Janice Romig,
Mary Beth Romig,
Lindsey Price
Janice Romig, homemaker and community volunteer (right)
Similarities: Mary Beth and I are both “people” persons. We never met a stranger. We love to decorate and garden, and we’re both short! We both use our hands when we talk. [My husband] Jerry and I were both very active in the community and Mary Beth is, too.
I was a dance school teacher and when I babysat for Lindsey I taught her little dance steps. Now she’s a dancer and an actress.
Differences: Mary Beth loves running and I hate it. She also loves cats and I’m allergic to cats.
Mary Beth Romig (Price), Director of Communications for the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau (left)
Similarities: My mom, and Lindsey and I, too, like to do whatever anybody asks us to do. That leads to a lot of worrying, and we are all big worriers.
We all like Broadway shows and old musicals. For all three of us, family is our hobby and we are all tied to New Orleans.
Differences: My mother passed her dancing and choreography gene on to Lindsey, while I didn’t last in dancing school very long. Lindsey is more free-spirited than my mother and I are.
My mother was a different type of working mom – she raised five children, was a foster parent and participated in every kind of community and charitable cause. I went to work [outside the home] when Lindsey was 3 and I’ve worked ever since. She is my only child. So we both worked but in different ways.
Lindsey Price, student at the University of New Orleans (middle)
Similarities: I get my compulsive worrying from my mom and she gets it from my grandma. We’re all just incredible devoted and passionate people. We all talk to each other all the time.
Differences: My Grandma is immaculate, my mother is a little messy and I’m [very] messy. Our cleanliness lessens by generation.
I’m completely addicted to the computer. My Mom tries her best but she mainly just checks her e-mail. I tried to teach my grandma instant messaging but it just worried her when the little IM window popped up. But they try, they really do.
Verna Arroyo
and
Beth Utterback
Verna Arroyo, homemaker, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother (right)
Similarities: I always told Beth to do the things she wanted to do and never give up on them and she has.
We both like to travel to visit friends or family. In May, my daughter Maria who lives in San Diego is taking me to London for 10 days.
We both have deep New Orleans roots. I liked it in Virginia [post-Katrina] but I was happy to get back home.
Differences: Beth is more detail-oriented than I am. I’m not a perfectionist. She has a lot more energy than I do.
I love to cook. She never liked it but now she helps me.
Beth Utterback, Director of Broadcasting for television station WYES (left)
Similarities: We both like the theater. Our whole family likes the theater. We grew up being in plays at La Petite, Gallery Circle and New Orleans Recreation Department, and Mom sewed costumes and made scenery. Sometimes my folks ended up being in the plays, too. While other children went to bed at 8 o’clock, we were at rehearsal, doing our homework. My mom entertained as Mother Goose at children’s birthday parties and she had a TV show, Mother Goose on the Loose, for WDSU.
We’re both attached to the city. My great-grandfather founded the Royal Street Pharmacy and we both love going to New Orleans for parades and other traditional activities.
Differences: She likes to go all out decorating for the holidays. Her theory is “more is more,” while I believe that “less is more.”
Dale Atkins
and
Ebony Morris
Dale Atkins, Clerk of Civil District Court of Orleans Parish (left)
Similarities: We’re very close. Since we have been living together [Ms. Atkins assumed legal guardianship of her niece in 2002 when Ebony’s biological mother died], she has adopted some of my personal traits. I tend to work hard and she does the same. We spend a lot of time together, just the two of us, shopping, baking muffins. She’s become a big Law & Order fan.
Differences: I use the computer a lot for work. She’s on it but for play. For her, the telephone is for taking photos and texting, not for talking. She likes to wear low-rider jeans and pants. I’m trying to adapt to it!
Ebony Morris, eighth-grade student at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel (right)
Similarities: We like to watch Lifetime movies. I talk a lot like her. We shop, read together and she helps me with my homework. I might go to Notre Dame college, just like my aunt. We like to eat steak and spaghetti and crawfish.
Differences: I like to talk on the phone and text a lot. We have different taste in clothes. I want to become a doctor but my aunt wants me to become a lawyer. I like to party with my friends and go to the movies. My aunt likes Law & Order.
Mary Nell Nolan
and
Nell Nolan
Mary Nell Nolan (Mrs. Ulisse Nolan), mother of seven, grandmother of 14 and great-grandmother of five (with two on the way) (right)
Similarities: Nell and I share a lot of cultural interests – music, ballet and theater. I love to read and she does, too. We both love Carnival. My husband was Rex and my four daughters were in balls.
Differences: I couldn’t begin to [act in] plays the way she does. Nell is more efficient than I am.
Nell Nolan (Mrs. Robert E. Young), society columnist, The Times-Picayune (left)
Similarities: We have the same name. I’ve always felt a great closeness and identification with her, her values, her sense of family and lifestyle and her sense of humor.
We are both very family-oriented. She’s been a model for all her children, her grandchildren and now her great-grandchildren. I married a widower and have four married stepchildren and 12 grandchildren, so we always have somebody celebrating a birthday or an anniversary.
We both love to participate in Carnival. My mother was Queen of Mystic and I like to costume for Mardi Gras. We both enjoy the street scene, too.
Differences: She’s not really “up” on the computer, while I live with it at work and at home. Mother likes classical ballet, while I am more open to other types.
