….really???
I’ve always had the attitude that I won’t choose someplace to live unless I feel I can be proud of it — there has to be something grand or mystical or otherwise intriguing about a place before I’d want to put it down as my address. This is the same feeling that leads me to devour everything about its history, its architecture, its surrounding areas and whatnot.
I’m therefore amazed, over the past two days, to have talked with two people who remained in the area through the hurricane and its aftermath, yet are just learning about the depth and breadth of the destruction. We talk about how most people around the nation have no concept — but there are plenty who live here who also just don’t know.
I’m not saying this in a negative way. These folks had their own hassles to deal with and haven’t had or haven’t taken the time to get out and see. One lives in Mandeville and finally crossed the lake just yesterday to do some business. Or so he thought — until he pulled up in front of a Lakeview office building to find the place gutted. Not only was he speechless about all the gaping buildings, but also at his own cluelessness. He kept muttering, “oh my God,” and “I had no idea” and things like that. Then there’s the store clerk in Gretna this morning, who talked in hushed tones about the things her husband had seen yesterday on a drive in from Slidell, through New Orleans East. She talked about these things as if they had just happened overnight.
This holiday season is bringing a lot of people back to New Orleans for the first time since the storm, including one of our former neighbors. She and her boyfriend have happily taken up residence in his hometown of Tucson, though she is a Metairie native and a veteran Orleans Parish dweller. Like many others, they’ll actually get the time over the coming week or so to get their first personal look at the New Realities. This will account for the many thunks we’ll be hearing, as their collective jaws hit the pavement.
There will be many extra tears shed by these folks. It’s okay, babygirl.
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