Oak Alley (above), a rather famous, but frankly, just another one of the load of plantations in Louisiana, is supposedly haunted by a lady in black. The setting of 28 live oak trees dating back 300 years only adds to the romantic idea of ghosts. Of course, the movie setting of one of my adored supernatural writers, Anne Rice, book called An Interview of the Vampire just adds to my peaking at floorboards carefully for hatches where vampires might be sleeping. Alas, there were none. Only slightly more realistically, I picked up a book called Haunted Plantations. I am halfway through it and combined with a book called America's Great River Road for Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, a second foray into the Deep South is being planned.
My own experience with a ghost followed that evening in an old bar now called Sylvain's. This fantastic little secret has it's own mixologist concocting drinks such as prosecco and lavender with a sugar cube. Their Dead Man's Wallet was pretty amazing too with rye, port, lemon, and their own in-house cinnamon syrup. Sweet death. Speaking of death, the lights started flickering in pretty extreme measures that had no correlation with how normal flickering happens with dead bulbs (if six of the suddenly decided to go at once at least). I made a joke asking if the local ghost was making a statement. Startled with the response of "yeah, just one", I suddenly noticed the shot of alcohol being maintained on a top shelf as if it was to be drunk. It was explained to me that their ghost was quite tall, but she like her drinks, demanding a replacement at that moment. How cool! It was confirmed that the liquid does disappear at times with no ability to blame dissipation :) Besides, it's far more fun to bar-tend for a ghost. While I'm not allowing myself to start Haunted New Orleans until I'm done with Haunted Plantations, I was more than happy to commandeer this book, and others, from Anne Rice's favourite book store, Garden District Book Store.
Now pirates are equally cool, although I'm learning that our current literature puts them in a far more romantic light than we deserve. Once a blacksmith shop, the Jean Lafitte bar is full of stories in general, but especially his saving New Orleans in the War of 1812 when he agreed to work with General Andrew Jackson. It is told that the Old Absinthe House attic is where they met to agree upon terms for helping kick out the British. Saved by a pirate. Rock on! I'm extending my reading on piracy and journals from pirates in the book titled The Mammoth Book of Pirates.
