LAST DAY IN THE SWAMPLAND

We slept in a little. Once we got up and around we drove by our house on Glenwick Street in Shreveport, where Deb and I lived when we were very small. I was brought home to this house after I was born. We also drove by Kay and Billy’s old house on Brookwood Drive. Our next stop was Forest Park West Cemetery, where my cousin Sharon Ann (who drowned when she was 12) and Theron and Lela’s graves are. We then drove out to Mom and Daddy’s house on Dance Drive, west of Shreveport. When Matt was a baby, we would drive him out here every day so they could babysit him and we didn’t have to put him in a daycare. This situation lasted until I got my job at the post office. At that time I was working evenings and it made more sense for Carol, Bobo or whoever was available to come out to our house on Bryan Circle to babysit Matthew at home.

One particular delight today was when we stopped by the church where I (and Daddy) were baptized. At that time it was called Central Missionary Baptist Church and I was baptized in 1970. It is now a black church. We stopped in to say hello to the pastor and he and two others on his staff were so happy to show us around the church. I was delighted that the baptismal pool where I was baptized is still there, and the beautiful mural above it are is the same one I remember as a kid.

We headed back toward the hotel. On the way, we drove by the location of Momo’s old house on Willard (which is no longer there), Betty Virginia Park where Mama and Daddy used to “court”, and the area of their first apartment on Jordan Street.

We returned back got the hotel. Arlena and Kay came over and we had food from the complimentary buffet the hotel provides on weeknights. I had leftover Taco Bell and they all had hamburgers from downstairs. We had a nice long visit and it was pretty late when Kay and Arlena left. We said our goodbyes until the next trip, because we had to leave for Dallas the next morning.Read more