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From: <>
Subject: [GenChat-L] Another song...
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 13:39:07 EDT

Fellow Chatters,

A lot of songs only achieve regional popularity...There are songs that were
popular in western New York, for instance, that were tremendously popular at
the time of the building of the Erie Canal that just never caught on anywhere
else...But folks whose families ahve been lifelong residents of that area
still know some of those songs, and those are still being clooected so that
they won't be lsot forever...

One that, so far as I know, only had real popularity in the deep South is
called "The Lake of Pontchartrain"...If you know nothing about Lake
Pontchartrain, then I'll not bore you with a lot of details...Driving from
Baton Rouge to New Orleans, you cross miles and miles and miles and miles of
bridge over Lake Pontchartrain...When trying to choose an appropriate place
for a re-enactment of D-Day, Lake Pontchartrain was chosen because it looks
more like a sea than a lake; you can't see the other shore from wherever
you're standing...

And it's great for fishing and boating and admiring...

My mother's people used to sing this a good bit...It has a plaintive sound,
and I like the version sung by Carla Sciacky (I believe that's the correct
spelling) most of all...I believe that I read that it goes back to at least
the War of 1812, but I've not searched it out for myself...

"The Lake of Pontchartrain"

'Twas on one bright March morning, I bid New Orleans adieu.
And I took the road to Jackson town, my fortune to renew;
I cursed all foreign money - no credit could I gain -
Which filled my heart with longing for the lakes of Pontchartrain.

I stepped on board a railroad car beneath the morning sun;
I road the roads till evening, and I laid me down again.
All strangers there - no friends to me till a dark girl towards me came;
And I fell in love with a Creole girl by the lakes of Pontchartrain.

I said, "My pretty Creole girl, my money here's no good;
But if it weren't for the alligators, I'd sleep out in the wood."
"You're welcome here kind stranger, our house is very plain;
But we never turn a stranger out from the lakes of Pontchartrain."

She took me into her mammy's house and treated me quite well;
The hair upon her shoulder in jet black ringlets fell.
To try and paint her beauty, I'm sure 'twould be in vain;
So handsome was my Creole girl by the lakes of Pontchartrain.

I asked her if she'd marry me; she said it could never be,
For she had got another, And he was far at sea.
She said that she would wait for him and true she would remain
Till he returned for his Creole girl by the lakes of Pontchartrain.

So fare thee well my Creole girl, I never will see you no more;
But I'll ne'er forget your kindness in the cottage by the shore.
And at each social gathering, a flowing glass I'll raise,
And I'll drink a health to my Creole girl, and the lakes of Pontchartrain.

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