2 posts tagged “louisiana”
how do you talk about a day with your family at a hunting camp on the mississippi without filling it with stereotypes about the south?
you can't. so i'll just tell you what really happened.
my cousin owns a hunting camp on the west bank, just north of baton rouge that he also uses as his home. it's a really nice place with much acreage, many deer to kill, and a house straight out of "log cabins annual." he pretty much built the place from the ground up with lumber from the camp. then, he installed satellite television, a pool overlooking the river, and a great hammock.
my little brother spends a lot of time out there, and he felt it necessary to show me why. he brought me for a tour on the four-wheeler. he would occasionally stop and say, "see? see why i love this place?" and i had to say that i did. it's gorgeous. kyle pointed out where the cranes nested, and where the "poor black men fish around here." he also nearly ran over a snapping turtle. i jumped off the four-wheeler and took a picture of him with my crappy cameraphone. the little guy didn't look too happy with me, either. he looked up at me and snapped his powerful jaws; kyle said (in his best hick accent), "watch out or he'll snap your balls off." i had to admit that i had no doubt he would.
back at the house, the constant flow of jokes about my big city move continued.
"y'know, you're in louisiana. you can wear shorts, gavin." yes, i know...but i just had a nice brunch with my friends.
"i bet they don't have good food like this up there, do they YANKEE?" no, they really don't. i miss the food here terribly.
"hey. did you get lost comin' here? took you long enough! what, you don't know your way around here?!" geez, guys. i drive out here once every 3 years. of course i don't know my way around.
so i sat on the back porch and drank beer. because if i sat inside, i would be forced to watch comedy central's "red state weekend," and outside all i had to deal with was country music on the on-again, off-again outdoor speaker system. also because i was tired of being allowed to sit at the adult table and gossip about the family members that weren't there anymore. but mostly, because that's what kyle's girlfriend was doing, and that's what everybody expected me to be doing. i'm the city boy that smokes pot and drinks all the time, my family talks to me less when i'm obviously doing one of them. but, i couldn't shake all of them. first, my uncle terry told me about his dream. he told me, "gavin...i was riding a harley all night last night until my wife woke me up. it was wonderful." then, my aunt celie kept sitting down next to me and staring at me. she would stare for a minute, and then just say, "you really do look happier, gavin. you really do." i know i do. because i really am happier. but she kept telling me that. in fact, she did it all day long. she was constantly telling me that i was looking skinnier, tanner, better-looking, & happier. toward the end of the day, i decided to make it uncomfortable for her. i told her that i knew i looked better and that as soon as i got back to chicago, i was going to start going out to bars and picking up women. as many women as i could get. she backed off after that.
as i started to leave, the mood changed. my cousin's daughter soaked me with water from the pool. i sternly told her to stop but she poured another cup on. i guess i deserve it for spending so much time with her when she was really young, but this meant that nobody would hug me good-bye. i was left with a causual, "well, i'll see y'all later." i got in my car and put billy breathes on again, for the 438th time. it was a perfect ending to the day, i felt, because who doesn't want to be prince caspian and float upon the waves?
the overriding feeling in baton rouge was "eternally not the same." every time i spent time with my true friends, i felt completely out of the loop. every time i spent time with my family, i felt like a celebrity. every time i spent time alone, i felt completely not at home. there wasn't anything i could do. when i wanted love, i got false affection; when i wanted to talk about my new life, i got complaints about the noise.
it's not like i expected to show up in the city and be greeted with a ticker tape parade, but i also didn't expect to be greeted with lackadaisical contact with the people that mean the most to me.
i got a few good things out of the trip. good stories. great stories. and, toward the end of the trip, the time became more quality.
so, the entries that follow this one will be those stories. so far, they are "aubrey wants her professor," "new orleans," "i do do my thang," and stories about friends day and that guy dan, micah, and i met last night who just got out of jail.
i'll get to all of this later tonight. drinking now.
