Not coming back... bye-bye.
Well I have returned from my trip to New Orleans and Da' Parish. I think I'll post a few of my notes by date as I approached and then experienced the city. At the end I'll sum it all up, or at least try to.
1-9-06 10:00AM
Sitting in the terminal, Gate 66, at LAX. Two heavy-set Black ladies are laughing it up and wearing sequined hats that say ", I'm from New Orleans." A guy sits next to me wheeling and dealing on his cell phone. He fancies himself a producer. He mentions George Segal (Who?). The faces around me appear average to sullen. My Wife showed me some pics of the hotel I'll be staying in... I only hope it still looks that way. I've never felt so unenthused about a trip. I only hope I can support and comfort my Parents and sister as unselfishly as possible. I've lost my appetite. I hope the humidity is down in New Orleans. i hope it doesn't rain.
11:00AM
In the air. Talked to a Dad who is dropping his daughter off at Tulane University. He was most insistent on knowing where "The 9th Ward" is. Seemed to think any other part of the city would be O.K. He knew very little about the damage to the city or the extent of the flooding. Boy... is he in for a shock. A mediocre movie is playing about a couple of New York tramps as far as I can tell... I'm not wearing my headphones. The problems of imaginary people seem very trivial at the moment. Is Shirley Mclain in everything? Looking forward to a good cup-o-joe and a few bignets at Cafe Du Monde.
7:00PM
Yes, I am now sitting at Cafe Du Monde in the relatively untouched French Quarter. Just got off the phone with my Sister, she's in for the night. I get the feeling she's a bit paranoid about going out after dark. We're planning to have dinner together tomorrow night, after I visit Manndeville and possibly Da' Parish. I might push my "salvaging" back to Wednesday and just try a "light" bit of sightseeing tomorrow.
Cafe Du Monde is the same as ever, although a bit underpopulated. Of course there is the prerequisite "lunatic" sitting on a chair at the back. What would New Orleans be without drunks... and CRAZY drunks at that?
Yum, yum! Ralph Brennen's at Downtown Disney has NOTHING on this place! The bignets are HUGE with sponge-like puffiness!
It's good to see many of the shops around Jackson Square untouched. The people seem of good cheer, even though a block away on Canal Street many of the traffic lights are still out, some being replaced by stop signs wired to street poles.
Maybe Mom will drive through The Parish so that I can shoot video.
For once I don't feel under the pressure of eagle-eyed tourists eager to replace my buttocks with their own. Ah, bignets for dinner! Luxury!
Now I can see The Quarter coming back... but the rest? I'll just have to see it for myself. On the ride in from the airport I noticed a good bit of wind damage in Metairie but overall it looks rather good. Met two lawyers on the plane who assured me to "Expect the worse" when visiting St. Bernard Parish . There was that phrase again... "...looks like a bomb went off."
I really wish my Wife were here as the hotel is very romantic.
11:00PM
Sitting in the Alpine Bar and restaurant. Been in New Orleans six hours and I'm finally having my first drink (A double screwdriver with a fried shrimp po-boy to go! God, if only my Wife were here!
I can't wait to get up early and head for Mandeville to visit my parents. I might do "The Parish" (Arabi) by myself. Morbid curiosity, I guess. The more I think of going to Benjamin St. the more I think only of getting something of Grandpa's. Tiki glasses also have a good pull.
I'm gonna' knock open the shed. I want some of grandpa's fishing weights/lures. I must get something of his for my Memory Shelf. Does the mirror from his secretary survive?
I'm almost done with my drink, but I'll slow down so that I can get a "go cup." Called L.A. but my Daughter wouldn't talk on the phone, so my Wife tickled her for me on speaker phone. Put her laugh in a "Go cup," that's all I'll need for the rest of my trip!
The locals seem a bit tired of talking about Katrina, but each of them has a story. Some say The White Man destroyed the levees... I say "KONG!"
I've come a long way since I used to live here. Maybe I'll start a gratitude list tonight at my hotel room desk. I've seen some appropriately rude postcards for friends and some cutesy ones for my Wife and Daughter.
BACK TO "REAL TIME" FOR A MOMENT.
Here my notes stop for a day as My parents accompanied me on my trip to Arabi (My fantasies of a pleasant day of sightseeing faded with the dawn). It's a good thing they did as my Mom had a pre-packed "Hurricane Kit (Water, gloves, toilet paper, etc.)" and I hadn't thought of bringing anything.
We drove in the back way around the east side of lake Ponchatrain to see what the wind had done to the camp houses skirting the lake.
Gone. Unbelievable, really. Four months later and what a mess! Although my Mom assures me it looks much better since a lot of the trash was trucked away, it's hard to believe.
We basically view piles of debris all along Parish Road along with wiped out cars and boats strewn about (The large crucifix supported by a shipping container is still there, although Jesus has lost his encouraging banner, "Have faith in St. Bernard, we do.)"
Then... we turn into Genie St. which will soon become Patricia St. I drive while videoing and only make it a block or two. It's all wiped out, as far as I can see. Every house a wreck, every street the same.
I pull over and began to heavily sob. All those families... our family... everything ruined. My Dad holds my knee and assures me he felt the same way when he first saw the neighborhood. "HEY, look at this!" he says, trying to lighten my mood. I look over and he blows his nose on a Kleenex, rolls down the window and throws it out into the street! For a split second my mind flashes "Litterer! Couldn't you just throw it in the back? I mean we have a trash bag! Then I glance at my Mom's expression. My Dad spreads his hands and says," I mean, look at this!" Suddenly we three burst into laughter and it hits me. How can you mess it up any more? The laugh did us all good and we basically oohed and ahead at the destruction all the way to Benjamin St., our old street.
Turning onto Benjamin St. I began to cry again. So much destruction. Two of my Aunts lived on this street also and their houses are a mess. All the houses are the same. Wee pull up to our old house which has been in the street since Katrina. Someone has spray painted WICKED WITCH on our house with an arrow pointing at two black shoes. This broke us up again and helped lighten the mood for the rest of the day.
We put plastic bags over our shoes and donned gloves. In we went and I videoed it all. Luckily our house had been "open" a good while and everything was pretty dry. What an absolute wreck. The refrigerator was on it's side on the kitchen table and the hall furnace had torn up through the floor as the house was now off it's slab. What destruction! The pictures couldn't convey the vast and absolute destruction.
We went out back and I ripped the aluminum walls from my Dad's shed as the door was impassible. I spent the next hour or so looking for Grandpa's fishing kit. There was still standing water in a few buckets and I got a sense of the Katrina Stink that was everywhere just after the flooding. I never did find the kit, it must have floated away. I did find some Mardi Gras flags and hung them from the shed. I also hung some beads from the trees. My Dad had said I'd be laughing by the end of the day and I couldn't see it at the time. But now here I was "sprucing up" the place!
I took a few more pics and we prepared to go as the mosquitoes were beginning to bite. I slapped my first mosquitoes in twenty years.
As we were leaving my Dad hit his head on a metal switch-box cover which I had hit MY head on earlier in the day and hadn't bothered to close. He fell into the trash and was stuck. My Mom thought it would be a funny picture so I lay down with him, put some Mardi Gras beads around our necks (Beads are just laying about within reach in most areas) and we SMILED and waved for the camera! I can't wait to get that photo back. I never thought I'd be smiling in that neighborhood again. But my Dad was right... everything is so destroyed... so different... you just have to laugh.
We took a different route out of the Parish just to sate my curiosity. Yep, all the same. Every house, every street. My parents were exhausted so we scrapped my plans to have a rest at Cafe Du monde and just went back to Mandeville. We had a good dinner together and prayed thankfully that we still had our lives. I told my Dad, "Ya' know the best thing about Arabi? We don't ever have to go back."
I left late and headed back into The French Quarter where I again had a stiff drink at The Alpine Bar and a sandwich from Yo' Mama's. It was weird to walk the city and feel safe. I even saw a middle-aged lady giving a tour to a group of teenage girls in Pirate's Alley! Imagine that.
BACK TO MY NOTES.
(I spent the next day in The Parish alone videoing and taking pictures, and then wrote these notes at about 4:30PM).
1-11-06 4:30PM
At the airport now... sitting, waiting Visited my Sister at New Orleans Adolescent Hospital (NOAH) and met her coworkers. Everyone was very nice. I had coffee and a piece of King Cake (I hadn't eaten all day)! I shared Katrina stories with one of the women who works there until my Sister seemed to be getting upset. My Sister has decide to visit "The Old House" with her fiance' this Saturday. I got a few more things from the old house yesterday and we transferred the things going to Mom to my Sister's car's trunk. When I saw her trunk full of dirty, stinking stuff... and at that so few things, I began to cry. My Sister cried a bit with me. To think that little bit of stuff is all that's left... hard to believe. I told my Sister the "alterations" I had made to the house; such as painting a cross on the front door and spray-painting "Annual river view, cheap" on the south facing wall. I also decorated the supports for the window boxes with Mardi Gras beads. When I had done all this I thought Yeah, NOW I'm moving back! Heh-heh! I just wanted my sister to have a idea of what the house had looked liked before I "ruined" it.
I finally climbed up onto the roof yesterday via a very rickety ladder. The attic vent fan had been blown off and there was a hole in the roof. I took pictures in a 360 view and then just lay back on the roof to let the breeze dry my sweat and to enjoy the sunshine. I heard a copter flying over and opened one eye to see it circling me. I stood and waved vigorously and the copter flew away. I cried a bit whilst sitting on the roof and vainly took a few pics of myself to try and capture the mood. I had planned to find several high filming locations but once on the rooftop I lost interest... after all, it all looks the same. I'll never be so glad to leave New Orleans. While ripping the walls from my Dad's aluminum shed and looking for something of Grandpa's, I stepped in some perfectly good and white paint (My plastic bag and rubber band shoe coverings had torn away long ago). Great! White paint on my new Blundstone's... no water, no towels, no clean grass to wipe them on. Then I noticed water gushing from a hole in the ground near the curb of Mr. Bonnet's house. The water was bubbling up forcefully from the hole, just like a natural spring. I was able to clean my boot and even wash my hands and face. Simple pleasures! I also looked in Miss. Juanita's "home." Some water was running somewhere in there so I didn't go in too far. I went in to Aunt Iris' house and it was just the same, only on a lager scale. Maitre's house was the same. Half of Mr. George's TIKI carving was still there so I videoed it. I saw a couple of National Guard troops and their truck. They were talking to two older women. The boxes of bottled water in the truck bed are what really caught my eye. I "spun around" and they were really friendly. I hugged them and thanked them very much. The water revived me and I shot some more video as I headed back to The Quarter. The sight of a HUGE barge on top of the Industrial Canal levee was most impressive. I suppose they'll have to cut it up and truck it away, or wait 'till the next hurricane to float it off.
Oh, something funny. After saying goodbye to my Sister she said she'd get the things in her car trunk to my Mom as soon as possible. I said ",Yuh better... or I'll blow up the levees (At least I thought it was funny)!
NOTE: This last note I actually wrote the night before at the Alpine Bar but it seemed like the thing to end with.
1-11-06 Midnight
I met Glen Pietrie at his house, next to our old house, in Arabi. I had been filming (video-ing) at the Maitre's when I looked down the block and spotted a truck pull up next to our house and a man and young girl get out. I was indignant. NO ONE was going to piss on our house except me. I yell: "Hey, who are you guys?" (threatening). "We're the owners!" the man said. I then recognized him. "I'm Earl, Little Earl, from next door." He recognized me and we exchanged hugs and stories. Turns out Gary was the one who spray-pained "The Wicked Witch" and her shoes near the bottom of the house. The laughs that brought changed my mood for most of the day. God bless good neighbors.
Strangely enough, while sometimes even wedging myself into these damp, sagging, stinking cluttered "houses" I never once felt anxious, panicked, or that the roof might fall in on me. Just deep sorrow seemed to be the thing I felt most. Once a neighborhood... so quiet, so lifeless. No kids, no sounds, no animals. Everything I saw and especially touched, brought a flood of memories. That neighborhood, those houses, and places... were my childhood. I climbed up on our roof to take pictures and enjoyed the breeze. So quiet. I cried and vainly took a few pictures of myself. So many loved ones gone. So many memories. I feel like I'm leaving a part of my stomach behind. Goodbye New Year's Eve parties at the Maitrie's. Goodbye firecrackers snapping in Miss Antoinette's metal trash can, old Christmas tree flaming. Goodbye Mr. Johnson. Goodbye crazy youthful days playing at the canals. Goodbye Arabi. Goodbye Arabi. God Bless us all. Goodbye Arabi forever.
- Earl.
P.S.- The title for my post I found spray-painted on a neighbor's house.
posted by Earl @ 8:51 PM
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