I went home for a few days last week.

Home is Baton Rouge. I know I live in Vicksburg, and this is my home now, but Red Stick was where I grew up, where I went to school, where I met and married my wife, where our daughter was born and where our fathers are buried.

Despite my not having lived in Louisiana for 27 years, it still has a hold on my heart.

For years after we left the state, our periodic trips to Baton Rouge were like a tonic; a break from our usual environment to regain our equilibrium. A chance to hear Cajun music and enjoy a walk around the LSU campus, visit Mike the Tiger and spend time with family.

It’s been about six years since I last went to Baton Rouge for a visit, and my return was an eye-opener. I knew the Capital City had grown after Katrina, and Baton Rouge traffic, which was always bad, was now worse.

But other changes surprised me. Lee High School, where I ran track and graduated, had, over the years, been closed, demolished and a new school bearing the same name built in its place — a magnet high school dedicated to career learning with separate buildings for STEM, bioscience and digital and visual arts education. Gone was the row of buildings marked A through E, the auditorium and gym, football field, and the track where the back-to-back state championship teams I ran on competed and won victories.

In their place was an open area, a soccer field and tennis courts.

Perkins Road, which at one time stopped at a gravel road (When I took my high school girlfriend on our first date, her directions were “go down Perkins Road till you can’t go any more and turn left.”), now goes all the way to Airline Highway, and the once rural area is covered by businesses and subdivisions.

The LSU campus, at least during the week, is a maze of guardhouses and gates, barring people from moving too far through the campus without a pass. I had an easier time getting on Naval Air Station Meridian when I covered the base for the Meridian Star.

Some things were the same. Many of the homes in College Town Subdivision near LSU were still classic. Leo’s Roller Rink, the metal building site of untold memories and untold numbers of birthday parties over the years was still in the same spot, although sadly boarded up and rusting.

And the venerable Pastime Lounge, home of great pizzas and poboys, was still on the corner of Nicholson Drive and South Boulevard.

I believe it was Thomas Wolfe who said, “You can’t go home again.” After my trip back home, I’m inclined to agree with him. Still, it was interesting to see the changes and spend time in a still somewhat familiar place. And for a few days, I was able to regain some of my youth and relax.

 

John Surratt is a staff writer at The Vicksburg Post. You may reach him at john.surratt@vicksburgpost.com. Readers may submit their opinions for publication.