If there is one post-Katrina industry that is thriving in New Orleans, it has to be the nostalgia business. You can buy anything emblazoned with a fleur-de-lis. Last time I was there, I picked up the flag above at a shop on Magazine Street. This flag of the French Bourbon Dynasty is flying all over town. There is another variation where the field is all white with three golden fleur(s?)-de-lis - very sharp. The official flag of the city adds a red stripe to the top and a blue stripe on the bottom of the white Bourbon flag. The Bourbon flag was flown over the city when New Orleans was French. According to the flag shop guys, the flag continued to be used until the 1920’s when the city adapted a version to call our own. Sounds about right. Bourbon Street takes its name from the dynasty, not the hooch. Anyway, I dig my handsome flag.
The nostalgia extends to just about anything that the city can call its own, regardless of whether it even existed at the time of the storm. A great example of this are the very in-demand K&B Drug Store t-shirts. K&B gave way to a national chain in 1997. I have a New Orleans Jazz basketball team t-shirt. The Jazz moved to Utah in 1979. (Can someone pass a law requiring the team to be renamed? Seriously. Is there a less jazz-like place than Salt Lake City?). The world’s greatest pastries, Hubig’s Pies, are now available on-line for the displaced and the ex-pats. (Get a t-shirt with the combo pack!)
One of the strangest fits of nostalgia is the city’s love affair with its water meter covers. We love these things. I have no idea why. I have a set of silver water meter cuff links that are AMAZING. I also have a beautiful crockery plate with the manhole cover at its center. You can buy water meter hats, shirts, floor mats (I have one of those, too), dog bowls - you name it.
If it is unique to the city, the city loves it. There is an almost palpable longing to cling to our culture with both hands - an “at least you can’t take this away” mentality. I’m all for it, obviously. Load up on your NOLA gear.
In NOLA book news, The SF Chronicle reviews Chris Rose’s 1 Dead in the Attic (Rose will we at the Decatur Book Festival Saturday morning) and Billy Sothern’s Down In New Orleans. Washington Post Book World also has a look at Sothern’s book.
It’s not all about looking backward though. Richard Fausset writes in the LA Times this morning about the new wave of forward thinking sweeping the city. As he notes, that’s almost unprecedented.