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I Should Have Landed in New Orleans Just About Now
I should have landed in New Orleans just about now.
Four hours from now I should have checked into my hotel, showered, shaved, slipped on my white tie and tails and headed over to the Krewe’s secret ball. The ball requires that men are in white tie, but the women are permitted to attend in costume. So my date would look as if she stepped out of some 18th-century French tableau vivant.
Tomorrow, around 10 a.m., I’d be at Croissant d’Or having breakfast; a slice of Galette des Rois, washed down with chicory coffee. Then I’d have strolled down Ursalines to Decatur for my morning eye-opener, a frozen Irish coffee with Nocello in the window at Molly’s. I’d make sure to hoist my glass to the ashes of my friend Chris Christenberry that rest above the bar. On the way back to the hotel, I’d stop and light a candle and say a prayer for Chris at Saint Mary’s.
By 4 p.m. tomorrow, I would have had my fill of shrimp remoulade, crawfish etouffee, and souffled potatoes. Had my fill during the Krewe lunch at Antoine’s. Sipping, not sazeracs, but the true favorite cocktail of New Orleans: Crown Royal and ginger.
Sometime around 5 p.m. tomorrow, I’d be putting on my harlequin costume, preparing to ride a float named Intandem, from which I would throw beads to the crowd on the neutral ground of St Charles.
Thats pretty much been my Jeudi Gras and Vendredi Gras for the past 18 years or so.
I’m way past just starting out the back nine of my life. I’m probably somewhere on the 13th fairway. If I’m lucky, I have till 80 … maybe 85? Of that, maybe 10 or 12 good years left?
A handful of good years that I can still ride with my Krewe. A handful of good years that I can still leave a jazz club so late that I’m blinking in the sunlight. A handful of good years I can still go to the vendemia and have long lunches with an old friend.
And this damned virus has robbed the world (and robbed me) of one of those years.
Published in General
Thank you, China!
Yep. Plus I will say if you are in mourning and trying to rebuild your life the last year has been an incredible challenge. I don’t think the elites understand the amount of mental, spiritual, and physical pain these lockdowns have caused. They can’t really because we aren’t people to them we are game pieces to be moved. I hope you get back to your traditions soon.
I lived in New Orleans in the CBD for 18 months while working on a project for Hibernia (so now you know it was some time ago.) I got to see Mardi Gras twice, but only as a viewer from the street or one of the stands.
I loved the food, the Quarter, and the people I worked with. It was a great 18 months.
Which Krewe? We ride with Pontchartrain and would have been parading this past Saturday. Went and commiserated with some of our fellows and saw the houses, but it wasn’t the same.
Next year, darn it. Laissez les bon temps rouler!
Well, it’s a “mystical” crew, so I’m not supposed to say.
But by way of a clue … when I pass through French passport control, and the gendarmette sneers that I am wearing a fake tie, I reply that just because my purple, green, and gold, tie is not from a French bridle shop doesn’t mean that it’s fake.
Oh T.C. I so want some crawfish etouffee right now. My husband is from CENLA so we don’t have the NOLA Mardi Gras vibe but thanks for your post.
I made some gumbo this week because the super cold weather means gumbo weather to this Louisiana girl. I am glad for the house floats but no city has community the way NOLA does! Somebody die? Parade! Somebody get married? Parade! Saints lose in the playoffs? Parade! I feel a bit your loss.
T.C., let me know next time your in New Orleans. Which Krewe? Morpheus? (If so… dang!)
a Krewe that people often mistake for an old Phrench bridle company that makes overpriced handbags and scarves
Boy, could I go for some crawfish etouffee. There is a pretty good chance that next year’s grand Ricochet Meetup will be in New Orleans to coincide with the Jazz Fest.
Yum. My husband makes a great gumbo. He’s been making a base, freezing that in batches, and then adding the meat, etc so I’m getting more gumbo than before.
i generally catch both weekends & stay during the intersession, so keep me informed … although I fear, like last year, it will be canceled.
and while French quarter fest will probably also be canceled … since it happens the week before the first weekend of jazz fest, it is much much cheaper in terms of hotels and flights. so maybe a meet-up during French quarter fest might be a smarter play
We aren’t doing New Orleans this year. For 2021 the grand meetup will be in Kentucky in October. We are looking at 2022 for NO, and the pandemic shutdowns really ought to be over by then.
from your lips to God’s ears.
because if this isn’t over by 2022, I suspect we will become a “speakeasy” society; everybody will know everybody else is doing what the law prohibits, and nobody will care.