February 2011

February 28, 2011

Cardinal Spring Training Opening Game

Brother-in-Law Don Riley wanted to catch the Cardinal – Marlins Spring Training opening game at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, FL., today. I think the last baseball game I attended was the year the Marlins won their first World Series. After all the players were sold off, I lost interest in the team.

Mostly a geezer crowd

We had great seats – three rows back behind home plate. There was a smattering of kids and younger folks, but it was mostly a geezer crowd.

Closer to Schoendiest than Pujols

Most of the crowd, in fact, was closer in age to Hall of Famer Red Schoendiest than Albert Pujols, who was warming up in the first picture.. Everybody cheered when the announcer said the temperature in St. Louis was 36 degrees and the temperature in Jupiter (the town not the planet) was in the low 80s.

Serious Cardinal fans

These two St. Louis fans were serious. They probably did a better job scoring the game than the official scorekeeper. They kept up a running commentary the whole time there were there.

Seventh Inning Stretch

The fans offered up a rousing rendition of Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the seventh inning stretch. The woman who sang the Star Spangled Banner had a pleasant voice, but Don and I thought she had a word wrong and left out a line of the song. It was close enough, though, that she got applauded when she was done. She did a better job that I could have done.

Cardinal red dominated

Red was the color of the day, but there were a few vocal Marlins fans in the crowd.

A great day in the sun

The Cards were behind from the very first inning in their 6-3 loss to the Marlins, but it was still a great day at the ball park. The temperatures were a bit warm, but there was a gentle breeze that kept things from getting uncomfortable.

La Russa and the kids

One of the things I liked best was watching Coach Tony La Russa sign baseballs for a bunch of kids between innings.

February 27, 2011March 6, 2011

Marty at Lake Worth Street Painting Festival

For the fourth year in a row, Cape Girardeau artist Marty Perry Riley (CHS class of 68) was convinced to leave the snow, sleet and rain of the Midwest to come to Lake Worth, FL, to participate in the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival February 26-27.

Largest of its kind in the U.S.

The organizers claim the festival is the largest of its kind in the United States. About 400 artists come to South Florida to create masterpieces on blacktop with chalk. The streets become an art gallery for two days, then are wiped out by traffic on Monday.

Commissioned by Dedicated IT

She was commissioned by her nephew, Adam Steinhoff, to produce the art for his company, DedicatedIT, a computer networking company that provides managed services for businesses in South Florida.

Lion theme

Marty chose a lion theme for this year’s drawing. Last year she drew irises.

Crowds enjoy watching artists

Thousands of spectators wander the streets watching the artists, listening to music and sampling foods of every type. It was a perfect Florida February weekend.

Thanks to Wife Lila, Son Matt and Sis-in-Law Marty for the photos. I was on a bike ride on Lake Okeechobee where I saw more gators per mile than any time in years while the festival was going on.

February 25, 2011February 25, 2011

Central High Safety Week

I wasn’t going to bother doing anything with this because the negative was scratched up and it was just another bulletin board shot.

When I looked more closely, however, I saw that the Safety Week display Joanne Bone was putting up a collection of spot news photos I had taken of overturned trucks and cars, fires and other Bad Things. What the heck, I always like to show off my work, even it it’s too small to see.

Remember the gory movie?

Did you have to sit through the gory traffic safety movie assembly, too? I was probably the only kid who watched it thinking, “Wow, that would have been a lot better if the guy had stepped over there a couple of feet,” or “a second light would really have improved that.”

Check out the ring

When I enlarged the photo on the screen to touch up some scratches and dust, I got a gander at the size of the ring on Joanne’s left hand. Either she bought her class ring super-sized, thinking she might grow into it some day or she was going steady with some big guy. (Clicking on the photo will make the it slightly larger.)

February 25, 2011

Arena Park Stock Car Races

Arena Park is about 1.2 miles from our house. When the wind is right, we used to be able to hear the stock car races at the park. This was back in the days before central air conditioning, so our windows were open with a big attic fan providing what little cooling breeze was out there.

Dad and I weren’t what you would call car people, but there was a period when we’d go out to catch the races. I don’t know if it was because he knew some of the racers or if it was just something to do to kill time in the evening.

Tom worked at The Missourian

(At least, I THINK his name was Tom.) I recognize at least one of the drivers as a guy who worked in the composing room at The Missourian.

Lester Harris when not climbing poles

When I did a story on a telephone company repairman, Lester Harris, a number of people mentioned that he raced cars. He shows up in several photos.

Hard to shoot at night

I knew I had a few stock car photos kicking around, but I didn’t know that I had this many. Some of them are of marginal quality because they were shot at night with flash at long distances, but I’m including them to round out a portrait of the event.

These photos were taken in 1966. I shot a scuffle at the track that ran earlier this year.