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La. holiday display dons tiny blue tarps
Associated Press
Published December 1, 2005
METAIRIE, La. - It's no ordinary holiday season in the Gulf Coast this year, so Frank Evans built an unconventional holiday display at a suburban New Orleans shopping mall to match.
He thought the tiny blue-tarped roofs, little toppled fences and miniature piles of hurricane debris in the display he builds annually for the mall struck just the right humorous tone.
The mall disagreed and told Evans, a landscape architect from nearby Gretna, to dismantle it.
"Although most people did enjoy the decorations, a few customers found the display to be in poor taste," said a statement issued Tuesday night by Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie.
Evans videotaped the 60-foot display before dismantling it. The creation had sat since mid November among a more traditional display.
Bob and Jill Patin of Gentilly liked the "You loot, we shoot" graffiti on one of the ruined refrigerators.
"It's priceless," Jill Patin said. The couple, who are rebuilding their home that had wind and flood damage, came to the mall just to see the display, she said.
Kim Koster heard about it and brought her camera.
"It's like putting Christmas lights up on your FEMA trailer. It just makes you feel better," said the New Orleans resident, whose home was flooded.
Area resident Ray Smith summed his thoughts up even more simply.
"At times like this, you need a little humor," Smith said.
[Last modified December 1, 2005, 01:08:09]
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