We’ve been meeting with as many people as possible to network and to get stories. Sometimes we can do both in one shot. On Monday we had arranged to meet Chris for lunch uptown. Getting there from ma maaama’s on the West Bank is a bit fiddly. We have to take the bus to the ferry then get the streetcar on the other side of the river. The bus comes once an hour and takes twenty minutes to get to the ferry…if you get on the right bus.
We got on the bus going in the opposite direction, so, much to the amusement of the other passengers, we had to ride it out for an hour and a half. Luckily, I didn’t eat breakfast. The roads and the condition of the bus would have induced vomiting. But, I won’t bitch too much about New Orleans public transportation compared to London public transporation. That would be unfair. Besides, we get good material on the bus.
Chris introduced us to his friend S.W. who had, before Katrina, lived in Chalmette since the Fifties. She had been very involved in the Chamber of Commerce and politics and the community. She illuminated us on the political goings on of the Parish, the sordid details of which did not in the least surprise me.
We also got to talking about Walker Percy. Chris mentioned that Percy, although writing extensively about New Orleans, never could write in New Orleans. He had to go to Covington, which he described as a non place. Having spent my high school years on the North Shore, I’m not sure I agree with that assessment. We have decided, however, to go to our writing retreat on the North Shore.
And so, here we are…where the temperature is 10 degrees cooler, the air is cleaner and smells like pine needles, and you can drink the water out of the taps. Ahhhh, thank Percy for the countryside.
