I'm as Corny as Kansas.....

Kansas is a long state if you are driving it the east/west way.  It took me a few days to get across it with not all that many tourist spots to see.

Truman Capote wrote “In Cold Blood’  He lived in New Orleans, so I wanted to see where he did his research for his book http://www.thenation.com/article/november-15-1959-the-clutter-family-is-murdered-in-holcomb-texas-later-the-subject-of-truman-capotes-in-cold-blood/

I spent a day near Holcomb, Kansas seeing the spot  http://www.house-crazy.com/in-cold-blood-murder-house-in-holcomb-kansas/ where the Herbert Clutter family was murdered by two men who thought there was a large amount of money hidden in the house.  Truman Capote wrote about the murder in the book, “In Cold Blood.” The murders happened while I was in high school and the newspapers were full of the story.  I was fascinated not even imagining that anybody would murder anyone for any reason.  I was 17 years old and naive. Growing up in a really small town will do that for a child. And, of course, Truman Capote lived and worked in New Orleans, so I had a connection to him when I moved there in 1969.  I had to visit and I did.  Holcomb, Kansas is about as unassuming as any town of under 3000 people. There’s no reason for a tourist to visit, but I wanted to and I did. I spent the day looking around and buying the night’s dinner and slept in a park nearby. I often slept in city parks, fairgrounds or other public spaces in a town.  I didn’t put up the tent when I did that and only was awakened by a policeman once and that was in Mill Valley, CA, in Marin County just on the north side of the Golden Gate bridge.

After seeing that part of Kansas in the blistering heat, with the cottonwood doing what they do in late June,  I went to Dodge City to have a drink at the Long Branch.  I know it was backtracking a bit, but remember I didn’t have an itinerary  and I had plenty of time.

In 1973, the Long Branch Saloon did not serve alcohol. I couldn’t believe it. So I had to have a root beer. They called it Sasaparilla.  Not beer, for sure and It was disappointing.

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ks-longbranchsaloon.html

The second night, I stayed in some very flat county park. Oh before I say that, I should say that the cottonwood tree is the state tree of Kansas. It’s a fine tree except in June. In May and June it flings its seeds around so the ground looks like this:

And that cottony stuff builds up against the side of the tent.  And another by the way, the winds blow, never ending just like they do in East Texas, and maybe West Texas too. I think I was still picking out cottonwood cotton in Wyoming.

Kansas was easy to drive in. You can see a hundred miles easy with no hills. And it was Kansas that brought me to Colorado.

Donna Speaks: A Fortunate Happenstance

I was standing at the kitchen sink looking out the window, washing dishes.  I heard the roar of a motorcycle and looked up.  This female-woman-lady person straddling a big ole black bike was carefully maneuvering it up the driveway to the house.  From her slim body, long legs extended on either side of the leather saddle to the foot pegs.

As the roaring stopped, she planted those long legs firmly on the ground. Still seated, she popped the chin strap and lifted the helmet off her head to reveal short, curly, mostly pepper hair.  The woman ran fingers of her left hand through her hair and turned to look at the house revealing a small, square face and brown eyes.  When she spied me in the window, her lips smiled a crooked smile and her left hand waved.  

The woman dismounted, shoved the kickstand solidly to the ground, tucked her black helmet under her right arm, and walked toward the house.

"Whoa!" I thought and something stirred in me.

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My apartment in New Orleans had been broken into.  The thieves gained entry through a window - after they'd removed the a/c unit. Even took my phone. I wanted to move.  

A woman on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in rural Goodbee was looking for a house-sitter because she traveled a lot.  Anyway, my new job was at a psychiatric hospital on the northshore.  So I moved in to Liz's house. I'd only been there about a month when Liz came home for a respite and decided to throw a party.

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Jan hardly knew Liz. She'd met her at a Christmas party. Didn't much like her. When she received Liz's invitation, she was less than excited but thought, "What the hell?"  Jan rode her Honda all the way from her Lakeview home in New Orleans, across the Pontchartrain Causeway, through Mandeville, Covington, and Madisonville to Goodbee.  It was over an hour trek that ended on a long-ass dirt-gravel road that led to the house.

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If those assholes hadn't broken into my New Orleans apartment...  If Jan hadn't decided the hour-plus ride to a party was worth it...

Ahhhh... Serendipity

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Have a great day, Miss Althea.

Merry Christmas

The Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans - A holiday tradition since I can remember.

Have a wonderful holiday, no matter what you celebrate. Hope your days are filled with love, kindness and laughter.

Evolution and Other Divisive Observations

Evolution:  Hundreds of thousands of misguided folks do not believe that evolution is how we got here.  And I know this will not convince them because they choose not to believe facts.  Here's the only fact you really need to prove evolution:

Post WWII, antibiotics worked on bacterial diseases.  Now many diseases are antibiotic resistant.  What happened?  The bacteria evolved! As they needed to survive, they changed. And as they change more, we make the antibiotics different. It takes less time now for the bacteria to change than it used to. We don't have many antibiotics left because they are no longer effective.

It’s what happens when any living thing needs to change to survive. I fully expect children to have enormous thumbs in a few decades because of their use of cell phone texting.

On a different, but kinda related note, in a Catholic church in New Orleans, if you turn the chandelier light on,  you can see a shadow of what the believers are calling Jesus.  (I know that sentence is convoluted and probably not grammatically correct, so don't start with me.)  A friend thinks it looks like Che Guevara.  Or more likely just a shadow.  So turn the light off and stop with the kneeling in front of that column, OK?

And who knows what Jesus looks like?  Were you there back then? He certainly was a middle eastern Jew, so dark skinned and probably curly haired. We really don’t know if his hair was all that curly as you see in that shadow. He certainly was not blonde and blue eyed as he is portrayed by US Christians.

Guess that church will have to leave the lights on and put a bigger collection box next to the apparition.  After all, the church needs more money to defend all those pedophile priests and it needs all your dollars to keep women from being priests.   It could find an origami expert and have lots of shadows that would correspond to whomever they wish. Wonder who would bring in more money? The Pope or Brad Pitt?

     Photo from New Orleans Times Picayune, 2 April 2012

Whatcha think?

Now in December 2015, I have no idea if the shadow is still there or not.  I expect not and the collection plate donations have most likely decreased. Time for more shadow art, doncha think?

Katrina and African Americans

Looks like you are going to have to put up with a few more Katrina memories with me.   I’m just not ready to stop talking about it yet, even 10 years later.

People ask me all the time, why did all those people stay in New Orleans.  Remember New Orleans flooded as a result of poorly built levee breaches, not because of a hurricane.  We on the Northshore were affected by the wind and water. The flooding subsided within hours. New Orleans was flooded for at least 5 weeks.

People had stayed in their houses for generations when hurricanes came and were sure they could be safe. Not this time.

So why did so many stay even though they were under an evacuation order?  To understand that, you have to understand the economics and fundamental racism of New Orleans. 70% of the city’s population 10 years ago was below the poverty line. It was also over 50% African American. There was some overlap, but not very much. 

The African Americans lived in the lower elevations of the city, below sea level Only small parts of the city are above sea level. So when flooding started, it was the black community that was most affected. 

The storm hit on the 29th day of August.  Welfare or Social Security checks arrived on the 1st of the month so, no financial resources were available to the poorest 70% of the city. If they did own cars, they could not afford gas. The cars barely ran, so driving for hours through flooded streets simply couldn’t happen.

Public transportation was stopped the moment the streets got wet. 

No public evacuation plans were in place because, well, a storm like Katrina could never happen. Pumping stations, decades old, would not fail and how could levees poorly built by the Corps of Engineers ever fail.

Everything that was not planned for happened. 

Thousands of people were rescued by the Coast Guard, by private citizens, by first responders.  Rescue operations didn’t start for several days because no plans were in place - after all, it was the black community. 

It’s not that the poor people were ignored on purpose, it’s just that no politician or public official even considered it.

The government was not equipped to deal with Katrina. Even the US president, George W. Bush had no idea what to do, or when to do it; he wasn’t even concerned and appointed a guy who had no idea how to deal with an emergency of these proportions. “Brownie”, he was called by the president as in, “Good job, Brownie” when people were dying in the streets, the Superdome and the Convention Center.

Who is to blame?  I don’t know, but certainly we expected our elected officials to step up. Evacuation plans are now in place. No one will ever be bussed to the Superdome, the levees have been rebuilt and some people have rebuilt or are rebuilding. 

Many people have left for good, we being two of them.

Will it be better next time? Yes, there will be a next time. And I have no idea if it will be handled better or not.  What makes me doubt it?  I guess 70+ years of watching racism and politics in this country makes me think that way.

Swamp Travel on a Scooter

When you think of a swamp, most folks think of a pest filled, stinking, fetid watery mess. It's full of snakes, gators and other scary critters.

 Men with long beards pole pirogues through it hunting for anything they can eat.  They don't want you there. And they have guns.

If  you think that, you have never really visited a swamp. The Louisiana swamps are beautiful and eerie places, full of, yes snakes and gators, but flowers and wonderful tropical plants and mosses. Visiting a swamp at dawn or dusk will put you in the middle of a hauntingly marvelous place, seeing exotic sights you have only imagined. 

To find an accessible trail through one is absolutely a miracle. 

I found an accessible trail just across Lake Pontchartain, north of New Orleans, LA

Cow Lily, one of the first water lilies to open in the spring.

National Wildlife Preserve in Lacombe, LA.has a fantastic trail that’s accessible for my scooter. 

I think a power wheelchair could travel it safely as well. 

The trail goes through the marsh, across swamps, on bridges and back to dry land.  In the swamp you can see fantastic marsh flowers, of course, turtles and if you are lucky, alligators.

   

Louisiana Iris, open in the spring

The turtles are so tame, they will come up to the bridge for a few cheerios that you happened to have in your pocket.  The kids love it.

If you have the chance and are afraid that you won’t be able to enjoy the Louisiana swamps, don’t be.  You will love the mystery and beauty of it.

Water filled with white water lilies, one of the many breathtaking sights in a Louisiana swamp.

This is a great trail, accessible to anyone.  Visit the swamp critters. Have a grand time.

It's Memorial Day

What used to be called Decoration Day is now Memorial Day. And our little town of Mountain View, AR, population well under 3000 people, is celebrating the holiday as it should be celebrated.  People have been cleaning the graveyards all week and by the end of today, they will be cleaned and new flowers will be in place. People here take this holiday seriously.

When I lived in New Orleans, graves and cemetery cleaning was saved for All Saint's Day, the day after Halloween where folks brought picnics to the cemeteries, whitewashed the tombs while having family time that included all members of the family, past and present.

As you probably know, New Orleans is mostly below sea level, so graves are built above ground. Huge concrete vaults that contain generations of one family have been built. As the vaults get full, old remains are just pushed to the bottom and new occupants are installed. Cemeteries in New Orleans are considered tourist attractions and tour busses stop at them.  When Hurricane Katrina hit, those vaults were rearranged and sometimes Uncle Louie dropped by for a visit.  It was hell getting everybody sorted out and back where they belonged.  I'm not sure if that reinterring was all that successful, but at least people now rest in some tomb,  just maybe not the right one.

Regardless this holiday is taken seriously both in New Orleans and in Mountain View. As it should be.

So many people have served our country. Getting only one day to honor them doesn't seem like quite enough. Think about it today. And tomorrow, next week and next month. If someone in your family served, say thank you. If a band marches in a parade at your house, let the booming bass drum affect your heart like it does mine. It doesn't matter if I can stand up or not when the parade passes. The feelings are the same.

I know this post is not about accessibility, but today is a special day when we remember not just my disability, but the problems that all our vets endure.  Honor them.