Here in Baton Rouge, one former business featured previously still lights up their Christmas lights at this time of year.
And apparently Rome Cleaners isn't abandoned after all. They have a new awning, a new paint job, and Santa's in there.
I went to The Racquetballer immediately after getting a tip from a reader. He thinks it closed in the mid-80s and the inside probably looked like nothing had changed since. That was all I needed to hear.
Continue reading "The Racquetballer" »
No new sites to post about today, but I do have a couple of food-for-thought related links.
I often take a light tone here, but some of the underlying themes on ABR are serious. I've heard that to people who grew up here, seeing Baton Rouge in a deteriorating state on this blog can feel like a punch in the gut. I don't feel that myself as a newcomer, but got the slightest twinge of it driving through my own hometown earlier this year. I saw an empty hair salon that used to be called Hair We Are. It had been my introduction to the phenomenon of lame pun hair salon names. Seeing it out of business and empty just gave a fleeting sadness about the past being long gone, or something. I can still drive through my hometown, but it's not the 80s anymore, and someone else is living in our house, and now all the cops are people I went to school with and are sending their own kids off to school.
So I don't know exactly what it's like seeing these photos as a local with all the memories and context you have for these structures, but I have an inkling. Someone who does have those memories is Baton Rouge expat blogger The Mighty Favog, who is so struck by what he's seen on this blog and in person on visits that he made a video tribute (featuring a soundtrack straight out of my own home stet). He went on last week to spark some controversy in the comments section of an article about the state of the state on Buisness Report when he posted the link to his video there.