Follow the Lime

provided free. somebody kept the sack.

Every November 1, Le Marais Perdu whitewashes its family tombs for Toussaint. The Village provides lime. Volunteers bring brushes. That last distinction is printed so often I began to wonder who was paying for the first part.

Whitewashing tombs with lime is an old Louisiana custom, and lime has also been used as a disinfectant. Those are facts, not a theory. I spent Sunday night with three old Chronicle notices, this year's Village reminder, and the photograph above. None names a supplier. None tells you what the Village pays. All agree that the lime is provided.

One reader who carried folding chairs on Sunday wrote that the first people through the gate asked where the lime was, while the next people asked where to put their brushes. That is a parish with an established division of labor. By the time the coffee and fig cake appeared at the hall, the whitewashing was done and nobody had taken home a bill.

I asked at the window who orders the lime. The answer was that Cemetery & Grounds has it on hand. I asked where it comes from. The answer was storage. These are answers in the same way that a closed drawer is a filing system.

Here is my read. Somebody buys enough lime at one time to make the price sensible, and Whitewashing Day is how the Village uses it before somebody must explain a full storeroom at the next meeting. It's always money, friends. Sometimes the money is hidden inside a very good custom.

One thing bothers me. In the photograph, the sack still has lime in it, but its paper tag says RETURNED. Perhaps somebody filled out the tag early. Perhaps the person doing inventory had another job to get to. I cannot make a purchase order out of a paper tag, and I will not pretend I can.

If you helped Sunday, wash the brush before the lime dries in it. If you know who places the order, send the office, not a person's name.

I relay. You decide.

In Truth and Terror.
— Beau