N’awlins

Glen who drove me from the airport in New Orleans last Sunday told me as soon as we met that the city of New Orleans was really excited about the ALA and that the ALA had given the locals a tremendous boost by hosting the annual convention in their city. This was a refrain I heard many times in the next few days that followed from hotel staff as well as people in other commercial establishments. Full marks to the ALA to host their annual convention here.

Glen drove me some twenty minutes out of the city to show me around. Water levels were clearly visible on the structures outside and X’s and numbers indicated how many people had been found by rescue workers. The insides of these houses have been gutted and a few people in the vicinity are starting to rebuild but the streets we were on were almost entirely devoid of people. Glen said that he and his wife drove to his in-laws’ house when they were told to evacuate. Two trees that fell in the storm the following night destroyed his car as well as his wife’s. Another tree on the roof forced the family to leave in Glen’s daughter’s car which was intact. Now, in June, the repairs on Glen’s house are almost complete. He told me several times in the hour or so we spent together that everyone had focused on the negative side of the calamity, there was a lot to be said for the fact that despite the scale of the disaster there was a massive and orderly evacuation and comparatively speaking fewer deaths than a calamity of such “biblical” (Glen’s description not mine) proportions would suggest. Driving me through a somewhat posh cemetery (New Orleans has above-ground tombs) he pointed out the tomb of a steakhouse heiress that cost $600,000 and spoke of New Orleans as a city of both “elegance and decadence.” He told me about traditional Mardi Gras balls and the local Krewes in the season. And he asked me why I was there. When I told him about the Stonewall award he made a note of my novel saying, “In my kind of job we often have to wait a few hours a day in the car. I can read it then.”

The Stonewall Award ceremony the next morning was fun. Joshua Gamson who was the Israel Fishman Nonfiction award winner spoke about Sylvester of his book The Fabulous Sylvester: the Legend, the Music, the 70s in San Francisco. I received my plaque and honors from Lindsey Schell. Here is a photo of us (thanks, Skip!)

For whatever reason there were several flight cancellations that day and two of the authors who were to speak at the Gala Author Tea organized by FoLUSA
couldn’t make it. I was asked to step in at the last minute (I was planning on going anyway as a member of the audience) and speak. Harry Paul spoke about Revved, Laura Numeroff read from her enchanting children’s book, Mary Jane Clark spoke about her new novel, writing and the Fragile X syndrome, Bob Greene spoke about his memoir And You Know You Should Be Glad. I spoke about my own relationship to reading and writing and the project out of which That Summer in Paris came to be. Here is a photo with Susan Schmidt of FoLUSA who got me to feel comfortable right away when I got there and introduced me. (Thanks again, Skip)

My ride back to the airport (I wasn’t destined to get on this flight) was fascinating. Alphonse had been driving a fair bit the past few days for the ALA. The city hasn’t hosted anything this size since Katrina and everyone had been working overtime. He told me he had met a lot of writers and we got started on a discussion. He has been working in New Orleans since the era when some businesses carried signs saying Dogs and Cubans not allowed. He was able to get a job with the city since he was able to pass off for an Italian and speaks a few words. Alphonse’s story is riveting and unique, he’s gone to bed hungry and spent a month in the Waldorf Astoria. He’s met Ernest Hemingway in Cuba as a child and as a result of a rough encounter with one of Hemingway’s cats still has what he calls “respect” for cats fifty something years later. Like Glen, Alphonse spoke with humor and insight about his life, the recent calamity (which took him back to machine guns, violence, and death from his childhood years in Cuba), the system and the administration, people, and family.

Despite not having welcomed a convention the size of the ALA, the city of New Orleans was very well-prepared. The only hitch in the whole trip I experienced was due to NY. It seems that if the breeze blows or the rain patters La Guardia experiences interminable delays. The flight coming in from NY was woefully late. The crew deplaned for lunch. The passengers were boarded. Then we were deplaned and asked to wait. Eventually the flight was cancelled. Airline officials booked a planeload of us into hotels and gave us vouchers. I found myself at a motel off the highway with a single restaurant serving cheese fries (these were vegetarian), and some sort of corn pudding in a tiny dish. The rest of the menu was pretty heavily meaty including the regular fries which were dipped in bacon. The wait staff got 5 points from me for the friendliness on the response card and the diversity of the food offerings got a low 1. If I hadn’t had a 4am wake-up for my flight the next morning I would have gone back into the French quarter with its spontaneous musical life and the oldest opera house in the country for excitement. Here is a picture of some young gentlemen playing on Bourbon Street. I could have stood by the corner and listened to them play for many hours.

It’s true the economy is depressed and will take time to pick up. But not all the businesses in N’Awlins are just brick and mortar establishments. You can support the city’s economy from where you are by using local New Orleans’ merchants via the web. Just two examples are Laura’s candies (here’s a photo I took of a humorous sign in the store) and the Gallery of Light. It’s impossible to photograph and replicate the art there. The lighting in the store is designed to showcase the effect of lighting variations. When I walked in two state troopers were turning the light dials around to see how the paintings turned from sunny daytime scenes to crepuscular ones. For all of you fraternity boys and sorority sisters who partied it up for Mardi Gras in N’Awlins way back when, go back with the babies and spend a weekend turning those dials!