New Orleans
Funny I keep seeing so many references to the beads and the boobs, I guess I never realized how much about New Orleans people don’t consider.
There is so much culture there the normal person is in awe at just the surface. The Cajun and Creole cultures with their French attributes as well as the large African American population made for one of the most unique and warm places, and I always I felt at home there. I remember when I was about 18, it was nothing to leave straight from work on a Friday night and drive straight to Metairie to stay with a bunch of people who had all driven from as far as Mobile or Houston. We never thought twice about walking through the black neighborhoods that usually cause people to reach over and lock their doors, because we knew how most people there were. The state itself is very poor as far as individual income, but God did they make up for it with character. So much love for people and love for fun those people have.
One of my favorite memories was once when a large group of us decided to have a fire out on the beach and stayed out there laughing and cutting up until 4 in the morning. We called ourselves “itnesses” because we weren’t good enough to have the W. But man did we laugh and enjoy the nights. If you’ve never been there in the spring or fall you can’t really know the smells of Louisiana, even though it’s still a little warm, the breezes and the sound of the trees in the wind bring a peace I have known in few other places.
The French Quarter to most is where you go for Mardi Gras, but to me it was history, like stepping back into another time. Patterned after the cities people has immigrated to New Orleans from in the 1800’s, and influenced by the other unique cultures all blended like a true melting pot, it has such beauty to it. When I needed to escape life, I used to love to retreat to an old hotel made from a house smack dab in the middle of the Quarter. From there it was a 30 minute walk to Mothers restaurant, where the sweetest old black lady knew me by my last name only, and always said “hey sugar, what can I get you”. She was that way with everyone, but was just as sincere as the day is long. The funny thing about the place was you had to wait in line outside first, and I know so many people probably passed the place up because of it. But the outside line, although long, only lasted about 5 minutes. The old man working there would walk around outside and yell at you “THIS IS THE TRAINING LINE, ONCE YOU GET IT RIGHT, YOU GO TO THE REAL LINE”. Once a little guy from up north asked the man about the ingredients in the food, I assume because he had some preference for what he did not want in it, and the guy looked at him sternly and bellowed “I DON’T KNOW WHAT’S IN IT, I JUST KNOW IT’S GOOD, ISN’T THAT ALL THAT MATTERS? IT’S THE BEST FOOD YOU EVER HAD, JUST EAT IT”. He was right too; I’d damn near kill myself on that food.
Still, the greatest thing I remember about the place is no matter where I went, within 5 minutes, and not at any kingdom hall, men called me brother and women called me sugar, and both meant it.
That’s what the place meant to me.
WLG