On Sunday after church, Big Man and I headed to my old stomping grounds of Chalmette for the annual Crawfish Festival. Chalmette, the St. Bernard Parish working-class suburb of New Orleans, is where my parents moved right after World War II, just as tomato fields of that parish were transformed into new housing developments for returning GIs. I grew up there, from kindergarten and elementary school at Our Lady of Prompt Succor, to high school at Andrew Jackson (the year it first opened).
Going back for the Crawfish Festival allows us to see what progress has been made on rebuilding St. Bernard since Katrina, and the truth is, it's not great. While a new Big Lots and new Walmart and new Lowe's have opened, there are still whole swaths of the Parish, residential and commercial, that display destruction and desolation. It's heart-breaking, really. So many people unable or unwilling to come back, generations of neighborhoods left empty where there had been neighbors, connections, relationships. Who knows how long it will take for St. Bernard to return to its pre-Katrina population levels?
Judging from the giant crowd at the festival, it seems clear that lots of St. Bernardians return from wherever they live now on this occasion, as well as drawing at least a few people from other parishes. Hard to judge exactly how many were there on Sunday, but sure seemed like at least ten thousand. A band was set up on the far end of the fest toward the Goodchildren side, and carny rides and booths were on the lake side of the fest grounds, which was the area all around the St. Bernard Civic Center.
How many ways can you fix crawfish? A lot, apparently. There was boiled crawfish, fried crawfish (including my especial favorite, fried *softshell* crawfish), crawfish pie, crawfish etouffé, crawfish creole, crawfish bisque, crawfish bread (giant line there), crawfish sauce poured over catfish, over french fries, over fried eggplant. Crawfish wasn't all there was, either -- any kind of seafood you wanted (including lobster!), sausages made of pork and alligator (and crawfish!), even lamb or beef gyros (I guess this was in case anyone was allergic or something). There were things called "potato ribbons" which were continuous sheer strips of potatoes flash-fried and potatoes fried with onions and potatoes boiled with the crawfish. (Face it, there were no low-calorie options at this fest!)
We ate our fill, enjoyed looking at the people and the crafts. I was sure there were people all around us that I had gone to grade school or high school with, without any of us recognizing each other. The day was really beautiful, sun shining brightly (I was glad to have a sunhat on). We will definitely be back again next year, when we hope to see more progress in recovery for St. Bernard Parish.
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