Photos around Cape Archives

April 29, 2014

SEMO at Night

I had to do a quick honk ‘n’ wave trip to St. Louis to get something from Brother Mark; then I had to talk Wife Lila through a computer issue. On the way over to Sis-in-Law Marty’s house to break the news that an error message means that her hard drive is terminal, I stopped off to wish Altenburg Museum Director Carla Jordan a safe trip to Baxter Springs to help out in the aftermath of the tornado there. Her family is OK, but there are a lot of people who need support.

So, that meant I was scrambling for something to post. When in doubt, go cruising in the dark.

Kent Library is celebrating its 75th Anniversary. Mary Christy asked if she could use some of my pictures from the 1960s on the library celebration Facebook page, so the library has been on my mind.

True confession time: I couldn’t find a place to park, so I put on the four-way flashers and knocked off a few frames of Kent Library and Academic Hall. I didn’t even bother to set up a tripod or deal with the funky color balance.

Academic Hall still impressive

If I had taken more time to work on the exposure, you would have been able to see the new dome better.

I was afraid I’d get caught parking illegally, which might mean being incarcerated in the Advanced Wrestling class I was supposed to attend when all the other PE electives were full in 1966. I think my decision to transfer to Ohio University was done less because they had a good photo program, than because they didn’t require PE.

A building with clean, strong lines

I appreciate the clean, strong lines of Academic Hall. It looks the way a public building SHOULD look.

Click on any photo to make it larger.

April 28, 2014May 22, 2021

Pleasant Hill Presbyterian

While we were on our ramble to find the Cape Girardeau Northern Railroad depot in Fruitland, and and being distracted by dandelions, we ended up on 541 east of Hwy 61 on a lane that took us up to the Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church. The door was locked, so I couldn’t go inside.

Church established in 1838

A sign in front of the well-preserved church proclaimed it was established in 1838.

Cemetery dates to 1839

A stone in the cemetery said it was established a year after the church

Visitor register in mailbox

I opened a mailbox marked “Visitors,” expecting to find a brochure or other information about the church. Instead, there was a notebook started in 1990 where visitors could leave messages.

Dialog with the dead

I leafed through a few pages of the molding and watermarked notebook and found that many of the writers had left what could best be described as dialogues with the dead. After awhile, I felt like I was intruding, listening to a private conversation at the next dinner table, and I put the book back.

It was the first time I’ve encountered that.

Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church photo gallery

If you want to know more about the church, Pleasant Hill and Fruitland, James Baughn did a great job of covering those subjects back in 2012. Rather than doing a bunch of cutting and pasting and pretending I was doing research, I encourage you to visit his blog.

Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys or click on the sides of the photos to move through the gallery.

April 26, 2014

Missing Tooth on Broadway

I’ve made a dozen or more trips down Broadway since I’ve been in town without noticing it, but some cleared land at the corner of Broadway and Sunset, just down the hill from Southeast Hospital, finally gave me that “missing tooth” feeling today.

The first person I asked said they hadn’t noticed anything missing, but they normally didn’t drive that way to work. Another said, “I saw something was gone, but I can’t remember what was there.”

While I was shooting this, some workmen showed up to handle erosion control. One of them said the building that was on the corner might have been a dentist’s office at one time, and had been used, he though, for the nursing school before it moved out on William.

Google Streetview showed a fairly large brick building with 1819 on the front of it. The 1968 City Directory lists Dr. Paul G. Wolff, physician and surgeon, at that address.

The worker thought the hospital was going to use the space to construct a new entrance. At least they spared the large tree to the right of the photo (for now). You can click on the photo to make it larger.

April 25, 2014

Dancing in the Trees

Brother Mark and I have been looking at the trees around Mother’s house for some time. There are a lot of dead branches that could cause problems. I cut up a big one that had fallen during the winter, but there were plenty more just waiting to fall on the power line or roof. Here’s a Before shot of a maple tree that was planted when we moved into the house over half a century ago. You can see the dead branches.

I was working in the basement when Mother hollered downstairs that the tree trimmers from the power company were there. To be honest, I expected the hatrackers usually associated with utility company trimmers, and I didn’t expect them to be very flexible.

Florida Power and Light delivered excuses

The power line running along our back property line in Florida had a lot of growth around it since the 2005 hurricane season, so we called Florida Power & Light this winter to see if they could trim it back before hurricane season. (We pay to have a mango tree on the line trimmed by an arborist just to keep it from being hacked up.)

When they showed up, they said that trimming the vegetation was our problem because it wasn’t a main line. “This isn’t our service loop,” I pointed out,” this line feeds every house in this block.” Several weeks went by and I figured we had lost the battle, but some guys with chain saws finally showed up.

Shade Tree Service Company

Much to my pleasant surprise, the guys working for The Shade Tree Service Company out of Fenton were super nice to deal with. They told Mother what they planned to do, assured her they weren’t going to do anything to harm the trees and told her they’d clean up any mess they made. They also had a sticker on the side of the truck that said they were Professional Utility Arborists and members of the National Arborist Association and the International Society of Arborculture.

What was better was that they said they’d trim the dead branches out of the maple tree because they could fall on her service loop if they blew down. When they started cutting, I told them they could leave the larger pieces for me to cut up for firewood. They not only agreed to do that, but they offered to stack it. Since I had to cut into shorter lengths, I said that wouldn’t be necessary.

Artists in buckets

The guys in the buckets were artists of weaving their way between the power, cable and phone cables. After watching them hold chainsaws at arms length and grapple with logs that made a heavy THUNKKK!! when they hit the ground, I decided I wouldn’t challenge any of them to arm wrestle.

A tip of my hard hat to them

It has long been established that lumberjack is not on my list of possible occupations.

Tree trimming photo gallery

Here are random photos of the tree trimming project, including an After shot of the maple tree. They did a nice job. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the sides of the photo or use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.