08/31/2024
On this date, about 127 years ago, when I was barely 21, I came to New Orleans for the first time. I was with a friend who was from Mississippi so she had been here before. We stayed in a rathole motel - the only decoration was a bumper sticker someone had stuck to the hotel room door, and the area around the shower had it's very own ecosystem 🍄🐛🐞... We put on our cute little outfits and headed to the French Quarter in her burgundy Camaro she had named "Camilla", and we were drinking Seagram's in soda bottles as a disguise. She was going to take me to the aquarium. We parked Camilla, and as we were walking to the aquarium, two absolutely beautiful young men passed by us, wearing only thong bikini bottoms with chicken feathers decorating the back waist band.
I instantly looked at my friend and informed her that I was definitely not going to go to the aquarium - I was going wherever those two were going. 😂😂😂 And I did. So did she. 😉. It was one of the best decisions I ever made, and it wasn't about the boys (It was Decadence so those boys didn't care about us 😉 🌈
It was the beginning of my love affair with this beautiful, insane city. I was mesmerized by the colorful buildings, the architecture, the live music on the streets, the humid air heavy with the scents of flowers and cigarette smoke and coffee and car exhaust and the steady hum of thousands of people laughing and talking, dancing and loving. It was like nothing I had ever seen before, and it still is.
This is a very special place, where hugs flow as freely as the drinks, and people call each other "baby", "boo", "mama", "sweetpea", "darlin" - small words loaded with love that I never tire of hearing.
So here's a big thank you to those two cuties in their chicken feathered 'drawers'. And a bigger Thank You to New Orleans, for making a space for me, too. ❤️
