The oldest employee at the PJ’s Coffee roastery is Maximillian Boudreaux. He is known as Maxie around the roastery. Everyone all over New Orleans calls him Maxie. I have seen him around.
Maxie worked at the Wilson Bourg lumberyard for forty years. He is seventy-six now.
A simple soul, Maxie’s job was to load lumber on the one truck for free delivery to job sites all over New Orleans. It is work that is hard on a body.
Maxie is getting old. He is 78, or, he is 79. It depends on what day you ask him.
Once he got up in years, and this was eight years ago, he moved from the lumberyard to the PJ’s roastery. Maxie sweeps up the floors and he plunges the toilets when they are clogged He does what nobody else wants to do. Somebody needs to empty the trash cans. It keeps Maxie occupied.
A trash can full of damp paper towels is much lighter than holding up half stack of plywood.
All work has dignity. We are here to be servants to each other.
I asked Maxie if he knew anything about Le Grande Palais, the dogfighting pit that operated on this very spot in the 1820s. Oh, sure. Maxie knew about it. His family has lived in the neighborhood since the Spanish were in charge.
It is impossible to escape the past in New Orleans. It is a fever dream.
After Maxie told me what he knew about Le Grande Palais and the great monkey vs. dog fight that pitted M. Bonobo against Snuggly Kipper, the Cerberus of the Third Municipality, he and I watched a snail slide along the slippery loading dock.
Today was another beautiful New Orleans day.
Now, I am going to kvetch about Leather Tuscadero behind the paywall. It all turned out for the best. I got to spend time with a reliable friend.
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