Register Volume 8

We had one car which my father drove to work, so my mother took all five kids downtown on the city bus. My favorite memory is the smell of the cashew nuts warming up at Kress. Every Saturday A.M., we went to the Don Theatre Pack O'Fun Club to get out of our mother's hair for a few hours.

It was such a thrill visiting my father's office at the Commercial Bank Bldg., which just had to be the most exotic place in the world! We lived on Chester St. directly across from the Owl Fine Foods and the owner, Jay Mertens and his family. I spent hours there reading Classic Comic Books.

Thanks for bringing all this back to me. It really has meant a lot.
Kathleen Shapiro
Alexandria, LA USA - Tuesday, February 11, 2003 at 22:04:15 (GMT)

Alexandria has always been my home town. I have memories of the long, hot, dry, lazy summer days before the Red River was dammed with modern locks and I-49 bisected the city....(more)

Franklin O. "Mike" Mikell
Alexandria, LA USA - Tuesday, February 11, 2003 at 07:15:56 (GMT)

Read the rest of Mike's wonderful memories in the special "Memories of Alexandria Friends" section of the Retrospective web site.

Beautiful memories. I attended St.Francis Xavier high school. Bought fresh baked donuts at Holsum bakery. Had many delicious meals at Suburban Garden, especially during crawfish season when they served platters heaped with boiled crawfish.

A consistent event prior to going home from a date was "dragging Main St." (just slowly driving all the way down that street). The T-Henry Spice Company was not mentioned, but I recall my Dad always buying fresh chili powder there for his well known chili recipe. Progress has eradicated many of those establishments, but they do live on in our cherished memories.
Janice Rabalais (nee;Tucker)
Village Mills, Tx. USA - Monday, February 10, 2003 at 15:27:11 (GMT)

Thanks so much for the wonderful memories. You did a fantastic job. All the things you mentioned are so vivid in my memory. Best are the trips by bicycle from my house on the corner of Elliott and 21st St with Charlotte and Mary to the swimming pool at the City Park every day in the summer, combing the chlorine out of our hair until the combs were green, playing in the rock garden, eating coconut chick sticks at the concession stand at the pool, going to the Saturday morning Pack O' Fun Club at the Don each week.

The Menard football games at Bolton Stadium, the torment we gave the poor nuns at Providence and all the fun we had just being kids and never having a care in the world. Yes, those were the good ol' days. Thanks for perserving them for us. I am going to share this with my siblings and friends here in Texas.
Cleo Gremillion Martin
Wildwood, TX USA - Monday, February 10, 2003 at 05:14:51 (GMT)

We enjoyed your wonderful pictures and comments. So many memories. Your Dad, C. A. Freeman, sold us our first insurance policy in 1951, and we looked forward to his monthly visits.

We were both born in Alexandria and have lived here since. Ivy graduated from Menard in 1949 and I graduated from Bolton in 1950. So we have lots of memories of all the shops and drive-ins.

Thanks, and we are looking forward to many more additions.
Ivy and Lenora Morgan Fant
Alexandria, La. USA - Monday, February 10, 2003 at 02:02:31 (GMT)

I remember the run down buildings and business when they were new. I went to Providence Academy and Menard was just a block away. It was a wonderful town. One of our favorite things to do was to go to Walgreen's soda fountain and watch people go by on Third Street.

We used to go to outdoor movies at City Park on Friday nites with my mom and I remember the Paramount, Rex and Saenger theatres where children could go in for 10 cents. The Saenger had cowboy movies and serials every Saturday morning and your Mom could drop you off and not be afraid to leave you until she returned at Noon to pick you up. The ushers walked the aisles and made sure every one behaved and that you were safe.

You could ride your bike on the grounds of Bolton High at night and never worry that anyone would hurt you. OH, FOR THE GOOD OLD DAYS.
NEALTA COCO BERGERON
Alexandria, la USA - Saturday, February 08, 2003 at 20:35:33 (GMT)

I left Alexandria in 1949 and have returned a few times to visit family and friends. I really enjoyed seeing your photographs and thanks for all your work. I'll be looking for future updates.

The last time I was in Alexandria was October 2001 for the 1951 Bolton High School Reunion where I saw so many fellow students that I had not seen since 1949. Thanks again for all your work. Ruth Hauenstein
Velma Ruth Prestridge Hauenstein
Moorpark, Ca. USA - Thursday, February 06, 2003 at 20:56:07 (GMT)

Hi Ken - Just viewed your web site and enjoyed so much the Alexandria Retropective. Thank you for sharing all of the photos and comments with us. You did a superb job. Brought back so many fond memories.

I lived in Alexandria/Pineville area all of my life. Just recently moved to Hot Springs Village for retirement. I had such a great life in Alexandria. I especially remember Fuzzy's on Bolton Ave. and right down from there was Borden's Ice Cream. We would cruise down Bolton, innocently, no worry of any crime taking place. The worst things that happened would be smoking and the boys usually did that along with drinking a beer every now and then. My parents never wanted me to visit the Palm Drive-in on Upper Third...bad place they said, but I did finally go there when I got out of high school and bought my own car. I was always told that the "red light" district was the Upper Third St. area. Do not know if there was any truth in that.

You could walk from downtown to where Fulton St. is now after dark, did not worry about anyone assaulting you. Go to a movie at Rex Theater on Third St. for 10 cents, stay all day, watching western serials, the newsreels and cartoons. Also, had a ball at the Paramount Theater...visited the balcony and the "opera" seats. Beautiful theater.

As we grow older, we get a little more nostalgic. I will really miss my hometown, but am now looking forward to another phase of my life. I will return to Alexandria/Pineville from time to time as I have many friends there. Good luck to you on any future endeavors. Jean Penuell I lived at the end of Lee St. and MacArthur. After Sunday night church, a carload of us would go by Holsum's Bakery, buy a loaf of hot bread from the conveyor belt, drop by the local store for a stick of margarine and drive all around as we pulled apart the hot bread, brushed with butter and enjoyed!!!!

Jean Penuell
Hot Springs Village, AR USA - Wednesday, February 05, 2003 at 23:34:09 (GMT)

THANKS SOOO MUCH!!! I, too, am a native of Alexandria. My mother was a FANT and graduated from the old Providence Academy. I attended Providence, also, as did my own daughter. Mom went to grammer school at Central Grammar School on Bolton Ave., which stood for years across from the Don Theater.

And how can we forget meeting our friends in the balcany of the old Paramount Theater on 3rd St. My uncle, Ivy Fant, worked his entire life at the #1 Fire Station, which was on 5th St. I have been doing genealogical research for well over forty years and I sincerely thank you for this really valuable contribution to our local history.
Mary Alix (Holt) Barnidge
Tallahassee, FL USA - Wednesday, February 05, 2003 at 18:33:52 (GMT)

The trip back was delightful. I was born and raised in Alex, went to Cabrini then Providence, graduating in the first class of Holy Savior Menard Central HS, 1967. I married an Air Force sarge, which meant a lot of traveling outside of Louisiana. However, every year since 1974 when we first left Alex, I have returned for a visit. Mom still lives off of Texas Ave. Alex certainly has changed over the years.

If you find old pictures of Kiddie Land, the Alex Zoo when they had buffulo, the city pool, Shipley Donuts on Lee Street (not where it is presently located), the front of Providence and Menard, I would appreciate you adding them to the site. I am going to send this on to my brothers. I'm sure they will enjoy this. Thanks for all the time and effort you have put into this. What a lot of patience and perseverance! God bless you. Marie
marie ashley garneau
Des Moines, IA USA - Tuesday, February 04, 2003 at 03:55:58 (GMT)

My father and his family were well known in Alexandria. While I was born in New Orleans and spent the WW II years all over the eastern part of the U.S.A., we moved to Alexandria in 1946. I grew up there, graduated from Bolton H.S. But, like many, after I went off to college [Georgia Tech], I only made it back to town on 'special family occasions' which sometimes were just for a visit with my parents and sister.

Now that my parents have died and my sister now lives in Texas, I'm sure trips there will be even more rare. But, thank you for the 'trip' you have provided. It did bring back many memories. I must say, as I was going through the photos, I kept expecting to see Lazarone's and/or Herbie K's out on Lee Street. Yes, the businsses are gone, but I seem to recall that the buildings are still there. Again, thanks for the 'trip'...
Carl Gehr
Cincinnati, OH USA - Monday, February 03, 2003 at 06:22:11 (GMT)

This was a very special place to revisit. I, too, lived in Alexandria the first 22 years of my life and moved away with my husband, who was stationed at England AFB. My family all live in Baton Rouge now, but I do try to go to Alex and visit an old friend every chance I get.

You can't talk about Alex without mentioning the places that I remember so well from the 60's. MacArthur Village and Laverne Perry Shoe Store. He was a TV personality as well and when I was a little girl, I got to be on his Saturday morning show. Also, how can you not mention Ethma Odum. I never missed her show in the summer time!! Thank you so much for bringing back memories of shopping at the old Sears store for school clothes and seeing many movies at the Don. Those were the days!!! What a great site!!
Brenda Gunter Watts
Energy, IL USA - Monday, February 03, 2003 at 02:34:18 (GMT)

Wonderful site that brought back tons of memories. Graduated from Bolton HS in 1963. My folks and three brothers still live there. Live in Sabine Parish now. Retired educator who has left retirement and gone back to the classroom until June. Two children - daughter and son. Each have three children and live close to us.

I can still smell the bread at Holsum and going to a drive-up window, buying a loaf of uncut bread, splitting it open and putting butter in the middle, then everyone in the car would get a piece. Fuzzy's, the City Park and endless days spent turning into prunes at the swimming pool, Valentine's Lake, the Fishville skating rink and the rope in the tree which we would use to swing out and drop into the swimming hole, the circus that would come to town and plant itself in the field where the Alexandria Mall now sits, walking to school (Rosenthal, Huddle, AJH, and then Bolton HS) without fear.

Riding our bikes to the bayou in the park and going down the steep hill on the corner, the cave on the levee on Rapides Avenue across from a grocery store, the theaters where you could spend time watching funnies-serials-features, dance lessons at the Community Center, going to school with my Providence friends when our schools were out, Sister Francilla (Prompt Succor) rapping your knuckles if you didn't hold your fingers just right at the piano, mandatory waving at the troop caravans passing on MacArthur Drive, Texas Avenue being a dirt road and across the highway being farmland.

Growing up in Trinity Methodist Church on Chester St., helping my grandmother teach ceramics in the City Park during the summers, and the list could go on.

Wonderful memories of an innocent time in my life. Thank you for putting this site up and I have already sent the URL to others. Will check back from time to time to see if any pictures have been added.
Jane Jeffress Thomas
Pleasant Hill, LA USA - Sunday, February 02, 2003 at 02:38:59 (GMT)

We returned to the Alexandria area after almost ten years in New Orleans. Alex is now "home" during our retirement years -- and we both work at Hotel Bentley-- a wonderful treasure of the past that Mr. Dean has preserved for all to enjoy.

The folks in Alex are special and hope that the city leaders will soon chose a more progressive way of thinking about the city. We need to think on larger things to assure our children and grandchildren a better place in which to live.
Gene & Mary Javins
Boyce, LA USA - Sunday, February 02, 2003 at 02:35:33 (GMT)

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