Woke up This Morning Thinking About That ” Place Called Desire ” // It’s A Phenomenon! What A Great Experience It Was! And It’s Still Going Strong!
First Impression, Circa 1956/1961 // The Desire Projects Was A Pristine Facility, Inside And Out // The Inside Boasted Clean, Comfortable Rooms, A Huge Space Heater, And Shinny Hard Wood Floors // The Outside Was Just As Immaculate, With Well Trimmed Lawns And Hedges // At That Point And Time, It Was As Good A Place To Live For A Poor Family, As Any Place In New Orleans!
Circa 1957/1961, A Different World // First Of All, The Louisa Bus Only Went As Far As Pleasure St. And Turned Back! Unless You Had A Car, From That Point, You Either Walked Or Hitch Hiked! On Another Note, Most Of The Professional Jobs Were Held By White Folks // Policemen, Firemen, Bus Drivers And Even Garbage Collectors // Like I Said, It Was A Different World!
Circa 1957/1961 // In Need Of An Emergency Exit // Before The Interstate And Before The Alvar And Almonaster Bridges, There Were No Other Way Out Of The Projects, When You Were Trapped By A Train At Florida Ave. And In Gentilly! Fire Trucks And Police Could Not Get In Or Out, Not To Mention If You Were Trying To Get To The Hospital! Sometimes It Was Scary!
Circa 1957/1969, Kid-Stuff // Not Knocking The Kids Of Today, But When It Came To Playing, We Were More Creative, And Kept Ourselves Busier! When We Weren’t Running Errands Or Doing Chores, We Were Playing Hop-Scotch, Marbles, Jacks, Pick, Jump Rope, Spinning Tops, Card Games, Koon-Can, Racing, Or Flying Kites, Not To Mention, Skating And Riding Bikes // Morning, Noon, And Night, We Always Seemed To Be Doing Something!
— Larry “Shine” Washington
