September 14, 2008

The Gulf of Mexico has just survived 2 hurricanes: Gustav and Ike. When I was a girl, all hurricanes were given girls' and American names like Camille, Betsy. Then they got names like Andrew. As hurricanes became more frequent they got foreign names female and male: Camille, Jose, Katrina, etc.

When I was a girl there were lots of rain storms but few hrricanes. I remember

Sitting on the front gallery of my parents summer home on Gulf of Mexico (an old victorian wooden mansion with blue shutters that went down in 69 in Camille.

I recall pushing back inside the painted white wooded slat chairs listening and feeling a breeze on my face, running a foot over the marble floor to scare off a doodlebug.

White haired Aunt Mary from Ocean Springs often visited. We talkied about fun things to do summers on the Gulf Coast. Big house behind me, dusky smell of blue wood shutters like wings behind me. (You close them over the French windows for a hurricane.) Smells of crabmeat and grilled steak came from inside the house and we waited for a big meal at the dining room table, a bit bored by the sameness of summer, the humidity and the peace of the porch.