Pine Street

I moved to New Orleans in March 2001, for work as a marketing manager at a lumber trade association. Having just graduated from UMass Amherst, I was happy to have a good paying job (any job) outside of New England. I was reaching for California, but New Orleans was good enough. I was chosen for the job over more seasoned candidates because; "I represented the future and the industry needed a shot in the arm", so I was told.

After I started work on April 1, I was immediately dispatched to the Southern Pine growing region to learn about the species I would be representing. Lumber towns, rural, quiet honest places in the deep south, places like: Pineville, Louisiana; Mobile, Alabama and Tylertown, Mississippi were part of my required training.

I already knew about Southern Pine, because I grew up on Pine Street, West Barnstable, Massachusetts, but it was meeting the people of the south that was my real education.