Giants of Downtown
Re: Julia Street column. April 2007 issue.
In the April 2007 issue, a reader asked about the Midas Muffler Man that she remembers seeing on the way to Brocato’s. There was indeed a Muffler Man located on the corner of North Rampart and St Anthony streets. Although I don’t remember if it was Angelo Brocato’s, there was a Brocato’s located down the block on North Rampart Street between St. Anthony Street and St. Bernard Avenue. It is no longer there and is an empty lot. My wife grew up on St. Anthony Street and we enjoyed Brocato’s quite often.
Thanks,
Stephen Frught
    Slidell
   
Ed. Note: The Brocato’s referred to above was probably James Brocato’s, which was operated by a member of the Angelo Brocato family on McShane Place near the neighborhood mentioned.

Old memories shared
Re: “Bay St. Louis Revisited,” Streetcar column, by Errol Laborde. April 2007 issue.
Thank you for remembering Bay St. Louis in your recent article.

My first childhood memories in the 1950s were the family treks to Waveland many times a year to our modest camp on the Gulf. As a 4 year-old, I managed to get an older cousin to take me to see King Kong at the theater in Bay St. Louis (the movie must have been over 20 years old but was playing to packed houses).

In the last decade on my multiple yearly trips to New Orleans (from Raleigh, N.C.) to visit my mom, my routine was to stop at New Orleans Po Boys on the beach in Gulfport, where $6 got me half a shrimp poor boy, a Barq’s in a bottle and a billion dollar view of the Gulf. From there I would stop at the same theater in Bay St. Louis, which had since been turned into a sno-ball stand, and purchase the largest nectar sno-ball they had.

All of these years, the Mississippi Gulf Coast had managed to keep it’s quaint, quiet charm – in spite of the tacky casinos and the suckers they enticed. One week before Katrina, I put an offer on a house on 2nd Avenue in Gulfport, one block off the Gulf. That deal fell through but I was set to return to Gulfport the Wednesday after Katrina, determined to get another on 2nd Avenue by bidding high. You know the rest of that story.

Anyway, in February 2006, after performing in Memphis, I returned to New Orleans for the first time since Katrina. On my way back to Raleigh I knew I had to make the trek to Waveland one more time. When I hit Waveland I turned left and figured I’d drive to Bay St. Louis. It was an amazing drive: most everything in Waveland was destroyed, with a house here or there left intact. I really could not wait to get to Bay St. Louis – then all of a sudden I came across St. Stanislaus and I realized that the vast wasteland to my left had been that lovely town.

My memories/emotions are only relevant to me, but every now and then someone puts into words what I’m feeling. You have done that.
Best wishes,
Joe Sunseri
Raleigh, N.C.