PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON NEW ORLEANS

BY DAN MILLER
(originally posted September 6, 2005)

There's little about New Orleans to smile about these days, so I'm turning to happier times.

Whenever someone close to me dies, I'm flooded with recollections of that person.

While viewing the remains, or the casket of the deceased, I always have the same thought:
That's not the person....
That's just the vessel...
That's just the vehicle that carried that spirit through this life.

I've often had similar feelings about old abandoned buildings....
But this is the first time I've had such thoughts about a city.

With most of the people of New Orleans no longer there, all that's left -- along with the water -- is the man-made stuff.... the streets and the structures.
And it's painfully clear that it's the people, not those streets and structures, that make New Orleans..... well, New Orleans.

I hear that Preservation Hall escaped major damage, but without all the wonderful old jazz musicians, it's little more than a big empty room.

I've visited New Orleans maybe 7 or 8 times in my life.

The picture attached to this essay shows Muhammad Ali landing a hard right on the head of Leon Spinks. That was in 1978 at the Superdome.
Ali won the fight, and earned -- for the third time -- the Heavyweight Championship of the World.
There were 65,000 people there. I was one of them.

That night, Nashville was well represented in The Big Easy -- and I was happy to catch up with some of the home folks at a pre-fight gathering in a hotel near the Superdome.
I recall John Jay Hooker, Huell Howser, Jane and Dick Eskind, Wayne Oldham, Lamar Alexander, Floyd Kephart and many others being there that night.
It was a New Orleans-style good time.

The main floor of the Superdome was a sea of celebrities, but the only ones who come to mind are Lillian Carter (the mother of President Jimmy Carter) and Jimmy Buffett.
No, they were not together.
Mrs. Carter.... a feisty woman, who I suspect enjoyed her celebrity status.... had a ringside seat and appeared to be having a grand time in Nawlins.

Many of us had obtained -- what I was told were -- ringside seats.
But I assure you, I was at least 75 yards from the ring -- and had it not been for the big jumbo screen, I wouldn't have seen much of the fight.

Jimmy Buffett was sitting in the seat directly in front of me.
He was obviously celebrating the night, but I wasn't sure he was comprehending the fight.

A few years later I met Jimmy, when he guested on Miller & Company, and I mentioned that he had been sitting directly in front of me at the Superdome.
Jimmy -- being a man of candor and truth -- said he barely recalls even being in New Orleans that night.

The first time I ever ate squid (or was it octopus?) was around 1984 when Karen and I were in New Orleans attending a NATPE (National Association of Television Programming Executives) convention. In those days, I served as a V.P. for WSMV.
Mike Kettenring, our GM, was a native of New Orleans (where, interestingly, he once worked side by side with Lee Harvey Oswald).
Mike took us to one of his favorite restaurants, and tricked me into thinking the squid were french fries.
They were quite tasty, until I learned the truth.

By the way, Mike left the TV business years ago.
He's now a Catholic priest, serving a parish in suburban New Orleans.
As if that's not unusual enough, Mike's (the priest's) son and two grandchildren also live there.
Someday, I predict, there'll be a book or a movie about Mike's remarkable life.
I'm told Mike and his family are doing OK.... obviously not on top of the world.... but OK.

My last trip to New Orleans was in 1990. I spent a week there while working for CBS.
We were doing live segments every night for Pat Sajak's late night show.
At that point in my career, my mission was comedy.... not news.
I came to truly appreciate the lightheartedness and kind spirit of the folks who lived there.

I hope to visit New Orleans again.
I want to stop at Cafe du Monde for a sugared beignet.
I want a big bowl of authentic gumbo.
I want to see if Pat O'Brien's still calls its signature cocktail, the Hurricane.

Whether it will be the same New Orleans, in the same location, is an unanswerable question.
Maybe it'll then be called Newer Orleans, or the New New Orleans.

As to whether it’ll still be referred to as The Big Easy, I doubt it.

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