I firmly believe that if I were to remove all the bits and
pieces of man-junk/// um. Let me rephrase that.
I firmly believe that if I were to remove all the bits and
pieces of man-made junk that is lying around, in and under my yard, the whole
yard would sink by 6 inches.
Mostly it’s broken glass. I swear all males have a “if you have a glass bottle in your
hand, break it” gene on their Y chromosome. I’ve found all colors – some even opalescent. I’ve also found a pot lid, a thing that
could be a drawer handle, but I sure wish it to be a fancy spur. But mostly it’s glass. Pieces of glass. So far, this is my favorite:
The shard says
Ttled
n our
ary plant
__________________
bottle sterilized
___________________
nts 10 fluid ounces
maid ice cr
ridder, la
And I just had to research it!!
After just seconds of googling, I found:
Dixie Maid Ice Cream Co De Ridder,La
206 E 2nd St Deridder, LA 70634
Oddly, google maps satellite view is extremely fuzzy. I can make out a 2-story white wood
building with a red roof.
But after hours of googling, I’m annoyed I couldn’t find a
single pic of Dixie Maid ice cream bottles (or any kind of DM bottles). Here’s a Barq’s bottle from the 1940’s.
Given the font, and that it advertises it’s pasteurized, my
best guess is mine is from the 1940s.
Which fits right into the lore that it was the 1940’s when
people came to quarry limestone from Mt. Lucas. (More on that in a post to
come.)
But I did find some cool history.
Here’s the face of one of it’s salesman, and his obituary:
Marcus T. Kern moved to DeRidder with his family when he was
two years old, and lived all his life in DeRidder. He ws a graduate of DeRidder
High School and was enrolled in L.S.U. when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941. He served in the Army Air Force for twenty months; then he
was transferred to the 9th Infantry Division where he served as a rifleman and
B.A.R. (Browning Automatic Rifle) operator in the Battle of the Buldge in
Germany till the end of the war in Germany. He returned to DeRidder and was
employed as Sales Manager and Route Supervisor for DeRidder Coca Cola and Dixie
Maid Ice Cream Company for eight years. He then decided that DeRidder needed a
good sporting goods store, so he opened Kern’s Sporting Goods. Along with Frenchie Governale [cool
name!], he organized Little League Baseball (Little Boys Baseball) started the
DeRidder Golf Course (Country Club). He was a Charter Member of the J.C.’s and
a member of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church also the Knights of Columbus and the
V.F.W. He was a past member of the DeRidder Lions Club, DeRidder Rotary Club,
and the American Legion.
Given that he sold for Dixie Maid from 1945ish to 1955ish,
he may have sold my bottle to the limestone quarriers. And here’s a Christmas card they
sent to their customers in the 1950’s.
In 1965, ten years after Kern worked at Dixie Maid –
probably when Kern’s Sporting Goods was open, De Ridder looked like this:
Burton's Hardware & Paint Store advertised its location
at 2025 Metairie Road (in the row of businesses which now includes Oscar's,
Mark Twain Pizza, and the Great Wall Chinese Restaurant). Also on Metairie Road was the Beverly
Food Store at 2561 and Shrewsbury Laundry and Cleaners at "106 Severn at
Metairie Rd.". Darrell De
Moss offered "Artistic Designs in Fine Portraiture at 3225 Metairie
Rd. Dixie Maid served "Soft
Ice Cream, Soft Drinks, Malts & Shakes, Sandwiches at 1613 Metairie Rd.
This storefront in town that closed in 1972 and the
building was torn down.
And then finally, this:
But Cool! Jerry
Kern, one of Marcus’ sons, was the General Manager when they went out of
business in 2008, so it became a family affair for 50 years.
And so, the Dixie Maid is made no more.
