Ken Steinhoff, Author at Cape Girardeau History and Photos

January 17, 2014

The Folsoms

One of the blessings and curses of Facebook is the feature that tells you who has a birthday coming up. Seeing Linda Folsom’s name pop up reminded me that I had run across this photo of her in a box last summer. The original was a Polaroid taken by her brother, Steve.

I made a deal with Steve

Linda and I dated briefly (the briefly part was her idea). Steve was a fellow photographer on either The Tiger or The Girardot (or both), so I cut him a deal: I’d give him a roll of Tri-X 35mm film for him to shoot informal candids of Linda.

(Whenever I tried to take her picture, she’d threaten to pummel me with my Pentax, something I noticed girls, including Future Wife Lila, were prone to do.)

Steve is the guy with Central’s most unique eyebrows on the left. You’ll have to go to my Mad Men of CHS post to get the IDs of the other guys.

Rat Fink Steve didn’t bring back 36 photos of Linda. In fact, he must have used the roll for something else, because all I got was the single Polaroid above. I wouldn’t tell him, but I always liked the way he captured her smile.

Other Steve photos

Steve the debater
Steve in the Red Dagger play. I think he’s in shots 18, 67, 69 and 70, but I’m not sure about all of them.

The Twin Game

Linda had a twin sister, Laura. The night I walked up to the door for our first date, Linda and Laura played the twin game with me, challenging me to pick the right one. Their grandfather, who must have seen this game before, was standing behind them. He give me the high sign without them seeing him. It wasn’t long before I didn’t need the grandfather’s clue to tell them apart.

Laura is the girl on the far right in the front row of the bus headed to an out-of-town debate trip. This link has a bunch of the students identified by readers. Click on the photo to make it larger.

Betty Folsom

I was looking for some photos of the twins’ mother, Betty, who taught English and Journalism. I came up blank on any photos, but I DID find this press pass she signed for me.

It was fun reading the Facebook comments of the younger relatives of Linda, Laura and Steve who had never seen the trio in their high school days.

January 16, 2014

Downtown from the Air

When I ran the picture of the Town Plaza from the 1962 Girardot, I commented that the shopping center wasn’t much different than downtown’s Main Street, except that it had ample and free parking.

That got me to thinking of this 2011 aerial of the Old Town Cape shopping area. You don’t realize how compact Cape Girardeau is until you see that downtown was essentially bounded by Broadway on the north and Independence on the south. Themis hit a dead end at Spanish at the foot of the Common Pleas Courthouse hill. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

Not a lot of changes

There are a few buildings gone and a few new buildings, but the aerials from the middle to late 1960s look remarkably like the 2011 photo.

This post has a collection of links to stories about Main Street businesses.

January 16, 2014

Town Plaza Shopping Center

I usually don’t run photos that aren’t mine, but I saw this ad in my 1962 Girardot and figured the list of businesses would trigger some memories. The shopping center turned 50 in 2010, if you want to feel old.

Western expansion was a reason for the success of the Town Plaza, but I suspect the biggest draw (other than being the New Thing) was ample free parking. Outside of that, it was a row of businesses, just like Main Street.

The Mall killed the Town Plaza

The Westpark Mall offered what the Town Plaza didn’t: an inclosed shopping area where you could go from store to store in climate-controlled comfort. It was a destination where you could eat, sit and people-watch as well as shopping, all without sweating or freezing.

This aerial, looking to the northwest toward I-55, was taken April 17, 2011. Click on the photos to see more detail

Hitt Cemetery

Mother and I were on our way home from Advance or somewhere southwest of Cape when I spotted a side road I didn’t recognize near Arbor. I turned north on CR 262, then took a quick right onto CR 261. I found Hitt Cemetery on the south side of the road about a mile further on, just before you get to a curve.

A cold day in December

It was a cold day in December 2011, the shadows were getting long and the wind was whipping around. I put the Hitt Cemetery down on my list for a warmer day, but I haven’t been back down CR 261 since then.

Someone named Valerie Holifield took the time to document 75 of the graves in the cemetery. Sue Kinder wasn’t listed because Ms. Holifield did her survey in 2002.

I’m intrigued by photos

I’ve been collecting pictures of tombstones with photos on them. Hitt had at least two.

A splash of color

The Dunning marker brought a splash of color to the cold day.

The Find a Grave website has 83 internments listed, with photos of about 41% of them.

Author: Ken Steinhoff