re: The Good Old Days in Baton Rouge

This thread has brought back similar memories for me, but not of Baton Rouge, but Metairie and Biloxi. Very similar.

Growing up in the suburbs of Metairie in the 1970s wasn’t bad at all. Bikes brought us everywhere-- the lakefront’s linear park was always cool to ride to and there always seemed to be something new to find along there: lagoons, new parks, a rope swing on a tree. In 1970’s Metairie there was still a lot of undeveloped land and empty overgrown lots to ‘explore’ and make tree forts in, where we hid the Playboy and Penthouse magazines we sometimes found. Schools were okay -- elementary schools actually taught us things, and although middle school/junior high covers a generally traumatic time of life-- the start of cliques and being ‘cool’, physical maturity, discovering the opposite sex, etc.-- all in all, it was an okay time.

And then when school was over, then it was a GREAT time. As soon as school was over I'd turn all my Toughskins blue jeans into cut-offs and go spend probably two months in Biloxi shuttling between my two grandparents’ homes. One set lived down near The Point about a couple of blocks from the beach, the other set lived near Keesler about three blocks from Back Bay, so I was almost always on the water: fishing, sailing in a little sunfish sailboat, swimming off a pier, flying kites. Had a lot of cousins to hang with as well as two teenage uncles on my dad's side. I rarely wore shoes and often was shirtless. I got tanned as hell and my feet were well-callused and almost black on the bottom most of the time. About the only time I got dressed or cleaned up (which only meant throwing on a t-shirt and those old tire-tread sandals) was if we went out to eat at Baricev's or Rosetti's, or went to the mall, or more likely when we went and saw all those 70s summer movies (often with my cousins at the Surfside)-- Star Wars, The Deep, Grease, Orca, The Spy who Loved Me, Moonraker, etc.

Maybe it’s just me getting older, but it does seem that things were much simpler then. Race relations in particular weren’t so bad -- at least up until the end of disco, there seemed to be no schism between black and white radio or songs -- you could jam on both Stevie Wonder and Steve Miller. Compare that to the almost completely segregated radio scene today. Back then, both black and white kids seemed to realize that we were moving towards a better time, and for the most part, we were ‘coming together’ -- we had all been going to school together since the earliest grades, even if we didn’t live in the same neighborhoods. Nowadays, that doesn’t seem to be the case-- there seems to be nothing at all but separation and divisiveness.

Good '70s remembrances as a kid (in no particular order):
- Riding bikes to Smith’s Records and Tapes in Lakeside Mall, looking at the ganja-smoking Bob Marley albums and cool zodiac posters.
- Putting together model kits of ships, planes, tanks, super-heroes, monsters, cars, spacecraft, and Shogun Warriors, then hanging some of them from my ceiling.
- Riding w/ my dad & sister down from Hattiesburg to Biloxi, pulling over off the highway to swim at Red Creek and then stopping at Lott’s Country Store to get a snack and soda.
- 25¢ comic books: in Metairie at K&B, and in Biloxi 4 blocks down from my grandparents at the Li’l General.
- Football games in Miss Nancy’s empty yard next door w/ other neighborhood kids.
- Fireworks with my cousins at our grandparents' in Biloxi on the 4th and New Year’s Eve -- and plans for all kinds of firework contraptions: exploding blimps, planes, homemade rockets.
- Watching reruns of Gilligan’s Island, Jonny Quest, Speed Racer, Batman, and The Brady Bunch nearly every day after school.
- Weekend crawfish boils at my family's house on the covered back porch, w/ tons of guests coming over, and all the kids running wild and playing ‘blubber monster’ outside in all the front yards.
- Over-abundant Christmases, with bikes, action figures, games, model kits, gas-powered planes, toy railroads, and more.
- Playing frisbee and throwing the football on the one-block street around the corner (less car traffic).
- Junior high dances in the gym, with faux-silk shirts, neck chains, & slacks being the dress of choice; slow-dancing and dancing "The Bump" with various girls.
- Dropping a dollar at The Fun Arcade nearly every day after school in junior high.
- Countless Friday nights at Pelican Bowling Lanes, then later Friday nights alone engaging in mischief (while parents were league bowling).
- Weekend camping trips to Lake Ramsay, Money Hill, Buccaneer State Park, Flint Creek Water Park in Wiggins, & Gulf Shores.