i went back the next morning to watch them finish, and help aunt debbie deal with the shed that they didn't remove because the nieghbors put a sign on it claiming it. they finished cleaning the lot, now just a slab with bits of linoleum and names carved in the cement.



and i started painting.

i painted there most of the day. when th kids got off school they painted with me.

it was interesting to get to spend a whole day in the neighborhood like that.
i think for 4 or 5 hours all i saw where the periodic goverment vehicle or construction truck.
oh-and the scavengers.
old flat bed pickups would pass by with a heap of junk in the back, driving real slow past each lot.
scavengers.

when mrs virgin's neighbor saw me that morning when my canvas was still almost white, and i told her what i was doing--painting the old house and then i would paint the lot over it--tears welled in her eyes.
i asked if it would be too hard having me here doing this and she said no, not for her, but her daughter maybe.
she had been very upset the day before, crying all day.

it's incredible to me,
i went out to dinner that night with 3 full time residents of the city, and just overhearing the neighborhood conversation for two days and the construction worker's conversations all day and ...everywhere i've been.
the conversation almost never strays from storm related stuff.
there's just so much logistics, insurance and red tape and ...so much to adjust to and learn that they are constantly talking about stuff amongst themselves. comparing how its going with this department or that or how they're dealing with the rats or which neighbor isn't cutting their grass or refuses to tear down their house even though they havn't gutted it or cleaned it or anything and how much the houses in which block have been selling for and when the oil spill suit is going through and the guy that used to work for fema that went on his own as a plumber and is making bank and whether or not their paycvhecks from fema will come this week and...on and on and on. which neighborhoods will come back, who's coming back how they'll be different.

everything is either "before katrina" or "since katrina."

at dinner it was a doctor and...i guess we'd call him a politician. he's the head of a bunch of public groups, his neighborhood group and also the neighborhood development organization for the city.
but that was the big topic with almost everyone i've talked to-neighborhoods.
that's what they've been mourning.
their neighbors that they've lived with for decades aren't coming back.
or such and such neighborhood is getting bought up by young professionals and all the older people who lived there are buying closer to the lake,
or the 9th ward --where houses have been handed down for generations without any paperwork being done so now no one knows who legally owns them.

but it's like mrs tiffany said when her daugter asked why i was painting this-
this is history. it won't always be like this.