βEaster on The River of Bourbon Street / April 2023
Β© 2023 Leonard Earl Johnson, All Rights Reserved
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| Photo credit: Leonard Earl Johnson |
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by Leonard Earl Johnsonof Lafayette and New Orleans, Louisiana
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by Leonard Earl Johnson
of Lafayette and New Orleans, Louisiana
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Easter on the River
of Bourbon Street
by
Leonard Earl Johnson
Β© 2023, Leonard Earl Johnson, All Rights Reserved
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| Jackson Square, NOLa photo credit: J. R. Tullos |
After Easter Mass, L. A. Norma and I left the piercing witch hat towers of Saint Louis Cathedral and headed for the soaring two-story balconies of Bourbon Street.
There we were lifted on the chaliced wings of whiskey served from temples named Oz and Bourbon Pub.
This is the demarcation point that turns back Reader's Digest tourists. Back to Canal Street's familiar hotels and edited narrative. Beyond this intersection pass explorers seeking the gentrified bohemia of the lower French Quarter, and the musical sirens of Faubourgs Marigny, TremΓ©, and Bywater.
We took seats on the balcony above the Pub's swinging shingle, and watched the masses with their arms upraised in jubilation of Christ's Resurrection ~ or beads.
There touched by Easter's spirit and the elfin Mr. Booze we saw Jesus walking down this street of sin. He wore a crown of thorns over His long black hair. He wore sandals, too, and was naked save for a loincloth cut like the one in the paintings. He was thin and looked like He might be Filipino ~ but mostly He looked like Jesus. Everyone on the balcony saw Him.
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| The Battle of Bourbon Strassa, NOLa |
Norma exhaled a cloud of cigarette smoke and this proclamation:
"Forget the Crucifixion, skip the fasting and
go straight to the Resurrection!"
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True to His Book, Jesus was slumming with the local rabble and reveling in their Easter experience. As were they in His.
"Their experience is a damn sight easier'n His," L. A. Norma said, tapping her fingers along the tiny silver figure hanging on her necklace. The Crucifixion on a silver chain. A two-thousand year old Roman gismo for torture elevated to a symbol of good.
"It's like Donald Trump edited the Gospels!" Norma snorted.
Everyone laughed and glowed in the righteous wonder of her thought.
A few years back, a few blocks up the street, the late Chris Owens ~ an elderly Bourbon Street dancer and nightclub owner with staying power ~ conducted her annual Easter Parade with self-anointed grand-marshal David Duke crashing the street party.
"It's Bourbon Street," L. A. Norma said, "you don't need no stinkin' invitation!"
A brass band made of midgets played along, while elder ladies of the snatched-bodies cult and a half dozen or so young bunnies in pastel furs marched down the street and rode atop pedicabs throwing Spring colored underpants and beads.
None among this human eddy gave any notice whatsoever to our walking Jesus, except a tourist family standing against the downstream wall of then Pete Fountain's (now Club Oz) directly across the street from where we sat.
The father was wide-eyed. The girl, about seventeen, waved up to us. The pubescent son giggled and hugged his mother. Then along came Jesus headed straight for them. The tourist mother looked offended. She gathered her brood and paddled them off back towards Canal Street. Jesus did not seem bothered by their departure.
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| Margareta and Chiquita Bergen |
The father was wide-eyed. The girl, about seventeen, waved up to us. The pubescent son giggled and hugged his mother. Then along came Jesus headed straight for them. The tourist mother looked offended. She gathered her brood and paddled them off back towards Canal Street. Jesus did not seem bothered by their departure.
"After all," Norma said, "He wrote the book on forgiveness."
The sinners went on with their sinning. Then the Pope appeared on the Oz balcony. He stood directly above where the tourist family had been, and he was dressed head-to-toe in yellow and white satin. He blessed all who passed beneath him. He looked across the River of Bourbon Street and blessed us, too. We waved, and he motioned us over. We crossed the street and took our seats at the Pope's table.
The Pope handed out Wild Turkey and iced water, "Holy Water from the Holy River," he said.
Three real nuns, in old-fashioned black-and-white habits, came trotting down Rue Saint Ann, returning from a later mass. They passed our intersection headed towards Cathedral School. The Sea of Sinners parted. We all cheered.
"What would they think of seeing Jesus," L. A. Norma asked of no one in particular. She leaned over the balcony rail and yelled to the crowd below for Carnival beads. A photographer looked up and took her picture. I yelled down asking if he had seen Jesus. "No!" he shouted back. Would he like to? "Yes, of course, yes!"
The Pope lay his hands on my shoulders, and said, "Watch that woman, do not let her fall over the communion rail."
Green Carnival beads landed on the Pope's pointy hat. They looked interesting, but he took them off and tossed them to two college boys on the street below. Norma told him the two boys should have opened their pants. He frowned and said sternly, "This is not Carnival!"
Green Carnival beads landed on the Pope's pointy hat. They looked interesting, but he took them off and tossed them to two college boys on the street below. Norma told him the two boys should have opened their pants. He frowned and said sternly, "This is not Carnival!"
I said, "It is not Laughingyette either," but the Pope did not hear me ~ he was gone to find Jesus. Norma looked past my forehead and talked of far-ranging things.
The Pope returned without Jesus. He was balancing fresh drinks and passed them round the table. "He can not be found in this wicked den," said The Pope, handing out Wild Turkey and water.
When we looked up from our drinks we saw Him again. He was at our old balcony table across the street waving. We waved back. His naked arms were lifted heavenward. His loincloth flapped in the whiskey-flavored air. The man with the camera jumped and shouted, "Your cross, your cross, show us your cross!"
Jesus looked down and bellowed: "Don't you know what holiday this is? It is Easter, I have no cross!"
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| When LEJ wore a younger man's beard. Katrina evacuation, atop the Presbyter copula, Jackson Square, New Orleans, 2006 |
The Pope, assorted communion-rail leaners, and other followers passing on the street below shouted, "Is it Carnival?"
It wasn't. It was Easter on the River of Bourbon Street.
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Copyright, 2023, Leonard Earl Johnson, All Rights Reserved
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Β© 2023, Leonard Earl Johnson, All Rights Reserved.
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Lagnappe du Jour
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Β© 2023 Leonard Earl Johnson, All Rights Reserved. |
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| Β© Leonard Earl Johnson |
If you wish to read any month's column go to ~ ~ ~ LEJ's Louisiana, Yours Truly in a Swamp is a monthly e-column @ www.LEJ.world, Hosted by GOOGLE BLOGGER, and historically at Les Amis de Marigny, New Orleans publication of the It is written by Leonard Earl Johnson of Lafayette and New Orleans, Louisiana Β© 2023, Leonard Earl Johnson, All Rights Reserved |
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