just Jana luvs PARATROOPERS!

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Vintage Retro Graphics
Vintage Retro Graphics
Vintage Retro Graphics
Vintage Retro Graphics
Vintage Retro Graphics
NEW ORLEANS
A poem by NOLA native Chuck Perkins
If your American dream is painted on a canvas
Neatly folded in the corner of Andy Warhol’s mind
New Orleans is a hurricane beating down your coast
If you close your eyes
And feel the easy ride
Of the St. Charles Street Car
Where a solo tuba
Blows the scent of magnolia
Down narrow streets
and everyone plays possum with the heat
and no one’s too big or too small
to paint their tongue with a snowball
where former slaves pay homage to the first Americans
by masking in suits of rhine stones and bright colored feathers
that transform security guards into Indian Chiefs
doing rain dances on Congo Square
where the drums drum
and the wine drink
and the big chief sing
somebody give me a quarter
cause pretty big chief want some water
if you can envision the souls of yesterday
living in the music
that rises from the cracks in the sidewalks
New Orleans is your dream
With a heart as soft
As the spanish moss
Dripping from centuries old oak tress
She’s a pretty face with dirty feet
The good witch of lake Ponchartrain
The spice god of shrimp and crawfish
Keeping the spirits fed
Communities of windowless monuments
Masquerading as cemeteries
Tower above ground
No earth or worms to cover the flesh
No silver bullets to turn out the spirits
That still dance with her
Spin your umbrella
And wave your bandanna
It’s Mardi Gras time
And everybody’s happy
Armed with a blue print of civilization
The new world stormed in
With enough asphalt and cement
To pave a boulevard back to Paris
the spirit of the swamp still hasn’t submitted
Leaving mildewed kisses of disapproval
On every thing foreign to the wet lands
Catholicism could not turn out the spirit of Marie Laveau
The wrecking ball could not turn out the spirit of Storyville
And death could not turn out the spirit of Louie Armstrong
When yesterday hangs on to forever
Tradition is a temple.
Vintage Retro Graphics
Vintage Retro Graphics
I think most people either really like me, love me or can't stand the sight of me. I don't seem to cultivate a feeling of indifference in folks. While my Mother thinks I am most awesome (and will tell you that if you stand near her for any length of time) I'd consider myself pretty average. I mean, I haven't written anything you've read or seen. I've not directed or produced anything (including children). I don't make important speeches at gatherings of either the important or not-so-important. I don't paint, sculpt, weld, sing (unless I'm nicely toasted in a certain Bourbon Street karaoke bar and it's not Cat's Meow), dance (I CAN dance - I've just never been paid to do so). I don't fly aircraft or sail boats. I don't design clothes, shoes or handbags. I don't take professional grade photos or videos (although I'm constantly snapping away at the great and mundane moments in my life). I'm not a whiz with money so Wall Street would not be impressed, I'm sure. I don't put money away for the future (not much anyway) because who knows if I decide to stick that $600 into my IRA to spend when I'm 80 instead of going to Europe when I'm 43 (example only) that I'll even be around to tap into said IRA when I'm 80. Maybe I'll be dead AND have never gone to Europe. Think about it. Call me irresponsible, I don't really give a flip. If I have to live in a fridge box when I'm old because I went on adventures instead of seeing a solid financial planner, well...my bad. I'm a basically happy person. Of course striking it rich would be fab but other than that all is well. I have a great family, sweet husband, fabulous friends, shmooshy dogs, comfy house, and fun neighbors. I make it a point to have a good time wherever I go - no matter what - and to try to make sure everyone else is, too. I'm a bit of a people pleaser, but I can't make you happy so gits happy ya own sef. I'm a Cancer through & through. I was born in Newport Beach, CA @ Hoag Memorial. I'm 1/8th Potawatomi Indian, my paternal great-grandmother was full-blooded. I once ran across a book at a US Parks Service shop in Union Station/St. Louis that featured a pic from the late 1800's of three young Potawatomi women and I looked just like them. Moreso in fact than I look like anyone in my family. I've never been able to find that book again. :( I'm the youngest of 7. I have 2 sisters & 4 brothers, something like 27 neices & nephews and (I think) 11 great neices & nephews. I once had a Harley (1992 883 Sportster bored out to a 1200) and had many adventures with my friends in the Ozark Mountain H.O.G. Chapter where I was Secretary, Treasurer, LOH Officer and Newsletter Editor. My favorite place in the UNIVERSE (and the city in which I plan to end my days...someday) is New Orleans, Louisiana. It never ceases to amaze me with how incredibly cool, gritty, real, soulful, decadent, elegant, inspirational and beautiful it is. Even now, after Katrina - it shines in a way no place else on earth ever has or ever will. Go see for yourself, you'll never be the same...... WHO DAT?!?!?
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