Jorge Luis Borges Coin 1899-1999

Jorge Luis Borges Coin 1899-1999, originally uploaded by TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³.

I've got to find me one of these.

The Money Shot

Just back from the family reunion in Shreveport. Well, with so many special moments in a week and a period of hanging out with the entire Broussard clan (minus one, sorry Heather), why does this photo define the experience? It was very late on the evening after visiting Vermillionville in Lafayette (with a 4-hour drive still ahead) and dropping in on the Ancelet cousins and exposing my wife and kids to serious Cajun reality via an evening of eating crawfish and dancing to the Louisiana Rhythm Devils and listening to deep BS storytelling (thanks Barry) and family history (thanks Mary Caroline) that we decided to visit the hamlet of Broussard, La. We drove through looking for something with the Broussard name on it to pose beside and I found a tourist kiosk near a Starbucks. I paused in the road and asked Biz to check it out for good signage. Cop-conscious Daniel noted that it was a bad idea to pause in the road. What harm could it do at such a late hour with no other cars on the road, asked I. Daniel remained nervous and sure enough, blue lights burst behind us. The cop emerged from his cruiser and I pulled out my license and prepared for the routine. The cop asked Elizabeth, who had returned from the kiosk, to stand "here" in the road while he "ran" my license. I explained what we were up to and he seemed to get it, but protocol took precedence. Finally he returned the license and told us to move along. Daniel piped up, "I told him to park out of the road." The cop said I should have listened to him (ironic?). Just as we were all about to leave I leaned out the window and said, "Hey, last time we were in Broussard the police chief invited us into the station and gave us a 'Town of Broussard' video (true story). Can we just take a photo by your car?" The cop frowned and said they discouraged that, since they didn't like such photos turning up on the Internet. Then, probably realizing he'd just rousted some harmless tourists, he added, "I'm doing a walk-through of that Starbucks. I'll just do my business and you do yours." He pulled into the Starbucks parking lot and walked up to the door. Some employee tried to head him off, saying that they were closing, but he insisted that he "walk through" the place. Jemi and I knew this was our window of opportunity and we told Eleanor, Biz and Daniel to quickly pose by the cop car. This is the photo that resulted. Charming and revealing on so many levels. The Broussards do Broussard, La.. A picture is indeed worth a thousand words.

tight shot

tight shot, originally uploaded by Broussardish.

We were visiting colleges in the Midwest (go figure) with Biz and at Carleton in Northfield, MN, we got to hang out with a couple of students we know. Famous Concord High drummer Pete Jones showed us a couple of places not on the student tour, like a stone labyrinth on a little island and a cool Japanese garden where we took this photo. Later on, we had Indian food with Hillary Adams, the lovely former stage manager of numerous Concord High plays (including Les Mis), at a little restaurant called the Kurry Kabab in a strip mall. This also, in a way, was a step outside the official tour, since the admissions guy, at the end of his presentation, mentioned this great Indian restaurant right down town that was supposed to be the best in the Minneapolis region. Hillary said that every tour gets that spiel and that there must be some kind of kick back because the Kurry Kabab is better. The Kabab was great and there was enough left over for us to send a large fragrant doggie bag back to Hillary's dorm. Both Carleton and Cornell College in central Iowa were pretty wonderful. The trip was pleasant although we spent a lot of it driving or cramped into airplanes.

The Brotherlode

BillCloseUp, originally uploaded by Broussardish.

My dear brother Billy (probably Bill to his friends, but I knew him when) just sent me a link to his Photobucket site where he has dozens of old family photos, including this one that my brother John took of him with Dad's old original Polaroid SX70. Billy looks to be maybe 11 or 12? That would make this photo from about 1969? Looking at old photos reminds me of an experience I had in a small airplane taking aerial photos. Looking down on a busy area from that perspective you realize how close together everything is. On the ground, having to drive around with limited visibility, you think of the time to get from point A to B as some kind of objective distance when often point B is just separated from point B by a couple of one way streets and single city block. This analogy probably makes little sense unless you've been up in a plane, but it's my blog, so I'm permitted to ramble. What I'm saying is that, from the perspective of my present age, having raised three kids to college age, I sometimes wonder how when we were kids ourselves, we packed so many changes into such a shot span of time. Anyway, Billy's gift of these photos will be something I'll spend a long time unwrapping. I'm hoping that all the Broussards will start opening up their individual troves of photo gold and share them via online means.