Plaquemines Parish
Summer 06
by Momma D
Walking into the Y Café in the mornings ~ warm greetings and sleepy smiles ~ morning meeting winding down and hearing brainstorming new projects or ideas ~ assignments and volunteering for the days’ services and needs ~ joking ~ teasing ~ even laughter as the meeting breaks up. Breakfast volunteers clear away the remains and “my” day begins and the unyielding heat moves in. Volunteers leave in groups off to the days assignment ~ my place is the kitchen ~ working with Maria and those semi’s with the names that I can never remember, except I do remember the “reefer” truck =-) wonder why?? lol lol I just remember climbing up the steps to gather food from the pantry, reefer or freezer truck. I remember the first time I opened the “reefer” ~ almost being pulled up with the heavy door!! At this moment I can feel the relief of the cold air on my perspiring body ~ awe!!!
As the breakfast volunteers finish up, the lunch volunteers arrive ~ music is changed and the chopping begins ~ propane burners lit and even the Beast in the early days~ before it really became the Beast and burned Amelia and later Karina ~ so badly. The heat intensified as did our perspiring ~ so badly that we’d have to tilt our head one way or another to keep it from dripping into whatever we were cooking over propane burners. As it would grow nearer to serving time, the pace quickened and the laughter, singing and/or dancing built.
Once the meal was ready and out on the line it meant time to sit out on the porch in a rocking chair that I liked to call mine, but shared with so many others. I would light up a welcomed cigarette and feel the Lower Plaquemines breeze and greet my new friends & family as they’d drive or walk in ~ some of them parish workers coming to take a break from cutting the grass, or working on the roads picking up the huge mountains of debris from a days gutting, or hauling dirt out of the area ~ all those dump trucks and all that dirt, some residents taking a break from working on gutting their homes, or from repairing a shrimp boat or their nets, or the EC volunteers breaking for lunch – all so dirty, hot, smelly and still smiling ~ moms with their children ~ some eating a meal while doing the family’s laundry ~ all stopping at the Y Café to eat and meet up with neighbors and family members ~ including the EC family…………..
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