The Bourbon Street I Knew

The mask was torn off the face of “The City That Care Forgot,” New Orleans. It was so called in 1910 to assure visitors they would be free from worries while visiting the city. That changed when the face of evil shown as Bourbon Street, scene of raucous bars serving potent cocktails, became the scene of the recent macabre mayhem of maimed victims.

Two quarters constitute most of downtown New Orleans, the French Quarter and the Irish Channel. Formerly persons from one enter the other. For a time I ministered in the Irish Channel.

The French Quarter, also known as the Vieux Carré, is the setting for a 24/7 party. That is the image most people have of not just Bourbon Street, but the quarter itself. That limits the quarter’s image. The book “Frenchman Love Goodchildren” employs as its title the name of three famous New Orleans streets. When the quarter was laid out they wanted to name all of the streets after French nobles. They could not find enough nobles that got along with each other to name parallel streets for them, so they put a street between each named for a saint.

Bourbon Street is more than strip clubs. It features jazz clubs, and Cajun eateries, such as, world renown Galatoire’s.  Old-world architecture, century-old restaurants, art galleries, antique shops, fine dining, and typical live music in the quarter create a rare ambience. O. Henry once lived and wrote at 241 Bourbon Street, now known as the Bourbon Cowboy.

Quieter streets are in the French Quarter, with gourmet food, local crafts, and Jackson Square, where street performers entertain in front of soaring St. Louis Cathedral.

My first exposure to Bourbon Street was as a collegian. Our basketball team had played Tulane. The schools being close to each other we traveled there in vans. After the game I was in the van with the coach who drove us down Bourbon. As he drove he said, “I want you boys to be the kind I could put out on the end of Bourbon at Canal Street at dark and pick you up on the other end at Esplanade Street, the Louisiana Creole section, at sun up and you would be the same kind of person as I put out on Canal. Advice well taken.

My next experience was as a seminary student in New Orleans while living in the quarter for a while. One class required students to preach on Bourbon Street. We went in small groups, sang a bit, and preached. You have never been cussed until you have been cussed by a Cajun mama. I was.

Years later I became a pastor in New Orleans. As such I went to Bourbon Street several times at the request of wives to get their husbands.

One morning an older friend and I took a shortcut down Bourbon on our way to go fishing. It was just before sun up. Strippers and other bar girls were just ending their night’s work and were walking down the street.  He said, “Look at them. They are all failures.” I ask why he thought of them as such.  He said they failed somewhere in a broken marriage, a failed relationship, or at some point in their career, and resorted to this.”

Bourbon will always be scared by the crux of evil perpetuated there. Bright spots in the Quarter are several successful ministries providing light in the darkness.