Growing up in Port Allen, Louisiana, we lived across the street from Holy Family Church and School. The church was pretty much the center of our lives. My sister Vee's memorial service will be held there next Saturday with a walk to a meal at the Knights of Columbus hall afterward. My first thought (in child scale) was what a long walk that is because it was past the neighborhood boundary (the Baptist church) when I was a child. It's actually just a couple of blocks away.
None of us live there or belong to that church, but we still have ties to the community there.
When I was leaving Baton Rouge in December, I took a wrong turn that put me on the bridge over the Mississippi and I took the first exit to Port Allen to turn around. I took the opportunity to cruise the two main streets, Court and Jefferson. I had my protective shields up to prevent memory invasion disorientation, and I looked at it from the perspective of life in our small town of Unity. Not so different on a local scale; the difference is in the overall setting in a politically corrupt, environmentally degraded state where race and conservative religion infect every judgement. "Too little money, too much religion" is the way I often characterize growing up there, but the local small town aspect of life there was a nurturing environment for us. It had a public library, a community center with free swimming lessons in the summer and skating in the gym in the winter. In participating in decisions about Unity, I never forget those things.
The actual white wooden church of my childhood was torn down years ago and replaced with a concrete bunker thing. When questionnaires have a slot for church preference, I always write in "white clapboard."
Vee didn't believe in any religion, but the old church in the old town is as good a place as any for family and friends to say goodbye.
My father said a Catholic could never be elected president. He said we could never go to college because we had no money.
This photo hangs over my dresser inspiring good fashion decisions. My mother probably made those overalls. Vee is on the left (then Claudia, then me), looking every bit the brave oldest sister, ready to show us how to get through college on part-time jobs and student loans.
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