Wheels R Rollin
Dominic Lasseigne Staff Wheels-R-Rollin was a roller skating rink located in Schriever, Louisiana, open from 1980 to 2014. The rink offered public skating sessions on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. They also offered private parties, group events, and skating lessons. According to Gerard Clement, the current owner, the rink was remodeled in 2012 and renamed Skooter Gee’s Skating Rink. The remodel included a snack bar and pool tables. Maria Ledet Clause, born and raised in Thibodaux, frequented the rink when she was in fifth and sixth grade. She says that the cool kids would skate backwards with their significant others. In December 2014, the rink closed permanently due to lack of attendance. In the years following, Gerard and his wife Cindy McLaughlin Clement worked on remodeling the building once again. In 2016, the Clement family reopened the building as an event venue named La Patinoire, translating to The Rink in French. La Patinoire The Snack Bar more skating coverage
Patterson Skating Rink
Kelby Toups Staff The Patterson Skating Rink once drove the youth scene in the small town of Patterson, Louisiana. The property where the skating rink used to be was owned by the Letchworth family in the 1970s. John Kimball, the current owner of the property, says they would call it “the skating rink across the tracks” because it helped with giving directions to the place. The skating rink sold food and drinks, had many old arcade games, and, of course, had a large skating floor. Brad Beaubeouf is a Patterson native who went to the rink during his youth in the early 2010s. “I never knew how to skate, but all of my friends would want to go hang out there,” Beaubeouf says, “So my parents would drop me off, and I would wait for my friends to get there and we had a blast.” “My parents would drop me off, and I would wait for my friends to get there and we had a blast.” Brad beaubeouf The Patterson Skating Rink closed in the early 2010s and is now an apartment building. Attached to the back of the building is a strip mall with a thrift store called The Mission Thrift Store, a Pentecostal church called The Mission Church, and a snowball stand called Blizzard 25. Patterson Skating Rink Patterson Skating Rink 1990 Patterson Skating Rink 1990 more skating coverage
Southland Cinema
Daeshawn Armstead Staff The Southland Cinema was opened in 1968 in the Southland Mall in Houma, Louisiana. It was originally a single screen theater but was converted to a twin theater which featured more than one movie screen. The cinema was opened by Gulf States Theatres, an entertainment company located in New Orleans. As the theater’s business expanded it was later converted into a quad. “As a kid walking into Southland Cinema, I can just remember how big the space was,” says Kyle Crispino, who frequented the cinema as a child. “It was only four theaters but it felt like a maze.” For more than 30 years, Southland Cinema was one of the only theaters in the Houma area. In 2000, the theater was taken over by the United Artists Theatre Circuit, a motion picture company and later abandoned. The theater was then sold in 2004 to partners Kearson Levett and Barry Bynum of Houma. But declining numbers finally forced them to close permanently in 2007. “It was one of the only fun places to go, so I was sad when it closed,” Crispino says. “It was one of the only fun places to go, so I was sad when it closed.” Kyle Crispino But the new owners couldn’t afford the auditorium so they made it a discount cinema. Then in 2007, the cinema was closed permanently and what was left of the theater was transferred to the AMC Theater located in Houma. Welcome to Southland Cinema, 1986 Southland Cinema, 1985 Southland Cinema Entrance Southland Cinema Abandoned Ticket Booth more movie coverage
Legion Park Pool
Dominic Lasseigne Staff Legion Park Pool was a swimming pool in Houma constructed in 1938 by the Works Progress Administration, an organization formed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program that enlisted out-of-work men to build public works projects like the pool. The American Red Cross ran the pool, located on Williams Avenue, for years, employing lifeguards, vendors, and swim coaches. According to records in the Terrebonne Parish Library, young children paid 10 cents while older children paid 25 cents. Some of the lights from the tennis courts still remain pointed towards where the pool was. During the 1950s, the pool was gradually updated. The pool had two extra pools built, a diving pit, and a snack shop. Swimming classes were taught every summer. According to the State Library of Louisiana, the main pool was 60 feet by 150 feet in size with 10-foot cement walkways on all four sides. The pool was 3 feet to 9 feet deep. The State Library of Louisiana mentions that swimming classes were also given here to offshore oil workers. Men fell into the diving pit fully clothed with steel-toe boots to reenact falling off of a rig. What Happened? Prior to the 1960s, the pool was exclusively for white people. When the pool opened for everyone, racial tensions caused the usage of the pool to fall dramatically. The pool was reopened briefly in the 1980s. Bennett Porche, a Houma native who was in his late teens when the pool reopened, says summertime would attract close to a hundred kids every weekend. For a few years the pool survived, finally closing permanently that same decade. Since then, the pools were abandoned and the water became green. In 2008, the abandoned pool was demolished. It had gone unused for approximately 20 years at the point of demolition. Remnants still remain, such as a path from the street and various concrete slabs scattered throughout the yard. Though grass has covered most of the pool’s remains, some patches of gravel can still be found. According to Terrebonne Parish officials in 2008, there were talks of replacing the pool with something else: an outdoor concert venue, skatepark, and indoor swimming facility were all floated ideas. Nothing has been done with the land since. Legion Park Pool, 1934 Old Entrance to Legion Park Pool Remnants of Legion Park Pool Lights Facing Abandoned Legion Park Pool
Jet Drive-In
Kelby Toups Staff For more than 40 years, Cut Off, Louisiana, was the home of one of the Bayou Region’s most popular youth hangout spots. Jet Drive-In was a drive-in movie theater built in 1953, founded and owned by Richard ‘Dick’ Guidry and Lefty Cheramie. At the time of the drive-in’s opening, the Korean War had begun and jet aircrafts were the newest, modern thing. So, Guidry and Cheramie decided on the name “Jet” because of the short name that kept the price of their neon sign down. “They would show one movie from Sunday to Wednesday,” says Dennis Guidry, son of the founder Richard Guidry. “They would have a showing on Thursday for ‘Bank Night’ which I never understood what that was. Lastly, [they] showed another movie Friday and Saturday.” Dennis Guidry told a story about a movie called “The Moon is Blue,” a romantic comedy film released in 1953, that became very controversial for profanity throughout the film. And while the movie was banned nationally, the drive-In showed the film for four weeks straight. “It was unheard of, especially on the bayou,” says Dennis Guidry. “It was unheard of, especially on the bayou.” Dennis Guidry Richard Guidry passed the drive-in down to Dennis Guidry who took ownership in 1980. On opening night, they would show “White Lightning” with Burt Reynolds and the line went out of the parking lot. Wade Fanguy, a Larose native, says that one of the last films he remembered seeing was “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” “It was interesting because it was an audience participation type of show and I think there may be very few films that still do that,” he says. Eventually Dennis Guidry sold the cinema and, under the new owners, it closed for good in the late 1990s. Currently, the building where the cinema used to stand is now the Greater Lafourche Port Commission. more movie coverage
Thunder Bowl
Brandon Thomas Staff Some remember it as the Sugar Bowl, some remember it as Hickory Lanes and at the end of its life, it went by Thunder Bowl Snack Bar. Regardless of the building’s namesake, it’d be hard to find a Thibodaux native who hasn’t been to the bowling alley on Hickory Street. Serving the community since at least the 1960s, Thunder Bowl has served as not only a bowling alley but also a snack shop. They served hot dogs, pizza, and other quick meals. “[Thunder Bowl was] a great place for all ages in the ’60s,” says former Thunder Bowl patron Wayne Talbot. “For bowling, socializing, and good food…it was a place where parents could feel secure allowing their children to be with friends, whether in league bowling, on a date, or gathering after other functions.” Players who bowled a perfect game had their names placed above the respective lane where they bowled a 300. Thibodaux native and former Thunder Bowl bowling league member Kenny Lirette says, “The best experience I had was the night that I bowled a 300…We got to meet different people in the community and have a good time.” Located at 201 Hickory Street Thunder Bowl Snack Bar was permanently closed in 2018 and will soon serve as the new home to Salon Moxie hair studio. Sugar Lanes- “Weenie” Borne Sugar Lanes Thunder Bowl 2010 Thunder Bowl Building
Houma Drive-In
Victoria Davis-Abad Staff The Houma Drive-In Theater operated from June 30, 1950 into the 1980s and could accommodate 300 cars, according to the Cinema Treasures website. The theater was owned by the Bijou Amusement Company, a movie theater business headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. The drive-in theater closed in 1980 and was replaced with a Thibodaux-based Rouses supermarket. Houma Drive-In Ticket Booth Drive-In Easter Egg Hunt Cable Speakers for Drive-In Houma Drive-In News Article Late Houma Drive-In, now Rouses Market Abandoned Houma Drive-In, 1980s A Houma Drive-In movie schedule in a 1950s local newspaper. more movie coverage