Thelma and Lowell's Diary: July 6, 1943

They visit the above-ground cemetery; black-outs bedevil street car riders

Continuing to entertain her visiting sister, Reva, Thelma and Lowell went swimming at the Audubon Park pool this morning. They went uptown shopping (though her expense list doesn’t show she bought anything except “eats”), and then visited the “upground cemetery.”

Thelma was doubtless writing about the Metairie Cemetery, with tombs built above ground due to the high water table in New Orleans. They came home for a supper of weiner sandwiches and orange juice, walked around some more, then took a street car home. “Blackout started while on street car,” she wrote, a common occurrence during the war years that was no doubt quite unsettling for the passengers.

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