Cape Girardeau History and Photos

September 11, 2013

TWA before the TSA

I’m scratching my head trying to figure out where this airport was located. It was in a different era, for sure. (You can click on the photo to make it larger.)

There are no fancy jetways to protect you from the elements.
Most of the men are wearing ties, if not coats.
Passengers are wandering around the tarmac.
The observation deck is filled with spectators.

“Indian” something

When I blew up the tower (let’s rephrase that – When I enlarged the tower…), it looks like the word “Indian” is written on its side. It might be that part of the sign is cut off by the TWA terminal. I wonder if it says Indianapolis?

The photo was taken on March 27, 1967, but I can’t remember taking any trips involving flying around then. I made a trip out to see Jim Stone at Ohio University over spring break before transferring there in the fall, but I usually went to Athens by car or train.

I attended a National Press Photographers Association Flying Short Course in Peoria when I was still in Cape, but I distinctly remember taking the train to get there.

I didn’t start flying on a regular basis until the railroads killed off passenger service and the airlines started offering half-fare student standby tickets to hook a generation on air travel.

September 9, 2013

Colorful Fairs

The Southeast Missouri District Fair is in progress right now, so it is appropriate that I stumbled across these two color frames from a fair or carnival.

The only catch is that I don’t know for sure where they were taken. The slides were in the middle of some Cape negatives from the early 1960s, so I’m going to guess they were from the SEMO Fair.

They all run together

After you’ve shot midways for four decades in four states (more if you count bordering states in our circulation areas), they all start to blur together. Click on the photos to make them larger.

Here are some earlier stories and photos:

September 9, 2013

Roy Glass: 1931 – 2013

Roy Glass, 81, of Jackson, died Friday, September 6, 2013, at the Missouri Veterans Home. He served as principal of Alma Schrader School for 21 years.

I photographed him in 2010 when the school celebrated its 50th anniversary. The Missourian’s September 8 obituary read, in part, “He was born Oct. 3, 1931, in Biggers, Ark., son of Raymond H. and Nancy Hudgins Glass. Roy was a corporal in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.

Roy was an avid Cardinals fan, and enjoyed John Wayne movies and cattle farming.

Survivors include his wife, Iverne Glass of Jackson; a son, Kevin (Ann) Glass of Bowling Green, Mo.; a daughter, Marilyn (Kevin) Perego of Ballwin, Mo.; a brother, Douglas (Yvonne) Glass of Williamsville, N.Y.; seven grandchildren, Neil Glass, Kyle Glass, Kent Glass, Jeni Glass, Andy Glass, Paige Perego and Matt Perego; and six great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents; a son, Ron Glass; and two brothers, Bill and Jim.

[Editor’s note: I don’t know when Missourian obits became so informal. We would never have referred to the deceased by a first name when I was writing them.]

Grandson used to play in gym

At the 50th anniversary, Roy’s grandson, Neil Glass, third from left, director of administrative services, said he used to ask his grandfather for the keys to the school so he could play in the gym when he was a kid.

“I hope you don’t get in trouble for that,” he joked. “I didn’t turn on the lights,” he added.

Signs and Superstitions

This motorcycle wreck on Hwy 51 near Lutesville in July 1967 didn’t make the paper. It might have been because the wreck was at the edge of our circulation area or it might have been that the wreck wasn’t all that serious.

The main reason, though, is that I didn’t have the rights lens or the right skills yet to make a good piece of “sign” art.

Elements needed to be closer

Unfortunately, the “Prepare to Meet Thy God” sign was just too small to be read.

This might have been the start of my superstitions and hunches. When I moved to Florida, lots and lots of cars had “Arrive Alive” bumper stickers on them. I shot so many of those things on wrecks they became cliches. I refused to put one on my car because that was just tempting fate.

I did a number of stories about houses that burned down on the day the homeowner brought home a smoke alarm, but held off installing it. I made it a point to ALWAYS put up the smoke alarm with fresh batteries as soon as it hit the door. I didn’t want some photographer doing that story about me.

Hunches and feelings

I also paid attention to “feelings” and hunches. I can think of a couple of times when I started to walk into a hot spot news scene only to turn back to grab my body armor out of the trunk. I never needed it, but I could see myself in a hospital bed wearing all kinds of tubes and wires telling a reporter, “I had this hunch…..” That vision was the convincer.

I pushed the envelope in a lot of situations, but never when I had that bad feeling alarm bell ringing. Well, ALMOST never. I guess you can get away with a certain number of false alarms.