We didn't have all that great a time in Newahlins, it was February and cold and mostly rainy around St. Valentine's Day. Not all that impressed with Bourbon Street even with the Confederacy of Dunces ringing 'round my brain. The people seemed OK and we had a really short mass on Sunday with the back 2 pews full of sleeping bums.
I was hunting up bookshops and we ended up between Jackson Square & Esplanade on Decatur Street. I think the first thing we noticed were the drink rails at just the right hight on all the posts along that section. There was a Margarittaville which, although cheesy, had the best bathrooms thusfar, but across the street I had noticed a kind of dutch-door open bar called Molly's and after visiting Central Grocery we made it back there and spent a couple of days hanging out.
I remember sitting facing the street listening to the juke box and hearing a certain tune that just grabbed me -- Mary's from Jersey and I'm an 80's Springsteen fan -- but I'm not sure it clicked with either of us till ten minutes in or so. It was "New York Serenade" from his second album and I'd never really paid so much attention to it.
Hell, I was seranading! The crowd was so cool, the afternoon had actually turned a kind of chilly but sunny wonderful hue. We met this wonderful gal named Natalie who was a nurse (I pray you're fine!!) who had had a few relationships with guys that had ended up with the guy telling her he discovered he was gay. And we met the current guy and could just tell it was gonna happen again.
Anyways, the red-beans-and-rice place next door was amazing. The ambience was "Be Nice or Leave" and we ran into some of the same great folks there.
I listen to that magically long Springsteen tune alot and just imagine myself there and the city back the way it was and hope it all ends up with the great people of New Orleans back home again.
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