Open Doors With Deanna

04/13/2026

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the French Legion of Honor, Eudora Welty typically drew upon her native state for the settings of her fiction. Mississippi's hill country, its Natchez Trace and Delta, Weltys hometown of Jackson. and neighboring landscapes become emblematic and realistic sites in works such as A Curtain of Green, The Wide Net, Delta Wedding, The Golden Apples, The Optimist's Daughter, and Losing Battles.
These story collections and novels have been translated worldwide.
They proclaim that, to use Welty's words,
"One place comprehended can make us understand other places better." Her photographs of Mississippi locales need no translation and have on high regard in this country and abroad. As both writer and photographer, Eudora Welty is an international treasure.

04/11/2026

BOYD HOUSE “THE OAKS”
Built ca. 1853 for James H.
Boyd, Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi.
One of the few homes to survive the Civil War in Jackson. It’s a Greek Revival house and is listed on National Register of Historic Places.

03/23/2026

Around Jackson Mississippi

03/22/2026

The tour guide life

03/22/2026

Zen in the heart of New Orleans

03/22/2026

Key West on Norwegian Cruise Lines. Score!

08/29/2025

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03/09/2025

On January 15, 1865, Fort Fisher, nicknamed “Gibraltar of the South,” fell to Union troops.
Built on a peninsula known as Federal Point at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, 18 miles south of Wilmington, Fort Fisher was the largest earthen fortification in the Confederacy. It guarded the port of Wilmington, and, in that capacity, was the most powerful seacoast fort in the South.
Fort Fisher was the last remaining lifeline in the closing months of the Civil War, allowing blockade runners to take advantage of the Cape Fear River to route supplies to troops inland.
On December 23 and 24, 1864, the Union Navy bombarded the fort. At the same time, the fort’s forces were reinforced with about 600 more men from Wilmington, increasing the number to around 2,000. The Union Navy attacked again on January 13, 1865. After two days, Union forces led by Gen. Alfred Terry overwhelmed the Confederate defenders led by Maj. Gen. W.H.C. Whiting and Col. William Lamb, and captured Fort Fisher.
The fall of Fort Fisher robbed Robert E. Lee’s army of its last connection to the outside and served as the beginning of the Wilmington campaign which resulted in the fall of Fort Anderson

02/19/2025

1840 - 1890:
The Gallatin Street Red-Light District New Orleans

By the 1840s, steamboats replaced flatboats as the main transport on the Mississippi River, causing the Swamp red-light district’s decline. Meanwhile, New Orleans’ booming international trade brought an influx of sailors and s*x workers to the docks at the end of Esplanade Avenue, giving rise to the city’s second red-light district—Gallatin Street.

Now called French Market Place, Gallatin Street stretched two blocks from Ursulines to Barracks, continuing past the U.S. Mint and up Elysian Fields for two more blocks (known as Sanctity Row). The area was lined with two- and three-story buildings housing dance halls, saloons, and gambling dens on the first floor, with boarding rooms above rented to sailors and s*x workers.

Gallatin Street was infamous for crime, narcotics, and stolen goods, earning a reputation so dangerous that even the police avoided it at night. Establishments like the Amsterdam, Stockholm, Tivoli Gardens, and Canton House reflected its international clientele.

The term “getting Shanghaied” originated from the practice of kidnapping drunk men in bars and brothels to be sold as sailors. This earned Gallatin Street the nickname “the port of missing men.” Lyle Saxon’s Fabulous New Orleans recounts the story of Henry Parmalee, who vanished after a bachelor party on Gallatin Street. He was last seen heading upstairs with a barmaid, only to be knocked out, dressed as a sailor, and smuggled onto a ship bound for Amsterdam. His fate remained a mystery until years later when the barmaid, Anna, confessed on her deathbed.

02/18/2025

Buddy Bolden is often credited as leading the first jazz band around 1895. While there is debate over whether he invented jazz, he undoubtedly perfected its formula—blending the bent notes and chord progressions of the blues, the syncopated rhythms of ragtime, and the brass instrumentation of New Orleans marching bands.

Known to his fans as “King Bolden,” he was famous for the powerful volume of his cornet playing. At the start of dances, he would announce, “Let’s call the children home,” then lean out a window and blow his horn, drawing crowds from all around.

Bolden built his reputation just outside the Storyville district, performing at venues like the Eagle Saloon, Odd Fellows Hall, and Funky Butt Hall—the latter named after lyrics from his popular tune, Buddy Bolden Blues. While no official records confirm it, it’s likely he also played in some of Storyville’s clubs around the turn of the century.

However, heavy drinking and hard living took a toll on his mental health, cutting his career short. In 1907, he was committed to the Louisiana State Insane Asylum, where he remained until his death in 1931. No known recordings of Bolden exist, and only a single photograph of him with his band has survived.

02/17/2025

New Orleans (1810–1860): The “Swamp” Red-Light District

With the influx of rugged riverboat men arriving at Tchoupitoulas Street, it’s no surprise that New Orleans’ first red-light district emerged nearby. Known as “The Swamp,” this lawless vice district spanned eight blocks along Girard and Julia Streets, ending near today’s Superdome.

A chaotic jumble of dance halls, gambling dens, brothels, and saloons, The Swamp was a shantytown built from dismantled barges. It was so dangerous that even the police avoided it, with over 800 murders recorded between 1820 and 1850.

Notorious establishments like the “House for Weary Boatmen” and Mother Colby’s “Sure Enuf Hotel” offered cheap whiskey, beds, and companionship. Most bars were just planks set on kegs, with red lanterns casting an eerie glow over the fog.

For a picayune coin (about six cents), a man could buy a drink, a bed, and a woman—if he survived the night.

02/16/2025

Historically female civilians, including s*x workers, followed armies during times of war. These women, known as
“camp followers”, provided supporting functions such as cooking, cleaning, nursing and companionship to the soldiers.