Anyone ever been to New Orleans? In her honor, post memories here

[fishnfla]

Maybe the Hurricane Gods will have mercy on the Big Easy.

I lived there as a child, our family was big and poor. We lived on the west bank, Gretna.

My brother still lives there and we have been to visit numerous times. Mardi Gras a bunch of times, Packer games, family visits, etc. My brother has just opened a business in Gretna, and stayed longer to try and secure it, last I heard he's stuck somewhere's on I-10. He's coming to live with us for awhile, I guess

The people there are some of the friendliest folks you'd ever want to meet, as well as some of the most interesting characters to boot. And the good times roll. Awesome food too.

I'll never forget one Mardi Gras on Bourbon street comes a guy dressed like Jesus Christ, beard, sandals, robe, with 12 guys looking the same way. Big sign says: "Sinners: Repent and be saved!" (Lotsa sinning on that rue, its true-only time in my life I seen triple, in many different colours)
So the guy is looking all somber and serious, his troop too. Then he turns the sign around, it says "Show your t*ts!'

Man we fell about the place.

Good morning America, how are ya? Don't you know me, I'm your native son.

[Chovexani]

1. Before Anne Rice went crazy

I went down there for one of the Halloween parties she used to put on. The Goth kids down there are some of the nicest people I've ever met, and I hope they get out safely.

[xultar]

3. What year did she actually go up to the nut farm?

[Chovexani]

5. Oh geez, I can't really pinpoint it

She's been slowly losing the plot for years (pun intended), but I'm pretty sure it was when she had a meltdown on amazon.com when Vampire Chronicles fans were leaving horrid reviews of her last Mary Sue fanfiction, um I mean VC novel. She posted this long, rambling rant that hardly made any sense and now she wants to write a book about Jesus.

I really do think she's crazy.

[fishnfla]

8. I neglected to mention its rich artistic heritage as well

literature, art, music. a very cultural place. Kind of like the melting pot of America

[xultar]

2. I lived in the by water down from the quarter in the 9th ward

3 blocks of the river in Desire St.

I'm too sad to post with memories. I can't believe it is happening.

I refuse to believe NOLA will get hit. I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT!! :cry:

[tedoll78]

4. I was born in Metairie at Lakeside Hospital.

I was raised in Kenner from birth to age 17, when I went off to college.
I now live in Austin, and my heart aches to return to live in New Orleans some day soon. My family evacuated on late Saturday morning to Mississippi, thank goodness.

My mind is scrambled watching all of this. The smell of the food in the morning in the Quarter, the buzz of traffic on Canal place, little kids running out into the street after doubloons during a parade.. I can't imagine American being the same without New Orleans.

[fishnfla]

7. Throw me something Mister!

Man Mardi Gras was like non-stop Christmas as a kid. My bro has
(well, had) a bunch of doubloons from the late sixties. I remeber my parents took as kids to the Zulu parade, man oh man that was something to see!

[hlthe2b]

6. Many, many times... My sister has wanted to relocate there

for years--only the grimmest of disaster predictions have kept her from it (and that she doesn't really like change).

I'm sitting here at an outdoor coffee house in Denver-hot, but lovely weather. No one is concerned. No one knows--but me... And I'm typing this through tears as I contemplate what may be about to happen. I don't wish a CAT 5 on anyone, but especially not New Orleans... Please?

As a young child I traveled through the region shortly after Camille. The devastation was incredible. I can only imagine what could happen now....

My prayers are with you, Gulf State residents. (and especially those in the Big Easy)

[trof]

9. Oh yeah. Used to cut classes Friday and go for the wek-end.

University of Alabama, back in the early 60s.
Went at New Years a couple of time when Alabama was in the Sugar Bowl.
IMHO, New Year's Eve is a great time to be there.
Not hot and humid...just humid.;-)
Football crowds not as raucous as Mardis Gras.
Just want to have a good time.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

10. Lived there for a year..............

between 93-94. I lived for 6 mos. out in Fat City-Metairie, then I moved uptown to a nice place on Pine St., off of Carrolton. My fondest memory would probably the various times I was standing on Claiborne waiting for the streetcar. It seems like a fairy-tale these days.

edit: Strike that above memory.

My most memorable time in NO was when I saw the gorillas in the Audobon zoo and how I literally cried when I saw how human they acted and sad it was that we kept them in such confined areas. I haven't been back to a zoo since.

[Sannum]

11. May god have mercy on the City all who reside there.

(The Catholic in me is coming through)

I visited there with my family at least 6 times a year when I was a kid. I loved it then, I love it now. Now that my family is experiencing a tragedy of its own, I feel like I have been punched in the gut.

:cry:

So many wonderful memories....too many to even post...

[devilgrrl]

12. New Orleans is the most unique city in the United States...

and I pray that this brutal storm misses it. My heart is killing me right now.

[TheMightyFavog]

13. Super Bowl XXXI

Surprised you didn't mention this....


Packers 35
Patriots 21

Desmond Howards Punt Return... Awesome.

[madrchsod]

14. went there when i was a kid about 58-59

interesting place. i remember the grave yards,the statues,and just how pretty the city was. going across the bridge was really something! the whole area around there is beatiful...baton rouge smelled!

[CottonBear]

15. I love New Orleans. My husband is a native. He grew up near the zoo

at Audubon Park. He used to ride his bike over there and play on Monkey Hill as a little kid. Monkey Hill is still there. My great Aunt and Uncle lived there. Mom's family would drive down from NC to visit them back in the 1940s and 1950s.

We were just there last summer. I love the St. Louis Cathedral, Jackson Square Park, the French Quarter and Cafe du Monde. Grilled oysters, gumbo, red beans and rice and crawfish are some of my favorite foods. Mardi Gras is so fun and so very unique. There is no other city like the Big Easy.

I am so worried about the animals at the zoo and the aquarium. These facilities are right on the river front.

New Orleans, it has been said, is a Mediterranean city, separated from the rest of the Mediterranean only by the Atlantic Ocean.

[true_notes]

16. The Night I Became a "Sailor"

was October 31st, 2003 in New Orleans. I was stationed in Biloxi, MS at the time and we all decided to go to New Orleans for Halloween festivities. Well, It was a time to remember!

I hit on a transvestite, had too much keg beer, got counseled by police, pissed on a cemetary and had sex with a 42 year old mother. Not to mention waking up on a corner at Canal street to the sound of paramedics asking me where I was staying.

I got a free ride to my hotel!

New Orleans, If you drown I'll weep. Stay alive you bastard!

[fishnfla]

17. been there done that

except for the 42 year-old mother part

been talked to by the cops many a times

danced with a tranny at the dungeon, had no idea......

[musette_sf]

22. hahahahahaha

and you even managed to stay off of "Cops"!

Sounds like you remembered most of it... pretty damn good.

[KeepItReal]

18. Almost wrecked my best friend's brand new BMW on Decatur St.

He had just picked it up and was unable to drive a stick just yet, so I "did him a favor" to help him drive it up from downtown to the lakefront at U. of New Orleans.

After cruising the French Quarter, I started to make a left on Decatur to head toward Cafe du Monde and Jackson Square. I look at oncoming traffic and thought I had enough time to cross and make the left. WRONG! A car was coming alot faster than I thought, but I was already moving into traffic.

I give the car a touch more gas to speed up my turn, and then all 240 horses in his M3 decide to go for it. The tail end of the car started screeching and pushes the car tail-first so now I'm looking head-on at that oncoming car. I steer into the turn and get control just in time to fishtail, correct and get into my lane, completing the turn just in time.

I breathe a sigh of relief as do my shocked buddies at our close call, when all of a sudden, "Whoop! Whoop!" A N.O. Harbor Police cruiser was right behind me the whole time.

He pulled us over and once he saw the car was legit, he made fun of us almost wrecking the new car and let us go. You know my boyz let me have it afterwards... :-)

[Hardrada]

19. My favorite US city. Love all the historical stuff there

(I write histories) and also love the bookstores there and the great LP and CD jazz and blues stores in the Quarter. I love walking around the Garden District too even in July! Lotsa fun. Hope all that and all the great people can weather the storm.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

20. Only once

Late '70's company trip(convention). Stayed at the Hilton, spent a good part of the time in le Vieux Carre. Ate barbequed shimp at Manale Pasquale (it think that's the name - in the Garden Dist?). Went antique shopping on the last day with some colleagues from CA instead of attending the luncheon and listening to Ronnie Raygun.

[musette_sf]

21. Pascal Manale's

is the BBQ shrimp place.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

25. Thank you

I figured I had it wrong or backwards or something.

[musette_sf]

27. let me try again, it's Pascal's Manale

if I remember correctly.

http://www.neworleansrestaurants.com/pascalsmanale/

[Coventina]

23. Was there for Mardi Gras 2001

I fell in love with the place.
I loved every bit of it. The bedraggled elegance. The history.
The food. The music. The fun. The smut. St. Louis Cathedral. The mansions, the cemeteries.
I'm crying right now.
:cry:

I'm so worried that so many lives will be lost. And of course it will be the poor, elderly and infirm that will lose their lives. Not to mention the pets that are being left behind. :cry:

I'm making a committment right now that I am going to contribute whatever I can to helping in the aftermath of this disaster.

:sobbing:

[tinfoilinfor2005]

24. Two of my kids were stationed in Biloxi so we visited NO often

I remember:

1. The praline shops where the smell coming out the door would drive you nuts.
2. Eating powdered sugar Benyas (sp?) with chickory coffee while watching a funeral procession with it's musicians go by.
3. Buying Mardi Gras masks full of brightly colored feathers at the trinket shops.
4. Drinking "Hurricanes" at Pat O'Brians the day after St Patrick's day and wrapping up the glass to take home.
5. Going through the brewery and running into a neighbor from back home. "Is that YOU? Small World!"

Thanks for letting us reminisce...I hope you're right about the good thoughts.

[musette_sf]

26. too numerous to mention

so I'll just see how many come bubbling up here:

My first airplane trip was in 1971, to the NO area to visit a pen pal. It was my high school graduation present. I stayed in Harvey, and we went to NO and various other places nearby, and did a lot of cool things. Near the end of my stay I thought about just not going back to NYC, and sticking around, getting a job, and see what would happen. But I chickened out, I was one of the "good" girls.

1978 for honeymoon with 1st husband. In which he messed with my mind, and I think in any other place I would have been really upset. But good old NO like my best friend kept me sane.

1980 Jazz Fest. Fess had just died, dammit. Saw Hamp and Basie on the riverboat, and Fats at the Fest. In fact, if I remember correctly, they had just opened Armstrong Park, and Basie played at the opening ceremony.

1980-1984. All of it. Moving there seemed like a good thing to do. I was still in my 20s, and it was a great time to be in NO. While Tipitina's was still on Tchoupitoulas and served lunch on the weekdays.

* Sbisa's
* Central Grocery
* Napoleon House (pleeeease G-D save the Napoleon House!) and a Pimm's Cup
* Flamingo's on St. Charles, home of the best damn nectarine daiquiri in the world, and the best damn French 75 in the US, with a jukebox that had "La Vie En Rose" by La Piaf.
* LeRuth's
* Pat O'Brien's, but ONLY the bar on your left as you enter, and ONLY a Pete's Special
* Arnaud's
* Galatoire's (pleeeease G-D save Galatoire's!)
* Mothers on Poydras
* That great gumbo place out on the Airline Highway that is gone now and I can't remember the name
* Uglesich's
* Bozo's
* Mandina's (where H3 and me were completely entertained by the cliente)
* Cooter Brown's after jogging in Audubon Park
* Sid-Mar's (will be a total goner I am sure)
* Deanie's
* The new Morning Call (never went to the old one, before my time)
* What was that great Italian place on the West Bank near the Huey P?
* Middendorf's (might make it?)
* Dooky Chase
* Ralph & Kakoo's (not a top fave but a frequent dinner spot)

And of course, Tip's, the Maple Leaf, and Jed's...

On edit: I am in fucking denial. Some of the places I once loved are gone, but I fear the whole game gone like Pompeii writ in mud. NOLA I love you and always will... ya gotta make it thru, dawlin'...

On edit: Favorite experience of the early 80s: Makin' Groceries at Schweggmann's On Vetrins. Wake 'n' bake, drive on in and get you a wagon, then stop by the Snack Bar for a nice cold Dixie on draft to tote 'round whilst shopping.

[musette_sf]

28. I just remembered that great Italian place

on the West Bank... MOSCA'S.

MMmmmmmmmmmmmmm..............

still in denial......

[fishnfla]

29. I got drunk and put on 10 lbs just reading your post

thanks

[randr]

30. Musical tribute to NO on right now

www.kvnf.org

[peekaloo]

31. Many times. When I lived in Houston Nawlins was a favorite

getaway destination.

Lots o' fun.

I wonder if Big Al (world's greatest cab driver!) is still driving cabs in the city.

I feel sad thinking about the good times and larfs I've had there....too sad to type 'em out.....*sigh*

Hang tough Crescent City!

[KamaAina]

32. Lived there during the early '90s. Discovered pro-choice activism there.

The anti's were thick as fleas, as you might imagine, but we were pretty much able to hold them at bay. The crowning moment came when many of us were counter-demoing a David Dukkke rally in City Park(Rush is right, you know, we really are all the same people :sarcasm: ) and who should drive by looking for parking but the head anti, complete with Dukkke sticker on his van?

N.O. is one of the very few places anywhere where someone like myself can go and not automatically be the weirdest person there (in fact, quite the contrary!). Please, oh please, let it still be so next week... :scared:

[hippiechick]

33. Your family's in my prayers, Fish ...

O8) :hug:

[fishnfla]

42. Thanks Hippiechick

looks like his business and house are in serious peril. 3 kids, (infant twins), plus mommy makes 5

He sunk his life savings into his new business, they are gonna have to move in with us for awhile if this baby does what they say she will....they are more than welcome here

full house!

[Skittles]

34. drove there from Biloxi when I was stationed in Miss in the Air Force

loved New Orleans, wish her well

[Lydia Leftcoast]

35. One visit for a convention in 1992

My most vivid memories:

1) Discovering how big the French Quarter is and the fact that people actually live there

2) The friendly, talkative people

3) Having beignets and chicory coffee at Cafe du Mond, hsaring a table with two women from Mississippi who assured me that the weather (hot for April) was nothing compared to summer

4) For the first time in my life, seeing bars with "to go" windows

5) Flying over the green expanse of the bayous

[Reverend_Smitty]

36. I'm supposed to attend a convention there

in June, but if the worst case scenario comes true...I probably won't get to visit

[Cyndee_Lou_Who]

37. For the first time this past Feb. I had a BLAST.

I was there for a convention and had some of the best times of my life. Sang and danced on stage with a band... hours on a balcony, broke a window with my ass, lost my voice... good times. I am very glad I got to experience it. I hope I will again.

[fishnfla]

43. broke a window with your ass?

Thats some serious gas!

[Cyndee_Lou_Who]

45. It wasn't like *THAT*!! I bumped it with my bum and it shattered.

:blush:

[kwassa]

38. The favorite drink is the Hurricane, by the way ...

I was a little disappointed with New Orleans being a fan of both the cuisine and the music long before I got there.

I was shocked by how poor the French Quarter felt, how decayed that part of the city felt in general, with the buildings and graveyards falling apart, and the dedication to sheer alcoholism ( and I am someone that likes his drink). I thought Bourbon Street a fairly seedy tourist trap dedicated to serious hard drinking, with take out bars selling Hurricanes in tall paper cups. The back streets of the quarter are pretty decrepit.

The food was too rich, with about a stick of butter in every plate. I prefer the Cajun style, with a little less of the cream sauces. We just stopped eating after awhile.

And the heat in the summer is enough to boil your brain out.

[kwassa]

39. and I drove through Houma on the way there ...

we took the back roads from Lafayette through New Iberia and then through Houma. The area back there is mostly fishing and/or jobs related to the oil and gas industry, but it looks pretty poor. Most of these people live a couple of feet above the bayous, and I worry about them even more.

[Redstone]

40. Was at Mardi Gras once, '75 or '76 I think;

drove down from Houston with my friend Rachel Roman, who sang like an angel, me playing my Alvarez twelve-string guitar in the passenger seat of her Chevelle, her singing like a combination of Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt...her boyfriend had grown up in Gretna, so we had an "insider" to guide us through the ins and outs of Mardi Gras.

And that was before it turned into nothing more than a college-girl slutfest...there was genuine mystery and magic and danger in the air, there in that dangerous and dirty city with women hanging out of the doors of the shops in the Quarter passing out poppers of Butyl Nitrate, and the guy who came up to us about 4 in the morning, after our booze had run out, with a gallon plastic milk jug full of a dubiously amber concoction...I asked him what it was, and he said, "try it and tell me what it tastes like" and I did, and I told him "It tastes like fucking kerosene, but I'll have a bit more if you don't mind," because it was windy and cold like it can get down there once in a while, and he did tell me what was in the jug, which was Jim Beam whiskey and Southern Comfort mixed half and half, and I had some more, as did we all with the trash and junk blowing all around us on that chilly street corner.

I haven't seen Rachel Roman or any others of the four girls I shared that house in Houston with, these thirty years on, but I can still hear her voice from that night when we drown to New Orleans in her Chevelle...Good Lord, that girl could sing, and I hope she's well and enjoying a life full of kids and good stuff. And Kim and Anita and Sherry as well. They were all fine young women.

Redstone

[davsand]

41. Kevsand and I had our honeymoon there.

We stayed at a B & B up on Bayou St. John. We'd walk down and sit and smoke a bowl before dinner. We spent a lot of time in the Quarter and lost an entire afternoon on Bourbon drinking in the bars while it rained like a Mo-fo.

Something that I dunno if i ever told Kev, but when I was in NO before I met him, I had a tarot reading done there on The Square. Blue was the reader's name. He told me I was gonna meet my husband come spring. I met Kev the following March--on the Equinox!

Blue also told me that I could choose to stay there in NO with him. I always wondered what became of him and some days wonder in passing about the road not taken. At the time I laughed it off as getting hit on by a fortune teller, but knowing what I do now, I take it more seriously.

Today I feel so sad. I do hate to see New Orleans in the line for this storm, because I do love that town. Blue, I hope you are safe.



Laura

[Wapsie B]

44. I loved it there.

It's a great city. I remember the French Market and Cafe' Du Monde, Preservation Hall, and all the fine eateries.
I fell in love with the place.

[Tom Kitten]

46. I visited New Orleans often when I was stationed at Keesler

showing my age here, it was back in 1975...I think maybe eight times...A wonderful place, the most unique city in America, I am going through shock realization right now...

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

47. I've been to meetings there, visited a few times during a month spent

in Pensacola as a student.

Oysters Rockefeller and fish at Antoine's.

Free big band music in Jackson Square, and beignets and coffe at Cafe du Monde.

Gumbo and oyster po'boys at Mothers.

Hurricanes at Pat O'Briens and Eggs Benedicts at Brennan's, with Bananas Foster for dessert.

I remember while visiting during Columbus Day seeing yet another gaudy costumed parade through the streets. New Orleans. Any excuse for a gaudy party. Just awesome.

Well, I wish I was in New Orleans
I can see it in my dreams
arm-in-arm down Burgundy
a bottle and my friends and me
hoist up a few tall cool ones
play some pool and listen to that
tenor saxophone calling me home
and I can hear the band begin
When the Saints Go Marching In
by the whiskers on my chin
New Orleans, I'll be there
I'll drink you under the table
be red nose go for walks
the old haunts what I wants
is red beans and rice
and wear the dress I like so well
and meet me at the old saloon
make sure there's a Dixie moon
New Orleans, I'll be there
and deal the cards roll the dice
if it ain't that ole Chuck E. Weiss
and Clayborn Avenue me and you
Sam Jones and all
and I wish I was in New Orleans
I can see it in my dreams
arm-in-arm down Burgundy
a bottle and my friends and me
New Orleans, I'll be there
-Tom Waits

[alarcojon]

48. I lived there one summer and one month in December

Carrolton and Claiborne, right at the end of the trolley line. I would take that trolley into downtown and meet my girlfriend for lunch every workday. We'd walk over to the French Quarter and have great lunches.

Here's to New Orleans Cuisine - the taste that will surely live on!



A bowl of jambalaya for all!

My girlfriend worked at the Federal Building right on Canal Street. I remember once I stopped by her office with a couple of Po' Boys I had just bought and they made me put the Po' Boys through the security screening device on my way in. This was pre Oklahoma City.

[Scout1071]

49. I once joined a zydeco band on-stage for a little number with a washboard.

I donned the washboard, played, sang and danced before a full bar. I was there with a couple of clients and we were having a blast. At the end of the song (to the sound of much applause, thank you very much) I heard my name being called from the street. The windows to the bar were open, like many on Bourbon St, and unbeknownst to me, my boss and a gaggle of our top clients were walking by and happened to see me on-stage. They were screaming, applauding and taking pics.

Good times.

[peacebuzzard]

50. Me and New Orleans

top photo is me and some co-workers at happy hour
bottom photo is the walk back to the hotel after a night on the town.

I truly love this town. Bonne Chance New Orleans, May the angels hold watch over you in the next hours



top - St. Patrick's Cathedral, French Quarter
bottom - street coming down from the wharf to the Quarter.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

51. Sugar Bowl, 1993

West Virginia played Florida after an undefeated season. I was a member in the WVU marching band and travelled to NO via charter bus, a trip of more than 24 hours. We were there for about 5 days for rehearsal and the actual performances. Most of the time I was sleep and food deprived, or hung over as shit, and WVU choked in the bowl game, but gawd did I have a good time.

Some highlights: the shop that sold about 40 varieties of alcoholic slurpee, walking into the Superdome the first time for rehearsals and being completely awed, the Riverwalk and Bourbon Street on New Year's Eve, taking two friends to their first gay bar, the madness and gaiety that are WVU fans on the road, my fellow piccolo player who made about $40 flashing her nipple ring on Bourbon (she is forever known to me as Chrissy with the Nipple Ring), my best friend nearly getting us into a brawl in the French Quarter when she pushed some Florida fan who called her an inbreed.

And then there was 2003, when my sweetie met me in NO at the tailend of a conference that my employer was putting on. Seeing him talk with a homeless man who asked for a cigarette -- not just blowing him off but actually interacting with him as a human -- was one of the reasons I love him.

[GOPFighter]

52. Visited May 2004

The music was terrific! French Quarter was so alive. Street musicians. Loved it!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

54. Ahh the Quarter... Public drunkenness not only legal but encouraged LOL

[Individualist]

53. NO: A kaleidoscope of sights and sounds,

a city both sacred and profane. I've been fortunate enough to visit there twice, first in '73 and again in '92, and fell in love with the city the first time I saw it. I remember the performers in Jackson Square, the horse drawn carriages, the elegance of the Garden District, the music, the ever present party atmosphere of the French Quarter, St. Louis Cathedral, the St. Charles streetcar with the acrid smell of electrical sparks, Sunday brunch at the Court of Two Sisters, beignets at the Cafe du Monde, hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's, laughs at the Cat's Meow, the laid back attitude of the people. My heart breaks at the thought of what is going to happen to this beautiful city within the next 24 hours.

[aaronbees]

55. New Orleans has a special place in my heart

My sister has been there going on 10 plus years and every visit has been magical. For a summer during a break from grad school I lived there near the Tulane campus, riding the trolley down Carrollton and into downtown and being swallowed up in the mystery: unemployed, carefree, and loving it ... never ate or drank so well in my life (at least for a little while). From the great music and friendly company at Le Bon Temps to playing darts at Grits to eating Indian food in the Quarter to walking under the majestic, gnarled live oaks ... what a beautiful treasure New Orleans is. I can't imagine life without her ... Be safe, Big Easy, I want to come visit you soon.

[ashling]

56. I lived there for a couple of years in the 70s

and , going against the grain here, I didn't really care for it on the whole. It just wasn't my thing - especially mardi gras - I am not good in crowds.

However, I do have some fond memories of the garden district, riding the street car down St. Charles, etc.

Random memories:
My brother went to Tulane and did some contract work with Red Hot Peppers Construction Co. (mostly students) one summer. I worked for him on a painting project renovating a place just off of St. Charles. We used to eat lunch and play pool at a place on Magazine (I forget the name).

I went to school in Jackson, MS and used to ride the train home sometimes (Panama Limited, not the City of New Orleans) When I was in Law School in Jackson (my family had moved back home to Texas, I once rode train home to Houston for the Holidays, having to make a layover in NO to catch the train to Houston the next day. I stayed with a friend who's Dad ran the Maison Dupuis in the Quarter.

The first time I ever got drunk was in NO (I just remembered this) I was home from college for the weekend and hanging out with some friends of my brother's at Tulane in the newspaper office there (my brother worked on the school paper and at the FM station on campus)I downed a bottle of Zapple (hey, I was in college for gods sakes) I remember peeing on the white supremecy statue down at the end of Canal street. So, I guess that is a good thing. :rofl:

We lived in Harahan with the Colonial Country Club golf course for a back yard and the levee just across the drive in front. The winter of 71 or 72 the Mississippi River got so high that they opened the Spillway to the Ponchetratin and I think even the on to the Atchafalaya. Anyway, I remember Seeing the sides of ships going down the river as the river level was well above our house.

Bourbon Street was not my thing, but I enjooyed the little shops on Royal and a jazz place that I can't remember the name of.

I wish them well.

[the_spectator]

57. My sister, her husband, and their daughter live there,

so I have visited it a number of times. Last time was over 2 years ago though. Don't worry! They have safely evacuated!

I loved the French Quarter. Found a nice, low-key cafe/bar on the left hand-side of the Cathedral, the Pirate's Alley Cafe. It was a great place to sit, have a few drinks, and meet the most fascinating people and have great conversations about Life, the Universe and Everything.

Some of the people I hung out with more than once: Met a couple with their canoe parked outside the bar - they had just completed a canoe trip down the Mississippi. A middle-aged artist who had found his niche making and selling little figurines to be mass produced out in China. An 18-year-old girl who had run away to N.O., and who was staying with the carriage-drivers. Hung out a number of times with a barmaid there who ended up leaving N.O. to join the customs service. Last conversation I had on my last night there was with a young transexual about the merits of Buddhism.

The thing I loved most about today's French Quarter, and the people you meet in the Pirate's Alley Cafe and the newly-hip bars on the far end of Decatur street, is that there is a real community of creative, intelligent young people from all over this country who have found each other in N.O. And N.O. is STILL affordable! You don't have to be a trustafarian to survive there (unlike say Williamsburg or the Lower East Side these days.) Yes, they are all ridiculously pierced, and can tell you all about "rope suspensions" and "hook suspensions" (ow!), and a good number of the girls would show up at night with fairy wings on their backs, but it's all good.

I have a feeling that the city will survive Katrina, one way or another.

[henslee]

58. The French Quarter getting destroyed is like Fall Of The House of Usher.

It's so biblical. To serve this haunted, hedonistic city a plate of catastophic calamity is a mindblower. I went to Mardi Gras once. It felt like a movie. The town was maxed out with crazy people and it made me kind nervous. College girls were doing whippets on streetcorners. I saw a cop arrest a couple for fornicating in an alley. Over hurricanes, two friends hit it off and hooked up with Michigan housewives whose husbands were driving the RV down from Michigan. Classic. Another friend got pickpocketed. We ate like pigs and drank nonstop. I went back during the Jazz Festival. It was much more laid back, the town, more empty.

[xmas74]

59. I had to go to NO as a dumb, drunk college student.

It was the first time that I felt completely at home somewhere. The people were "different" and not only was that acceptable but actually expected! I fell in love w/ the town and used to dream of moving there.

She's not gone-she's too proud to be gone. She'll pull out somehow. She has to.