WEBVTT - John Currence: Saving Willie Mae's 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:05.120 I mean I had two calls from the White House 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:07.880 where they wanted to come take pictures there over the 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:11.920 course of the projects and take credit for it. And 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:13.600 I may or may not have ended up on a 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:16.599 watch list because of some language that I use. 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:27.720 Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney, 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:31.280 I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father, 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:34.960 I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach in 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:38.479 inner City Memphis. And the last part unintentionally led to 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:42.280 an oscar for the film about our team. It's called Undefeated. 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:46.320 I believe our country's problems will never be solved by 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:49.800 a bunch of fancy people and ice suits talking big 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:53.479 words that nobody understands or ever uses. Not seeing it 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:57.360 in Fox, but rather an army of normal folks, US 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:00.920 just you and me deciding, Hey, I can help. That's 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:04.240 what John Currents, the voice we just heard, has done. 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:08.480 The project that John mentioned was saving a restaurant and 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:12.240 the home of an eighty nine year old New Orleans 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:17.360 woman named Willie May after Hurricane Katrina. Willie May's Scotch 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:19.959 House makes what's been called the best fried chicken in 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:23.280 the world, and it wouldn't be here today if not 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:26.399 for John and an army of normal folks who spent 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:32.039 sixteen months volunteering to rebuild her restaurant. And John was 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:35.160 going back and forth almost every week between his adopted 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.600 home of Oxford, Mississippi, and his native New Orleans that 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.840 was five hours away, and he had three of his 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.959 own restaurants to run in Oxford. John's love for Willie 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:49.720 May and New Orleans is extraordinary. And we'll continue with 0:01:49.800 --> 0:02:09.520 the story right after these brief messages from our general sponsors. 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:15.080 You're twenty six when you show up in Oxford having 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.920 no business opening a restaurant, but do any way and 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:23.839 start down your road to restaurant tour success. What year 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:31.679 was that? And home is still New Orleans? I mean 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:36.639 it's where you came from. You're making home here. 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:39.880 But current leadership is making it very easy for me 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:43.040 to divorce myself from the romance of the city. I 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:46.560 mean it's a you know, it's a it's a mess 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.080 like so many other cities in the South. 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:52.200 Right now, I get it, But you still have a 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:57.359 heart for your home under presently it right, And this 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:01.760 little storm comes through called Katrina. What year was that? 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:03.800 Two thousand and five. 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:08.359 Two thousand and five, and I'm sure all of us 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:14.920 watched that whole scene in horror. I'll never forget the 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:18.800 pictures of all the people on the There was an 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:23.440 overpass right near the Superdome that's elevated that people kind 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:27.240 of had to get to the I'm in the heartwood 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:33.240 lumber business. I sold a customer in New Orleans at 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:36.880 the time. It was called Hogan Hardwoods, and there was 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:41.920 actually a picture on the news. They delivered all their lumber. 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.800 They made, you know, ten to fifteen stops a day, 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:48.280 and they would deliver on eighteen wheelers that had curtain sides. 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:51.400 And I will never forget watching one of those eighteen 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:54.960 wheelers going down a road on the news, and it 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:57.520 was a Hogan Hardwood's curtain side truck, and there must 0:03:57.520 --> 0:03:59.400 have been thirty people sitting on the bed of the 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.440 truck and it was, you know, going through three feet 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:05.640 deep of water to get them out, and another couple 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:08.800 of guys and a john boat paddling out, and they 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:11.440 were paddling with six inch wide pieces of red oat 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:14.920 that they'd taken from the lumber company just to get 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:21.520 out the death the people in the in the Dome. 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:26.880 It was tragic. For anybody to watch it was it 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:30.040 was significant. I mean, anybody alive at that time remembers it. 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:35.760 But for somebody from there, whose friends were from there, 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:39.360 who grew up there, it had to have and even 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:42.839 more poignant significance to you as you watched. 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:47.839 Yeah, I mean there's it's I still, you know, almost 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:51.640 twenty years later, find it difficult trying to explain it 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:55.440 to people, you know, to sit there and watch in 0:04:55.520 --> 0:05:01.120 real time as the place that you you know and 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:04.680 love more dearly than than anywhere else in the entire 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:10.160 world get swallowed up and you know, to not have 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:15.800 any idea whether it's going to continue to exist, you know, 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:16.320 in the. 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:20.080 And we're talking one of the world class cities in 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.880 the world, one of the most amazing places with its 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:26.560 culture and its architecture, it's food and the trolleys and 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:32.880 uptown in Tulane and the French Quarter and all of 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:38.599 what New Orleans is is sunk, and the people are sunk. 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:43.440 And people are going to Memphis, people are going to Houston, 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:48.320 people are fleeing to Shreveport, people are fleeing to cities 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:51.040 I mean literally all over the southeast. 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:53.160 Yeah, We were packed here. I mean there was there 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:56.640 were several Yeah, several gyms were used as overflow for 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:01.640 the hotels. My whole family was was was was here, 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:08.479 and so it was I really I remember cooking on 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.320 that that Monday night after you know, we had been 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:15.600 watching this this all day long and all of a 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.640 huge number of family, friends and acquaintances were in town 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:23.240 and just sort of how quiet the dining room was 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:25.640 at the at the grocery was it was like a 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:32.200 wake almost that you know, folks were drinking hard, but 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:35.479 it was it was very quiet, almost like a church service. 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:40.560 And so there was you know that there was something 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:45.239 you know, akin to a you know, a family member 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:48.800 being lost or potentially lost or in the ICU that 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:54.440 you know, it was just really challenging to explain the 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:59.640 breadth of emotion. And in that afternoon before that service, 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.000 I I called my whole management team together and and 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:07.680 I told him, I said, I don't I don't know 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:11.160 where I'm going, because I mean, God bless him. In 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:15.160 the in the early part of the coverage of the storm, 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:20.200 the Gulf Coast, that the Mississippi Gulf Coast, which was 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:25.560 largely forgotten because the pictures of New Orleans. You know, 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:29.800 underwater was much sexier than just the Gulf Coast that 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:32.640 had been wiped out and all of the detritus being 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:37.440 sucked out to the golf And so I sat down 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:39.160 with all these guys and I said, look, I don't 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.320 I don't know where I'm going to go or or 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:45.760 how long I'm uh, you know, I'm going to be gone, 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:48.160 but I've got to go do something. I mean, this 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:50.440 is this is my home. There's got to be something 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:56.440 that we can do. And uh so my my dad 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.400 and I loaded up and we rode down to New 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.440 Orleans on on about day four. 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:05.600 And this was before. 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:13.239 The National Guard had moved in you know, local parish deputies. 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.440 Which meant it was not largely safe either. 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:20.200 Well, we just didn't know, right, That's what nobody knew 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:21.360 anything about that. 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:21.680 You know. 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:25.120 The concern was that with all these folks that were 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.400 moving about the city, we didn't know what was underwater 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:32.280 and what wasn't underwater. You know, that if folks were 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:37.440 going to loot, that the entire area that had the 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:40.679 most affluent homes in the city, you know, was wide 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:47.720 open to to burglary. But I think in retrospect that 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:50.439 you know, even folks in the city had no idea 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:53.880 you know, what was underwater and what wasn't And. 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:57.200 Because there was no electricity anywhere, right, No, I mean 0:08:57.240 --> 0:08:58.040 the whole city. 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:05.480 No, it was the the craziest thing, uh, that I 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:10.000 experienced through it all. Was our first morning in the city. 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.440 As the sun came up and I walked out into 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:15.640 the middle of the street. It was it was so 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:19.040 dark you could not see your hand in front of 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:23.520 your face, no light, there was no light. But walking out, 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:26.800 you know, into the street as sun was beginning to break, 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:30.560 and there was no noise. It was so quiet. It 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:34.280 was definitely definitely loud. I mean there was no bugs, 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:37.079 there was no cars, There were no air conditioner compression 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:44.200 compressors running, there was no street cars. Uh. All the 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:46.760 the you know, the bugs and birds had been blown 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:49.360 out or had you know, had flown out, you know, 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.600 in in front of the storm, and so there wasn't 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:56.199 a single sound. And so to stand there, you know, 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:00.439 several days after the storm, there was there was more 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:04.280 organic matter on the ground than I had ever seen anywhere, 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:09.040 and you know, it was just beginning to decompose, and 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:14.800 so there was this smell of sort of organic decay 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:19.720 and then this deafening silence, and that was it. I mean, 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:20.800 it just so too. 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:26.160 And for a notoriously noisy place, there's always. 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:29.440 Well and it was, Yeah, And it was the moment 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:33.320 where I realized, you know, it didn't smell like I 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:35.920 was accustomed to it smelling. I couldn't describe what New 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:39.679 Orleans smelled like before. I mean I could certainly describe 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:40.600 with Bourbon Street. 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:40.480 So. 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.520 You know, but what my home smells like something that 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:51.720 you become that it just becomes that much of your being. 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:55.840 There's no way to describe how in an instant when 0:10:55.840 --> 0:11:02.600 that changes, how prof only moving it is. It's very surreal. 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:06.240 And so you know, that was that was really what 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:14.520 was the most a sort of recognizable experience day one. Yeah, 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:16.800 being there on day one it was crazy. 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:23.400 So I, starting as a freshman, would gather up money 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:26.440 and run down to New Orleans two or three times 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:29.920 a year. Like I said, it's one of Lisa in 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:32.760 my favorite cities. But it's long been one of my 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:36.440 favorite places, you know, as a college kid and an 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:42.920 young adult. And you know, I found places to eat 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:47.160 that I thought were cool, and one was Mother's. I 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:51.960 love the roast beef with all that gravy over the bread. 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:54.199 I mean debris. What's that the debris? 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:58.280 Yeah, that's it. And I love Mothers. Another place I 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:00.520 like to go late night if I was hungry and 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:04.080 had had too much with Portocol. Huh. They used to 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:07.000 have a big fat file at I bet they still do. 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.439 But I know you know what portocol is. 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:14.839 Well, no, I just for the sake of experimented, I 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:20.000 have had a month sooner two in there. Yeah, but 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:23.840 that that burger was was was what it was all about. 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:28.719 They're still around. Oh yeah, okay. Well, and believe it 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:33.760 or not, fried chicken at a place that you are 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:39.199 all too familiar with now And there's a place that 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:43.319 I'm gonna let them tell you about, widely known for 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:49.080 her fried chicken. And I've had it before. I haven't 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:52.400 had it since it's uh, since it's reopened, but I've 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:57.839 had it before. And why don't you tell us about 0:12:58.080 --> 0:12:59.319 Willie may Scotch House. 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:05.640 Well, I think it has to start a block away 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:07.240 at Dookie Chase. 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:10.240 And Dookie Chase I don't even know what that is. 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:16.160 So Doukie Chase is one of the most historic restaurants 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.439 in the city. Really, the only way that I can 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:25.120 can really couch it effectively is that it is the 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:29.520 black part of the population's commander's palace. 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:33.800 Was Wow, I bet it's amazing. 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:38.120 Well it is. And Leah Chase, who was the grand 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:42.080 dame of the restaurant for years. It was originally her husband, 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:47.199 originally her husband's family's restaurant. Her husband was the heir 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:49.960 apparent to the restaurant, was more interested in being a 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:54.439 musician than he was being a restaurant tour and Leah 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:59.199 took up the mantle of running the restaurant and gave 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:03.319 it that's new life in the in the forties and fifties, 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:13.360 and that restaurant entertained from the forties and until Barack 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:25.920 Obama was president. You name any black celebrity in movie, sports, television, politics, 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:28.360 if they came to New Orleans, they came and they 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:31.840 ate it too. Get Chase, and they sat, you know, 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:35.880 on bended knee, you know, next to Leah, just because 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:39.760 she was a woman to be reckoned with and respected. 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.640 Wow. And that's very And that's a block away. 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:48.560 It's a block away. And so Leah became like a 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:53.080 third grandmother to me, and we had a magnificent relationship, 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:56.560 and it's it's one of the things that I treasured 0:14:56.600 --> 0:15:01.320 more dearly than about anything in my life when it 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:10.320 comes to curation of folks and Leah. Her lunch menu 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:13.120 was largely a sort of a New Orleans version of 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:13.840 a meat in three. 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:14.880 You know. 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:19.480 She would do you know, trout moniere and fried chicken 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:24.840 and smothered chicken, pork chops, and then had a selection 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:31.560 of yams, green beans, spoon bread. But inside of the restaurant, 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:35.520 I mean it was tricked out to the nines and 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:39.240 then has one of these most spectacular collections of African 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:43.120 American art that exists in the city of New Orleans. 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:45.880 She was a prolific collector, and so the restaurant was 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:51.760 absolutely beautiful. So I would regularly when I was in 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:55.680 New Orleans make a lunch stop with Leah to visit 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:59.800 with her and eat fried chicken, then get on the 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:05.680 to drive home to Oxford, you know, late afternoon. And 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:09.200 a friend of mine from childhood who wrote for the 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:12.760 paper one day we were leaving together, and then there 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:16.640 had been a fam trip, a bunch of traveling food 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:20.080 writers that were in town doing a piece on New Orleans, 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:23.320 and it all been brought to Lea's and he said, 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.040 you know, I sat here and listened to you, and 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:28.120 I've done this for years. You talked about how great 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.200 Lea's fried chicken is and blah blah blah blah blah. 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:34.640 And this is my friend's named Lolis Eli, and Lois 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:38.640 grew up in Uptown. Both of his parents were academics, 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:42.600 and Lolis was black. And he said, let me tell 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:46.000 you something, white boy, the best chick. You don't know 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:49.360 where the best chicken is. It's right around the corner, 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:51.120 and you need to go. You need to go try 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:55.960 Willie May sometime and see what it's like. And so 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:57.920 I don't remember if it was on that trip that 0:16:58.080 --> 0:16:59.600 just went around. I thought I'll grab a sack on 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.000 my way out the door, or if it was the 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:06.320 next time, but I I went around the corner, and 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:11.320 I felt like I was cheating on my girlfriend, buying check, 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:15.400 buying fried chicken from Willie Mays. And if I tell 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:17.920 you that, I mean Willie Mays was a hole in 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:22.760 the wall at the dining room had about five tables 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:27.199 and fifteen or sixteen chairs. It was just covered in 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:30.520 grease and invariably you go in there and there would 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:34.000 be a pair of police officers sitting at one table, 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:37.840 a couple guys that may or may not have been 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:42.800 crack dealers at another. You know, it was, it was, 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:46.280 but it was really like the It was the safe 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:51.760 house for everybody. And she had chicken and smothered pork chops, 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.080 and then on Friday shoot she would fry They should 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:59.320 fry some fish, but you got any of those things 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:05.040 with either white beans or red beans and rice, and 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:08.040 then two pieces of white bread cut in half and 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:10.960 just dropped on your plate. And that was it. And 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:14.399 so anyway, I grabbed some fried chicken and took it 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:16.119 out the door and got in the car with it, 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:17.879 and I was full as hell when I got on 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:20.920 the road, but I remember sitting there and I hadn't 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:23.320 even you know, made it out to the airport before 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:25.360 I was like, I can't stand the smell of this anymore. 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:28.240 This is too much. And I remember biting into that 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:31.720 chicken while I was driving down the interstate, and the 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:35.560 skin was so crisp it almost shattered in my mouth. 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:40.040 I mean, it was spectacular, and I thought, I was like, damn, lolss, 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:42.680 one hundred percent right, this is the best freaking fried 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:46.400 chicken I've ever eaten in my entire life, and so 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:50.439 that became that became my regular practice of sneaking around 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:56.119 on my girlfriend and eating fried chicken and sort of 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.240 winking at everybody and telling them. 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:08.360 Really may and now a few messages from our general sponsors. 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:13.840 But first, I hope you'll consider following an Army in 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:17.480 Normal Folks on all of our social media channels for 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:21.240 more powerful content, which is also great for sharing to 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:25.320 help grow the army. Our handle is at Army of 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:29.560 Normal Folks on all of them, except Twitter, which I 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:34.520 guess is X these days, which is interesting because everybody 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:37.680 says X formally called Twitter, so we might as well 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:42.960 just call it Twitter whatever. At Army Normal Folks. We'll 0:19:42.960 --> 0:20:01.159 be right back now. 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:06.800 Willie Mays was only so dooky chases on Orleans Boulevard, 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:09.760 which is a four lane that runs through that neighborhood, 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:13.080 and that neighborhood that's sort of the edge of Tremy 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:16.040 in it, or I think it's where Tremy and the 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:18.919 Seventh Ward butt up to each other and so they 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:21.880 argue about which one it actually is. Whatever it was 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:27.440 before the storm, it was one of the worst neighborhoods 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:30.120 in the city of New Orleans. I mean it was awful. 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:33.199 I mean to the point where Willie May was not 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:37.159 open at night. She lived. It was it was a 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:40.560 shotgun that the restaurant was in and the restaurant was 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:44.239 on one side and her house, her living quarters, were 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:46.800 on the other side. But it was one of those 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:50.240 places where everybody understood. The reason why everybody could go 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:53.000 in there and eat was because it was one hundred 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:57.000 percent off limits for any bs. I mean, she worked 0:20:57.000 --> 0:21:00.960 only in cash. Everybody, you know, who whoever went there 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:03.720 knew that, you know, and she lived hand in mouth, 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:08.600 so she had that. She had a coffee can full 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:11.800 of wadded up bills that she bought her groceries with, 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:14.400 I mean in the house. But you know, you didn't 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:15.200 rob Willie May. 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:17.680 But you didn't. 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:22.200 You did not venture off by one block from Orleans 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:23.520 once the sun went down. 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:29.479 So William May is, as I understand the story, grew 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:32.720 up in Mississippi, went to New Orleans, and I think 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:37.320 opened this place in like the forties or fifties, opened 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:42.880 a bar and was selling scotch, but she was cooking 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:46.320 for her family. People smelled the smell and so she 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:49.640 started selling what she was cooking. Is that about right? 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:50.680 Is that story close? 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:54.360 Yeah, The part of the building which is now the 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:58.800 I guess the back part of the restaurant now was 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:01.960 just storage when we went in and started working on it. 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:05.160 That was originally a salon. And so she she came 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:09.119 to New Orleans and was working as a cosmetologist I 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:12.480 think she was cutting hair and and doing stuff, and 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:16.320 grabbed a piece of the building and opened the bar. 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:21.440 And cosmetology during the day and bartender at. 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:23.840 Night and yep, and started doing that and then her 0:22:23.840 --> 0:22:27.800 food caught on and and ultimately the salon left and 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:31.520 at some point the Scotch House took up the whole building. 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:34.320 But by the time I started going and eating there, 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:37.359 it was literally just the front, little bitty room and 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:39.960 then the kitchen immediately adjacent to it at the back 0:22:40.000 --> 0:22:42.320 of it was just that's always just a mess. 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:48.399 Yeah, yeah, that's that's what it was. And it was candidly, 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:54.600 this little little African American woman who was old but 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:59.560 don't think she was not strong, cook and chicken, and 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:02.119 people from all walks of life going there because it 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:05.439 was the best chicken in the world. And I assume 0:23:05.520 --> 0:23:09.440 her fish was probably just as good and making a 0:23:09.520 --> 0:23:12.040 life and that's part of you know, your life and 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:16.239 where you came from. And Katrina hits and that is 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:20.360 the very area that got the worst of the flooding, right, Yeah. 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:22.720 It was about eight feet of water. I wouldn't say 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:25.560 the worst when you got out to Lakeview where seventeenth 0:23:25.600 --> 0:23:28.960 Street canal busted and you just you know, you had 0:23:28.960 --> 0:23:32.560 a fire hose of water coming through there, and you 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:35.200 know they had it, so it took a lot. 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:37.560 How deep was that restaurant under water? 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:38.560 Eight feet? 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:44.360 Eight feet? Yeah, eight feet And if we go back 0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:47.040 to what you said about your first day of stepping 0:23:47.040 --> 0:23:52.280 out in the street and the smell, and it's eight 0:23:52.320 --> 0:24:06.080 feet of that eight feet of deteriorating, rancid, disgusting, stagnant, hot, smelly, floodwak, right, 0:24:07.320 --> 0:24:10.560 which gets into sheet rock, and it gets into insulation, 0:24:10.960 --> 0:24:16.840 and it gets into studs, and it melts paint off 0:24:16.960 --> 0:24:21.879 ceilings where the water didn't even get and it warps furniture, 0:24:22.080 --> 0:24:28.080 even on the second story, and it completely destroys electrical wiring, 0:24:28.359 --> 0:24:32.600 and it is it's not like when you get a 0:24:32.640 --> 0:24:35.399 foot of water in your house for you know, thirty 0:24:35.400 --> 0:24:39.840 minutes because of tub upstairs leaks. It's it's standing rancid 0:24:39.880 --> 0:24:44.720 stuff that absolutely reaks carnage, and nobody could live there. 0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:48.520 And all of the folks from these areas took refuge, 0:24:48.560 --> 0:24:55.119 like we said, in places like Jackson, Mississippi, Little Rock, Houston, Shreveport. 0:24:54.720 --> 0:24:56.200 Yet wherever the busses took. 0:24:56.119 --> 0:24:59.200 Them, wherever the buses took them, because these are largely 0:25:00.080 --> 0:25:03.800 people of very very little means, and their only way 0:25:03.840 --> 0:25:06.119 to survive was to get on a bus. And they 0:25:06.600 --> 0:25:08.560 bus took them where the bus took them, and then 0:25:08.600 --> 0:25:11.360 they ended up sleeping on cots in churches and Red 0:25:11.400 --> 0:25:18.560 Cross stations. That's pretty much it, right, except for Willie May, who, 0:25:18.640 --> 0:25:24.280 at eighty nine years old, said, my entire life is 0:25:24.760 --> 0:25:28.000 that restaurant. That's my home, my restaurant, my place work. 0:25:28.080 --> 0:25:32.000 And she got an airplane, slipped away from her family 0:25:32.040 --> 0:25:34.280 and got an airplane by herself and flew back to 0:25:34.320 --> 0:25:35.280 New Orleans. 0:25:35.720 --> 0:25:38.679 Yeah, and there may be some question on whether it 0:25:38.720 --> 0:25:42.040 was an airplane or bus. It doesn't matter. She was 0:25:42.200 --> 0:25:47.720 ninety and the restaurant was all she knew, and I 0:25:47.760 --> 0:25:50.639 mean it was her I mean, it was her reason 0:25:50.680 --> 0:25:54.760 for being And so yeah, she slipped away from her family, 0:25:55.160 --> 0:25:58.760 came back to New Orleans. The water had been pumped 0:25:58.760 --> 0:26:02.439 off and receded, you know at this point, you know, 0:26:02.560 --> 0:26:08.280 and so what remained was this shell of a building 0:26:08.960 --> 0:26:14.240 that had been neglected for eighty years that was just 0:26:14.320 --> 0:26:17.920 totally washed out, so you know, and what it did 0:26:18.080 --> 0:26:22.959 was just basically, you know, it gave everything you know, 0:26:23.119 --> 0:26:26.879 inside of her building the ability to just say, oh 0:26:26.960 --> 0:26:32.399 the hell with it, just right. And so it was 0:26:32.480 --> 0:26:36.359 a it was a it was a mess. And the 0:26:36.480 --> 0:26:39.199 reason that I got involved is to go back to 0:26:39.359 --> 0:26:42.840 May of that year. So Katrina hit on August twenty ninth, 0:26:43.640 --> 0:26:46.840 in the beginning of May of two thousand and five, 0:26:47.080 --> 0:26:51.199 at the James Beard Awards William they had been recognized 0:26:51.200 --> 0:26:54.720