PART I: SCENES AND STORIES FROM SHREVEPORT, 1964-1969
Click to see: Centenary College of Louisiana… plus our sexy ’60s cars!
Martha’s personal recollection of Centenary / Whatever happened to our favorite restaurants?
CENTENARY COLLEGE OF LOUISIANA…
▲ I made this photograph of Centenary College of Louisiana in the spring of my freshman year, 1964-1965. That was 140 years after its founding in 1825, which makes it the 43rd oldest college in the USA (out of approximately 3,000) and the oldest chartered liberal-arts college west of the Mississippi River.
A detailed official history is available on Centenary’s website, but… here’s my personal recollection, complete with more photos never publicly displayed before!
▼ In April 1969 — mere days before we left Shreveport for Chicagoland — Bernie and I returned to Centenary’s blooming azalea garden and photographed each other in a place that had been special to us during our courtship. This is the first time I’ve publicly shared these treasured pics. Bernie was 31, and I was 22.
We had been married about 14 months at this point, living in Shreveport while Bernie worked as advertising manager for Hemenway Furniture. Politically, that was a chaotic period in the USA, but for us it was a happy and peaceful time.
▼ During our dating years — from the spring of 1965 to the winter of 1967 — we often had walked from my dorm through this park-like space to reach some of our favorite restaurants on nearby King’s Highway.
As a student, I also had developed a habit of going alone to the garden on week nights, before the girls’ 10 p.m. curfew, to enjoy the cool air before returning to my dorm after studying in the library. Sitting by myself for a while on a bench never felt anything but safe in the ’60s. Nowadays, I probably would not do so.
PLUS OUR SEXY ’60s CARS!
▼ WASHING BERNIE’S BURGUNDY-COLORED 1965 MUSTANG…
Read an article and see photos of this now-classic car.
▼ AND MY 1967 PLYMOUTH SATELLITE HARDTOP
