(male announcer #1) Growing Up In New Orleans is made possible by the WYES Producers Circle A group of generous contributors dedicated to the support of Channel 12's local productions.

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(male announcer #1) and by contributions to WYES from viewers like you ♪ (male #1) If you're at a New Orleans cocktail party they'll say, where did you go to school?

They won't even say high school cause naturally they assume that you know, you mean high school.

(male #2) To see Mardi Gras in the French Quarter; the sound of the music reverberating off those old crusty buildings, and you know the light by the flambeau carriers, it was just a feast for the eyes and ears.

(female #1) I grew up wanting to be either a nun or a stripper because those were my two biggest mysteries in life.

The nuns, what's under all this regalia, and what's behind those doors on Bourbon St. To this day I have not been in one of those strip clubs, and I think it's because I always thought somebody might tell my mama.

♪ I'm Peggy Scott Laborde.

There are certain New Orleans experiences that many locals share memories of, including the swan boat in Audubon Park, parades in the French Quarter and dance recitals at the Municipal Auditorium.

Let's look back at what it was like growing up in New Orleans.

(Peggy) Anyone who has attended a dancing school knows that the recital is the culmination of a year's worth of hard work.

Well, you'd arrive at the Jerusalem Temple early and get dressed in costumes, and have makeup and have your hair done.

Of course my hair was always done in Shirley Temple curls.

If you notice in the program, one of the pictures at the bottom, it says from my mother and daddy, to Maureen on her first solo.

That was, I believe in 1946 and so I was only 3 1/2.

When I got to be about 10 or 11, I had a solo one time and I forgot my dance right in the middle of it, and it was a very traumatic experience and I never returned to the stage.

That was the end of my stage career.

[laughs] (female #2) My mother was Hazel Nuss, and had a very, very successful school.

When she retired in '56, she had four generations that she taught.

My mother and my aunt designed all the costumes.

And she'd go to New York and get the fabric, bring it home, and I remember her cutting up the fabric for each costume, putting in bags for each student, and giving it out.

Isn't that amazing?

(Maureen) I loved my costumes, I loved the costumes.

In fact after the recitals were over, I would have my costumes in my toy chest and I would pull them out and sometimes I would even have the neighborhood friends put the costumes on and we'd stage our own revue.

(male #1) I can remember going to dance revues at um Jerusalem Temple and Municipal Auditorium.

You know, lasting for days, sometimes.

People have to bring, you know, their change of underwear and food.

It just went on and on.

But I do have memories of people running down the aisles with a flash camera, take pictures of their little darling singing, you know, tap dancing to um "I've Got Rhythm" or "Singing in the Rain" or something.

I love it.

(Peggy) While there have always been many dancing schools in the New Orleans area, one of the best known was run by Tony Bevinetto.

Some of his teenage students appeared weekly on a local version of American Bandstand called Saturday Hop, and later the John Pela Show.

(Ricky) Tony Bevinetto; he was like Bob Fosse.

If you went to the Tony Bevinetto Dance School, it means that you were something, that you really knew how to dance, dawlin'.

You had to dance good to be with him.

[orchestral music from revue] (Peggy) Way before American Idol, many a youngster would compete in local talent contests.

(male #3) I was about 8 or 9 years old.

My mother would play the piano and she got me to sing, and I won first place.

And there were other people on the talent show.

They didn't have a chance.

I still have the trophy on my shelf in my house.

I won 13 contests in the state, in state champion.

And then that's when they sent me to New York in 1952 to be on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour.

(Peggy) Just a few years later, Ford recorded what would become his signature hit.

(Frankie) ♪ Oooee.

Oooee, baby.

♪ Oooee.

Oooee, baby.

♪ Won't ya let me take you ♪ on a sea cruise.

♪ (Peggy) If the acting bug bit, a perfect place to audition was at the New Orleans Recreation Department's Theatre.

Nord Theatre was part of what was considered one of the most progressive government youth sponsored programs in the country.

(Ricky) It was in the basement of Gallier Hall.

In the summer, kids did stuff at Nord, whether dancing or sports or the theatre or anything.

Nord covered all the bases.

Of course nowadays you've got, you know, 200 theatre camps in the summer, you know, vying for students.

But back then, Nord was it.

Tiny little 77-seat theatre and there was a lobby where they sold concessions and there was this thin black curtain [laughs] which was drawn during the performance and, of course, Ty was behind the curtain peeking out at the audience and clapping and laughing.

(Peggy) Ty Tracy was at the helm of Nord Theatre for over 40 years.

(Ricky) Or he'd say, "Project, I can't hear you!"

and he would sometimes go out in the hall and say, "If I can hear you in the hall then, then you're doing it loud enough!"

(Peggy) New Orleans actor and playwright Ricky Graham was in over a dozen Nord shows.

With the city as his home base, today Graham produces and stars in productions for local as well as national audiences.

(Ricky) Ty allowed me to play Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady" when I was about 15 years old.

Of course then I thought I was so British.

I thought I had the perfect British accent.

During a rehearsal, there was this line like, [with British accent] I say Pickering, let's get the girl down and make 'rekids' of her voice.

[laughs] and Ty said, 'REKIDS?'

My British accent still has some 9th ward cracks in it.

(Peggy) Nord Theatre alum Bryan Batt remembers Tracy well.

When he was directing it was business, it was serious.

There was no playing around which was very interesting.

It really made you do your job.

(Peggy) Batt has gone on to star in numerous Broadway shows and on the Emmy winning cable television series, "Madmen."

Jazz vocalist and teacher Leah Chase is also a Nord graduate.

Nobody missed rehearsal.

You were always there.

Isn't that interesting?

It was definitely a confidence booster.

(Peggy) The cast and crew of Nord Theatre productions reflected the community.

(Ricky) And that was really the first time I met kids that weren't like me.

He really knew how to involve the entire family.

The actors knew if, if Ty was really, really having a good time, then you were giving a good show.

(Peggy) New Orleans has been a city influenced culturally by Catholicism.

Many children have attended parochial school, and most of the time the decision of what to wear was already made for you; a uniform.

In the summertime you know what those khaki uniforms were like?

And my mother used to put the wire things in my pants and starch them and hang them on the line.

I used a lot of talcum powder that summer.

Sticky.

The wool was sticky.

A navy blue wool a-line skirt with a blazer, a white blouse, and black and white saddle oxfords.

I've always been a person of reubenesque proportions.

So a grey plaid full pleated skirt- which is always attractive when you've got a couple things in your middle- to the floor; we had to kneel down and a sister- we had the blessed sacrament nuns- made sure that they touched the ground.

The uniforms were very ugly But-[laughs] It wasn't really so much the uniforms as it was the saddle oxfords.

You know, it just made your feet look like your feet were this big.

(Peggy) Up until the 1970's, many Catholic school teachers were nuns.

The teachers were nuns mostly uh at Dominican in those days, very memorable nuns.

And there was something mystical about the nuns in those habits.

They were phenomenal because they really cared about us.

They really wanted you to learn and not just your Catholicism but they wanted you to learn everything that would help you to be, you know, a better person in your upcoming years.

I will tell you the good sisters taught me to learn.

And if you did the crime, you did the time.

(Maureen) Well we had so many rules, you know you could hardly go through a day without doing something.

Well mostly I got in trouble for talking when I wasn't supposed to talk.

(Peggy) Penance for misbehaving was often tailored to the student.

(Maureen) I loved decorating.

In fact one time, when I think when I was a sophomore, I did something, and the nun got aggravated with me and she punished me by not allowing me to decorate.

She did, she said you are not going to decorate.

(female #3) When I made my 1st communion and the 1st confession that proceeds the communion, the nuns tell you to take the ten commandments and inventory your life and think about how, what sins you committed and use that.

You know, I knew I didn't lie.

One God, no false gods before me, all of that.

So I went into the confession and lied.

[laughs] I told the priest that I had stolen a safety pin from my mother.

I've committed a sin and told a sin so I could receive a sacrament.

(Peggy) Honoring the blessed virgin Mary with a crowning of flowers each May was a ritual that many Catholic school children participated in.

[Deacon John sings] ♪ Ave Maria, ♪ gratia plena.

♪ Maria, gratia plena ♪ Maria, gratia plena ♪ And the priest and the clergy would lead a procession through the neighborhoods.

People would sit out on their front steps and, you know, it was like one of the highlights of the year.

(Peggy) One local grammar school annually staged an elaborate presentation dedicated to the school's namesake.

(male #4) I went to grammar school at St. Louis Cathedral.

They would put on this big production of the coronation of the King Louis and they would have the music, the coronation march and this and that.

I was a monsignor.

This was a money raiser, you know.

I sang at St. Joseph's.

I, I knew 3 masses in Latin, before I was in the 6th grade.

Fundamental Lutheran church seemed kind of dull after seeing, you know, statues and hymns and priests in great big um ornate outfits.

(Peggy) When a student entered high school, extracurricular activities often included attending dances.

(male #5) We went to the Ursuline dances.

And the uh, I guess the Sacred Heart dances.

all of them were so structured.

If you'll remember the nuns in the balcony staring down at everybody if they got within 24 inches of each other, uh dancing, whistles blew and the horns went off.

(Peggy) Keeping Catholic teenagers off the streets was a goal of the Catholic Youth Organization.

The CYO, as it was called, had chapters in many church parishes.

(male #6) The CYO was the activity for, for young people, especially teens, but not just teens but it went up into the young adults too.

It was, of course, a lot was centered around sports teams but they had a lot of social functions too.

(Peggy) When attending a dance there were a few rules to be followed.

(Msgr.

Henry) Yeah, don't get too close and you can't drink.

They were always trying to smuggle in alcohol.

Tonight we're having an old-time reunion CYO dance as they had back in the 60's.

St. Henry's was a very popular place for CYO dances.

So we decided to get everybody back together and have an old-time CYO dance like they had in the past.

As part of the CYO, I was what was called the public relations uh, person and I booked all the bands that came here; Benny Spellman, Ernie K. Doe, Irma Thomas, Deacon John and the Ivories, all of the popular ones from the uh mid-60 era.

It was a real popular way, of kids going out there for entertainment on Saturday night and meeting the girls and dancing and doing the latest dances like the popeye, the dog, the monkey time or whatever was popular at the time, the twist.

When you came in stag and I don't remember the- it was like maybe 50¢ to get in back then.

I met my husband at St. Henry's through the CYO.

I was the first president of St. Henry CYO back in '64.

I made sure that everybody was having a good time.

We organized different things for the group, visit different places and stuff like that when we were kids.

Kept us off the street, kept us straight, out of trouble.

If you didn't go to mass on Sunday morning, you couldn't go to the dances on Sunday night.

So, we had parents that really taught us Christian values.

Mostly guys liked the slow dances, the girls liked fast dances.

(Peggy) Music for the dances came from a variety of sources.

Former radio station owner and now Kenner, Louisiana Mayor Edmond Muniz remembers those early days well.

In those days, sometimes they had the band, they had The Jokers, The Corvettes, The Nobles, Contours, and other times the DJ would play music.

I went to Germania Hall and rented the place, and Irma Thomas was brand new.

She started out there with me.

(Peggy) For many high school students, it was important to belong to an organization.

I went to high school at Fortier but I belonged to another group on Valence St. called Valencia, and uh Valencia every Friday night had a band and uh it was a great place to bring a date and go dance-and then I remember seeing Fats there.

Um, one night Fats came and played and my gosh you could just reach out and touch him.

(Peggy) Grappling with social dividing lines was often a part of the high school experience.

(Andres) There were fraternities and sororities at Fortier at the time and that was a point of discourse I think uh if you were a frat or a cat.

But I tried to walk both sides of the fence and to get along with everybody.

But sometimes it uh; there was a lot of um ill feeling between the two.

But I guess I was somewhat of a cat [laughs] 'cause I liked Elvis.

I used to like to wear the ducktails in the back and kind of grease my hair up a little bit and uh.

[laughs] we were aware of that especially when we would play football against the, uh like, Jesuit and De La Salle and schools like that.

And we always thought, our guys looked more manly looking than they would.

That they-you know we'd beat them in football, the little frat boys in the Catholic uniforms.

(Peggy) Prom night was a highlight for most teenagers.

The theme of our junior-senior prom when we were juniors was "Rhapsody in Blue," and the entire gym was completely covered in blue chiffon, and there was a grand piano on the stage with spotlights on that and flowers everywhere, it was really beautiful.

(male #7) Prom night-my prom night, May 13, 1967- see, I don't even have to think about that, was the night I became a man, but not for the reason you're thinking.

I had the favors.

I had all the stuff, I had the corsages, I had everything.

My proposed date for this prom, who was a girl I hardly knew, uh when I called her to check on the time that I would pick her up she says, oh, uh I can't go, uh I've got to wash my hair that night.

So I wound up just driving around the city uh all night long listening to the radio.

As I did, I can't explain it, there was some feeling that I had, that this was a huge turning point in my life and that I had ceased to be a boy and that now I was a man, and that the whole world had changed.

And so I celebrate the date every year one way or another if, you know, just thinking about it sometimes.

Uh in some years I've actually reenacted the entire evening.

It's a mania with me.

I think that's pretty clear, isn't it?

(Peggy) After a dance, there was also the choice of numerous places for a snack.

One of the most popular spots was Lenfant's Restaurant well known for its car hops.

It was a smooching place.

You'd go there and you'd buy a sandwich and a drink with your date and then you'd try to squeeze it out of her.

[laughs] (Edmond) I went with a young lady and she said "now look," she said "we got to be careful"- now this is after we parked the car- she said, "cause my daddy's a waiter here."

(Peggy) Another option was the Rockery Inn nearby.

They weren't checking IDs and I know the age of 15 we had a few spots that we could get in.

I still remember my first cocktail at Rockery Inn.

It's a Tom Collins.

You could drive up outside and you got- you know, what do you call it- a waiter would come out to the car with a rack and I got a Tom Collins.

Big deal then.

[laughs] (Peggy Of course if staying in the ca was a priority, there were numerous drive in movies.

(John) Well, there's The Do, The Jeff.

Those are my favorites.

We used to hide people in the trunk to get in free.

You'd get in a fight with your girlfriend, you'd drive off with the speakers, tear the wires off the post.

You'd always forget to unhook 'em sometimes when you'd drive off.

(Tom) I went to the drive-in more when I was working for Figaro than any other time.

I had a Volkswagen bus and uh one of the things I did at Figaro was write movie reviews.

And whenever the movies were showing at the drive-in, I would just go there.

I would set up- believe it or not- a typing table in the back seat, watch the movie and write the review as I was watching the movie.

(Peggy) While drive-in movies were located in the growing suburbs, another kind of movie going experience could be had by going downtown, to Canal Street.

There were movie palaces such as the Saenger, Loews State, Joy and Orpheum, but the street' true attraction was its stores.

(Ricky) Invariably there'd be something in one of the stores that I'd want and of course I'd badger my poor mother till she got me something.

So going to Canal Street, not only did you get to look at these incredible buildings- which even as a kid, I remember thinking that Maison Blanche looked like a, you know, a big white palace.

And going to Holmes which of course was decorated at Christmas, it was, you know, like being in a movie.

Canal Street was just as bright as that is now, the theater district down there in New York.

And it was, it was phenomenal.

Everybody had large vertical signs with neon.

You went window shopping downtown and then you would go to check out Eads Plaza, which is now completely disappeared.

And that was a garden with birds and trellises and all sorts of stuff and you'd walk around on Eads Plaza and The President was right there.

And you always wanted to go on The President as a little kid, but we went later to a lot of dances on The President when the Crawford Ferguson Night Owls were playing there.

And that was really good.

(Peggy) At the foot of Canal Street where it meets the Mississippi River, you are only steps away from the French Quarter.

And the heart of this area is Jackson Square.

Jackson Square was my playground and it was a real kid place.

You could go meet your friends.

Children were just everywhere.

I rode my bicycle in Jackson Square.

Uh when I was old enough, I was given a key to the front door and attached to my skate key and I'd go down and learn to skate in Jackson Square.

(Judy) My mother was 1 of 15 children from a big French country family in the central part of Louisiana called Avoyelles Parish.

Six sisters lived in the French Quarter.

So we had this wonderful, wonderful extended family.

Just about everyone that I can remember was an immigrant.

From my mother and father, all my aunts and uncles their 1st language was French.

English was their 2nd language.

So you had this, different cultures swarming, swirling all the time.

(Peggy) Angelo Brocato III can trace his roots back to Sicily.

His grandfather opened an ice cream parlor in the Quarter over a century ago.

(Angelo) It was a lot of kids in there, just you know, just doing what kids do.

Marbles, playing marbles.

Oh yeah, you'd be playing marbles and an older kid would come by, you know, playing, a bunch of little guys playing and they'd "razoo!"

you know.

They'd say, razoo.

That means they'd take all the marbles.

(Peggy) Migrating from Sicily in the late 1800s, many immigrants sold produce and seafood in the nearby French Market.

Weekdays, it was pretty calm.

Come Thursday in the fish market, the fish market would get really busy Thursday.

The wholesalers would come in and bring their fish and shrimp.

Catholics didn't eat meat on Friday so they would eat their fish.

(Judy) My mom would go.

I remember going to the fish market with her and those great big thick glassed fixtures where they put fish and looking at the fish eyes and try to get the fish's eyes to move with my eyes.

[laughs] (Peggy) With narrow streets and houses built so close together, the Quarter has always had an intimate feeling.

I know there's neighborhoods where everybody knew everybody- but the Quarter; everybody was so close.

Not the way the buildings- you see how the buildings are close?

Well the people were close like the buildings are.

It was before air conditioning so you didn't have the air conditioning barrier.

(Peggy) In the Quarter through the open windows of homes and one local business, came some memorable smells.

Mostly the cooking and the frying of garlic and onions and so on coming from the, coming from the houses; oysters, crabs boiling, but at Jackson Brewery, you could always- you could smell at times, uh, smell them brewing hops and the grain and all.

You could smell all that.

(Peggy) In addition to the smells, there were sounds that were ever present.

From the early '40s to the early '50s, Andres Calandria's family lived in the Pontalba Apartments overlooking Jackson Square.

(Andres) The sounds during the day were very busy.

The Quarter was extremely busy, especially on Decatur St. Then you'd have the railroad which was very busy with the freight hauling.

(Judy) You would have people practicing music, the fog horns, the different languages, of course people talking back and forth.

And the French Quarter was filled with French and Italians, a lot of people of Mediterranean decent so they can be a little hyper.

It was unlike any other neighborhood.

And I'd see a lot of black women balancing their belongings on their head.

And this is something that you don't see, except in, in other third world type countries.

But that was very interesting to me.

The vendors came to your house.

The ice man would come.

The snowball man came.

The wonderful black men who would come and sell fruits and vegetables.

(Peggy) New Orleans has long been a popular setting for films, but in the 1950s there was one movie that was shot in the Quarter that created quite the buzz for kids in the neighborhood.

The one I remember the most was "King Creole."

The filming of it was on Royal Street by the McDonough school.

Oh that was huge because I was such an Elvis Presley fan.

I was uh coming up St. Phillip Street and they was making it in McDonough 15, where he got out of the taxi cab, and went into the school yard.

[dialogue from movie] (Elvis as Danny) You're going home, wherever that is.

Danny, Mrs. Pierson marked you absent Well we'll show Mrs. Pierson a thing or two (Angelo) It looked like every two seconds he got out the cab and they cut and combed his hair and then he walked two more steps, they cut and combed his hair and took 'em about an hour for him to get from the cab to the gate of the school yard.

(Judy) He just looked like he came from heaven.

I don't remember how tall he was just that he was magnificent.

(Peggy) But most of the time Quarter kids saw Hollywood stars, not on the street, but on the silver screen, at the Gaiety Theatre.

(Angelo) They used to call it the garlic house.

The Italian people, the people used to go there and they'd bring their lunch.

they'd bring their salami and their bread and their cheese and so on (Judy) We would go to the movie theater.

Our favorites though were old classic science fiction; movies like the "House of Wax" and "The Fly" and "Them" which I think about radio active ants.

All my cousins and I would just get so animated and shook up and scared and everything else with the science fiction movies, and so we'd all go like a herd rushing off to Brocato's to eat the ice cream because it was, it calmed you down; took you from this real elevated place to calm you down.

(Peggy) Another popular past time was attending boxing matches at what was known as St. Mary's Italian school gym.

(Judy) My dad was a prize fighter during the hard scrabble years of the depression.

He would take me and my brother and maybe some of my cousins to St. Mary's for the fights.

My dad was a very animated person when it came to things that he loved.

And I can remember sitting next to my daddy.

Like that [laughs] I mean when I think of this little girly girl sitting next to this guy going like that and, but that's what he- that's how parents interacted with their kids, they just shared what they loved.

And so you went along, you went along for the ride.

(Peggy) Jimmy Anselmo's father, also a former boxer, owned businesses in the Quarter for many years.

The Mardi Gras Lounge is the first one I remember as a little boy.

And then he had a place uh called Ciro's Restaurant which was on uh, right off of Bourbon Street by the Famous Door.

I was spending the weekend there at his apartment above it.

I was with my cousin, Roy Anselmo.

We were playing cowboys and we tied this rope to the balcony.

And we were trying to lasso the bumpers of the cars going down the street.

And we never thought we'd ever catch one and we did catch one and it ripped the balcony off.

So here's this car going down, with the balcony railing going down the street.

And I got a good whipping for that.

(Peggy) Of course you didn't have to live in the quarter to have memories of it, especially of Bourbon Street.

(Ricicky) I don't know how old I was.

I must have been 7, when you could drive down Bourbon St on a weekend night.

And I remember it was a warm night and most of the clubs weren't air conditioned so they had their doors open.

And we stopped in front of this club and the barker kind of moved away.

I was able to see all the way into the club and actually see the stripper on stage.

It's a purple and pink light and she was wearing some kind of exotic Arabian looking outfit.

I can still remember it.

she's doing a dance and chewing gum, like she was doing her grocery list while she was dancing.

Then she looked and realized there was this little 7 year old kid hanging out of the window looking at her.

She stopped, she looked me right in the eye and stuck her tongue out at me, like that.

And I said oh I was noticed by a big star!

(Jack) We did go to Cafe du Monde to get coffee and donuts.

We called 'em donuts at first.

Then nobody called 'em beignets that much Although it said that on the signs.

That didn't come about until we became more uh self-conscious culturally, I guess.

(Ricky) We'd go to Morning Call to get coffee and donuts.

Of course we got chocolate milk and donuts.

And it was great because you could, you could stay in the car.

My parents would let me wear my pajamas in the car, because it would be uh after 6:00 or 7:00 at night.

Oh I felt so racy.

I felt so sophisticated to be in the car, in my pajamas.

(Peggy) For many New Orleans area children, participating in a Mardi Gras ball was a rite of passage.

One organization, created for youngsters only, is the children's carnival ball.

Well it was started by my grandmother, Heddy Porteous, with Miss Hainkel Jane Hainkel's mother and Myldred Costa.

And I think they started it cause they wanted children to have the experience of being in carnival.

And it's presented exactly like a carnival ball.

It has a theme and it's usually something that appeals to children like a nursery rhyme or a fairy tale.

(Peggy) Millie Ball and Keith Marshall were monarchs in 1958.

(Millie) We're the only king and queen who ever got married to each other.

And when I was queen I was 12 but I think the little attendants was as young as five.

Then they'd have children running around in costumes even younger than that.

Millie's grandmother was sort of a mentor to my mother um so I was a pretty safe bet to squire her granddaughter around.

And I mean I was definitely the caboose on this train being driven by Millie being the queen and um- Well the caboose because I was taller and had a ponytail sticking through my crown.

But walking around you know waving a scepter is great fun.

(Peggy) Just a few years earlier, another participan in the children's carnival ball wasn't exactly enthusiastic about being part of the event.

(male #8) Earlie Leclere's father was this great piano player.

Used to come by our house.

And uh Earlie was cool.

She used to come play duets with her dad at our house.

And they asked for me to be the page when she was the queen of this ball.

I was too young and my mother said, we'll let him be the page next year and that's how I got stuck with being in this thing.

I threw the wig down the hall.

I didn't want to put the wig on I don't know, a lot of people in my family's told me it.

So I don't really remember it personally but I heard it enough; little Mackie didn't want to put his wig on and he threw it and tried to get out.

But my father said whatever he said and I went for it.

(Peggy) In some New Orleans circles, a young lady's upbringing includes making her debut, a formal presentation to society.

This rite of passage is intertwined with carnival balls.

(Leah) My sister was a first maid with the Young Men Illinois.

And then I was a first maid with the Young Men Illinois.

It was a good experience too.

I remember as a freshmen in college, you know, we got to meet other students from out of town, and they always wanted to go to Bourbon Street and I couldn't go because I had not made my debut yet.

(Peggy) But of course more people participate in Mardi Gras by attending parades.

My father loved carnival.

He loved parades.

My mother hated 'em.

If it was raining, my mother would say to my father, "Herbie, you can't take those kids out in the rain."

He said, "Elma it's not for me.

You can't deprive these kids of the parades."

(Peggy) Going to parades inspired one little boy in a big way.

(Edmond) Like any other little kid, 6, 7, 8, 9 years old, I had a lot of toys like trucks, military trucks.

One by one, I'd move 'em all through the house and I'd say now that room is Gallier Hall, and that room is the auditorium, that room is the French Quarter.

And I'd move my little parade all around my house.

I mean I think it was pre-ordained that I was going to form a carnival club.

(Peggy) A rare opportunity for any child is to actually ride in a parade.

For many years, truck float parades such as Elks Krewe of Orleanians and Crescent City have been a way for families to ride together.

Yet another chance was as a page to royalty.

And I said, dad, c'mon ride in Bacchus.

He goes, Bryan after Friday my arms are exhausted.

I cannot do another parade.

Finally I said, Dad, please.

I just heard Fonzie is going to be king.

You've got to join, and I've got to be a page.

So he did, and I got to be a page with Fonzie.

(Peggy) Visions of parades dance in New Orleans children's heads from an early age.

Well when we were kids in school, we would make shoebox floats during Mardi Gras season.

And you would get a shoebox and you would take the bottom side and you turn it over and then the lid would then be fit against the side of the overturned bottom and it made the perfect shape of a float and then the fun began.

(Peggy) Ricky Graham decided to pay tribute to his favorite parade.

(Ricky) And I remember just hounding my parents to try to find colored tin foil so that I could do a float like Mid-City; cause all the Mid-City floats are covered in colored tin foil.

(Peggy) With the arrival of Carnival morning came the anticipation of the day's activities.

(Angelo) When you put on your costume, you couldn't wait to put it on; couldn't wait to get going.

Your mom says, well you gotta eat some breakfast first.

You say, oh I want to get out of here.

We'd make a stop to show relatives, what we, what we looked like.

And then all your friends would come over.

They're all masked and you'd be outside playing until it's time to watch the Rex parade.

Being a lower middle class, you know, your costumes were more inventive than um, spectacular.

So you know you get a pair of jeans that, you know those kind of jeans that came from Sears that were you know so tough you could use them to tarpaper a roof, and that was it.

You got a cowboy hat and a little kerchief and that was a costume.

And I mean I wore a cowboy costume every year.

And then I had a sailor outfit, of course that was my costume for a couple of years.

"You got a sailor costume, you don't need anything!"

I said, well I want one of those satin costumes in a box at Woolworth's.

No.

(Peggy) Even more impressive than what you wore was what you saw on the big day.

(Deacon John) Mardi Gras day we would walk down Claiborne Avenue.

They had all these huge oak trees.

People would picnic under the oak trees and they'd sell hot dogs, hamburgers, and there were scores of businesses, bars, and restaurants.

And we would walk Claiborne all the way down to Canal St. and catch the Rex parade, and we'd catch the Zulu parade also.

(female #4) My first Mardi Gras memory was being told not to go outside.

I guess I was about 5 or 6 years old and the bone man was coming down the street and behind him were the baby dolls.

And my foster mother told me, don't you go out that door, I heard that bone man and if you open the door the bone man is going to get you.

And I remember sneaking and peeping through the little thing she had on the screen door.

And just when I opened it the bone man was right there and scared me so bad but you know, that was part of it.

(Peggy) Depending on where you lived, there was a chance you'd see tribes of Mardi Gras Indians.

(Dr. John) We didn't have to go far.

They went right down Jeff Davis Parkway.

They would come up like from Perdido and Gravier.

There was like the 3rd Ward Hunters.

There was the Monograms.

There were several tribes in that area.

They would just cross, and sometimes they'd go down Tulane, sometimes they'd go down Jeff Davis or Banks.

You never knew which way the Indians was going.

They liked to walk on the greens, when they had them big greens.

They still have them there down Claiborne.

They always stuck to the greens as part of their routes.

(Peggy) An uptown resident experienced carnival at an early age right outside his front door.

(male #9) My earliest memory of Mardi Gras?

I thought I was the richest kid in New Orleans because the Krewe of Thoth passed on Magazine Street.

It was the only parade that passed on Magazine Street and I lived in the 3800 block of Magazine Street.

I'd to sit out there and I'd say, I love this parade and one day I'm going to be king of that parade.

That was my goal as a kid, to be the king of that parade.

And in 1995, all hail the king!

I was king of Thoth.

My daughter will be Queen of Thoth this year.

I remember as kids we'd go to Domilise's and we'd help put the beer out.

They would line up the draft beer on the counter and the marching bands; The Lions and The Buzzards and The Corner Club, And all those different groups would come in and march through the neighborhoods.

(Peggy) 1972 was the last year parades rolled through the French Quarter.

As a young man, Edmond Muniz rode in the Quarter in the Okeanus Parade.

Because of the street being so narrow, and because of people being on the ground floor, and down on the street, and up on the balconies, the noise-I don't know how to explain it to you.

The noise was so resounding and everything.

It was great, uh, it was almost like a standing ovation.

(Peggy) Childhood memories are inevitably intertwined with the neighborhood you lived in.

For Leah Chase, it was the 7th ward.

I remember the rag man, and you know, the fruit stand out cause, "I got your ripe watermelon!

I got your ripe watermelon!

I got potatoes!

I got-" they'd come through and sing, Our neighborhood always had door poppers; people who just looked out to watch what was going on.

Those were the people who'd tell your parents I saw your daughter.

She took this; she took the figs from my tree or blah blah blah.

They were called door popper and we'd say door popper Joe.

(Peggy) By the 1950's, the suburbs around New Orleans began to grow, including the part of Jefferson Parish along the east bank of the Mississippi River.

(John) They're wonderful little homes Built right after the war.

Five houses down from me the fellow had three horses.

I mean I always liked the outdoors.

And what better place than that wonderful river to play on, I mean, you could see the commerce, you could see the wildlife, you could get home for lunch.

So uh, it was rural.

I would guess you'd have to go quite far upriver now pass Reserve or Laplace to find that kind of environment.

(Peggy) For a little boy, life along the river levee was a sportsmen's paradise.

We would catch catfish, and then nearby was the Beverly Country Club, a gambling casino, in those days, and it had a cooling tower, cause air conditioning was different then.

It had a cooling tower full of re-circulating water.

We'd keep our catfish in the uh basin of that thing; it wasn't fenced or anything.

We'd keep our catfish there.

(Peggy) Many children could "spread their wings" with the freedom a bike provided.

(John) You could get on top the levee, and pedal in any direction you want.

There were always packs of wild dogs that would come bite and pull at your legs.

That was part of the fun, escaping the dogs.

We knew where they hung out, (Peggy) A more welcoming environment for interacting with animals has been the Audubon Zoo.

(Darren) There was a moat and the monkeys were on an island and they had some things to climb up.

It was always one of the best attractions especially with the old zoo.

(Peggy) For kids raised below sea level, a prime place for monkeying around was Audubon's monkey hill.

Even though it was just 25 feet high, for little ones it seemed like a mountain.

The Audubon and City Park lagoons provided opportunities to be on water.

At Audubon, there was the swan boat.

(John) The swan boat was a curious thing.

It was sort of like church pews, as I remember.

Sat in a big flat bottom thing with these artistic swans, uh, swan heads on the bow, and the back part of the swan on the stern.

It just paddled very slowly about halfway down that lagoon, turned around and came back.

But it seemed like a big deal at the time.

I remember the swan boat.

I never rode on it.

I was afraid of it.

Well it was larger than the swan that tried to attack me, and given the fact that the normal size swan was pretty frightening; the thought of getting on something that was 42 1/2 times bigger; I mean just think of how it could peck you.

(Peggy) In city park, there were pedal boats.

(Leah) Two-seater boats.

You worked it with your- You'll get exercise while doing this.

Meandered around the lagoon.

The scariest thing about that was getting in and out.

For me it went-waahh.

(Peggy) Before integration, the major parks of New Orleans weren't entirely accessible.

There were certain areas you could go to park, Audubon, City Park, but you had to go into the colored section.

And you know you couldn't play tennis or do the train rides or roller coaster and all this kind of things.

But uh, despite all of this, I wouldn't trade my childhood for nothing in the world because I had six brothers and six sisters and we always found something to do to play.

(Peggy At City Park, in the mid 1950s, an area opened that was essentially a storybook brought to life.

Making it possible was Harry Batt Sr., the owner of the city's summertime amusement park, Pontchartrain Beach.

Gayle Batt remembers her father-in-law well.

And he'd go all over the world looking for rides for Pontchartrain Beach.

And this time he saw in Oakland, across from San Francisco in California, this wonderful story land for children and he said, how great that would be to have that in City Park for the children of New Orleans.

And so he donated the original story land in memory of his dad.

(Peggy) During the summer, locals headed to Pontchartrain Beach amusement park for the rides along the midway and a dip in the lake or pool.

(Ricky) Pontchartrain Beach; that always smelled like cotton candy and fried onions and it sounds disgusting but it was wonderful.

(Peggy) Bryan Batt grew up at Pontchartrain Beach which his family owned.

I loved being behind the scenes and seeing how things work.

I would sneak into the haunted house and watch the people get scared or try to scare them even more, you know.

I loved the store room where they kept all the prizes for all the games on the midway.

(Peggy) While there were many outside activities, during the 1950s and 60s, bowling became a popular family pastime.

Some of the prominent bowling centers were O'Shaugnessy's , Rainbow, Paradise and Fazzio's The Fazzio family, headed by Dominic Fazzio, was long involved with the sport in the city.

My grandfather would always say he was instrumental in making bowling so popular back then.

Because often times people didn't have money for bowling balls and bags or shoes, and my grandfather told me that at one time he let him buy a bowling ball and a pair of bowling shoes on time.

And so that's how he helped the bowling in the city was he was willing to take chances.

(Peggy) Dominic Fazzio and his family transformed a former furniture store into a bowling center right alongside the French Quarter, on the corner of Esplanade and North Rampart Street.

We had three operating at one time but we started in 1941.

We built our first bowling center.

This bowling center was one of the largest bowling centers in the country.

Three floors of bowling.

It was all walk up the steps and no elevator or anything.

(Peggy) Fazzio's was so popular, it's mentioned in the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, "A Confederacy of Dunces" as a favored hangout for Ignatius Reilly's mother and friends.

In the Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire," Stanley Kowalski bowls at an alley near his Elysian Fields apartment.

When writing the play in the mid '40s, Williams, who lived just a few blocks away from Fazzio's, was very likely inspired by it.

Before automation, bowling pin had to be set up by hand.

As a young man, Sam Fazzio worked as a pin boy.

The bowling was 21¢ a game and we got 7¢ for each game.

It was risky.

It was risky especially if the customer was drinking a little bit.

And if the customer was, was, was so called, if he had some animosities accidentally when the pin boy was in the way.

But it, it didn't happen, it was rare but it, it happened sometimes.

It happened- we had pin boys hurt, flying pins was the problem.

(Peggy) One bowling fan observed the rising popularity of the sport and did something about it.

Bowl-o-rama was upstairs.

It was on Jefferson Highway.

Right in the curve of Jefferson Highway.

They were packing them in.

I went up there to see that's when I got interested in the business.

Bowl-o-rama, I used to- The thing I remember the most is when we would go buy shoes at Shoe Town, which happened to be underneath it.

You could actually hear the bowling balls hitting the lanes and people bowling above.

(Peggy) In 1959 Frank Simone and his partners built Paradise Lanes on a then relatively undeveloped Veterans Blvd.

At the time we were building Paradise Lanes, they were building the House of Lee.

And Mr. Lee would bring the employees down at midnight to bowl as a form of entertainment because the majority of the cooks were all immigrants from China.

And I guess that was their form of relaxation after they worked all day On my 26th birthday um I bowled.

It was a Friday night, went bowling, and on that night uh actually shot a 300 game.

That's a perfect game.

It's 12 strikes in a row.

It was at Paradise Lanes in Metairie.

My wife, she was very nervous and uh she would go- she wouldn't watch the- Every time I got up to bowl after the 6th or 7th frame she wouldn't watch, she would walk away.

And somebody had to tell her whether I struck or not.

I think she was more nervous than me and I had to throw the ball.

It was a great time.

I really enjoyed bowling that night.

(Peggy) As the popularity of bowling waned, in the mid-1990's Simone was approached by a national chain for his now highly desirable Veterans Boulevard location.

When Barnes and Noble came along they wanted to tear down the bowling center and put up a book store.

So I reserved a portion of that building for Paradise Cafe and Gifts.

And we thought it would be a good idea to take the lanes and we made tables out of the lanes.

And they're now, they're in Paradise Cafe and Gifts.

And my daughter and my son-in-law runs it.

(Peggy) Mid-City Lanes, once run by the Knights of Columbus, and long a part of the New Orleans bowling scene, is today the home of Rock-n-bowl, mixing live entertainment with alley action.

Even though the numbers have dwindled, there continues to be bowling centers in the area.

One long time bowler sums up the scene this way.

I would definitely say it's a lot more festive, the bowling centers here in New Orleans than in other cities.

You don't always have to be the best bowler to have the best time.

(Peggy So, what has happene to some of the things we recall from growing up in New Orleans?

Fazzio's Bowling Lanes has been transformed into condominiums.

The riverboat President is currently out of service and for sale in Alton, Illionis, near St. Louis.

Eads Plaza, near where the vessel was originally docked in New Orleans, is now the site of Spanish Plaza at the Riverwalk Marketplace.

City Park's Storyland continues the wish of Harry Batt Senior for a storybook come to life.

And we can only wish that today's children, will have their own stories to tell, filled with future fond memories.

Two recurring Mantra from my teenage years, one was from Miggy's; step forward, slide right, back left, the box step.

The other was my Uncle Lowell who taught so many kids how to swim in New Orleans.

I was-how did it go?

Kick, kick steadily up and down, breathe, kick, kick steadily.

Those two things are etched in my brain.

I was definitely a hippie.

I was an elephant leg, bell bottom, no shoes wearing, didn't comb my hair kinda kid, you know, with the same t-shirt on for a week.

But those were fun days.

My wife has told me never to tell anyone this story, but I do every now and then, and it's like going back in a time machine.

It makes me 16 all over again.

I have all the music.

I have the entire top 60 of the songs that were on the radio that night.

I guess the jitterbug's the only one I could ever use, but you learned them all.

You suffered through it.

And then we'd go play football afterwards.

I learned how to roller skate backwards, and if you could skate, you know, it was even better cause you could win little prizes and they'd do the Hokey Pokey you know.

That's what it's all about.

(Peggy) [laughs] What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's all about.

Sad.

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