For natives, New Orleans is the world . . .

[OneBlueSky]

by Lynette Johnson
The Journal News
September 3, 2005

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050903/NEWS02/509030318/1017/news01

(snip)

Why did people stay in the path of a vicious storm? And who are these people we see — mostly black and seemingly poor — in the horrifying photographs and television images?

Yes, practically speaking, many people stayed because they did not have the means to get out. But beyond that, people stayed because they know of nothing outside New Orleans. My family began there in 1760, when two brothers named Dolliole from France married two free women of color. Many of my family members have never traveled outside the city. We have been born and baptized and married and buried — accompanied by jazz funeral processions — there. And we have ridden through two and a half centuries of hurricanes.

The sense of being one with the city is palpable. People from the Crescent City are not merely born in New Orleans but are "of" New Orleans, almost made from the city's red clay and deep brown earth and muddy river water. When I first left New Orleans to move to Los Angeles 16 years ago, my mother, trying to cope with my exit, asked me plaintively: "What do they have there that we don't have here?"

I wanted to exult about the beaches and mountains and the Venice Beach eccentrics and Hollywood's fast lane, but I clearly got her drift. "Nothing at all, Mama," I said.

- more . . .

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050903/NEWS02/509030318/1017/news01

[skooooo]

1. I was thinking about just this...

These people are going through trauma after trauma.

Where will all the psychologists come to deal with this? the social workers? what a nightmare.

[SheilaT]

2. This is true of many people

who have lived their entire lives in one place. Especially where generations of a family have been there.

I live in the Kansas City area and have for fifteen years now. My husband and I are beginning to look at moving away now that both sons are out of high school. I'm constantly amazed at the people who are from here and won't consider moving elsewhere.

Every city, every part of the country has its own charms and fiercely loyal inhabitants. While I find it easy to move across the country, having done so several times in my life, I realize that's not the case with many others.