Happy New Year's From New Orleans...
It's been a year of travel. 2016 saw a couple of trips to Chicago, a vacation (as opposed to things that are serious business) to Puerto Rico, a European expedition, and our second visit to New Orleans. As I look back on all these things there seem to have been a common denominator that drove it all to happen and that was friends and family. We either made a visit to our peoples or attended some family event on all these trips. This past weekend was no different on another trip to New Orleans with what maybe some of our longest enduring adult friends.
There are lots of different kinds of friends. There are work friends. You seen them every day and you do well together. There are your childhood friends and that kind of bond. They will come to your funeral. Then there are the friends you make as adults, the ones that will put up with all your pushing and shoving during a New Orleans street parade, the ones that have hung with you and come back for more the next time you say "Lets go."
Let me see as I blog about this past weekend if I can connect all this up. Here is the crew. Front to back there is Charlie and Suzi, Cathy, and then Ellen and Scott.
Let's see if we can time line this. Seems I may have first met Charlie in 1976 or 77. He was not a hard guy to spot as he had hair down to his butt and a friend of mine was a friend of his brother. I want to say that I met Scott at the big house up on the hill (nuff said about that) and later Ellen and yes they were a couple way back in 1977 or 78. Suzi I met in maybe 1982 or 83 with an immediate bond formed over this New Orleans business that has been carrying on right up to the past weekend. Me and Cathy agree that while it was 1987 before we started dating it was maybe 1983 or 84 when we met. You got all that straight? Hopefully the others will chime in with some recall of this as we are all connected to each other through some different set of events. I think there have been several several lives, careers and self recreations undergone in all this time.
This photo on the doorstep of the house we rented. Two stories and three bedrooms in our younger days we would have piled 12 people in there. It's one of those homeaway type rentals with the owner right across the street. Very easy transaction. As we left he walked over and returned our deposit in cash. It's in a neighborhood just off Magazine Street a short walk from the bus stop down to Canal and a Street car ride along the river to the Quarter using a $9 three day pass.
There are lots of different kinds of friends. There are work friends. You seen them every day and you do well together. There are your childhood friends and that kind of bond. They will come to your funeral. Then there are the friends you make as adults, the ones that will put up with all your pushing and shoving during a New Orleans street parade, the ones that have hung with you and come back for more the next time you say "Lets go."
Let me see as I blog about this past weekend if I can connect all this up. Here is the crew. Front to back there is Charlie and Suzi, Cathy, and then Ellen and Scott.
Let's see if we can time line this. Seems I may have first met Charlie in 1976 or 77. He was not a hard guy to spot as he had hair down to his butt and a friend of mine was a friend of his brother. I want to say that I met Scott at the big house up on the hill (nuff said about that) and later Ellen and yes they were a couple way back in 1977 or 78. Suzi I met in maybe 1982 or 83 with an immediate bond formed over this New Orleans business that has been carrying on right up to the past weekend. Me and Cathy agree that while it was 1987 before we started dating it was maybe 1983 or 84 when we met. You got all that straight? Hopefully the others will chime in with some recall of this as we are all connected to each other through some different set of events. I think there have been several several lives, careers and self recreations undergone in all this time.
This photo on the doorstep of the house we rented. Two stories and three bedrooms in our younger days we would have piled 12 people in there. It's one of those homeaway type rentals with the owner right across the street. Very easy transaction. As we left he walked over and returned our deposit in cash. It's in a neighborhood just off Magazine Street a short walk from the bus stop down to Canal and a Street car ride along the river to the Quarter using a $9 three day pass.
The gang in the bar of The Pelican Club where we ate a revillion dinner.
Merry Christmas and Happy New year from the Pelican Club.
Scott and Ellen were new to New Orleans. Here they have a breakfast before the Sugar Bowl Parade. They wanted to make this trip with the experts.
Speaking of experts, here's Suzi and Charlie planning strategy as the next bead throwing float approaches.
Cathy gives free lessons on bead catching if you are interested.
After Cathy snatched away beads from her a few times Ellen gets the hang of it.
The girls. Can you imagine what a job it is with a crew like this roaming the Quarter?
When it comes right down to it I think I could pull a few blog posts from my first visit to New Orleans that too place about 1983. I will surely be writing about this weekend and these people for some time to come.
Labels: jazz fest, New Orleans
posted by Carl at 10:12 AM
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