When we moved New Orleans (Kenner, LA actually) I was probably 2-3 months from turning 10 years old. We moved into a newly built house on 421 Baroni Drive. A relative short street in a neighborhood of fields that would quickly become houses built on pilings so that they didn’t sink into the ground. Mind you, we were 6 feet below sea level. Facing the house there were 3 houses to the left and 2 houses to the right. After the last house on the left there was a 4 lane road with a 1.5 car width median planted with trees and fire ants. Across the 4 lanes of Loyola Avenue was a field the size of 6-8 football fields. Turning right up Loyola and walking roughly 1/3 of a mile (half a kilometer) brings us to 30 or 40 acres of mostly 12 foot tall weeds interspersed with trees and one small area that could be called “woods” but not really qualifying as forest.
It is in these many acres that much of my emotional, physical and mental growth occurs as I learn and make choices about drugs, alcohol, sex, life, death, human nature and more.
