M.A.S.H.

Back in the day M.A.S.H. was one of my favorite TV shows.  I loved watching the antics of Hawkeye, BJ, Trapper John, et al and couldn't wait for next week's episode.   I would watch the show and think how cool it would be to live in a tent with my friends.  I think we all at some point or other in our life have built makeshift tents and forts in our youth and spent a night or two in them until mom and dad were like "enough take the tent/fort down and sleep in your bed."   

Where is he going with this you might ask?  I'll tell you.  Today we began dismantling a tent city in the city of Pass Christian pronounced kinda frenchlike:  Pass Chris Ti Ann.  Pass Christian is west of Biloxi about 10 - 15 miles down Route 90.  The tent city was built after Katrina hit and most folks were living in it for an extended period of time.  These is nothing glamorous about living in a tent at all.  Most accommodated 9 people with the bare minimum of living space for personal effects.  Fortunately, the tents were equipped with A/C (much needed in the southern heat).  

Make no mistake about it the work was hard.  As I write this I still feel the effects on my shoulders and legs from all the lifting and hauling away of debris that we did.  Wesley the guy who we were working for originally said that he wanted us to take down 10 tents.  Ha, I say.  Did you get a good look at those tents.  They are pretty huge.  By days' end we got 5 of the 50 tents take down to the wooden studs.  Wesley said that it would have taken him a week to do that five on his own.  I'm glad that we were able to help.  

As I write this I'm in my own kinda tent here in Biloxi.  It definitely isn't a permanent structure at all.  I wonder, how long could I live in the partitioned off room with hundreds of people around me?  How long could I put up with having a 4 minute time limit on the shower if I'm showing in the morning? (I shower at night so I don't have to do the 4 minute rule)  How long could I put up with walking outside to the outdoor shower stalls and showering in the cold, the heat, the rain?  How long could I put up with brushing my teeth, taking a dump, a piss, flossing my teeth surrounded by people that I don't know?  How long could you?  

The folks here did it for as long as they needed to.  For some it was years.   For others weeks or months.  In the end you do what you have to do for as long as you have to do it.  Creature comforts are thrown out the window and replaced with basic necessities for living.  Protection from the elements and running water.  Thanks to the army there was a little more than that for these folks and that God for it too.  

Perspective.  I have a different one now of tent life.  It ain't all glamorous and frolic filled as M.A.S.H. portrayed.  Then again nothing ever is.  

Enjoy the pictures.  

- Wil

P.S.  Met the Mayor of Pass Christian.  The city hall was destroyed by the Beotch as well so the Mayor's office was at tent city as well.   He had a trailer though.