Hello, and welcome to the September 2006 Sampler essay, which will be brief, with only seven images, since, apparently, I didn’t take pictures on many days in this month.
This was a strange time, with me immersing myself in construction-management work after losing a teaching job due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina, becoming, in the process, more of a New Orleans man, and, eventually, suffering from depression due to the effects of Katrina.
Friday, The 1st
Here is Cedric at the office.
I remember him well.
Monday, The 4th
This was Labor Day, and, I guess while on my way back to Whoadieville from home, I chased a train on the Lafayette Subdivision with a KCSdeMéxico lead locomotive as far as the Bayou Sale siding, where this picture was made.
That is BNSF Railway train H-NWOSLA1-04 – New Orleans Public Belt Railroad Cotton Warehouse Yard in New Orleans to Slaton, Texas – westbound.
Tuesday, The 12th
Here are some wind-turbine blades moving by rail on the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad.
This was a strange time as I was developing a new identity and learning so many new things, and this picture makes me think of the PJ’s Coffee location that was on Tchoupitoulas Street, because I think that a woman whom I had met there saw me taking this picture from her Jeep Liberty on the street and talked to me.
Saturday, The 23rd
It’s nighttime by the Kansas City Southern Railway yard at LaBarre Road.
I have no idea why I was there that night, but that was back in the days when I would go to bars and to parties; so, I may have been on my way to or on my way back from a bar or a party.
Monday, The 25th
On this evening, a BNSF Railway light-power set moves westbound on the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad at Eagle Street, as seen in this picture. Almost certainly, this power set was for BNSF’s intermodal trains, since the locomotives of that train would come to the NOPB for servicing, leaving the train at the intermodal facility in Bridge City.
This was a big night in New Orleans, for this was the night of the “Domecoming” event, and I was nearby for that event, acting upon plans I had made only a few hours earlier, since I am not a big sports fan. When I took the above picture, I was on my way to Cooter Brown’s, where I would watch the game and also take a picture of MPEX 2003 parked outside across Leake Avenue on the NOPB track.
Two things from that night at Cooter Brown’s, which was quite crowded that night and where, that night, I drank a few pints of Guiness, stand out in my mind.
The first was that, when ESPN would show video of devastation of Hurricane Katrina during the pregame programming, there were audible groans among people in the bars as many of them turned away from the televisions in order to avoid seeing the video. We had lived through this stuff now being shown as consumption for viewers far away.
The second was that, when that famous climactic blocked punt happened, the noise level inside of that place was so loud that I damned near thought that it would blow off roof.
It really was a magical night, and I say that as someone who does not identify as a sports fan.
Just under five years later, Steven Gleason, who became a local hero by blocking that punt, revealed that he was suffering from ALS, and it was not long after that that he was confined to a wheelchair.
Tuesday, The 26th
The time of my Harveyness would soon come to an end. So, I got some pictures.
Soon, I would be a proud Mid-Citizen.
Now, though, I see how unsustainable all of it was.
Thursday, The 28th
A few days before I became a Mid-Citizen, I went to a photo location that is a long walk from what was about to be my Mid-City apartment and that also had already been meaningful to me since it was central to the story of my Whoadiehood.
This is CSX train Q145 parked at Marconi Drive waiting on a Union Pacific Railroad crew to board it to take it across the Mississippi River.
The End
That’s all. The next few months would be weird. There would be more pictures in October than there were in September, though nearly all of that was from a trip to Rich Mountain with Doc where we met <What name did I gneertate for him?>. November would have few pictures, but December and January would have many pictures, for a rather exotic reason.
Stay tuned.
Merci.
Jim
