Things You Remember About St. Louis (Joplin, Ozark: motel, purchase, shop)

[BabetteInSTL2]

Barb,

This is BarbinSTL. We still have ashpits in the alley behind us. There are several ashpits in the St. Louis Hills area and throughout the city. Not being used of course, as they were outlawed years ago.

[BabetteInSTL2]

Barb,

This is BarbinSTL.

Do you remember 8th grade graduation and our theme being Davey Crockett, King of Wild Frontier? And our school parades, each class room having its own theme?

How about Halloween when you, Cynthia, Virginia and me were dressed as hobos and with blackened faces and red noses, smoking real cigars in Woolworth's doorway at Cherokee and California? Boy did we NOT feel well later!

Did you ever soap any windows when you didn't get a treat? Fess up!!

Wow, what great times those were.

[Barbara McCondra]

How come you left the part out that one pigeon pooped into Myra's sundae and she scraped it off and ate it anyway? That is what your ugh was about.

[BabetteInSTL2]

Well, I was trying to be diplomatic, Barb. Not one of my stronger virtues. I've told this story to my kids more than once and they could probably tell it better than I can.
UGH, YUCK and UGH again!

[Barbara McCondra]

Gatherings of the elderly in Benton Park in South St. Louis between Arsenal and Wyoming and Jefferson and Illinois. Meeting of the retired and tired to recount the past I guess as we do now on these threads in cyberspace/blogoshpere. The Net is a way bigger park and anyone any age can drop in and feel comfortable eaves dropping, eh?

And parks had bandstands where bands actually occasionally really played. Fishing contests would be held around the little ponds in the park. And Grandma would tell us stories about the old country while she braided clover flowers into crowns for her two grandaughter's heads as all three of us sat on the grassy hills of Benton Park.

[Barbara McCondra]

How could I forget these magical looking parades I think held at night as I remember bright lights on floats and the thick gauzy veils covering the prophet. Daddy would sit me on his sholders to see better. I never attended a ball as I was just five years old or so and the wrong economic class I think. It was magical looking but I remember it seemed a tiny bit sinister, a little girls perception of secrecy and hiding behind veils?

[Barbara McCondra]

If a house burned down and was cleared away, often they left foundations and cement steps etc. The weeds would take over and of course that looked to children's eyes to be a jungle or a Hanzel and Gretle forest. Little hidden paths could be seen among the weeds created by players and chort cut cut takers through the lot. One could dig in the dirt and find ocassional treasures like cuttlery and broken dishes or a rusty toy or two and even old cons! Perhaps that's what started it all. Mom and Dad said I tried to dig up our own back yard looking for river pirate treasure. Found a foot down white limstone. So my folks told me we were on top of an old graveyard and that stopped me digging. They should have let me get it out of my sytem cause starting when I was forty two years old in 1983 I became an opal miner in Australia half of each year digging 70 feet below ground and do so for three months a year still today. Just google my name to know more of that post St. Louis life.

Do kids today still say "tick a lock" to be safe in a game of tag? Do they still play such a simple game even? And how about those ice slides kids would create by sliding on snow in the schoolground yard? We would line up and take turns to run at the ice strip created and fight for balance while we slid standing up. Lots of bumped eads and butts.

Oh yeah. Did anyone ever encounter somewhere elsein the USA where if you went to a friends house to play, you didn't ring the doorbell but instead stood outside and yelled their name in a sing song way like
"Oh Caaaarooool" or "oh Cynnnnnthia" They didn't do it here in Arizona when we arrived in 1957 to live.

[Barbara McCondra]

I even took some home to Phoenic on the plane whenever I visited Grandma in later years. They were yummy. And there also was a Gooey Butter Cake but it was pretty sweet. I liked the lightly moist in the center type more. No recipe for that yet. But you can find recipes for the gooey butter cake on lne...even Emeril"s own recipe but his uses a cake mix base so I haven't tried it.

Way before Dairy Queen or Soft Swirl ice cream the new rage in the early fifties was an icecream place somewhere where the trolley turned around at end of the line and it was called Ice cream Custard or Custard Ice Cream. Sunday drives with the family in the car were great treats and sometimes would end up there. OR a drive to the river to see the silvery Admiral at dock. My dad had been a young welder and worked on it when it was first built! He was always proud of that and I thought that was real special of course.

[BabetteInSTL2]

They still have concerts in the park. Just to name a couple, Francis Park and Tower Grove Park still has concerts. They have the big bandstand/gazebos with park benches placed all around.

The best custard is TED DREWES. Yuuummmyyy. Gooey butter cake.

How about some toasted ravioli w/marinara meat sauce and parmesan cheese, like gooey butter cake it's another St. Louis-First.

Do you remember Favorite Bakery on Cherokee Street? My dad used to walk down there early on Sunday mornings and bring us back sweet treats. How about Braswells down on Cherokee and Jefferson (on the corner). Gus' Pretzels still on Arsenal making best pretzels ever. They are still selling them on street corners, too.

How about California Donuts on Jefferson? I need to stop talking about food - it's making me hungry!!!

[Northwoods Voyager]

Might want to check out in the Missouri forum...'Missouri Favorite Foods'. Some very good regional recipes there.

By the way, really enjoy all of your 'remembories'. So many similar to ones I have about growing up in the city. Ash pits and all.