WATERPROOF...

Waterproof, Louisiana is a small, dried-up wasteland of a town along the Mississippi River in the NE Louisiana Parish of Tensas. Tensas Parish is one of the poorest, most backward places in the US. And Waterproof is it's poster child.

Just down the road, you'll find Ferriday, LA, the birthplace of Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart. (I had to strike out Mickey...looking further into it, he was born in Natchez, MS...pretty close though).

And get this...Campbell Brown of CNN was born in Ferriday, LA...I reckon you can take the gal out of "ignorance," but you can't take "ignorance" out of the gal. Actually, her Daddy is the former LA Secretary of Insurance, Jim Brown, who spent time in the Federal Pen...along with the three previous Insurance Secretaries...long story...back to Waterproof.

It's a miserable place. My Granddaddy was so full of baloney, you never knew when to believe him or not, but he told me this story back in the '70's...and I think he was telling me the truth.

"Back in the late '40's, the Monroe newspaper ran a story. The headline was 'Waterproof Nigger Drowns!' (Now, on it's face that's pretty hard believe....but it was the 1940's, and it was Monroe, LA...so who knows?) The story was all about this black fellow from Waterproof that had been found in the Mississippi River dead. His body was wrapped with a big-link chain when they found him.



When the reporter asked the Sheriff about it, or if they had any leads in the case, the Sheriff told him, 'We're not gonna pursue this. Hell, It's just like a damned nigger to steal more chain than he can swim with.'"

I don't know if the story is true or not...but I wouldn't doubt it.

Well, it seems that the Mayor of poor old broke-ass Waterpoof, LA has been indicted on 44 counts of theft, malfeasance, etc.

What gave the astute Board of Aldermen a clue that something was awry?

In late fall, the city's water was turned off, and the board began to look into town hall functions.

This is a town of less than 1,000 people with no visible means of support, yet the Mayor has been charged with "using town funds for personal trips to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago and San Francisco; skimming $32,000 from the Waterproof's Meter Deposit Fund; failure to keep records of citations and court cases; adding more than $36,000 to his own salary over the course of 19 months; diverting the salary of a public employee; ordering a public employee on several occasions to take a backhoe to improve public property; and paying bonuses to police officers who exceeded a quota for citations."

Waterproof...ignorant...