Things You Remember About St. Louis (Sunset Hills, St. John: amusement parks, middle school, bars)

[Mr.Homer G. Phillips]

Annie Malone (May Day Parade) VP Parade (night), Christmas window displays at Famous-Barr downtown.

[Tallywhoa]

We moved to Kirkwood in the early 60's ( I was 5 years old) when my mother got her first teaching job at Meramec Community College and this is what I remember:

1) The mummy in the glass case at the beginning of Art Museum (you could see the toes on one foot) and chess pie in the Museum cafe.

2) The Cardinals football team was still in St. Louis

3) The train station was an operating station, not a shopping center.

4) Siegfried the Walrus at the Zoo

5) The Muny Opera House.

6) The Miniature furniture sold in the Jeff Mem gift shop (which seems to have moved or am I mistaken) and band concerts in the summer at Forest Park.

7) Katz Drugs with the neon, rotating cat head sign

8) I-270 hadn't been built when we first moved.

9) Taking a drive after dinner during the summer after 270 was opened, because it was too warm to stay home (before everyone had air-conditioning).

10) The original Scheithorst's

11) Howard Johson's restaurant fried clams.

It was a great time to be a kid and a great city to be a kid in.

[12GO]

Originally Posted by kshe95girl

We lived in St Charles when I was little, we would shop at NW Plaza, and go to Mavrakos, I loved that place! I hear there are no more stores .

When they put the roof on it to make it a closed mall, they ruined NW Plaza. I loved it (and I don't even like shopping!) when it was open air and running sidewalk to sidewalk when it rained!

[12GO]

Pulling a 48 foot stacker racecar trailor down Washington with my 3/4 ton pickup! Even a cop motioned for me to run thru a redlight! Guess they didn't want me on Washington in the Loft area any longer than I had to be there!

[LouiseSTL]

Where do you get your gooey butter cakes? We used to get them from Lake Forest but they went out of business.

[LouiseSTL]

My friends bought me one when I arrived in St. Louis day before yesterday at Macarthurs but found it a bit too sweet and minus the more biscuitlike or danish pastrylike base. It had more of a cakelike base and way sweeter than I had ever rremmebered it so are looking for another source as will only be here for a week and want to take one back to Texas. And PS do you know it its me, your houseguest that you just asked this question of? You are the ones who bought me the cake from Macarthurs when I arrived two days ago... !!!!

[Jill61]

I remember almost all of the things that have been mentioned here. Rather than repeating a bunch of them, I'll add some I didn't see mentioned yet. . .

The Esquire Theater
Located across the street (more or less) from Parkmoor, it had one screen for most of its life, seating 1,500 in the main theater, with balcony seating up above. In the '60s, they converted the balcony to 2 small screens, with the beautiful red carpeted stairs going up either side of the lobby to get to them. But the main theater wasn't remodeled, so that was my favorite screen to see a movie on.

Cinema Treasures | Esquire Theater

The Hi-Pointe Theater
Located on McCausland, right near the Standard station with the gigantic sign. I saw 5 Alfred Hitchcock films when they were re-released for the big screen. Wonderful place for foreign and obscure films, too.

Richie’s Drug Store
When I was little, my parents would send my sister and I up there, each with a dime, and we'd come home with a bag full of penny candy; candy lips, candy cigarettes, strips of candy buttons, and so on. I'll never forget when the first candy that was more than a penny was offered. It was a Charms Pop (plain, no bubble gum yet). It was a whole nickle! As incentive to get kids to part with fully half their candy money, they had a promotion whereby if you bought one that had a sticker on the back, inside the wrapper, you'd get another one free. The first time I tried my chances, I got one with a sticker, and then the second one I got had a sticker on it, too -- 3 for the price of 1!

Bettendorf’s grocery store
They had a little movie booth at the front of the store, much like those photo booths where you get the strip of 4 pictures taken, but it showed cartoons. My mother would drop me off to sit in the booth watching Casper the Friendly Ghost while she shopped. Can you imagine that today?

Dwyers
I'm having a hard time placing it, location-wise, but it was only open in the summer, and was a soft-serve yogurt place to compete with Ted Drewe's. Their signature item was the Dwurtle, which was made like the candy turtle, but with soft serve yogurt. They served it with hot fudge, hot caramel and hot, roasted, whole pecans. It was amazing, not to mention impossible to eat by yourself -- way to rich! But OMG YUMMY!

‘80s Cardinals
In the World Series 3 times; 1982, 1985 (the "I-70 Showdown against the Kansas City Royals) & 1987. Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, Todd Worrell, Jack Clark, Terry Pendleton, Keith Hernandez, Lonnie Smith. Too many great ones to mention them all. Whitey Herzog cannot be forgotten, either. Awesome decade in St. Louis baseball. (As an aside, I saved a man's life at one of the playoff games. He was choking on a piece of hotdog that had gotten lodged in his throat. I did the heimlich maneuver on him and got him to throw it up. Very scary!)

The vegetable truck
Like the neighborhood ice cream truck, the vegetable truck would drive up and down the streets and stop for the ladies who would come out to buy fresh vegetables and other produce. A Farmer's Market that came to you!

Uncle Bill’s Pancakes
The only place to go after a late night of drinking and dancing. Good luck getting in, even at 2:00AM!

321-2522
You'd call this number and get the Time and Temperature. Actually, at the time, it was 321-any 4 numbers. Seriously, you could dial any combination of 4 numbers after the 321 and get the Time and Temperature. Cool!

O.T. Hodge Chili Parlor
Home of the slinger, that disgusting plate of puke that people line up outside for. You'd better not mind strangers, because everyone eats cafeteria style, sharing long tables crammed into the tiny space.

O. T. Hodge Chile Parlors

Muddy Waters
You'd better not have to go to the bathroom while drinking and dancing at this landmark hot spot on the Landing. If you dared, you would be relentlessly taunted by the band!

Blueberry Hill
Awesome music! Hell, Chuck Berry himself will be playing there next Wednesday!!

Blueberry Hill

Rocky Horror Picture Show
And speaking of the Loop, who here hasn't been to the midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Tivoli? Great fun!!

Highway 270
Though others have mentioned remembering before it was built, how many of you remember that it wasn't always just 270? The numbering system was utterly whack! Each side of the highway was a different highway number, dependent upon which other highway that crossed it you were headed to. So, starting in the south at 55, heading to highway 44, you'd be on 244. Then as soon as you crossed 44 and were now headed towards highway 40, you'd be on 240. Past 240, then you'd be on 270. Going the other direction, it was the same, but opposite. So those between 70 and 40 heading north would be on 270, and those between 70 and 40 heading south would be on 240. There's still a remnant of this old numbering system southeast of 55, where 270 is still known as 255.

Originally Posted by RickMG

Our phone number was Wydown 3-5866 and business was a Jefferson prefix.

Our phone number was Wydown 4-9957. But I was too little to understand the concept of a "prefix", so I thought that if Wydown replaced the 99 at the beginning of the number, I could replace the middle 99 with it, too. I would tell people my phone number was Wydown 4 Wydown 57.

Originally Posted by aragx6

What year did you graduate from Central? Both my parents went there mom in '74, dad shoulda been class of '72 but got his GED later ... both come from big families so my guess is if you went there anytime in the early to mid 70s you knew one of 'em ... actually my grandmother was an English teacher there for many many years. you probably know her too.

I'm a Parkway Central grad - Class of '79! I have a fond memory of Parkway Central from the early days. Way back when I went to Central Junior, it was 7th, 8th & 9th grades, and it was 7 different buildings, much like a small college campus. We had to walk from building to building between classes. Now they've enclosed everything as one big building like they did with Northwest Plaza. Not nearly as cool IMO.

[Jimmy Burma]

Growing up and even some time afterwards I spent some time in St. Louis.
I remember:
Red Brick Homes/Flats on the South Side, always think of red brick when I think of STL,
Italian Food on the Hill, especially Toasted Ravioli and a frozen Fishbowl full of Beer at Riggazzi's,
The Rivers,
Frozen Custard (what's that? Damn tasty is what I learned)
The Creepy Crawl when it was Downtown,
Going to Lemmons I think it was..Bar in a house, side entrance via buzzer or something like that,
Driving around town with my Grandfather and practically getting a history lesson about the city as we rode "this is where the Dred Scott case was decided, This is Old North STL..use to be alot of Irish, That's the Cathedral Basillica", etc also hearing about the old Hogan Gang and Egans rats,
White Castle and Bush Beer, ha a lot of people hate both of those items but I grew to love both.
Ahh Shlafly's fine ales very, very good stuff,
Lots of Bikers ie 1% 's riding around STL County never bothered me but was always curious why so many bikers in the Lou?
Forest Park,
Seeing "Hoosiers" fight and chase each other around Dutchtown with Ball Bats, Chains, etc
The large Turtle Sculpture somewhere near Dogtown I think?
STL style Pizza, love the crust, love the sauce, it's the cheese I'm so sure about though?
The "Redbirds"
while STL is not my hometown I really appreciate the place, rough edges, quirks and all. Miss those
sturdy yet beautiful old neighborhoods full of Red Bricks...

[dashels]

The 87 Cardinals! What a great team

[runzwithscizzerz]

I remember not only 905 Liquor Stores, but I believe I drank a couple 905 beers in the day! Anyone remember Shopper's Fair, Hill Brothers Shoes or Britt's Department Store?
I also remember The Grainary, Night Gallery, Stages, and of course Mississippi Nights.. I broke my ankle there! I absolutely lived at Stages from the time I was 19 till I turned 21.
I saw someone above mentioned Holiday Hill Amusement Park - does anyone know where I can find photos of the place?