Entry 4: Field Notes

September 20th, 2009

The freeway is too busy on the way there, so we have to take the long way, instead taking another busy road that runs parallel to the freeway. When we finally get to a spot on the freeway and hour later, there is no entrance ramp so we drive around for another 10 minutes looking for one. Construction during the middle of the day. An absurdity foreshadowing many, many more. When we get off of the freeway, there is swampland all around and it seems miraculous that the freeway is not flooded. Various shacks and old boats lay is disrepair a few yards from the side of the road. The trees look like the gnarltrees of Yoda’s planet of residence, Degobah. The water is covered in green. The road stretches for miles and miles until Destrehan, where there is a small commercial district. A few miles after that, signs of the plant become visible; pipes, smokestacks, smog. Eventually we get to Apple Street and turn left. On every streetlight there are banners with stripes and 14 stars, a seemingly random number. We continue to drive around until it’s clear that nothing is open because it is Sunday, barring the supermarket. We decide to drive down to the levee. We pass railroad tracks that look like they are about to collapse, various signs declaring that there is danger ahead, and pieces of heavy machinery. Eventually we get to a road that runs along a 4-wheel and motocross area. There are four shirtless boys about our age running their 4-wheelers up a mound of dirt and rolling back down in rapid succession for no apparent reason. On our way in to talk to them, a park ranger drives quickly up to us and asks us if we are with the four boys, and we say no. He drives away and we do as well. We continue along the road and see two men talking to each other. One gets into a car and drives away. The one that stays has a Florida license plate. We drive backEventually we pull up to the supermarket and there are about five or six cars in the parking lot. It is about the size of Bruff, which is incredibly small for a grocery store, even in a neighborhood this small. The four of us each buy something and Sean makes conversation with the girl at the register and they find out they have a mutual friend named Keith.We then head to small bay where people are fishing and crabbing. There are countless numbers of empty meat packages lying around and we can’t find a garbage. We get numerous dirty looks.We continue driving around try to get into the plant but can’t. We decide to head home.

-Colin Nugent

October 5th, 2009

This time we go with Sean’s friend Jeff, whom he affectionately refers to as “Jefe.” Jeff grew up in the area and went to Destrehan High School. Jeff says he has a list of places to take us, but that his girlfriend warned him not to take us to a certain place because “that’s where they find bodies.”
The drive there is much easier than last time.
Jeff decides to take us to New Sharpy, a heavily segregated area on the outskirts of Norco. The “black side” of the neighborhood is run down with the exception of two or three houses which Jeff tells us are the “Grandma’s houses” and that there are really only three families that live there and the rest of extended family just lives in the shacks. This information has not been verified. We drive past a cemetery with a sign declaring “No Unauthorized Burials” across the street from an abandoned house with a large “Keep Out” sign.
The “white side” is equally dirty, but more maintained. A man and his family stand outside and he watches what seems to be his daughter play while he sips a tallboy of Bud Light.
We decide to drive to Keith’s house. Inside there is wood paneling, empty bookcases with religious figurines and other trinkets. A large television set is playing a Will Smith movie, but Keith’s mom changes the channel and mutes it when we come in and introduce ourselves. She tells us about the conservative nature of the town, the history of it, various explosions, and a time when Keith almost got arrested for being near an altercation. Keith mentions a drunk poet that lives down the street off-handedly and brings out a framed picture of a fire at the plant from 1988. Before we leave, Jeff shows Keith his “Jesus bling” that he found on the side of the road. It is a figure of Jesus surrounded by plastic diamonds.
After, we drive to the lake. On the way, all of the trees are dead, and a truck almost runs us off the road. The road is unkempt and bumpy. When we get there, there are people fishing and again meat packaging thrown on the ground, except this time there are waste receptacles. We drive back, drop Jeff off at UNO and head back to Tulane.

-Colin Nugent