Did you ever find yourself craving a fresh, warm batch of homemade cracklings? For Frank Benoit, better known at “Mr. Sweet,” he had his own unique way of letting you know: “Yes, yes,” or “None, none.”

Those two signs hung above the shed behind his white house, which still stands on the corner of Dale and Henshaw streets between Center and Bank, letting his customers know if his fresh cracklings were available or not.

Cracklings are a Louisiana delicacy, sometimes called grattons in French, or by the more popular name of crackling or cracklin’.

Paul Camacho still thinks about “Mr. Sweet” and his cracklings all of these years later.

“He made and sold the best cracklings,” Camacho said of “Mr. Sweet,” adding he was a staple in New Iberia.

“He was very known in the community,” Camacho said. “He was a bit of a character, and very happy-go-lucky.”

One aspect Camacho is always drawn back to was “Mr. Sweet’s” sign.

“It was ‘Yes, yes’ with exclamation points, and if he didn’t have them, it was a ‘None, none’ with a unhappy face on them,” Camacho said. “I guess so people wouldn’t stop by and bug him if he didn’t have any.”

Every Sunday, Camacho remembers being sent by his mom to go get some cracklings from “Mr. Sweet,” and it became a tradition for him and his family for years.

“My little brother and I would walk down there with a little brown bag on Sundays,” Camacho said. “You waited in line because on Sundays it was a big day.”

For a dollar a bag, “Mr. Sweet” would fill countless stomachs for everyone in the community. He even added a little sweet to the bag of salt in the form of fried sweet potato wedges.

“It was just fond memories,” Camacho said.

Not only were the cracklings made with great quality, so too was the person who made them.

Camacho recalls how everyone in the community, both black and white were brought together by “Mr. Sweet.” He was a fixture for them and was always there to help out anyway he could. And his neighbors saw that and wanted to look out for him.

“You didn’t mess with ‘Mr. Sweet,’” Camacho said. “ He was just a sweet, sweet man. Maybe that’s where his name came from.”