Music

although I did not attend the music tour it the pharmacy museum due to "trench foot" causing blisters on my feet from wet shoes and socks the day before, I have been able to hear some music around the city.  On Frenchman street and at various parts around town I have been able to hear jazz being played. Jazz is important to New Orleans for several reasons. One reason is that it allows each person to speak how they feel freely in the music they play. In the 18th century,  New Orleans was dancing to VooDoo rhythms.New Orleans was the only place in the New World where slaves were allowed to own drums. VooDoo rituals were openly tolerated, and well attended by the rich as well as the poor, by blacks and whites, by the influential and the anonymous. Jazz made people feel free and alive. New Orleans music the. Is the same today. It is totally acceptable to dance in the streets day or night and and for everyone that hears it to want to partake in the music. This is how it makes me feel. And by the tapping of others feet and the clapping of their hands, I am able to safely assume that others share my feelings. I do not know of anyone who does not like to hear music. The feeling of being free and alive on top of that love for music makes it a feeling that is not able to be replicated anywhere else in the world. 


As for the pharmacy museum.. I will have to update my blog when I have attended the tour. In place of the tour I can explain ( or try to explain) about blisters and trench foot. I had never heard of trench foot until I told my father that I had blisters on my feet from being in wet shoes all day the day before and Shia response was "you have trench foot". He was able to accurately explain to me how the term came about from soldiers being in wet boots and socks for days and developing blisters from it. When I hung up the phone with him, I of course google searched it and found out he was right and it was a real thing. 

Trench foot is a medical condition caused by prolonged exposure of the feet to damp, unsanitary, and cold conditions. It is one of many immersion foot syndromes. The use of the word trench in the name of this condition is a reference to trench warfare, mainly associated with World War I which started in 1914. What Google failed to accurately report was the depth of pain this caused. Thankfully the end result has improved over time because during World War 1, the end result was necrosis and gangrene followed by amputation. With plenty of Advil, bed rest and soaking in Epsoms salt, I am able to feel my feet today and ambulated accordingly. The lesson learned: wear rain boots and always carry a change of dry socks.