“Everybody is real excited about meeting over there,” Jones said. “It’s a new building. It’s something fresh in town. Seeing folks that used to meet at the brewery – everybody is looking forward to that. There’s an excitement. There’s a buzz around town about it coming back up.

His family’s suffering. “I was probably 11 or 12, and I remember her having to go through the surgeries. I remember she got breast cancer, went through everything, then it came back. I just remember watching her and my dad and my brother. It was just a very tough time for our family.

“It said, ‘Congratulations! You’ve been named a finalist for Opus Prize, which is one million dollars,’” said McCarter. “I was then expecting to read something like, ‘Just send us $10,000, and the million dollars is waiting on you.’ I thought somebody out of Lagos, Nigeria, is sitting in a café typing this thing out.

“It wasn’t like it was at first, where you could just do it on weekends and it just be like a functional, going out, partying thing. It had become a habit. All those years, I was functioning, but I would justify it as ‘I’m just taking diet pills, and I am drinking just to calm my nerves.

Lt. Gen. Langley’s mother gave birth at Barksdale Air Force Base in 1960. Her husband, Willie C. Langley, was stationed at BAFB. When Lt. Gen. Langley was just 3 years old, his father was transferred to Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. The family eventually moved to other parts of the country, but that didn’t mean Lt.

“We’re among the group that likes to cosplay,” Comb said. “So, if you’re an avid Harry Potter fan, maybe you will dress up like Hermione, Harry Potter or a character from that franchise. Or, if you’re really into a certain show or maybe an anime (short for animation) show, maybe you’ll try and replicate that character.

“Periodically, we do customer surveys on our website and here at the airport,” said Mark Crawford, marketing and public relations manager for the Shreveport Airport Authority. “We’re always asking about ways we can improve things, whether it’s the parking lot or the food service.

“We were just a really simple, blue-collar family.” Betty Alvis was an X-ray technician. Loye Alvis retired after 23 years in the Navy (and three wars), then got a job at a factory. Both had a strong work ethic, which they instilled in their youngest son.