Born on the Bayou
Stopped to talk to Ms. M this morning, the woman who lives directly across the bayou from me, she told me she actually wasn’t born in that house, she was born on DeSoto Street and then moved to the house on Moss when she was about one. Damn, I thought, just shy of a year of being able to say “I was born on the bayou.” She was telling me about the woman who married her cousin and lived next door to her (the house is now for sale), how she wasn’t friendly and then she had a daughter who was even more unfriendly. I told her about my neighbors, how they couldn’t muster a smile from the getgo. She asked, “what makes people like that?” I said, dunno. Don’t even want to know.
Ms. M lived in that house for 92 year, raised her boys there, and said there used to be boats on the water. She remembers the depression where in one week five of her family members lost their jobs. She then asked, “can you imagine anywhere else in the world where you can live on a bayou, where it is this beautiful,” and I laughed and said, no mam, I can’t. This is heaven to me.
She said we got lucky here on the bayou – spared the wrath of Katrina. And I said I know. She said we have her to thank and she nodded towards Cabrini – so I didn’t know if Cabrini was some kind of saint I was unaware of and asked her who she meant. She said Our Lady of the Rosary. Ah, I said. She asked, “are you Catholic?” and I said, close, Jewish, and she said, well you should go thank her, and I said I’d go by her altar today and leave flowers.
We were standing by a telephone pole with a flyer for the “Voodoo on the Bayou” that is happening this coming Saturday night at the Pitot House – she pointed at the flyer and asked if I was going and I said, not sure – waiting to see if L is back at home and up for birthday company. I told her about his back surgery and the double fusion and she took her cane and hit it on the sidewalk multiple times – stupid doctor! she sort of shouted (surprised me) then said, doctors are not supposed to make mistakes! I said, I know.
Then I said the coming weekend was a busy one, what with the costume party at Swirl, the Voodoo Fest, and the Saints game and she said there is always a lot going on isn’t there? and I said indeed, I have been trying to step out of the fray lately because I needed some downtime – she said, Honey, go out. Enjoy yourself.
I said, yes mam, don’t worry, I do, I enjoy myself.