New Orleans is about 1/3 Catholic and many more observe Catholic traditions, like Lent, after a raucous Mardi Gras. Good Friday tends to be celebrated by the devout Catholic. There are events throughout the city. Uptown, people get on buses or walk to do the Nine-Church Pilgrimage. Each church will …
Holt Cemetery is an outlier in New Orleans being one of the only below-ground cemeteries in the city. While nearby cemeteries have grandiose sculptures and elaborate stones and foliage, these grounds feel immediate and human.Dr. Holt, well known for his work in Storyville, established the cemetery in 1879 to bury the poorer residents of the city. For Jazz fans, the cemetery houses Charles “Buddy” Bolen, Jessie Hill Jewell “Babe” Stovall, and more. The cemetery often floods and is in disrepair. Money was allocated in 2013 to repair the city-owned cemetery, but it appears as of now, the money has not been spent. That aside, the majority of the …
Flames engulfed the small strip club in Gray, TN, in the early hours of January 10, 2013. Mouse’s Ear was the only strip club between Johnson City’s Fuzzy Holes and Knoxville and was always particularly busy during race week. Rumors swirled around town- neighbors (like they had 20 years before) …
Silver Creek Campground in Mt. Hermon, LA, celebrates its anniversary each year by crowning the “Misss (Not so Miss) Silver Creek” at their womenless beauty pageant. Male campers dress up as women to be judged on eveningwear and interview questions. The grand prize is a gift certificate to Walmart. One boy plunks down at …
The Musée Conti Wax Museum shuttered its doors in 2016 to make way for condos. Along with Arnaud’s Germaine Wells Mardi Gras Museum, it was a place I popped into often when I am in the quarter. The wax museum was no Madame Tussauds but that made it all the more …
The locals of St. James Parish, Louisiana have their own unique, long-standing tradition of lighting teepee style pyres on fire for Christmas Eve, some of which are packed with fireworks as kindling. Throughout the entire month of December, local families work together to build the pyres. The pyres themselves traditionally take pyramid …
John Thompson, an influential man, was able to get Grace declared “insane”. Soon after entering the asylum she escaped to New Orleans. Being a suspicious death, police turned to Grace. She claimed she never made it there and he was killed for his $500,000 gambling treasure. Grace was a gifted …
Elvis is alive. When I walked away, I heard you say If you need me, you know what to do I knew it then, I’d be back again. Thirty-six years after Elvis’s death, he sang this low tune in front of Graceland while thousands held up candles at his annual …
Every Tuesday night for several months in the winter, the Washington County Fairgrounds’ largest building is warmed by giant space heaters so that a crowd of hundreds can root for their favorite bull rider. In the front of the building, the crowd sits in the bleachers laughing at the clown …
“Young man, there’s no need to feel down. Young man, get yourself off the ground” — pumps from the speakers, the trumpets blare and then — “It’s fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.” — and hundreds of arms extend into the sky while red and blue lights flash from the …