This past weekend Lauren, Ashley, Evan (New Orleans YAVA) and I got out of the city and headed southwest to Houma, Louisiana for Voice of the Wetlands, a music festival that promotes awareness of Louisiana's rapidly disappearing coastal wetlands. We arrived on Saturday afternoon to good food and even better music. For a wee bit more on the festival and the wetlands, you can read Ashley's account of the weekend on her blog.
Part of what really made my heart smile, though, is the welcome we received from church members that night and the next morning. Lauren's church for the year is First Presbyterian Church of Bayou Blue (her bosses for the year also happen to be the ministers there), and when we wanted to go to the festival, a church member so very kindly gave us a place to stay Saturday night. Sunday morning we headed to church, arriving to hugs instead of handshakes, honey's and baby's instead of our names, and fair warning that we wouldn't stay thin for long if we stayed around town. (Seriously though, about that last one. The monkey bread at coffee time? Pretty sure it fell directly from Heaven.) After church and fellowship time, we headed to the aforementioned ministers' house and proceeded to sit on their screen porch drinking tea and eating fruit picked from trees in the backyard. Have you ever had a satsuma? Or a persimmon? I had my very first of each on Sunday! Persimmons are very odd. But good. I think.
Even back towards the city, it takes all of half a second for someone to start telling you their whole life story, (and everyone wants to know yours). When Madame Blueberry (That's my car. Named for the Veggie Tales character.) had a dead battery, I learned all about David the AAA guy. About how he grew up here, and this one time he ate a whole bottle of baby aspirin ("ate it like candy!") and had to go to the hospital, but while he and his mama were waiting at the bus stop he fell off the bench and hit his head. All that, and a recommendation for a good sno ball place, just in the time it took to install a new battery.
Anyway. None of this might seem like a huge deal, but it is just so wonderful to be in a place where strangers embrace you as family the second you walk in the door. I'm not saying this is totally unique to coastal Louisiana, but it is certainly something very special (and something quite lovely when you're far away from home).
Part of what really made my heart smile, though, is the welcome we received from church members that night and the next morning. Lauren's church for the year is First Presbyterian Church of Bayou Blue (her bosses for the year also happen to be the ministers there), and when we wanted to go to the festival, a church member so very kindly gave us a place to stay Saturday night. Sunday morning we headed to church, arriving to hugs instead of handshakes, honey's and baby's instead of our names, and fair warning that we wouldn't stay thin for long if we stayed around town. (Seriously though, about that last one. The monkey bread at coffee time? Pretty sure it fell directly from Heaven.) After church and fellowship time, we headed to the aforementioned ministers' house and proceeded to sit on their screen porch drinking tea and eating fruit picked from trees in the backyard. Have you ever had a satsuma? Or a persimmon? I had my very first of each on Sunday! Persimmons are very odd. But good. I think.
Even back towards the city, it takes all of half a second for someone to start telling you their whole life story, (and everyone wants to know yours). When Madame Blueberry (That's my car. Named for the Veggie Tales character.) had a dead battery, I learned all about David the AAA guy. About how he grew up here, and this one time he ate a whole bottle of baby aspirin ("ate it like candy!") and had to go to the hospital, but while he and his mama were waiting at the bus stop he fell off the bench and hit his head. All that, and a recommendation for a good sno ball place, just in the time it took to install a new battery.
Anyway. None of this might seem like a huge deal, but it is just so wonderful to be in a place where strangers embrace you as family the second you walk in the door. I'm not saying this is totally unique to coastal Louisiana, but it is certainly something very special (and something quite lovely when you're far away from home).
Love,
Allison
PS- Here's a picture of a bayou where we ate lunch on our way back to New Orleans from Houma. The scenery was extra welcomed, seeing as Lauren's car had just broken down and we'd been on the side of the road for a couple hours...but that's another story for another day.
And, just for fun, here's a little diddy from The Princess and the Frog:
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