Growing up with Gaston
Childhood memories of reading 'A Cajun Night Before Christmas' and the beloved Gaston the Green-Nosed Alligator book series by James Rice.
When I was growing up in the early 80’s, one of my favorite gifts was a book called “A Cajun Night Before Christmas” by James Rice. If I recall correctly, the story starred an alligator named Gaston which was our version of Rudolph. The book was written in ol’ Cajun dialect “Twas dey night befo’ Christmas an’ all tru dey house..” and it was a bit hard to read but I still loved it. I loved the book so much, in fact, that I begged my mom to get the rest of the Gaston series. A few of the titles included
Gaston the Green-Nosed Alligator
Gaston Drills and Oil Well
The Cajun Alphabet
Gaston Goes to Mardi Gras
Gaston Lays an Offshore Pipeline
Gaston Goes to Texas
If you’d like to give your children the gift of Gaston, you can buy James Rice’s books at Pelican Publishing Online or Amazon.com!