Cape Girardeau History and Photos

July 4, 2012July 4, 2012

Fireworks and Fishing

Fireworks and fishing are a lot alike: just as soon as you pack up your equipment, good stuff starts happening.

Mother and I cruised down to the riverfront just before dusk hoping that we’d see some fireworks. There was a long, slow freight southbound loaded with coal when we got to Water Street. When the train rumbled clear, I spotted Emily Sheets (Class of ’13) and Billy Leighton looking intently along the tracks. (Click on any photo to make it larger.)

“Looking for coins, I bet. I doubt you’re going to find any after a train like that, but if you go to this website (handing her a card) and scroll back a few days, you’ll see what happens when you put a coin on the tracks.”

Emily has good instincts

A woman started to take this picture of this man and little boy. Emily stopped her coin hunt and offered to take a photo of the three of them together. I was impressed. I liked the way she sized up the situation and volunteered her services. I usually make the same offer, but Emily beat me to the punch. (Youngsters have faster reflexes.)

Full Moon

Wife Lila said the moonrise in Florida was perfect: big moon and clear skies. I remarked to a guy standing next to me that it was a little hazy coming up here.

“That’s not haze. That’s a layer of mosquitoes over in Illinos.”

He wasn’t kidding. Moments after the moon came up, we were swarmed by big, slow movers. I had two of them sucking blood out of my left thumb at the same time. That is NOT conducive to making sharp photos at slow shutter speeds. I could deal with their stabbing me, but the flapping of their wings caused my camera to bounce.

Roman candles

I was disappointed that not many folks brought fireworks. This family had no more than two or three Roman candles or what would pass for them.

Mississippi River on fire

The moon was up high enough now to set the Mississippi on fire.

Grand finale

This was as close as we got to a grand finale. Shortly after the sparks died down, the family started packing up. I took that as a cue to collapse the legs of my tripod and do the same. My poor tripod is close to 30 years old and its legs are beginning to collapse about like mine. Just about the the time the shot is all composed, I find that one or more of the legs is gradually slipping down, down, down.

Just as I got to the opening of the floodwall to leave, two young guys with two humongous paper bags walked through it. Like I said, fishing and fireworks: pack up your stuff and things start to happen.

I decided I’d donated enough blood to the mosquitoes. It was time to bail.

P.S. I’m going to try to convince Mother that it’s too dry for her to play with fireworks this summer. She tried to set my feet on fire last year.

July 2, 2012

Broadway and Frederick Construction

The Broadway construction project is moving right along. It’s in the 500 and 600 blocks now. Here’s a view looking east.

Bricks and cobbles

I haven’t been lucky enough to have been around when the construction workers have unearthed the old trolley tracks, but I CAN see the bricks and cobblestones that made up the original street.

Looking west down Broadway

The three-story brick building on the left had been a coffee house, but Niece Laurie Everett of Annie Laurie’s Antiques, diagonally across the street, said it is closed now. The old Star service station used to be on the right.

Just beyond the coffee house was my old hangout, Nowell’s Camera Shop. The original cabinets are still visible through the windows. My elbow prints are probably still on some of them from the days when I drooled over new toys.

Old Broadway stories

Here’s a piece that has links to all of the Broadway stories I could remember writing.

Brother Mark took photos of the construction in the 200 block of Broadway.

July 2, 2012December 8, 2016

55th Vandivort Reunion

When your family is small enough that we could hold our family reunion in a phone booth (for you young whippersnappers, go see an old Superman movie to see what a phone booth is), the Vandivort reunion made my head spin. Gosh, that sure is a lot of people.

Harriet Smith and Ron Stein

Harriet Smith, a regular reader, sent me an invitation to the 55th annual reunion of the Clyde and Julia Vandivort family to be held over the Fourth of July weekend. They were going to tour the old family home at 630 North Street, visit one of the old family farms and even have a paintball melee for the youngsters. At the last minute, though, Harriet sent out a message saying that the weather was too hot for the outdoor activities. They might have lots of members, she implied, but they didn’t want to lose any to the record-breaking heat wave.

I took lots of notes and even kept a digital tape recorder running for much of the visit, but I’m going to invoke the “Suzy Rule” and run mostly photos. (The Suzy Rule came about when Second Son Adam brought home his first date; I could tell that it was going to be E pluribus unum, so I told him that all subsequent girls would be called Suzy. Because of the high incidence of Julias in the extended Vandivort family, I modified it to be the “Julia Rule” today.)

I just couldn’t keep track of all the names, faces and stories. Sorry.

Ties to Cape

Paul Arthur Stein, a grandson of the Vandivorts, echoed the sentiments of many in saying that all of them have pieces of the family history.It was fun listening to the same account told in slightly different versions by different people.

When he was making the pilgrimages back to the home place, he and the other boys were exiled to the third floor where “it was really hot.”

Harriet made mention of the boys sneaking in beer and “having a gay old time.” Paul didn’t reference that. While the boys were sweltering on the third floor, the girls, she said, were in the carriage house “raising holy hell and having a wonderful time. Grandmother had lots of help and lots of patience.”

When Paul’s generation got older, they put the kids in the basement with a babysitter, games and a TV set so the adults could talk. Now, he said, THOSE kids are adults, the best of friends and come from all over the country to get together.

Owners opened house

The house stayed in the family until it was sold to a fraternity in the early 1970s. “Unfortunately,” said Harriet, “they just ruined it. We would come to town, drive by the house and cry.”

John Perry (no relation to the John Perrys in my family) and Steven Williams bought the house and have spent a lot of effort renovating it. The older family members could point out changes that had been made to the layout of the house, but they seemed to be happy with the job John and Steven have done.

With the exception of an apartment house on the east side, much of the neighborhood has remained the same, with some of the same neighbors. Half a block to the west is the Lamkin home where I photographed the children selling Kool-Aid

Vandivort Reunion Photo Gallery

Thanks to the family for letting me spend some time with them. You all have the same connection to Cape as I do. Even though we’re miles away from the place, it’s still close in our hearts. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery.

July 1, 2012

Walnuts, Woodpeckers and Wind

When Brother Mark brought his chainsaw down a visit or two ago, I asked him if it was time to take down a long-dead walnut tree in the corner of the yard. (You might recall my adventures as a tree trimmer from earlier.)

He said we should leave it up: it had a bunch of woodpecker holes in it, so he didn’t want to foreclose on any bird homes if he didn’t have to.

Take a look in the yard

A couple of mornings ago, Mother told me to come out to see something in the yard. Looks like we had just enough wind to take down a big chunk of the old snag.

Didn’t see any woodpeckers

The tree was mostly hollow and it DID have some woodpecker and other holes, but we didn’t see any sign of birds in it.

The wood is old and dry enough that it should be fairly easy to cut up for winter firewood. Maybe I can convince Mark that it’s too hot to attack a firewood project right now and I can slip out of town before it cools down. Who knows, maybe the rest of the tree will come down and he (note I said “he”) can make one big job out of it.