Missouri Bayou Culture

I've come across an interesting aspect of Missouri life: the Missouri Bayou Culture. The other day, some friends-of-friends-of-friends (you know how that goes) decided to put together a barbecue. All we knew was that we were going to be near a river and hang out. We ended up experiencing an aspect of Missouri/Southern culture that we hadn't expected.

For some background, we live in a suburban area flanked by the sticks. Go 1.5 miles one way, you run into a cornfield. Go 2 miles the other way, you run into the main drag of town, which is older than dirt and pretty cool architecturally and historically speaking. We do have shopping centers around, but we still get stuck behind tractors and all sorts of farming contraptions during planting and harvest seasons. It's an interesting mix of rural and suburban life; a mix that I rather enjoy. I never feel stifled, but I never feel isolated, either. We also live close to a major river, and the lowlands around us flood from time to time.

This barbecue happened to take place only about 2.5 miles north of our house, which is completely agricultural. We had never been north much before since that seemed to only be flat cornfields for as far as the eye could see, replete with private gravel driveways and rusty pickups full of haybales and livestock driving by on narrow country lanes.

We followed the directions given to us, and they took us past the typical Mid-American, old farmhouses surrounded by ancient trees dotting the otherwise flat landscape (I love seeing those old barns and farmhouses...it's living Americana). Then we turned off on a gravel "road" and started driving through some woods, where the vegetation I noticed was different. There were more low-lying brushes and reed-type plants interspersed among the typical Missouri elms, oaks, maples, pines, etc.

All of a sudden, the dense woods broke, and we were in the middle of this community built on stilts and in shanties along the river. It was the strangest thing I have ever seen. The poverty of the people there didn't bother me since I don't really care whether or not you live in a hut or mansion. I think I would prefer the hut, honestly. But these shanties were the kind with tin roofs, homemade windows and doors, etc. My husband and I both looked at each other kind of skeptically, but we were also extremely curious. We had never seen anything like this before, except maybe on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. I had seen some similar type structure in the Louisiana Bayou, and parts of Alabama before when driving through there.

The River People seemed to keep to themselves. You had the distinct feeling you were an outsider, and though the people residing there were distantly polite and friendly, you also got the impression they never really ventured much outside of their community except for provisions, and they wouldn't much mind if you never ventured into their area, either. I would never have guessed that just up the road from my lovely neighborhood where you sit at the local Cracker Barrel with real cowboys and farmers, that there was this community of isolated people. I kept my ears out around town for mention of this little shanty-town, since I never even knew it existed and we've been here almost 3 years.

So far, I've heard the folks up there referred to as Les Perruques, the River People, the Big Muddy culture, and the Bayou Folks. I don't know. To me, it's fascinating. Slightly creepy, but fascinating nonetheless. I've done some research and I haven't been able to find much on the Bayou People who live in relative privacy and semi-secrecy just a stone's throw from my back door. I never even thought a Bayou-type culture existed this far north.

I'm going to ask around. I met some people from that community who were reserved and awkward, but seemed nice enough to talk about it, albeit in very few words. I'll post updates as I learn them about this River Culture.