Baton Rouge is a fascinating jambalaya of lifestyles and living situations. It's part college town – you've got the gorgeous area surrounding the sprawling LSU, with its overgrown ancient oak trees and masses of lost-looking freshmen scattered about like ants, literally walking into moving cars because they are all little clueless retards (Ah, to be 18 and invincible) – and then you've got a 'downtown area', which has some bars and coffee houses and a couple buildings and a courthouse, and then the rest of the city is a strange mixture of lovely tree-choked suburban neighborhoods, strip malls, churches, and pockets of ghetto shanties.
Oh, and Waffle Houses. So goddamned many Waffle Houses. Je-sus.
Yesterday, Lily and I went to the playground, and I couldn't help noticing that the black kids played together and the white kids stayed with the other whiteys. Back where we used to live, all the kids played together; they shared each others snacks (although I have to say that the Japanese kids brought the weirdest shit to the park...teeny dried fish? Really?), and skin color never factored into the equation. If the kid was willing to be the baby sister to Lily's domineering 'teacher' or 'stepmother', they were in, and that was that. I'm not saying "OMG, the south is so racist"; I'm merely observing how it's a little different here.
But omg, the south is so racist.
Not really though. I have found, so far, that people of all cultures and backgrounds seem to get along fine here (as long as they shop at their own respective Wal Marts), and progress is indeed on the rise in Louisiana. One of my neighbors even has a bumper sticker that says, "I miss Bill", and I'm telling myself he means Clinton and not Billy Mays. There's NPR and a Whole Foods and even an attachment parenting group.
What I'm trying to do here is discover and embrace the differences of my new city...while attempting to hang on to my lefty New York hippie leanings.
For instance, I think this looks like a really fun thing to do, no?
Awesome
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I hate to say it but I've never been to a waffle house. Getting to one is my new ambition in life.
ReplyDeleteI love Waffle House! Strange things happen there and the waitresses all look like they have guns in their purses.
ReplyDeleteOnce I was eating at a Waffle House when a little girl - maybe 8 years old - came out of the bathroom and announced to her Dad in a super loud, cheerful voice, "Wow, that was the filthiest toilet I've ever seen." Then an old lady at the next table piped up, "Yeah, stay out of the restrooms baby, they are very nasty." And everyone else in the place just kept eating. I thought that exchange summed up Waffle House very well.
Waffles are good.
ReplyDeleteDamn... I need to ask Kim to get a wafflemaker from Craigslist or something.
ReplyDeleteWaffles are delicious.
Waffles are better when I don't make them. :)
ReplyDeleteWe have the same kind of racism here in Michigan. Sounds pretty nice there otherwise!
harlem.
ReplyDeleteOH!! If they have shake-n-bake squireel there you've GOT to get some!! I guess they might not advertise it that way :P but that's how my mom used to make squirrel and rabbit and I LOVED IT! Squirrel stew too - YUUMMMM ! Have fun! :)
ReplyDeleteI can get behind eating rabbit, but squirrel is too much. Squirrels hang out in my neighborhood. I have to hunt for rabbits. It seems kind of un-sporting to shoot a squirrel.
ReplyDeleteMMMM waffles and runny grits on the same dirty plate.
ReplyDeleteYou know you're in the South when there is a Waffle House, Bojangles and Chik-fila on the same block.
Wild game cook off? I thought you were a vegetarian. I guess you're coming around. I hear the south will do that to a person.
ReplyDeleteMmmmm....Waffles sound good right now!
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that I write this thought-provoking post on racial division, and all y'all can talk about are waffles.
ReplyDeleteMmmmm.
Who needs racism when you can eat waffles and squirrel?? :P
ReplyDeleteHa agreed Kristin, I'm like, this is SO true, it's very racist here and progress is slow, but hopefully things will change soon (cough.. yeah right..cough), then I read the comments and everyones waffle this and waffle that! HILARIOUS!!
ReplyDeleteListen, as far as the South goes, Louisiana is a very strange place. Anyone traveling through that state to get to somewhere else (Texas) goes as fast as humanly possible while still trying not to get a ticket because NO ONE wants to stop there. Yes, you are in The South, but it is a weird old-French swamp South that we don't entirely know what to do with. I mean, Memphis is corrupt and fucked up, but Louisiana makes Memphis look like a bunch of amateurs when it comes to political corruption, freakiness, and general backwardsness. Just sayin'.
ReplyDelete