SLIDELL, La – If it works for fried chicken.
And it works for cheeseburgers.
And it works for any kind of coffee you can come up with.
Well, why not?
It might just work for ashes.
WGNO News with a Twist features guy Wild Bill Wood travels to Slidell, Louisiana, about a half hour outside New Orleans.
That’s where Wild Bill finds Christ Episcopal Church.
And that’s where Wild Bill finds Dianne Cangemi waiting in a line in her yellow Volkswagen Beetle.
Wild Bill says to Dianne, “it’s drive-thru ashes and are you going to ask to supersize your order?”
Dianne says, “I’m not sure, but I might.”
If you’re a believer, it’s a tradition that a quick cross of ashes on the forehead is a blessing.
But if your Louisiana life has you too busy to go to church, too much in a hurry to sit down in a church, then this may be your solution.
Wild Bill wants to know from Father Harry Jenkins, “who is your customer, your parishioner?”
Father Harry says it’s anybody from anywhere who’s simply too busy to go to a church and sit down at a service.
So for the last six years now, the father and his flock of volunteers get into their robes and get ready by sunrise.
After six years of their drive-thru service, the congregation gets, well, creative.
That’s when a lady pulls up with her dog.
Wild Bill says, “I know nobody gets turned away but will the dog get ashes?”
And so Father Harry blesses a poodle in the front seat of somebody’s car.
At this drive-thru, you don’t even have to drive through.
Kit McLellan broke her hip, so she’s using a walker.
Kit walks up to the church to get her ashes.
Ashes to ashes.
Ashes to go.
Now pull up to the next window please, that’s for the collection plate.
