It was Friday July 3rd and I made one of regular monthly visits to Betty Steven’s Realty office in downtown Gloster to pick up the latest copy of the Real Estate Guide. Ms. Betty peered her head over the cubicle wall and commenced to tell me my ears should have been burning off the sides of my head, implying I had been the topic of heated conversation. Ended up my chest was what was actually burning, due to acid reflux, not my ears. But I was anxious to hear why I was being Man of the Moment in the office there. After a brief conversation, and listening to Ms. Betty having a senior moment about her credit card statement, I was able to restore her memory to a previous conversation we had and she proceeded to move on to another subject. Why do people change the subject when they realize they may have been in error? Humorous isn’t it.

She continued to inform me that she was the new owner of the Wilk-Amite Record, explaining Ms. Mary Lou Webb was retiring. The fate of the paper would have been to shut down had Betty not intervened. My first response was “darn Betty you own most of the town as it is”. She just blushed and giggled saying that rumor has made its way back to her before! I joked back and said heck now is the time for me to write a weekly column since I know the editor now! She replied and said what kind of column you want to write? I said how about something that will describe things people see all the time, or even know about, but don’t know the history of it, or how it came to be. Kind of like a mixture of Paul Harvey, Walt Grayson, Ripley’s believe it or not, and some occasional humor? Something different from Gloster news that most locals already know due to the grapevine that travels faster than the speed of light and quicker than it can be printed in the paper. She said that sounds interesting, and your writing must be in by Tuesday at 5pm. I said well if your serious lets give it a whirl, so here I am. 

Being born in Louisiana, but married to a Mississippi girl gives me squatter’s rights to talk about the people and places here without any repercussions. So read my column at your own risk. Keep in mind I am laughing with you and not at you. My hopes are once you realize how humorous people here really are that you don’t become so self-conscious and change. But instead you will just continue as you are giving me future things to write about. With that said, I know we have a lot of LSU fans in Amite county. I happen to live with one of the most loyal. I have limited hearing in one of my ears as a result. Many of you have been to a game in Death Valley Tiger Stadium. But as a real fan, do you know why there are dormitories in the stadium itself? And did you know that the stadium was originally called “Deaf Valley” because of the noise levels there. Over the year’s people with the same problem I have from sitting next to an LSU fan for 27 years, have mistaken the word deaf for death. Which is why it is now called Death Valley. Many coaches, especially the legendary Bear Bryant is the main reason Tiger Stadium is feared by opposing teams. Bear Bryant spoke on many occasions of it being the noisiest place to play he has ever been. As far as the Dorms go, back in 1936 then Governor Huey Long wanted to increase the seating of the stadium. However, The legislature had only budgeted money for dormitories and not stadium improvements. Governor Long ordered that the dorms be constructed in the stadium with the seating above them. This way he could have the stadium improvements he wanted using the money meant for student dorms. This was Louisiana politics at its best. If you have any interesting stories, tall tales, about Amite county and our neighbors, email me at nautaenterprises@cox.net. I have an upcoming project documenting local haunts and haunting in the area. Any information you can provide on this would be great! Also any person you know who has changed history here during their life. Pictures, facts, history, old letters you may have, DIG EM OUT!! I want this column to be as much yours as mine. I will keep this column interesting with a touch of humor with your help. Please include your name, address, phone number, so I can contact you. Thanks for visiting, and hope to see ya’ll back next week or whenever Ms Betty allows me to return.