Ben's Field Notes

When we first arrived, we noticed that most of the public areas seemed deserted. We stopped in at the RC tavern and began talking to people. The two locals, Buck and Ricky, made me wait until a commercial came up on the tv before talking with them. (A world pool championship was playing) When I did speak with them, I learned that the reason most of the town seemed dead was because most people were in church or the nail salon on Sunday. After they got over the shock that anyone would want to do a sociology project on Chalmette, they recommended some places to go. Ignoring their suggestion to try the nail salon, we made our way the Fire Station. The firefighters were all very friendly and willing to tell us about their experiences living in Chalmette. Mostly, this involved them discussing the events of hurricaine Katrina and the complete devastation that St. Bernard Parish experienced. It seemed that many of them were just barely holding on to their pre-Katrina lives. Most of their extended family had moved away, and their immediate family had relocated to somewhere outside Chalmette. Most of the firefighters have to commute at least thirty minutes to get to work now. After our talk, we left the firefighter station and drove around, looking at the local jailhouse, and the battlefield, famous from the war of 1812.