Bay St. Louis was dressed in its summer finery on the evening of July 3, 2005. Over in the yard at Our Lady of the Gulf Church, a blue-jeans-and-shorts crowd did its part to devour the crustaceans served at the annual Crab Festival. A country-pop band added rhythm to the evening. Seeing people you know […]
But can you buy beer there? The New Orleans Saints take on the Chicago Bears (Nov. 7) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Dec. 4) in Tiger Stadium. That is, Death Valley. Home of 2004 SEC Champion LSU Tigers. Maybe the good gris-gris will rub off on the boys in black and gold as they play […]
Celebrating New Orleans in Ascona For those who think Switzerland is all mountains, cows and leather shorts, it may come as a surprise to learn that another Switzerland exists, one where endless sunshine, vineyards and pizza are the norm, and nobody yodels – at least not in public. I’m in Ticino, the Italian-speaking canton of […]
This saga will not have a Camelot-like ending. There will be no weeping Arthur bemoaning the loss of his idyllic kingdom, no metaphorical young prince at his side suggesting hope in the distant future. For those of us who have loved New Orleans, the distant future is too long to wait. The city where we […]
“Down in New Orleans where the blues was born,” begins that floor-thumper “Mardi Gras Mambo.” Wonderful lines, though history has identified the Mississippi Delta as the blues cradle. Elijah Wald, a writer and musician who has a home here, performs a dazzling journey through the music’s origins in Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the […]
The drumbeats of voodoo did not die when its legendary leader, Marie Laveau, did. A century of hostile policemen who raided its gatherings, City Council members who passed foolish laws against it, and credulous newspaper reporters who libeled it did not stop it. Slavery and segregation only made it stronger. Voracious tourists and the media […]
No one realized the irony implicit in the very title “Wheel of Fortune” when the game show set up its stage and cameras in New Orleans only days before the arrival of Hurricane Katrina. Contestants and fans of the program looked forward to the show, which planned to tape three weeks’ worth of episodes at […]
Bay St. Louis was dressed in its summer finery on the evening of July 3, 2005. Over in the yard at Our Lady of the Gulf Church, a blue-jeans-and-shorts crowd did its part to devour the crustaceans served at the annual Crab Festival. A country-pop band added rhythm to the evening. Seeing people you know was already an ordinary occurrence in Bay St. Louis, especially if you are from New Orleans. More than any other place along the coast, Bay St. Louis was New Orleans’ beach town. It was the closest and the quaintest coastal village from the city, only about an hour’s drive away. Once they crossed the Interstate 10 bridge over the Pearl River, New Orleanians could begin their mental decompression from daily stress and be in idle by the time they reached the bay town.
Along North Beach Boulevard, those who had not been totally seduced by the Crab Fest’s offerings could dine at the recently renovated Dock of the Bay. Historian Stephen Ambrose, who had a house in the town, could sometimes be seen at the Dock taking advantage of the gulf view.
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