Above:A 360-degree photo shows a rusted boat and other wreckage at Bayou Caddy, a port west of Waveland. (John Brecher / MSNBC.com)
About this project
In the coming months, MSNBC.com will focus its coverage of the Hurricane Katrina recovery on two cities on the hard-hit Mississippi coast.
Though Bay St. Louis and Waveland are far from the media spotlight on New Orleans, the intertwined fates of the people, businesses and institutions in these towns tell the story of an entire region's struggle to recover from the most destructive storm in U.S. history.
First off, let me start by saying that I'm not a Republican. I'm not really a Democrat, either. I've always considered myself politically agnostic, and have always agreed with someone I heard quoted as saying whoever WANTS to be president probably isn't qualified. All of this said, my thoughts really have no agenda. I just thought it was interesting.
As I read Hannah and Patty's accounts of a thrilling encounter with the leader of our country, I was reminded of my experience on the same day.
Today is Tuesday. Tomorrow is Wednesday. Yesterday was Wednesday. It's a never ending cycle. Up until Katrina hit. I had just entered the sixth grade and was just getting into the hang of things. It all seemed so normal.
But after Katrina nothing made sense. Tuesday could have been Sunday. Halloween was Easter and you couldn't put it back together. It was like a puzzle, but there was one piece missing, and one that just didn't fit. Now it's starting to come back. But it wasn't that way for a long time. We would almost live outside, only going in to sleep. We would rarely wash cloths. And do the general cleaning, sweeping vacuming dusting the whole deal, less if any.
Hope this letter finds you well, and if not, cheer up! Things could always be worse! The reason that this first letter comes to you from age 36 is that all of the other letters I wrote were washed away in the great storm of 2005. Shows what you get for not being organized and having all of the letters together in one place where they could be found. However, I'll try to summarize the advice that I wrote to you before, and probably just keep it on the Internet so that it won't be lost in future tragedy.
First off, when you meet a girl named Heather at John Leon's wedding, just go ahead, drop what you're doing and marry her right off the bat. You'll wind up married to her anyway, and won't ever regret that decision regardless of circumstances.
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