Cape Girardeau History and Photos

November 3, 2012

Pride Goeth Before a Bird Cage

Having my photos exhibited at the Lutheran Heritage Cultural Center and Museum and speaking at the Immigration Conference in Altenburg and a DAR meeting in Cape is heady stuff for a newspaper photographer. Every time I start thinking I’m going to have to go out and buy a bigger hat, I return to my roots.

I’ve had days when I shot a photo I really liked: it captured the essence of a moment or the soul of the subject. I’d pull back and bask in that proud moment when I are sure that I have produced something of lasting value.

Then, I’d go to the first assignment the next day and see my photo staring up from the bottom of a bird cage or spread out on the floor for a dog’s duty.

That goes a long way toward keeping you humble.

Show ends November 9

Carla Jordan and her staff tell me that a fair number of my readers have made the pretty drive to Altenburg. For any of you who have been putting it off, better saddle up. The show is coming down November 9 or thereabouts to make way for the annual Christmas Tree exhibit.

Friend Shari is bring some of her St. Louis friends down to see the pictures, so I’m going to hang out with them in Altenburg for awhile Saturday afternoon. I’m not exactly sure when we’re going to be there or how long we’ll be around, but you can call the museum at 573-824-6070 to see if we’ve been there yet, are there or have left.

There are two 2013 calendars, a Tower Rock Book and a catalog of the exhibit photos on sale in the gift shop. (They will also do mail order.) Here is more information about how you can obtain the publications. There are also a limited number of prints available.

Photo gallery of exhibit pictures

Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery gallery.

November 1, 2012

Sunset at Fruitland Intersection

If Facebook is any indication, everyone I know in Southeast Missouri took a picture of the first sunset of November 2012. I saw some nice light playing over fields and barns on the way home from Perry County, but most of the time I was looking directly into the glare of the setting sun every time the road took a twist to the west.

It wasn’t until I was coming up on the light at the U.S. 61 and I-55 intersection that I had a chance to actually look at the sky. A second after I grabbed my camera, the light turned green and I had to go. Still, there was enough time to snap off a couple of frames.

I wonder the the driver of the pickup speeding by on the Interstate appreciated the sky or if he (she) merely pulled down the sun visor to block the rays, more concerned with feeding the belly than the soul? Click on the photo to make it larger. (Unless, of course, you’re headed to the kitchen for a snack.)

October 31, 2012

Grace Pumpkin Patch Countdown

1,396 pumpkins on the lawn, take one down, pass it around, 1,395 pumpkins on the lawn.

That’s the way it has been going since 1,396 pumpkins arrived at the Grace United Methodist Church’s Grace Pumpkin Patch on Oct. 6.I didn’t do an actual count, but I don’t think more than about three dozen were left.

Jim Englehart wheels a monster pumpkin out to the van for Riley, 8, and Delaney Daugherty, 5. This guy was at the top end of the $3 to $30 price range and was the last of the big boys left on Halloween afternoon.

Come from New Mexico

The pumpkins come from an Indian reservation in New Mexico and are raised for a wide variety of churches and charitable organizations. The growers set the price based on size and the organizations get a percentage of the sale money. They don’t have to pay for any that go unsold. Anything left over after Halloween are destined for an Illinois hog farm, I was told by Marilyn and Barb Kinsey. The Patch has been selling pumpkins for about a dozen years.

Pumpkin Patch photo gallery

Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery.

October 31, 2012June 20, 2016

Hecht’s “Poof”

Some members of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri journeyed to Altenburg to see my photo exhibit and liked what they saw. I stopped by the gallery at 32 North Main Tuesday to see what we might work out in 2013ish. I was very flattered by their comments.

But, that’s not the reason for this post. (By the way, click on the photos to make them larger.)

Does this look familiar?

“Did that come from where I think it did?” I asked Gallery Board Chair Lori Ann Kinder.

“Hecht’s. I had it recovered in a more neutral color so it would fit in better here.”

She said they call it “Poof.” Nobody knew the official spelling of poof, so we’ll go with “Poof.”

When I wrote about Hecht’s in 2010, many of the readers mentioned Poof. We all remembered it as Red on the Male Color Chart Scale, which contains only Primary Colors. I thought it was made of some slick material, but everyone else voted velvet. They’re probably right.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

I kept waiting for Richard Dreyfuss to come sliding in looking for the strange mountain-like object in front of me like he did in Close Encounters.

Like Dreyfuss in the movie, I kept staring at it. Puzzling away at it.

Something wasn’t quite right. When I was a little kid parked on the thing while Mother did whatever Mothers do in a fancy dress shop, I could have sworn the thing was 8 feet tall. I’m pretty sure I never tried to scale Cape’s dress shop Matterhorn – I might not have been able to see Mother, but there’s no doubt that she could see ME – but I’m sure it would have taken Sherpas and supplemental oxygen to make it to the top had I gotten up enough nerve.

Today’s Poof is tiny in comparison. I could stand next to it and look over the top of it, making it somewhere in the 5-foot range or less. Lori Ann swore she hadn’t had the top 3 or 4 feet lopped off.

Better see exhibit soon

If you want to see my photo exhibit in Altenburg, better go soon. It’s coming down around November 9 to make room for the annual Christmas tree exhibit. There are plenty of calendars and show catalogs left over from the Immigration Conference last week. There are also a limited number of prints from the show available. If you go up this weekend, you might catch me there.