City Should Not Be Trying to Capitalize on Chicken Ranch

To the Editor:

“Where bluebonnets edge a valley and the Colorado winds on to the sea where heroes sleep on a hill top and live oaks grow on a lea.”

These words from Mr. J.G. Banik live on in my memory of the town in which I spent my early years. I loved and love the people I knew, the education I received, and the life of a small town where my parents knew exactly what I had done the previous night before breakfast.

The blemish was the corn that was thrown at our feet as cheerleaders and majorettes with the chuckles and “here chickie, chickie.” As life took me into other communities and when I was asked where I was from and I had to answer truthfully, La Grange, I received that look. “ Were you a part of the Chicken Ranch?” Those more brazen would immediately ask about the Chicken Ranch. Rarely was I asked about the beautiful drive down the bluff, the fields of bluebonnets, the majestic oak trees, the business town square, and the community events.

Recently my husband and I were in the beautiful restored Casino Building. As we walked through the gift shop, we became acutely aware that, after 48 years, our city was still glorifying the Chicken Ranch. The shop was selling more merchandise promoting that history than any of the other wonderful aspects of our city. I am not advocating that individual businesses do anything different, they have a right to sell whatever they wish. But does the City of La Grange base its tourism on the fact that we are the home of the Chicken Ranch? Do we really need to sell our city based on a whorehouse? Perhaps we never took the time to think about the implications. A generation has come and gone but how do our grandchildren and great grandchildren perceive this time in our history? Perhaps one needs to ponder this for a moment.

Needless to say I still love this town.

Karen Roitsch Mueller

La Grange