I’m not sure what Mom was thinking when this photo was taken, but the scene in front of her was common at our gatherings for many, many years.

Daniel Entringer bought Henry McKenzie’s Uptown bakery and kept him on as manager ’til his death in 1936.  There were about fifty McKenzie’s bakeries in the area when they finally closed in 2001.

Below Linda LeBon tells us how Orleanians feel now as they see the McKenzie’s brand again at a local franchise of Tastee Donuts:

While working at Tastee/McKenzie’s on Harrison Avenue,  customers come in soooo often

so happy to see McKenzie’s I almost cried.”

True statement. She now lives out of state but had to stop and buy things to bring back to wherever she’s living now.

One man walked in and with arms up to heaven,

Have I taken a  step back into the past?!”

I answered, “Yes, you have. What looks  good?”

Quite a few people come in and take pictures on their phones to forward to other people and then get a call from that person who is not in NOLA, questioning them about how they got those pictures. It takes the photographer a while before the caller is convinced that a McKenzie’s bakery does exist.

Many people have said, “Now, we have to get Schwegmann’s and K&B’s back and the world will be a better place.”

New Orleanians honor their traditions, even stores!

Red beans, rice, and sausage

Christine, I thought you might like to know about the story that I have entered on the “Your Pages” section of my copy of Why People Live in New Orleans. 

Starting in 1972 I took a six-year break from law practice, and during that time I worked as a longshoreman in the Port of New Orleans in 1974, in the course of which I acquired some tools of the trade like a sack hook, a sack claw and a carpenter’s apron full of necessary carpentry implements.  In 1975 I was living in Greece and France, and by 1976 I was living in Pensacola, Florida, but all the while I still had those longshoreman’s implements.  So one weekend when I was back in New Orleans I went over to the longshoremen’s hiring center (then on Race Street) with those tools in a box, to sell them during one of the hiring sessions when I knew it would be crowded.  By and by a black longshoreman asked me why I was selling them, and we had this conversation:
 
JBS:  I’ve moved away to Florida and no longer work on ships, and I won’t be coming back here.
 
Longshoreman:  Was you born here?
 
JBS:  I was.
 
Longshoreman:  I has a daughter in California.  She call me all the time and say, ‘Daddy I wanna come home, it not be the same out here.’
 
JBS:  I won’t be coming back.
 
Longshoreman:  Let me tell you something:  Once you is done taste dem red beans and rice, you ain’t goin’ nowhere.  You be back.
 
He was right.  By 1978 I was back, and, except for trips, I haven’t left since.  The way he spontaneously pronounced that line about the red beans and rice was unforgettable.  It has never left me.       

Joseph B. Stahl          

Note from Christine to blog readers:  Please let us know how you’ve used “Your Pages,” or feel free to comment on Joe’s post, telling of your own experiences.

We Orleanians have long been enthusiastic to receive visitors to our home town and, like any good host, have endeavored to make sure they enjoy their stay.  That’s why, like the lei, we often offer beads to new arrivals to welcome them, as we did these Canadian Volunteers, the Mission Team from St. Albert Catholic High School who recently volunteered a week of their time to help our residents.

Knowing that it takes both visitor and host for a successful stay, we’re optimistic when we see visitors openly wearing Mardi Gras beads, like Tim Onasch and Rich Becker from The Potomac River Jazz Club who attended this year’s French Quarter Fest.  They told me they come every year for the festival and that putting on the beads is a way of starting the fun.

At the 2011 Sugar Bowl Game, over both Arkansas and Ohio jerseys, the beads around fans’ necks as they walked the streets and cheered in the Superdome made a similar statement.  They declared their intent to enjoy the setting in which their favorite teams competed, win or lose.  Would men and women walk around wearing bright, inexpensive beads in their home towns?  It doesn’t matter.  What a sweet compliment their beads conveyed:  “We accept your hospitality and we’ll match your enthusiasm for this place with ours.”

Thank you to all of you who wear our New Orleans lei; we’re confident you’ll enjoy your stay!

The BP oil spill last year was a huge reminder of the perilous problems oil has been causing in the Gulf Coast and elsewhere.  The fact that even this catastrophe is only part of the ongoing problem is graphically brought home in the maps and data offered by the National Response Center Incident Reports for Louisiana in 2009 available at http://www.southernstudies.org/2011/04/chronic-exposure.html.

So what does an individual do?  Well, one step my husband and I have been striving to take is to reduce our gas consumption in cars.  Unfortunately, we’re finding that even that meager step is not easy as residents of the greater New Orleans area.  Our shopping revealed that the available choices offered us either gas efficiency or space and clearance:

Space–there was an appealing car that would decrease our consumption by 37% and its interior was relatively spacious considering the gas-efficient cars.  Unfortunately, the trunk is rather small in order to accommodate the hybrid’s battery and cooling system.  Why the emphasis on space?  Have you evacuated since Hurricane Katrina?  Since that event we even think about space in the car when we consider adopting a pet—would we have room to take it and its food, et. al.?

Trapped in a Neighborhood Flood

Clearance–we also noticed that the fuel-efficient cars are all low to the ground.  If you read my blog  An Ironic Confirmation of Water Vulnerability  you know this photo of our Subaru and the water surrounding it was taken after an everyday storm in New Orleans.

For so many reasons, I remain a strong advocate against expanded oil drilling.  I also know that this car shopping reflects only a minute example of the complexity of our nation’s dependency on oil.

 Thirty-seven years ago I married a New Orleans native and came here to visit family.  It was love at first sight.  The history, geography, and culture are like no others I have ever visited. Everyone talks about how open and approachable people in the area are, and they are.  Where else can you be called “darling” three or four times a day by people you have never met before in your life?  Where else can you strike up a conversation with a stranger in almost any waiting line or on the street?  People invite themselves into your life for the best of intentions and with a sincere desire to be friendly and welcoming.

 New Orleans is almost 300 years old.  The history here touches colonialism, the westward expansion, the Civil War, and reconstruction, with a fascinating tie to World War II, which is one reason the WWII museum is located here.  History in New Orleans encompasses the good, the bad, and the ugly.  It is dotted with extremes, from the French then Spanish colonialists and their contributions to the city, the Louisiana Purchase and its dramatic impact on the city and the United States, to hurricane Katrina and the way it exposed the city to the world.  Of course, the French Quarter, because of its age and architecture is a unique place for city folk and visitors alike.

 Few cities have been more influenced by their geography than New Orleans.  First it is one, if not the only, city of the United States to have a good portion of its footprint below sea level.  This causes all kinds of issues with water that other cities do not have.  It is a coastal city so weather—especially hurricanes—are a constant threat and concern.  All this requires canals, pumps, levees, gates¸ flood walls, raised houses, flood insurance, and other things that are not concerns for most other city dwellers.    Probably no city in the United States is more married to a body of water than New Orleans to the Mississippi.  The river has played a big part in her past and current history.  The mighty Mississippi is a mighty influence on New Orleans.  All of this makes the city unique and interesting to us and visitors because it is out of the norm elsewhere.

 Other cities have parades but New Orleans has Mardi Gras.  Other places have food but New Orleans makes food a cultural event.  Other places have climate but New Orleans’ sub-tropical climate makes it a horticulturalist’s heaven.  We talked about moving after experiencing the effects of Katrina, but after a long discussion we came to the conclusion that there was just no other place as appealing as New Orleans and that the best it has to offer greatly outweighs the problems it causes.   The fun factor in our way of life would not be the same anywhere but New Orleans.

We figured we had enough time to catch the matinee of Harry Shearer’s documentary, The Big Uneasy, which we had heard was nothing like other New Orleans documentaries and was well worth seeing. We drove to the last one-screen movie theater in the New Orleans area, located Uptown amidst nice homes.

While the film methodically, convincingly, and comprehensively presented the facts of poor engineering that resulted in the devastation related to Hurricane Katrina, we became aware of loud, persistent, thunder outside the theater. It seemed to punctuate the stark message that the new pumps for taking water out of the city during hurricanes do not work.

About three-quarters of the way through the film, as we absorbed the film’s warning, we got another from a theater employee: “It’s raining pretty heavily outside and flooding. You might want to check on your cars.”

In fact, when we and other members of the audience went outside, the water was already too high to act. Opening the doors of our cars would simply let more water in them. Moreover, there was little possibility of successfully moving a car were we willing to wade out and have the extraordinary luck of starting it.

A few people, who either lived nearby or had cars parked on higher ground, waded out. As the rest of us waited for the rain to stop, the pumps to catch up, and the water to subside, we learned that this is a regular occurrence in this neighborhood. So accustomed to the flooding, the residents on the block where we had parked had enacted their system of erecting barriers at each end so no cars could travel in the waters already threatening their homes. They took out signs they made to stop the truck or SUV that sometimes entered adjacent streets, whose wake exacerbated the flooding. One resident later explained that he had installed a water-tight gate to protect his property because this occurs so often.

After waiting about an hour, my husband and I waded four blocks to reach a restaurant and have dinner. Upon our return the water had receded from the streets, but not from our car. Our passenger seats were saturated as was our engine, apparently, for it didn’t start. Tow trucks did a booming business in that neighborhood that evening.

In Why People Live in New Orleans, though I spoke about the need for good drainage in our city and showed some of how it works, I didn’t go into the fact that some streets in many neighborhoods of the greater New Orleans area flood whenever we get a torrential rain. Since we are a sub-tropical climate, such downpours occur often — without hurricanes – and quickly overcome the pumping capacity of these susceptible areas.

Solutions can be handled by individuals to a point, as the Uptown residents were attempting to do. Our house is another example. We live on a ridge. (Everything is relative and this is by no means as high a piece of ground as might come to your mind when you read the word “ridge.”) However, my parents built our house on a slab in 1956 when the street was only paved with sea shells, and we were one of four houses on the street. Each time someone built another house they had to build to newer codes, which were always at higher elevations. The street also got higher when it was paved. Consequently, we were one of the low spots. Each time it rained, and especially during those gushers, we were in and out of the rain clearing the drains and working to keep the water away from our house foundation and entryways.

When my husband and I began updating the house in 2004, our priority was to re-grade the property and have such features as retaining walls to help neighbors’ water run to the street instead of our property, and more drains.  However, there are still downpours that outpace the pump capacity, and we will always have to monitor the drains and the water level. We also attend meetings of our neighborhood association to work on the wider neighborhood and greater New Orleans area issues. We are grateful to people like the scientists, the Army Corps of Engineer whistleblower, lawyers, and concerned active citizens who work at a national level to resolve issues in spite of losing their jobs and being ridiculed by their colleagues when they find they must fight agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers.

If our car cannot be repaired, it will be the third that my husband and I have lost due to weather related causes. The first was washed down the river in the Big Thompson Flood in Colorado. Wind from Hurricane Rita fell on the second when it was parked in southwestern Louisiana at our Hurricane Katrina evacuation destination.

Natural disasters occur everywhere as seen in the storms, mud slides, earthquakes, and fires just this year. I highly recommend your viewing The Big Uneasy to help ensure that man-made disasters don’t continue to compound the natural ones. Here’s some of what a respected local radio host, Garland Robinette, had to say about The Big Uneasy:

I didn’t want to go. I’ve talked Katrina to death the last four days. I’ve seen most documentaries, read many books, and listened to experts from all over the world on this show for 5 years. Katrina, Katrina, Katrina….enough! . . . went only because Harry is one of the few world-wide backers of New Orleans and a friend. I felt an obligation to see his art.

One man’s opinion: No other book, movie, documentary or news reports even come close to the importance of Harry’s work, ”The Big UnEasy.”

The rest of Garland Robbinette’s August 31, 2010 response to what he learned is contained in an article he called “The Big UNEasy – Consider Yourself Warned” at http://www.wwl.com/pages/8041702.php.

Geographers and other people use the term “region” to help us locate an area of land whose shared characteristics set it apart from other places. For example, geographers identify ten regions of the world, including the continent of North America, which is where we find the United States, Louisiana, and New Orleans. We also use “region” for smaller areas, when we say that Louisiana is in the southern region of the United States, and New Orleans is in the region of southeastern Louisiana.

Can you name other regions to which your location or New Orleans belongs?

Shared Characteristics: Physical

Physical features of a region are made by nature, such as land forms, bodies of water, vegetation, animals, climate, and weather. The three North American countries are Canada, the United States, and Mexico. They form a continuous stretch of land. The Rocky Mountain range runs through western North America, in both Canada and the United States. The range’s highest peak is in Colorado, 14,440 feet (4,401 m) above sea level. The mountains do not extend to Louisiana, but one of their resources often does.

What might the Rocky Mountains send all the way to New Orleans and what physical feature would carry it there?

The three countries of North America share the Pacific coastline. What other coastlines do these countries share?

Louisiana also shares characteristics with areas outside North America.

In fact, what do more than half the world and half the U.S. population have in common with the greater New Orleans area?

a. They all have frigid climates.
b. They are within fifty miles of coasts.
c. They have little water nearby.
d. They have very few natural resources.

Louisiana is part of another region that has been in the news a lot since April 2010, the Gulf Coast.

What are some of the physical features that the states and countries in the Gulf Coast region share?

Use what you’ve answered above, and information you’ve read in pages 1-10 of Why People Live in New Orleans to discuss these questions and support your answers:

1. What physical features of the New Orleans area do interviewed residents value?
2. What physical features make the New Orleans area important to people who live elsewhere?
3. Why should you and the rest of the world care about what’s happening to southeast Louisiana?
4. Who do you think should help decide about future oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico? Support your answers with what you know about places and regions.
5. What actions can you and your classmates take that would help damaged physical features of your location, New Orleans, coastal Louisiana, or another region of your choice?  How will it benefit you?
6. If you choose a region other than your own, how could you connect with the people of that region to gain information and work cooperatively?  If you chose your own, how can you connect with other groups in that area who want the same results as you?

At Boat Launch

After Hurricane Katrina and before a new marina was built, Lake Pontchartrain shrimpers moored their boats at a nearby boat launch. I loved to visit in the evenings to see the pelicans hanging out and waiting to be fed leftover fish.

I took many pictures of them there and in other locations, like the one at West End on pilings. The pilings are all that’s left of seafood restaurants that used to be out over the lake until they were washed and blown away in 2005.

Remains of Restaurants

As big as the hole is inside me when I view the remains of the places where so many memories were made and good food enjoyed, I now have another perspective. At least the lake and the pelicans remained after that last disaster. I wonder about what will be left of the one going on now in the Gulf.

Shortly before the April 20, 2010 oil rig explosion we had had a series of articles that now seem ironic. We were being encouraged to return to swimming and enjoying the lake, because, with the help of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation and residents’ efforts, the lake had been cleaned and was deemed a healthy environment. About the same time, we were pleased at the announcement that Pelicans had been removed from the endangered species. Now we see the images of pelicans and other animals dying in oily muck, and we worry about that same black muck destroying the Gulf, being at the Mississippi river’s mouth, and inching toward Lake Borne which goes into Lake Pontchartrain.

Hope for the Future

It’s easy for me to become mired myself in the oil catastrophe – hours reading, discussing, and worrying about what’s happening. Fortunately, I have excellent friends, mentors, and family who help me move forward in positive ways. One of these is my daughter who, believe it or not, is named Katrina. Yesterday she sent me written and video versions of a meditation for the Gulf that was, of course, just what I needed at the moment. The last picture on this blog is one I took before this spring, when the water and the pelicans appeared quite healthy. It and the meditation help me focus on the possibility of the Gulf returning to some form of health in the future. You are welcome to check out the meditation yourself at Healing Meditation for the Gulf.

 ”we owe the people of Louisiana and of the Gulf Coast both an ecological and economic debt.”

Wondering about  the term “ecological debt?” Do you consider the Gulf Coast an “industrial sacrifice zone” or a “resource-rich hinterland?” Dr. Haney clearly explains these with a sound summary of relevant environmental and economic events since oil arrived in the Gulf Coast region, including the hurricanes Katrina and Rita periods and the current realities and implications of this 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  He also makes specific suggestions as to how to repay the debt, including the responsibility of the average citizen/consumer.

I think you’ll find it well worth reading whether you agree or disagree with him.  You can access the article at:  http://www.truthout.org/the-2010-oil-spill-and-our-ecological-debt-louisiana59386

Like five years ago we realize the domino effect of the devastation.  Not only were people killed in or displaced from their homes in the flooding, but those houses once needed postmen to deliver mail, grocery stores to provide food, doctors, schools, and so on, all of whom were affected by the loss of each area.  Similarly, not only did eleven men die, countless fishermen and people working the Gulf lose their jobs, and damage or destruction of wetlands and animal life begin, but people across the nation who drink coffee, eat shrimp, like fruit, plan to buy a new set of tires, or export grain, and those who supply these items, could also feel the effects of this oil incident.

Some things have changed in five years.  There have been a lot more more disasters worldwide and people have become much more proactive, much more connected, and have heightened their expectations.  Volunteers line up to help with booms, debris, and wildlife.  Fishermen, who are prevented from doing what generations of their familes have done, quickly sign up to help because they desparately want the solution and so that they may have some income.  Networks of interested groups communicate with their constituents to mobilize needed support, pressure, and action for a quick response at all levels.

We’ve also learned to stay informed, and to distinguish facts from the damaging misconceptions and generalizations surrounding the event, so we don’t compound the effects of the catasrophe.