Friend,

It is indeed looking promising for November 1. We have a trip planned for New York that weekend to try Jonny’s Pizza, which is next door to Una Pizza, but we will cancel if the computers continue to suggest November 1.

Let us review the history of Front Day in the interim:

The history of Front Day stretches all the way back to 1911. Mother claims to have invented Front Day in 1998, but Grandmother always corrects her when she makes that claim. Grandmother is happy to tell you the story of her grandmother minting the day in 1911 after that brutally hot summer, which was the standard for hot New Orleans summers for 69 years until 1980 reared its sun on us. Grandmother tells the story like this:

“My Grandmother, your Great, Great Grandmother was the first known New Orleanian to celebrate Front Day. Your Mother heard my bedtime stories about Front Day as a little girl, and she has done well to revive and cultivate the holiday. But she was acting on an idea my Grandmother created.

“Grandmother talked about the heat during the summer of 1911. She was part of a volunteer women’s auxiliary from Christ Cathedral and First Presbyterian Churches tasked with decorating the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art in City Park. This is the museum that later became NOMA, which I know you so love visiting. It opened during the Advent season, I believe December 15, of 1911.

“Anyway, Grandmother talked about how that summer was unrelenting. Three times each week, she took the St. Charles and Canal St. streetcars before fetching a horse drawn carriage from Canal St. to City Park. She talked about how hot working in the stone building was.

“September of 1911 was hotter than any month she had ever felt, and this was in a time when Septembers were usually closer weatherwise to what we think of as October or even early November weather.

“When the morning of October 18, 1911 broke, my Grandmother was up with the sun. She recalled until her last days how it was one of the most beautiful days of her life. The sunrise was perfect and a light northerly wind brushed her face with temperatures in the low 50s reminding her of the goodness of creation. She felt so wonderful that she left early that morning and walked the entire distance to the museum, which was a five mile jaunt.

“Once the women were finished with their duties that afternoon, my Grandmother invited them all back to her Prytania home. There she had a lovely spread which included hot chocolate from Switzerland she purchased from the Katz & Bestoff on Canal, which became the future site of the failed Hard Rock Hotel. Thomas, the church organist, was summoned, and quickly arrived to play their custom home organ. I can still picture her indelible, childlike smile when she reminisced about singing those hymns and drinking chocolate on that first Front Day.

“She and her friends gathered for years on each first sunny day of Autumn with highs below 80 and lows below 60. When Front Day came on October 21, 1929, celebrations were held as usual, but three days later, Black Thursday hit America. Some of her friends were ruined, and they associated Front Day with the stock market crash. And never again in her lifetime did the people of New Orleans celebrate that great day. It disappeared until your Mother revived it.

“Unlike your mother, the original Front Days did not have to be on Saturday. I wish your mother would change that requirement.”

Previous Front Days:
1911: October 18 (77/53)
1912: October 24 (79/50)
1913: October 13 (79/56)
1914: October 15 (69/53)
1915: October 8 (74/56)
1916: September 30 (73/52)
1917: October 9 (77/51)
1918: September 21 (73/51)
1919: November 3 (78/54)
1920: September 30 (79/49)
1921: October 4 (79/59)
1922: October 9 (70/54)
1923: October 20 (68/50
1924: September 30 (71/53)
1925: October 20 (73/48)
1926: October 2 (79/58)
1927: September 23 (78/55)
1928: October 19 (78/58)
1929 October 21 (76/57)

1998: October 10 (75/56)
1999: October 23 (72/57)
2000: October 7 (71/56)
2001: October 20 (79/56)
2002: November 2 (66/53)
2003: November 15 (80/50)
Mother projected a high of 78 this day, making it the only time in 25 years she has failed accurately to predict Front Day.
2004: November 6 (71/47)
2005: October 29 (71/49)
2006: October 28 (69/54)
2007: October 27 (70/55)
2008: October 25 (77/52)
2009: October 17 (67/54)
2010: October 30 (76/50)
2011: October 22 (75/53)
2012: October 27 (64/53)
2013: October 26 (74/51) The week before met the temperature definitions, but was rainy.
2014: October 4 (73/57)
2015: November 14 (67/57)
2016: October 22 (75/57)
2017: November 11 (72/54)
2018: October 27 (75/55)
2019: October 26 (79/57)
2020: October 31 (70/52)
2021: October 30 (68/53)
2022: October 22 (79/56)
2023: November 4 (77/55)
2024: October 19 (77/57)

Front Day 2020
Front Day 2021
Front Day 2022
Front Day 2023
Front Day 2024

Yours,
TulaneLSU