Memories of Minden

MINDEN DRIVE-IN MOVIE

By Nolan Bailey

Good Afternoon Classmates and Friends:

O.K., here is another quiz for everyone. But, I'm sure that some "lady" will give me the name and qualify it by saying that
she never went there... <huge grin> It was on the left hand side of Highway 80 between Minden and Dixie Inn. Someone
told me, a "self respectin fella" like me never did go to such an establishment... ;-)

Back in the late 1950's I lived in the Bienville Metroplex (that's pronounced "Beanville) and dated a young lady who lived
in the "city" of Castor, Louisiana. Since there was little to do in the Ringgold and Castor area, we would drive to Minden, up
Highway 371, to participate in the "better pickins." Dang, every Saturday night this "darlin" would twist my arm to go to the famed Minden
Drive-In movie. After we had "fogged the windshield" for a couple of hours we would drive back, along the same route,
to Castor. Man, how I hated that I had to go to the "drive in" every Saturday night. :-)

On one return trip to Castor, between Minden and Ringgold, we were flagged down by a very frantic older lady. She was
standing, in pitch dark, on the edge of the road waving an apron or towel up and down to attract our attention. We stopped and
she told us that her name was Mrs. Locke and that her older sister was having a heart attack inside her home, and that she
had no phone. She wanted me to drive her to a nearby relative's home so she could call an ambulance. My very brave date stayed behind
to be with the sister who was ill. I returned Mrs. "Bit Locke" to her home and we continued on to Castor.

A couple of years later I began to date a girl from Ringgold--who is now my wife of forty-three years. Shortly after we began dating, we
were returning from Minden to Ringgold one afternoon and passed by "Bit Locke's" home. I told her the story about my stopping to help
a lady that lived there. She laughed and accused me of finding out about the incident from someone else. She just knew darn well
that I was making up the story. She knew about the incident but refused to believe that I was involved.

A few months later, when I went to Ringgold to pick up the new girlfriend for a another date, she called me into the living room and wanted me
to meet her aunt, "Bit Locke." My girlfriend just knew that she had me, now. She was just "a gigglin" when we went into the room. However,
just as soon as Mrs. Locke saw me she said, "Why that's the young man that stopped to help me one night." You should have seen
the look on my girlfriend's face. Priceless! Of course, I was always spreading so much "bull" back then that one never knew when I
was telling the "straight and unadulterated" truth. Small world, isn't it!

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Well us good Baptist kids were never allowed to go to the Minden Drive-In. We'd have been for a world of whoopin' if our parents

ever found out we went that "den of iniquity."

Wayne Ellis
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That "be" alright too! As I recall, the Baptists built "huge" bookstores all over the country, and the Methodists would invade the

stores and "dance" in the basements.. "huge" grin.

Ole Nol

Nolan, Bit Locke happens to have been my great aunt, my grandmother's sister. Small world, huh!

Keep it clean!

Barbara Colley, Class of '65,Author of the Charlotte LaRue mystery series Available NOW in hardcover--

WIPED OUT Available in paperback--Polished OFF, Death Tidies UP, and Maid for Murder