1955

Amanda's Grandmother:

We were one of the first families in New Roads, Louisiana to have a television. The only station (yes there was only one) we could receive was from New Orleans, Louisiana. We had to have a 40 to 50 foot antenna to receive a picture. Most days the picture was very snowy. My father wanted television so that he could watch the boxing matches that were on once a week. My favorite show was a children's show called Mr. Jingles. It was very simple compared to the children’s' TV shows of today.

I went to a very small high school with only twenty-four students in my graduating class. We had sock hops and swim parties and what we called teen age parties. That meant one of our friends was having a party at his or her home. Rock and roll had just come on the scene and the first rock and roll record I bought was Bill Haley and the Comets singing Rock Around the Clock.

Schools were still segregated. The only black people I knew were the ones that worked for my family or my friends family. We still all accepted this way of life mainly because it was the only way of life we had ever know. My parents had mixed feelings about segregation, which I did not know until later as this was not something that was talked about at school or at home. In retrospect it was a simple life during a simple time. I guess we all lived in our small little world in this small town and were insulated from what was going on around us.

There was a lake in New Roads, and we grew up swimming, boating, going to the movie, going to friends or relatives homes and hanging out at the Dairy Queen and Casa Loma which were the two teen hangouts. Once we had driver’s licenses we would pick up our friends and cruise the downtown street of New Roads. This street was only about 4 blocks long with a loop turn around on each end. We could do this for hours and then go to the Dairy Queen for a Cherry Coke and a Chili Dog. In 1959 we all graduated from high school and went in our different directions. It was off to college for most of us and we thought we were so grown up then.

-Grandma


Amanda's Grandfather:

My grandpa remembers how different early TV was from today. It was snowy, the receivers were vacuum tubes that burned out and had to be replaced, TV repairmen made house calls to fix your set, and TV was in black and white. He also remembers polio. It struck without warning or reason, and he knew someone who had gotten it. The boy spent a year in the iron lung, and he walked with braces and had tremendous shoulders from the strengthening exercises he did. He believes that the Polio Vaccine was a God send for mankind. His family went to the movies often, and then, popcorn and soft drinks were only a nickel and movie tickets were only a quarter. He didn’t really like drive-ins, though, because they were hot, humid and uncomfortable. He remembers that Sputnik started a space race that the US won by putting a man on the moon. He noticed that with the Cold War being over and with the decline of fear, people were less inclined to formal religion. In 1958, my grandfather was a student at LSU, and he remembers segregation well. There were no black football players on the team. He had also attended segregated schools prior to college, but never really thought much of it until later. He enjoyed listening to Rhythm and Blues and Rock and Roll. His family watched TV together, went to ballgames together, and went to church together.