Louisiana

Driving along Highway 190 between Opelousas and DeQuincy, there's a stretch where the highway seems to cut through a swamp, with deep drainage ditches on both sides of the road, making it a very forlorn place.  Along the highway for miles and miles are those little white crosses we have come to associate with shrines marking the spot of someones death, now remembered with a handful of plastic flowers tied to a wooden cross stuck in the ground.  I've always thought they should have two colors of crosses:  one color for those who were killed by drunk drivers, and another color for those drivers who killed someone else.  Maybe a third color signifying those drunks who only killed themselves.

When it comes to drinking, Louisiana has always stood apart from the states around it. In Louisiana, you only needed to be 18 to purchase booze legally, but no one ever asked for ID.   All you really needed was the money or a note from your mama.  High school and college kids came from hundreds of miles to drink and party at the bars and dance halls just inside the border.  There were half a dozen such clubs on Interstate 10 about six miles inside Louisiana from Texas.  There was generally one or two fatalities each week-end. 

The federal government made Louisiana change the drinking age from 18 to 21 or lose highway funding.  They did, begrudgingly.  It's harder than that to change a culture that not only allows but approves to public drinking even to excess.  When I was down there in 1998, my cousin and I went to a drive-through daiquiri shop.  Yeah, just what's needed:  giant slurpees made with rum-flavored everclear.

Anyone who's been to Mardi Gras will remember it for the drunken Bacchanalia that it is.  Mardi Gras is only one such drinking festival.  Every football game becomes an occasion to hang out in the quarter and get drunk.  Getting drunk in New Orleans has been a right of passage for young folk from around the country for generations.  Las Vegas may be popularizing the slogan, "what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas," but let me tell you what, that's been the operative truth of New Orleans for two hundred years.  New Orleans was where Southerners, Gay and straight, male and female, came to lose their virginity.

Louisiana's on my mind these days.  First, the Abramoffconnection.  Right in the middle of highway 190, just outside Kinner Kinder is the Grand Cousshatta Coushatta Casino.  Lovely place and a grand casino it is.  If you like to drink you can sit at your slot machine and drink for free all night.  This being Louisiana, there's no one to tell you to go home at 2 a.m.  Nor at 3, or 4, or 5.  Usually you run out of money and head for home, along 190, a hundred miles from anywhere.  Sleepy drivers who've been drinking for several hours is the reason for all those crosses along highway 190, but there's also the wildlife.

Ah yes, Louisiana, birthplace of so many of my memories.   

Comments

[ellen]

I find those highway death crosses really creepy. Almost earned one of my own in January of 94, when a 16 year old t-boned my car during a drive home from the cottage.

[Peter]

I remember one state pol being asked about a study that showed that more underage alchohol sales happened in Louisiana than any other state - this around '93 or so. He just treated it like it was the most trivial matter in the world. "What you gotta understand is, Liquor stores stay open later, so the odds are there are going to be more sales to minors, statistically speakin'".

[Jack]

Sounds like you have some great stories.

[Wenchy]

Hello darling Houston. This has probably been the worst week of my life.

I received your birthday card this morning and sat in the parking lot and cried.......... for the longest time.

THANK YOU. I needed to receive your words TODAY.

I finally, finally got your tiny bit in the post... I remember you hanging a flying pig on your Christmas tree... well, I thought this could add to the piggie...

Hope you like.. let me know when you get it. Should be about 10 days.

Love - Wenchy.

Abramoff, not Abramov. Kinder, not Kinner. Coushatta, not Cousshatta, and it's no longer Grand - the Grand Casino chain sold the casino to the tribe, and it's now Coushatta Casino and Resort.

[Houston]

Picky, picky, picky. I have made the suggested corrections. Thanks for noticing.