Everyday Wonder: A virtual stoop night for these times

Brett Will Taylor’s former stoop in New Orleans. (Photo: Brett Will Taylor)

Stoop nights are a thing in New Orleans. A chance to get together with good friends and total strangers on your front stoop and just talk (and drink and eat). You don’t need a special reason to have a stoop night, just a desire to be with people. And, we don’t know about you, but we definitely want to be with people right about now.

So, even though COVID-19 has left our stoops empty, we thought it would be a good idea to invite some local folk to get together…virtually. So we can talk about how a global pandemic feels so different from a local hurricane. How we’re hoping our kids won’t remember this as a scary time. How we hope we get the repass at the end of this crisis that we didn’t get for Katrina. How when icons like Ellis Marsalis and Ronald Lewis die in New Orleans that means our friends have died, too. And how we know our city will get through this because that is just what New Orleanians do.

Please, make yourself a drink, have a seat, listen in and even talk back to the podcast if you want to. We won’t mind. All of us are family right now. And all of us could use a good stoop night!

Given the times, this episode was recorded remotely using Zoom. The quality may not be great, but we hope the conversation is!

Guests

Calvin Johnson, a retired judge and Tulane University professor who is sheltering in place with his amazing wife and somewhat cantankerous mother-in-law

Pam Roberts, a nanny, educator and theatre maven, who is sheltering in place on her own (well, she does have one companion, batteries included)

Megan Walther, who does B2B customer interface, but these days finds herself caught in a  cross between Twilight Zone of never-ending maternity leave with her newborn son and Groundhog Day replays of Frozen 2.

Co-hosts

Brett Will Taylor, who is sheltering in place in Plano, Texas where he’s watching to make sure his mother stays safe in assisted living while counting the days til his return to New Orleans.

Renee Peck, who is sheltering in place at a home she and her husband own in Mississippi, which suddenly feels very far from their Garden District home not to mention her daughters, their spouses and, most of all, her grandchildren.

Producer

Darrell Rollo, a New Orleans comedian and North Shore resident, who is staying home with his wife and in-laws.