More sightseeing: Lois Luftin Doll Museum

You know the local attractions are sparse when a doll museum is in the top five...My great uncle, LaRue (also known as Brother), brought us there on one of our visits. All I know is a local couple--the Luftins--apparently collected more than 3,000 from around the world. I thought I remembered some back story to the effect that Lois Luftin had come from a modest background and hadn't been able to have dolls growing up, hence her adult fascination with collecting them. But I can't find any online confirmation of that. At any rate, the museum is still a main attraction in town.

Sightseeing in DeRidder: The Hanging Jail

The Hanging Jail is tops on DeRidder's must-see list.

It's a gothic structure built with shallow arches, dormer windows, and central tower. Inside, a spiral staircase leads up to three floors of jail cells. Condemned persons were hanged by an apparatus at the top of the spiral staircase.

Most of the prisoners could easily watch the hanging from the "comfort" of their cells. (I put that in quotes, but actually, each cell had a toilet, shower AND a window--an unusual degree of luxury at that time.) Rumor has it that passersby could see prisoners waving to them through the bars on the windows.

In 1928, there was a famous double execution in the jail. On a Saturday night, August 26th, Joe Genna and Molton Brasseaux got in J.J Brevelle's cab and asked him to take them to the Joe Miller place on Three Pine Church Road.

On the way, they stopped for some moonshine whisky. It was then that Genna and Brasseaux made their move, first beating Brevelle and then stabbing him with a screwdriver. They took the money from his pockets and tossed his body off a bridge.

Well, long story short, they were caught, put in DeRidder's jail, and hanged. Genna tried to poison himself the night before, to avoid the gallows. But he'd eaten such a big pre-execution dinner (chicken) that he ended up throwing up the chicken and the poison. The executioners also thoughtfully pumped his stomach, to make sure he made it to the big day.

Both men were hung on March 9, 1928--Genna first.

Keep DeRidder Beautiful

This article was in the Beauregard Daily News. It's clean up time.

A careful tap dance

The governor of Louisiana addressed a crowd at the Longville Baptist Church last week....he was obviously trying to get a positive message across without offending people. But ouch....the message is clear....schools are in trouble, teachers leave, young people leave the state, the economy is in trouble. Why is this state struggling so?

Assault rifles are flying off the shelves

Well, Obama appears to be scaring the cr*p out of gun enthusiasts according to an article entitled "Locked and loaded on uncertainty" in the Beauregard Daily News:

Faster than a speeding bullet, assault rifles and ammunition are flying off of the racks in Louisiana’s gun shops. It’s a nationwide trend that is shooting across the country since President-elect Barack Obama’s victory last week, as gun enthusiasts are concerned that an Obama administration will ban certain weapons and ammunition.

According to local law enforcement authorities, there are no gun stores in Beauregard Parish currently selling assault rifles; however, many residents travel a few miles north to Leesville’s Star Pawn and Gun store to “zero in” on their weapons of choice. “We have a lot of customers from DeRidder,” said shop owner, Tonya McKee.

Honestly, of all the changes that are bound to come when Obama takes office, gun laws were the last thing on my mind. Not so for many, though. No wonder Louisiana went McCain.

Hanging on

New signs? A downtown festival (and new paint jobs to go with it), a Keep DeRidder Beautiful campaign? Sounds like DeRidder is trying hard to re-invent itself.

For the record, DeRidder was a company town--created, almost overnight, by a lumber company (Long Bell, I think) that came to claim the pine trees that once grew in abundance in this part of western Louisiana (and on into east Texas). The lumber company owned the stores, built the houses, etc. etc. Nice for people, I guess, for awhile--until the trees ran out and the lumber companies (there were several, ultimately) split, leaving the town without an industry.

From what I gather, this started to happen even before my mom was born in DeRidder. She remembers it as a thriving town. But it didn't take long for the dearth of jobs and income to affect the area. People my mom grew up with left to find jobs and a life elsewhere and didn't come back. Businesses died. The downtown looked--last time I was there with my mother--like a ghost town compared to what she'd grown up with.

The town, I think, has been scrabbling for an identity and an income ever since. By the looks of things, they don't intend to go down without a fight.

But it makes me think about the psychology of place once again...this place, in particular, had such a defined identity. It was created for a specific purpose. What happens when the purpose leaves--and the people who once inhabited it (the place, the purpose) remain? They have to find a new purpose, I guess, if they want to stay. Is that what's happening here?

As soon as I pushed "publish post" I had another thought...so I had to come back and add it. Isn't what I was just talking about--a place and a people that lost its purpose--what happened to Flint, Michigan, the subject of Michael Moore's documentary "Roger and Me."...? Here was a town whose entire identity and livelihood was built on the car industry...and then the car industry pulled out, leaving it rudderless. And like a rudderless boat...it ambled about, aimlessly, trying to re-group.

I don't know if Flint was actually created by the car companies, but it sounds awfully similar to what happened in DeRidder. I wonder if Flint ever found its feet again.

Doings in DeRidder

This is where I wish I was last Saturday--$5 for food, a Zydeco dance lesson and a beignet tutorial!