The Longbow Papers

During the next 24 hours, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where I lived for most of the first four and a half decades of my life, will be changed forever by a monstrous storm. Again. In 1969, the "Perfect Storm" that forever changed the coastline of the upper Gulf of Mexico was named Camille.

While I am greatly relieved that my son Joe, his beautiful bride Michelle, and his courageous mother Linda, were able to get out of New Orleans--evacuating all the way to Memphis, Tennessee, where they were lucky to get hotel reservations--and that my sister and mother safely evacuated our family's beach front home in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, I am agitated to no end at the imminent destruction of so much of a topography and a geography I love beyond measure.

A strangely despondent anxiety and a damnable sense of helplessness prevent me from expressing what I am thinking and feeling here in Beijing, some 10,000 miles away. Being jet-lagged to the max doesn't help; we flew in from the States late Sunday night.

Just over a week ago, Ellen and I were in New Orleans and Ocean Springs, Mississippi; it was a wonderful visit. Below are some pictures that capture one of the charms that so distinguishes that very special part of America--its cuisine.

Perhaps a few pictures will suffice to tell a part of the story for now.

Joe, Michelle, and the old dude eating boiled shrimp and crabs in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, on the Westbank of the Mississippi River.


This is what it's all about...

Letting the good times roll: the old dude in his new hat, Michelle, Ronnie "Scoop" Jackson, Joe, and Ellen.

"We're leaving," my son said immediately and simply into his cell phone...

 

1:27 PM / Editor / permalink    0 comments

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