5

So I went to Markey's tonight. I rode my bike because it's only a couple of blocks away. When I was riding though I thought of something this guy Chris (a contractor) told me. He told me that people, well certain people of the criminal element, hide behind cars and bushes and other places and as you ride by them on your bike they will through sticks into your spokes to throw you off of the bike. After you fall they'll come over and steal your stuff. Now I don't know how accurate his claim was but he seems like an honest guy so I won't argue the point. As he told me, "You've got to keep your head on a three hundred and sixty degree swivel around here at night." I took that to heart. I rode my bike there but I was on the look out the whole way. He told that about two weeks ago. And I haven't really thought about it until tonight. For whatever reason though I was worried about it today.

Either way I got to Markey's safe and sound. The reason I went there tonight was to find what out Markey's is, well as it acts in the Bywater community. What does Markey's mean to the communithy? Why is it the neighborhood bar? What is the role of the neighborhood bar in New Orleans in general, the Bywater specifically? So I got in to Markey's and I sat down at the bar, grabbed a beer and began to wait. Every time I go in there by myself I sit down at the closest available seat. The assumption is that eventually the person next to me, or soon to be next to me, will begin a conversation. I only assume that because that has been the case countless times at Markey's. People are very talkative and friendly there. I could say people do that to reach out. But I don't think that is actually why. It's a neighborhood bar. People are trying to be neighbors. If people see you around they begin to feel like you are a neighbor as opposed to an outsider. As I stated in my last entry, if people there recognize you, i.e. the bartenders, everyone else will recognize you. For example tonight I met a man named "John". I sat down and he saw Lisa, the bartender, wave at me. I assumed that he assumed I was a neighborhood person, and a regular at Markey's (which was further validated when Chris, a contractor in the neighborhood, and Tom, a carpenter/plumber, sat down and talked to us, having talked to me several times before, at different times during the evening).

John and I started talking about the game, Navy vs. Pitt. It was a predominately offensive game, that was an icebreaker. After a beer or two more, we began a legitimate conversation. Most conversations in that bar begin with where you're from. He told me, "I'm a Steelers fan too, so I"m glad Pitt. is runnin this offense right now." So I asked him if he was from Pittsburgh. "Na man I'm from New York, not the city but a little bit outside." His wife is from Pittsburgh, now he's down here with his wife running a small bed and breakfast on Poland. After the conversation became comfortable, familiar, I tried to pull Markey's itself into the equation. That was the point of me going there in the first place. We started to talk about the neighborhood, i.e. how people "hide their wealth, so other people don't know." "Man I'm a carpenter by trade. And you'll see these houses that look like shit. But when you go inside they're beautiful. I work in the neighborhood. I'm not trying to get rich. People know me and I know they'll pay me." I said that that was the way Markey's seems to me. It's all a matter of neighborly courtesy and friendliness. One thing he said specifically about Markey's was that it's the same way as those houses. What they are inside is different from how they appear outside (especially before Markey's go that nice red paint job).

I guess what I've come to realize talking to him and others, the stories themselves being fantastic byproducts, is that Markey's and neighborhood bars in general act as a neighborhood forum. They provide an essential function for the sense of overall community. John said "New Orleans is a neighborhood place. Bywater is relaxed place. Shit happens here like it does anywhere in the city but kinda tend to look out for people here." The neighborhood bar is a place for people in the neighborhood to congregate in a "relaxed" setting and create neighborly bonds. He told me that when he and his wife first moved down here "you know, our neighbors came over with a bottle of champagne. They gave us that as a gift and then invited us over for dinner. And, you know, this is before the hurricane. They thanked us for being on the street and trying to keep this bed and breakfast going, even though there's no breakfast anymore. People like to go out in this city you know what I mean. No body wants to stay in and eat."

Granted, more interviews and research is required to actually figure out the role of Markey's, specifically, in the neighborhood. What I lack now is approach, or methodology is perhaps a better word for it. I know what Markey's is. I know how people feel about. There is a reason that one the first things people ask me around here is if I have been to Markey's yet. There's a reason those same people have told me, and people actually at Markey's have told me that Markey's is the best bar in the New Orleans. I've experienced why. It's a matter of verbalizing it.

Stephen Greenblatt said in "Resonance and Wonder", "The Museum's rich collections of synagogue art and the historic synagogue buildings of Prague's Jewish town," says the catalogue of the State Jewish Museum, "form a memorial complex that has not been preserved to the same extent anywhere else in Europe." New Orleans itself is kind of the same thing--always moving around, the dynamic of the population changing (i.e. the influx of hispanics after the storm), yet the city is an artifact. That's how Markey's is, a sort of spiritual fixture in the dynamic of the Bywater neighborhood.