Before we had lunch, we found the Jefferson Variety Store. It's a family owned business supplying all the Mardi Gras trinkets you can imagine, along with fabrics, trims, appliques, hats and more. It is in the warehouse section of town, and we weren't sure we were in the right place...but I'm glad we persevered! It was fun, and I wish I had a fancy party on my calender.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking on Magazine Street, in the Garden District, looking at the houses and window-shopping. The Creole houses, the double houses and the low-country houses are distinctive, and in this neighborhood are in mostly good shape. The double house is the most interesting: it is two shotgun houses, connected under one roof. There is a narrow porch across the whole front, with a very wide overhang, making for cover in the rain. Some have wrought iron railings, some wooded railins, and some have no railing. Most are about 4 steps up, to catch a little breeze, and the doors are set close to the side, as far from each other as can be. Each side of the house is not much more than about 10 feet wide: you can fire a shotgun standing in the front doorway, and it will go straight through and out the backdoor. The trim is fancy, and the colors are bright and happy. There is often a 4 foot-wide space of dirt between the house and sidewalk, with citrus, sasanquas or weeds growing. Another unique house style is one story in the front, narrow, and two stories in the back. These are small houses, I suspect not much more than 1000 square feet.
Close to sunset, we made our way downtown to catch the free ferry from Canal Street to Algiers, on the south side of the MS river. The river is about 1/2 mile wide here, and about 240 feet deep. The lights of the city were pretty from across the river, particularly the tall St. Louis Cathedral. We didn't even get off the ferry at Algiers, but rode right back to Canal Street. I just wanted to be on the Mighty MS River, and to see the lights of NO. Even after dark, it's a busy river: we saw three tugss pushing long lines of barges up river.
By the time we walked back through the Quarter, it was close to time to get in line for the 8:00 show at Preservation Hall Jazz. We bought a beer at Yo Mama's bar, in the required plastic cup, taking our place in line for an hour. The Hall has been showcasing NO Jazz since 1961, in a no-frills setting. No food, no drinks, no toilets, a few benches to sit on with standing room in the back. The building hasn't seen a coat of paint inside or out since probably 1961. The door opens at 8, the music starts 10 minutes later and the band does three sets. A different local band performs each night.
Being there early got us a space on one of the two benches against the side wall, right at the clarinet player's right knee, giving us both a place to lean back and the most perfect seat in the house! The 726 Jazz Band, six members, were great!! They played old traditional jazz pieces, including one by Jelly Roll Morton. Clarinet, trombone and sax player took highlight turns, along with the piano player (who was the band leader), the bass player and the drummer. They talked with us and each other, laughed during most of their performance, I think they were having as much fun playing as we were listening. The old man on the sax, they called him Doc Watson, could hardly stand up, but he could play! Being there, hearing the music, was the highlight of this trip.
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