The city will be rebuilt, but New Orleans will never be exactly the same. That is a great loss.

I've been trying to count up the number of times we have been there, and I think it is four or five. Our first visit was more than 20 years ago, when we drove the Gulf Coast from Pensacola to New Orleans, thinking it was the only time we would ever be there.

A few years later I was a delegate to the National Education Association convention and spent five days at the Superdome and stayed at a hotel on Canal Street only a block from the intersection of Canal and Bourbon. I had time to really get to know the city.

More recently, we made a trip to Lake Charles to pick up a motor scooter that I had bought on the internet. At Slidel, just on an impulse, we decided to take a little side trip and have lunch on Bourbon Street.

About a year ago, we drove to New Orleans to meet a cruise ship, battling the rains and street flooding of a tropical storm on the way into town. Returning from the cruise we started for home, missed a turn, and wound up slowly cruising Canal Street for a considerable distance. Sometimes getting lost can be fun.

Then just a few months ago, we were on the way to Gonzalas, a short distance from Baton Rouge, and we passed almost within sight of the city. But we were in a hurry and knowing that we would be back someday, be continued on our way. Yes, we will go back, but it will not be the same.

It takes centuries to build character into a city. And sometimes that character is fragile. Under the guise of "urban renewal" cities like Nashville, for example, have lost some small parts of that character. New Orleans has lost much more.
Howard