Our Visit to New Orleans, or a What Hath Katrina Wrought MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Part The First: Having Fun

As we have been told repeatedly, we moved away from New Orleans with astonishingly good timing, selling our house and leaving a month to the day before Katrina. We, of course, didn’t feel lucky, knowing so many places and people we knew and loved had gone through so much. We were finally able to make a trip back for French Quarter Festival, our favorite music festival, and then stayed a few more days to visit old friends and places.

First, the good news: The old house is still there and looks just fine. As does the old neighborhood – a couple of trees down (although not, fortunately, Miss Mary’s pine trees across the street) and a bit of minor roof damage seemed to be all anyone suffered. Unfortunately, we could never catch the new owners at home to see what it looks like inside now. Although I’m not sure I want to know. Damn, I loved that house.

We arrived Friday evening at the New Orleans Airport, and were immediately shocked at how deserted much of the airport is – half of it is simply not being used right now. It was very sad. Sadder still, the wonderful food at uninflated prices that used to be a highlight of the airport has been replaced by the typical overpriced crap. It was our first heartbreak.

Anyway, we were staying in the French Quarter, so of course we had to do the obligatory walking around seeing the sights. The tourist areas of New Orleans were relatively undamaged, and have since been repaired and are back up in (nearly) full swing – while the zoo, and the steamboat you can take to the zoo are in full operation, the St. Charles streetcar line is still under repairs, so you can only ride the streetcars along the river or up Canal right now. But the St. Charles streetcar tracks are still useful (the bus in the background makes me cringe, though – buses should not be on St. Charles Avenue!). And, of course, the leftover Mardi Gras beads still hang from the overhead wires and decorate the trees (hence the constant effort to persuade kids that the beads grow on trees).

The next morning we got up, swung by the nearby Wal-Mart to pick up portable chairs (remember the store where the cops were looting buggies full of DVDs? That’s the one) and rain ponchos and umbrellas (in purple/green/gold, of course), and headed off to the festival. The festival is held all along the river, with stages set up there as well as scattered around the Quarter. We approached via the Brass Band Stage, which is just in front of the aquarium and IMAX. We then had our second heartbreak: The lovely grove of trees that we used to sit under to enjoy all the wonderful Dixieland jazz are almost all gone. I realize they’re only trees, but their loss makes everything look so different. And they’ll take at least a generation to grow back.

Since I was only six weeks out from my knee replacement surgery, I opted not to wander too much, so I spent the majority of the day at the Brass Band Stage, although we did ride the streetcar down to the Old Mint to see a wonderful zydeco group, Jeremy & the Zydeco Hot Boyz. We’d seen them perform five years ago, at which time Jeremy was 14. :eek: He’s now an elderly 19. And an incredibly accomplished musician. In fact, their uncle, who plays bass, is the only over-21 in the entire group.

But the rest of the day, and the next, were spent doing the first of our favorite activities at the festival: Listening to various brass bands – Bone Tone, Society, Rebirth (which plays amazing funk), and a conglomeration known as the Arabi Wrecking Krewe All-Star Brass Band – started by a bunch of guys who were gutting houses together, and only playing for fundraisers. Plus anyone who wants to join them is welcome; this time they ended up with 15 guys onstage, including a 14-year-old trumpet player, another trumpeter from New York and a drummer from Germany. They did a fundraiser to help rebuild the home of Al “Carnival Time” Johnson, who you probably don’t know by name but might recognize as the composer of many well-known tunes, including “Shake, Rattle & Roll.” He performed a medley with the band while they passed the hat; at that point they’d raised over $10,000 in just a couple of weeks.

One of the highlights of the festival was seeing Kermit Ruffins get married onstage! (Don’t you love the minister’s shorts and t-shirt?)

The second favorite activity is eating. The festival is known for its Jazz Brunch, featuring heavenly food in large portions at great prices. Among other things, we ate:

  • shrimp & garlic cheese grits
  • crawfish bread
  • pralines
    -crabmeat ravioli
    -praline creme brulée

Needless to say, it was all incredibly delicious and unbelievably rich!

And the third favorite activity is people-watching. Among my favorites:

A girl with a really cute puppy
A guy with a lime-green mohawk
A hat decorated with Mardi Gras Krewe logos (yes, that one does say “Alla Coonass”)
Two cute sisters dancing
A girl with really nasty dreadlocks
A guy who we’ve seen leading secondline parades at events all over town
This really weird dude who got out and “performed” with a broom, a golf club, and a stethoscope
Best of all, a Cajun who apparently had duded himself all up and just gotten off the shrimp boat – as if the leather hat, pink shirt with the nasty polyester suit, and scary clown face belt buckle weren’t elegant enough, his footwear took the prize – the nastiest pair of shrimping boots I have ever seen!

So the French Quarter Festival was definitely a success. But next was the part we knew would be difficult – visiting old friends and seeing old places and all the damage.

Continued in next post

2

Part The Second: The Mississippi Gulf Coast

As the festival ended, I discovered that my camera had somehow gotten reset to a higher resolution than I’d intended to use, so instead of having about 120 photos available, I only had about 40 – and I’d filled my card. So our first order of business Monday was to find a new card. Which we did – a 2 gig card – but alas, my camera was too old to run it. So the following day we found a last-year’s-model 5.1 megapixel camera on sale for $79 and I was fine with a camera again; but alas, I had no camera the day we drove through Mississippi. Which is just as well; how many photos of utter devastation can you take before they all look the same?

Anyway, we headed east out of New Orleans to see Mississippi. We used to love the Gulf Coast, and went there often, just to drive along and look at the beautiful old homes and ancient live oak trees, many several hundred years old. So seeing how it’s recovering was a must.

New Orleans East was as destroyed as we’d heard; mile after mile of boarded up apartment buildings, closed businesses (except for a VERY few – home repair places, a few fast food restaurants, and oddly enough, car dealers – would YOU want to buy a used car in New Orleans right now? Hah!), and the roller coasters of the former Six Flags park sitting falling apart in the midst of a giant pool. It was sobering, to say the least.

We stopped in Slidell at a Mardi Gras bead store to ask whether the coast highway was open across Bay St. Louis, and ended up spending quite some time talking with the owner, who told us about how her house, seven miles inland and at a 15-foot elevation, had nevertheless had 22 feet of water in it from the storm surge. And after what we saw the rest of the day, I totally believe it.

We left the freeway and drove down the old highway, U.S. 90, as soon as we could. The bridge across Bay St. Louis is still out; they’ve fixed the railroad bridge, but the auto bridge isn’t quite completed, so they’re running a free ferry. Waiting for the ferry, every building we could see along the shore was either a destroyed hulk or a brand-new building – that was the area that got the very worst of Katrina, and it really showed.

We ended up driving slowly down the coast as far as Biloxi, stopping to eat at our favorite casino buffet that is, fortunately, back up and running. It was sobering to see how few businesses still remained, however. In fact, I’d say that less than 10% of the homes or business buildings are still standing, and of those, less than 10% have been repaired and are in use again. The destruction pattern was very hit-or-miss, too – there were long stretches where there was nothing but bare concrete slabs, and then suddenly there would be a row of houses relatively undamaged (at least in rebuildable condition).

It was also sad but interesting to see what had happened to the trees. There was virtually no tree left with anything above about the 20-foot line – even the branches were mostly blown off. However, what remains of the trees has started blooming again like there’s no tomorrow – they’ll be full again in a short time, even if it’ll be another generation (at least) before they’re as tall as they once were. And, of course, many trees are completely gone. What this has done to the population that lived there is truly unimaginable. Please don’t forget about these folks; they still need our help, desperately.

All in all, it was really heartbreaking to see how utterly devastated the Mississippi coast is. I doubt it will ever be back to the way it was; or if it is, it probably won’t happen in my lifetime. It was such a lovely area, with miles of gracious old homes sheltered under huge spreading live oaks. I’m glad I at least have the memory of it as it was, since I won’t see it that way again.

Continued (and concluded) in next post

3

Part The Third: Old Friends and Familiar Places

First on the agenda Tuesday was a trip to the store to get the new camera, so I once again have photos to accompany my scintillating narrative.

We made some personal visits – to see Johnny, a former coworker of Papa Tiger’s, and to stop by the drugstore to see our old pharmacist, Tuyen. We were shocked to learn that about a week after we left, just before Katrina, her husband died after a sudden illness. He was in his 30s. :frowning:

Mostly we just drove around and looked at familiar places – the spot where we used to watch the Mardi Gras parades that rolled near our house; **whiterabbit’s ** favorite Vietnamese restaurant; the speed trap where the speed limit sign is barely 2 feet above ground where Papa Tiger got caught once; my favorite children’s store, Rosie’s Youthful Stouts; a pumping station that was built shortly before Katrina and never has worked as designed, by all accounts; some iron doors on the old Customs House downtown, which was once the site of slave auctions (and is still rumored to have slave shackles somewhere in the basement); and a whole bunch of beautiful old homes Uptown, including my favorite (which does gorgeous white lights at Christmas), as well as the lovely old Touro Synagogue.

Wednesday, our last day in town, we had a nice visit with an old friend, Gloria, who we met when she was running the dog rescue we adopted our dogs from. So she had to hear all about their lovely lives in Maryland, swimming and enjoying a real dog’s life.

And finally, we went to a free concert in Lafayette Square – they have a series of late afternoon concerts on Wednesdays through the spring, and we hit the jackpot and got to see Irma Thomas. It was fun dancing along with Irma, and I whiled away the time waiting for her to come onstage by seeing how well my camera could pick up the lovely figures atop the Court of Appeals building across the street. This is the view from where I was sitting, so I’m quite pleased with the camera! At the end of the concert, we found some nice folks to give our chairs to since we couldn’t take them home on the plane. And we then headed over to Mother’s Restaurant for some red beans & rice, as the perfect ending to our trip.

Thursday morning we boarded the plane for home. It was a wonderful trip, and all the dancing must have been good for my knee; I returned home with it feeling much stronger than it was when I’d arrived. I also probably gained 10 pounds, which is normal for a New Orleans visit, but mostly I came away with a sense of hope – the whole area really is working hard to get back to normal. So everyone, please go visit! You’ll have a fabulous time!

4

Thanks, Mama Tiger, yer making me so Homesick for Nola, but in a good way. My sis is a resident, and have heard always, since the devastation, so much about it all. It really is the Best Place on Earth; best music, food, and Attitude. It will come back, with some time.

5

Woot! I’m FIRST! I can’t believe it. Well, I can, it’s 10:25 pm here, and all of you lovely folks are snoring away.

That was a fantastic OP, Mama Tigs!. My favorite part was the pictures of the stately homes. Those homes have character. Don’t get me wrong, I love and appreciate the newer architecture, as long as it has interesting lines. But, the old homes have grace that is rarely found in newer styles. I also really like the interiors of many of the craftsman style homes.

Well, damn, on preview I found someone snuck in here while I was typing. Dangit.

Anyway, it sounds like your trip was very lovely, if not a little sad in some places. I’ve never been to New Orleans, although I did drive through parts of Louisiana back in 1989 while I was on the road with my husband. I saw tons o’ bayous.

Also, did that guy with the horrible suit and boots do that on purpose?! Goodness, I was hearing banjo music from Deliverance when I saw that guy!

Back to work tomorrow. I don’t want to go, but I 've got a short-fuse project that is LARGE and needs doing. I got it at the end of the day on Friday. :rolleyes: Lucky me…NOT.

I need a vacation, dammit. I’ve got plenty of leave, but I keep hoarding it because I’m taking 80 hours in August and the rest I want available for emergencies or the occasional mental health day. I’m sitting at 60 hours use or lose right now, and I still have, what, seven months left in the year. I earn eight hours of annual leave (vacation) every two weeks, plus four hours of sick leave. You’d think I’d take a little more leave. I’m thinking I’ll take a couple days in June or July. We’ll see. Plus, I’m taking the Friday before Memorial Day off. I’ll turn that into a four day weekend.

Gas prices here are freakin’ scary. I’ve watched the price of gas go up 20 cents in less than a week. It’s sitting at $3.29 for regular unleaded right now. Our state attorney general has announced an investigation. Of course, results won’t be known until after the summer. :rolleyes: :dubious: :mad:

Yeah, they’ll say the investigated and tell us they couldn’t come up with anything that shows we are being deliberately reamed. We are paying some of the highest gas prices in the NATION. Why?! We have refineries just north of us. Oh, yeah, they’re shut down…AGAIN. For whatever stupid reason.

We are taking a trip in August to the other side of the state. We’re taking the boat. I’m scared to death of what gas will cost us then. That dang boat takes 35 gallons to fill it. Plus, towing the boat will burn even more gas, especially as we go over the pass on I-90.

Yardwork never did get done. I took my shower right after I posted in last weeks MMP. However, I ended up snoozing for a bit, then I rushed to the grocery store and stocked up on food. After that, I came home and chatted with my friend a neighbor and introducing myself to her new little puppy. Then I came back here and made dinner. We BBQ’d some hamburgers that I’d made with Liptons Beefy Onion soup and a little BBQ seasoning. We topped them off with some Tillamook Cheddar. We had black beans and rice as a side. Anyway, it was tasty and easy.

I’m going to go watch the news. See ya tomorrow night.

6

New Orleans is the one US city I’m missing in my Must See List… you’re giving me pangs!

Moved to French apartment. Got furniture in, missing a few chairs. Why are chairs always the hardest part? Why is it that the only chairs I’ve ever found completely comfortable are the old style called Sevillanas, which aren’t supposed to be ergonomic or anything but apparently were designed with spanish asses in mind? Why are ergonomic chairs always uncomfortable? Kitchen appliances arriving on Wednesday, yoo and hoo. Located several hairdressers nearby whose posters aren’t scary (unlike most of the posters I saw on the Swiss side) and which work beyond my office hours (unlike all the hairdressers I saw on the Swiss side).

The French apartment has something I’d seen before in Barcelona old houses, which Mom calls “French-style bathroom”: the actual bathroom is one room, the toilet is in another. At the grandparents’ the toilet room has only the toilet; in my French apartment there’s also a handsbasin. So now I don’t have my toothbrush in the same room as my toilet bowl, are you envious yet?

7

LILI IS PREGGERS!!!11!!eleven!

CoooooooooOOOOOOool

Now, don’t tell anybody until you’re at least 4 months along. Well, of course you can tell us, and your Mom and the Daddy and QD and so forth (isn’t it nice of me to give you permission to do what you already did?), but don’t tell other people because then if it doesn’t hold you have to tell a lot more people and if it holds you’ll get people asking “when is it due” daily for something like the last 6 months. Us you can tell because we’re trustworthy and won’t be asking when is it due again and again :slight_smile:

The obgyn tried to murder me prebirth half a dozen ways and then Mom subjected me to the deeeelites of Proper Rearing, and look how I turned out. Do me a favor and use any pregnancy books you’re given as a prop for tables with a leg too short, unless they happen to be the kind written by someone with a sense of humor.

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Most excellent OP BioMamaTigs, New Orleans is on my list of places to see. I agree with Taters that the stately homes are my favorite. I was meant to live in one of those gorgeous homes, with multiple balconies, wide front porches, and all the special touches I imagine when I daydream about being a Southern Belle!

I hope that this week brings you some peace at work Taters, and hopefully gas prices will drop before you head over Snoqualmie Pass. What part of the dry side are you planning to vacation at? When I was a kid we used to camp just out of Cle Elum, down Bullfrog Road on the banks of the Cle Elum River. I have many pleasant memories of that place and time.

Yay on the move Nava, sorry about the chairs. And yes, I am envious that your toothbrush and toilet do not share the same room!

We had breakfast for dinner, link sausage, pancakes, and my world famous cheese eggs with salsa, yummy! I haven’t made cheese eggs in ages, and there are enough ingredients that I may have them again in the morning!

The situation here at home is a bit tense still, but he is trying to make amends, and trying is a huge step from what has been going on. I will admit to watching several seriously savage movies while he was out fishing, vicarious decapitations and other amputations helped my soul vent. Probably the best for that was Braveheart. It was also nice in that I have recently found that Robert the Bruce as well as Edward I are ancestors of mine.

Well, it is an early 10:16 pm here, and the sky is still light. We are at almost 16 hours of day length and gaining about 5 minutes a day, woot! Off to bed for me.

9

Who’s snoring? I am still awake, only got home a little while ago.

BioTigs, cool trip. I have never been to New Orleans.

Nava, congrats on the apartment. I remember moving into this apartment, it had new carpet. For about a week.

kai, don’t get any ideas. :eek: :wink:

10

Oh dear, I forgot to make congratulatory exclamations to li-li and Mr. Lissar…Congratulations!!! I have, as you must all be tired of hearing by now, four kids, and have nurtured many preggos and been in on the deliveries of babies not mine. Also, my oldest is preggers, so it’s always baby time in my world. If you have questions feel free to ask me, and if I don’t know I can probably direct you to the answer. The cat box thing, well, as someone stated in last week’s thread, you have probably been exposed already, but it doesn’t hurt to have on of the husbands taking care of the litter. Be prepared for total strangers telling you the most bizarre old wives tales, my mother told me that reaching over my head would cause the baby to strangle in the womb (not true) and in the village I heard gems such as don’t stop half in/half out of a doorway or the baby will get stuck while being delivered, and if I cut my hair I would be cutting the baby’s life short. Oh, and in the village it is customary to keep the bit of umbilical cord, as if it is tossed the baby/child/adult will always be a wanderer, looking for it’s tie to the mother. Not enough roll eyes in the world to cover some of the nonsense I have heard. You ought to be feeling sleepy most of the time, nap now, as sleep will be in short supply once baby makes it’s arrival. I advise prenatal vitamins (IANAD) as they made me feel healthy, and they have the right amount of folic acid and such, so you don’t need to chow down tons of dark leafy vegetables.

However, most importantly, relax. You will not give birth to a terrible child, you will experience the most joyous part of being a woman, and I offer many prayers for an uneventful pregnancy, and an easy delivery. Lord bless the three Lissars.

11

hehehe…but db I get such a feeling of satisfaction when I mentally whack him with my six foot sword…whack whack whack! That’s what he gets for making me cry and get all emotional! :smiley:

12

I’m glad to see that somebody noticed. Thanks Mama Tiger. A lot of us here feel like the whole country just doesn’t care. :frowning:

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Great OP, BioTigs - the photos are lovely too, I’m envious of your visit.

Nava - congrats on the French apartment, despite the lack of chairs, and great news about the hairdressers. Does this mean we’ll get more pics of the updated Nava-look?

Kai - still sending positive thoughts your way, although a bit of hack and slash can be extremely therapeutic!

It’s Monday, I’m at work, not quite having domestic bliss but it could be worse, and I’m in the middle of a friend apparently barreling towards relationship meltdown and not caring two hoots about it. So much for the quite life.

I’m going to the gym tonight. I haven’t been there for months what with one thing and another. I hope Gym appreciates my sacrifices.

14

Congrats, LiLi! SexHusband shoots and scores!

An odd coincidence is that the next unit to cover in my EMT class is Ob/Gyn… :eek:

In old news, my apparent tennis elbow still hurts, and I chewed up my knees fixing the roof of the train shed Saturday. Ouch and ouch.

Friday, I went to my first auto accident as part of the Rescue squad, and helped saw out the windshield of a car flipped onto its side to free a trapped woman. She was unhurt, and simply could not get out. :slight_smile:

The nerdmobile is fixed again. The blown spark plug was no charge, but I got clipped for $75 for a new front end alignment.

VunderKind is in the middle of finals. Wish him luck…

BioTigs, VWife used to live in Nawlins and Biloxi, so I’ve seen a lot of the area, but I haven’t been there since my kid was in grade school. She’s still sick from the news of Katrina. The upshot of all this is that I’m one of the few Yankees around that can pronounce Tchopitoulas…

15

Great OP BioTigs! It is so sad to see how much of the Mississippi coast is devastated but they will come back. Nawlins always has been and always will be one of my favorite cities. It will be back. That’s just the way those folks are. NinetyWt y’all have been in my thoughts and prayers the whole time.

I’m up and caffienated. Soon I’ll be job searchin’ and all that fun stuff. It’s gonna be low nineties today and all week. Summer is arrivin’ in south Jawja!

Nava I’m pleased you’ve found potential hairdressers. The thought of you havin’ to run around all unproperly coiffed has been almost too much to bear. :smiley:

Good luck on the finals Vunderkind! OOH and Bobbio can be on standby to help deliver LiLi’s baby!

16

That was lovely, MamaTigs- such cool pics! I love Vietnamese food. It’s the very best type of Asian. It’s even better than Korean, which is very yummy. So whiterabbit has excellent taste- I commend her. :smiley:

Thanks kai. I’ll be praying for you and your family. Don’t worry- I am planning to attach myself obnoxiously to the legs of anyone I think can help. Attacks Husband’s Mom is a nurse who’s taught breastfeeding and done a lot of pregnancy and postpartum specializing. I plan to phone her all the time. I already designated litterbox care to Mr. Lissar, and he’s quite happy to do it. I’m sure I’ve been exposed heavily, but I hate cleaning the litterbox.

Ouch, Nava. Thanks. I’m waffling between telling my manager fairly soon after I visit the doctor, and letting him figure it out. He’s not very perceptive. It could take six months. “Gee, Lissla is getting awfully plump. I wonder why?”. I’m just thinking about laying groundwork with him for possible spontaneous sick days and stuff.
We’re thinking about moving. We love our apartment, but the laundry is five blocks away. As Mr. Lissar said last night, “Five blocks away. In winter, eight or nine months pregnant, or with a newborn throwing up and neeeding clean diapers. No. We’re moving.”

Bob, Best Friend’s Husband congratulated Mr. Lissar thusly. “Congratulations. I see you put your back into it.” Apparently that’s what he always says to expectant fathers. Great.
And now it’s time for me to make my way to said laundromat and also to phone my doctor.

17

Haven’t you explained to Mr Lissar that he needs to be doing the laundry for you? It’s the human equivalent of doing the litterbox. Honestly, men…no idea, have they? Unless you’re happy to move, that is.

The consensus around here is that you shouldn’t tell your boss until at least after the first scan (12 weeks?) although never having been in that situation, I couldn’t possibly comment!

18

Good Morning Kiddies.

First and foremost, Awsome MMP, Mama T! I spent 3 months as a travel nurse in NOLA, many many years ago. Your pictures brought me many happy memories. I was there in the spring. I caught the Jazz festival, which I think, might be the origin of the French Quarter festival. It was in late April.
When I went, is was held at the race track. There were stages in Jackson Park too.
So, thanks for the memories.

NinetyWt, we do care. It was FEMA that didn’t. The real people did what we could.
There are still some people here, who were relocated here. We have neighbors who decided to stay.

Lissla Lissar, have a happy pregnancy, and a healthy baby, 'k? Congratulations.

And to you, Swampy, GET A JOB! :smiley: Good luck, you’re talented, it’ll come. Soon enough you’ll be whining about having to get up soooo early, and your annoying cow-workers.

VunderBob, if the planets are in correct alignment, you should be doing your first freeway side delivery any day now! :smiley:

19

Bleh. Work.

**LiLi, **I hear tell (through various blogs) that the Girlfriends pregnancy books suck, so don’t read those. My cousin had What to Expect When You’re Expecting, which I read a bit of. It was very detailed with all the things that would be happening to you and the babe during whichever week.

I’d like to do the MMP one week, but I can’t compare to all the interesting stories all of y’all always have when it’s your turn.

20

I’ve decided that if the VunderLair becomes a casualty in some great disaster that strikes Mayberry, I won’t let those FEMA bastards on my property. Doesn’t matter that the sheriff is a friend of mine, or that I’ll probably be doing the rescuing myself.

“Hi. I’m from the FedGov, and I’m here to help.”

“Good. Meet my vicious dog Loki (a baldfaced lie if there ever is one), and Mr. Winchester, my 12 gauge…”

That’s why half of my monthly mortgage payment is homeowner’s insurance.