Cape Girardeau History and Photos

May Greene School

Ken Steinhoff — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:12:13 +0000

The cornerstone at May Greene School, at 1000 Ranney, near Fort D, reads South Grade School and says it was erected in 1920. The land was purchased in 1917 for $3,200. It was supposed to cost $55,000, but a special election had to be called in 1920 to vote another $35,000 in bonds to complete the building. It was dedicated in 1927, and eight rooms were added in 1927.

Named for May Greene

The school was named for May Greene, who taught in Cape Girardeau schools for 53 years.

I wrote about Jefferson School earlier. There’s an interesting link between Jefferson and May Greene.

In 1953, when schools in Cape were still segregated, black students attended John S. Cobb School. When it was destroyed by fire, the city fathers saw that integration was coming, so they moved the white students who had been at Jefferson down to May Greene. The black students attended Jefferson until the schools were integrated.

May Greene School is now a Mission Church

May Greene and Washington Schools were closed in 1999 when Blanchard School was opened. Washington School was bought by Southeast Missouri State University and torn down. Here are two stories I’ve done about Washington School:

May Greene is now a mission church for the Cape First Assembly of God Church.

Teacher Margaret Sharon Manning Meyr

You never know what you’re going to find when you start searching for info. I started with Google, looking for May Greene School Cape Girardeau. One of the links took me to an obituary for a woman from Jonesboro, Ark. It turned out Margaret Sharon Manning Meyr had taught at May Greene and Franklin Schools. On closer read, I discovered she was married to CHS Coach Dutch Meyr. The link has some interesting photos in it.

May Greene mentioned in former slave account

Ima Bird, who participated in the Federal Writers’ Project, recorded this interview with Mrs. Margaret Davis, 209 S. Lorimier Street, as part of the Slave Narratives. The report was written May 27, 1036. It has very little to do with May Greene School, but it’s too interesting not to include.

She was hired out as nurse maid before she was ten years old–she stood on a chair to wash. She had done a washing the day I interviewed her. Her granddaughter teaches at Cobb School.

Her father was offered $1000 by Gen. Scott and tried to buy his family from slavery but their master would not sell them–so he bought a farm.

She remembers wading in the branch on William Street from Lorimier’s Spring with Doctor Maple’s wife. (Doctor Maple was a pioneer pastor of First Baptist Church at Cape Girardeau). There were fish in this branch.

A soldier was hanged on a big gate near St. Francis Hospital. He is buried in Lorimier Cemetery. They put his hat on a stick on his grave. Before his death the priest went and talked to him. He just whistled and danced and sang. His father came to see him, and told him, “I have bought you out from under the gallows three times and I won’t do it any more.”

She went up to the courthouse and looked through the iron bars at him. He was a Yankee soldier with Colonel Ross’s Regiment. She was always afraid to go toward the cemetery for fear of seeing his hat waving at night.

Fortifications in Cape

“Right across” from Hirsch’s store there was a fort for light artillery tor emergencies. There was a company for every street as a guard. There was a camp near May Greene School.

Punishment of soldiers

To punish soldiers who didn’t obey orders they bucked and gagged them. This was done if they didn’t get back to town on time. They were stretched out in the sun for hours.

Treasure found.

When Mr. Jack Painter died he had a chest out in the shed where he threw scrap iron. But after his death, money was found in the chest. His home was on the levee next to Dempsey’s Store on about where Albert’s Store is at 101 Water Street.

(This negro uses unusually good language. She has pictures of many of her “white babies”.)

Annie Laurie’s Laurie Ann

Ken Steinhoff — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:59:05 +0000

Laurie Everett, owner of Annie Laurie’s Antiques is an extraordinary young woman. I’d say that even if she wasn’t my wife’s niece. We’ve known her since she was a hatchling called Laurie Ann, because the Perry Family decided that one name wasn’t enough. (I’m not going to tell you Lila’s middle name.) I wrote about Annie Laurie’s and some other antique shops on my bike blog in 2008.

Laurie’s third from the left

It was family tradition for Lila to shoot what she called The Picture of Florida sons Matt and Adam with of all the Cape nieces and nephews when we came to town. Laurie’s third from the left and Matt and Adam are to the right of her.

Laurie’s dad, John Perry, taught her to be able to handle herself. There’s a photo around somewhere of her and John with their heads buried under the hood of a jeep fixing it. He taught her how to shoot, which led her to qualify as an Expert when she joined the army.

Family has always been important to Laurie. It wasn’t always about hunting, twisting a wrench and getting her hands greasy. She and her dad shared this tender moment one day. (I’ve been told that no feet were harmed in the making of this photograph.)

Military was “a family thing”

She graduated from Cape Central High School in 1996, after attending Alma Schrader Elementary School. She graduated from SEMO, then decided she wanted to join the Army for the educational benefits, the experience and because “it was a family thing.” Her dad had served in Vietnam.

Laurie was a Military Police officer in the Army. She was stationed in Kitzingen, Germany, but she either visited or was deployed in France, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Romania, Israel, Bosnia, Croatia, Greece and Switzerland, among others. Her location in Germany put her within about six hours of most of Europe’s major historical landmarks.

While stationed in Germany, she received her Master’s Degree in Human Relations from, get this, the University of Oklahoma, which had an outreach program there.

“I’m going to date that girl”

One of her jobs was processing new troops, explaining the local customs and making them aware of what they needed to know. One soldier, Rocky Everett, commented to his buddy, “I’m going to date that girl one day.”

Rocky and Laurie were married in Cape on a cold October night in 2003. They have one son, Fletcher, AKA Flea.

“I was ready to settle down”

After she got out of the Army, she said, “I was ready to settle down, and this was a good community. I always liked antiques, so I started to work at Annie Laurie’s.”

When the owner, Mary Robertson, decided to sell the business, Rocky and Laurie jumped at the chance to buy the place. “One stipulation I made to Rocky was that if we were going to do this, we were going to live upstairs.” And, they do.

Antique shop had been funeral home

Long-time Cape residents will remember the antique shop as having been the former Brinkopf-Howell Funeral Home. “Do people ever ask you if the place is haunted?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “I just tell them that everybody who came here was dead already, so they don’t need to haunt the place.”

Ranked #1 Antique Store in Cape County 3 years running

Annie Laurie’s has been ranked the Number One antique shop in Cape Girardeau County three out of the last three years.

Laurie’s motto, “Expect the Unexpected,” is one of the reasons the shop has been so successful. She’s constantly changing displays (including the mannequin above, which shows up all over the place dressed in outlandish outfits) to make the place interesting.

Annie Laurie’s for period clothing and costumes

Laurie, who is an adjunct professor at SEMO, teaching marketing, works hard to attract college students with her selection of period costumes and funky clothing. Gail, above, made a convincing witch at Halloween.

Need a wig?

Laurie models the wig she wore for Halloween.

Using the Internet for marketing

Unlike many businesses in Cape, Laurie understands that the Internet can bring in new customers. “You’d be surprised how many of our customers find us through Google,” she explained.

Photographer Michelle Huesen is photographing SEMO coed Rachel Hendrickson in an outfit from Annie Laurie’s for use in promotional material. Laurie’s also active in Old Town Cape and the Cape Convention and Visitors Bureau and other organizations.

You can visit Laurie’s website here. Here’s a link to the shop’s Facebook page.

People feel at home at Annie Laurie’s

“We create an atmosphere where people feel at home. We have coffee and cookies around. We remember our customers’ names and what they like,” she said. She’s started taking digital photos of customers and posting them on her Facebook page.

American Gothic style

Here was her Facebook comment under this photo: “Lovin’ old men in overalls. This cutie blushed a bit when I asked him if I could take his picture. I just wanted to squeeze his cheeks.“

Recognized by Southern Living Magazine

Annie Laurie’s Antiques was featured as “a definite stop” in Southern Living Magazine’s Southern Antique Shops.

Laurie was written up in The Southeast Missourian’s 40 Under 40 column April 3, 2009.

Brian Blackwell interviewed her Sept. 28, 2009. He quoted her as saying, “You name it and I have done it. Snow cones, tanning salons, hostess, juvenile detention worker, internship at local police department, soldier, nonprofit organizer, veterinary assistant, office manager, university instructor [and] business owner, just to name a few.”

Annie Laurie’s Antiques Photo Gallery

Here are a selection of photos of Laurie and some of the things in her shop. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the photo to move through the gallery.

Cape Mississippi River Bridge RIP (Rest in Pieces)

Ken Steinhoff — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:22:08 +0000

The old Cape Mississippi River Traffic Bridge was an adolescent adrenaline rush, a white-knuckled journey of fear and angst; it was an inconvenience, it was the site of personal and family tragedy. It also opened up Cape Girardeau to Illinois and points east when it became the first bridge across the Mississippi River between St. Louis and Memphis.

It was a part of our lives, indicated by the number and variety of the comments left on yesterday’s post about a crash on the bridge. The span, which was 4,744 feet, 4 inches long, opened to traffic August 22, 1928. A contractor used explosives to drop the bridge into the Mississippi August 3, 2004.

The approach to nowhere

The steelwork has all been removed, but they were still working on removing the bridge piers when I shot this photo from the Illinois side of the river in October of 2004.

Piers the last to go

The massive piers that held the bridge up were the last parts to be demolished. This photo shows the flood gates that are closed, blocking north and south rail traffic when the river gets high. I prowled around under the bridge here and picked up a few souvenir pieces of steel. The Missourian said 160,000 rivets were used in building the bridge.

Missouri approach turned into scenic viewing area

The decorative archway over the Cape approach to the bridge has been preserved and a portion of the span has been turned into an attractive viewing area. I wish that the whole bridge could have been preserved for bicycles and pedestrians like the Chain of Rocks Bridge north of St. Louis, but the Coast Guard considered having two bridges that close together to be a navigation hazard.

Mississippi River Traffic Bridge Photo Gallery

Here is a collection of photos taken of the bridge’s last days in the fall of 2004. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery.

Crash on the Bridge

Ken Steinhoff — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:19:42 +0000

Crossing the bridge was a rite of passage

Crossing the Mississippi River Traffic Bridge was a rite of passage when you first got your driver’s license. No bridge in the world ever felt higher, longer or narrower. It didn’t just LOOK narrow, it WAS narrow. It was common to see splintered reflective glass on the deck from when 18-wheelers slapped mirrors.

All I know about this wreck was that the negative sleeve was slugged Don Call Wreck 1966. I’m assuming that one of the folks in the pictures is Don Call, but I don’t know that for sure. Since I didn’t know the month, I didn’t bother to try to find it in The Missourian.

Safety belts weren’t common

You can tell that this was taken in the era before seat belt usage became common. The windshield has the characteristic dimple caused by someone’s head bouncing off it.

Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge no challenge

On my last trip to Cape before the bridge was torn down, I planned to ride my bicycle across it. I figured if I did it on a Sunday morning, traffic would be light enough that it wouldn’t be a factor. When I drove across it, though, I didn’t like the looks of the expansion joints. Some of them had a wide gap that would swallow up a bike tire and some of the others were sticking up like jagged teeth.

I wasn’t sure which would be a worse fate: to be doing 20 or 25 miles an hour on the downhill stretch and have your front tire eaten by a gap, which would launch you over the bars and into the river or to blow a tire and have to carry your bike all the way across the bridge with traffic backing up behind you.

I wonder what kids will do for a challenge these days? The SHOULDER on the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge is almost as wide as the traffic lane on the old bridge.

I opted not to do the ride.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

So many readers left comments about the bridge that I did a follow-up story on the last days of the bridge in October 2004.

Mystery Housing Development

Ken Steinhoff — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 02:26:31 +0000

This isn’t the story I had planned to file today. I was working on an interview with someone I photographed back in March when the Weather Channel intervened.

When I was looking at our pool deck last weekend, I notice that some of the bolts holding our screen enclosure to the concrete pad had started failing. A bunch of them broke off during the 2004 hurricanes, and I replaced them before the 2005 season hit. Unfortunately, they, too had rusted and popped off since then.

When I went to bed last night, there was a 70% chance that we might see Bonnie headed our way. I needed to replace the failing hardware.

The Rule of Threes

I decided to replace them with stainless steel Tapcons and washers this time. Ouch. That stuff’s not cheap. Of course, then I had to go out and buy a new hammer drill to install them. The first one I picked up was missing a part. That meant a trip to the store to replace it. Mid-way through the project, I snapped off a drill bit. That meant another trip to the hardware store.

I developed a Rule of Threes for home repair projects: Every project takes three times as long as anticipated; costs three times as much as budgeted and requires at least three trips to three different hardware stores for every item needed.

This is a long, weather-related version of “the dog ate my homework” to explain why you’re seeing these mystery photos instead of the interview.

Aerial photo of subdivision

Just so you won’t disappointed that there’s nothing new up, I decided to post these aerial photos of a unidentified housing development. Here’s a slightly different angle of the area. There’s a small creek running down the left lower portion of the photo, but I don’t recognize any of the roads. There are no big buildings or water towers to help, either. The only info I have is that the pictures were taken April 14, 1964.

Bonus round

If figuring out where those photos were taken was too easy, here’s a bonus question. For some reason or another, I tagged this aerial as being ‘aerial of stream’, maybe near Dutchtown. (That was when I scanned the photo, not when it was taken.)

There’s a bridge in the middle of the photo crossing the stream, but I can’t tell if it’s a car or a railroad bridge. It’s possible it’s the old bridge over the Diversion Channel near Blomeyer.

What’s happening with the storm?

The good news is that by spending the day in the hot sun drilling holes and filling them with bolts, I chased the storm away. Had I not done that prep work it would have strengthened overnight and parked itself over my house as a Cat 3. (Let’s hope I don’t jinx myself by saying that.)

“New” Rigdon Laundry

Ken Steinhoff — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 05:27:28 +0000

I always wondered why the building with 1917 on it was called the “New Rigdon Laundry,” when the building next to it was dated 1931.

There was a logical explanation for it. The original Rigdon Laundry was on South West End Blvd. When it moved to South Sprigg Street in 1917, it became the “New” Rigdon Laundry. (The “Old” Rigdon Laundry was turned into a canning center in 1934.)

The New Rigdon Laundry might have done dry cleaning, but its history was anything BUT dry. If you don’t believe me, skip down to the bottom and read the murder mystery involving one of its drivers.

New Rigdon Laundry has long history

Here are just a few of the stories that appeared in The Missourian over the years:

July 11, 1916 – J.A. Rigdon says he will start constructing model laundry building on Sprigg St. between Independence and Themis streets sometime in September; Rigdon purchased lot 45 feet by 180 feet on Sprigg St. across from Negro Masonic hall; building he will erect will be about 45 by 120 feet, and wagon sheds, coal houses and storage rooms will be built behind it.
Dec. 4, 1919 – Coal Shortage Is Being Felt in Cape Girardeau: The city is just beginning to be really effected by the coal situation and to curtail its activities. the Centennary (sic) church which for a while quit having moving picture shows will resume this once more as they have enough wood to run them for quite a while. The New Rigdon Laundry though yesterday that it would be necessary for it to close down, but Al Salzgeber, proprietor of the Idan-Ha Hotel came to the rescue and let it have some coal, enough for two days. Mr. Rigdon then obtained some coal from the West End Fuel Company, enough to run them the rest of the week and about two days of the next.

Edna Hilpert gets toe crushed

Feb. 8, 1921 – Edna Hilpert had about half an inch of her big toe crushed off when her right foot was caught in a cog of one of the motors.
Apr. 12, 1924 – New Rigdon Laundry gets new rug cleaning machine, the first of its kind between St. Louis and Memphis. Cleaning the average rug costs less than $3.50.
June 26, 1926 – Completed installation of The Thermo-Vento Drying Machine. The operation of this modern laundry dryer is a marvel to watch. It handles six full family washes and the clothes literally float in the air as they go through the process of drying. It only takes 15 minutes to dry the batch of six family washes.
Feb. 9, 1931 – Construction will begin tomorrow on a new laundry plant at 18-22 N. Sprigg St. in Cape Girardeau, to be erected by J.A. Rigdon, owner of the New Rigdon Laundry; the new plant, to be built adjacent to the present plant on the south, will practically double the size of the laundry.

Lions color 5,000 Easter eggs

Mar. 23, 1932 – The Lions played Easter rabbits…and prepared about 5,000 prettily colored eggs for the Annual Easter Egg Hunt… Starting the job of boiling and coloring eggs about 7:30 Tuesday evening, they worked until 10 o’clock, at which time nearly 14 cases of eggs were finished for the big event. Less than 20 members of the club did the job, owing to the fine engineering ability of Harold Hebbeler and Charles Rigdon. The boiling and coloring was done in the basement of the Rigdon Laundry, which was tendered the club for the work by Mr. Rigdon.
Feb. 12, 1934 – Purchase of the Cape Laundry Co. equipment and real estate at 45 S. West End Blvd. by the New Rigdon Laundry, 22 N. Sprigg St., is announced by J.A. Rigdon; the deal involved cash and real estate, including five houses, in addition to the equipment and real estate.

New Rigdon Laundry get bigger boiler

Aug. 16, 1934 – A boiler room extension is being constructed at the New Rigdon Laundry, 22 N. Sprigg St.; the brick addition will be 10 feet wide and 5 feet long, and enlarges the present boiler room so that a larger boiler can be installed.
Nov. 22, 1932 – New Rigdon Laundry and Dry Cleaning plant, 16-22 North Sprigg St., is model of modern cleaning methods; history of plant can be traced to J.A. Rigdon, who set up laundry business in St. Genevieve in 1898; he purchased Cape Girardeau steam laundry in 1915, which was destroyed by fire a year later. In 1917, he erected New Rigdon Laundry and has since made it a model of efficiency.

Bill Tipton buys Rigdon Laundry

April 19, 1954 – Sale of equipment of Rigdon Laundry, 23 N. Sprigg, to Tipton’s Whiteline Laundry Inc., is announced jointly by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas O. McGee of Rigdon Laundry and Bill Tipton, president and manager of Whiteline.
May 6, 1958 – Another familiar sight to local residents — the smoke that has risen for some 40 years from the chimney on the Rigdon Laundry building — is gone; the old, hand-fired coal boiler, which has been in use since around 1917, has been replaced by a modern gas boiler as part of a remodeling program by owner Bill W. Tipton.
July 28, 1974 – Mr. and Mrs. Bill Tipton, owners and operators of Rigdon’s Laundry, and the dry cleaning and linen services which are a part of the business, have announced purchase of a building at 1415 Independence St…. The firm has been in present location for 20 years. The Tiptons purchased the business in April 1954. It was established by the Rigdon family, later acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas McGee. Mrs. McGee still owns the structure.

Laundry driver found shot dead

Big news in The Missourian Aug. 14, 1926: Evidently shot from ambush, the murdered body of Robert Deevers was found Friday afternoon on Jackson Hill, on the road from Illmo to Commerce. Deevers, a truck driver for the New Rigdon Laundry, was found lying on his back, 20 feet away from his truck, an automatic pistol six feet away from his body. Two bullets, thought to be .32 or .38 caliber, had taken effect, one in his biceps of his left arm and the other in his chest, ranging from his right side down through the lower part of his heart and out of his left side.

Follow this link to read the whole story, including a sidebar about how the victim was quoted as saying, “Well, if a hold-up gets me, he’ll have to be a better man than I am. And, besides, you know I don’t put much stock in most of these robberies. I think they’re just framed up and the fellow who was robbed know just when and where it’s going to happen. Then he gets his share.”

Dead driver bought life insurance policy

A follow-up story Aug. 24, 1926, said that the driver, who had been shot to death by unknown assassins had taken out a $6,000 life insurance policy Aug. 9; he was fatally wounded Aug. 13. Follow this link to read how the authorities thought the insurance policy was an indication that the driver feared what the future might bring and desired to care for his family in the event something happened to him. Sheriff E.A. Dye characterized the case as almost “hopeless” because there were few clews at the scene of the murder.”

Driver not murdered; shot himself

After the sheriff had pretty much given up hope of solving the shooting death, an investigator from the Burns Detective Agency came up with a theory that the driver killed himself “while morose over recent gambling losses and an increasing debt owed the New Rigdon Laundry.”

It’s worth following the link the the Sept. 13, 1926, Missourian to read the whole investigation. The crime scene analysis reads like something you’d see on a TV whodunit these days. The sheriff and the prosecuting attorney closed the probe and ruled the death a suicide.

Judy Schrader’s School Memories

Ken Steinhoff — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 03:31:41 +0000

When I was in town this spring, my brother, Mark, and I met up with Jayne and Judy Schrader. Judy was in my class, and Jayne was Mark’s age. (He said he remembered her as a “good egg.”

[Note: I have a hard enough time remembering who folks are, so you'll notice that I usually refer to women by their maiden names. Wife Lila's yearbook is full of scrawled name changes from the days when she tried to keep track, but even she gave up.]

I still have Judy’s Valentine’s Day card

I posted photos of Valentine’s Day cards from Judy and others earlier this year. Judy must have a time capsule like my Mother’s attic, because she brought along our Trinity Lutheran School Kindergarten Graduation picture (with names written on the back) and her 6th Grade School Memories Book.

Judy, Age 11, Grade 6, lists her hobbies as skating and swimming. I don’t know about the swimming part, but she and I spent a lot of Friday nights at Hanover Skating Rink. You couldn’t exactly call us an item, but we DID hold hands when we skated. Of course, we didn’t do any of that mushy kind of close skating. I liked her because she liked to skate fast.

Hanover wasn’t fancy

Hanover wasn’t a fancy rink like MaryAnn’s. The floors were dirty, even on a good night. If it rained, the roof leaked and you had to dodge puddles. If you didn’t have your own shoe skates, you rented heavy metal skates that clipped onto your street shoes. They could unclip just as easily, leaving the skate dangling from your ankle by a leather strap.

Judy’s Favorite Classmates

Judy listed her favorite classmates as Patti Haas, Bonnie Strom and Marilyn Heuttig. She has photos of Bonnie and Marilyn, but Patti must have had an inkling even back that far that she would end up in a witness protection program and made sure she didn’t leave any images behind.

[Note: Patti is alive and well. In fact, she stopped by my mother's house in March and we spent a couple hours laughing and talking just like we were back in grade school. She no longer wears her hair in pigtails, though. She also told me that the statute of limitations on the Tunnel of Love Valentine she sent me card had long expired.]

Cheerleaders showing just a little too much leg

I don’t ever recall seeing this photo of the Trinity Lutheran School cheerleaders. I suspect it showed too much leg for the principal.

THIS is how Lutheran cheerleaders should look

It’s unseemly to have girls cavorting about. They should be able to just WILL their teams to victory with a subtle hand gesture. This is, you will note, a non-cavorting photo that was suitable to run in the 1961 school yearbook. Each dress contained enough material to construct a six-man tent in case of a Civil Defense emergency.

By 1966 skirts had reached the knee

By the time I shot the cheerleaders in 1966, skirts had moved from mid-calf to just about knee level, but the cheerleaders were still firmly planted on the floor.

I don’t remember much emphasis on athletics at Trinity. We played ball at recess and I know we had school teams, but I don’t recall ever going to any games against other schools.

In the last few years, though, the school has added a state-of-the-art gym to the school. One of these days I’ll run a collection of new and old Trinity Lutheran School pix and you’ll be able to see it.

Kindergarten Graduation

Trinity made a big dead out of Kindergarten and Eighth Grade graduations. Here’s Judy’s photo of our Kindergarten graduation. The well-behaved cherub on the front row, left, is me.

Our names are on the back

If you don’t believe that’s me, check out the IDs written on the back of the print. OK, my name is REALLY Steinhoff, not Stienoff, but that’s close enough.

H&H Building, Draft Board and Dentist

Ken Steinhoff — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:15:35 +0000

I don’t have a whole lot of pleasant memories of the Himmelberger & Harrison Building – better known to natives as the H & H Building.

When I was about six, I needed to have a cavity filled. It was my first visit to a dentist’s office. I don’t remember the dentist’s name nor exactly where his office was in the H & H Building. What I do know is that he wasn’t anything like the dentists we go to these days with their high-speed, water-cooled drills, their pain blockers and soothing music.

This guy, I swear, used a drill that had to have been foot-powered like an old-fashioned treadle sewing machine. It wasn’t a drill so much as a jackhammer.

To this day I am dental-phobic. I’m so rigid, that the only thing that touches the chair is the back of my head and my heels. I even tense up in a barber chair because it reminds me of the ordeal.

A visit to the Cape Convention & Visitors Bureau

While I was in town this spring, I stopped by the H & H Building to see if the Cape Convention & Visitors Bureau would be interested in buying an ad on CapeCentralHigh. What would be a better fit than a blog getting Boomers all excited about coming back to Cape for high school reunions?

It was a very nice visit, but I walked out empty-handed. Well, truth be told, I came out worse than empty-handed. I offered to run a free ad for the Story-Telling Festival to show how well we could drive traffic to their site and I bought a T-shirt from them.

South East Missouri Trust Co

While wandering around their office, I spotted a cool old safe in the corner left over from when the office was the South East Missouri Trust Co. That’s the third safe I’ve discovered in Cape left over from the 20s and 30s.

Yale Time Lock was cleaned and guaranteed

This one still had stickers dating back to pre-Depression days guaranteeing the Yale Time Lock had been properly cleaned and serviced.

After I left the office, I shot a few more pictures of the lobby area.

Staircase led to the Draft Board

I remember that staircase. I walked up it to register with the Draft Board when I turned 18. I didn’t get off to a good start with Draft Clerk Miss Lolla B. Gilbert. I guess I should back up to explain that I have lousy handwriting. Despite my Dad’s best efforts, my cursive was illegible. I got in the habit of printing anything I wanted to read, and even that was a struggle to decipher.

When I had finished filling out part of the paperwork, Miss Gilbert grabbed it and said in an offended tone, “You PRINTED. You were supposed to sign.”

Not wanting to make her any more distressed, I picked up the form and scrawled my signature.

Even more offended now, she said, “I can’t read that.”

“Mam, that’s why I printed it.”

“You didn’t list any scars”

I won’t say she was exactly mollified, but she didn’t say anything else until she got down to the bottom of the form. “You didn’t list any distinguishing marks or scars.”

I guess I had a lucky childhood, because I had escaped any disfiguring injures, so far as I could recall. The silence grew between us.

Finally, inspiration struck. “I cut my finger once,” I said hopefully.

“Where? Show me.”

The mailbox where she mailed the letter

And then, as I curled the middle finger of my left hand to show her the cut, I hoped that she would take the gesture in the spirit in which it was intended.

I’ve often wondered if Miss Gilbert had an evil grin on her face when she sent me the letter to report for the draft physical that would have given me an all-expense-paid vacation to beautiful Southeast Asia, had I not come in Number 258 in the 1969 Draft Lottery.

Historical side note: The Southeast Missourian ran a story about the two 19-year-olds who were at the ends of the spectrum when birthdates were drawn in the Dec. 1, 1969, Draft Lottery. Gary Wayne Hurt, 1030 West Cape Rock Dr., was born April 24, the second date selected in the lottery.

Lonnie Lee Brockmire, 1826 Woodlawn, celebrates his birthday on Feb. 26, the second to last date drawn. If you’d like to look up what your Draft Lottery number was, follow this link to the list in The Missourian.

If you’d like to see what the H & H Building looked like in 1966, it shows up in the background of a fender-bender in this post.

Photo Gallery from H & H Building

Here are some additional photos from the H & H Building. Click on any picture to make it larger, then click on the left or right side to move through the gallery.

Teen Age Club Fashion Show

Ken Steinhoff — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 05:06:13 +0000

Missourian photographer Fred Lynch dipped into his stash of Frony photos to come up with pictures from a fashion show sometime in the 1950s or 1960s. The first photo ran June 30; the second showed up July 14.

That jogged my memory. I have couple sleeves of negatives that were slugged TAC Fashion Show 1966.

They are pretty unspectacular, but I thought someone might enjoy seeing them. I won’t even try to ID anyone in the photos. I don’t know where the show was held, either. You’ll have to fill in the blanks.

I have another set of photos marked TAC Fashion Show Prep /3/9/67 that I’ll run down the road.

The difference between boys and girls

These little girls were following and critiquing every outfit as it went by.

1,000-Yard Stare

The guys have that thousand-yard-stare, my-watch-must-have-stopped look.

Photo gallery of Fashion Show

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A Walk On Themis Street

Ken Steinhoff — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 02:21:44 +0000

After we had finished touring Central High School, Linda Stone said she’d like to walk up on sit on the steps of the house where she grew up, “where Jim Stone and I played chess.” Tricia Tipton and I followed her on a walk down memory lane.

We lived at 1753 Themis when I was two years old

She didn’t know that I lived in one of the first houses on Themis Street when I was about 2 years old. Mother often talks about how the site CHS sits on was once a swampy field with a dead horse in it. The house to the east of us, occupied later by the Ravenstein family, was a low spot that had to be filled in before it could be built on.

“I played chess with Jim Stone”

Linda reminisces about playing chess with Jim Stone, who lived across the street from her. She and Tricia Tipton list off all the CHS students who lived on the street. Central was the epitome of a neighborhood school.

In an earlier email message, she wrote, “Our neighborhood was filled with kids exactly our age, so all summer a huge gang of us would play hide-and-seek until well after dark. My first-ever real date was with him (Jim) — summer of ’63, I think. I still remember scrambling to find a proper little summer dress to wear. It was a borrowed rust and tan plaid sundress. Vivid, colorful memories! He and I did not really date, we usually sat on the front porch and talked or went over to his house and looked at his home-made science lab with all his projects. Lots of fun.”

“Everybody on our block went to Central”

On my side of the street, Ronnie Marshall (’65) next door. The other side of our house next door and up the street: Sitz, Nowell, Early, Estes, ?, Goddard (the principal), then Garmes. Then across the street at the top of the hill and down toward the high school: Mulkey, Kies, Dunklin, Stone (Jim), Young (Debby), Leuders (the photographer plus Dickie and Holly (’67), Amlingmeyer. I know I am missing some.

Linda, Tricia and Jim circa 1964

One afternoon when I stopped by Jim Stone’s house, we noticed Linda and Tricia out in Linda’s front yard at 1744 Themis.

I can’t believe that Linda and Tricia let two guys with cameras get anywhere close to them while they were working on making themselves (more) beautiful. That’s Linda’s sister, Lisa, walking into the frame from the right.

Tricia’s inside attacking her hair

I have no idea what’s she’s doing. It looks painful. I am, to this day, amazed that I was able to shoot this sequence and live. The girls must have been sedated on some kind of hair goop at the time.

The result wasn’t bad

Linda went digging for her past

Linda wrote, “In prep for attending the reunion I’m digging through boxes that have moved with me from Cape to St. Louis, Dallas, Nashville, Atlanta, Dothan (AL), Coeur d’Alene (ID), Scottsdale and Durango. And that includes more than one house in St. Louis, Dallas, Atlanta and Scottsdale.”

Brownie Troop 3

This picture is Brownie Troop 3 at some kind of ‘flying up’ ceremony which was held in my home at 1744 Themis St. in 1958. The girls are all from the future class of 1966. Left to right: __?__, Martha Penrod, Tricia Tipton, Pam Burkhimer, Mary Frances Sitze, Mrs. Sitze, Debby Young, Sally Bierbaum, Marsha Hitt, Mrs. Lolita Stone, Marilyn Maevers, Linda Stone (circled in ink), Prudy Irvin, Mary Lynn Nowell.

Birthday babes on Themis

This photo was taken in front of the house that was in the video. Linda wrote, “Bottom row: Jane Dunklin, Mary Frances Sitze, Linda Lou Stone, Joan Early. Top row: Mary Lynn Nowell, Sally Ann Stone, Judy Dunklin, Joan Amlingmeyer. I recognize the dress as my Easter outfit that my mother sewed for me. Since Sally’s birthday is in April and this was taken on our front porch, it might have been a party for her.”

Boomer Birthday Party

It is a birthday party for Holly Lueders, who lived directly across the street from us (in the the home that Debby Young later occupied). These are all future graduates from the classes of 1965, ’66 and ’67. Baby boomers blooming on Themis. From the bottom and proceeding clockwise: Dickie Lueders (hiding his face), Jane Dunklin, Mary Frances Sitze, Joan Early, Judy Dunklin, Holly Lueders, Mary Lynn Nowell, Linda Stone (spoon in mouth), Sally Stone, Joan Amlingmeyer, John Amlingmeyer.

Themis Street Photo Gallery

There are a few shots not shown above. Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left of right side of the photo to move through the gallery.