Today marks the anniversary of Hurricane Audrey striking Louisiana and Texas in 1957. That was before my time, but I have had my share of dealing with hurricanes, going back to Betsy in 1965. I was really young, so a lot of that time is hazy. I do remember having family members come over to our house to ride out the storm. Our house was near the Mississippi River levee in the suburbs of New Orleans. New Orleans is shaped kind of like a bowl - being near the levee there puts you higher up on the rim of the bowl.
I remember taking a bath the night before it hit, while we still had power. I remember the adults tying back trees to lessen the harm that they could do. And I remember trying to sleep on a cot with the winds making a tremendous amount of noise.
I don't remember how long the storm lasted, or how long we were without power. I do remember walking around the neighborhood, looking at the damage after it was all over. And I remember having to go to school on Saturday to make us some of the missed time.
I remember Hurricane Camille in 1969. We were at my grandmother's house in North Carolina when it hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Driving back to New Orleans, we saw a lot of the damage that had occurred. And New Orleans had gotten a lot of rain.
Hurricane Andrew was heading for New Orleans in 1992. I was working at a radio station in New Orleans that overlooked Lake Ponchartrain and was on the air the night that it was headed our way. My husband of just a few months came to work with me so that I didn't have to face it alone.
But Andrew did not hit New Orleans head on as predicted - it veered and careened into the Baton Rouge area. I was supposed to have a job interview with a radio station in Baton Rouge that had to be postponed.
Of course, the big one for Louisiana was Katrina in 2005. In the suburbs of Baton Rouge, we lost power for just eight hours. I spent the day reading to my 8-year-old daughter, and we all ate ice cream to keep it from going to waste.
It was a completely different world in the New Orleans area where my mother and in-laws lived. My in-laws evacuated - no easy task! But my mother refused to leave and rode it out. My mother didn't have flood waters to contend with, but her power went out in the heat, and she could not get groceries, go anywhere or do anything. It was horrible. No phone service, so I could not even talk to her.
As soon as we were allowed in the area - there were checkpoints going into the city - we went and got my mother and her old dog. We did not give her a choice about coming to our house, though she would have rather stayed put. She stayed a week or so with us, but wanted to go back home, power or not. Luckily, when we took her back, there were some stores and restaurants that had reopened. And while we were there, the power came back on.
As far as I am concerned, Katrina was the beginning of the end for both my mother and mother-in-law. My mother never recovered mentally. She developed Alzheimer's. Every time it thundered, she knew it was a hurricane.
In 2008, Hurricane Gustav decided that New Orleans had had enough, but the Baton Rouge area could use some destruction. It moved in on Labor Day. We watched the rain and winds kick up - and watched the neighbor's trampoline come rolling over our fence & stop just short of the tree my daughter planted in the backyard. Our power went out and stayed off for six days.
You don't know how dark nights are until your whole area has no power. We didn't have a generator, so when the power went out, we were in pitch dark. I grew to hate the sound of neighbors' generators, reminding me that they had some light, maybe some air conditioning, perhaps some entertainment.
During the day, I was fine. I read all day, every day. My kids whined. They were hot; they had no TV, no computers, no hot meals. We were able to get ice and MRE's from a designated location. I preferred to live off peanut butter and crackers than the MRE's. They were just plain nasty.
We did have some fun - we played card games and hung out in the backyard with the dogs. My husband was able to cook some of our food in the freezer on the barbecue pit, so we did have a couple of hot meals. We tried to make the best of a horrible situation, but you could not have seen happier people than when the power came back on!
We were lucky. Some people we knew had no power for more than two weeks. We had no major damage, and of course, our family was safe. In other words, it could have been a lot worse.
I guess I have a little of Gustav still inside me. Sometimes when the power goes out at night, or if I hear the sound of a generator running, it takes me back to 2008. But perhaps the memories will get hazier, as they did for Betsy.
I guess I am a good Southern girl. No matter how old I get, my father will always be my Daddy.
(This was a part of my Daddy's life that I do not remember - he loved to fish.)
This week, I heard someone on a radio show read a letter she had written to her father who passed away a few years ago. I started thinking about what I would say in a letter to my father. My Daddy passed away at the age of 86. I was a part of his second family, and he was 59 when I was born. I was 27 when he died, so he has now been gone more than half my life.
(Daddy with his only son, and his son's only son.)
Dear Daddy,
I have a lot of good memories of you. You had such a great sense of humor. (I got it from you and Momma.) I remember hearing - and repeating - your Cajun stories a number of times.
You were generous to a fault! There is nothing you liked better than to give something, especially something that you made yourself. I admired the things that you made - various crafts from cow horns, birds from peach pits, walking canes, snakeskin belts, and the wooden birds. You started making these things after you went blind, and that was pretty amazing! Of course, you were a slave driver when it came to painting those wooden birds! Something I enjoyed going out to your workshop and painting Blue Jays, Orioles, Scarlet Tanagers, and Redheaded Woodpeckers. It was like a production line out there! And other times, that was the last thing I wanted to do. But you wanted to make sure you had some gift in your pocket to give a child at church.
I said generous to a fault because you would give things away even if Momma and I wanted them. She would get so mad when you gave away one of her favorite horn birds. And I was non too thrilled when you gave away a litter of kittens and a dog at different times while I was in school. Broke my heart!
You loved cow horns, and would seize any opportunity to bring more home. I remember one time, we were hauling some home - most likely from Uncle Leo's house - and they had gotten wet...so they smelled really bad. Momma got a speeding ticket because she was trying to outdrive the odor!
Uncle Leo also was a co-conspirator when it came to your love of snake skins. I remember stopping on some country road in Georgia while the two of them skinned a snake. Bad thing was that they squirted liquid from it into my eye. My mother was terrified that it was venom and that I would be blinded. (It wasn't and I wasn't.)
I definitely inherited your love of all animals. We must have had just about every pet when I was a child. You raised beagles. We had dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, birds, gerbils, guinea pigs, ducks, a rooster, a skunk, and monkeys. The monkeys were mainly conversation pieces for you. Anything that would help you start a conversation with anyone, anywhere, was great for you. (And I still tell people NOT to have a monkey as a pet!) You were a sucker for any stray that I would bring home. The trick was to do it before Momma got home from work! All I had to ask was, "Daddy, can I keep him?" in that sweet voice. You could never say no.
I do have some not-so-pleasant memories also. I remember how we would argue like crazy. You and I were a lot alike in many ways. And I am pretty sure you knew that I liked to argue just for the sake of arguing. Even you would say that if you said the sky was blue that I would swear it was green! You told me that I would make a good lawyer because I liked to argue.
You were the king of the guilt trip. Whenever I had to leave to go home after spending a few days with you and Momma, you would get so sad and tell me over and over again how you hated to see me leave. I tell my kids now that I am immune to guilt trips because I was raised by the master.
I also remember how hard you could be on Momma. You would quiz her about every penny she spent at the story, and about every conversation she had on the phone. "What was so funny?!" you'd ask if she happened to laugh on the phone.
I also inherited from you the ability to hold grudges for inordinate amounts of time. I saw you get mad over something one of your brothers-in-law said (I never knew what it was) and you refused to ever see him again. I am not quite as bad, but if someone burns me bad enough, they are as good as dead to me.
I imagine your eldest daughter inherited this "gift" also. She was not please that you married my mother and wound up turning her back on you. Neither of you let go of this grudge to make things good before you died. In turn, my half-sister has never wanted anything to do with me. Kind of a shame.
I feel I have missed out on a lot on your side of the family. I am just getting to know a few of them and am grateful for that.
I don't even know where to start with your son who is now gone also. I don't know where the blame lies in how he turned out - a womanizing alcoholic. I still hate the smell of beer because he would always have too many when he visited. I think he truly loved you, though he could also push your buttons and make your furious. I believe he truly appreciated everything you and Momma did for him. But he made all kind of promises to me that, as a child, I believed, and was in turn very disappointed. And I am still bitter that he took a chunk of the house that you and Momma bought and raised me in. But it is what it is.
I would love to have a chance to sit down and talk to you now. You would really liked my husband and would have adored our kids. I am so sorry that you didn't get to meet my family. I believe that you know what a wonderful family I have and am proud and happy. And several years ago, Momma joined you, and I hope that you two are fishing together in Heaven.
Daddy, I am proud of a lot of qualities that I received from you, and just want you to know that I appreciate you.
Until we meet again, I love you!
Your daughter,
Margaret
