Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Here's a good op-ed piece from the NY Times: New Orleans in Peril.
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Since I can remember, every August we visited my grandmother who lived in Mobile, Alabama. Many times we visited New Orleans, driving through Biloxi and Gulfport to get there. And the best times were when we rented a beach house on Dauphin Island, a barrier island south of Mobile. Then as I got older I went to Jazz Fest in New Orleans, eventually getting married at Longue Vue Gardens. In recent years my mom bought a place on Duaphin Island.
Memories are flowing through my mind of so many events big and small that have happened in my life in this area of the Gulf Coast that has seen so much destruction these last couple of days. The best way I can pay tribute to this great region is to run through some of my memories.
In New Orleans: getting my car towed at Jazz Fest and trying to find it; going to the Glass House which had one bare bulb for light to see the Rebirth Brass Band; eating numerous oyster poboys at a great Poboy shop on St. Charles and stopping almost everytime I was in town; going to all the great record shops in town with my friends and being bored to tears; driving to Dauphin Island from Austin, TX with my son and stopping at the Central Grocery to get muffulettas and eating them in the car in front of the store at least twice; over the years eating many muffulettas from Central Grocery; taking my son to the Aquarium; walking around in the rain and the mud at Jazz Fest and seeing Alan Toussaint completely clean in all white and him stopping to chat with us; Mardi Gras Indians; when I was a kid wandering Bourbon Street at night; eating at Brennan's when I was young; trying to keep powdered sugar off my clothes eating beignets and drinking chicory coffee at Cafe Du Monde; a variety of great soul food joints whose names I can't remember; the amazing vibe.
Gulfport: sailing from Destin, Florida with my dad and staying at a hotel across from the marina; many years later, eating with some great friends at a great seafood place at the same marina; a really big, really funky touristy beach shop, with a legless man propped up behind the counter in a Lazyboy; the same shop a couple years later, but the legless man was gone.
Dauphin Island: playing on the beach when I was a kid; taking our dog to the beach; my grandmother taking her dog out into the ocean on an air mattress; beach fires and s'mores with sand in them; my mom's condo; Thanksgivings at my mom's condo with many friends; the drive on the causeway coming into Dauphin Island; going to Ship and Shore and finding whatever you needed; the hurricane ravaged Holiday Inn many years ago; the funky seafood places that are usually really good; the great shrimp from Captain Daves; the beach town/fishing town/south Alabama vibe--I love it; riding the packed ferry to Gulf Shores with confederate civil war reenactors and feeling releived I had Texas license plates and not New York plates.
* * * * * *
Since I can remember, every August we visited my grandmother who lived in Mobile, Alabama. Many times we visited New Orleans, driving through Biloxi and Gulfport to get there. And the best times were when we rented a beach house on Dauphin Island, a barrier island south of Mobile. Then as I got older I went to Jazz Fest in New Orleans, eventually getting married at Longue Vue Gardens. In recent years my mom bought a place on Duaphin Island.
Memories are flowing through my mind of so many events big and small that have happened in my life in this area of the Gulf Coast that has seen so much destruction these last couple of days. The best way I can pay tribute to this great region is to run through some of my memories.
In New Orleans: getting my car towed at Jazz Fest and trying to find it; going to the Glass House which had one bare bulb for light to see the Rebirth Brass Band; eating numerous oyster poboys at a great Poboy shop on St. Charles and stopping almost everytime I was in town; going to all the great record shops in town with my friends and being bored to tears; driving to Dauphin Island from Austin, TX with my son and stopping at the Central Grocery to get muffulettas and eating them in the car in front of the store at least twice; over the years eating many muffulettas from Central Grocery; taking my son to the Aquarium; walking around in the rain and the mud at Jazz Fest and seeing Alan Toussaint completely clean in all white and him stopping to chat with us; Mardi Gras Indians; when I was a kid wandering Bourbon Street at night; eating at Brennan's when I was young; trying to keep powdered sugar off my clothes eating beignets and drinking chicory coffee at Cafe Du Monde; a variety of great soul food joints whose names I can't remember; the amazing vibe.
Gulfport: sailing from Destin, Florida with my dad and staying at a hotel across from the marina; many years later, eating with some great friends at a great seafood place at the same marina; a really big, really funky touristy beach shop, with a legless man propped up behind the counter in a Lazyboy; the same shop a couple years later, but the legless man was gone.
Dauphin Island: playing on the beach when I was a kid; taking our dog to the beach; my grandmother taking her dog out into the ocean on an air mattress; beach fires and s'mores with sand in them; my mom's condo; Thanksgivings at my mom's condo with many friends; the drive on the causeway coming into Dauphin Island; going to Ship and Shore and finding whatever you needed; the hurricane ravaged Holiday Inn many years ago; the funky seafood places that are usually really good; the great shrimp from Captain Daves; the beach town/fishing town/south Alabama vibe--I love it; riding the packed ferry to Gulf Shores with confederate civil war reenactors and feeling releived I had Texas license plates and not New York plates.
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