FL Van Sees Snow; Surrenders

Snow - Kingsway Dr - 01-20-2016My Odyssey van took a dusting of snow on Tuesday afternoon in stride, even making me switch the heated seat setting from High to Low and turn down the heater.

Predictions had been all over the place for the days leading up to the “snow event,” as the TV folks like to dub it. At first, we were going to get a mix of sleet and freezing rain; then they thought snow would be 1-2 inches, then 2-4, then 4-6, and once it went all the way up to 10-12, before dialing back to 6-8 or thereabouts. In reality, I doubt if we got more than two inches.

“Asking for a friend”

Since I’d been gone a bit, the cupboards were mostly bare. (Question: if you’ve had milk in the fridge for, say, six or eight weeks, and it has lumpy stuff floating on the top of it, is it safe to call it cottage cheese and eat it if you pour on enough sugar? As Bill Hopkins would say, “Asking for a friend.”) Even I know that if something in a plastic zipper bag has something green growing in it like these plants at the old Plaza Galleria, it is best to carry it outside immediately.

I wasn’t looking forward to braving the lines in the stores to stock up, but it wasn’t too crazy. I DID note a lot of bread, milk, chips and toilet paper in the baskets fore and aft. I didn’t see much beer or booze, however. I guess Cape folks keep plenty of that on hand just in case someone slips Prohibition back into the lawbooks without anybody noticing.

“I give up! Take me home”

Snow - Kingsway Dr - 01-20-2016What did I see the next morning? My poor van was holding up its little arms like a dying cockroach and begging to leave the land of Wind Chill to go back to a place where they talk about the Heat Index in January.

Actually, the idea of lifting my wipers was something Kid Matt passed on: “The lifting the wipers thing seems a new trend based on this article from Cleveland. Everyone in Oregon and Washington seemed to be doing it…”

I’m not sure I’d do that in a parking lot where it might tempt vandals, but I was cool doing it in my driveway. I didn’t go anywhere today, so I didn’t test how well it worked. We’re supposed to get some indeterminate amount of snow Thursday and Friday, so I’ll get another shot at it.

It BETTER snow this winter. I bought 50 pounds of ice melt. The way the woodpile is going down, I may be trading it for firewood soon.

Glued to the Zenith

Albert Underwood, Bill Hopkins, Linda Folsom watch TV in Steinhoff basementThere are some things I know about this photo, and a lot of stuff I don’t know.

What I think I know

  1. It was taken in the Steinhoff family basement.
  2. That’s our Zenith television. You can see the antenna rotor control on the top left of the set.
  3. We’re probably watching KFVS because the picture looks reasonably sharp.
  4. I’m pretty sure that’s Albert Underwood on the left, Bill Hopkins on the floor and Linda Folsom on the right.
  5. It’s probably 1963 or 1964.

What I don’t know

  1. Who the girl on the left is. I sort of want to say Margaret Randol, based on the hairstyle, but that’s a wild guess.
  2. Why they are watching TV at my house. Underwood was a year or more ahead of me and was on the school’s photo staff, but we didn’t run around together. Hopkins was the ineffective (or corrupt) campaign manager who handled / mishandled my unsuccessful student body presidential run. Linda Folsom and I dated briefly (her choice). It’s a strange combination of people to be engrossed in a TV show.
  3. What they are watching so intently. It doesn’t appear to be a news program.

Rerun: Santa Mystery Solved

Shopper eyes Santa Claus in Cape Girardeau (actually Jackson)As promised, I’m taking a short break over the holidays and offering up rerun links to older posts.

This story about Christmas shoppers from December 9, 2009, was one of my earliest posts. I made some guesses about where they might have been taken in Cape.

It set the tone for all my posts to follow:

  1. I got most of the facts wrong
  2. My readers went to great lengths to prove I was wrong and to provide the correct information.

By December 12,  Brother Mark, Bill Hopkins, Chuck Blitstein, Jesse James and Brenda Bone Lapp chimed in with opinions, speculation and photographs, but it took The Missourian team of Fred Lynch and Cathy Hancock to determine the photos were taken in Jackson, not Cape.

Hey, close is good enough in horseshoes, hand grenades and nuclear war; I mean I was only seven miles off, give or take?

We know where this is

Rexall Drugs in Jackson, MOBy December 14, the Fred and Cathy team helped figure out where in Jackson these photos were taken, too. Jim Vangilder filled in more blanks.

After that, I wasn’t afraid to post mystery photos. With few exceptions, someone always stepped up to the plate to provide the (maybe) correct information.

This is one of those exceptions: nobody has come up with who these cheerleader-looking types are.

 

 

The Bill and Ruby Show

Bill Hopkins and Ruby Davis at Central High School c 1964Speech teacher and debate coach Ruby Davis was a diminutive force to be reckoned with. She was on the short list of teachers who had a major impact on my life, even if my Swampeast Missouri twang drove her to despair. As I’ve mentioned before, she could dectect the “r” in “warsh” at a hundred yards, even if you were whispering.

She never discouraged my political ambition to be President of the United States in 1984 – the earliest year the Constitution said I could serve – even though she cringed when I told her that I would invite her to Warshington to see me sworn in.

This series of two photos is a chicken-and-egg conundrum. I’m not sure which came first. Bill Hopkins’ sneak attack on Ruby (which was immediately picked up by the eyes in the back of her head) or the next shot.

You don’t mess with Ruby

Bill Hopkins and Ruby Davis at Central High School c 1964I’m betting the retaliation photo was the second in the sequence.

So far as I know, no students nor teachers were harmed in the filming of this encounter.

I’m sure Ruby would be happy to know that I gave up my dream of being POTUS after campaign manager Bill Hopkins torpedoed my chances of even making it to President of the Student Body.

She would be even more surprised to learn that Bill – someone she probably thought would be lucky to become a bartender – actually became a member of the bar and a judge who was never indicted. (So far as I know.)