Here's what I wrote Saturday after talking to a carny who's orginially from New Orleans.
Carny talks about New Orleans
MIKE ARGENTO
Saturday, September 10, 2005
When I went looking for carnies who were from New Orleans, I started out at the convenience store — really a convenience trailer — on the York Fair’s lower Midway and happened upon a couple of them discussing their various experiences with our system of jurisprudence.
One woman, a very nice person, probably one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, probably one of the nicest human beings on the face of the earth, was talking about how she’s been in jail 48 times and that it has to be some kind of record because people who make their way to jail 48 times usually, eventually, do something to remain there and not make it to the fair.
Anyway, the woman said she knew someone and offered to take me to him and as we walked I asked her how she wound up in jail 48 times and she said, in so many words, she had anger management issues and that when people messed with her, well, she messed with them back.
“I tell people not to mess with me, and they still do,� she said.
I wasn’t going to mess with her. Did I mentioned she was a very nice person, probably one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, probably one of the nicest human beings on the face of the earth? Did I mention that?
So she took me to The Claw where I’d find Kenny, but Kenny wasn’t there so I said I’d come back later.
When I did, Kenny was up on a forklift, changing burnt-out light bulbs in the midway marquee.
“Are you Kenny?� I asked.
“Yep,� he said.
“You have a minute or two?� I asked.
“As soon as the guy comes back and lets me down from this thing,� he said.
It took some time, and his boss said he was too busy to talk — it was opening day, and Kenny had about 17 things he had to do — but Kenny found out I wanted to talk about New Orleans and he decided to make time.
His full name is Kenny Hebert — just like former New Orleans Saints quarterback and fellow Cajun Bobby Hebert, “a distant relation,� he said.
“I love New Orleans,� Kenny said. “I was born there; my son was born there. I know lots of people there.�
Or, now, lots of people who used to be there.
He was born in Charity Hospital 40 years ago. He played for a high school state football championship in the Superdome. He used to live in Mid City, near the City Park. His history was now, well, history.
“It’s heartbreaking,� he said. “I won a state championship in football in the Superdome. Now, they’re going to tear it down.�
He started tracking the hurricane when Reithoffer Shows was in New York, the week before his hometown was obliterated. It looked bad. He knows hurricanes. You live in New Orleans, he said, you know hurricanes. And this one looked like a bad one.
When it hit, he spent a lot of time glued to the TV. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His town, a city that has a soul like no other, was gone.
New Orleans always will be a special place, he said. “The food, drink and music — you can’t do wrong,� he said.
He worked in the heart of it for years, as a bouncer and a bartender on Bourbon Street, before going to work for Reithoffer seven years ago. He lived all over town. He saw one of his old neighborhoods on CNN. It was under water. There was nothing left.
Seeing what people were going through down there — the death and desperation — he wanted to leave the show and go home and help. “But, for me, I can’t leave. Unless my immediate family was in imminent danger, I can’t leave,� he said.
He’s angry that the Federal Emergency Management Agency screwed up so badly. “They knew the hurricane was going through there. They knew what it could do. They should’ve been ready,� he said. “A lot of people died.�
His family is out of New Orleans now. They live in Thibodaux, which, according to the city Web site, “Where Yesterday Welcomes Tomorrow in the heart of cajun country on Bayou Lafourche.� The city is about 60 miles west of New Orleans and was mostly spared.
“It was a normal hurricane (in Thibodaux),� Kenny said. “And by normal, we had some minor flooding and shingles blown off the roof. Nothing like New Orleans.�
He’s talked to his parents and his son. They’re all fine. Thibodaux is housing a lot of dislocated people from New Orleans.
Still, there are a lot of people he hasn’t heard from. The communication system isn’t working, he said. He’s worried, but he said he won’t start thinking the worst until he has reason.
And for now, he mourns the loss of his town.
“It’s a city I love, and it’ll never be the same,� he said. “All my memories are gone.�
Mike Argento, whose column appears Mondays and Thursdays in Living and Sundays in Viewpoints, can be reached at 771-2046 or at mike@ydr.com. Read more Argento columns at ydr.com/mike.
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