Sights of New Orleans

During this coronavirus pandemic, travel has been curtailed, and when someone needs to travel for work or other necessary means, they must have the proper documentation. Lately, I have felt the itch to travel, so I have been looking through many of my travel pictures from years past. These pictures are from a trip to  New Orleans in July 2017, when I was there for a family wedding. New Orleans is very steeped in history and culture and is a great place to visit. One of the first sights I saw while flying in was the expansive Lake Pontchartrain, and many people on their boats.  Here is the world famous St. Louis Cathedral, the oldest Catholic Cathedral in North America. I had stopped in to say a prayer for my cousin on her wedding day. 

Horse and buggy tours are very popular in the French Quarter. This horse at Jackson Square was being very photogenic to a tourist. 

The famous Cafe Du Monde coffee stand, which sells chicoried Coffee (you can have it straight or Cafe Au Lait) and Beignets. This is a 24-hour operation, open whenever you feel you might need some

The New Orleans Resurrection is a popular cocktail on Bourbon Street. It is made from Rum and Blue Curacao. 

Speaking of Bourbon Street, it was great to see the street in person on days outside of Carnival and Mardi Gras. Many bars and clubs line the street, as well as other tourist attractions

As I was leaving for home, I noticed these flowers in the ladies room after going through security at Louis Armstrong Airport. This was the first time I have seen fresh flowers at the airport. 

 

 

Architecturally Faithful

 As I am going through the suburbs of Detroit this past week, I pass by the ornate Kirk in the Hills, a Presbyterian church in the suburb of Bloomfield Hills. It is a church I have only heard about growing up in the metro area. Looking at their history, they were formed in the 1940s after a businessman in Detroit, Col. Edwin George had the foresight for a church in the area in the 1930s. Services were first held at the current church in 1958. They have had five pastors shepherding the flock since 1958. As with houses of worship of all faiths during the coronavirus pandemic, they are conducting worship services online and in-person to a limited number of parishioners. They have many courses for growth in the Christian faith for parishioners of all ages. 

Thoughtfulness

 I am currently thinking of a post I penned on my personal Facebook page at the end of the year. I wrote about how I saw that some people were feeling upset and cranky about how 2020 turned out with the coronavirus and other things happening, and they felt that life wasn't going the way they wanted it to go. This life does not revolve around you alone. People do not have to cater to you and make you the center of everything all the time. You have to learn to give instead of take and to keep the faith, keep praying if you believe in the power of prayer,  and make do with what you currently have. You can learn a new skill or discover a talent that has laid dormant for a while, and share these gifts and talents with those around you. I feel heartened to see how friends, family members, coworkers and old classmates are using their gifts and talents to help and inform those around them, as well as brighten the days of all around them. As for me, I am discovering more of my family history, as well as the History of certain figures in the Detroit area and across the nation using the Library of Michigan and other websites, and sharing it with people in my circle. I am doing what I can to get by during this time. What are you doing to make use of your gifts and talents? Have you discovered a particular gift or talent that you are using now? All of this makes me think of the song "You Gotta Make Your Own Sunshine" by Neil Sedaka, which is about making your own sunshine when life gets you down and out. 

YouTube Friday: The Beach Boys- Kokomo (HQ)

Since it is pretty chilly in most parts of the country, today's installment of YouTube Friday is from the Beach Boys, courtesy of InnerMusicLove's YouTube channel,  designed to take you to tropical locales.  There are a few places in the United States called Kokomo, one in the state of Indiana and one on the island of Maui in Hawaii, but there is no Kokomo in Florida! 

Newspaper Insurance

Going through some old newspapers on Newspapers.com, and I noticed that many newspapers, the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press included, had accident insurance back in the days. Until at least the 1980s-1990s, newspapers offered accident insurance to their subscribers and covered them in case of injury, accident, or death, and covered your bills if you had to be off work while recuperating. The insurance laws across the country have since changed, and what was covered is now covered by auto insurance agencies.

 

Fast Mail

Here's a real piece of nostalgia. It is an old book that held stamps back in the late 1960s-early 1970s, judging from the old Post Office Pony Express logo. Look how much a stamp cost back in the days! The little postman featured here is Mr. Zip, who reminded people to use a zip code when you mailed your letter instead of a zone, which was common back in those days. According to the Postal Museum, Mr. Zip was introduced in 1963 when the Zip Code was put in effect and debuted in January 1964. 

 

Living under false pretenses

As I am going about Twitter, I run across a post from Ken Coleman about Daniel West, a Michigan State Representative. The interesting thing is, it is not his real identity. it is a con artist using a dead man's name to get ahead in life. The original Daniel West was a lawyer in New York that died in the early 1960s, and a man from Detroit who owned several businesses assumed his identity and ran for office. (here is his legislative biography). After his story came to light, He was refused a seat in the Michigan Legislature, and was on the run in 1965 under the threat of being charged with Tax-related offenses. He was reportedly spotted in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, right across the river from Detroit, in the mid-1970s but it was not him. The man's identity was never known or revealed, and we may never know who he was.