Zion City Girls.
Beulah Baptist Church and Congregation is a tidy brick building at 1125 South Salcedo Street. It is a shotgun-sized church, fitting in with the neighborhood aesthetics. Dr. D.R. Berryhill, Sr. is the Senior Pastor/Teacher. He must have a son. The zip code is 70125, as it is in all of Zion City.
Zion City, like all of New Orleans, falls within the Central Time Zone.
Zion City shares the 70125 zip code with Gert Town, but the two are distinct places. Gert Town is unapologetically secular while Zion City shows its best self on Sundays. Gert Town is full of tradesmen who enjoy being off the clock. When they aren't working, they want to forget all their sorrows. In Zion City, a man gets a haircut, shines his shoes, and puts on a freshly pressed suit to impress his sweetheart. Zion City girls are the kind you bring home to mother.
Zion City girls are whole milk, refreshing and good for strong bones. Gert Town women are slatternly. There is a corsetry at 4304 Clio Street. The building isn't much to look at but the custom corsets that Isabella creates are a confection of curve-accenting couture.
The secret to corsetry is in the boning. Isabella uses twenty individually cut and tipped spiral steel bones and six spring steel bones per standard corset. She also does custom work. The world is a good place when you are wearing a bespoke corset.
The breeze bobs the wildflowers that bloom behind the corner fence. The Cynthia Harris Memorial Meditation Park is a carpet of petals and pollen. Park hours are 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM. No one has unlocked the gate in over a year. Cynthia Harris died on December 23, 2016. Meditate from outside the bars.
Cynthia Harris was president of the "New Zion" City Preservation Association, Inc. She loved this part of New Orleans and she inspired others to see it through her eyes. May her soul rest in perfect peace. Her funeral was held at Sixth Baptist Church, at 928 Felicity Street in zip code 70130.
70130 is St. Thomas, riverside of the Lower Garden District, on the other side of St. Charles Avenue, on the other side of Central City, which is riverside of Marerro Commons (B.W. Cooper). It's all the 3rd Ward, baby. I know it makes no sense.
Candied grapes are becoming a fad. It is too early to tell but this fad may have legs. There is already one candied grape shop on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard. A new one is opening at 4200 Erato Street. It will be called Candy Grapes Nola. The sign is professionally made. The rest of the building is painted by friends and family, the New Orleans way.
On average, Zion City is 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the rest of New Orleans. Look up. The AT&T tower reaches skyward, its flanks studded with microwave dishes. The name of the tower's architect is forgotten, an anonymous Eiffel.
[The next part talks more about the AT&T tower, which is important to the narrative, such as it is. You should be a paid subscriber. See behind the paywall. Find out what you’ve been missing.]