February 2014

February 24, 2014

SEMO Track Meet

Like I mentioned in another track story, the boys and girls of spring didn’t get a lot of attention. Their sports usually took place after the yearbooks closed, and they didn’t have the hoopla of basketball, football and even baseball.

I’m pretty sure this shot won some prize or another in a photo contest, but I can’t remember which one. I suspect it was less because it was a great shot (although I do like the falling hurdle), but for the fact that it doesn’t show any wardrobe malfunctions. It’s almost a cliche shot, but one of the reasons that some phrases and photos become cliches is that they tend to work.

Track meet photo gallery

Since I’m short on info, I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. Click on any picture to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.

February 22, 2014January 2, 2025

Missourian Picnic

This Missourian picnic was held August 12, 1967, right before I packed up to head to Athens, Ohio, for school. Since it wasn’t a paying assignment (and I was buying my own film), I shot the event with my half-frame camera that got two shots to every 35mm frame. That’s one of the reasons the quality is a little shaky.

This must have been a picnic for back shop production employees. I don’t recognize any editorial types lurking around and they have an uncanny ability to sniff out free food.

Picnic photo gallery

Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery. The Missourian’s production folks were like family because, in a lot of cases, they were. Unlike the newsroom which had lots of turnover with young folks paying their dues and moving on to bigger papers, the composing and press staffs were in for the long haul. I liked working with them and learned a lot that helped me at other papers.

February 21, 2014

Natatorium from the Air

This April 17, 2011, aerial shows just how close to the Natatorium the cement plant’s quarry has advanced over the years. The main section is at its maximum depth and the plant is starting to strip off the overburden on the north and west sides to expand in that direction.

The plant’s manager told me that he’s doing everything he can to keep from taking the tiny plot of ground the old indoor pool sits on. Click on the photo to make it larger.

Earlier Natatorium stories

February 21, 2014

When Men Wore Hats

I’ve worn baseball caps, cowboy hats, firefighter helmets, bike helmets and riot helmets, but I never had a traditional hat like this dandy in the 1934 Girardot is sporting.

My first thought in seeing the ad for Bohnsack’s – “A Clothing Store for Men and Boys” – was that the man with the hat and mustache was Clark Gable. It might have been Gable, but he didn’t REALLY become famous until Gone with the Wind, which hit the screen in 1939, long after the yearbook was published.

Bohnsack’s had become Sherman Ladies Fashions by 1968, and that address was listed as William Brothers’ Curtis Mathis TV, Linens and Gifts in the 1979 City Directory.

Other businesses on the page

Lueders Studio survived well into the 1990s, based on family photos we had taken there.
Suedekum & Sons has returned to its original roots as Meyer Supply company, but it’s still in the same place and it’s been serving the community for more than a century.
Finney’s Drug Store was still listed in the 1979 City Directory, but Google’s Street View shows it as an empty storefront today.