Day One
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to day one of the Red Sox dynasty. It may only last a year, but this year is ours. As the man said, baseball is designed to break your heart--but not this year.
So last night, before heading to Baton Rouge to watch the Red Sox win the 2004 World Series, we went to Clinton, Louisiana. Clinton, as every single person in town will tell you, has the oldest operating courthouse in the state. It's so nice that they'll be filming some of the "Dukes of Hazzard" movie there in December. Lucky Clinton.
We drove in at around 4:00 and just walked into the first open business we could find. The proprietor of the catering establishment was a Lady in her 60's. I capitalize Lady because she was the full Southern Lady package. She was like a character from Gone With the Wind who would be horrified by Clark Gable's barbaric language. She stepped out of her kitchen and we were immediately her guests and there was nothing we could do about it. Technically, I think we were hostages to this incredibly nice woman's hospitality.
She told us all about the town, its history, the buildings. She was clearly the richest Lady in town (we would later find out this was a correct assumption)--the catering gig was a hobby. We eventually asked, as we ask in every town, about the diversity in Clinton. The things we're looking for when we ask this question are things like "Is the town integrated?" "Does the town have a troubled racial past?" "Where do the black people in this town live, work, and shop?" That sort of thing. What we got this time was a little different.
The Lady told us that things between the races are just fine in Clinton. In fact, they were never that bad because "our blacks are very respectful." I pardoned myself to have a brief embolism. It occurred to her a few minutes later to add that "respect has to go both ways." A second after saying that, though, she brought up how a black man was running for mayor of Clinton, but that he was "not an intelligent black." In fact, she did not want to see him as mayor, so some of the citizens came together to run another candidate who was, presumably, an intelligent white man. She would be happy to vote for a black man, like the current mayor of Baton Rouge, but this one was "disgraceful."
We excused ourselves from the conversation and tried to leave. She was having none of it, telling us who to see and where to go and then insisting that we take a fresh pie for the road. We didn't want an entire pie. No matter where we watched the game, we just knew we did not want to wash down a late dinner with this...pie of affliction. Nevertheless, she insisted and we insisted and she told us to give whatever we didn't eat to the maids at our motel. So we took a pie.
It was fantastic. I'll admit it. Chocolate, but not heavy. Imagine a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles as a light, fluffy pie. Amazing. I continue to feel guilt about it today.
We went back to Clinton today. While the Lady's feelings may be shared by others, we didn't meet anyone with the stones to actually be as obvious as her. We met, among others, a wonderful black woman who marched with CORE in Clinton and served 30 days for it. She never hated her town, though, and now runs a clothing shop on Main Street, where she picketed 40 years ago. Not bad.
It turns out the town used to be home to a sizable Jewish community. The Jews in Clinton traded in cotton and cotton goods, the major industry at the time. When the boll weevil blight destroyed the cotton for a while, the Jews left, leaving behind a cemetery with a lot of Jewish names and a few new buildings.
The North torched Clinton but good during the big one back in 1865, leaving only one building standing. I'll give you one guess whose catering company now occupies that building. Yup, we saw the Lady again today and met her husband. Her husband told us he renovated the building as a gift to his wife, who loved the heritage of it. He mentioned that he tried to get it registered as a National Historic Landmark, but they won't register commercial properties. He tried an end-around by mentioning that the building has a basement, which is almost unheard of in Louisiana. No dice. Then he told them that the basement was used to smuggle slaves out of the south on the Underground Railroad. They looked up the provenance of the building--it was built and owned by Jews at the time. The Jews in Louisiana were abolitionists, but there was no Railroad in the area. The Lady's husband shrugged and said "They didn't buy it." The 1832 building remains unregistered.
We have a little more shooting tomorrow in Clinton, then--perhaps--an early flight back to LA tomorrow night. Otherwise, I'll be back on Saturday.
One more post to follow, a final summary of the trip.
So last night, before heading to Baton Rouge to watch the Red Sox win the 2004 World Series, we went to Clinton, Louisiana. Clinton, as every single person in town will tell you, has the oldest operating courthouse in the state. It's so nice that they'll be filming some of the "Dukes of Hazzard" movie there in December. Lucky Clinton.
We drove in at around 4:00 and just walked into the first open business we could find. The proprietor of the catering establishment was a Lady in her 60's. I capitalize Lady because she was the full Southern Lady package. She was like a character from Gone With the Wind who would be horrified by Clark Gable's barbaric language. She stepped out of her kitchen and we were immediately her guests and there was nothing we could do about it. Technically, I think we were hostages to this incredibly nice woman's hospitality.
She told us all about the town, its history, the buildings. She was clearly the richest Lady in town (we would later find out this was a correct assumption)--the catering gig was a hobby. We eventually asked, as we ask in every town, about the diversity in Clinton. The things we're looking for when we ask this question are things like "Is the town integrated?" "Does the town have a troubled racial past?" "Where do the black people in this town live, work, and shop?" That sort of thing. What we got this time was a little different.
The Lady told us that things between the races are just fine in Clinton. In fact, they were never that bad because "our blacks are very respectful." I pardoned myself to have a brief embolism. It occurred to her a few minutes later to add that "respect has to go both ways." A second after saying that, though, she brought up how a black man was running for mayor of Clinton, but that he was "not an intelligent black." In fact, she did not want to see him as mayor, so some of the citizens came together to run another candidate who was, presumably, an intelligent white man. She would be happy to vote for a black man, like the current mayor of Baton Rouge, but this one was "disgraceful."
We excused ourselves from the conversation and tried to leave. She was having none of it, telling us who to see and where to go and then insisting that we take a fresh pie for the road. We didn't want an entire pie. No matter where we watched the game, we just knew we did not want to wash down a late dinner with this...pie of affliction. Nevertheless, she insisted and we insisted and she told us to give whatever we didn't eat to the maids at our motel. So we took a pie.
It was fantastic. I'll admit it. Chocolate, but not heavy. Imagine a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles as a light, fluffy pie. Amazing. I continue to feel guilt about it today.
We went back to Clinton today. While the Lady's feelings may be shared by others, we didn't meet anyone with the stones to actually be as obvious as her. We met, among others, a wonderful black woman who marched with CORE in Clinton and served 30 days for it. She never hated her town, though, and now runs a clothing shop on Main Street, where she picketed 40 years ago. Not bad.
It turns out the town used to be home to a sizable Jewish community. The Jews in Clinton traded in cotton and cotton goods, the major industry at the time. When the boll weevil blight destroyed the cotton for a while, the Jews left, leaving behind a cemetery with a lot of Jewish names and a few new buildings.
The North torched Clinton but good during the big one back in 1865, leaving only one building standing. I'll give you one guess whose catering company now occupies that building. Yup, we saw the Lady again today and met her husband. Her husband told us he renovated the building as a gift to his wife, who loved the heritage of it. He mentioned that he tried to get it registered as a National Historic Landmark, but they won't register commercial properties. He tried an end-around by mentioning that the building has a basement, which is almost unheard of in Louisiana. No dice. Then he told them that the basement was used to smuggle slaves out of the south on the Underground Railroad. They looked up the provenance of the building--it was built and owned by Jews at the time. The Jews in Louisiana were abolitionists, but there was no Railroad in the area. The Lady's husband shrugged and said "They didn't buy it." The 1832 building remains unregistered.
We have a little more shooting tomorrow in Clinton, then--perhaps--an early flight back to LA tomorrow night. Otherwise, I'll be back on Saturday.
One more post to follow, a final summary of the trip.
posted by Matthew at 6:47 PM
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