Nawlins

Last week I had a three-day rendezvous in New Orleans with high school friends. Our official high school reunion had been a couple of weeks earlier, which we couldn't make for various reasons, so we convened in New Orleans for a smaller reunion with world-class debauchery.

Just kidding. About the debauchery. Even with the fact that our hotel was at the corner of Bourbon Street & Royal.

Some locals call it Nawlins. Growing up in South Louisiana I called it Norluns. No one in Louisiana knew it was called The Big Easy until Dennis Quaid starred in a movie with that name in 1986. I saw that movie in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1986 with a friend who, like me, had grown up in Louisiana. We thought “Hmmm, I wonder what the name of that movie refers to?” Now there are signs all around Norluns referring to itself as The Big Easy.

When I returned home I painted a digital portrait of my high school pal in The Don't Hurry cafe.
He now lives in Germany, sort of the opposite of Big Easy.

To make sure we were doing the Big Easy thing, we visited The Don’t Hurry cafe, in the Garden District.

If you run out of money while on Bourbon Street you can usually find a part-time job. 
I happen to have advertising experience, so getting a job was not a problem for me.