Eleven

On the eleventh day, on Veterans Highway, tryin' to cross the street...with

Eleven Schwegmann bags...

Tenneco Chalmette Refinery.

Lower Ninth Ward

ATE by ya mama's.

SEVENteenth Street Canal

Six Pack o' Dixie.

FRIED onion rings.

leave it alone, ya make me nuts!

three french breads

Tujague's recipe

for the crawfish they caught in Arabi.

At it's peak, Schwegmann's Giant Supermarkets was the fifth largest employer in metro New Orleans. The first Schwegmann's grocery was located on Burgundy and Piety in Bywater. That's where John G. Schwegmann was born. We used to refer to John G. as "Old Man Schwegmann" to distinguish him from his son, John F. The old man expanded the family grocery by opening a supermarket at the corner of Elysian Fields and St. Claude. By the time the company was sold in 1997, there were 18 stores in the chain.

Benny's song refers to "crossing Veterans Highway with eleven Schwegmann's bags." That's a reference to the largest of the stores, located on Veterans, between Division and Edenborn, in Metairie. The location is now a Lowes store. This was the store my daddy used to "make groceries" at all the time. He was never a fan of Dorignac's, also on Vets, closer to town, and he thought Schwegmann's was cheaper overall than the Breaux Mart on Severn. When we lived in Gentilly, the closest Schwegmann's to us was on Gentilly Road. Since that meant passing Ferrera's on Elysian Fields and Pap's on Mirabeau, we didn't go out there all that much, but then Schwegmann's bought the supermarket at Franklin and Leon C. Simon. Still, when I was at UNO and we needed stuff for fraternity parties at our house on Elysian Fields, we'd still make an excursion to Schwegmann's.

I'm glad that we still have good local supermarkets in the area, such as Langenstein's, Robert's, Dorignac's and Zuppardo's. I'm also glad that the Rouse brothers are expanding more into Orleans and Jefferson Parishes. They may be from down da bayou, but that's better than nameless, faceless, big-box stores headquartered in Arkansas.