New Orleans Memories  Esplanade & Moss - +
Submitted by Maurice Duvic Sr

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Y'all have nudged my memory on so many subjects I hardly know where to
begin, so I'll start with the bar on Esplanade at the bayou:

In order to get home from St. Aloysius High School - l93l-l935 -  (In
l905, my father's day, it was S. A. College) -  I could ride one of two
streetcar "belts":
one went on Canal to the cemeteries, then on City Park to the bayou,
Esplanade to N. Rampart, to Canal - same car.  Another reversed that
route.

After school, when I took the streetcar "out" Esplanade, I use to notice
the some-what dilapidated two-story building on this corner.  Even at my
tender age I knew about boot-leggers and speakeasies - that quite often
had "bookies" (horse race betting ) in the back room.  And that's what I
suspected here.

Remember  the Volstead Act that prohibited the sale of alcohol, went
into effect in l9l9, I believe, and was repealed in l933.  So, when beer
came to the stores I was able to get two bottles on the first day at the
Hill Store, Olympia & Palmyra, for whom I use to deliver "circulars" -
that advertised their Saturday specials - on Friday afternoons after
school.  Union Brewery on Tulane Ave.  Tasted worse than my father's
homebrew!

And the 'store" in question became a bar room.  During the "dry" l93l-33
period I had a classmate that rode the streetcar with me sometimes who
lived in that building.  Named Cassou.  Never did ask him what went on -
thought I might embarrass him.

There were bootleggers spread around in residential neighborhoods.  When
the "Feds" would raid a house the kids would yell "Raid!".  That was the
signal for all the guys that were outside to run to the scene.  The
officers would hit the stills with axes, spilling the fermenting liquor
on the house floors, then they would axe holes in the floors to drain
it.  The odor was lovely for days.

I'll try to get to a little history about the government housing out
Moss Street that was the subject of discussion a while back.