Memories for my sister's

This is the home in downtown Baton Rouge my parents lived in when they had me.  It is still in nice condition but the neighborhood is pretty rundown.

This is the Jamie and Linda Riviere home in Gramercy, La.  It is all decorated for Fall.

On Dumaine Street in the French Quarter is the first apartment Roger and I rented after we were married.  The house on the right in the above picture belonged to our landlord, Tennessee Williams.  He seldom came around so I never got to meet him. I think he was busy writing plays or drinking at that  time.
Down that walkway between the neighbors wall and the main house is a beautiful little courtyard complete with fountains, swimming pool and the renovated slave quarter you can just barely see above.  That slave quarter was our apartment.  What a perfect honeymoon location!

Here is Bayou Lafouche in Thibodeaux, La.  My sisters and I spent many a summer visiting my Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Vera and cousin Jamie.  Their home was just a block from the Bayou.

The Riviere's home.  The backyard ended at the cemetary (below) and we spent lots of time exporing there.  One summer the college paid for grasshoppers--I don't remember how much or even if we ever actually sold any but we sure caught a bunch.  They weren't small green ones either.  They were the giant ugly black ones!  Don't ever call me a sissy!

In southern Louisiana the graves are all above ground and entire families are buried in the crypts seen above.  The very ornate marble came mostly from Italy and would be prohibitively expensive to build a crypt today in the same way.  The reason the graves must be above ground is that the water table is very near the surface throughout southern La.  There is no way to dig 6' down without hitting water.

Here is Aunt Vera's final resting place--just a few steps to her back yard.  All my cousins say I look just like her and a few even called me Vera.  I hope to find a picture of her soon that I can post.

Mrs. Riviere's house in downtown Thibodeaux.  She was Jamie's grandmother and we often went with Aunt Vera to visit her.

Uncle Jimmy even has a street named for him in Thibodeaux.  There is only one address on the street but all the same.....he deserved it!  He was the world's best uncle.

Jo, this ones for you!  Most of the Frostops are gone now but this one in LaPlace is still there.  OMG! It
is so good!  That icy mug of root beer is incredible!

This is a roast beef Po Boy, served over-dressed and with debris. Translation:  extra beef, lettuce & tomatoes plus gravy scraped from the bottom of the pot.  My mouth is watering at this very moment!

Kenner High School where I went to the 9th grade and fell in love with Billy Gore.  He gave me my first ring then took it back two months later...the Cad!  I wish I had his school picture to put here right now--he wore duck tails and a curl in the middle of his forehead.  Fonzie would have been jealous.

And the Kenner High School is no more--boarded up and in disrepair.

This was my grandparent's house, Dennis and Emittie Sevin.  The house was white when I was a kid and it seemed so much bigger.  Grandma's yard was always full of flowers and she took vases of flowers to church every Sunday.

Here is the Harahan Elementary School where I went to the 6th through 8th grades.  This building was very very old when I was there--and that was 55 years ago! It is still a grade school but there are signs of deterioration all around it.  Even the 'temporary buildings' in the back are at least 60 years old.

My sisters and I grew up in this house.  It looks much much smaller than I remember but just as ugly.
Our girlfriend, Carolyn Winters, lived in that brown house and we had a private phone (two tin cans and a string) stretched between the two houses.  The communication wasn't great but if we opened the windows and shouted loud enough we could hear each other.

The Little Red Wagon grocery store is still there!