So we wait for the snowstorm. We have seen snowstorms before, but this one is forecast to be particularly severe. Each update is worse than the one before. There were long lines at the Grocery Store yesterday. We typically receive some snow each winter, but it is often not significant. This looks like the real thing.

A big change from the French Quarter just over a week ago. The weather was 70 degrees or more, and the living was easy. We mozed about with a feeling of spring. A bit surreal for midwesterners from Illinois who are accustomed to cold temperatures in winter. We were in another universe where music and dancing were the norm in a warm atmosphere. There was joy on a normal day. Singing on every corner. Hope in the manifestation of mirth.

MJ says next time we will stay an additional night. I wholeheartedly agree! Although many people told us of the historic snowfall New Orleans experienced a year ago in January. The City was shut down due to the unexpected event. Artists painted fine art to commemorate the 100-year event. Photographers took photos. They reflected on January 2025.

I saw our server at the Carousel Bar in a moment of rest and reflection. She said that she was enjoying the moment with fewer people and thinking of Mardi Gras. She went on to say that it is insane and a sensory overload. The French Quarter is full of tourists who are experiencing Mardi Gras.

A friendly woman placed a cream under MJ’s eye to illustrate how it tightens puffiness. When MJ saw her later during our French Quarter excursion, she identified the wrong eye. Until that mistake, MJ was pondering whether to purchase a tube of the magic balm. A young man stopped Jonathon and me to tell us that he was going to run for President and that, ‘My black ass better vote for him.’ His presentation captivated me when he identified me as black. He continued to tell Jonathon and me that we were invited to the
White House if he won, for a barbecue dinner, and all we needed to do was bring a side dish with us. He received a small donation from the Old Man just for the entertainment value of his presentation.

Steve and I were caught in a snowstorm many years ago when we worked together for a Janitorial Service and were on our way to Zeigler to clean the corporate offices of Zeigler Coal Company. I told Steve that perhaps we should turn around, as all I could see out of the windshield of the 1962 Ford Fairlane was a white sheet. He assured me that we would be fine, whereupon we landed in the snowy ditch. We pushed the vintage car out of the ditch and turned for home.

When I was 20 years old, I walked to MJ’s trailer to dig her Maverick Car out of a historic snowstorm. I wanted to impress her with my affection for her and what a capable man I was. She made me hot chocolate, and I was rail-thin. That day, I knew I had made fiance points with my beloved.

The year after I dug MJ’s car out of the snow, I had been recently hired at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale and chose to drive to work rather than miss being there if they were open. A colleague drove up in Building Services, where I had just pulled into the drive and found the door locked and one light bulb burning. Elbert persisted in knocking on the door and calling out that Brooks and Covington were reporting for duty. I had made a fifteen-mile journey through what appeared to be a snow covered field rather than highway #51. Then Elbert invited me to go home, get MJ and come to his house, which was seven miles more. I assured him that if I got back home, I would stay for the duration of the Storm.

Margo and Jeff stayed with us a year later when a snowstorm occurred. MJ fed them homemade biscuits, and they accompanied us to Eldorado on a snowy road to take Neva J home. We laughed a lot and bonded in our lifelong friendship. It was a fifty-mile journey, and we made it with the help of Neva J’s strong black coffee.

So I knew what the Uber Driver was talking about in French
Quarter regarding Snowstorms. Much snow provides a significant challenge. It also provides an opportunity for lifetime memories.