Charmed Chaos

Early Morning March 4,2005

We are sitting in Cafe du Monde enjoying beignets and robust coffee. It’s an overcast day, but we don’t care for we are in the Crescent city. This is NOLA, a city of dark secrets, rich gumbo, ancient ghosts, and spontaneous celebrations.

We are enjoying the atmosphere of the cafe, for it is lively and loud. Above the din of the cafe noise, I hear the sound of a joyous trumpet. Taking our coffee to go we begin a stroll down the rain slick street. Following the music, we know we are getting closer for we hear people laughing.

It’s a parade, and it looks to be for St Patrick’s Day but that’s a few weeks away. My husband who can talk to anyone, asks a guy- hey what’s this? The guy tells him, Come on, join us- it’s a Practice St. Patrick’s Day Parade! Who knew you have practice parades? We spent the rest of the morning in the parade, talking and walking with folks, stopping to drink at every bar we passed. They were some of the nicest people we’ve ever met on our travels.

Little did we know, that following August Katrina would hit and devastate the city. We often wonder if those wonderful people we met made it through.

and the rains came down
Katrina flooding NOLA
and still, the music

©2021 Linda Lee Lyberg

Author’s Note: We will never forget this trip and our unplanned participation in the Practice Parade. I had never drunk a beer before at 8:30 in the morning!

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