Ink Stains from Katrina – Chapter 3 – Dale
Dale and the iconic fleur de lys
Dale Hrebik
College English teacher
Dale had just purchased a typical New Orleans shotgun double with a friend and was putting down official roots when Katrina hit. “I fell in love with New Orleans when I came down here from New York seven years ago,” he said. “I found out where I wanted to be and got my dream job here and bought a house and everything was coming together, then bam.”
His parents were visiting when the mayor ordered a mandatory evacuation. “The idea of not coming back never occurred to me. It didn’t occur to me that people would leave and never come back. It took a while for me to realize how extensive the devastation was and that it would take several years of rebuilding.”
The day the storm hit was the first day of class for most of the schools and universities in the city. After five weeks, Dale returned, having been bounced around between Jackson, Mississippi, Virginia, and New York before getting home.
“I had been thinking about getting a tattoo before the storm. I have three of them, each one identifies the place I got it, which is part of the reason. I was thinking about what I wanted to get and the storm hit and in Jackson where we were all waiting out the storm, we started talking about fleur de lys tattoos – joking about getting them on our middle fingers.”
Immediately following the storm, I wanted to get back to the city and get the tattoo. It took a few months after returning to sort things out and then I sought out Walt. I wanted the fleur de lys because it was so connected with New Orleans and I wanted something that symbolized the passion and determination I had to stay. And I wanted it to be positive. A lot of people were getting the hurricane symbol – I felt like that was focusing on the bad.
Actually two years late, things are going quite well for me. I have my old job back and got a promotion and a raise. My best friend was a contractor so I was able to fix my wreck of a house pretty quickly. I have a group of friends who are very important to me that are here.