Mary crossed an item off her bucket list by traveling to New Orleans for her last day of work before her office closed. She spent three days training someone in Louisiana then took a trip to New Orleans. There, she visited popular tourist spots like Pat O'Brien's and Spirits bar, where she tried their famous Resurrection drink. She learned about the history of above-ground graves in New Orleans due to high water levels. Mary had a fun evening in New Orleans before flying back home, completing her bucket list item of visiting the city.

1. WORKING ON MY
BUCKET LIST
Mary Slowinski

2. BACK STORY
Aggreko
Northeast Rental
Center (NRC)
I would like to give a little background on how I got to
cross something off of my bucket list.
In the fall of 2014, some changes were made to the
executive committee of Aggreko. The new CEO and
several other members of the committee travelled from
Scotland to the United States. They visited “key” areas of
the business to see how things operated in the US.

3. IN THE SPRING OF 2015, THE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF FINANCE IN THE UNITED STATES
REPORTED THAT NO CHANGES WOULD BE MADE TO THE NORTHEAST RENTAL CENTER (NRC)
AND WE HAD NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. WE ALL BREATHED A SIGH OF RELIEF.
JUMP AHEAD TO OCTOBER 13, 2015 – THE STORY CHANGED. THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
DECIDED IT WASN’T NECESSARY TO HAVE TWO RENTAL CENTERS AND THE NRC WAS
BEING CLOSED – ALL WORK WOULD NOW BE DONE IN THE SRC LOCATED IN NEW IBERIA,
LOUISIANA.

4. Everyone was wondering what they were going to do now, some people
had been with the company for 20 years. Even I looked into some different
occupations.

5. Law and
Order SVU
Universal
Studios
Teenage
Mutant
Turtles
2016
Mysteries
of Laura
Blindspot
New York
Fashion
Week
One of the sales reps I worked for handled all of the
entertainment and events on the East Coast. Both he and his
customers were very particular about their proposals and their
orders had to be entered differently than other customers.

6. MANAGEMENT ASKED ME IF I WOULD TRAVEL TO LOUISIANA AND TRAIN SOMEONE TO
DO MY JOB. I ASKED, “ARE YOU SERIOUS??”. I WAS UPSET UNTIL THEY MENTIONED I
WOULD BE SPENDING MY LAST NIGHT THERE IN NEW ORLEANS. I WAS LIKE, “IN THAT
CASE, I’LL GO.” I COULD CROSS SOMETHING OFF MY BUCKET LIST AND IT WOULD BE ON
THEIR DIME.

7. SO I FLEW TO NEW IBERIA, LOUISIANA AND SPENT THREE DAYS TRAINING
SOMEONE TO DO MY JOB.

8. THURSDAY AFTERNOON FINALLY ARRIVED, I WAS ON MY WAY TO NEW ORLEANS.!!
ON THE DRIVE WE PASSED THE SUPERDOME, (WHERE I’M SURE YOU REMEMBER MANY
CITIZENS WERE HOUSED DURING HURRICANE KATRINA) AND MANY, MANY CEMETERIES. I
LEARNED THE HISTORY OF WHY LOUISIANA GRAVEYARDS ARE ABOVE GROUND.

9. New Orleans is located slightly below sea level. Because of this, the water table is quite high.
When early European settlers put coffins under six feet of earth, they found that the water
level would often rise above them, especially during the city’s frequent floods. Since the
coffins were filled with air, the water sometimes pushed them up through the earth, causing
both a gruesome site and a health hazard. To keep the coffins underground, holes were drilled
in the lid to let air escape and the coffins were weighted down with rocks and sand. But this
was only partially successful, and in any case, the saturated corpses didn’t decompose properly
leading to unsanitary conditions. The only solution was to bury the dead above ground.

10. MY TRAVELING BUDDY, DAWN, WANTED TO MAKE SURE I VISITED PAT O’BRIEN’S, SO WE STOPPED THERE
FIRST. I WANTED TO MAKE SURE I STOPPED AT SPIRITS AND GET MYSELF ONE OF THEIR FAMOUS
DRINKS CALLED THE RESURRECTION. I HAD SEEN SPIRITS ON THE TV SHOW BAR RESCUE AND WANTED TO
MAKE SURE I VISITED - SO OFF WE GO. ON THE WAY I GRABBED A $10.00 HOTDOG FROM A STREET VENDOR
– I WAS HUNGRY!!

11. JON TAFFER OF
BAR RESCUE
Jon Taffer is a bar consultant who goes
into troubled bars and saves them. He
finds what their problems are and helps
correct them. Some keep his changes,
some don’t. He did this at “Spirits”
(originally known as “Turtle Bay”) on
Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

12. Spirits was formerly owned by Edward DeBoire who had a rather successful barber business.
Unfortunately, he met a rather tragic death at only 33 years of age. It is said that his spirit
enjoys the bar. In fact, what is now their stage was where his barber chair stood. It was clear
when the stage was erected that Edward did not appreciate having his barber chair removed.
To pacify him, the owners added the Barber Chair to pay homage to Edward in a fun way
that they thought he would appreciate - his spirit is thought to still remain
HISTORY OF SPIRITS

13. JON TAFFER AT SPIRITS BAR RESCUE SIGN AT SPIRITS
RESURRECTION GLASS BARBER CHAIR

14. By the way, can you
guess who has my
Spirits glass?? LOL

15. Bourbon Street in
November
Bourbon Street during Mardi
Gras

16. Statistic 2015 2014
Calls for Service 3,250 2,900
Arrests 443 501
Manpower Hours 58,090 55,700
Some Police Statistics – 2015 vs. 2014

18. DO’S AND DON’TS WHILE ON BOURBON STREET
 Don’t wear open toed shoes
 Don’t step in any puddles (may not be water)
 Don’t say YES to someone dressed in costume that asks you if you want a picture with
him/her, just say NO – they’ll harass you for money for the picture
 Don’t try and pet a police officer’s horse
 Don’t try to catch beads being thrown to someone else – definite fighting action
 Do have a good time!!!

19. Weekend in Las Vegas – 90% chance Trip to Ireland – 70% chance
Dinner with Al Pacino – 0% Chance
Just a few of the things left on
my Bucket List