[78-L] off topic - sandwich

[Geoffrey Wheeler]

For the most part, sandwiches on a baguette bear regional names, such 
as “hoagie,” “sub” (for submarine), “po’ boy,” and, of course the 
“hero.” For the best in Philadelphia sandwiches, one must visit South 
Street in the Italian area. After I graduated from college in the 
summer of ’58, I and a friend hitched through the American South, 
spending about a month in New Orleans while staying at the Tulane 
University DKE fraternity house. In order to get money during our stay, 
I worked selling hot dogs from a hot-dog-in-a-bun shaped hand truck on 
(I think) Bourbon Street. The hours were long. I soon got to understand 
the full meaning of the words “petty criminals.” These are people too 
stupid and inept to be serious criminals. They aren’t even bush-league 
criminals, let alone minor-league criminals, as opposed to 
“major-league criminals” who make the 11 o’clock news. In 1958, we were 
not allowed to enter all-black bars. We tried, but were told we 
couldn’t come in.

We hooked a ride from Pensacola to New Orleans in a car driven by a 
12-year-old black boy. He picked us up while we were standing by the 
roadside watching a group of klansmen trying to hook up a cross with 
electric light bulbs. The cross was on a base with wheels so it could 
be moved around. The many extension cords extended from a white man’s 
house some distance back, across a field and the road to the edge of a 
front yard belonging to a black family. All the klansmen needed was one 
more extension cord to connect the cross and light the bulbs. Such 
frustration! Just one more cord and they will have seized the day!! 
They had to dispatch one of their own to a store to buy one. We just 
stood there expressionless watching the whole charade, as though 
watching a marvel of Man’s ingenuity. It was only when we were in the 
car and a safe distance away that we cracked up.