VIVIAN CONFIDENTIAL - PART 1

Vivian is a little town lying amid the pine forests of hilly Northwest Louisiana. The one-block area that makes up downtown Vivian is mostly vacant, its once bustling store fronts now all but empty. No one has seen a movie in Vivian in twenty five years. Not since the Bijou shut down. At least I think that’s what it was called. The drive-in closed long before that, replaced by a bowling alley that’s also long gone.

Highway 1 cuts through Vivian, paralleling the railroad track. They both disappear on the outskirts of town, heading toward Shreveport, some 20 miles away. Several businesses, including the booming local Walmart, a Pizza Hut, a barbecue place and a couple other drive-throughs line Highway 1. When I was growing up, we had a lone ice cream place, the Tastee Freeze, and a drive-in café at the far end of town. Oh, and there were a few honky-tonks such as Mrs. Ray’s that mostly catered to old drunks and young people coming across the borders from Texas and Arkansas. 18 was the drinking age in Louisiana, 21 in Texas and Arkansas.
There was little going on in Vivian during the 60's. My friends and I would put a few dollars of gas into someone’s car and drive from one end of town to the next, hoping to attract girls. The girls had their own cars, own friends and were out flirting with the boys. Occasionally, we’d get lucky, the girls would leave their car at the Tastee Freeze and ride around town with us. When this happened, talk often turned to ghosts, the boys hoping to scare the girls and have them draw close; the girls usually feigning fear and cuddling up to us. Much of the 60's occurred before the sexual revolution and copping a quick feel of Sally’s breast was about as much excitement as any of us ever got.

TO BE CONTINUED