Category: Photos around Cape

Photos taken in and around Cape Girardeau, MO

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“Not Mallory,” What’s the Story?

I’m a sucker for graffiti and unanswered question. I also like to watch people and try to make up stories about them to pass the time in airports and shopping malls.

Bro Mark and I used to play a game. We’d sit somewhere to gauge the interaction between two people at a nearby table. We’d watch their body language and try to determine if they were a new couple, a couple on a first date, if they were just friends, if they were headed for a breakup (or in the middle of the one at that moment). Once, to the dismay of someone who was with Mark, we flipped a coin to see who would walk over to the table to see whose theory was correct. His date won (or lost) the flip, but refused to go, so I was elected.

Of course, I reported back that my theory was correct: they were on a first date. That’s why she was laughing at his jokes they were both learning forward toward each other and they were gazing deeply into the other person’s eyes.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. They had been going together for some time. They were just disgustingly infatuated with each other.

Who is “Not Mallory?”

So, what’s the story behind the chalked message “Not Mallory, Will you give me a second chance?” [Click to make larger.]

Did someone scream out the name “Mallory!” at an inopportune time with they weren’t WITH Mallory? Is that why “Not Mallory” is being addressed?  Did “Not Mallory” give the person a second chance?

Speculation welcome.

In case you didn’t recognize the location, that’s the floodwall on the right and the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge in the background.

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Fountain Street Community Garden and Robert Harris

I was riding my bike through South Cape when I spotted the Fountain Street Community Garden not far from Fort D. I had seen it before, but it’s a lot easier to pull your bike up on the sidewalk and go exploring than it is to park your car.

Flowers and food

I’m not someone who is good at identifying plants. I divide the world of green into poison ivy and not poison ivy. I DID recognize tomato plants that didn’t appear to have any tomatoes on them and hordes of okra.

I know what okra is because Daughter-in-Law Sarah was the second Okrafest Queen in the small Central Florida town Apopka. It’s only been in the last couple of years that she’s dispensed with the requirement that we bow and curtsey in her presence.

Robert Harris, a remarkable man

When researching the history of the garden, I ran across a number of stories about Robert Harris, a bus driver with the Cape Girardeau School District and a Master Gardener. The man helped create the Cape Girardeau Community Garden Project beginning with this plot of land. Later, he took over the Red Star Baptist Church garden on North Main Street. The vegetables, one story said, goes to senior citizens or people with health conditions unable to leave their homes. Some of the vegetables, including squash, tomatoes and green beans are left in small bins next to the gardens for anyone who needs them.

Here are just a few of the Missourian stories and editorials about Mr. Harris. I would like to have met him. Comments to stories generally contain at least one disparaging or contentious remark. It’s worth noting that there’s not one negative comment in any of the stories about Mr. Harris. Every one is effusive in praise for this man whose life’s mission is to help others.

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Isle Casino Cape Girardeau Construction Update

I was riding my bike north on the new (to me) river trail that ends at Sloan Creek. I could hear construction equipment on the land side of the floodwall, so I welcomed an opportunity to go up a gravel road leading to the top of the levee to take a peek. Here’s what I saw. This is on the north end of the Casino construction zone. (You can click on the photo to make it larger.)

Aerial from April

This is what the area looked like in April. The recent photo was taken just south of the power substation in this picture. You can see the white concrete river trail running along the water’s edge. Where the concrete seawall ends and the earthen levee begins, it jogs to the east. Just beyond it, you can see the gravel access road I went up. The photo was taken on the south end of the gravel area, looking slightly southwest.

Here are other casino area aerial photos taken in April 2011 and November 2010.

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Esicar’s Auction Aug. 21

Rumors have become reality. The building that housed Cape Girardeau’s landmark business, Esicar’s, will be sold at auction Aug. 21 at noon. Missourian business reporter Melissa Miller wrote that the three-story building, its contents and the one-acre site it sits on will be sold. Included in the items up for sale is Esicar’s original brass cash register, antique furniture, meat processing equipment, coolers, and a concession trailer.

This will be the end

A business like Esicar’s can survive one owner change, but I gather from comments that I’ve read and heard that the current owner didn’t have the loyal following of the original family.

When it’s sold this time, it’s going to be like the classic story of the man who was offered an axe owned by George Washington. The prospective buyer hefted it and said, “It looks awfully new to have belonged to George Washington.”

“Well, to be honest, it’s had three new handles and two heads since Washington used it.”

I think the Esicar spirit left the building well in advance of the auction. I’m going to predict that an entirely different business will go into the building when it’s all over.

Earlier links

I admit never having been a fan of Esicar’s and was taken to task by my readers. You’d have thought I had said that McDonald’s was better than the Blue Hole.

I speculated that Esicar’s was closed because the store didn’t show any signs of life.

 

 

 

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