Polycarp Phillipe Pecot Number 2 gave ’60s children a break

Let’s go back, way back to the mid-1960s. Although referred to as the decade of peace and love, society was sizzling, and politics were explosive in the 60s.

The evening news was dominated by horrific and ghastly images of the Vietnam War, followed by Jed Clampett and The Beverly Hillbillies. Peyton Place and The Fugitive were prime time and the boys from Liverpool were on Ed Sullivan, yeh, yeh, yeh.

We wrote in Blue Horse notebooks with real wood pencils and bought our 45s at Stagg’s Music Shop on Main Street. For the most part, our moms were still at home and the only car was “the family car.” We all “knew” Fred and Barney and thought The Jetsons were so sci fi, but still, wished we had a dog like Astro and a robot like Rosie.

A lot of emotion and energy made up this decade. Some say it was the decade that changed everything, a decade that shaped a (my) generation. Television was in nearly every home in America and with it began the influx of the graphic images of violence, scarcity and political unrest; these images became part of our lives, we knew now.

Walter Cronkite delivered the staggering death toll in Vietnam and told us President Kennedy had been shot. The world was becoming smaller; it was here, in our living rooms along with new words like psychedelic, feminism, LSD, love-ins, flower power, Camelot, groovy, Vietcong, go-go boots, Space Race and assassination.

If you were a kid in Acadiana in the 60s, you were able to watch something else on TV, something far removed from the violence and the soap operas; you were able to watch Polycarp on KATC Channel 3 and escape from this rapidly changing world for just a moment.

John Plauché, an employee of KATC in Lafayette, was the creator of Polycarp Phillipe Pecot Number 2, not to be confused with Polycarp Phillipe Pecot Number 1; that was his daddy. 

I considered him to be a local celebrity of sorts. I remember his visit to the Community Center sometime in the mid to late 60s. My mother brought my little brother, Dwayne, and little sister, Susan, to see him, to meet him actually!

What’s more, someone even took pictures (not my mother, she was not a camera bug). We have very few pictures of our childhood, but we have pictures of Polycarp! He was BIG.

Sadly, I don’t remember a lot of particulars, for I was a bit out of Polycarp’s target audience (too old), but I do recall the straw hat and the houseboat. It was my brother that loved him, he was about 4 and he was enthralled with Polycarp and his fantasy life in the Louisiana swamp, a land of make believe, happiness and swamp critters, all pulled together with a thick and exaggerated Cajun diction .

I chose to mention Polycarp because he is a representation of our enduring spirit here in Acadiana. With the backdrop of one of the most horrorific wars of our times, we were able to find something to laugh at and help us get through those harsh times. Slapstick, I am sure, but enough to cause a belly laugh and make us feel lighthearted for a while.

I can’t help but wonder if there might be a Polycarp Phillipe Pecot Number 3 somewhere out there, floating along the bayou.

PAM SHENSKY is a mother of five and a teacher at New Iberia Senior High.