Random Ramblings from the Road

There’s nothing of any real value in this blog post. It’s really a collection of non-sequiturs from my weekend trip to South Louisiana. Think of it like one of those columns Larry King used to write for USA Today (maybe he still writes them, I haven’t read in a while, I finally reached the point in life where I don’t need color charts to understand articles), where he jumped all around in an incoherent fashion. Remember, I don’t make you read these things. When you go on trips by yourself, there’s no one there when you want to turn and comment on something you see, so this is a collection of the things I would have said to someone with me on the trip. (Let’s be honest, I did turn and say them to my imaginary companion in the car, but if I admit to that, some of y’all might try to have me committed . . . . OOPS.)


Was amazed to see how the Saturday afternoon Mass appears to be outstripping the Sunday morning Mass at many Catholic churches that I passed. Now, since I’m not a Catholic maybe it’s always been that way, but in the smaller towns there were clearly more folks at the Saturday Mass then on Sunday morning.

Again, this may be a warped perception of mine, but this was my first visit to spend any time in New Orleans in over two years, and I felt a different spirit. Not sure if you can credit that to the Saints victory or the time passed since Katrina (or perhaps since I’ve been watching Treme for the last few weeks, maybe my mindset was locked in the late 2005 time period of that show.) I will confess I’m not a big New Orleans fan, but it was good to sense things were back to “abnormal” in the Big Easy. I pray that the oil spoil – as Spud McConnell calls it – doesn’t dampen things (Literally. One topic discussed on the radio was the possibility that the dispersant used by BP might be evaporated into any potential tropical storm and fall on New Orleans and South Louisiana as a sort of “acid rain.”)

I’ve always been a big proponent of microfilming any and all historical records to preserve them, but one experience Saturday has added a new clause to my stance. Microfilm any and all records, BUT, do it right. I went to the New Orleans Public Library Saturday in yet another attempt to try and pin down my peripatetic grandfather through old City Directories. Someone decided to microfilm those things for the NOPL, but made two very bad decisions. First, they decided to film two pages per slide – making the print so tiny that even with my big magnifying reading glasses you had to set the reader at maximum magnification to see the images. Second, they apparently didn’t check their settings and the left hand page was virtually unreadable on all slides. I checked with the librarian to see if perhaps it was just my eyes, but she confirmed that it was a problem. So, Grandpa Jim Murphy once again eluded me. Guess my next step is to save up for a few years and head for Virginia to try and track him down.

This is probably something that has been hashed and rehashed by sociologists and social historians, but as I drove along the River Road I had a sudden brainstorm (well maybe it was just a brain cramp) about an aspect of Louisiana culture. I have to wonder if the use of the French Arpent system of land measurement might have contributed to the close-knit sense of community in parts of Louisiana. If the English township system is used, often the farm houses are land-locked in the center of large farms. But under the Arpent system, with the river or Bayou serving as the “street”, it allowed the houses to be located closer together along the banks of the stream. That proximity might have made it easier for neighbors to bond and bring stronger community ties. Or maybe not – I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express so I could be wrong.

Along Highway 90 just west of Morgan City I saw bear crossing signs in Louisiana for the first time in my life  (I think they were bear crossing signs, or else someone really can’t draw a deer.) Didn’t realize they had become so plentiful that the signs were necessary, but it was a new experience.

I’ve worked keeping books for a company involved in the road construction business for nearly 25 years now, but I’m not sure I really appreciated how amazing the skills of our road construction industry are in this country. When you look at the sophisticated roads constructed through swamps and wilderness that seem so unbending as in South Louisiana, it is really stunning. Made me wonder that if we really applied our collective brilliance to other problems we might be able to solve some nagging problems – like oil “spoils” and the like.

So, there you have it “what I did on my weekend vacation” and the random thoughts that danced through my brain.