Up until about 15 years ago, cockfighting was legal in Louisiana, or at least parts of it.
I remember a trip back from Baton Rouge one night, I stopped in Opelousas to eat at a Ryan's Steak House. It was more of a crappy buffet than a steak house. I walked in and immediately noticed about two thirds of the people in there had orange ribbons pinned to their sleeves, adults and children. And the place was packed. I made my plate and sat at my table wondering what all the ribbons were for. After a while, my curiosity got the best of me, when a lady, who also had a ribbon on her sleeve, at the table next to me got up and went to get seconds. I stood up and followed her to the food bar. When I got up next to her, I asked her what the ribbons were for. She immediately said, with a big smile on her face and a big southern accent, "Oh, we've all been to the cock fights tonight." I said "What? Really?" She told me, oh yeah, we have cock fights every Friday night. She asked where I was from. I told her Shreveport. She said that I should to come down one Friday night and go to the cock fights with them. I told her that I might just have to do that, that it sounds like a lot of fun. I got the F out of that town quick. I don't stop there to eat any more. I eat in Lafayette instead.
