re: Lake Charles Nostalgia Thread

Is Harris's Restaurant in Hayes still any good?

Joseph's drive in! Hard to believe that dinky little place had such good burgers.

Jimmy the Crow was a crow that flew around town I think in the very late 50's. It'd land on your handlbars of your bicycle and say, "Jimmy the Crow" and that's all I remember about him. He'd make his rare appearance and be gone. He must have been someone's pet but I wonder who. I know one thing, if you tried to pet him you'd get nipped.

I remember the other Abe's Grocery also, I remember when they tore down the old Abe's on Hwy 14, we were over there watching them and omg the rats that ran out of that place would have shocked you. I liked Mr. Abraham though, he was good people. I went through school with his son Mark .. God I'm getting so old I think he name was Mark, I've not thought of this stuff in almost 40 years.

I remember Fred's Cafeteria, and Tom & Mac's, I have no recollection of Woody' John's Barn ... I know I'm gonna spell this name wrong but do you remember Brousse's Toyland? It was first located way out north of town in an old tin barn behind the guys house, that was in the 50's as I remember, then they moved to Enterprise just south of 12th street across from Burger Chef if my memory serves me right? Are they still in existance?

I also remember there was a second TV station in Lake Charles other than KPLC, I've often associated it with KLOU the radio station, but that may be wrong, and I can no longer remember which channel they were on out of our numerous choices of 12 back then.. lol. We used to play PeeWee Baseball back behind the station and they'd put us on TV while we were playing. Sheesh now that's really digging back, I must have been six or seven years old back then.. so that was the end of the 50's!

I don't remember as many street names as you guys, is the old George Theriot's store even still there anymore? I remember going to Landry School to swim in the summers. I had forgotten Joseph's drive in name, I was calling it Joes Drive In .. it was a dinky little out of the way place but the food was really good, I do remember that much.

What about an old guy that had a fishing pier right before you entered the port, that had to be the early to mid 60's, he had one arm? I think they called him One Armed Joe. He'd go out shrimping all the time alone, we were all amazed he did so well with just one arm.

Wow you guys are really making me think back. Sorry if my posts are too long, too many memories I guess.

SnowCajun

Holy hell, John's bar sausage and bloody mary's were life savers.

OMG I can't believe the Abraham brothers are still alive, they must be ancient .. lol. I don't remember that pier name, only the old man who ran it. That was so long ago. I don't remember if Sandra had a brother or not, Wayne Simmons doesn't ring a bell. She was a dear old friend and I'd love to chat with her again, we exchanged letters while I was away at military school.

I lived across from Hamilton School so I went there, then to Pearl Watson, then we moved over to 11th street close to Hwy 14 and that threw me into Rosteet Jr. High .. I remember the principal there and he was great, but the coach was mean .. big guy and totally bald. One kid gave him a birthday present once, an envelope with a card and a comb and the card read, "I know you'll love this gift, you'll never part with it" .. bwhahah. Never the less the coach picked up the kid and shook him .. I think it kinda got all of our attentions.

I went to school with one of the Valentine boys if you remember any of them, married his sister actually .. but I won't go into the mistakes of my life at this moment. Life sure has taken some odd twists. I need to run into Spokane a bit, I'll be back later. As Bob Hope always said, "thanks for the memories" ..

SnowCajun

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Club F/X was fun

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Long before there was F/X, there was the Texas Pelican, which was across the interstate from where F/X was. The Circle Club was across the street. These clubs were badass because all the Texas people would come over...18 was the drinking age at the time, but it was 19 in TX. Great times, especially at the Pelican. The recollections of LC bring back a lot of memories. I had numerous shirts stained with the mustard they served with the sausage at John's Barn.

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was there a Pelican sign that was white and had green neon lights on it, maybe with the Pelican's mouth opening and closing?

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Can't remember the colors, but yes, the sign was a huge bird with the mouth moving.

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I remember the drinking age being 18 though, but I thought Texas was 21.

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Texas was 21 I believe for a long time, but lowered it to 19 for a while before raising it again. That was the funny thing about Vinton...although a very small town, there were lots of bars there considering the population. Being the first town across the Texas border had its advantages.

Well John's Barn used to be a LCPD hangout...that's how I found out about it...never felt safer!

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Is Harris's Restaurant in Hayes still any good?

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it's called Aucoin's now LINK

LC, I didn't realize it was such a long way from a fancy meal, to the toliet, to the septic tank.