Card playing has been a big part of Cajun culture. Many of the baby boomers who started out playing beginner games like Old Maid and Battle evolved to enjoying a heated bourré game now and again. With a younger generation unfamiliar with the card games their parents grew up on, sisters Maree DeBuse and Marilynn DeBuse White have taken their fond memories of family card games to create a Cajun spin on the popular matching game Go Fish.

“I first came up with the idea in 2016; it just popped into my head,” recalls Maree, who substituted the word “go” with “geaux” and features playing cards highlighting things in Louisiana. “After doing much research on copywriting a game and not finding much, I put it on the back burner for several years.” Then this January when New Iberia artist Paul Schexnayder paid a visit, she mentioned the idea of the card game to him. His approval quickly came by way of offering to provide the artwork on each of the cards. It gave her the push she needed. 

Recently launched, JD & Company is named after Maree and Marilynn’s father, Jimmy DeBuse, to whom they attribute their love of the water, boats, fishing – and cards. “Cards are in my blood. We played Go Fish, Battle, Old Maid and – his favorite – solitaire,” Maree recounts. “Marilynn, dad and I would play Go Fish in the den over and over again. He’d always let one of us win, and I remember his winking at us. More than teaching how to play cards, he believed it taught us how to play with others.”

Now on the market, Geaux Louisiana™, Geaux Tigers™ and Geaux Eat/Old Chef™ all feature original artwork by Schexnayder. The Geaux Louisiana and Geaux Tigers decks include four each of 13 images, while Geaux Eat/Old Chef contains two of 25 different images, two cards shy of the standard 52-card deck. 

On the Geaux Louisiana cards, the New Iberia natives feature many of the things that come to mind when thinking about our state. Players can learn the official state images, from their labels, like the pelican, crawfish, cypress tree, sac-a-lait fish, Catahoula Hound, alligator, the State Capitol, accordion, magnolia, fleur de lis and pirogue among others. Could you name the official state mammal?  

Geaux Tigers matches images associated with (you guessed it) LSU: the stadium, Mike the Tiger, the WWI Memorial Tower, the lakes, the campus mounds, as well as a football player, baseball player, basketball player, male and female cheerleaders, the Golden Girls, a drum major and a graduate. 

Geaux Eat/Old Chef is a little different in that it can be played as Go Fish or Old Maid, and can also be used as a memory game. It features the names (and pronunciations) of many of the foods we love: jambalaya, cracklin, cochon de lait, boudin, Natchitoches meat pies and crawfish – and “Do you have any beignets?”

Most recently, in early September, Maree received approval to sell her highly anticipated Geaux Cajuns™ deck picturing Cajun Field, Martin Hall, the campus’s quadrangle, Cypress Lake and student union, along with a few sports figures.

Expect the release of two new card games, Old Maid of Honor™ and Go Texas™, coming this fall. Old Maid of Honor is perfect for bridal party gift bags, recalling the special day with all the usual participants. There’s a bride and groom, a bridesmaid, best man, “old” maid of honor, mother and father of bride and groom, bartender, baker, caterer and a couple others.  Go Texas acknowledges our neighboring state’s cowboys, long-horns, blue bonnets, pecans and other noteworthy symbols which are still being finetuned.

While Maree initially intended the cards to be games for children, she reports that they are already appealing to adults and teens alike. Marilynn adds that the games – especially Geaux Eat/Old Chef can aid in enhancing memory, and can be used as a brain exercise for those trying to avert dementia or Alzheimer’s. That said, any of the Geaux Fish series can be gifted to children, UL and LSU alumni, bridal parties, Louisianians who have relocated, newcomers to the state as well as seniors.

Made in the USA, the cards can be purchased online or at A & E Gallery in New Iberia. Additionally, the artwork from the cards has been transferred onto mugs, canisters, cutting boards, Christmas ornaments and gumbo bowls, offering all the makings for a well-coordinated Louisiana gift basket.

Six years after Maree’s brain child, the DeBuses launched their versions of Go Fish on August 13, the date of their parents’ 56 wedding anniversary. “Thirteen is our family’s lucky number,” notes Maree. “I believe in timing; it wasn’t the right time when I first looked at starting this in 2016. It was meant to be that we wait until now.”  We say any time is a good time to bring a traditional card game back to family entertainment.