What does New Orleans mean to you? (memory thread)

[lazarus]

I thought we might have a thread where everyone who has more than a passing familiarity with New Orleans explains what it means to them. Here's mine:

Years and years ago, I hung out on Usenet. I particularly posted a lot on alt.tv.pol-incorrect, the group for fans of Politically Incorrect, Bill Maher's old show.

Through that group I met (online only) a poster named Haele. After a few months of chatting, encouraged by other friends on the group, we realised we had a lot in common beyond politics. We both had vacation coming up that summer, and decided to take a risk and meet.

(Y'all know Haele, btw. She's a DUer.)

We chose New Orleans. I was in Alabama, she was in San Diego. We both liked the idea of the city (she had been there briefly during her Navy years), and the D-Day museum had just opened, something we're both interested in.

We stayed in a beautiful old bed and breakfast in the Warehouse/Garden District, walking distance from everything, including the Quarter. (I haven't had the courage to check and see if it's still there.)

And we had a wonderful week there, essentially falling in love on the spot. We were married within a year, and have been happily married ever since.

Fate was with us on that trip. We made it in late June. The D-Day Museum's grand opening had been 3 weeks before, so the crowds were down. June is muggy and not much of a tourist month, so the crowds were down. It was the first week of soft-shell crab season, one of my favourite dishes. No rain, the heat wasn't as bad as it normally is. I could go on forever about the neat little coincidences and things that happened that, in hindsight, look for all the world like the universe saying, "Hey, you two get together!"

For the last year, we've been planning to make a return trip to the Big Easy. Now we don't know when or even if that will happen.

(And fuck Bush for letting this happen, and fuck anyone who supports him. I just basically cut off a big chunk of my family because they're buying the spin about how it's all local government's fault.)

Laissez le bon temps roulet! They must roll again. No more talk of "low interest loans" or crap like that. We pretend we're rebuilding Iraq. Screw that, let's rebuild New Orleans, only nicer. Everyone gets an upgrade. Levees get an upgrade.

Move the Mississippi to where it wants to go, west of the city, and build a planned industrial area there for ports and such. Then rebuild the original city as a residential/tourist city. We could do it if we had a visionary President. Clinton could do it; Eisenhower could do it; heck, if someone told him about it, Reagan could do it.

Bush, not so much.

So this is what it means to me: Cafe' DuMont, with beignets and iced coffee; the Redfish Grill; Les Carillon on Camp St; Bourbon St.; the Aquarium, with its catfish and piranhas; the paddle wheel boats; my first muffeletta; and the Quarter, all made extra special because I was falling in love with both a city and a woman at the same time.

So why I don't finish this with a song. Leon Redbone's "Border of the Quarter", the best song about New Orleans ever, imo:

I come back to New Orleans
'Cause thats the only place I've been
Where the air's so thick and sweet
Feels like lovin' arms around me
lazy trees, ocean breeze
rainy evenings listening
The music oozing out of every door
its like my heaven made to order
Inside the Border of the Quarter
Lord, ain't no place like I've ever been before

I used watch and wonder at the ones who sing the blues
And try to find out why they'd want to get so low
But even tho I can't explain it now
I join in when they're singin'
And when the song is over ...Lord oh Lord!

There's something about the way the women walk in New Orleans
Or maybe its just me cause I'm love with all I've seen there
Bedroom by the balcony, laughter lifting from the street
Forgetting what my pocket watch is for
Its like my heaven made to order
Inside the Border of the Quarter
Lord, ain't no place like I've ever been before

I used watch and wonder at the ones who sing the blues
And try to find out why they'd want to get so low
But even tho I can't explain it now
I join in when they're singing
And when the song is over ...Lord oh Lord!

I come back to New Orleans
Cause thats the only place I've been
Where the air's so thick and sweet
Feels like lovin' arms around me
lazy trees, ocean breeze
rainy evenings glistening
The music oozing out of every door
its like my heaven made to order
Inside the Border of the Quarter
Lord, ain't no place like I've ever been before

[DemExpat]

1. That was lovely Laz - thanks for sharing your New Orleans.

I now regret never having gone there even though I lived in and visited Texas when I was stateside.

I am sure that it will never be the same, so I missed out on this experience.

:-(

DemEx

[terrya]

2. This is such a great post, Lazarus.

I've never been to New Orleans. Yeah, I know.

I read this and I can feel the love you have for New Orleans.

Thank you for this.

Terry

[Misunderestimator]

3. That's a beautiful trubute Laz!

Even though I grew up in Texas and spent time in Louisiana, I had only one pass through New Orleans... this past spring on my cross-country trip with NSMA from Florida to CA. We stayed one very beautiful night in NO. I wish I had known it better, but it will always have a special place in my memory because of that.

Here's to the rebuilding of New Orleans. :toast: And to learning from this awful, awful experience.

[NMDemDist2]

4. me and N'Awlins

I lived in New Orleans for two years (74-76) Dirt poor, chick singer in an Top 40 Band. My ol' man was the drummer and was from Hammond LA. We met in California and when the Bay Area scene didn't work out, we went to his "home"

When we first got there, we shared a "shotgun" house in the 9th ward for about 6 months with some other folks in the band.

We ended up in a little one bedroom apt above the "carriage house" behind a Club called Lou and Charlie's, right across the street from the Quarter. A carriage house is basically a detached garage from the 1800's (which ours was) across the patio from the "main house".

Lou and Charlie's was a blues club in an old mansion, the upper stories had been converted to single rooms but we had the best crib. I could lean out the kitchen window to pick plantains (kinda like a big mushy banana) and fry it up for breakfast. Fresh Chicory Coffee make in a french press, croissants from the baker two doors down.

when the gigs were scare, I'd take my guitar into the Quarter and play for quarters then go to the famous place where you got a BIG bowl of Red Beans and Rice with baguettes and butter for $0.35. If you felt rich for another $0.75 they throw in a hunk of the "meat" of the day. Some days chicken, some days sausage links. Always filling and delicious.

On nice days, when we wanted a low cost treat, we'd take the street car down St. Charles street to the Garden District and walk through the neighborhood and look at the Old Antebellum homes and smell the beautiful flowers or we could walk over to LaFayette Square and feed the pigeons and climb up on the levee and watch the boats go by.

I have to stop now, I am crying too hard to see the screen anymore.


Ok on edit, my first professional FootBall game was at the Superdome, I learned to hold my liquor in the French Quarter and I learned to love grits there too.

That's what N'Awlins means and has meant to me, I was 19 years old and it was a large part of my growing into an adult.

[khashka]

12. Big hugs

for what they are worth.

Sometimes a place can become part of your heart, N'Awlins is one of those places. It's a big part of mine.


Khash.

[NMDemDist2]

24. to you too, and to all the other millions of people who lost a part of

their hearts to Katrina

:grouphug:

[fudge stripe cookays]

21. Wow. Beautiful.

thanks for letting me feel I was there with you.

:cry:
FSC

[NMDemDist2]

26. oh lordy FSC, the stories I could tell!! but I'd prolly get arrested....

:evilgrin:

[gmoney]

5. It means a very nearly romantic trip...

...with the one who got away. (Well, the one I never had, so technically, I don't believe she had to get away.)

The worst concert experience of my life seeing the dreaded Spin Doctors in a jam-packed Tipitinas.

Hustler kid coming up to me on the street saying "I bet you $5 I can tell you where you got them shoes..." I didn't take the bait because I figured he'd say "You got them shoes on your feet in New Orleans" or something lame.

Lucky Dog carts out on the street, late in the evening.

Wandering around a million little stores in the French Quarter (?)

Someplace I have my photo album... I need to unearth that thing.

[Zuni]

6. good music, good food, good parties

[WilliamPitt]

7. The road and my 24th birthday

I was driving out to San Francisco to live with my college friend, Kevin. We stopped in New Orleans for two nights to celebrate my birthday. The first night I drank waaaaay too much and ate some alligator, which had the consistency of fried rubber bands. The next night we went to a blues bar, and then sat up on a porch and watched the city go by.

Down south in New Orleans, the prettiest girl I ever seen
Sparklin' eyes, lips so sweet, we make the love to the rhumba beat
Ship's at anchor, my suitcase packed
Got a one way ticket, I ain't comin' back
Life's a pleasure, love's no dream
Down south in New Orleans

My dark-eyed baby, I'm on my way
Back into your arms to stay
I'm tired of work, I want to play
Make sweet love to you night and day

Down south in New Orleans, the prettiest girl I ever seen
Sparklin' eyes, lips so sweet, we make the love to the rhumba beat
Ship's at anchor, my suitcase packed
Got a one way ticket, I ain't comin' back
Life's a pleasure, love's no dream
Down south in New Orleans

I crave her smile that shines so bright
Her beautiful teeth lights up the night
Come on, skipper, I'm ready to ride
I'm only waiting for the tide

Down south in New Orleans, the prettiest girl I ever seen
Sparklin' eyes, lips so sweet, we make the love to the rhumba beat
Ship's at anchor, my suitcase packed
Got a one way ticket, I ain't comin' back
Life's a pleasure, love's no dream
Down south in New Orleans

The moon is lighter and hearts are, too
Mighty good place to lose my blues
Wrapped up in my baby's arms
I'll tell her of her many charms

Down south in New Orleans, the prettiest girl I ever seen
Sparklin' eyes, lips so sweet, we make the love to the rhumba beat
Ship's at anchor, my suitcase packed
Got a one way ticket, I ain't comin' back
Life's a pleasure, love's no dream
Down south in New Orleans

[Beware the Beast Man]

8. Sadly, I never had the chance to visit.

Yeah, NOLA may have had one of the worst violent crime rates in the country, but such a rich culture. Someday, maybe.

[Tikki]

9. We were stationed in Louisiana...1969~1970

...we were just kids...been married less than a year when the Mr. got drafted...

We left the Pacific Northwest headed for Fort Polk Army Base together during one of his Army leaves.

I was 19 years old. I was so naive that I didn't realize that there would be some culture shock...I figured being with him in Louisiana was the only way I was 'going to be able' to be with him.

We spent many weekends drifting over the LA/TX state line and into Houston, Port Arthur, Galveston....

But the first, and every time, we went to New Orleans I felt like I was such a grown-up and sophisticated lady...

Where ever we went in Louisiana...the people were extremely friendly..and I mean..."How you kids doing? Let us know if you need anything" friendly.

The Tikkis

[KamaAina]

10. N.O. is where I discovered full-on activism

believe it or not, as it hasn't exactly been a hotbed of radicalism, though I suspect that will change the moment people can get back in!

My job that I got over the phone through an agency had collapsed. I was working on a pint at my local, Carrollton Station, when a woman came around with flyers. They were for a demo at a Harry Connick Jr. concert at the Municipal Auditorium -- a benefit for his dad's re-election capaign; Harry Connick Sr. was the longtime N.O. DA and a known anti-choicer.

So off I go, chanting "We love you, Harry Connick, but your pop's a flop!", and the demo ended without my having made any new connections. So I trundle off through Louis Armstrong Park to what was once known as Congo Square to catch a bus back to Canal St. And mirabile dictu, sone of the demonstrators come up to me and say, "You really shouldn't be waiting there, it's too dangerous!" Off I go with these strange females into the Quarter, where they know a couple of guys in the movement who had a little restuarant and had agreed to host us afterward.

Before you know it, I was participating in heavy-duty clinic defense, against the likes of Rev. Bill Shanks, who was recently spotted here at DU crowing, "New Orleans is now abortion-free!" What a shitball. I should've retroactively aborted that sumbitch when I had the chance... and to think, it all started because of crappy RTA service and N.O.'s horrific crime rate!

To recap, I felt more alive down there than I ever have before or since, with the possible exception of the first few months in Hawai'i. For instance, there was the time I somehow ended up at a party in the Upper Pontalba Building (if you're standing at the river end of Jackson Square, looking at the postcard shot of the Cathedral, it's the building along St. Peter St. to your left). Next thing I remember I was being politely hustled out of the Pontalba; it was sunrise the next day, just enough time for me to grab some breakfast and head out to the Fair Grounds for Jazz Fest!

I don't do things like that any more (sigh). Without N.O., there is no KamaAina as we know him. Never forget that. I'm doing everything I can to try and get back with some of my people down there (who have some juice; I volunteered on a couple of political campaigns) and see if any of my expertise can be put to use for the "World's Most Interesting City".

edit: added crappy service and crime

[khashka]

11. I've said San Francisco is my life but New Orleans is my soul

What it means to me....

Well, essentially a place where I felt safe and welcome.

At a stripper bar in the French Quarter - chicks with dicks stripper bar, and some guy makes a nasty comment and I confront him and all the girls back me up and even straight tourists from Idaho back me up. And it's OK to be different. And if you are not different, you'll never understand what it feels like when it's finally OK.

The food of course....

The Garden District....

Racism - NOLA is incredibly racist, but there was a culture also where race didn't matter - I hoped it was an echo of the future, maybe it's just a memory of the past now.

History... not just the really old stuff. But Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith... to sit where they played and sang and listen to a new generation working to improve the legacy they were left? Amazing and wonderful.

It existed poised between the past and the future. But all it has now is the present....

Khash.

[lazarus]

22. The line I've heard is

Vegas demands your money, but New Orleans takes your soul.

And it's a good thing.

[NMDemDist2]

27. racism in NOLA circa 1975, we were an integrated band 5 guys 3 girls

4 white, 4 black

it was like day and night. In Mettarie they loved our music, they'd throw money but we'd take breaks in another room or at our own table. when we'd finish the "white gig" and go to play a "breakfast dance" in the black part of town, Lord, they'd jump on stage and jam, sing, play harmonica. they'd take us home and feed us, introduce us to their children and then give us girls "some decent clothes" and drag us to church Sunday morning to sing hymns. You ain't seen nothing til you've seen a 6' tall Minnesota Swedish keyboard player trying to sing black gospel :rofl:

What a place!

[Kerrytravelers]

13. New Orleans was our honeymoon city.

We're jazz fans, so New Orleans was the obvious choice for us.

We stayed at the Bienville House on Decature.

We listened to Eddie Bo Paris play trombone at Jackson Square and bought his cd out of his trombone case.

We had bignets and cafe au lait at the Cafe du Monde. We had po'boys from a second floor balcony and watched this lazy golden retreiver lazying across the street on a second floor balcony. That old dog would just pee where ever he was laying and it would drip down. People walked right by and had no idea a dog was peeing on them.

We had hurricans at O'Brien's and kept the suvioner glasses.

We expereinced our first tropical storm. When jumping over a puddle from off the curb, a guest of wind came by and lifted me into the air a bit (luckily I had Mr. kt's hand at the time.)

We went up and down the Mississippi. On July 4th, we went to the free Mardi Gras float company's festivities, then crosssed the river on a free ferry and watched the fireworks show "Dueling Barges."

We went down to the bayou, we went to Oak Alley, we went to the Garden District, and we took a graveyard tour with a tour guide who looked like Icabod Crane in a terrible rainstorm.

We stepped into the Voodoo museaum and had a conversationwith a high priest of voodoo.

We had dinner at Brennans and at Antoine's. We walked through the many dining rooms of Antoine's and in their upstairs Kres rooms.

We went to the Mardi Gras museaum and the museaum where the Louisiana Purchase was signed. We saw one of the four death masks made of Napoleon Bonaparte.

We attended Mass at the Cathedral. We visited the where money was made in New Orleans.

We saw the house where the Confederate President Jefferson Davis died, and the houses where Anne Rice and Trent Reznor live. We saw where Van Gough visited.

We had crawfish and jumbayla. We went up and down Burbon street. I practiced my French.

We fell in love with New Orleans and were counting our pennies to return.

I can't bear to look at my honeymoon pictures after what has happened.

[KamaAina]

14. Cosmic! I once stayed at the Bienville House with a woman I love.

all right, all right, it was my Mom. :-)

She wasn't really psyched to come to N.O., really just to see me. All that changed the minute we walked out the door of the Bienville House and turned left towards the sunset.

"Can we stay?" were the next words out of her mouth. And eventually, one of us did (me, for about three years)...

I didn't even know that Van Gogh had visited. Was he there to see Degas, who painted there for a year while visiting relatives? Oh crikey, the Museum of Art where those paintings were is in one of the lowest-lying sections... :(

edit: mouth, not month. Ouch.

[Cyndee_Lou_Who]

15. I thank jeebus I got to see it earlier this year. My first trip and I had

te *BEST* time ever. I was there for a convention and got to sing "Mustang Sally" on stage with a fabulous band at "Fat Cats", dance on Bourbon Street, and hang on the balcony for hours!!

Incredible fun. The only time I have EVER lost my voice was at end of trip to that incredible town.

Good times...

But more importantly - the people. The colorful wonderful people. Even the doorman and the Monteleone who told me I smoked too much :).

Help those wonderful people.

[RebelOne]

16. I remember going to New Orleans for the World's Fair.

I forget what year it was, sometime in the '80s, I think. The Fair was a big disappointment, but I loved the French Quarter and Bourbon Street, which I call "Sin City."

[KamaAina]

19. Fair was in '84. Everyone said it sucked. Let's have another!

as soon as it is feasible, so as to reintroduce the world to the New New Orleans.

I can't for the life of me understand how a fair in N.O. could possibly suck, but that was the word I got from the old-timers. I'm envisioning something more like a summer-long version of Jazz Fest.

[Plaid Adder]

17. I went to New Orleans once years ago, for a friend's wedding.

It was a great trip, though my most vivid memory, frankly, is of driving a car packed with graduate students from Metarie into the city and discovering after we were already underway that not one of them had a map or had ever been to the city or, consequently, knew where the hell we were going. We found the aquarium, eventually, but God alone knows how. Also remember great food, impressive architecture, and feeling like I was just not up to night life in this town (being a nondrinker and also not into loose women and general open-air decadence). I remember finding the wedding strange because my friend, once she got dolled up in her bridal outfit, didn't look like herself any more, but like A Bride(TM). But it was a chance to see friends from a city I had just moved away from. They were good friends, we had a fabulous weekend, and I only wish I had kept in better touch with them. I brought Liza back a New Orleans T-shirt, which was stolen out of the laundry room a few months later.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[Texasgal]

18. Cafe DuMonde

Eating a sticky benet' with a hot cup of chicory coffee.

[LynneSin]

20. I wish I had spent more time in New Orleans the only time I was there

I had a Management in NOLA back in 2003 which was my first time to the city. The class was actually one where you would get certified and you needed 70% in order to pass and trust me the material was challenging at times (plus if I failed it my boss would have been extremely pissed). So most nights I spent in my hotel room (The Sheraton on the main highway into the French Quarters) studying but I did go out to dinner a few nights.

The trip was actually last minute - my boss was suppose to go but he had to back out and sent me instead. So when I was originally booking the flight, to fly out of Philly I would have had to stay an extra night in NOLA in order to get a reasonable price. I think most would have jumped on a free night in New Orleans paid for by your company. But I insisted I wanted to get home Friday night and found a great rate if I flew out of Baltimore (which is an extra 45 minutes away). The reason I wanted to get home Friday night - there was a protest in Washington DC that Saturday that I didn't want to miss.

[KamaAina]

23. Based on what I've seen, you would have gotten right into it

you certainly know how to handle yourself in another halfway decent party town known as NYC! That must have been some protest in DC (sigh).

Who knows? I still know some people down there, a few of whom are in politics, and if I somehow end up part of the rebuilding effort, you just might end up on a Mardi Gras float with me someday!

[Left Is Write]

25. I have never been to New Orleans.

I have no personal memory or sentiment attached to New Orleans; for me, now, it will always be the individual stories I have seen coming from that great city in the last week. Many of the people and their tragedies and triumphs will be imprinted on my brain forever.

[ulysses]

28. the last time I went

was in the summer of 1990 - my girlfriend at the time and I drove from Santa Fe to El Paso and east to NO in one straight shot. Got my car towed, got strangled in the humidity, spent every last dime we had, loved every minute of it.

[greatauntoftriplets]

29. Visited with my parents right after my 13th birthday....

and that was MANY years ago.

One night after dinner, we were walking down Bourbon Street (it was late August and the rainy season...no hurricanes) and the skies opened up. The bouncer in one of the strip joints invited us in to get out of the rain. We took him up on it because it was coming down in sheets, though it didn't last too long.

This newly minted teenager's eyes popped, because the stripper on stage then was down to virtually nothing. And I've never been a strip club since.

We saw lots of things (the cemetery we visited creeped me out) and ate in some damn good restaurants. Wish I had gone back.....

[fortyfeetunder]

30. Marching in the Mardi Gras parade

Our HS marching band was invited to perform at some of the community Mardi Gras parades. I had no idea what that meant at the time, but reflecting back on this time so long ago, it was an once in a lifetime experience.

My friends and I had a helluva good time. The people were warm, appreciative and friendly as we marched our way through the communities. We got Louisiana hospitality no matter where we went in town. We ate hearty, but we burned it off marching and partying!

What I didn't explain to my mom and dad after returning home, was how I got all the commemorative hurricane glasses from the French District (burp). Yup, I was even underage drinking!!!

Was hoping for a return to Mardi Gras as an adult, but just haven't got to that point yet. I did pass through on my way to my new home, only to stop by Pat O'Brien's for one more hurricane before I boarded the train.

I loved to play my instrument and those parades were the highlight of my teenage years. This is why I encourage children to play an instrument, because it can open doors to travel and new experiences.

[Olney Blue]

31. This Poco song has been in my head for days....

In the heart of the night
In the cool southern rain
There's a full moon in sight
Shining down on the Pontchartrain

And the river she rises
Like she used to do
She's so full of surprises
She reminds me of you
In the heart of the night

There's a nightbird singing
Right on through till the dawn
And the streets are still ringing
With people carrying on

It's been so long waiting
Just to be here again
Anticipating
All the time I could spend
In the heart of the night down in New Orleans
In the heart of the night down in New Orleans

And I trust in your love never falling down
And I trust in your love
Just like I do in this town never falling down

And I'm so glad to be back in New Orleans
Please don't wake me, don't shake me,
If this is only just a dream
It's the only place I can face that feels so right
Below that Dixie moon and loving you
In the Heart of the Night"

All right reserved, Poco, 1975

[fudge stripe cookays]

33. Mine too.

I started humming it Tuesday morning and haven't stopped since.

FSC

[sendero]

32. I spent my first honeymoon..

.... in New Orleans. My wife and I drove down there (from Dallas) in a beat-up P.O.S Mercury Capri in 1981.

We visited the incredible cemetaries (first wife was really into cemeteries, they are sacred, and there are few better cemetaries than in N.O.), the French Quarter and stayed in a budget hotel. I don't remember even seeing the levees.

I'm so glad I got to see the city that will never be the same. :(