On Sunday, Murph and I in between unpacking made our way to Kajun's Pub. Since he was down quite a bit in the mobility department, a pause that refreshes with some good Abita beer was called for.
The owner of the pub happened to be there, JoAnn Guidos, along with her partner and a few other bar patrons. Murph knew about her and asked if she was in. JoAnn (formerly John) is featured in the book Nine Lives: Mystery, Magic, Death, and Life in New Orleans. There's apparently going to be a Broadway musical of the story, and already there's a song written about her.
Having been through the 1965 Hurricane Betsy and all thereafter while keeping her bar going through Katrina she had quite a tale to tell.
During Katrina, she, due to some smart planning, kept the bar operating with power from generators and protecting her property with a shotgun and a .38 revolver. She acted as a center of the neighborhood keeping food for neighbors and making it a place people could come to, and lots of people did including the media and police during their travels down St. Claude Ave. She kept the looters and no-goodniks away.
That is until some US Marshalls confiscated her guns from her at gunpoint, and she still has not received them back to this day. Basically, the action was to force decent citizens who had been hanging in their on their own to evacuate after they were made defenseless by the authorities against the no-goodniks.
A darn interesting person and quite a powerful story to tell. Not a bad way to have spent some time in New Orleans, sipping some beer and listening to a riveting tale well told.
1 comment:
Great! I have an excuse now to visit the Big Easy!
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