Register Volume 9

Thank you, Mr. Freeman, for this site. My husband and I are both 28 years old and each spent our late childhoods here in the Alexandria/Pineville area. Although the focus of the site is before my "generation", I am a Cenla history buff and really enjoyed your information and pictures. Another interesting point...my husband and I are currently searching throughout Cenla for our first home to purchase.

You have a Wynn Sayman from Richamond, MA who stated he used to live at 1807 Polk Street in 1938. Believe it or not, we just had an agent show us that same home not even a week ago...one of the only homes in the area with a basement. What a small world! Thanks again for your site. I'm sure it brings joy to many during an uncertain time. You are appreciated.
Shanna Worth
Alexandria, LA USA - Monday, March 31, 2003 at 23:31:16 (GMT)

I was born in Alexandria, La. in 1957. Although I wasnt raised there due to my birthparents divorce, I have very fond memories of family vacations to visit my grandparents, Dorothy and Henry Vandersypen from Pineville. I remember going to the Zoo and to Valentine Lake to swim and going to Humphreys Country Store up the road from my grandparents to buy candy and snacks. I remember crossing the bridge over the Red River on our way to Alex from Pineville.

My fondest memory is going crabbing and coming back to make Seafood Gumbo and homemade cornbread. My last visit to the Alexandria area was in April 2001; my family and I went to meet my half sister for the first time in Marksville, La. We also drove by my grandparents old place in Pineville. It had been 20 years since I had been to the Alexandria area and I cant wait to go back again!
Pamela Schandelmeier
Machesney Park, IL USA - Wednesday, March 26, 2003 at 20:36:30 (GMT)

I grew up in the 50s around Forest Hill, but spent a lot of time in Alexandria. I played a lot of baseball and remember a team from Alexandria that went to the Little League World Series. We played Bolton and Menard. This is a wonderful trip back in time. We always went Christmas shopping in downtown Alexandria. It was a wonderful experience. The Santa Claus booth was in the Square. To a young boy from the country, it was big stuff. I still own a wristwatch that I bought in 1957. I think it was from Weiss and Goldrings.

I am now retired from the Air Force and aerospace, and I write fictional books and stories. My latest book, Will's Landing, is set in Central Louisiana. I will have to go back and add some of the color you've given me to my final draft.

I was back in 2002 to attend my mother's funeral. I wish now that I had taken the time to go downtown and look around some. What a missed opportunity! It would have surely brought tears to my eyes. Thanks again.
Charles E. Gordon
Englewood, CO USA - Saturday, March 22, 2003 at 03:00:01 (GMT)

Had to say something more after reading all the other memories. We lived in Alex from 1937 til 1948. My memories are golden and include the Red River where we walked down from the levee and felt the red mud between our toes just north of the old bridge downtown. We went to the Paramount Theatre on Saturdays and sang on stage to the old mike for radio. The man who played the piano was great.

I walked and rode my bike all over town from when I was 7 and never felt afraid. Attended a movie at the Don on Bolton (The Mummy meets Frankenstein) then walked home after dark, alone and age 11, under the trees surrounding West End Grammer School, terrified of the dark, but refused to walk fast. Went to the Alexandria Accadamy of Beauty Culture on Jackson Street, near home, and was licensed 5 months before I graduated from St.Francis Xavier at 16 years old.

Have lost track of almost everyone from those days. My brother, Bill Jones, graduated from Bolton Hi in "46, and has seen no one from there either. I, too, attended dances at the USO on Bolton and Park Avenue, when I was way too young to do so, because I wanted to dance more than anything. We went to Leesville, Camp Polk, to dances, and rode in old army trucks. There were no better dancers anywhere than the boys from Alexandria. If anyone remembers me from West End, Bolton or St Xavier, e-mail me at jancid1@attbi.com. Some of the names I remember were Jo Ann Penny, Carol Holliway, Carl Ben Priest, Hardin Lewis, who went to Grade School with me. Thanks so much for the memories. I wish my children and grandchildren could peek into the past with us and see Alexandria as it was when we grew up. Gloretta - Jan Jones Claridge
Jan Jones Claridge
Seattle Area, Wa USA - Sunday, March 09, 2003 at 00:55:42 (GMT)

Ken, the enormous response to your site is overwhelming. The additions you have made since the original version truly round out the retrospective theme. I am sure that adding the Hokus Pokus sign has relieved everyone who thought it was lost to posterity.

Finally, reading the words of all who have commented is almost as rewarding as viewing the site itself. You obviously have rekindled more memories that you had expected. My years in Alexandria (1944-1965) are better framed in my memory because of you. Thank you again for this treasure. - Sam
Sam Damico
Houston, TX USA - Tuesday, March 04, 2003 at 20:14:13 (GMT)

I think you did wonderful job. I am a little older than you but I know your father. I think I bought my first insurance policy from him.
Vernon Drewett
Lecompte, la. USA - Monday, March 03, 2003 at 19:17:33 (GMT)

Editor's note: Vernon - you are correct! That would be C.A. "Hoss" Freeman, my father, and a representative of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company for decades in Alexandria.

I spent one year living in Pineville and attending Bolton High. As this was 1941-2 people were not driving around very much, so I don't have too many memories of downtown--I can't even remember where we went out to eat, if indeed we did. But I have tons of memories of Bolton High and all the kids I met there and in my Pineville neighborhood. One reason is that Bolton(I graduated from there in '42) was the best school I had been to up to that time. It was a hundred times better than University High on the LSU campus where I had spent the previous five miserable years.

I rememberSO many things, like when a group of us girls, all dolled up in evening dresses went out to the army camps and "entertained" the troops--hundreds of homesick boys watched our choral reading group, some cute monologues, and a drum solo called Valley Forge played by Specs Moriarty, on who I had a little crush, though he was a couple years younger. The troops loved us--we could sense how homesick and scared they all were.

I remember SO many kids--beginning with my friend Carol Grubb, with whom I am still in touch, and Camille Marcus, The Fox twins, Harris Wilson, O.U Payne, Malcolm Stehr, C W Brister,Emily Needham, the Hogg brothers, Charlie Crouch, Lynn Keyes who used to walk all the way back to Pineville from football games, beating his snare drum as he walked--you could hear him in the distance then getting closer and closer--and lots of others. I hate to leave anyone out!

Then there was Wilbur Joffrion, with whom I am also in touch,and Jim Saggus--I got back in touch with the latter two when it came time for our 50th Bolton Anniversity, which alas I was unable to attend. Jim and his wife dropped by to see us when they came up here to visit the Mall of America. Sadly, Jim died not long after that.

This school and all the kids in it meant a great deal to me! The teachers were pretty memorable too--wish I had time to tell you a story about Miss Price, our Speech teacher, because that lady was way ahead of her time. That lady taught me a lesson I shall never forget!
Marguerite Pickett Wilson
New Brighton, MN USA - Friday, February 28, 2003 at 19:21:00 (GMT)

I started school at Providence Academy, graduated from grammer school at West End on Bolton Ave, (across from the Don Theater) and graduated from Bolton High in 1946. Most of your comments are about Alexandria in the 50s.

As you can see my "growing up years" were in the 30s and 40s. I remember soldiers everywhere on the weekends, and I did volunteer duty at the Salvation Army USO on Jackson St. When I go home to visit relatives, it is hard to recognize the town I grew up in. City Hall Square doesn't have room for Santa's little house at Christmas anymore, the covering the historic brick streets, etc.

Thank you for gathering all the pictures of things remembered. ( I worked at W.T. Grant before I moved to Houston in 1948 )
Eloise East Rudloff
Wharton, TX USA - Monday, February 24, 2003 at 04:47:04 (GMT)

I was born in Alexandria, in 1940. Thanks for the memories. I have back a few times and it is not the same. I also went to Our Lady of Prompt Succor and Menard (Class of 58). I also have fond memories of Fuzzies on Bolton Ave., Rizzo's on Rapides Ave., Frog roll at the bakery on Lee Street and the Christ The King services at the ball park.

If anyone went to school with me, please send me an e-mail. As I get older, I miss my early years and begin to appreciate what growing up in Alexandria really meant in my life. I am sorry that my kids and grand kids will miss out on what I had such as riding to city park on my bycicle, getting A&W root beer on Lee Street, Garland Rifels Drill team at Menard, etc.

Thanks again for a visit to my past.
Eddie Wall
Plano, TX USA - Monday, February 24, 2003 at 01:26:17 (GMT)

Thanks for the memories. Here are a few of mine that might strike a chord with some readers. I walked to West End Grammar for 7 years, remember standing by the flagpole at half mast, crying with the rest of the students mourning the death of Franklin Roosevelt.

I still remember all 7 of my teachers there, even the "hard" ones with great fondness; we worked for our A's and B's. Now I have a brick from West End with "Rapides" on it; I found the school torn down while visiting Alex from the D.C. area.

War memories there include the time I brought my brother's electric fan for the "scrap heap" of metal to West End to "beat the axis". I think I got carried away in my enthusiasm in collecting scrap iron but those war movies at the Don (9 cents for kids in those days) had me fired up! Bringing the tinfoil from cigarette packs or grease from Moma's stove can, or collecting newspaper wasn't enough. My Dad was an air raid warden and my brother was a "lightning" (one who ran with messages during the blackouts; I was jealous but being a girl and too young I couldn't be one).

The park and Community Center, at Bolton Ave. and Park Ave., turned into a USO. My Dad showed movies to the soldiers nights there and at the Salvation Army; I got to go with him,see the movies and talk to the soldiers. I loved to sleep on our screened front poarch and listen to all the WWII dance music at the USO and peep at all the army trucks and soldiers. A big thrill was when my aunt, who worked at the air base, manned a war bond boothe with Robert Young; she introduced me to him and he gave me that grin I'd seen so much at the Don.

The war continued when I went to Bolton. Years at Bolton in bobby sox and bows at our necks were busy and fun. Making formations with the band in the Marching Boosters, screaming a football games, dressing up with a football player escorting me while I was wabbling in high heels on the football field prior to a game, are amoung some of my memories. The teachers there, especially Mrs. Lewis, an English teacher, were dedicated and caring. Later, when I took college algebra, I knew all course from my teacher at Bolton.

Martha Keating Bryant
Midlothian, Va. USA - Tuesday, February 18, 2003 at 16:25:32 (GMT)

I was born in Alex the year of the flood, 1927, on Barrister St. My parents were Bill and Eva Clyde Keating, my grand parents were Clyde and Mattie Lee Lehman. I attended grade school on Bolton Ave., and High School at Bolton High. I learned to fly out on Lower 3rd St. at a little grass runway airport. I put in my service in the Navy. After WWII, I went to LSU Baton Rouge, thence to an industrial company in Shreveport where I worked 33 years and retired.

At present I live near Heflin, La. and have a "farm" of 160 acres of pine trees and pasture. My children are scattered out to Shreveport, Wisconsin, and Idaho, with 9 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren. I communicate with an old salt friend, Lucian Grass, who still lives in Alex. Your pictures and pages are great, and I appreciate being able to see them. Thank you everso, Clyde Keating
Clyde (Red) Keating
Heflin, La USA - Monday, February 17, 2003 at 23:24:50 (GMT)

I am a 1964 graduate of Menard High who now resides in Baton Rouge. The pictures and narratives brought back many memories. I must say it was sad to see all of the boarded up buildings that were so much a part of daily life when I was growing up in CENLA.

I grew up in the Bolton Ave./Rapides Ave. area. It is sad to see the deterioration of that part of town now, but as Thomas Wolffe said in his novel, "You can't go home again." You can go back to the physical location, but you can't recreate the commerce, recreation and vitality that made that part of town the great blue collar, family environment it was in the 50s and 60s.

That is what memories are for, and I thank you for stimulating mine.... Dan Juneau

Dan Juneau
Baton Rouge, la USA - Saturday, February 15, 2003 at 16:16:10 (GMT)

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