Hotel Bentley and our city’s future comments.

While  there is considerable verbal sparring on the Bentley, pro and con, I will put in my insignificant opinion.

I am Not pointing the finger at anyone.  Just sweeping an all-inclusive hand in a large semicircle…

If you are in the radius, so be it…..

I have said it before and I will say it again. I want the Bentley to reopen and flourish. It has been a vital landmark in Central Louisiana since 1908.

  I do not pretend to know about the complex issues of funding and grants to get it up and running. I do know this. We have had a regressive leadership in Alexandria for a long time, actually going back to the 1950′s.

The officials I have known in the past in city government, have had the attitude, lets keep this a small town. 

Keep the status-quo.  

Even today, there are elements in our town that are anti growth.

I know them and have listened to their opinions.  

Funny part about it.. most are not in or involved in our city government…. Most of them are selfish and misguided.

 (For one reason or another.)

You have to spend money to get projects started. Be it private or governmental funding.. 

 A car runs on gas..

Our town runs on good government and  that “dirty word” , money or funds, as it is sometimes called.

Too many people want to put bile in the gas tank of Alexandria.

 As long as this continues, we will take one step forward and FOUR steps backward.

Lets work to get our   ”one horse town”   a team of Clydesdale to pull it into the future!

Let’s quit bitching and moaning and pointing the finger at each other and  move forward.

  We have the ability. We just need to focus!

Can we do that?

I wonder?

Alex

A short history lesson for everyone.

A History Lesson received in an email from a friend and well worth reading. (If you have not seen it before.)

Some of these may be true..the others?

They  used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a  pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery…….if  you had to do this to survive you were “Piss Poor” But  worse than that were the really poor  folk  who couldn’t even afford to buy a pot……they “didn’t have a pot to piss  in” & were the lowest of the low     The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn’t just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:  Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell . .. . brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married. Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the  babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the Bath water!” Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying “It’s raining cats and dogs.” There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence. The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, “Dirt poor.” The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold. (Getting quite an education, aren’t you?) In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while.. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, “bring home the bacon.” They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.. Those with money had plates made of pewter.. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.. Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust. Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake. England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus,someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer…. And that’s the truth…Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !   So . . . get out there and educate someone! ~~~ Share these facts with a friend Alex

A supply & demand look at the Bentley & other Hotel-Motel’s.

 

How many is too many???

After listening and looking at the Motel/Hotel issue in Alexandria, I have a bit of a different view of things.

I warn you ahead of time it throws  out a wet blanket…

How many empty or under used Hotel/Motel’s do we have in Alexandria?

Look at the row on McArthur at North Bolton and then toward Jackson Street.

Half of them are under used and there are several closed.

There is one abandoned near the site of where two upper class motels are being built at the Mall.

When those two motels are built they will probably dilute the rooms  from the other existing motels.

So ..that would close at least another one that is open due to lack of operating revenue.

That’s leaving the Bentley/Fulton issue out of the equation.

No matter how I look at the issue, If appears to me it is a train headed into a brick wall.

The what-if’s and maybe’s do not balance.

I want the Bentley to open and florish..Period!

I think the plans for downtown and it’s revitalization look great!

BUT.

Now do not jump on me for being a party pooper. I am just thinking out loud, so to speak.

Maybe I am over simplifying things?

Alex

 

Feb. 3rd, 1959. The day the music died.

The third of February marks the 50th anniversary of the plane crash that took the lives of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens — an occasion immortalized in Don McLean’s ‘American Pie’ as “the day the music died.”
Best known for hits including ‘That’ll Be the Day,’ ‘Peggy Sue,’ ‘Maybe Baby’ and ‘Rave On,’ Holly is one of rock ‘n’ roll’s true pioneers, creating a larger, lasting body of work in two years than most artists build during a lifetime.

His music is still being recorded by todays artist’s.

Listen to “Everyday.”

Alex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMezwtB1oCU