Hurricane Season
It’s hurricane season in the Gulf and that means one thing: Time to stock up on Holy Bread.
What? You’ve never heard of Holy Bread? It’s Italian bread from a St. Joseph’s altar that’s been blessed by a priest.
To prevent flooding, you just toss a little chunk of Holy Bread out the back door and pray to St. Joseph (Jesus’ earthly dad) for protection.
I usually have a loaf or two in my freezer for just such an occasion. You can’t buy Holy Bread at the grocery store, by the way. You have to have a Sicilian connection. Mine is my mother.
The day before Hurricane Ike struck last year, Boy helped me spread Holy Bread crumbs everywhere. “St. Joseph, protect the fig tree,” Boy prayed. “St. Joseph, protect the dog house.”
It felt like a sacred ritual as Boy and I solemnly tromped through the yard, blessing everything in sight.
It’s so difficult knowing how to pray when a monster storm the size the Gulf is barreling down on you.
“Make it go away,” you pray, even though at Category 2 and up, that seems physically impossible.
An Atlantic storm, Ana, just disappeared off the radar today, never to return. If only Ike would have made such a quiet exit.
No, when they’re that gigantic, they are going to hit someone. So you pray it won’t be you.
Sorry, Mexico, but you’re our first target when a hurricane comes skating across Cuba. If it veers north, then we hope for Corpus. No offense, ya’ll.
If it’s bound and determined to hit us, we pray we won’t be on the “dirty side.” If we must be hit, make it a clean hit, we pray.
Saturday we visited Galveston for the first time since Ike. If you take the 61st Street exit, you won’t even realize what happened last year. But if you go down Broadway, you’ll see that all the live oaks are dead and lots of the Victorians have turned into boarded-up colonies of mold.
The place is coming back. It was jammed with Houston cars this weekend, bumper to bumper on the Seawall. Yes there are beaches. Yes there is sand. Yes, Galveston lives.
Please God, no more for a while. Please give her a pass this hurricane season. Galveston, if I could, I’d rain down Holy Bread on you.
Posted: August 17th, 2009 under Pestilence, Sicilian Mojo.
Comments & Backsass
Comment from Cindy
Time August 26, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Christi, I was so curious about the Holy Bread, I researched it and found a recipe for it. I’m going to try my hand at baking this little gem and let you know the results. We need all the help we can get here. Just an fyi, it also assures the family will never go hungry. I love your blog site.
Comment from LeeLee
Time August 18, 2009 at 9:53 pm
I (and my FB profile picture) can attest to the fact that if, instead of sprinkling HB crumbs around your house, you chase the cat who doesn’t want to get in the evacuation getaway car around the yard, a tree will fall on your house. Then, when my brother was tossing the contents of my fridge and freezer into the garbage due to the ensuing power outage, he threw out my HB! So needless to say, I booked it down to the nearest St. Joseph Altar this past March and restocked my supply. Now if I could just train the cat to come to me when she saw me throwing something resembling food onto my grass…