Photos around Cape Archives

September 8, 2015

Wimpy’s As We Remember It

A couple of young newlyweds stopped by the house to talk about buying Mother’s 1977 Datsun pickup truck. Mother would tell us that she could count on two or three lookers a year for as long as it’s been parked there, but she’d always tell the prospective buyers that she was going to be buried in it. When the time came, we measured the truck, then we measured the available plot and decided that it wouldn’t work.

Anyway these kids were real Datsun fans and promised to restore it for actual driving as opposed to cannibalizing it for parts. Mark, David and I said we’d consider selling it to them on the condition that when it was in running order they’d drive by the cemetery and give Mother and Dad a couple beeps to let them know it had found a good home. But, more about that later if and when it’s a done deal.

Another visitor showed up

While the kids and I were swapping Datsun stories (I can’t remember if I owned three or four of them), another car pulled into the driveway. It was Terry Rose Crowell, from CHS Class of 1965. She asked if I was going to be in town Saturday, September 19.

I’m getting to the age where I don’t feel comfortable making plans that far in advance, but I allowed as how the possibilities were good.

She asked me how many tickets to the Wimpy’s event I needed. I said the only Road Warriorette close enough to go with me was Friend Shari in St. Louis, so I wouldn’t need more than two.

(When I called Friend Shari, she said she wasn’t sure if she could make it. Something about washing her hair.)

Lewis family to cook from original recipe

Here are details about the event that were posted on the Centenary United Methodist Church website:

Save the date for Wimpy’s night at Centenary and open house. On Saturday, September 19 from 11:00am to 2:00pm, the Lewis family and Centenary will be bringing back the original recipe, hometown favorite hamburgers. $10 will get you two classic Wimpy burgers, fries and a drink. Spread the word, bring your friends and family, then take them on a tour of our newly renovated campus. Volunteers are needed. Please contact Terry Crowell at 573-382-1123 for information.

The CHS 1960s email list said you could also contact Billy Sisco at Sisco’s Barber Shop (573-335-3545) for tickets. I saw somewhere else that only 600 tickets will be sold, so you’d better get yours while you still can.

I might have prints available

If I can find someone in Cape who can make some prints at a reasonable price, I may bring some to the event. I’m thinking of an 8×10 composite print of Wimpy’s as it looked in 1966. I won’t know a price until I find out how much they cost to produce.

September 5, 2015

739 Themis Street

Looks like some substantial improvements are being made to an apartment building at 739 Themis street. I used to visit Nowell’s Camera Store’s star salesman, Marty, at that address. It was there I was introduced to music by Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.

Here are some Missourian briefs about some of the other residents.

August 24, 1937 – Miss Ona Wright, 739 Themis street, and Miss Mary Childress, 314 North Fountain street, went to St. Louis Sunday to spend a few days and attend the Municipal Opera.

March 24, 1945 – Seaman First Class Vern E. Owens, 22, a son of Mrs. Esther Owens, 739 Themis street, was among the survivors of the escort carrier Bismarck Sea, which, it was announced today, was sunk by enemy action Feb. 21 off Iwo Jima. His mother, of the news staff of The Missourian, received a letter dated March 17, from him Friday and had previously received a letter dated March 6. Both letters said he was well, but, presumably for security reasons, he made no mention of the sinking of the carrier.

June 26, 1947 – G.A. Kassel, 120 North Ellis, today observed his 80th birthday anniversary, and a family supper at the home of a daughter, Mrs. Leo Wagner, 739 Themis street, this evening will formally celebrate the anniversary. Mr. Kassel, still enjoying good health, remains active in his photographic studio at the Ellis street address. [Note: the Wagner’s appear in Missourian briefs frequently from the mid-1930s on.]

The Women’s Center and Safe House occupied the building starting in 1978.

September 4, 2015

Bad News, Good News

The bad news is that a week or so ago, I cruised down Sprigg to Good Hope and notice that the top left side of the old Cape Cut Rate building had collapsed onto the street and sidewalk. The east wall looked like it was bulging out where its neighbor was gone like a piece of coconut cream pie with a slice missing.

I told my passenger I had better get back there before there was nothing but a pile of rubble left. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

The good news

The good news is that when I went down there Thursday afternoon, the damage had been repaired. Maybe someone has plans to save the old landmark building.

The sign that used to hang over the sidewalk is gone. The only trace I could find of it was a piece of cable that used to hold it up.

Here’s a post that has lots of links to earlier stories about the Haarig District.

September 3, 2015September 3, 2015

Random Football Pictures

I guess this just goes to show that it’s not a good idea to store prints in an attic where the summer temperatures approach Fahrenheit 451 (the ignition point of paper) and the winter falls to just north of Absolute Zero at which point all molecular activity stops (or something like that).

Marks on the back make it look like some of the prints were for The Sagamore. Others might have been for The Missourian. Still others might have been “seconds” or “rejects,” pictures I didn’t know were too bad to use until I actually saw the print.

Ektamatic Process

Another reason the photos have deteriorated so much is that I experimented with using an Kodak Ektamatic processor to keep from having to slosh photo paper in developer, stop bath, fixer, and then wash and dry it. In theory, you would feed your print into a machine containing a series of rollers that would run it through an activator solution, then a stabilizing chemical. As they exited the final roller set, the print was “almost” dry.

In fact, the processor never produced the quality of a chemical print, and the paper never fully dried. Even Kodak admitted the process would produce prints “where quality images are necessary, but long-term keeping is not.” I have a couple of boxes of Ektamatic prints and contact sheets that have turned into a paper brick.

After finding that I couldn’t use the processor as intended, I used the rollers to squeeze out most of the water from the prints so they’d dry faster on a conventional dryer.

Photo gallery

I have no idea if these are all SEMO games or if some high school action is mixed in. Click on any image to make it larger, then use the arrow keys to move through the gallery.