We had the usual buffet breakfast and set off into Savannah, Julia’s internet research had yielded Savannah Dan who did daily walking tours of the city. We found his starting point and waited. Julia had spoken to his wife on our mobile so we knew we were in the right place and several other couples arrived to reinforce our belief. Just after ten Savannah Dan appeared, He was slightly large than life, dressed in a pale cream seersucker suit and matching Panama hat, he introduced himself and saluted another man in our group who had also been in the US Military, when he got no real reaction from the ex-soldier he kept his salute in position and remarked, “I never drop mine until I get one back!” His victim threw him back a salute and the briefing continued, “As we will be on crossings cars should stop for us, but let me get the traffic stopped before you cross. They will yield to seersucker!”
His outline of the development of Savannah was very illuminating, he pointed out that the city was a grid of squares joined by streets; he claimed that at each square two sides were devoted to banking and commerce while the other two were housing. We were starting at Johnson Square, named for Governor Robert Johnson of South Carolina who had supported the colonists in their early stages.
The walk took us to the next square which was where Tomo-Chi-Chi, was buried. He was the great chief of the Yamacraws, the local tribe of native Americans, who had befriended the settlers and on his deathbed he announced that he wanted to be buried with his new friends. Some years later his gravesite which formed a monumental mound in the center of Wright Square was destroyed to make room for the erection of the Gordon Monument. The wife of the governor of the time took it upon herself to take up arms in defense of Tomo-Chi-Chi and managed to get a memorial placed in the square. On it an inscription reads: "In memory of Tom-o-chi-chi. The mico of the Yamacraws, The Companion of Oglethorpe, and the Friend and Ally of the Colony of Georgia." it is possible this is the only memorial erected for a Native American by descendants of European settlers.
SD told us that the ground around the stone is beaten flat and kept weed-free by the many Girl Scouts that he takes on tours, he gets them to run round the stone three times chanting, “Speak to us Tomo-Chi-Chi great Mico of the Yamacraw” when they complete their circuits he tells them to put their ears against the stone to hear what he says.
He then asks what they heard and someone always says, “Nothing!” To which he replies, “He always says that!” SD went on to say that there is always one Girl Scout who doesn’t get it, “Bless her heart” he remarked.
The best bit of the tour is Forrest Gump’s bench. First SD pointed out the iconic white steeple which the feather drifts past on the wind, then we reached Chipawa Square, there is a flowerbed by the roadside but no bench. This was where they filmed the opening scene, when Forrest is waiting for a bus. The first bus approaches from the right of the shot and Forrest remains seated. As SD pointed out, the bus arrives coming the wrong way down a one way street, this meant that in addition to all the other arrangements made for the filming the traffic was rerouted. There were most of the Savannah police and Sheriff’s department was at the shoot. There was no great excitement about the whole thing at the time; in fact most people felt that Tom Hanks looking stupid was not news. However, when the film broke box office records and won Oscars, Savannah regretted their previous indifference and wanted as much credit for their part in the venture as possible. They requested a bench to be placed in the municipal museum and the film makers obliged with one of several they had produced in fibre glass for studio takes. Meanwhile the original bench was unaccounted for, SD told us that when shooting was finally over and the circus was moving on, the props master faced with the choice of packing the bench away or offering it to anyone who wanted it he took the easier option, which is why it is in the back yard of a Savannah police sergeant to this day.
We had preceded a couple of blocks when Forrest Gump ran down the other side of the street, without breaking stride SD remarked, “That there is Forrest Gump. Coach. Just a local idiot.” Quoting straight from the movie.
We passed the home of the American Girl Scouts where they were founded. Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Low assembled 18 girls from Savannah, Georgia, on March 12, 1912, for a local Girl Scout meeting. She believed that all girls should be given the opportunity to develop physically, mentally, and spiritually. With the goal of bringing girls out of isolated home environments and into community service and the open air, Girl Scouts hiked, played basketball, went on camping trips, learned how to tell time by the stars, and studied first aid. It also, as SD told us, gave her something to do while her wealthy husband ignored her and brought his mistress into their house.
The tour was one of the best things we did on our entire trip; I would have loved to record the full commentary. When we passed the cemetery he told us two stories which stick with me.
When Henry Ford launched production of his Model T Ford he used a plentiful natural resource, Spanish Moss, to stuff the upholstery as it was so much cheaper than horse hair. Within weeks the mites in the vegetation had bitten all the drivers causing itching and soreness, this led to the first ever total recall, all 32 vehicles.
When Savannah was taken by the Union army their troops were billeted in the cemetery, they made space for their tents by breaking the headstones off at ground level and stacking them against the outer walls. They also evicted the remains from mausoleums in order to sleep inside. Less understandable was the looting from the bodies and the vandalism of headstones for humour, apparently by altering letters and numbers with their bayonet points they produced people who had died before they were born. SD was still quite bitter about all this and he remarked, “The North won the war but we got Sweet tea, Nascar and Lynyrd Skynyrd so its all good!”
While I was amused by his quip I actually take issue with the idea that the sort of hardened soldiers who had fought through the Civil War and seen all its horrors could be criticized for not being sensitive to the long dead in the territory of their enemy.
At the end of the tour we paid SD and he said that please feel free to write positive reviews of him on the various travel sites but could we please not claim he had any supernatural powers for fear of his next customers being disappointed that he couldn’t fly.
Our first stop in Savannah now we were free to explore was Leopold’s Ice Cream Parlour, SD had told us its story as we had passed, it basically combines the best ice cream in the world with movie memorabilia. Having originally opened in 1919 by three immigrant brothers from Greece: George, Peter, and Basil Leopold who learned the art of candy and dessert from an uncle who had already settled in America. The brothers perfected the secret formulas and created the world famous Leopold’s VeriBest ice cream. The original Leopold’s Ice Cream shop closed in 1969. Stratton Leopold, the youngest child of Peter Leopold, kept many of the original fixtures in storage while he pursued his dreams of working in Hollywood. On August 18 of 2004, Stratton and his wife Mary officially reopened the legendary family business. The original fixtures Stratton had kept were used, including the black marble soda fountain and wooden interior phone booth. The shop has a beautiful old-fashioned flair with some modern decorative additions – posters and props from Stratton Leopold’s film career.
We opted for a double scoop on a cornet and immediately realised that a single scoop would have been enough but it was so good.
Next we headed down to the dockside and walked along, as we strolled there was a fly past of two WW2 bombers and I got a great shot of the B17 Flying Fortress but the Liberator was almost out of range.
We next walked up Martin Luther King Street to the tourist information office, Julia went in and asked about the planes and the staff suggested going to visit the Museum of the Mighty Eighth Airforce.
We drove out to Pooler and found the Mighty Eighth Airforce Museum, it took me some time but I worked out eventually that the Eighth was a large combination of all the USAF aircraft operating out of the UK. These aircraft were either long range bombers or their escorts. The RAF undertook the night operations over occupied Europe and Germany while the Americans did the day light operations. Both forces suffered horrendous casualties, the RAF Bomber command suffered 55% losses over the duration of the war and the USAF were similar. I recently watched a programme on TV about the famous Dambuster raid, the Squadron Leader was Guy Gibson, he not only dropped the first bomb but he then followed the rest of his team down their bombing runs to draw some of the enemy antiaircraft fire, anyway his plane and crew returned safe from that raid but by the end of the war they were all dead.
Bomber Command has a personal significance for Julia’s family, her uncle Geoff, her mother’s brother aged 20, was killed on a bombing raid when his plane was shot down, of course that meant that Julia never knew Geoff, Uncle Albert survived the war despite being shot down over Holland. His story needs to be told, when the plane was on fire and doomed, he could not persuade another crew member to jump, and eventually he had to leave him. After being looked after by a Dutch family for several days, Albert decided that he could not keep putting them at risk and left their house. When he was captured and interrogated he asked innocently about which part of Germany he was in, hoping that this would imply he had been hiding from everyone since he had landed. It may have worked because I know he went back to visit the family after the war.
It was poignant then that the museum has an Escape and Evasion Exhibit which is housed within a helper’s home known as a safe house, which allowed many downed fliers to escape from Nazi-occupied countries and return to England.
The POW Exhibit explores daily life for those fliers captured by the Germans, including an examination of their treatment and living conditions, Albert was involved in a “Death March” as his POW camp was evacuated in the face of the allied advance but he survived again.
The exhibits were impressive; I always enjoy the real planes so the Museum’s very own B-17 Flying Fortress being restored as the “City of Savannah” had a special appeal. This time however I enjoyed as much a model of a USAF base showing the base of the 401st Bomb Group. Each 8th Air Force Bomb or Fighter Group had its own air base in England with a similar layout. I found it helped me understand what we had seen in York when we visited RAF Elvington which was a wartime bombing station and is now home to The Yorkshire Air Museum. The control tower at Elvington has a situations board displayed which shows a flight of Halfax bombers, listed by their call signs, that have just undertaken a mission, one failed to set out, engine trouble, several had returned at various times dependant on their damage, and at least three were overdue, feared lost. It brought home something of the true feelings of the time.
In the same way at Pooler visitors have the opportunity to reflect on the sacrifices made by the veterans as they visit the Chapel of the Fallen Eagles. This beautiful stone chapel is built to resemble an English chapel and is meant to give visitors a place of quiet reflection it may in fact do more since not all Americans travel abroad and they may have little clear idea where loved ones spent their last days.
Incidentally while speaking to one of the veterans at the museum I was introduced to the legend of Major General Lewis E. Lyle, he was instrumental in getting the museum up and running but as a younger man he flew a record number of missions from England, I was told he flew many more than were recorded due to his habit of briefing the squadron then as they arrived at their aircraft to make final preparations he would pick a pilot, and give him the night off in order to fly in his place. Since he always brought his plane back the rest of the crew were quite happy with the swap. He did survive the war and in building the museum he joined a group of veterans pledged to honor the courage and commitment of more than 350,000 members of the 8th Air Force. Of this number, 26,000 were killed in action and 28,000 became prisoners of war during World War II.
We returned to the hotel and later drove along to the same area as we were the previous night but we ate at a more expensive venue, The Longhorn Steak House – when we got the credit card bill at home it still looked very good value.
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Deep South Tour - Fall 2011 - Day 15
We had considerable debate about Montgomery v Birmingham in Alabama; it was mainly wasted energy because we had little time available for either, we opted for Montgomery as Birmingham added time onto both the day before and after. There is quite a lot to see in both mainly concerning Civil Rights but we had our longest day’s journey ahead of us, 340 miles in, multimap suggested, 5 hours and 20 minutes.
We set off by about 11.00am and we travelled pretty well and reached our Savannah La Quinta by about 5.30pm. I have hardly mentioned check in at any hotel up to now because they had all been smoothly accomplished. We were very practiced by now and had our passports available, our credit card poised and our voucher proffered. The receptionist was charming but, from early on, things did not appear to be normal, she battled with the computer, looked puzzled, looked at us confidently waiting for her to sort it out and returned to assaulting the computer. Then she started to ask us questions that we had not been asked previously, like what beds do you want? I realised something was wrong so I asked if we had a booking on her system, when she admitted that we had not I started checking my file; we were at the wrong Savannah La Quinta! It had the same road address but a different number. Once explained we reset the SatNav and set off again, we were frustrated by the delay after a long drive, and puzzled by the route on the screen, turning us off and sending us in a loop, compared to the receptionist telling us we needed to stay on the same road. We stuck with SatNav, we had known her longer than the receptionist, but they were both right, we rejoined the same road much further on and this time the Savannah La Quinta, knew we were coming and had all ready for us.
We were going to be here for two days and the hotel was further out of town than we would have wished but that discovery was for tomorrow. We asked for the nearest places to eat and when we were told that there was a Chilis only five blocks up the highway we were decided. After a quick change we there eating for $20 but I forgot the two for one beer offer and drank a bottled Corona.
We hit our beds that night well contented.
We set off by about 11.00am and we travelled pretty well and reached our Savannah La Quinta by about 5.30pm. I have hardly mentioned check in at any hotel up to now because they had all been smoothly accomplished. We were very practiced by now and had our passports available, our credit card poised and our voucher proffered. The receptionist was charming but, from early on, things did not appear to be normal, she battled with the computer, looked puzzled, looked at us confidently waiting for her to sort it out and returned to assaulting the computer. Then she started to ask us questions that we had not been asked previously, like what beds do you want? I realised something was wrong so I asked if we had a booking on her system, when she admitted that we had not I started checking my file; we were at the wrong Savannah La Quinta! It had the same road address but a different number. Once explained we reset the SatNav and set off again, we were frustrated by the delay after a long drive, and puzzled by the route on the screen, turning us off and sending us in a loop, compared to the receptionist telling us we needed to stay on the same road. We stuck with SatNav, we had known her longer than the receptionist, but they were both right, we rejoined the same road much further on and this time the Savannah La Quinta, knew we were coming and had all ready for us.
We were going to be here for two days and the hotel was further out of town than we would have wished but that discovery was for tomorrow. We asked for the nearest places to eat and when we were told that there was a Chilis only five blocks up the highway we were decided. After a quick change we there eating for $20 but I forgot the two for one beer offer and drank a bottled Corona.
We hit our beds that night well contented.
Deep South Tour - Fall 2011 - Day 14
After breakfast we set off again, after a 36+ hour break from driving Julia was back at the wheel. Our first stop was at Sheila’s house to say goodbye.
The SatNav guided us well and while we were there Sheila phoned her friend, Bobby, an Atlanta taxi driver, so that he would be ready to assist us when we finished in Atlanta having returned our rental car. We were so amused to overhear the conversation, when she told him to look after her English relatives. When she told him our hotel in Atlanta, he must have expressed some concern because she replied, “These relatives are white but they’ll be cool with the location.” We were flattered by her description and confidence in us.
We were all hoping that she would find herself able to join us in Atlanta but she had contractors to deal with in New Orleans so, it had to be doubtful, having Bobby’s number was a good back-up.
We got on our way again, knowing we had 310 miles to Montgomery, our Alabama stop, at the Comfort Inn and Suites. On the way we would go through Mobile and take a time-out to visit the USS Alabama, a WW2 battleship.
The battleship resides on a memorial park next to the ocean which also features a variety of aircraft, tanks, military vehicles and two submarines. Although we spent considerable time there we still did not see everything.
The facts I recall, and have researched later, about the USS Alabama are interesting, the major message is that the Alabama was built when clearer sighted naval experts had realised that the battleship as a concept was finished, the queen of the seas was now the aircraft carrier.
The Alabama was built, costing $80 million, in a record time of 30 months using 24 hour shifts to complete her; she was commissioned in 1943 and fought until the end of the war in 1945 a similar length of time as it took to build her. She is the fifth newest battleship ever built, and no more battleships will ever be built. She was mothballed in 1947 and would have been scrapped in 1963 but was saved by public appeal.
She was called the Lucky A because, during World War II, she lost no American lives aboard her due to enemy fire – the crew lost only 5 men in combat situations during that time, none to enemy fire. Average age of the 2,500-man crew was only 21 years old – it was a young man’s war.
The battle ship was basically a platform to deliver massive fire-power against other big ships or coastal targets, with a secondary armament to defend itself from smaller ships and aircraft.
The USS Alabama had nine 16 inch guns housed in three turrets with three guns each, two turrets forward and one aft. Each 16 inch Big Gun could shoot up to 21 miles accurately. Each time the big guns fired, the shell weighed up to 2,700 pounds, the equivalent of shooting a small automobile, and it took 540 pounds of black gunpowder to shoot it, each time, and the big guns could shoot at least once every 30 seconds. So when the big guns were firing, more than 58,000 pounds or 29 TONS left the battleship each minute!
It took 140 men to man each of the big gun turrets, which were 5 levels deep on the ship. The big gun turrets on the battleship could turn up to 270 degrees, but were not attached to the ship in any way, so if the ship turned over, the turrets would fall out.
There was a colour-coded self-guided tour round the battleship which would easily take two hours to complete.
On the site there is a civil war submarine which was closed up but just walking round it you got the message of how vulnerable the men crammed into it would be, its attack plan was to sneak up to surface ships and fix a mine to them before sneaking off again hopefully before the mine, known at this time as a torpedo, exploded.
There is also USS Drum a WW2 submarine, for which there was another self-guided tour but this time no colours were required, the tour goes, climb down the ladder, walk through the boat, bending to get through doors, squeezing through small gaps, climb up the ladder at the other end! I defy anyone to make this tour last over 15 minutes.
While the crew of the battleship was normally 2,500, bigger than most towns in Alabama, the crew of the submarine was only 72, 7 Officers and 65 enlisted. I cannot grasp how 72 men lived and fought under such cramped conditions.
Interestingly Battleship Alabama won 9 Battle Stars, mainly by shooting down enemy aircraft and shelling islands held by the Japanese while Submarine Drum won 12 Battle Stars by sinking enemy shipping, this as much as anything is a pointer to how naval power was to develop. Head to head the Drum would likely sink the Alabama by a stealthy torpedo attack while the battleship would be unaware of its presence until too late, so the civil war submariners were onto something.
We went round the aircraft display and enjoyed the experience, our favourite aircraft were a P-51D Mustang, inside the display, a B-25J Mitchell parked close to the Alabama, and the Douglas Dakota which must have the world record for longevity as a model and for number of miles flown in all areas.
We needed to move on before we could check out the tanks and armored vehicles, we also missed the memorials.
Vietnam veterans designed, financed, and built the Alabama Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the Park. The black granite walls honor the 175 Mobile and Baldwin County deceased, as well as the 1,213 Alabama Vietnam veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice. The new equally impressive Alabama Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated on June 25, 2002, and stands next to the Vietnam Memorial, with 752 Alabamians remembered on the gray granite.
We arrived at the Comfort Inn & Suites on the edge of Montgomery to find it filling up rapidly with fans returning from the Auburn University Football match v Ole Miss, a really big game. Overnight the hotel was full and breakfast was the most crowded we encountered anywhere on our tour.
We ventured out to find dinner but our instructions let us down and we ended up close to the hotel, eating at Cracker Barrel – upside very economic and nicely home cooked – downside the staff were far to keen on getting you in and out in the minimum time possible.
The SatNav guided us well and while we were there Sheila phoned her friend, Bobby, an Atlanta taxi driver, so that he would be ready to assist us when we finished in Atlanta having returned our rental car. We were so amused to overhear the conversation, when she told him to look after her English relatives. When she told him our hotel in Atlanta, he must have expressed some concern because she replied, “These relatives are white but they’ll be cool with the location.” We were flattered by her description and confidence in us.
We were all hoping that she would find herself able to join us in Atlanta but she had contractors to deal with in New Orleans so, it had to be doubtful, having Bobby’s number was a good back-up.
We got on our way again, knowing we had 310 miles to Montgomery, our Alabama stop, at the Comfort Inn and Suites. On the way we would go through Mobile and take a time-out to visit the USS Alabama, a WW2 battleship.
The battleship resides on a memorial park next to the ocean which also features a variety of aircraft, tanks, military vehicles and two submarines. Although we spent considerable time there we still did not see everything.
The facts I recall, and have researched later, about the USS Alabama are interesting, the major message is that the Alabama was built when clearer sighted naval experts had realised that the battleship as a concept was finished, the queen of the seas was now the aircraft carrier.
The Alabama was built, costing $80 million, in a record time of 30 months using 24 hour shifts to complete her; she was commissioned in 1943 and fought until the end of the war in 1945 a similar length of time as it took to build her. She is the fifth newest battleship ever built, and no more battleships will ever be built. She was mothballed in 1947 and would have been scrapped in 1963 but was saved by public appeal.
She was called the Lucky A because, during World War II, she lost no American lives aboard her due to enemy fire – the crew lost only 5 men in combat situations during that time, none to enemy fire. Average age of the 2,500-man crew was only 21 years old – it was a young man’s war.
The battle ship was basically a platform to deliver massive fire-power against other big ships or coastal targets, with a secondary armament to defend itself from smaller ships and aircraft.
The USS Alabama had nine 16 inch guns housed in three turrets with three guns each, two turrets forward and one aft. Each 16 inch Big Gun could shoot up to 21 miles accurately. Each time the big guns fired, the shell weighed up to 2,700 pounds, the equivalent of shooting a small automobile, and it took 540 pounds of black gunpowder to shoot it, each time, and the big guns could shoot at least once every 30 seconds. So when the big guns were firing, more than 58,000 pounds or 29 TONS left the battleship each minute!
It took 140 men to man each of the big gun turrets, which were 5 levels deep on the ship. The big gun turrets on the battleship could turn up to 270 degrees, but were not attached to the ship in any way, so if the ship turned over, the turrets would fall out.
There was a colour-coded self-guided tour round the battleship which would easily take two hours to complete.
On the site there is a civil war submarine which was closed up but just walking round it you got the message of how vulnerable the men crammed into it would be, its attack plan was to sneak up to surface ships and fix a mine to them before sneaking off again hopefully before the mine, known at this time as a torpedo, exploded.
There is also USS Drum a WW2 submarine, for which there was another self-guided tour but this time no colours were required, the tour goes, climb down the ladder, walk through the boat, bending to get through doors, squeezing through small gaps, climb up the ladder at the other end! I defy anyone to make this tour last over 15 minutes.
While the crew of the battleship was normally 2,500, bigger than most towns in Alabama, the crew of the submarine was only 72, 7 Officers and 65 enlisted. I cannot grasp how 72 men lived and fought under such cramped conditions.
Interestingly Battleship Alabama won 9 Battle Stars, mainly by shooting down enemy aircraft and shelling islands held by the Japanese while Submarine Drum won 12 Battle Stars by sinking enemy shipping, this as much as anything is a pointer to how naval power was to develop. Head to head the Drum would likely sink the Alabama by a stealthy torpedo attack while the battleship would be unaware of its presence until too late, so the civil war submariners were onto something.
We went round the aircraft display and enjoyed the experience, our favourite aircraft were a P-51D Mustang, inside the display, a B-25J Mitchell parked close to the Alabama, and the Douglas Dakota which must have the world record for longevity as a model and for number of miles flown in all areas.
We needed to move on before we could check out the tanks and armored vehicles, we also missed the memorials.
Vietnam veterans designed, financed, and built the Alabama Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the Park. The black granite walls honor the 175 Mobile and Baldwin County deceased, as well as the 1,213 Alabama Vietnam veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice. The new equally impressive Alabama Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated on June 25, 2002, and stands next to the Vietnam Memorial, with 752 Alabamians remembered on the gray granite.
We arrived at the Comfort Inn & Suites on the edge of Montgomery to find it filling up rapidly with fans returning from the Auburn University Football match v Ole Miss, a really big game. Overnight the hotel was full and breakfast was the most crowded we encountered anywhere on our tour.
We ventured out to find dinner but our instructions let us down and we ended up close to the hotel, eating at Cracker Barrel – upside very economic and nicely home cooked – downside the staff were far to keen on getting you in and out in the minimum time possible.
Monday, 5 December 2011
Deep South Tour - Fall 2011 - Day 13
Sheila picked us up after breakfast and we set off again for the day. We started by riding the ferry over the Mississippi as we could not fit a proper boat trip into our busy schedule. As we crossed the river we saw two traditional style riverboats the Creole Queen and the Natchez. Although it was a short trip it served its purpose and ticked a box.
We returned into the city using the bridge and Sheila set course for the worst affected areas of New Orleans when Katrina struck. Over our two days, from Sheila and others we heard two phrases repeated often joined together, they were “after Katrina” and “they never came back”. The level of destruction is hard to imagine and even now, over six years later, things are still shocking on lots of levels. When driving round the low-lying poor areas which bore the brunt of the disaster some things were obvious, wrecked houses, skeletal filling stations but less obvious to us Sheila explained that for every grassed area there were houses that had gone completely. In any given street there were houses which were occupied and those which were deserted, sometimes the deserted ones were in at least as good shape as those which were being lived in, and there were gaps.
The photo I never took is still in my mind, a pair of tennis courts with no netting around them and no net, surrounded by grass with concrete piles standing two or three feet high like headstones for the houses they had once supported.
The same applied to Sheila’s street, she had suffered massive water damage to her home and is still completing the recovery, she had to organise the repairs while still based in Atlanta and it is little wonder that many people couldn’t manage or even face this task, they never came back.
As people talk about Katrina there is some bitterness about big business and government help. Insurance companies coughed up grudgingly and when owners received government compensation it was inadequate and the insurance companies clawed back what they had paid out. There is little incentive for paying home insurance based on this experience. In the areas hardest hit the infrastructure has only recovered in part, schools are operating without being fully repaired, hospitals have remained closed after Katrina, and the shops which operated in the area and made it a community never came back.
There was a limited boom after Katrina, when the money started coming through, there sprang up building suppliers, fast food outlets and cheap motels, all to service the returning people whose houses were not fit to live in.
For those unable to flee the city after New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin ordered the first-ever mandatory evacuation of the city, calling Katrina "a storm that most of us have long feared", the city government established several "refuges of last resort", including the massive Louisiana Superdome, which sheltered approximately 26,000 people and provided them with food and water for several days as the storm came ashore. Others were less fortunate and simply ended up on any high structure above the flooding; when we mentioned TV coverage of people trapped on an overpass Sheila shockingly told us that she had a cousin who died there.
In the aftermath of the disaster there were many stories which portrayed the population left in New Orleans in a poor light, many of these have been discredited but the resentment remains.
From Sheila’s side of New Orleans we set off for our Swamp tour, Sheila has a sophisticated phone set-up in her car and from it she had spoken to various friends who had delighted in telling us that a swamp boat had capsized and those tourists who didn’t drown were eaten by alligators. We were still intent on taking the risk. Julia had looked up from the internet Dr Wagner’s Honey Island Swamp Tours and Sheila had taken it from there, sorting out all we had to do, and the arrangements.
It was about half an hour out of the suburbs of the city and we were well off the beaten track by the time we reached the venue. We checked in and were set to go when called by the resident Drill Sergeant. The trips coming back were school children and they seemed undamaged. They were wearing life jackets but when we set off to our boat none were offered or issued to us. Each boat takes about 24 passengers sitting either along the side or on a central bench. I’m sure the driver/guides are all equally well trained but there is still the luck of the draw, our guide was, I’m confident, the best. As Brian Clough once said “I may not be the best but I’m in the top one”. He found us the wildlife we sought, he drove the boat with flair, he amused us with his anecdotes and he was a fund of general knowledge.
The early part of the tour takes you into the swamp, and our first piece of information was that a swamp is a flooded forest. The trees are adapted to their footing with either roots which protrude from the water to let the tree breathe or very thick bases to their trunk. Both of these features make for great photos and the high water mark on the trees looks as clear as if it is painted on.
We docked by bumping the flat bottom of the boat onto a tree root and our guide answered questions, having given us a warning that he didn’t do politically correct.
Q. Is there such a thing as Big Foot in the swamp?
A. No, we would have a dead one by now if there was, a young one killed on the highway, some idiot hunter would have shot one thinking it was a deer, the way I see it no dead ones means no live ones!
Q. Do you eat Alligator?
A. No I’m a local, why would I eat something expensive and tough with a not great taste?
Q. But people do eat them don’t they?
A. Only tourists and idiots!
Q. Has anyone ever been killed by an alligator in Louisiana?
A. Not since there have been records, perhaps some Native American kid wandered too close to the water and made a new addition to their menu but never since. A few arms and legs have gone missing though so keep your limbs inside the boat.
We set off again, we saw several Heron and Egrets, and then pulled in to see a snake basking in the weak sunshine. Julia is scared of snakes, not like anyone would be scared of a rattle snake in their sleeping bag but scared of any size, any type, anywhere so she was grateful that he didn’t take the boat too close. Later he told us all the ultimate snake story but that comes later.
Across our path he spotted a female alligator swimming at right angles to us some distance ahead.
Q. How did you know it was a female?
A. Lady, this ain’t my first day on the job, this ain’t my first dance. Too small to be male, if it was that size and male it would be a meal for a full-grown male.
He then continued to tell us that we were late in the day and later in the season so we would be very lucky to see a big male at all as they would be hibernating in the mud by now. One male alligator controls over a mile of river and fights to the death any other male that encroaches into their territory.
One of the earlier tours had seen a big male so he headed to where it had been, bracing us for disappointment. By memory the biggest alligators are up to 21 feet long. Suddenly he spotted the big one that had been reported earlier and he got us up close without disturbing it. It was in the shallows and was at least 15 feet long, we watched and photographed it before leaving it alone to head out into the river, it decided that its hibernation spot was calling and it followed us. We stopped and it swam past us, he reckoned that it was heading to a nice muddy area to bury itself and hibernate.
Q. Could you run away from a big male on land?
A. Forget it, they are scary fast, about 35 mph in a burst, and forget any zig-zag crap, they can change direction faster than you.
I thought we were returning to the starting point, which would have made the tour short but interesting, we crept past the floating fishing camps, taking heed of the “Slow watch your Wake” notices, then we continued past the jetty and into the river.
As soon as we were in the wider stream our guide announced, “Lets get some air” and opened the throttle, we flew along and as he turned the boat leant over like a motorbike.
Along the river banks there were nice houses and fishing camps, mainly reached by boat. Apparently new arrivals in the area would let their domestic dog out in the evening and some didn’t return having met up with a local alligator and become dinner.
Amongst the well-maintained buildings were some still wrecked by Katrina, another echo of they never came back, because if your real home was smashed and you now lived in Houston or Atlanta you probably never even checked out your fishing camp. It was also fun to notice that the trees grew real close to the water and in some places the houses had a solid tree growing up through their decking and out through their front porch roof. We progressed quite some way up the river passing under the highway we would need to use tomorrow before we turned back and again “got some air”.
Although we were going pretty fast he pulled the boat in towards the bank where there was usually a female alligator, he called it and when it approached he fed it a hotdog sausage which he had speared on a twig.
We returned towards base and he told the snake story, apparently he had collected a troop of girl scouts for his first run and without knowing a large snake, which had slept the night under the engine cover. When he “got some air” the snake was disturbed and slithered up onto the central aisle of the boat. The Girl Scouts and their leader were all looking outward while he watched several feet of snake appear, as soon as it was all out and on the flat surface, heading towards the front of the boat, he grabbed its tail and flung it over the side, the female scout leader caught sight of it flying past her head and never spoke again on the tour!
We returned to the base and clearly they were packing up for the night and putting the boats away, the drill sergeant was coordinating this, while we tipped our guide who has three daughters attending LSU, I should have asked him to send our best wishes via them to my tennis teammate, Chris Simpson, who is there and his being English means that the chances are they would know him.
Sheila was slightly out of her comfort zone on the boat tour and it was also the longest we went in public without someone recognizing her.
Back in the car however she was in command again, we drove to a Casino and ate the buffet before heading back into town. I struggled with the crabs as the shells refused to slide off the meat as easily as they should. While we walked through the gaming area I was politely reminded that there was no photography and my lens-cap was off my camera as it hung round my neck, I assured the guy that I was not taking any pictures and closed down the camera.
We arrived back on Bourbon Street, Sheila repeated her parking miracle and we walked down the centre of the road sightseeing. It was a much colder night and less inviting. We settled into a bar and watched a group fronted by a girl wearing a kimono and shoulder length black straight hair. She had a powerful voice and we enjoyed the music. After a few songs she pulled off her wig to reveal her shaven head, her explanation that she was too Blankety Blank Hot announced that the money spent on her Swiss finishing school was indeed wasted. It was also brilliant for people watching; there were four incidents/sights which I will share.
1) The doorman was the biggest guy I have ever seen in the flesh, bear in mind I hang out with basketball players and am usually immune to height, he was at least 7 feet tall, he sat on a tall bar stool with his feet flat on the floor.
2) The waitress was wearing a sweatshirt and a hood/mask of a skeleton, making for great pictures as she took orders.
3) Three 30+ ladies were dancing drunkenly in the small area in front of the band, when one of them knocked a beer off one of the front tables she just replaced the now empty bottle on the table and neither wiped up the mess nor confessed to its owner.
4) The group in front of us consisted of a girl, with several friends, she signed up to have her photo taken by a guy with a camera and printer, then to be sketched by a passing artist, only to tell both she had no money! Then by borrowing from her friends and sweet-talking the trader she ended up with both pictures!
We walked back to the car and from there were dropped off back at the hotel, we again went straight to bed having had one of the best of days.
We returned into the city using the bridge and Sheila set course for the worst affected areas of New Orleans when Katrina struck. Over our two days, from Sheila and others we heard two phrases repeated often joined together, they were “after Katrina” and “they never came back”. The level of destruction is hard to imagine and even now, over six years later, things are still shocking on lots of levels. When driving round the low-lying poor areas which bore the brunt of the disaster some things were obvious, wrecked houses, skeletal filling stations but less obvious to us Sheila explained that for every grassed area there were houses that had gone completely. In any given street there were houses which were occupied and those which were deserted, sometimes the deserted ones were in at least as good shape as those which were being lived in, and there were gaps.
The photo I never took is still in my mind, a pair of tennis courts with no netting around them and no net, surrounded by grass with concrete piles standing two or three feet high like headstones for the houses they had once supported.
The same applied to Sheila’s street, she had suffered massive water damage to her home and is still completing the recovery, she had to organise the repairs while still based in Atlanta and it is little wonder that many people couldn’t manage or even face this task, they never came back.
As people talk about Katrina there is some bitterness about big business and government help. Insurance companies coughed up grudgingly and when owners received government compensation it was inadequate and the insurance companies clawed back what they had paid out. There is little incentive for paying home insurance based on this experience. In the areas hardest hit the infrastructure has only recovered in part, schools are operating without being fully repaired, hospitals have remained closed after Katrina, and the shops which operated in the area and made it a community never came back.
There was a limited boom after Katrina, when the money started coming through, there sprang up building suppliers, fast food outlets and cheap motels, all to service the returning people whose houses were not fit to live in.
For those unable to flee the city after New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin ordered the first-ever mandatory evacuation of the city, calling Katrina "a storm that most of us have long feared", the city government established several "refuges of last resort", including the massive Louisiana Superdome, which sheltered approximately 26,000 people and provided them with food and water for several days as the storm came ashore. Others were less fortunate and simply ended up on any high structure above the flooding; when we mentioned TV coverage of people trapped on an overpass Sheila shockingly told us that she had a cousin who died there.
In the aftermath of the disaster there were many stories which portrayed the population left in New Orleans in a poor light, many of these have been discredited but the resentment remains.
From Sheila’s side of New Orleans we set off for our Swamp tour, Sheila has a sophisticated phone set-up in her car and from it she had spoken to various friends who had delighted in telling us that a swamp boat had capsized and those tourists who didn’t drown were eaten by alligators. We were still intent on taking the risk. Julia had looked up from the internet Dr Wagner’s Honey Island Swamp Tours and Sheila had taken it from there, sorting out all we had to do, and the arrangements.
It was about half an hour out of the suburbs of the city and we were well off the beaten track by the time we reached the venue. We checked in and were set to go when called by the resident Drill Sergeant. The trips coming back were school children and they seemed undamaged. They were wearing life jackets but when we set off to our boat none were offered or issued to us. Each boat takes about 24 passengers sitting either along the side or on a central bench. I’m sure the driver/guides are all equally well trained but there is still the luck of the draw, our guide was, I’m confident, the best. As Brian Clough once said “I may not be the best but I’m in the top one”. He found us the wildlife we sought, he drove the boat with flair, he amused us with his anecdotes and he was a fund of general knowledge.
The early part of the tour takes you into the swamp, and our first piece of information was that a swamp is a flooded forest. The trees are adapted to their footing with either roots which protrude from the water to let the tree breathe or very thick bases to their trunk. Both of these features make for great photos and the high water mark on the trees looks as clear as if it is painted on.
We docked by bumping the flat bottom of the boat onto a tree root and our guide answered questions, having given us a warning that he didn’t do politically correct.
Q. Is there such a thing as Big Foot in the swamp?
A. No, we would have a dead one by now if there was, a young one killed on the highway, some idiot hunter would have shot one thinking it was a deer, the way I see it no dead ones means no live ones!
Q. Do you eat Alligator?
A. No I’m a local, why would I eat something expensive and tough with a not great taste?
Q. But people do eat them don’t they?
A. Only tourists and idiots!
Q. Has anyone ever been killed by an alligator in Louisiana?
A. Not since there have been records, perhaps some Native American kid wandered too close to the water and made a new addition to their menu but never since. A few arms and legs have gone missing though so keep your limbs inside the boat.
We set off again, we saw several Heron and Egrets, and then pulled in to see a snake basking in the weak sunshine. Julia is scared of snakes, not like anyone would be scared of a rattle snake in their sleeping bag but scared of any size, any type, anywhere so she was grateful that he didn’t take the boat too close. Later he told us all the ultimate snake story but that comes later.
Across our path he spotted a female alligator swimming at right angles to us some distance ahead.
Q. How did you know it was a female?
A. Lady, this ain’t my first day on the job, this ain’t my first dance. Too small to be male, if it was that size and male it would be a meal for a full-grown male.
He then continued to tell us that we were late in the day and later in the season so we would be very lucky to see a big male at all as they would be hibernating in the mud by now. One male alligator controls over a mile of river and fights to the death any other male that encroaches into their territory.
One of the earlier tours had seen a big male so he headed to where it had been, bracing us for disappointment. By memory the biggest alligators are up to 21 feet long. Suddenly he spotted the big one that had been reported earlier and he got us up close without disturbing it. It was in the shallows and was at least 15 feet long, we watched and photographed it before leaving it alone to head out into the river, it decided that its hibernation spot was calling and it followed us. We stopped and it swam past us, he reckoned that it was heading to a nice muddy area to bury itself and hibernate.
Q. Could you run away from a big male on land?
A. Forget it, they are scary fast, about 35 mph in a burst, and forget any zig-zag crap, they can change direction faster than you.
I thought we were returning to the starting point, which would have made the tour short but interesting, we crept past the floating fishing camps, taking heed of the “Slow watch your Wake” notices, then we continued past the jetty and into the river.
As soon as we were in the wider stream our guide announced, “Lets get some air” and opened the throttle, we flew along and as he turned the boat leant over like a motorbike.
Along the river banks there were nice houses and fishing camps, mainly reached by boat. Apparently new arrivals in the area would let their domestic dog out in the evening and some didn’t return having met up with a local alligator and become dinner.
Amongst the well-maintained buildings were some still wrecked by Katrina, another echo of they never came back, because if your real home was smashed and you now lived in Houston or Atlanta you probably never even checked out your fishing camp. It was also fun to notice that the trees grew real close to the water and in some places the houses had a solid tree growing up through their decking and out through their front porch roof. We progressed quite some way up the river passing under the highway we would need to use tomorrow before we turned back and again “got some air”.
Although we were going pretty fast he pulled the boat in towards the bank where there was usually a female alligator, he called it and when it approached he fed it a hotdog sausage which he had speared on a twig.
We returned towards base and he told the snake story, apparently he had collected a troop of girl scouts for his first run and without knowing a large snake, which had slept the night under the engine cover. When he “got some air” the snake was disturbed and slithered up onto the central aisle of the boat. The Girl Scouts and their leader were all looking outward while he watched several feet of snake appear, as soon as it was all out and on the flat surface, heading towards the front of the boat, he grabbed its tail and flung it over the side, the female scout leader caught sight of it flying past her head and never spoke again on the tour!
We returned to the base and clearly they were packing up for the night and putting the boats away, the drill sergeant was coordinating this, while we tipped our guide who has three daughters attending LSU, I should have asked him to send our best wishes via them to my tennis teammate, Chris Simpson, who is there and his being English means that the chances are they would know him.
Sheila was slightly out of her comfort zone on the boat tour and it was also the longest we went in public without someone recognizing her.
Back in the car however she was in command again, we drove to a Casino and ate the buffet before heading back into town. I struggled with the crabs as the shells refused to slide off the meat as easily as they should. While we walked through the gaming area I was politely reminded that there was no photography and my lens-cap was off my camera as it hung round my neck, I assured the guy that I was not taking any pictures and closed down the camera.
We arrived back on Bourbon Street, Sheila repeated her parking miracle and we walked down the centre of the road sightseeing. It was a much colder night and less inviting. We settled into a bar and watched a group fronted by a girl wearing a kimono and shoulder length black straight hair. She had a powerful voice and we enjoyed the music. After a few songs she pulled off her wig to reveal her shaven head, her explanation that she was too Blankety Blank Hot announced that the money spent on her Swiss finishing school was indeed wasted. It was also brilliant for people watching; there were four incidents/sights which I will share.
1) The doorman was the biggest guy I have ever seen in the flesh, bear in mind I hang out with basketball players and am usually immune to height, he was at least 7 feet tall, he sat on a tall bar stool with his feet flat on the floor.
2) The waitress was wearing a sweatshirt and a hood/mask of a skeleton, making for great pictures as she took orders.
3) Three 30+ ladies were dancing drunkenly in the small area in front of the band, when one of them knocked a beer off one of the front tables she just replaced the now empty bottle on the table and neither wiped up the mess nor confessed to its owner.
4) The group in front of us consisted of a girl, with several friends, she signed up to have her photo taken by a guy with a camera and printer, then to be sketched by a passing artist, only to tell both she had no money! Then by borrowing from her friends and sweet-talking the trader she ended up with both pictures!
We walked back to the car and from there were dropped off back at the hotel, we again went straight to bed having had one of the best of days.
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Deep South Tour - Fall 2011 - Day 12
It surprised me how much we retraced our steps as we went from Lafayette towards New Orleans, much of the route was on highways built above water making for really great views and distinctly less great photos.
As we passed Baton Rouge we called ahead to Sheila our friend and guide for our visit to New Orleans; she agreed to meet us at our hotel, The Best Western French Quarter Landmark Hotel. As a contrast Joe Montgomery remembered that we were coming to visit with him when he received our text on the day we arrived, Sheila had been planning our visit and helping plan our tour since we had met in London two months previously, she had warned us to be well rested before New Orleans as she intended to fit as much as possible into her two days.
We arrived and checked into the hotel and as its title implies we were on the edge of the lively French quarter. Ominously the receptionist told us that the area behind the hotel was quite safe during the day but after dark we were to only use one of two streets to return to the hotel as they had bars on every corner and thus there would be people about. When we told her we had a local friend to look after us she looked quite relieved. The hotel was one of the nicer ones we experienced but we were to see very little of it.
On this day it was hot and there were people sunbathing and swimming in the enclosed courtyard, we had a seat in the same area and very shortly Sheila appeared. We showed her our room as she wanted to know if she could recommend the hotel in future, it passed that inspection. Sheila pointed out that the courtyard is a common feature of older New Orleans homes as it was where the slave quarters were located.
We set off on our tour. We rode in Sheila’s new car, a Hyundai, and from the start I was impressed by its gadgets, it had a rear facing camera to assist in reversing but the most amusing feature was on the rear view mirror there was a small readout of the direction the car was traveling. As I was in the back seat I could see this while Julia in the passenger position couldn’t – whenever Julia’s famous sense of direction was challenged she was outraged to find I knew better our position, on the second day I had to tell her my secret advantage.
The first part of our tour was through the French Quarter, driving down Bourbon Street while it still slept, Sheila promised that we would return and see it differently. We then covered the rest of the city taking in the best residential areas and all seven universities?
Sheila so clearly loves her city and her enthusiasm is catching. On this first day we saw little evidence of the damage wrought by hurricane Katrina but that was on the agenda for the following day. Sheila herself evacuated from New Orleans to Atlanta where she still owns an apartment which is rented out, she took her mother to Atlanta and sadly she passed away while there.
Having seen a lot of the city we headed out to do a plantation tour. We drove some miles out of the city to Plantation Parade on the Great River Road – there are four plantations on this tour and we started at the San Francisco Plantation.
To quote - Today the San Francisco Plantation remains a major attraction in Louisiana being visited annually by over 100,000 people. Although the house is antebellum in a chronological sense, it is certainly not typical of the period. Its style and coloration are totally distinctive, and its memories are now locked in time just prior to the War Between the States, when the house was at the height of its splendor.
As we arrived we noted that we had missed the last tour of the house at 4.30 and it would have cost $15 each, we walked in the grounds and I took some photos of the house which should have cost us $10 but nobody asked for that. I have a great picture of Sheila approaching the house to be met by a blonde Southern Belle in period costume; it could make a really challenging caption competition.
We next drove on to the Laura Plantation, here the same provisions applied but the staff were happy to turn a blind eye to me taking some photos in the garden. The Laura house was less ostentatious than the San Francisco being a more modern design and much less ornate.
We moved on to the Oak Alley Plantation, so named for its avenue of oak trees leading up to the front of the mansion. Here we were in limbo, between the gift shop closing and the plantation closing altogether, we wandered freely in the grounds and again I took some memorable photos.
All four plantations were sugar producers and this was evidenced by the huge metal bowls which featured everywhere as decorative items. In the grounds of Oak Alley there was a notice listing the slave inventory of the plantation and on looking up these plantations I found such inventories for every one. The listings include such items as:
Marie, Creole Mulatress, 35, cook, $900
Marseille, Creole Negro, 70, $25
Mary Sally, American Negress, 36, and her child Adam, 2, $900
Mathilde, Creole Negress, 10, $600
Mengo, American Negro, 30, one-eyed, $1,200
Michel, Creole Negro, 12, $600
Ned, American Negro, 35, $1,200
I am reminded that while watching the US Civil War documentary it was mentioned that slavery was the highest value industry in the country and it exceeded all the other industries put together but somehow reading this list the inhumanity of it strikes home. Also by consulting the San Francisco inventories for 1843 and 1856 only 13 years apart the value of an average slave has risen by over 100%; so as war approached the assets of the South were increasing in value and they could see no reasonable way to manage without their slaves.
We headed back into the city and stopped at Deanies Restaurant. We had Gumbo to start and split an order of fried sea food, a Half Seafood Platter, I enjoyed the soft shelled crab but it is hard to get your head round the idea that it is simply dropped into the deep-fryer and you eat the lot.
From the restaurant we headed back to the French Quarter, Sheila’s comment about Bourbon Street coming alive in the evening was so true, she cruised the area and a guy was just getting his car out of a small parking space, as he did so Julia asked if Sheila could fit in, she replied, “If he can get out I can get in!” and she did.
Our time on Bourbon Street was enjoyable and we felt safe in Sheila’s care, it always helps to be with a veteran. Before we entered our first bar I demonstrated my age, glancing at an attractive young lady I thought that brightly coloured T-shirt is very tight, only to realise that her bare chest was painted!
In the first bar we started to realise that Sheila knew nearly everyone, her friend was on drums and she had already been greeted by every doorman we passed. I was approached by a young lady carrying a rack of test tubes full of brightly coloured liquid, she inserted the base of a tube in her mouth and indicated that she wanted to transfer the liquid into my mouth, I could have refused but a steely glare from Sheila sent her on her way without a word.
We looked into several other bars and nobody suggested we should pay a cover charge even if others were. It was really just window shopping until we settled in to Irvin Mayfield's Jazz Playhouse in a luxurious venue on the lobby level of the Royal Sonesta Hotel New Orleans. The live band was lead by a black trumpeter who knew his stuff but was on an ego-trip to end ego-trips. He sat out several pieces but he was quite capable of elbowing the drummer off his seat and taking over. He was a good vocalist but the base player and the saxophonist seemed, to me, to carry the band. We had a couple rounds of drinks and enjoyed the atmosphere. An older guy who knew Sheila got up and did a couple of songs, it was his seventieth birthday, and he still had it. The ex-quarterback of the New Orleans Saints got up and sang, trying to research this guy my best guess is he was Billy Joe Tolliver but I am far from convinced.
Also in the audience was a guy called Steamboat Willie, he was clearly a well respected figure and several attempts were made to get him on stage but he was able to refuse gracefully. At the other end of the spectrum there was a girl of about twenty-three who gave an unasked solo on her harmonica while the band was resting offstage, she then made a play for the lead singer and eventually settled for the band’s manager.
Meanwhile the band was being plied with drink by the “Red Bull” man and they were showing some effects by the time we were thinking of leaving.
As the resident Scrooge, Killjoy, homebody, you get the picture, I was resolved not to try to end the evening while the ladies were enjoying it, imagine my surprise when Julia asked Sheila if we could go back to the hotel at about 12.30.
We offered to walk back but Sheila knew better than taking her eyes off us, Babes in the Wood, so she drove us back to the hotel, even then she was keen to check if we needed some supper on the way but sleep was all we craved!
As we passed Baton Rouge we called ahead to Sheila our friend and guide for our visit to New Orleans; she agreed to meet us at our hotel, The Best Western French Quarter Landmark Hotel. As a contrast Joe Montgomery remembered that we were coming to visit with him when he received our text on the day we arrived, Sheila had been planning our visit and helping plan our tour since we had met in London two months previously, she had warned us to be well rested before New Orleans as she intended to fit as much as possible into her two days.
We arrived and checked into the hotel and as its title implies we were on the edge of the lively French quarter. Ominously the receptionist told us that the area behind the hotel was quite safe during the day but after dark we were to only use one of two streets to return to the hotel as they had bars on every corner and thus there would be people about. When we told her we had a local friend to look after us she looked quite relieved. The hotel was one of the nicer ones we experienced but we were to see very little of it.
On this day it was hot and there were people sunbathing and swimming in the enclosed courtyard, we had a seat in the same area and very shortly Sheila appeared. We showed her our room as she wanted to know if she could recommend the hotel in future, it passed that inspection. Sheila pointed out that the courtyard is a common feature of older New Orleans homes as it was where the slave quarters were located.
We set off on our tour. We rode in Sheila’s new car, a Hyundai, and from the start I was impressed by its gadgets, it had a rear facing camera to assist in reversing but the most amusing feature was on the rear view mirror there was a small readout of the direction the car was traveling. As I was in the back seat I could see this while Julia in the passenger position couldn’t – whenever Julia’s famous sense of direction was challenged she was outraged to find I knew better our position, on the second day I had to tell her my secret advantage.
The first part of our tour was through the French Quarter, driving down Bourbon Street while it still slept, Sheila promised that we would return and see it differently. We then covered the rest of the city taking in the best residential areas and all seven universities?
Sheila so clearly loves her city and her enthusiasm is catching. On this first day we saw little evidence of the damage wrought by hurricane Katrina but that was on the agenda for the following day. Sheila herself evacuated from New Orleans to Atlanta where she still owns an apartment which is rented out, she took her mother to Atlanta and sadly she passed away while there.
Having seen a lot of the city we headed out to do a plantation tour. We drove some miles out of the city to Plantation Parade on the Great River Road – there are four plantations on this tour and we started at the San Francisco Plantation.
To quote - Today the San Francisco Plantation remains a major attraction in Louisiana being visited annually by over 100,000 people. Although the house is antebellum in a chronological sense, it is certainly not typical of the period. Its style and coloration are totally distinctive, and its memories are now locked in time just prior to the War Between the States, when the house was at the height of its splendor.
As we arrived we noted that we had missed the last tour of the house at 4.30 and it would have cost $15 each, we walked in the grounds and I took some photos of the house which should have cost us $10 but nobody asked for that. I have a great picture of Sheila approaching the house to be met by a blonde Southern Belle in period costume; it could make a really challenging caption competition.
We next drove on to the Laura Plantation, here the same provisions applied but the staff were happy to turn a blind eye to me taking some photos in the garden. The Laura house was less ostentatious than the San Francisco being a more modern design and much less ornate.
We moved on to the Oak Alley Plantation, so named for its avenue of oak trees leading up to the front of the mansion. Here we were in limbo, between the gift shop closing and the plantation closing altogether, we wandered freely in the grounds and again I took some memorable photos.
All four plantations were sugar producers and this was evidenced by the huge metal bowls which featured everywhere as decorative items. In the grounds of Oak Alley there was a notice listing the slave inventory of the plantation and on looking up these plantations I found such inventories for every one. The listings include such items as:
Marie, Creole Mulatress, 35, cook, $900
Marseille, Creole Negro, 70, $25
Mary Sally, American Negress, 36, and her child Adam, 2, $900
Mathilde, Creole Negress, 10, $600
Mengo, American Negro, 30, one-eyed, $1,200
Michel, Creole Negro, 12, $600
Ned, American Negro, 35, $1,200
I am reminded that while watching the US Civil War documentary it was mentioned that slavery was the highest value industry in the country and it exceeded all the other industries put together but somehow reading this list the inhumanity of it strikes home. Also by consulting the San Francisco inventories for 1843 and 1856 only 13 years apart the value of an average slave has risen by over 100%; so as war approached the assets of the South were increasing in value and they could see no reasonable way to manage without their slaves.
We headed back into the city and stopped at Deanies Restaurant. We had Gumbo to start and split an order of fried sea food, a Half Seafood Platter, I enjoyed the soft shelled crab but it is hard to get your head round the idea that it is simply dropped into the deep-fryer and you eat the lot.
From the restaurant we headed back to the French Quarter, Sheila’s comment about Bourbon Street coming alive in the evening was so true, she cruised the area and a guy was just getting his car out of a small parking space, as he did so Julia asked if Sheila could fit in, she replied, “If he can get out I can get in!” and she did.
Our time on Bourbon Street was enjoyable and we felt safe in Sheila’s care, it always helps to be with a veteran. Before we entered our first bar I demonstrated my age, glancing at an attractive young lady I thought that brightly coloured T-shirt is very tight, only to realise that her bare chest was painted!
In the first bar we started to realise that Sheila knew nearly everyone, her friend was on drums and she had already been greeted by every doorman we passed. I was approached by a young lady carrying a rack of test tubes full of brightly coloured liquid, she inserted the base of a tube in her mouth and indicated that she wanted to transfer the liquid into my mouth, I could have refused but a steely glare from Sheila sent her on her way without a word.
We looked into several other bars and nobody suggested we should pay a cover charge even if others were. It was really just window shopping until we settled in to Irvin Mayfield's Jazz Playhouse in a luxurious venue on the lobby level of the Royal Sonesta Hotel New Orleans. The live band was lead by a black trumpeter who knew his stuff but was on an ego-trip to end ego-trips. He sat out several pieces but he was quite capable of elbowing the drummer off his seat and taking over. He was a good vocalist but the base player and the saxophonist seemed, to me, to carry the band. We had a couple rounds of drinks and enjoyed the atmosphere. An older guy who knew Sheila got up and did a couple of songs, it was his seventieth birthday, and he still had it. The ex-quarterback of the New Orleans Saints got up and sang, trying to research this guy my best guess is he was Billy Joe Tolliver but I am far from convinced.
Also in the audience was a guy called Steamboat Willie, he was clearly a well respected figure and several attempts were made to get him on stage but he was able to refuse gracefully. At the other end of the spectrum there was a girl of about twenty-three who gave an unasked solo on her harmonica while the band was resting offstage, she then made a play for the lead singer and eventually settled for the band’s manager.
Meanwhile the band was being plied with drink by the “Red Bull” man and they were showing some effects by the time we were thinking of leaving.
As the resident Scrooge, Killjoy, homebody, you get the picture, I was resolved not to try to end the evening while the ladies were enjoying it, imagine my surprise when Julia asked Sheila if we could go back to the hotel at about 12.30.
We offered to walk back but Sheila knew better than taking her eyes off us, Babes in the Wood, so she drove us back to the hotel, even then she was keen to check if we needed some supper on the way but sleep was all we craved!
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