Have you ever had a birthday? I know someone who has.
This essay was written in a facility where milk, eggs, tree nuts, and soy are used in the production of other products.
Here was the state of the candy rack at Terranova’s supermarket yesterday. They had suffered a holiday rush.
If you are looking for the following items, save yourself a trip to Terranova’s. It pains me to say it, but, you might be better off going to Canseco’s across the street.
I want to draw a line through that last phrase. Not because I have anything against Canseco’s, because I do not, but, it pains me to tell people to not shop at Terranova’s.
The Terranova family are very nice people and they are a part of the weft and the woof of Faubourg St. John.
As any real estate agent will tell you, the price goes up when you call a neighborhood a faubourg.
I live in Esplanade Ridge, which is not a faubourg so much as a fairyland compared to its surroundings.
It pains me to say this, but, if you are looking for the following items, save yourself a trip to Terranova’s: single serving sizes of M&Ms, Twix bars, Butterfingers, Baby Bottle Pops, Tootsie Pops, Boston Baked Beans, Chewy Lemon Heads, Grape Heads, and, the cruelest disappointment of all, Eclipse gum.
Front and center in Terranova’s candy rack, as is usually the case, they do have a full stock of candy cigarettes. They are the kind where one is dyed red so you know which end to put in your mouth.
I love living in New Orleans.
If you are hankering for a candy cigarette, you cannot purchase one at Canseco’s. You have to go Terranova’s, across the street.
The sun shines every day on the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees, and on the lemonade springs where the bluebird sings, in the Big Rock Candy Mountains.
Monkey Hill is the highest point in New Orleans, depending on who you ask. Some people say it is that hill in the Couterie forest. Others say it is the old garbage dump out in the East, especially after they opened it up for fresh deposits, temporarily, after Hurricane Ida. That must have added a few feet to its summit. I have not been out there recently.
Thankfully Necco wafers are still in stock at Terranova’s. New England Confectionary Company. Necco. I love them. They were issued as Union army rations during the Civil War—yeah, that Civil War.
People who do not like Necco wafers refer to them as “tropical wallboard.” To me, they taste like home. Necco wafers in New Orleans on Christmas Day. Oo-la-la!
I hope that you, too are having the best Christmas ever this year. New Orleans is cheerful and bright, and not as cold as expected. A warm sun is shining in my eye as I write this. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, is in a good mood, even your humble narrator.
Now, more out of habit than the the spirit of the day, I am going to put up the paywall to talk about what I think are the the three most beautiful Roman Catholic Churches in New Orleans.