Heading North

You have to start with the food because there is just so much of it. We hit all of our favorite places in town—Parkway Tavern for po boys, Snug Harbor for good food/live jazz and on occasion, Tastee Donuts and Popeyes Chicken—and that’s not even counting what my mom, dad and grandma cook up for us. My dad is big with the outdoor cooking—fried turkeys, crawfish boils and things like that. My mom and grandma—I call her Mama Emma—take care of the indoor cooking.

The food is amazing, but naturally it’s the people we care more about. Mama Emma is getting up in years. I’m like a sponge when I’m with her. I want to hear about everything, learn everything she has to teach me. And I want my kids to know her, too.

I grew up in a “shotgun house.” (If you’re not from New Orleans, you might not know that the term describes a type of housing that’s very common there. The houses are the width of just one room and if you look in the front door, you can see all the way to the back. Hence, the name “shotgun.” It’s a straight shot from front to back.) We had a shotgun duplex. My mom, dad, two sisters and I lived on one side and my grandmother Mama Emma lived on the other side. My mom, dad and grandmother still live in that same shotgun duplex today. My sisters have their own homes/families now. One sister is in Los Angeles and the other is in New Orleans.

The oldest relative we have a record of is my great-great-great-grandfather Henderson Reed (picture above). He passed away in 1926. He was half Caucasian and half African American—his father was his family’s slave master. Henderson and his mom were the first slaves on their plantation freed after slavery was abolished in the 1860s. They took on the life of sharecropping and lived near Woodville, Miss. He was an avid horse rider. My grandmother told me that he disliked the fact that he was half Caucasian so much that he decided to marry a woman with a very dark complexion. Her name was Narcisse (no picture available). Together they had 17 children! One of their daughters, Sarah, is the grandmother of my grandmother Mama Emma.

Pictured above is my great-grandmother Mary (on the left) and her sister Cissy. Cissy was a nickname for Narcisse, her grandmother’s name. This picture is on the land/home where they grew up and worked as sharecroppers. They lived a very long time. My great-grandmother Mary passed away when I was 8 years old, so I was fortunate to get to know and hang with her quite often. She had five children; my grandmother Mama Emma was the oldest of her children.

It was at Great Aunt Cissy’s home that I remember seeing the entire hog slaughtered and all the parts used or saved for family meals. Below is a picture of the house itself where Aunt Cissy lived in Centreville, Miss. It was right in front of the porch where I stood while they slaughtered the hog. That’s my grandmother Mama Emma on the left and Aunt Cissy behind her. There is quite a bit of land all around the home where again, my family worked as sharecroppers. I also understand that my great-grandmother Mary used to work for a Caucasian family down the road as their cook. She would often bring home “leftovers” in a big pot for Mama Emma and their siblings to eat at night.

My grandmother Emma Banks (aka Mama Emma) is doing well today. She is 90 years old, living still in our shotgun home in New Orleans and is as sharp as ever! I spend a lot of time with her and she continues to give me so much information on our family history, as well as some of the great dishes and recipes that have been passed down for generations. Below is a picture of my grandmother and me right after her 90th birthday in April 2016.