Post-Katrina Recovery Signs and the 2016 Election Road

I met the man who created these four plywood post-Katrina signs. These were seen on the national news and became a symbol of the desire to recover.

Bill Rue, the designer of these signs, operates the Sarouk Oriental Rug shop next door to Emerile's Del Monico. He also told me that Anderson Cooper offered him $10,000 for the four signs after the recovery effort.

" Anderson would only put them in a closet somewhere."Bill said with an ironic smile, declining the offer!

Several months later, the Louisiana Preservation Society wanted the signs to place in the Presbyter for a Katrina Exhibit. Then Governor Kathleen Blanco asked if she could have the claw hammer mentioned in the first of these posts. The claw hammer existed in Bill's mind; so he dug around in his tool box and resurrected an old green painted misshapen crowbar.

These items actually appeared in the Smithsonian Museum a few months later! Bill's friend called from the museum and laughingly reported that the claw hammer was installed inside a Plexiglas case  like the hope Diamond!

Perhaps, we will be remembering this election year and the campaign trail littered with all sorts of debris in a few years.