Dec. 16, 2005
 
BAYHAM ON KATRINA: Having a ‘Blue Roof’ Christmas
 
By Mike Bayham
 
South Louisiana (Special to HNN) -- For those of us who lost most of our worldly goods and financial security courtesy of a certain harpy named Katrina, times are tough on one's morale to say the least. With the onset of the "holidays," AKA Christmas, a time of year that can be magical for most though suicidal for quite a few, having a healthy psyche is critical.
 
For plenty of families, this will be their first Christmas not spent at home but in the tight confines of a FEMA trailer or a government financed room at the Motel 6. An effective way for many people to deal with tragedy is attaining mirth through a sense of humor.
 
Westbank landscaper Frank Evans thought he could provide some of this medicine with his Christmas village display, which he has assembled for 13 years at Lakeside Mall in the relatively unscathed suburb of Metairie.
 
Evans attempt to incorporate a slice of the shared misfortune in his elaborate and meticulously detailed holiday display briefly landed him in hot water when a handful of mall patrons vented their spleens at the Lakeside management for "mocking" victims of Katrina through his model village replete with miniature blue tarps over the little homes and tiny refrigerators bearing common post-hurricane proclamations such as "You loot, I shoot."
 
Perhaps its most impressive aspect was an army helicopter that whirled in a circle above with a rescuee dangling from a rope.
 
Sensitive to the angst of people who may or may not have lost a single shingle from Katrina, Evans was asked to modify his display, christened "Katrina Ridge."
 
Amazingly, nobody complained over the cross on the village church or the words "Christmas" that brazenly appears on the diorama, which is the only place in the entire mall you'll find the "C-word."
 
Unlike the celebrated cause of "campaign finance reform," there was a spontaneous public outcry over the censuring of Evans's work.
 
Lakeside Mall wasn't the only entity to catch an earful. Some pro-Katrina Village people suspected that politics might have played a part in the display's yanking due to a small complex labeled "(Aaron) Broussard Pumping Station No. 1 Only Works When It's Not Raining."
 
The embattled Jefferson Parish President, who has been shown as of late to be a person of thin skin, immediately offered to host Evans's on parish property, memorialized pumping station and all.
 
Over one thousand protests flooded the mall's management office demanding that the trees and model cars be restored to their previous uprooted and flipped positions. Once again the "blue roofs" were unfurled on the tiny houses, with the only concession being that the house search "X's" be covered, something Evans added to honor the many state National Guard units who assisted in the house-to-house survivor checks.
 
In the one departure from reality, "Katrina Ridge" suffered no casualties and all of the "X's" had zeroes below them.
 
Evans, who only receives reimbursement for the materials used to build the display, has previously worked other contemporary and controversial news items into his Christmas village, including references to Edwin Edwards imprisonment, the hunt for Bin Laden, a chemical spill in Bogalusa, and the 2000 presidential election (one train running around the tracks had Bush's name on it while a derailed locomotive bore Gore's name).
 
Not long after "Katrina Village" was established at Lakeside, the Audubon Zoo did something similar in their Louisiana Swamp exhibit, throwing a blue tarp over a faux cabin situated in the alligator pit, though word must have not gotten back to those folks who wear their emotional synapses on their sleeves.
 
And so art has magnanimously been grated permission to once again imitate life and throngs have hit the New Orleans area mecca of commerce not just to take advantage of the Gap's special on sequined women's jeans but to also elbow their way through the several rows thick of gawkers to catch a glimpse of a benign presentation of what is America's most unique Christmas village.
 
So for those of you out there having to make do with a "Blue Roof Christmas," try to look at the bright side and remember, Mary and Joseph spent their Christmas Eve in more humble accommodations than a gutted house in Lexington Place.
 
Mike Bayham is editor of StBernardPost.com, an e-paper that provides the people of Katrina ravaged St. Bernard Parish regularly updated news about the rebuilding process. He can be contacted at MikeBayham@yahoo.com.