Just visited Britney’s hometown of Kentwood, LA for the first time! Very weird experience.

[fays1]

People there gave you advise and gave you direction, and you call them weird?

[RebellionSparkles]

1 hour ago, PickleSpears said:

If I felt unsafe just driving around for an hour I can only imagine how uncomfortable spending the night in her old house would be lol. But that would be cool. I was hoping at least the "museum" would be open so I could see the FF Tour wings and what not but I'm sure it gets so little traffic that they just don't bother with it on most days.

You are boggling my mind that the Britney museum isn’t open 7 days per week. The ******* MOMA in NY is always open and no one goes there except for tourists on the weekend.

^^my point being, the MOMA is very boring and I assume more people would prefer to go to the Britney Museum than the MOMA.

[that's hot y'all]

 

[Danielle1987]

I had a very positive experience in Kentwood. To my surprise, the Britney museum was closed the day me and my friend decided to visit it. However, we were invited to chill across the street with neighbors who were kind enough to let us know it was closed that day!

Extremely hospitable people & still keep in touch with them to this day. This was in 2016. 

[OutofKontrol]

On 5/31/2022 at 11:09 PM, Lucky☆ said:

Thanks god she made it out of that place .

If she never got famous , she would probably be a redneck missing 5 teeth by now 😭

Britney probably would have married rich. Lynne would have made sure of it. She always knew Britney was her meal ticket. Britney had the talent Lynne always wanted 

[hmatlo3]

On 5/29/2022 at 11:33 AM, Alexa James said:

Has anyone been there?

Yes. Did you visit the Britney museum? It is in sad shape. The wings from FF tour are sitting in a corner of a room, and the umbrella from the tour (was that Circus? Where Britney sat on the umbrella for Everytime?) well the umbrella is on the floor (this was as of 2019) because there’s no room for it. The woman who runs the museum is very nice and we talked for awhile, but the museum desperately needs more space. I was very curious why Jive or MTV or anyone never renovated it. Seems like someone would have. 
I actually have the museum listed as the beneficiary on one of my retirement accounts haha. 
I believe Jamie lives in Hammond, a close-ish town, along with LL. 
The museum does have a lot of nice things. Jamie and Lynne gave a lot of it. Sometimes Jamie would go get things back though, to take them out to Vegas for displays there. Again, this was years ago. Haven’t been back in a few years. 

[hmatlo3]

On 5/30/2022 at 9:18 AM, RedBloodedWoman said:

McComb is like 15 minutes from Kentwood, I know a lady who used to work at a restaurant in McComb & she said the family was struggling so bad before Brit got famous Lynn couldn't tip 

I knew a girl whose mom was a dance teacher of Brit’s. She told me that Britney’s parents couldn’t afford a dress for her second night on Star Search, so her mom bought Britney a dress. I asked her if Britney ever paid her mom back. She said no. I was kinda surprised at that. I figured Britney would’ve done something once she hit it big. The girl did say her mom got $7k from E True Hollywood Story for dance pics of Brit, so maybe Britney felt that was paying back for the dress and lessons that her parents couldn’t pay for, so that’s fair. 

[sunny_liston]

6 hours ago, hmatlo3 said:

I knew a girl whose mom was a dance teacher of Brit’s. She told me that Britney’s parents couldn’t afford a dress for her second night on Star Search, so her mom bought Britney a dress. I asked her if Britney ever paid her mom back. She said no. I was kinda surprised at that. I figured Britney would’ve done something once she hit it big. The girl did say her mom got $7k from E True Hollywood Story for dance pics of Brit, so maybe Britney felt that was paying back for the dress and lessons that her parents couldn’t pay for, so that’s fair. 

That is cool, how do you know these ppl?

Regarding the dress - I'm sure she just didn't remember receiving the favor. She went around Kentwood giving out hundred dollar bills to strangers for Christmas '99 right

[Jblo21787]

I stopped in once driving home (Oklahoma) from Alabama. Everyone was very kind and very proud of Britney. They were excited to share stories about her. The Paris Flea Market is or was next door to the museum, which was closed when I arrived around 3:30 in the afternoon. The lady at the flea market called the lady who runs the museum and she came out and opened it up and gave us the full tour. Nyla’s had tons of Britney memorabilia on the walls. I stopped at the convenience store, Crossroads, down the road from her mom’s for a pack of Marlboro lights and a bottled Starbucks Frappuccino. Overall it was one of the best experiences I could have asked for as a Britney Fan. This was around 2014 so things may be different.

[Headed Peckerhead]

On 7/30/2022 at 6:11 PM, hmatlo3 said:

I knew a girl whose mom was a dance teacher of Brit’s. She told me that Britney’s parents couldn’t afford a dress for her second night on Star Search, so her mom bought Britney a dress. I asked her if Britney ever paid her mom back. She said no. I was kinda surprised at that. I figured Britney would’ve done something once she hit it big. The girl did say her mom got $7k from E True Hollywood Story for dance pics of Brit, so maybe Britney felt that was paying back for the dress and lessons that her parents couldn’t pay for, so that’s fair. 

[hmatlo3]

On 7/30/2022 at 11:40 PM, sunny_liston said:

That is cool, how do you know these ppl?

Regarding the dress - I'm sure she just didn't remember receiving the favor. She went around Kentwood giving out hundred dollar bills to strangers for Christmas '99 right

Haha well when I first moved to Louisiana, I asked SO MANY PEOPLE if they knew Britney. A girl who worked at McAlisters Deli told me her mom was Britney’s dance teacher. I didn’t believe it at first, but sure enough, it was true. Her mom was Darni Fenerty. The interviews were still out on the internet so it was easy to prove. 
Also met a lady whose husband was friends with Jamie. The lady didn’t like Britney and made it seem as if Brit was an embarrassment to Jamie (ha, ok). 
Met lots of people who knew JL. Never heard anything good about her. 
The manager at McAlisters Deli was from McComb and told me he was friends with Felicia. I didn’t really believe him, but he told me she was teaching kids preschool and then a couple of months later the letter Fe wrote to WorldofBritney came out saying that’s what she was doing, so who knows. 

[RebellionSparkles]

I drove through Kentwood this past weekend! That town is weird and BACKWARDS. Racist vibes and lots of creepy abandoned buildings. A gas station near town didn’t have a credit card machine attached to the gas pump…you had to go inside to pay for gas. It was like the 1950s.

Serenity is a massive mansion surrounded by poverty.

After visiting Kentwood, I’m even more impressed with Britney. It’s shocking that someone as incredible as Britney could have grown up in a town like this.

[KatieKat]

On 5/31/2022 at 7:33 PM, queenofhearts said:

I honestly don't think people realize when Britney says she was poor, that she was literally dirt poor. Like unless you live in that part of Louisiana/Mississippi you really don't know. I'm talking trailers and homeless people. I live about 2 hrs from kentwood and the difference from where I live to kentwood is night and day. Like it's kinda funny I can live in a nice suburb just 2 hrs away, but I guess for some people if you're born in poverty you're use to it and dont' wanna fight for a way out 

I don’t think of Britney as having been “dirt” poor. The house she grew up was modest/simple but it wasn’t a trailer. Her mom was a college educated woman who taught school. Britney attended a private school and they found money for all her dance lessons.

I think Jamie’s drunk *** just didn’t know how to manage money and got the family in trouble with debt because he was starting up businesses that he didn’t know how to run. Then he would go on benders and blow money doing god knows what. Which makes it all the more unbelievable that they put HIM in charge of her money.

[Erik Freund]

On 5/29/2022 at 11:33 AM, Alexa James said:

Has anyone been there?

I’ve been thru several times since 2004 I have family close by their 🥰🥰

[j4j05]

I’m sure Kentwood was more welcoming and a nicer place to visit when Britney was at her peak in the early 2000s.

After everything and knowing what we all know now, it’s got to put a damper which is probably why tourists don’t feel welcomed

[igmate]

Maybe it's just me but i'm glad she's from a modest hometown like this, she knew nobody in this business. She worked hard to be at the top. What she has accomplished is quite spectacular knowing this; i love Taylor too but she has a dad who worked has a sound engineer and came from a rich family.

Edited March 22 by igmate