On
a recent visit to my hometown of New Orleans, I decided to visit
City Park and
view the new additions and upgrades since Hurricane Katrina gave it such a
brutal beating. Also, since I found some old photos of my grandparents enjoying
City Park at the beginning of the 20
th century, I wanted to find and
photograph those old landmarks and compare.
City
Park and its 1,300 acres has indeed received a much-needed facelift and it
appears improvements are continuing. There’s a gondola ride now, Storyland from
my youth appears almost brand new and the Morning Call coffee shop, which
offers beignets and chicory coffee, has opened in the old Casino building. I
also took in the
New Orleans Museum of Art, which is undergoing renovation but
still offering great exhibits such as “Lifelike,” an exhibit of oversized,
lifelike art pieces on view until Feb. 3, 2013. Since the weather is usually
mild and sunny in December, I took in the expansive sculpture garden where I
had fun shooting interesting views of the pieces and following a swan around
who wasn’t scared of people.
But
as I was looking for the bridge that my grandmother climbed as a young woman,
back in the days when she was courting my dapper grandfather who looked damn
good in a fedora, I met Elton. He saw me shooting photos of the old stone
bridge over the lagoon and called me over.
“Did
you see this tree?” he asked me, pointing to an old live oak leaning
precariously to the left and covered in Spanish moss. “You need to take a photo
of that.”
He
was right and I did just that. Then he asked me what I was doing on this lovely
December day in City Park. After I explained that I was documenting places my
grandparents visited, he mentioned that he was sort of doing the same. Since
Katrina, he had been living in different places but decided it was time to
return to his hometown of New Orleans. He recalled some of those places,
including visiting California’s ancient grove of redwoods, which explained his
admiration of the live oak. I remarked at how much I loved trees as well, and
we decided to stroll the lagoon together, enjoying the massive oak trees and
the beautiful day.
I
found my grandparents’ bridge, called the Angele Langeles Memorial Bridge built
about 1902. I also spotted the stone lions outside the pavilion, where my grandmother,
sister and cousin posed for a photo. The pavilion is used for special events.
I
could tell Elton was a bit anxious about his return to New Orleans. I could
relate, being a boomeranger myself. Natives may leave the city but always seem
to return. Blame it on the awesome food culture, Mardi Gras or the music, but
it’s hard living anywhere else. There’s no place like New Orleans.
However,
it’s not always easy to come back after living elsewhere. The pace of
Otherwhere America is sometimes faster and more sophisticated, the lifestyles
more progressive and hip. You can argue either way on whether that’s a good
thing or bad, but it’s always been a struggle for me to balance the great
attributes of New Orleans with its faults, one of the reasons why I live in
neighboring Lafayette. I can visit anytime I want, and when I do, like today,
the city beams with a new light. It works for me.
It
was getting late so Elton and I parted ways. I took a photo of Elton by one of
the lions, wondering if my grandchildren might one day come looking for the
City Park landmarks Mawmaw (me) wrote about in her blog. I wonder, too, if
Elton will stumble upon this blog in his new life. My hope is that City Park’s
features, much like New Orleans natives such as Elton and me, will continue to
survive in an ever-changing environment.
