[Late August, 1982. Using the Fountain Bay Club Hotel as a base, my sister Linda and I headed into the French Quarter for the first time. The hotel apparently doesn't exist anymore in 2008, at least under that name. Linda's notes and initial impressions from 1982 continue:]
Bourbon Street -- clashing neon, voices, nudes, smells . . . sounds of jazz -- digging it all because it's tacky, it's humanity, it's beat. . . . . Black balded older jazzman screaming sax playing [Linda also played saxophone], white suited dude screaming cocaine and hard times down from his toes . . . Indian sax playing strolling jive playing sax man. Smiling fool guitar and bass were just great. Expensive drinks at 544 Club [544 Bourbon Street]. Then to Houlihan's [Restaurant and Bar, 315 Bourbon Street] to hear "cool" jazz circa 1960s' style with a fat mean old pojo'd sax man, groovy waitress, and big headed wild man stand up bass and Buddy Holly drummer -- golden lunch box artists. Ate poor boys (cheap, good hoagies on French bread) . . . in section of the city that really has double veranda black iron buildings along narrow streets. . . . .
5 comments:
Sounds like more fun than I typically have when I visit the Quarter.
Let's see ... 1982 ... one year out of highschool, but still shagging carts at the local grocery store. Would've rather been travelin' if I only had the money.
Thanks, y'all, for the comments.
Jim, by that time, I'd done Burger King, Pizza Transit Authority, and other fun. Money wasn't as much of an issue, given way easy access to the credit card noose . . . and thanks also to the kindness of family and friends a lot of the time.
Beautiful, beautiful!
Other than some of those places being gone, the experience, sights, sounds, smells--sounds the same. Thank God.
Wayne Sallee and some friends were walking along Bourbon one night and some guys sprayed them with Coke--we hope--after they'd walked past.
I said: "That's how we treat tourists in Louisiana. It's our way of saying welcome to our state."
Haven't been to the Crescent City in a while but it's a great place.
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