New Orleans - Jim Colyer

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December, 1977 - New Orleans, Houston

I flew to New Orleans and took a Greyhound to Houston. New Orleans is different. It is like a piece of Europe. I saw the Duelling Oaks in City Park. Duels were fought there. It was also in this park that I beheld the Tutankhamen exhibit. These pieces were discovered by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon in 1922 in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. They are over 3,000 years old but many of them look amazingly contemporary.

I met a masseuse from San Francisco. She massaged my neck and shoulders. We saw the exhibit together. We sat on the floor like two hippies. We left the park on a city bus. When we got to my stop, I gave her a kiss and jumped off the bus. It was like a movie.

Canal Street is the main thoroughfare in New Orleans. Old street cars run along it. Creoles stroll down its sidewalks. Creoles are a blend of Spanish and French heritage with dark eyes and olive complexions. On the far side of Canal Street lies the French Quarter, Vieux Carre. Within its confines runs the renowned Bourbon Street. Strip joints abound. Dixieland jazz pours from the barrooms. Tourists and local artists loiter at Jackson Square. The French Quarter runs for several blocks. One feel like he is living in the days of Napoleon. Leaving New Orleans, I crossed Lake Pontchartrain.


December, 1976 - Houston

I crossed the Mississippi River for the first time at Baton Rouge. Chester and I traveled through Mississippi on the truck. We broke down outside Houston and flew back to Louisville on New Year's Eve. Buck Simpson came for the truck. I sensed the difficulty of Chester's work and what it took to do his job. I need to emulate his work ethic.

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