to see what was happening in the world while finding out that leg quarters were on sale while opening my presents.

2. Using Newspapers To Clean Your Windows and Mirrors

This came from my Maw Maw and my mother. They would use ammonia or Windex on a mirror or window and then wipe it off with a newspaper. They said it didn't leave any streaks and let me tell you, it WORKS.

3. Line A Table For a Crawfish Boil

As a kid in a Cjaun house, one of your jobs was to grab Paw Paw's old newspapers and open them up, and line an outdoor table or wooden bench with newspapers while they were boiling crawfish or crabs. You had to make sure that you covered the tackle completely and it had to have at least four of five layers of newspapers on top of the table to hold the juice.

4.  Roll them up for a Butt whipping

The worst thing to hear after you got in trouble was your dad, mom, paw paw, or maw maw telling you to go grab a stack of newspapers from the pile for a butt whooping.  You always had to grab the Sunday paper because it was always the thickest.

5.  Starting a Bonfire, Fireplace, or your BBQ pit

My family swore by the fact that if you needed to start a fire, you needed to use some old newspaper that was just lying around. The yellower it was they said they better it would burn and let me tell you, it sure did.

We hope you enjoyed those and if you can think of any more feel free to let us know about them.