POWERGRAMS

17 people," said Cyndi Clark, who worked for Alabama Power for a decade before taking leave for her sick child and later joining Benjamin's staff. As "America's Doctor," Benjamin stressed health improvements for everyone. She is national chairman of the "Every Body Walk" campaign. She continues to encourage people to stop smoking, drink less alcohol, exercise more and eat better foods. Yet, she remains especially concerned that the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are among the least healthy. The Bayou Clinic remains at the epicenter of Benjamin's health efforts. "We've got great hospitals and great health facilities on the Gulf Coast, so it's not the hospitals, it's not the healthcare that is the problem," she says. For three decades, the Bayou Clinic has provided general medical services to patients of all ages and financial abilities. A second generation of clients now receives physical exams, preventive care, lab work, minor surgeries and treatment of conditions ranging from hypertension and diabetes to heart disease and stroke, which are so prevalent in the South. "My dream is to make sure the clinic is stable," Benjamin says. "From day one, the goal has been for people here to have access to affordable healthcare with dignity. I want the clinic to outlive me, to be self-sufficient." Back to Bait and Beer Thirty years ago, Rebecca Caldemeyer left Bayou La Batre to be on her own, moving to Plaquemines Parish, La., to harvest oysters from some of the world's most bountiful beds for a couple of years. She switched to driving big trucks the next 25 years before her husband died. She brought him home for burial, returning to the town where her great-great- grandfather was a fisherman. Now she is what Mayor Johnson calls a colorful character in the comeback of their city. "When I came home, I locked myself away for two years," Caldemeyer says as a jukebox plays George Jones while five friends sidle up to a graffiti-covered bar beside a pool table. "My babies saw this bait shop was available and talked me into buying it." Rough Water Bait & Tackle sits at the end of Shell Belt Road, where the bayou, Mississippi Sound and Intracoastal Waterway merge. Caldemeyer added the bar and an upper deck to the original mobile home store and live bait holding tanks. She sells iced-down beers from a couple of open-top coolers, serves hot crawfish in season and serenades the karaoke crowd on Friday and Saturday. Inside the bait shop there is a tiny corner kitchen serving hamburgers, hot dogs and sandwiches. The walls are lined with fishing tackle, lures, snacks and drinks. The shop's T-shirt boasts "Straight Out of the Bayou." Some customers sit on an awning-covered porch between the bait and the booze. "My food will make you write home to momma," says the friendly, fiery redhead wearing a tank-top, denim shorts, sandals, sunglasses and many tattoos. "We do got the best crawfish and the coldest beer in town. That is the gospel." It's not unusual for Caldemeyer to boil 500 pounds of crawfish on a weekend, selling it at $3 a pound to her loyal customers who arrive when the doors open at 6 a.m. and may not leave until the lights go off at, well, she says her schedule "don't leave a whole lot of time for sleep" these days. "I was walking out the door getting ready to leave one night when some folks drove up and said, 'Where's the party?'" she says laughing, one beer in hand while handing another to a regular. "I said, 'It's right here!' and we partied till 2 in the morning." Caldemeyer isn't sorry she traded one bayou for another three decades ago. Folks in her hometown are glad she's returned – and vice versa. "I hope I can give something back to the bayou," she says. "I'm trying." Former Surgeon General Benjamin opened clinic in 1987. Caldemeyer cooks 500 pounds of crawfish some weekends.

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