READY FOR SAINTS...The fine old Dixieland jazz song: "When the Saints Go MarchÂing In." would need to have a few words changed were it be performed in the downtown area of old New Orleans today.
As I remember it, the actual entombment area is some lower than the average terrain around it the average terrain is even lower than the land around it. The tombs tower up in layers, however, and one standing there during an interment may sense an upward thrust. Right now, of course, the area is filled with flood waters - deep, dark and mysterious. Those lines of the lyric making reference to "walking" would need to be changed to "swimming" or "wading" but not so for the musicians steeped in lore. The lyrics could remain he same because it is the purpose of the burial ceremony to mark the defeat of despair, sadness, bereavement and loss to be replaced through the is performed. The way home from the cemetery - out of the depths - even now the cold, dark flood waters. The musicians celebrate audibly the obvious fact that death has been overcome; that dying is no longer dominant.
Very little, if any of ideas as these will be a part of anything in New Orleans in then next few weeks. The flood victims are not local,. by and large. They are from other places. They were there having found work there or what they felt to be opportunity. Some never took roots , while others prospered and put their earnings in homes which have now been destroyed. Many of those who survive are being moved to other cities and some will, no doubt, become residents of those adopted areas. In time, the bad time of the great flood of 2005 in New Orleans, La. will be scoured away b by the oft-gritty sands of time.
A.L.M. Sept. 2, 2005 [c319wds]
