Last week this time I was in Louisiana planting sugar cane. It was the last cane-related activity I needed to experience for the book. At this point, the only thing left for me to do is move down there permanently.

As it turns out, planting sugar cane is no joke, it’s back breaking work, made even more strenuous and exhausting because planting season usually begins in the middle of August and stretches through the end of September. Temperatures are generally in the high nineties with seventy percent humidity. The guys I was working with told me that back in August they had to rush a guy to the hospital. They thought he was just suffering from heat exhaustion, but the doctor told them he nearly died. His body temperature was 108 degrees. I was originally supposed to go down to Louisiana to plant cane the first week of September. I’d have been out there toiling away but lucky for me hurricane Gustav forced me to delay my trip. By last week, the temperatures were in the mid eighties, and let me tell you, that was STILL hot. I started planting at seven o’clock and by ten-thirty, I’d sweat through my shirt.

As usual, I was totally unprepared when I showed up for work. First, I forgot my hat. I’d had a few drinks the night before and was operating on four hours sleep, so I wasn’t at my best anyway. I was so focused on remembering how to get out to the fields that the whole hat-sunscreen thing sort of slipped my mind. I stopped off at a Winn-Dixie hoping I’d get lucky, but they didn’t sell hats. The cashier, a young black woman, asked me what I needed a hat for, and when I told her I was planting sugar cane, she sort of scrunched up her face and suggested I go next door to Walmart. I’m sure she was thinking, “Who is this black chick with the funny accent? And why does she want to set our people back seventy-five years?”

I also forgot to bring gloves. What idiot goes to plant sugar cane and forgets about gloves? But the thought didn’t occur to me until I was in the fields. I was too embarrassed to ask Clint Judice, the cane farmer I was working for, for a pair. I did bring him a bag of donut holes and some chocolate dipping sauce as a little thank you gift. At least I thought about that.