Driving through the French Quarter yesterday I thought about growing up here in New Orleans. Cafe du Monde was traditional after a dance or late party. We used to drive up to the curb and boys would run out to attach a tray to the car window. We could get service without ever leaving the car.
New Orleans was a great city to grow up in. It was bigger, safer and more prosperous. Politicians were corrupt but there was enough money floating around for them to steal and still leave enough for the rest for the city. It wasn't until I went away to school that I learned the truth about traffic tickets. Mine were always fixed by one of my dad's friends, which I thought was normal. I didn't know that narrow streets full of music was unusual. For all I knew, kids in every town danced in the street. Good food, plenty of liquor and music everywhere was the norm for my growing up. Life was good in the Big Easy.
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Bob,
What part of town did you grow up in? I grew up in Lakeview, which was a little calmer in the liquor/political corruption/kids dancing in the streets area. I remember going down to Cafe du Monde and Morning Call with my parents, spring afternoons out by the Lake, taking the NOPSI bus down Canal, past the cemeteries, to my junior high school (then named for a Confederate general, not for a civil rights pioneer).
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