Loose Leaf Notes

Weddings tend to find me and I’m not too shy to crash them, whether on the beach in my hometown of Hull MA, while shopping at the Harvest Moon in Floyd or stopping at a pub in Ireland  that just happened to be the set of the BBC series Ballykissangel where a real life wedding was taking place.

You’ve heard of the Jazz Funeral?   I think of it as the New Orleans  version of the Irish Wake, a celebration of life taken to the street.  While in New Orleans for spring break, we happily came upon what I think of as a Jazz Wedding (complete with the African American traditional jumping broom).

At first I thought it was theatre or an art performance.  Everyone was dressed to the nines.  There was a rapper-looking guy all in white with a red rose on his lapel sitting on a red Cocoa Cola chair/throne, and a brass band of musicians standing by.  The longer I stayed the more I knew it was the real thing, and I was very moved by the vows that the bride and groom exchanged.  I couldn’t hear the words but could read the emotion.

The wedding took place in Jackson Square on the first day of the French Quarter Festival, which is where I met Marcus.

He was poking me in the back with his little two-year-old fingers.  When I finally turned around and laid eyes on him, I kind of fell in love.

He sat on my lap while we listened to George Porter perform.  We danced together and I threw him kisses goodbye when the concert was over.  We made quite a scene but I wasn’t the only one he had wrapped around his little fingers. He was high fiving and drink toasting with anyone who’d play along.  Joe swears a reporter from the Times-Picaynue took a picture of Marcus and me and that our image is living on somewhere out there. Whether or not, I’ll never forget little Marcus.

_________Weekend Travel Inspiration