I recently came across a channel on Pluto (the streaming channel, not the planet) that plays Classic Country music videos. It has videos that I used to watch on TNN at my grandparents’ house and videos I used to watch on CMT and GAC while in college at LSU. While watching these videos on Pluto, I get a sense of nostalgia while recalling the “good old days.”
I feel nostalgic about other parts of my childhood as well. While I was growing up, Ville Platte was a booming place. We had a movie theater, several clothing stores, three car dealerships, and multiple thriving businesses and restaurants along Main Street.
We also had a thriving Cotton Festival. It was always a treat to get off of school at noon on Friday and go to the carnival.
While in high school at Sacred Heart, I was in the marching band, and we used to march in the Cotton Festival parade every year. It took us about an hour to march from one end of the parade route to the other. It took that long because of all the parade entries. There were dancing groups, civic groups, Tournoi riders, other marching bands, and other groups. On election year, it seemed like every candidate on the ballot rode in the parade.
Today, though, the Ville Platte that I grew up in is just a memory. Ride down Main Street today and count how many boarded up business there are. Pretty soon, we can roll up the sidewalks.
The same can be said about the Cotton Festival. The once great event that has been taking place in Ville Platte for the past 70 years has been waning for the past couple of years. This year, the decision was made to cancel the parade.
The Cotton Festival, like the city’s vibrant past, is fading to nothing more than a memory.
The question, though, is who is to blame for this decline. To me, the community is to blame for its lack of support.
One reason for this lack of support is people do not want to get involved in anything anymore. Nobody wants to volunteer or lend ideas on how to make things better. All they want to do is hide behind a keyboard and complain about things on social media.
Another reason for the lack of support is people are too busy doing other things like taking their kids to travel ball tournaments that run year round. They have no time to take their kids to the Cotton Festival or to the parade. Listen, playing baseball is good, but playing it year round is killing your kids’ arms. Look at the uptick in Tommy John surgeries. Trust me, your little slugger will not be the next Bryce Harper. Take time away from the diamond and let your kids enjoy riding the Zipper and eating funnel cakes and corn dogs at the carnival.
There is another question. Since the Cotton Festival parade is cancelled, what is the next thing to go? The Tee Cotton Bowl is clinging on life support with hopes to come back in a couple of years. If we are not careful, there will be nothing left to this town but our memories.
There is a way to combat this, though, and it is easy. Get involved and be a part of something. Come together as one community and do what you can to help keep what we have left going. And, maybe then, we can grow our town and Cotton Festival to bigger and better things.
In the meantime, let us all go to the festival this week and have a cotton pickin’ good time.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.