"Laissez le bon temps roulle"

Interviewee: Jim McKay, resident of New Orleans
Date: November 2, 2007

In my quest to not only learn as much as I can about the history of New Orleans, but also to uncover the contemporary link residents of New Orleans have to their historic heritage, I was led to interview a person acknowledged as learned in the overall history of New Orleans; Jim McKay. He not only gave me insight into his personal idea of what New Orleans is, but also what he called a “skeleton” of the history of the city.
Naturally I began the brief interview with a question regarding his personal insight into history as it relates to his family’s personal history in the city. He replied, “I’m a bad person to answer that question because I know too much for my own good to answer that.” Seizing upon this, I decided to take another tact and rather ask factually based questions about the history of New Orleans. The answer was much more than I expected. With the knowledge of an encyclopedia and a wit to match, he began an elaborate historical lecture on the city which not only proved to be extremely beneficial to me personally, but which raised many questions in my head about the direction that my studies of the historic context of the city could possibly go. Mr. McKay stated, “One studies the things one loves, but one needs to step back to understand them.”
Jim McKay started by describing his families’ histories in the city. One side of his family went back 10 generations and was of Creole/ French decent and the other went back 5 generations and was Irish. I will gloss over most of the historical facts as they were largely for my benefit in forming a skeleton of an idea of the historical context of the city, but I will stress one point that Jim made regarding the social classes of New Orleans and the ways that the different people of New Orleans interacted. He said that New Orleans, much like the rest of the world, is divided into three distinct groups; the whites (Irish, German, Italian, and Jewish immigrants), the blacks (ex-slaves of American plantations), and the creoles (descendents of French and Spanish founders and their freed slaves). I believe this distinction was particularly important because it flavored his personal history in New Orleans and helped to shape his perception of what he thought was special about New Orleans.
In this stage of my writing, I am desperately trying to narrow my search for how the historical context of New Orleans affects people’s perceptions of the contemporary New Orleans. I naturally make comparisons to France; a country, which previously I believed, would help me to narrow my search through comparative analysis. Mr. McKay said this might not be enough.
“I don’t think, like the French, it [perceptions] emanates in fashion, hygiene or popular culture as much as effects.”
Of course, I had to ask some questions which delved into his perceptions on a more personal level, and less about history.
“If you asked people what keeps them from leaving, it is not geographic landscapes, it’s not the weather, its not the economy, its not any of that. It’s the lifestyle. That lifestyle is impossible to replicate anywhere else. We decide to do it here because there is no place like New Orleans.”
The gems regarding his perceptions of the city did not stop there. Of course in a city this complex, with so many levels of meaning and history, it is hard to sum up such broad questions in single answers.
“If you were to say what is New Orleans’ perception of itself it would be “Let the good times Roll” but would really be “You could be dead tomorrow”…. Laissez le bon temps roulle”.