I’ve been here since 1970 — it was another world.
We had two restaurants, Nash’s restaurant and the bowling alley, and that’s all you had to eat out here. When you went shopping you had to pack your nightgown and your toothbrush.
I grew up during the Great Depression, and I used to daydream that I was going to be a movie star with long hair, a disgustingly long fur coat and very glamorous, and of course that didn’t happen. I wanted to be an actress but I also loved radio. I think I’m a natural-born ham is my trouble.
My daughter had gone down to New Orleans to go to college. She came back and was trying to find something we could do together to reintroduce her back to this area. This school had a radio station, and they advertised in a community calendar that they were going to have classes on a Saturday morning.
I had done community theater and I thought I was just so cool, and my daughter was a nervous wreck. Then the instructor said, “OK this record is about to come off now and you can talk,” and my first thought was, I must have been out of my mind, why did I think I could do this?
Now we are surrounded by very expensive homes. The students from the very posh homes go to school with the kids from the farm. It’s a nice mix that way.
We’ve got a good police department. They’re wonderful. They keep good track of Bainbridge. The EMT is wonderful. You feel very well protected.
They want a picture of you, and here I am, 80 years old, and they’re expecting this 30-something, tall and slender. That’s a bit of a sticky wicket.
