Register Volume 1

We moved to Alexandria in 1959. I attended Menard Memorial and worked as a bellboy at the Bentley. My father was the District Manager for Schlitz Beer.
Bernie Herpin
Colorado Springs, CO USA - Sunday, January 12, 2003 at 05:51:01 (GMT)

I have wonderful friends and memories in Alexandria. What a great town to grow up in.

Leon Medica
Hendersonville, TN 37075 - Sunday, January 12, 2003 at 04:24:16 (GMT)

I thoroughly enjoyed the memories. Thanks for including my parents' in your Mom and Pop segment. I will forward the URL to everyone from Alexandria I have addresses for in hopes they enjoy it as much as did I.

Sam Damico
Houston, TX USA - Sunday, January 12, 2003 at 03:46:49 (GMT)

My high school classmates and I were stationed nearby in 1961 and 1962. We had a lot of fun cruising around in the old red Corvette. Although it did attract a lot of trash. To this day, we still have a lot of laughs about things that happened back then in Alexandria. During August of 1962 we were sent home.

We are all happily married to the girls we left at home, but still recall the generosity of the people we met in Alexandria and how they helped fill the void until we were able to go home again to our loved ones and families.

Dick
Trenton, NJ USA - Sunday, December 22, 2002 at 12:40:25 (GMT)

Like visiting an old friend.

George Feazell
Pace, FL USA - Thursday, December 19, 2002 at 03:03:49 (GMT)

I found your link onwww.roadsidepeeks.com. I don't know how long you have been out, but I am going to get all over The Town Talk for not putting a notice on the front page. I will also list your site on CENTDA SITE. Thanks.

Robert D. Caldwell
Alexandria, LA USA - Sunday, December 01, 2002 at 21:39:40 (GMT)

What a trip! As an Air Force brat who spent her high School years (I went to ASH from 1980-83) cruising Jackson Street, your web site was a little like returning to a home I'd almost forgotten I had! Wish there were an easy way to get some "people updates" - I've often wondered what became of my classmates. Thanks for the tour.

Lori Albritton Edvardsen
Trondheim, Norway - Friday, October 25, 2002 at 13:08:01 (GMT)

One of the better places online to spend a hour; I grew up across from the (then Pik-N-Pak) store you have pictured on Monroe Street, and it was my very first job, where I earned fifty cents an hour as a "Part-time part-time" boy, and I remember it as if it was yesterday, though it was in 1961.

A picture of Bolton high school and Alex Jr High would be nice, and maybe a shot of what I hear is now a mall, but I remember it as Westgate shopping center (I think it was West) on MacArthur Drive. My first job while in Distributive Education (they don't have that up north) (you go to school in the morning and work in the afternoon and get high sch credit for working) was at Krogers, at the other end of MacArthur drive, down past the water tower. The Don theater was a place where a kid who wanted to work could get three or four bucks helping to sweep out the aisles and between the rows of seats after the theater closed for the day, or in the morning before it opened.

Just down the street from the Don was a Western Auto store, and there was a Tandy Leather Company store there as well. Went back home in '88 to bury my dad (my mom was waiting for him at the cemetary in Pineville) and was saddened to see what had happened to Alex - everything in the general vicinity of the jail (actually the jail was the top floor of the building, but we all called the whole building the jail) had been leveled and it reminded me of pictures from Europe in WWII; Alex hadn't gotten the deep water port yet, or the fancy buildings on the waterfront.

I do appreciate the signs, but pictures of individual stores would be nice, too. Bought my first suit at Caplans when my mom died, and my dad, years ago, was the night watchman at the Town Talk, and he worked days at the Imperial 400 motel as the desk clerk.

I could have died in that town and been happy doing it; I see these pictures and you would not believe how much enjoyment they bring me. Thank you for the effort, and if you do add pictures, please let me know. I will save your url in my files and hope that it stays active for a long, long time.

Peace... Hank Mudge (shiloh47@stny.rr.com)
Hank Mudge
Binghamton, NY USA - Thursday, October 17, 2002 at 06:25:26 (GMT)

I WAS RAISED IN ALEXANDRIA WITH FOND MEMORIES. I REMEMBER THE OLD DEPARTMENT STORES SO VIVIDLY. I REMEMBER RECEIVING $25.00 ONE EASTER WHEN MY FATHER HAD RECEIVED HIS INCOME TAX CHECK AND GOING TO KRESS AND BUYING ME A LIZ TAYLOR BLOUSE. OF COURSE, THERE WAS NUT BROWN POWDER AND A COLONGE IN THE BLUE BOTTLE CALLED EVENING IN PARIS.

DURING HURRICANE BETSY, MY SISTER, DOROTHY HAD TAKEN ME TO THE PARAMOUNT THEATHER AND WHEN WE CAME OUT OF THE MOVIE IT WAS STORMING AND WHEN WE FINALLY GOT A CAB TO BRING US HOME, IT COULD ONLY BRING US TO THE CORNER OF RAILROAD AVENUE AND KINGS LANE SINCE THE TELEPHONE POLES HAD BEEN BLOWN DOWN. I REMEMBER LAWSON PHARMACY ON LEE STREET WHERE I WAS GIVEN FOUNTAIN DRINK AND ICE CREAM SODA.

I'M STILL WAITING TO HAVE A DR. PEPPER SODA WITH ICE CREAM THE WAY I DID AT LAWSON'S PHARMACY. THE RITZ THEATER WAS AN AMAZING RELAXATION FOR THE WEEK. I REMEMBER GOING TO SEE CHUBBY CHECKER AND DON'T KNOCK THE TWIST. I REMEMBER LISTENING TO THE SONG THE DUKE OF EARL AT THE RITZ. MY HOME CHURCH WAS NEWMAN UNITED METHODIST CHURCH WHICH WAS LOCATED ONE BLOCK FROM ST. JAMES CATHOLIC CHURCH. THE GOOD SHEPHERD FUNERAL HOME LOCATED BEHIND THE KALB STUDIO IS A PART OF MY MEMORIES FOR WAKES FOR MY MOTHER'S FAMILY MEMBERS. I REMEMBER IN 1971, GRADUATING FROM PEABODY HIGH SCHOOL AND WAITING FOR AUGUST SO THAT I COULD ENTER DILLARD UNIVERSITY. I WANTED A WHOLE NEW WORLD WHICH I DID NOT SEE HAPPENING IN ALEXANDRIA.

WHEN I WAS A FORTH GRADE STUDENT, I WAS BLESSED TO BE BROUGHT TO NEW ORLEANS TO PONCHTRAIN BEACH AS A PART OF THE CLASS TRIP FOR THE YEAR. COACH WALTER BALLENTINE BROUGHT OUR SCHOOL GROUP TO NEW ORLEANS AND I KNEW THAT ONE DAY I WOULD LIVE IN NEW ORLEANS. WHEN I GO HOME, NOW IT HAS CHANGED SO TREMENDOUSLY. ENGLAND AIR BASE IS JUST AMAZING. I THANK GOD FOR MY FAMILY AND MY TEACHERS WHO HAVE BLESSED ME. MY FATHER WORKED FOR HOLSUM BAKERY FOR 33 YEARS. I DON'T REMEMBER SEEING A PICTURE OF THE BAKERY BUT DID NOTE THAT YOU MEMTIONED IT ALONG WITH THE CONTINENTAL TRAILWAYS BUS OFFICE. WERE THE TWO BUSINESSES CONNECTED?
LOIS W. WHITLEY
SLIDELL, LA United States - Sunday, October 13, 2002 at 21:23:31 (GMT)

Words seem empty as I try to describe my pleasure at seeing the 1940/50 Alexandria we knew then. It is hard to "go back" though you've done a grand job of helping us do just that. Thanks much. We are sincerely grateful. Best,

June Bartlett Hall
Covington, IN USA - Friday, October 04, 2002 at 09:26:24 (GMT)

Thank you so much....I have internet friends in Louisiana, and you have given me a feel for their hometown.

Mike Lake
Windsor, ON Canada - Thursday, October 03, 2002 at 13:36:01 (GMT)

It was fun to look at the pictures. I was born in Alex in 1953. My grandfather was Irby P. Lacour,business owner of the old IRBY'S DERBY,politician, campaign manager of Huey P. Long and Commissioner of Streets (parks) and Highways(?). I grew up on Chester Street, 203, to be exact. Walked to Prompt Succor every day, had my crossingguard for many years until he retired.

Every Saturday went to Borden's for ice cream.Walked to the Don Theater hand in hand with my brother, picked pecans for summer money and had a wonderful childhood with my grandmother, Ruby. My family still lives there and in Pineville. However, it seems you can't go home. It has all changed and my visits are to Forest Lawn and to Greenwood Memorial where I shed a tear and talk of the good old days when life was simple with my grandmother, Ruby, who is buried next to Irby, my grandfather.

Then I walk away and regret that my grandson does not have what we had. The simplicity, the imagination, the love and time spent on the front porch swing. I am researching my roots and intend to spend a week at the courthouse and revisit all the old sites where my life began and the memories made. Thank you for doing this-all the nights of window shopping at Wellans, sodas at Kress, what a feeling it brings back.

Denise Taylor
Houston, tx USA - Monday, September 09, 2002 at 21:40:06 (GMT)

Thank you so much for the memories!! Indeed this is a beautiful site! I grew up in Alex in the 70's and moved away (in 79). I graduated from Bolton in '77. I went back for a visit this summer and the city is soooooo different. I loved seeing the picture of the Don Theater where I got my very first job!

Once again, great work on this site!! I love it.

Debra Matthies
West Bend, WI USA - Monday, August 05, 2002 at 03:12:49 (GMT)

Wow! What a lovely piece! As a transplant, it was really interesting to see some of the older pictures! Thanks.

Liz Merryman
Alexandria, LA USA - Thursday, August 01, 2002 at 22:21:27 (GMT)

I fell upon your site by accident, and am so glad that I did. I spent years 5 thru 28 there, including 8 years "hard time" at St. Rita's. All of the old pictures brought back memories of happier and more simple times. Thanks!

Shannon Wilcox-Mangham
Hot Springs, AR USA - Monday, July 29, 2002 at 20:41:53 (GMT)

My uncle Albert and my grandmother owned that Lee street TV store in the fifties which was really their dry goods hardware everything store which I guess predated 5&10's. My father, the progressive doctor from the east had persuaded them to try these new televisions and be the first in Alexandria to offer them.

My grandmother, the stubborn french woman wouldn't give up her other stock and I remember visiting the store both before and after the introduction of television sets and it always was filled with other stuff in those dark and dusky interiors. My uncle who was never much of a businessman was soon surpassed by other appliance stores and I guess Lehmann's slipped back into its sleepy ways. My grandmother died in 1960 and Albert died in 65. thanks for the memories.

Melanie Radley
NY, NY USA - Thursday, July 25, 2002 at 18:44:42 (GMT)

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