St. Louis Memories

St. Louis Memories (Chapter Three - 2005)

David A. Lossos

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Send your memories to Dave Lossos
Note: If your name and/or e-mail address appears WITHIN the body of your E-Mail, I will include them in your posting. If not, the post will be attributed to "Anonymous".

This website has gotten so big I've had to divide it into pieces.

Submissions that I received from 2001 through 2003 are posted at
Memories 2001-2003
those I received in 2004 are posted at
Memories 2004
those I received in 2005 are posted at
Memories 2005 (You are currently looking at this website)
those I received in 2006 are posted at
Memories 2006
those I received in 2007 are posted at
Memories 2007
those I received in 2008 are posted at
Memories 2008
those I received in 2009 are posted at
Memories 2009
those I received in 2010 are posted at
Memories 2010
memories currently being sent in are at
Current Memories

For all you former "Altar Boys": "Ad deum qui laetificat juventutem meam."

(Missouri Sales Tax Tokens, commonly referred to as "mils". Red ones were worth 1/10 of a penny, green ones worth 1/2 a penny)

This twenty-five cents would get you a double feature and a bunch of cartoons to boot.

On April 4, 2001, I posted a few memories I had of growing up in St. Louis. I received so many great replies that I thought I'd post some of them here.

Original Post from Dave Lossos

I remember when my phone number was Mohawk 2343
I remember going to see a double feature at the Ritz Theater for 25 cents.
I remember coming into the movie in the middle and eventually saying to the person I was with "This is where we came in".
I remember the way to get your friend to come out to play was to stand in front of their house and yell their name (was this a St. Louis thing?).
I remember the first time I had the nerve to wear "bermuda shorts".
I remember getting all the news I needed from a St. Louis publication called "Prom Magazine".
I remember (as a ten year old) being sent to the corner tavern to get my grandma a pail of draft beer.
I remember riding the Grand Avenue electric street cars.
I remember riding my bike in Tower Grove Park (even after dark!).

Responses from Tony - 1/4/2005
I went to St. Pius V grade school where we were taught almost exclusively by nuns (the Sisters of Loretto). Back then I always thought they were something of a cross between Zorro and a Nazi. It took me many years to realize the tremendous and positive impact they made on my life. Thank you sisters, wherever you are ! There are almost no nuns left in schools. My secret kid wish came true - and now I regret it.

Mom would send me to the corner store, we called it a "confectionary", every corner had one back then, for a loaf of Colonial bread $.25 and a fudge-cicle $.05

Drinking out of water faucets on the sides of houses of people we didn't know in the summer when we were sweating our brains out (we always made sure to turn off the water when we were done).

Cutting a lawn for a buck fifty. (For a two family flat we got $2.00) and then we'd spend it on Silly Putty which was the newest wonder-toy in the kid world.

Model car contests at the Woolworth on South Grand.

Texas Bruce and the Wranglers Club on channel 5, Cookie and The Captain on channel 4, and Captain 11's Showboat - channel 11.

That Oriental yoyo guy who visited the schools to promote yoyos. Remember the "Around the world" and the "walk the dog" tricks? And you just weren't cool unless you had a "sleeper" yoyo.

School picknicks at The Chain of Rocks Amusement Park ... my mom got sick accompaying me in the "Riding" (as opposed to "walking") spook house when I was 8. *LOL*

When the worst thing a grade school kid could do was smoke a cigarette. Which brought quick and certain corporal punishment ... which no one questioned ... including the kid.

Thanks Dave Lossos for a wonderful website ! Thank you SO much !

Responses from Dawn Voss - 1/14/2005

I remember penny candy - each piece was a penny.

I remember 5-cent candy bars and postage stamps.

I remember 10-cent public pay phones, bus rides, and either 12- or 16-ounce bottles of Coca-Cola.

I remember when a matinee cost 75 cents.

I remember when a drive-in movie cost 75 cents per car.

I remember when an organist played for the audience before the movie began.

I remember when our zip code consisted of two digits.

I remember when my phone number began with "Jackson," followed by five digits.

I remember hearing about the death of someone named Marilyn (Monroe).

I remember President Kennedy's funeral procession.

I remember when man landed on the moon.

I remember black and white television and its "turn dial."

I remember a three-color screen that could be placed, somehow, in front of the black and white TV to simulate color television before everybody could afford a color TV. The three colors (hues, actually) were stacked horizontally on the screen, so as to allow one to view what was actually on the TV screen.

I remember a small earthquake that shook St. Louis in the late '60s.

I remember details that were brought home from the war (Vietnam).

I remember what life was like without air-conditioning and wall-to-wall carpet.

I remember when girls had to wear dresses or skirts in school - and it was a public school system. Boys had to wear slacks (not denim jeans) and leather shoes (not sports shoes). Eventually Keds tennis-shoes were allowed.

Responses from Christy - 1/21/2005

Dawn Voss reminded me of the small earthquake in the 60's! I remember being around 8 or 9, running down the basement steps, while the stairs shook under me. I can still remember trying to keep my balance and seeing everything around me as one giant blurry vibration, and being terrified. Then later I remember all the neighbors standing around out on the street (Karess Drive in Bellefontaine Neighbors) discussing it. I believe it was our neighbor across the street - Mrs. Smith - who told us it had been an earth tremor.

I also remember the regular tornado warnings during the summers growing up. The sky would turn this eerie grayish green. Tornado warnings also struck terror in my heart (I was a rather timid kid). My brother and I had a tornado routine - we'd each pull "our" dresser drawer out of our dresser in the bedroom, that held our most cherished possessions and some of our clothes, and carry them down to the basement that my parents kept stocked with "tornado supplies" - boxes of canned goods, drinking water, candles, plus holy water!

I also remember visiting my Grandma (and Grandpa before he died) on my dad's side, just about every Sunday. They lived in Lemay on Placid Street. I remember us kids would go to the Hancock School and play around the school. It was like our "thing" when we went to Grandma's. And how close the houses were to each other, and the neighbor ladies would stand at the windows on the sides of the houses, and be able to talk to each other without having to raise their voices.

Responses from Helen Snyder- 1/26/2005

Love the memories; I have a few to add:

I remember when Catholic school only had nuns, no "lay teachers" and what a shock seeing one was. I ruined my knees playing jump rope at St. Roch's asphalt playground.

I remember the lamplighter on Theodore Avenue, the incinerator out back in the alley, and the smells of St. Louis, I loved the smell of burning leaves.

Every spring all the walls had to be washed, the carpets were hung on the clothes line and beaten. Wash was done in a wringer washer, white clothes first, then lights, etc., usually using the same water.

Mashing potatoes was done with a masher, whipping egg whites was done by hand with a wire whip. Everything was fried and gravy was wonderful. We ran all that stuff off and were skinny. Oh, I hated stewed tomatoes and the COD LIVER OIL phase.

Grandma called in her order to the grocery store and they DELIVERED it. Summers were spent in the basement drinking beer and smoking. Grandma would hide in the kitchen and drink a beer and smoke a cigarette some time in the afternoon. It was not appropriate for her to just sit down and do that.

Grandma and Grandpa lived through the Great Depression. "Almost all the families on our block lost their homes but we didn't. I stood on my feet 13 hours a day in the store just in case someone would come in and buy something." They learned to hoard. She started work as an 8 year old in a garment factory.

Be glad if you don't remember when mothers were supposed to give their children enemas. Mom did that once; I think it constitutes abuse not tomention mess and fear. Good mothers cleaned their children on the inside too. Rather have the cod liver oil. Oh, I hated spinich too.

Everything was freshly cooked and sometimes the pressure cooker flew around the kitchen. "Hey, watch out". Oh, look at that mess. Wallpaper was put on in layers and never removed. Once we removed 7 layers of wallpaper in our "new house". It was all dark too. Modern women painted the walls.

Cowboys only smiled at the girl. There was no bad language on the tube; people dressed up to go out; nobody sued. We were taught to forgive.

Responses from Rich- 1/31/2005

hello... enjoying your st. louis memories site here & i noticed mention of sandy's... The Sandy's in Rock Hill, the first McDonald's in Crestwood (and their sign stating "over 80,000 sold"),

i have the unofficial sandy's website www.geocities.com/sandyshamburgers if you click on the locations icon, you will notice that sandy's #2 location was st. louis. i am looking for pictures and memories of that location and just touching base with you to see if any are available or if you could keep an eye open and let me know in the future if any show up. the founders of sandy's opened one of the first mcdonalds franchises east of the mississippi and then broke ranks with ray krok. originally there were to be four sandy's locations (one for each of the founders) and st. louis sandy's was #2. it appears from your site that it was in a section of the city called rock hill.

thanks! - rich

Responses from Terry C . 1/31/2005

Ritenour High ''Class of 70"
Harrison 7-6259 ; New Overland Elementary / Ritenour Junior High
Grew up in Overland on Annapolis Ave. and later in St. Ann by Hoech Jr. High. Many fond memories of my old friends and stomping grounds:
Velvet Freeze on Woodson Rd.
Sledding on Art Hill
Cue and Cushion Pool hall. No money to play anyway.
Fortners confectionary on the corner of Annapolis and Midland / Guy Millers Cafeteria on Lackland Ave(best meat loaf and coconut creme pie around)
Pick- up football and basketball games at New Overland school
Indian ball almost year round at Legion Park on Midland Ave
Birthday dinners at The "Chariton" Restaurant off Broadway.(Best jumbo fried shrimp I ever had)
Following the creek in the winter ,when frozen, from Woodson road up to the seminary on Ashby. Elementary school picnics at Holiday Hills. Puking after riding the " Bullet" twice in a row.
Aronsons Mens store in Overland.My first $5.00 shirt (big money in 66)
Cheesburger platters at Woolworths on the corner of Midland and Woodson.
Taking the bus to shop in Wellston as a kid with my mom ,aunt and cousin on saturdays.Could'nt do that now without an armored Humvee.
Grand Prix Raceways (slot car track on St. Charles RockRd.)Blew what ever money we had for three years, but what fun it was.
The Gem Theatre in St John. $.65 for kids double features on saturdays. Not a place for anyone over 16.
Cruising "Steak", White Castle ", "Trio" and "Totes "on Natural Bridge on friday and saturday nights . A tank of gas was $4.00. Traffic backed up for a mile in all directions.
Drag racing on Banshee Rd.and Hall street.
Going up to Francis Chevrolet before we owned wheels and sitting in all of the ''Yenko"' Chevelle's and Camaro's in the showroom in 68- 69. We dreamed of owning one of each .It drove the salesmen nut's but they never rushed us out as long as we didn't slam the 4-speed like we were powershifting.
Growing up in the best of times, only we did not know that until you look around and see what's said to be normal today.
Glad to have the memories, Thanks

Responses from Kim Pool 2/4/2005
WOW! What great memories! I now live at Lake of the Ozarks, but I grew up in Webster, so I always have the Webster/Kirkwood Turkey Day game as my favorite memory.
Woodland 1 3076
Kick the Can and Ghost in the Graveyard.
The yelling for your neighbors "Ask your mom if we can come down!"
Watching the trains switch tracks down at Tretolite and hearing the lunch whistle blow at 12:00 and 12:30.
Riding bikes through Breckinridge to get to McDonald's on Brentwood Blvd.
Train derailments in January and May of '73 (?) at the bottom of our street.
Walking to Dreyfus Market through the alley to buy penny candy and get a can of tiny peas for dinner.
TP-ing houses.
It's nice to know that wherever we are and whatever we are doing, there are so many memories to hold us together, whether we knew each other or not. Dave, thanks for this site!

Responses from Tom Guelker 2/7/2005
I grew up on Flora Place and was born in 1956
I remember Tony the Scissor Grinder pushing his cart around and the bells would ding and bong. You could hear him coming from blocks away and Mom would get her scissors and knives ready so Tony could sharpen them right there. If there was a problem he would take them home and you would get them back in a few days. He also sold scissors and knives from his cart.
I remember the Mr. Softee ice cream truck that would drive around the neighborhood. I saw it a few years ago at the corner of Thurman and Castleman.
Our phone number was Prospect 2, 6342
I remember Art's Barber shop on Thurman.
I remember Mr. Hoffman, the shoe repairman on Thurman.
Gee. this is fun!
Tony the Scissor Grinder's last name was Gagliarducci. I went to Ranken with one of his relatives.
How about the Blue Ridge Bottling Company where 44 and Kingshighway is?

Responses from Ruth 2/7/2005

I had to add to the list, I may be repeating some of these fine memories:
Holiday Hills Amusement Park, the ride with the 2 rockets, one on each end, I think it was called the Salt and Pepper ride. My brother had to have them stop it before I barfed on him!!
The Savoy Theater in Ferguson, I remember my feet sticking to the floor from all the spilled soda.
White's Bread Truck, you would put a sign in the window if you wanted them to stop. They had a Heavenly Hash Cake, choc. cake, with a layer of marshmallow cream and choc icing, my favorite!!
A kids train ride, I think it was around Holiday Hills, small cars you sat in and drove around the tracks.
The "Little Store" on the corner where you could get 2 for a penny candy. I remember going in and taking a $1.00, poor guy had to count out 200 pieces!
Drive-Ins in the winter, with their little heaters to try to keep you warm. The playground in the front of the drive ins to play before the movie started.
Trampoline lots!! No one ever remembers those, nice to see them mentioned here.
Being "cool" and driving around Steak n Shake.
Being "cool" and wearing black head scarf's tied to your chin, and then tightening them with only one hand.....that was being cool.
Running after the milk truck for chunks of ice.
Corky the Clown.
Miss Francis on Ding Dong School
Watching TV's in the TV Store window at the corner of Church St. and Florissant Rd. in Ferguson.
Going on Sunday drives, probably to get out of the heat of the un-air conditioned house.
Who remembers the man that was buried alive in the clear "coffin" as a gimmick, I think somewhere in Florissant, you could look down through an opening and see him down below.
ED'S WHITE FRONT BBQ!!!!! The best BBQ ever, and the old waiter who could go around the table and take orders for 10 people and NOT write it down. He would always get it right. I still love to put slaw on bbq sandwiches like they did.
And of course across the street from Eds White Front...Sam the Watermelon Man!!!
Katz Drug Stores
Who remembers Hog Washers??? I can't find anyone who does, maybe I'm crazy. These were jean shorts, cut right below the knee and you would roll a cuff in them to above your knees.
Hill's Brothers Shoes, 2 for five, man alive!!
Grandpa Pigeons Store on St. Charles Rk Rd.
The sign at the hospitals, Ladies must wear dresses/skirts for admittance.
I don't remember what bar my father went to, but they had sandwiches with brick cheese, onion, mustard on rye bread. These were so good, my sis and I still make them every once in while when we get together.
Painting store windows for Halloween contests.
Walking everywhere or taking the bus.
School parades, I went to St. John and James in Ferguson, we would parade around the neighborhood then get on the bus for our school picnic at Blanchette park in St. Charles.

Responses from Rosie 2/13/2005

I remember:
Frank Moskus’ Yacht Club.
Singleton Palmer and the Golden Eagle—and Jimmy the man who sold popcorn.
Martyn’s Clothing in Maplewood.
“Falling in love” with the cute Santa in Golde’s window—Maplewood.
Pea shooters.
Yo-yo champs.
Fur-blend sweaters.
Cherry cokes, for a nickel, and white Turkish Taffy.
Holloway bars at the movies; they lasted for the whole show.
J.C. Penney’s and Three Sisters Wellston.
Riding bikes and walking far, far away from home.
Skirts over the wheels of cars. How cool was that?!
Memorable food experiences: Hamburger Heaven, never to be duplicated. And Redwood (I think that was the name) on Brentwood. Chuck-a-Berger at Page & Pennsylvania, Schneithorsts.
Diagramming sentences.
Paper drives.
Ray Quinlan Dance Studio on Grand.
New Year’s Eve at the Chase Starllight Roof.
Famous-Barr in Clayton.
Davey “The Nose” Bold’s Peppermint Club at Delmar and Skinker.
Europa in the Central West End.
Pagliachi’s (sp?) at Kingshighway and Manchester.
Rugerri’s, for totally free birthday meal.
Fa-narking at the bird cage in Forest Park.

Responses from Donna 2/17/2005

Reading everyone else's memories sure brings back some of my own. I'm a South St. Louis girl.
I remember when the old Ice House burned down on South Kingshiway & Delor Street.
The first day they installed the new jungle-gym at the Long School playground. (I hung upside down)
The school parade all around the neighborhood before you boarded busses for the school picnic at the Highlands.
Spring Festivals at school, where you could toss a ping pong ball into a fish bowl and win the gold fish.
The glass store fronts all along Gravois would have their windows painted for Halloween, and the Goody Shop Bakery on the corner of Wilcox and Gravois had the best cream rolls in a wonderful flaky pastry.
The Woolworths had the most delicious sloppy-joe burgers and on Friday's you could get that heavenly fried jack-salmon at almost every restaurant along the street!
If you were seen in the Stop-Flite restaurant after school, you were cool.
We used to see the bones in our feet right through our shoes at Seliga's Shoe Store with the new x-ray machine.
I remember going to Bud's Place on Chippewa with my Dad, to look at boats, motors and fishing tackle.
The miniature golf course on Morganford and Chippewa.
We used to use rolls of that skinny, silly-putty looking stuff to press into all the cracks in the window frames at home to keep out the cold winter air. Did anybody else use that stuff ?
The smell of soot and burning coal coming out of everybodys chimneys on icy cold days.
I remember warm summer nights when you could walk around outdoors and hear the theme from Peyton Place on neighbor's T.V's. and hear screen doors slamming.
Teen Town every Sunday night at St. Mary Magdalen's, across the street from the Avalon Theatre.
Cleveland High School yeast rolls from the cafeteria.
Sorority fun, mischief, dances and football games with Roosevelt High School.
When they built South Town Famous. When they tore down South Town Famous.
The Chicken Delight on Delor and South Kingshiway, across from the firehouse.
Friday nights out at Sunset Pool & Gardens to see Ike & Tina Turner. (She was so tiny and young, but what a voice!)
Car trips over to East St. Louis to get Nicholl's BBQ ribs with friends from school.
The best pizza in the world from Cussanelli's on Lemay Ferry.
Growing up, moving away, but always being a South St. Louis girl !Ï.../

Responses from Trish 2/19/2005

I remember playing volleyball down at Marquette Park on hot summer evenings and then walking up to grand and Chippewa to “the watermelon stand” to hang out. Also walking down to Ted Drews on Grand Ave. for some of that delicious frozen custard.
Oh , how about stopping off at St. Louis Bakery for those goodies to eat after going to mass every morning at St. Anthony’s

Responses from Elmer (“Elmo”) Dreyer 2/20/2005

Dave, thanks for the memories. It was so much fun reading all of the responses. It warmed me up on a cold Saturday morning in Connecticut.
I grew up in St. Louis and still remember it as a great place to have lived and matured.
I especially remember McKinley High School (1945-1949), annual high school boat ride on the Admiral, Veiled Prophet parades, Threads (Threadneedle) shoes died oxblood, the annual streetcar ride to Forest Park Highlands for the annual Bryan Mullanphy School picnic, jack salmon sandwiches at the local tavern on Friday nights, the call of the tamale vendor and the paper boy on a summer night, cruising on the best streetcars in the world, carrying a bucket of beer home to my grandfather.
Wow! What a time!

Responses from Terry Alan Klasek 2/20/2005

Several people here remember Evelyn "$50,000 Treasure Chest" West and the Stardust Burlesque. I have been corresponding with her for six months, and obtained several 8 X 10s autographed by her from Hollywood, Florida. Then in mid November everything stopped. After a lot of research Evelyen West passed away in her sleep on 14 November 2004.
I wrote a letter to the editor of the Post-Dispatch because no obit on her had appeared. They did not print it, but they are doing a feature article and Obituary on 20 February 2005 or later. I will e-mail a copy of the article to an Evelyn West fan who would like a copy. I am at: [email protected]

Responses from graceanne 3/3/2005

Almost every cereal box had a prize in it, and prizes were actually little toys; not riddles and whatever. The same with Cracker Jacks.
Cherry Phosphate sodas
Beer was not sold on Sundays. No liquor was.
Using firefly's lights on our fingers as if it was a sparkling ring. (Isn't that gross!).
Paddle Ball - the paddle with a rubberband stapled in the center and at the other end of it, a small ball. You kept trying to hit the ball as it kept coming back down. And you had to be fast cause that rubberband didn't give you much time.
3-D movies with the special 3-D glasses you had to wear to watch the movie.
Two cartoons before a movie began. No ads.
4 party lines - boy, were they a pain. We thought we were in heaven when it became 2 party line.
Mail was delivered twice a day during Christmas time.
Grocery shopping didn't take long for two reasons: we had smaller stores, and there weren't a million varieties of cereal, toothpaste, and everything else sold today. You had a few cereals like Corn Flakes and Bran Flakes.
At Halloween you went only in your neighborhood; not like today where get kids driven to other neighborhoods and subdivisions.
Sitting on the front porch in the heat of the early evening, holding a fly swatter.
The smell of the one-car garage that housed the old black Ford.
Raking leaves into the street at the curb and burning them. Oh, the wonderful smell of leaves burning.
Fans blowing on ice to cool the air.
Buying words to the top songs from the radio so you can sing along.
Hanging clothes on a cotton clothesline and using a wooden clothes props to hold it up.
Gas stations that gave away free glasses with a fill-up.
Dishes and glasses that came in powdered soap. Wasn't Duz one of them?
Laundry soaps like Oxydol - do they make that still?
Braxo, Bon Ami, Dutch Cleanser. I think some of these are still sold today. Wonder if there's a CD with all the old commercials like Ajax, etc.
Merry Go Rounds on the school playground. You held it as you ran around getting up speed, then jumped on.

Responses from Bob 3/3/2005
I remember taking the trolley from Brentwood to Clayton and then a streetcar from Clayton to Grand Ave where we would go to the Fox on Saturday afternoon and watch a godzilla movie. My mother gave me one dollar and that was plenty for the whole afternoon!

Responses from Mickey ( I grew up in Cahokia, graduated from Cahokia HS in 1957, and now live in Collinsville.) 4/11/2005
I remember:

Dixie cup Ice Cream with movie stars photos on the lid.

Cardboard sign with 5, 10, 15, 20 written on each of the four sides. If you wanted 10 lbs of ice the side with the 10 was placed up in the window.

The street names above the door at Famous.

Ed Bonner on KXOK.

Barney the garbage man with his push cart.

Magnifying glass for the TV

Test pattern

Kukla, Fran and Ollie

Slot machines in back rooms of taverns

Russ David

Yacht Club

Sneaking into Mom's Tavern between East Carondelet and Dupo to see Ike and Tina Turner

Breaking the dye bubble in margarine (oleo) and squeezing it until it was yellow.

Tin cans buried ground level to play washers

Stilts

Chain always coming off bicycle

Playing hide and seek under the street light, remember B B bumble bee all out come in free

Rubber guns made of cut up inter tubes

Playing Mother May I

Listening to Lux Theater

Planters peanuts in Pepsi, 5 cents each

Katz Drug Store

Cobblestones on the riverfront

Wooden roller coaster at the Highlands

Mozantine Island (spelling may be wrong)

Boy Coats, Navy Blue double breasted coat with six 2" pearl buttons, three on each side

Tycora sweaters from Lisbon Shops

The Forum

St Louis Orange Threadneedle Streets shoes from Boyds. My husband was wearing them when we met and wore them until Boyds closed.

Soot from the coal stoves

Ashes on slippery sidewalks and steps

American stamped out of the steps of the slide at Chartrand Grade School

Lunch sandwich wrapped in waxed paper bread wrapper, lunch was wrapped in newspaper and tied with a string. You had to bring the string and bread wrapper home to reuse.

Eagle stamps

Ration books and stamps, I have one of mine

Hollywood mufflers

Looking for 4 leaf cloves

Making dandelion chains

Letter sweaters

Putting thread on your steady boyfriends ring so it would fit you, the painting it with nail polish

Uncle Sam

Kick the can

Adams Milk... Adams milk good for all you wranglers, Adams milk buy it at your store, Adams milk good for all you wranglers, try it once and you'll be back for more!

20 little peanuts sitting on a sack, their hearts are all a flutter, for they know they soon will be Skippy peanut butter

78 records

3 cent stamp

penny postcards

My dear friend Caroleen forgetting to put the emergency brake on her car when she went to pick up her paycheck from the Admiral. Her '53 red Chevy convertible rolled in to the river!!

My oldest friends, Doris, Keithy, Billy and Gary. We have been friends since we were 4 years old. We went all through school together 1-12. We are still friends and keep in touch except Gary, he passed away. Doris calls me every year on my birthday!

Thanks for the memories Dave, what a great site!
Responses from Paul 4/11/2005
Dave, my parents came to St. Louis after getting married, and moved to 41XX Arsenal, across the street from TGP-Tower Grove Park, when I was 2, that was 46 years ago, and they are still there. I remember inventing games to stay busy and other things-

A group of guys would ante up $0.50 each for cruising around all night

Anything bicycle without a helmet and yes, all my friends did manage to live

Allee Allee Actenfree (phonetically)

Bicycle soccer

Bicycle hockey (yes)

Bottlecaps (thrown like baseballs), okay we didn't invent that one

Cork ball (southeast end of TGP), or this

Drive in MOVIES!!!

Fast-pitch softball, I played until I was almost 30

Fuzzball, or this

Hide and Seek in the dark and not worrying about child molesters

Jimmy Conners playing tennis on the grass courts at TGP

Movies-ushering with some of my best friends and some of the memories of Shenandoah Theater will live with (is that haunt) me forever

Parking in TGP and being busted by the police "for your own safety"

Phones, PRospect 1-68XX is still my parents rotary dial phone number

The pool at TGP

Teen Towns at school

Getting called out loud from the porch by your first and middle name, if that didn't work you heard all three and cringed

Whew, sorry I got on a roll!! C' ya Paul Woodward Busch '71 and Southwest High '75

Responses from Jerome Jaeger 4/25/2005
We often stayed with our Grandparents in their summer cabin on the high bluffs along the merrimac west of Valley Park.

Occasionally Don and I went to the ballgame. Early up, down the tracks to town, Valley Park bus to the Maplewood loop, Manchester bus to Grand Avenue, streetcar to Sportsman’s Park. "Knothole Club" cards gained entry to the upper deck, left field corner. That suited us just fine. We left hoarse and sad, the Browns always lost.

The Babe was said to skip batting practice to pitch pennies with kids under the stands.

That was before our time, but we did sometimes see players at the hot dog stands. Don's favorite, leftie Vern Stevens, had been traded to the Red Sox so when Don spotted him he hustled over for an autograph. Then, remembering his manners, he turned back to get the other guy's too. Ted Williams was amused.

The Maplewood loop, terminus for several lines, was an open half-block of gravel where green and cream county busses circled before reversing course. The larger red and cream city busses stayed outside, stopping along the street. Across was the Maplewood Theater, facade festooned with blue paper icicles and “it’s cool inside” signs. To the west was the Foot Long Hot Dog stand.

The loop pharmacy, smelling as all pharmacies did, of wood, nostrums and treats, anchored the loop. Black and chrome soda fountain, oak floor, oak wall cabinets, oak and glass display cases filled with every sort of merchandise, pharmacist presiding from the raised, altar-like platform in the rear. To the north was the donut shop. Donuts spilling off the conveyor belt, fresh from the oven, like the panis of sweet-toothed angelicum. Hot sweetness dissolving in the mouth. Mecca for bus drivers and us.P...ÿ

Responses from Bev 4/25/2005
What a great sight. I grew up in South St. Louis - 4404 Beck Avenue - MOhawk 4-0601 was our telephone number. Went to Oak Hill Elementry on Morganford...went to Charlies Confectionery or Ollie's across the street for penny candy almost everyday and of course we walked everywhere. I had Mrs. Flowers too, and Mr. Norman, Mrs. Milford (she was really old) and Mr. Earlinger. Now that really strains the memory.

There were ten of us that went to the show every weekend-the Granada or the Avalon - saw double features-news-cartoons, etc. What fun and we walked.

We saw Famous Barr Southtown being built and could not wait until it was opened.

My parents went to the corner tavern on Kingshighway - Charlie's and my sister and I could play the jutebox and dance.

My parents took us to the Veiled Prophet parade every year and for a big treat we stopped at White Castles on our way back from visiting our Grandparents.

We went to the Highlands every year for our school picinic and road the roller coster a million times.

Went roller skating at the arena (took a bus) and of course went to the zoo to see Phil the Gorilla.

What great times....thanks for the memories.

Responses from Tracy 5/8/2005
My name is Tracey, I was born in St. Louis at Deaconess Hospital and was raised in the south side of St. Louis (Dutchtown). I lived on South 38th St. down Grand and Meramac. I attended Skruggs School, people used to say Skruggs, Skruggs full of bugs. I left before High School because my dad joined the army.

A friend of mine down the street the Heitman's had a brother the delivered newspapers out of a wooden crate like box. We used to go for walks with my mom and dad toting us kids around in a radio flyer wagon to Ted Drews on Grand. Within walking distance MMMMM......Later my parents moved to the Bingham Apartments and my grandmother worked at Cleveland High School. Then there was a daily trip to Ted Drews and then off to the doctor for a diet. For every A we got on our report cards we got a free ice cream cone(actually frozen custard).

We would occassionally eat at Western Bowl and make trips to the penny candy store. I remember nickle and dimeing my grandma to pieces. Sometimes we would go to Crondellette Park and swing and watch the barges go by. My brothers and I used to go to Marquette Park for preschool. They called it Tiny Tots when I was little I also took dancing lessons there.

I also remember the sales tax tokens and S&H green stamps. When we lived on 38th street it was still made of cobble stone, I remembered when it would rain and slipping on it while our mom tried to get us in the car to go shopping. Mom would take us to lunch at Burger Chef, we liked it because our burgers came in little baggies.

My friend Connie's Mom and Dad owned John and Shirley's up in the Soularde area. Her dad also owned a meals on wheels. I remember safely walking the alley ways too, but we were told to be very careful around the gangways. My mom worked for Prince Gardener and later worked with my grandmother at Sears on Grand. My dad and grandfather worked for McDonnell-Douglas as plastic tool builders.

Today My brother Marty works for Luthern Hospital as a nurse, a highly dangerous job now. He'd been held at gun point for a cigarette recently. He's ok though. My younger brother Brook currently works for the VP Organization designing and building the floats for the annual parades and helps with the Fair. He's a pretty well known artist up there. He also graduated from Vaschon High School as a Valedictorian.

My favorite vendors on Broadway were the pretzel guys selling bags of fresh stick pretzels on the corners and the Hot Tamale Vendor, some of the best I've ever tasted. If I remember any more I will let you know when I can. I really enjoy the memories of St. Louis.

Responses from Nancy 5/9/2005
Born in St. Louis in 1955 I remember the following..

KXOK radio with Johnny Rabbit and Bruno J. Grunion, he (Bruno) threw me a super slurp kiss over the radio once.

The most wonderful S.S. Admiral boat. Day cruises, game floor, night cruises, lights reflecting on river, ballroom dancing to The Bob Cuban Band.

Living in North St. Louis city in an area called Walnut Park. Attending St. Phillip Neri school. Nuns that would slap you with a ruler if you misbehaved. The worst bad behavior then was chewing gum or not folding your hands in front of you perfectly as you stood in line. My friend since 1st grade, Marilyn, who is still my friend for 44 yrs.

The Arch being built. We'd go downtown for the day and look at it as we arrived downtown then again later the same day to see if they got any further. Kids thought it was built a little faster then it really was. Of course time went much slower then.

Being on the TV shows "Cookie and the Captain" and the "St. Louis Hop".

Kings highway and west Florissant streets, all the pretty flowers on the island on Kings highway.

The confectionary store I walked 7 blocks to very often to buy penny candy.We did not own a car, so bus, our legs or taxi's were our only transportation. At age 18 I was first in my family to get a driver license and car. Drove around Halls Ferry Circle, and around and around.It was a happening place! My mom told me when she was young her boyfriend came home from WWlI and drove around Halls Ferry Circle backwards. I always wanted to try that but lacked the nerve.

My phone number started with Evergreen. I remember The Cloistered Pink nuns.

Being bored in the summer and telling my Grandmother I had the nothing to do.

Learning not to ask my Grandmother what to do when I was bored.

Being told by grandma to sweep the alley ( Yes, I did It )

Grandma told me to me to dig a hole to China. ( thought I could do it so spent 2 weeks of one summer trying with all my might digging with a spoon my mom gave me. Didn't own a shovel. Made fairly large hole in between houses in gang way till neighbor complained. Hole digging over.

KATZ drug store

Steak and Shake with curb service and cute guy waiters.The cutest guys at the S & S on H. F. Circle.

Playing rock school. Where your friends sat on the bottom step of a stairway then you hid a rock in one hand and each child had to guess which hand.. If they guessed the hand with the rock they were prompted to the next higher step. Graduated (won) when they got to top step The little stores on N. Florissant in the city north of Grand.The nativity scene there. Buying a ice cream sandwich for 7 cents, Neapolitan ice cream between two waffles. Stores on 14th street.

Volunteering for A.L.S.A.C. ( Aiding Leukemia Stricken American children) for St. Jude's hospital. My sister, Janice and I volunteered for many yrs for that cause when Leukemia had no treatment.

I'm so ecstatic to know most leukemia's now have a 85% cure rate, so I hear.

River roads Mall. First mall ever saw. Before seeing it heard about new place with many stores under one roof. Having never seen a mall we couldn't grasp this concept so had to take a Suburban cab out there to see.

A St. Louisan from South County had never been to North County and visa versa.St. Charles, to O'Fallon was the "country".

Bomb pops from Mr. Softie, tar bubbles, running behind the mosquito machine spraying truck, can't believe we didn't all die at the time. Adventures ( walking as far as you could with 8 other kids) then realizing you have to walk all that way back. My Kool-aid stand thinking a days earnings of 72 cents made me a rich businesswoman.

And remember the older we get the more people are interested in us, especially archaeologist.

This is a great web site, Thanks for the memories!

Responses from Steve 5/19/2005
I remember string fishing for bream in the little pond out in front of the jewel box. What days those were in the early 60's and what a great place for kids...so much to do. For me, many of the remembrances of the other contributors are my remembrances, too. Only I crammed them all into a few weeks when I visited in the summer time from Dallas. No doubt I will drop in from time to time at this site to share some thoughts.
Responses from Anonymous 5/19/2005

Thanks Dave for your web site neat stuff! I am only 38 and I was raised in the suburbs in Jefferson county but I spent much time in the city where my Grandparents lived between Jamesion and Mcausland. I remember taking the Mcausland/delor bus to go to Venture on cristy and Kingshighway or to maplewood the opposite side of the street bus stop to Kmart or to Bluesteins to get my husky size pants it was always my job to pull that red cord to make the bus driver stop! I think I did that a few times when I wasn't suppose too! I remember going to Hampton village getting white castle,Ted Drewes, Beatermans was down the street we would circle back to lansdowne hit the drug store for whatever was ailing Gramps and Grams, For Gramps usually a 5th of OJC whiskey and Grams some rolaids or citrate of magnesia and cigarettes for both and a squirt gun for me and my brother and sister. Late in the evening a crowd would start to form in my Grandparents front yard and everyone brought their lawn chairs and they would gather around an old foldgers can and flip their cigarette butts into it and shoot the breeze about the old times, the horse races, politics etc. while all the kids in the neighborhood played flashlight tag and captured numerous lightning bugs. I used to take a break and tell the adults gathered around jokes and they would give me their pocket change. I was a big ham! but it bought my Hotwheel cars and candy. yeah the memories I remember the big slide and bumper cars on J.B. Libertys Grocery parking lot, going down to see the circus train for Barnum and Bailys at the Arena, Going downtown at Christmas to look at all the decorated windows, going back to the house and marking down everything I wanted in the JcPenny catalog.I spent every Christmas in St.Louis we always had to wait for my aunt to get home on Christmas eve from Boyds Mens store Downtown ahh the anticipaction!!! I could go on and on. The Old timers are gone now and I miss them deeply but the stories and memories they left me with will live on . I encourage all the elders out there to write down what you did where you lived and how it was all of it and pass it on to everyone! Great site thanks

Responses from Bill Weaver 5/25/2005
Taking a stroll down memory lane. I was born in East St Louis UPTON-3-0211. Let's not forget, KXOX 630 radio's Johnny Rabbit live from Styx Bare and Fuller every Saturday morning, that was after a quick shopping trip to Gary's music shop at the old downtown bi-state bus station. Then the December Tornado of 1969, and of course Harry Carry when he announced for the Cardinals. Holiday Hills amusement park, and Chain of Rocks, the Highlands burnt down 1 year before I was old enough to ride the big coaster, but 10 cents and a nickel transfer got you from east St. Louis to the park on the bus. Lou Brock got a Dodger dealership in East St. Louis, and Curt Flood quit because he didn't want to be "Traded". No Casinos, but every malt shop had a Bingo pinball machine, for amusement only, of course. I'm 50 now and living in Houston Texas, but I was still able to sneak into the Grand Burlesque with my fake I.D. Thanks for the memories, and I hope you enjoyed some of mine.

Responses from Sharon Mertz Thomason 5/27/2005
I grew up in south st Louis - I remember soulard library,farmer's market on saturday and South Broadway - shopping on So Broadway meant walking past the place where all the live chickens were waiting to be bought for someone's Sunday dinner. going to Barnholtz's drygood store for school clothes, Loberbaums furniture to pay your parents furniture payment and Rosenthal's shoe store to get shoes and have you feet x-rayed right through your shoes. Ben Franklin dime store, and the Apache theater where you would see 2 movies on a saturday afternoon - Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein. Sunday morning going to church at St.Vincent's Catholic Church and then riding your bike all afternoon with your friends. Famous Barr at Christmas - sitting on Santa's lap and then getting your prize through the clown's mouth. Forest Park Highlands, the comet roller coaster the bobslides the spook house, Art hill and the mueseums. most of all always feeling safe no matter where you were. what happened to that feeling of security? riding the bus downtown by yourself and no one worrying about you as long as you remembered to be home on time. chiliburgers at the counter of Ben Franklin's dime store before going to the saturday afternoon matinee. I tell my kids about all this, but they can't really understand it because they have grown up being told not to go anywhere alone and be careful of strangers - I don't live in st.Louis anymore, but I will never forget and always remember how great it was. I do go back once in awhile and it is wonderful to see some of the old nieghborhoods being recovered by people who seem to appreciate the history of it all. Thanks

Responses from Ken Volk 5/27/2005
Last evening some guys and I were having a few beers after a Lodge meeting when someone began reminiscing.

I believe it began when a guy said that his kids and especially his grandkids would not believe that they didn't have many things in the home that we now take for granted.

Things like phones, indoor johns, automatic hot water, and the like. One guy mentioned ash pits and this AM I searched Yahoo for ash pits, then added alley and finally added St. Louis. Eventually I reached your website.

My interest was increased when I read your original post. I do remember the Ritz, riding the Grand Avenue Streetcar to get there although living further south generally we walked to the Virginia Show. Also I think it was cheaper. I do remember the same type of phone number after we got one when I was 13.

I remember the coming in at middle of a movie and unless it was very good leaving when that point came up the next time. Also yelling someone's name, which was good as if 8 people lived there they knew who you wanted, the Prom magazine, going for beer for my grandparents, but we rode our bikes in Tower Grove Park.

One day when I was about 6, 1939/40, and staying at my grandmas, a neighbor boy's Dad took us for a ride in his convertible. Since we didn't even have a car this was a treat. He stopped and bought us cones at Velvet Freeze, then drove us to Carondelet Park and we sat on a bench looking at the boat lake. A fer minutes later a 'Parkie', (Park Policeman) came along and told the boys Dad he had to leave as he was clad in an undershirt.

Your Bermuda shorts line got me, as one day in my 20's I wandered through Sears on Grand and saw a pair of almost knee length shorts hanging on a display for fifty cents. I bought a pair and although not a golfer had agreed to go play at Forest Park with some friends. I must have agreed after 2 many beers one night. I showed up in shorts and for the first 30 minutes the rest of the foursome demanded I go home and change or not go along. I believe I was a trend setter in my area wearing shorts. I kept wearing them and then many others also wore them.

I could probably type away for hours.

Remembering with the rest of you I am;

Ken Volk, 71+, St. Cecilia's grade school, St. Mary's and Cleveland High School, sold papers on Grand and Delor in 1947, on Sundays at Resurrection Church 1948-49.

Ken Volk, Sr. 10588 Copperfield, St. Louis, MO 63123 Grandfather, Mainframe Programmer, COBOL and most DB/DC, Barbershop Quartet Singer, Bass and Baritone, St Louis #1 Chapter, Elk, Crestwood MO Lodge #2503, Pilot

Responses from Gina 6/12/2005

I grew up in Pine Lawn on Council Grove. There was a beautiful tree they said where Indians used to have their council meetings. We went to the Little Playhouse Dancing School on Jennings Road and there was a wonderful little bakery -- Hilberts== where you could buy little squares of coffee cake -- peanut, cheese and crumb for only 15 c a square. Wonderful. This was in the forties and fifties, of course.

Responses from Tom Ruppel, Dixon, CA, St. Mary's 1967 6/12/2005

I left St. Louis on a boot camp-bound train from Union Station on Nov. 8, 1968, after I had foolishly turned 19 without a draft deferment (this was pre-lottery). I've spent my whole adult life in California and probably will die out here, but I'll never forget growing up in South St. Louis. I really enjoyed reading your reminiscences. I've been through the old neighborhood a few times over the years and it, like myself, is getting a little long in the tooth. Abkemeier - later Everding - Dairy, two doors down from our house, is now some kind of recycling center. The cement yard next to the MoPac tracks is gone. The coal yard is covered over by apartments. We used to ride our bikes to Carondelet Park to catch crawdads hiding in the rocks at Boat Lake. We'd stop on the way at Hobart's Market and Mr. Hobart would give us our bait: a slab of bloody liver wrapped in white butcher's paper. We'd cut it into chunks and dangle it from strings to entice the little suckers out from their lairs. I visited the Missouri Historical Society museum a couple of years ago and found that Tony the Scissors Grinder's push cart was there, as was a display on corkball. A few years ago, a group of us worked on a charity home repair project out here and I dazzled my friends with my window glazing skills. I explained to them that, playing baseball in South St. Louis alleys, you learn how to repair garage windows. Step-ball, bottlecap ball, water balloons, lightning bugs, grape kool-aide, back yard peaches, drippy 25-cent custard cones (the big mutha) are summer memories. We called baseball cards "flips," after the variety of winner-take-all games we played. "Touch" was the basic game; there was double touch; then touch on top of ever-smaller flat objects at ever-greater distances - like on top of an upturned bucket 20 or more feet away. Those were very high-stake games that could involve a big stack of flips changing ownership from one boy to another. Flips were six for a nickle at the drug store, which included a stale wafer of pink bubble gum. The top flip was coated with some white chalky substance from the gum (sugar, I guess) which you'd wipe off on your t-shirt. Any team flip or any Cardinal flip in your nickle pack was a big score. I've worked in Sacramento since 1988 and lived nearby as well, but I still don't know my way around. I need a map to get to Howe and Arden in Sacramento. But I can drive to just about any place in South St. Louis without even thinking about it. People destined to write are said to be born with a drop of printer's ink in their blood. Maybe South Siders are born with a drop of the River Des Peres in their blood. (OK, bad analogy).

Responses from Walter R. Deyherle 6/27/2005
Hi David! I have many fond memories of the early south St. Louis Years!

* Remember the Mister Sofee Truck on it's nightly rounds delivering frozen cones?

*Remember the old time snow cone man Michael Keglar in his car delivering the ice treat i the early 60's

*Remember Derenzios Pizza Parlor across from Engine House #23 at Michigan & Soper? (One of the best Deluxe pizza's i ever had!

* Remember the Busy Bee Tavern at Broadway and Iron the summer of 76 when it fell in due to a undermined sewer line on South Broadway.

* Remember the pell house on Robert Avenue and both sist er's dying in that fire.

* Remember Captain Harvey Rea from Engine House # 19 who helped disarm that crazy man at his house on Loughborough, and was cut on the back of the neck with a butcher knife during the struggle?

* Remember when the Wrestler Dick The Bruiser got in a fight with a roudy customer at The Weber Tavern back in the 70's and destroyed the tavern? He also paid in full for the damage.

* And one of my fondest memeories Wrestling at the Chase with first George Able also an announcer at channel 5 KSD, then Joe garragiola, Mark Matthew and FinallyLarry Matysik, and Mickey Garragiola, also one of the referee's Joe Schoenburger. Joe and I used to have a beer at the fridnight cards at Kiel auditorium. We should too! We were good friends, and his Daughter Gail and myself went to Lutheran High School South and graduated the same class in 1975.

* Remember being called forjury duty downtown to the Civil Courts Building and watching the jury supervisor Harvey Kohn putting the jury number pills in the container, spinning the container, calling the jury panels, and some numbers twice because they were in the bathroom, or sleeping. Then after the jurors were called, Harvey reading the paper or taking the occasional nap?

These were some of my fond memories of early Saint Louis Life!

Responses from Anonymous 7/1/2005
me too...
The Monorail at Stix's toy department at River Roads
Charlotte Peters
Mavrakos Candy

Responses from Bob Doerr 7/7/2005

1. Sister Francelda, SSND, my second-grade teacher at Our Lady of Sorrows. I have recently learned that her grandpa was Franz Gruber, who wrote Stille Nacht.
2. Sr. Melissa, SSND, principal at St. Gabriel's. [We who are interested should place the records of religious orders on line.]
3. Bro. Kinsky, SM, typing teacher at South Side Catholic. Much earlier, he was my father's typing teacher at a school unknown to me.
4. Coach Ray DeGreefe at South Side. He was later highly successful at the Washington, Mo., Catholic high school.
5. Msgr. Leo Steck, pastor at St. Gabriel's, later Bishop of Salt Lake City. In June 1944 he gave me the last rites.
6. Zoo pandas Happy and BoBei. I photographed them.

Responses from Anonymous 7/16/2005
My husband and I are in our late 20's/early 30's, and are moving next week to the Southampton area from Central IL. I've had such fun reading through this site for the past hour or so, and imagining what it must have been like in that neighborhood 50+ years ago! Someone commented that "it seems like more young people are moving back to the old neighborhoods," and I think that's true. I'm hoping that my own 3 yr. Old son will have some great memories growing up in south St. Louis, and it does seem that many streets in North/South Hampton, anyway, are being revitalized by young families...lots of swingsets in backyards...that's why we chose that area. Just house hunting today, we were struck by how many strangers smiled and waved while mowing their lawns. Several of my college friends who grew up in the suburbs are choosing to raise their kids in the city. Of course, times have changed, and it seems hard to find a home now for under $150! Anyway, just wanted to chime in with my 2 cents. For those of you who have moved away, I still think it seems like a pleasant place to live!

Responses from Anonymous 7/18/2005
HI Dave: I'm so happy to run across your site!
I grew up in Glendale, MO and attended Kirkwood Schools.
My phone number was YO5-1605 and we lived on N. Sappington Road.
I was in the Kirkwood High Class of 1974 and went to Henry Hough Elementary and Nipher Jr. High Went to Washington U for College and got familiar with a whole new part of St. Louis since I lived in the dorms. The Delmar Loop, Blueberry Hill, The Central West End, Talaynas, Pratzels Bakery - the side door at 2 am!
From pre-college, I remember:
...The last piece being placed in the Arch!!!
...Playing kickball with all the neighbor kids in the summer.
...Walking to Henry Hough Elementary and walking home for lunch and how my cat sometimes followed me to
...I was so embarassed that I had to wear bobby socks in 6th grade when the other girls got fish net stockings. And I wanted a pair of white go-go boots SO BAD!
...Listening to my transister radio with it under my pillow at night. Makes me remember that song"Lightening is Striking Again...."
...Getting to watch the World Series at school (elementary) when the Cards beat the Red Sox. ...Having to take "folk dancing" in gym.
...Stopping off at the Tomboy Store for candy after school or going over for my mom to get coldcuts from the butcher counter. Everyone knew us there.
...Riding my bike to downtown Kirkwood
...The rich kids went to North Kirkwood Jr. High and we went to Nipher.
...Carpooling to Kirkwood High first with our moms and then we drove when we got our licenses.
...Sock hops and Coke Parties (that is Coca-cola in those small glass bottles)
...Being one of Scott Bakula's daughters in Fiddler on the Roof when he was Tevye and getting to hold his hand in Sabbath Prayer. Swoon! He was the most popular guy in school and sooo cute (haha) and he signed my yearbook "Papa"!
...The Kirkwood Honk (Our team has no fears, follow the Pioneers)
...Taking the bus to the Muny Opera in the summers.
...Steak n Shake with the Car Hops and the metal trays on your window.
...Going on Float trips on Courtois Creek and the Meramec river - does anyone else call them Float Trips outside of St. Louis? The Ozarks!
...I remember "Phil the Gorilla" to whoever posted that. Wasn't he kind of irritable??
...That documentary called "Sixteen in Webster Groves"
..Working at Casey's Sporting Goods selling ice skates and tennis shoes.
Food Memories:
--Double cones from the Tastee Freeze
--Onion Rings from Burger Den
--Going to Steak N Shake with friends and loving those skinny french fries and thick chocolate shakes.
--Desert at Fleur de Lis after a dance
--The Parkmoor was "roomkrap" spelled backwards
--The Flaming Pit restaurant where I once met Wilbur from Mr. Ed when I was in Elementary School
...Kirkwood Park! Falling down so the cute Skating Guards would pick you up as they circled the rink! And, the 4th of July Fireworks in summer!
...Getting caught by the Glendale police with TP on Halloween and being given Popcorn when they took it away.
...Free tickets to Cardinal Games when you got Straight A's and getting your name in the paper.
...Everytime you met someone from the St. Louis area you had to ask "Where did you go to High School?" I still do that if I meet someone from the area and I live in Michigan.
...Did anyone else have to tell a joke or sing a song to get a treat on Halloween?
...Katz Drug Store
...Long hair, bell bottom jeans, patches, macrame, streakers at high school, concerts at Kiel Auditorium, Mississippi River Festival, buying 45s at the 5 & 10 cent store, the Freaks, the Socs, my first boyfriend's yellow Beetle, Coffeehouses
...SONIC BOOMS!
How fun is this???

Responses from Jennifer R.- St. Louisian now in Florida 7/18/2005
I am no where near as old as you all are, but- I now live in FL. And when I talk about having to tell a “Joke” or “Trick” before getting candy on Halloween, everyone looks at me like I’m crazy! I’m glad to read others remember that too!
Responses from Anonymous 7/20/2005
I hope you astill adding to the memories page, because I remember:
Airway Drive-in.The last movie I saw there was "Sisters" with Margo Kidder.
The Highlands Amusement Park.
Chasing fireflies in the front lawn.
The Corner Markets like "Johnnie's Corner Market" that made the best ham sandwhich fo 35 cents.
Pinball machines in the corner market.
Christmas Time at Famous Barr downtown.
Its not a St Louis Thing only But - WHO remembers ODD OGGS - 1960's?
Dots on the paper -candy
Something I don't know what they were called But they were like a little wooden board with these holes you poked out to see what the little paper said.
EAGLE STAMPS.
Walks in Forest Park without worry.

Responses from Marty - O'Fallon (Purina employee for 19 plus years downtown) 8/7/2005
I hope you astill adding to the memories page, because I remember:
I grew up in St. Ann (class of 79 Pattonville), went to St. Ann Airway and 4 screens often. Also had a cousin down on Gibson in the city, went to McArthur's Bakery often (surprised no one has mentioned them, they're still going strong).

Don McArthur used to like playing jokes on kids, he would give you some buttercream icing and warn you it might slip (and you would be eating icing for about a half hour afterwards. I remember playing cork ball in the alley, and kick ball in the street (little worries about crime, this was late 60s, early 70s). They had a bowling alley for their floor in the back.

Our phone was Thumwald 53077 I believe. It was funny when you would pick up the phone and listen to another party (and they would start yelling at you when they heard you). Used to hang around Skylark Bowl, mostly playing pinball and bowling later (also Mardi Gras for a brief time at Cypress Village).

I really miss Bag O' Chicken that was on the Rock Road, it went out of business after the owner was killed in a car accident.

Shakey's Pizza was another local favorite, as well as Orange Julius and Velvet Freeze at Northwest.

My neighbor's sons hunted rabbits where Northwest Plaza is now. My Dad said our backyard was full of rabbit ears after they started construction of Northwest.

Cruising Steak N Shake on Lindbergh in the late 70s in my 69 Goat (it'd pass anything but a gas station). 4 on the floor, 400 CID, Holley 650 double pumper.

Hood's on the Rock Road.

I used to love listening to the Cardinals (Harry Caray and Jack Buck) and especially the Blues (Gus Kyle, the Blues are going left to right on your radio dial and Dan Kelley).

Going to Rexall Drug store on Rock Road while my mom was having her hair done.

Having real Cherry cokes.

Collecting bottle caps (you could find them everywhere back then) and many had cork in them Hanging out with my Dad at Hank's Standard Station on Adie. It was so clean that he won a Jeep for winning cleanest service station so many times. You could eat off the floor in this place. Fishing at Dierman Lakes (now the Lakes subdivision) in O'Fallon. There was nothing out here back then.

Fishing in the Meramec around Arnold

Fishing at Rock Lake near 115 bridge (I don't miss driving over that bridge) There are still some good places in St. Louis, among them (still pretty safe during the day): Lafayette Square (Chocolate Bar, Arcelias, Ricardos), the Hill, Soulard's restaraunt, DB's, BB's, the New Cathedral. I've worked across from Eat-Rite since 1984 and have never eaten there.

Spartan's on the Rock Road as well as that skating place (Palace?).

Responses from John Tudenham 8/16/2005
I lived in St Louis till I went in the air force in 1951, now in Joplin MO and retired, get back to St Louis about twice a year.
Grew up in NW St Louis graduated from Beaumont in 1947. Remember riding the Goodfellow and Natural bridge bus to school, also attending baseball games in Sportmans park..During WW2 with gasoline rationing on, my family use to go bus riding with a Sunday pass that cost 25 cents, stop for a 5 cent White Castle hamburger or a 5 cent ice cream cone.
Forest park a great place to visit with Zoo, ,Muni opera etc..
Use to listen nightly to KWK Radio 1380 at 615pm for the first five with Gil Newsome, also enjoyed Cardinal baseball on WIL 1230 with Harry Caray, letter on KXOK.
We lived right on the city limits line almost in Jennings, remember out a few miles was country, use to hike to North woods near Lucas Hunt Rd.. During WW2 the small arms amunition plant was only a mile from our house, remember they worked 7 days a week around the clock. I also attended Herzog school on W Florissant a brand new school then.. Use to ride my bike to school up and down hills on Goodfellow. After graduation from high school worked at Walter Ashe radio downtown on Pine street a few years, most of us rode buses in those days couldn't afford a car..
Lots of good memories in St Louis, we always like to return and see old friends and relatives again.

Responses from Karen 8/31/2005
My father grew up on Ashland Court. He will be turning 75 soon and I am hoping some of your readers could share child hood memories of growing up in that area of St. Louis. Dad attended Benton Grade School then Hadley Technical High School (Class of 48?) Things he and mom have mentioned in the past are the Bridge Show on Natural Bridge, working at Kroeger on Natural Bridge and Shreve. The Fox movie house, Lindel Show, Tower Movie. And riding the Grand Ave Streetcar. I'll keep checking your site and hope to see some related new entries.
Responses from Ron of Pine Lawn 9/2/2005
I remember Ed's White Front Barbecue on the corner of Goodfellow and Natural Bridge. The BEST Barbecue in the world. The had two black gentleman what would wait on the cars if you wanted to just stay in your car. One of them was named Jake. Inside was Bernice and Herb. We would go every Friday night to get beef sandwiches and cole slaw. OOO how I wish I Knew the sauce ingredients I would give $100.00.

I remember the ragman would come up and down our street with his horse and wagon and this was only in the 50's I was born in 1949.

We would go to the Studio show in Pine Lawn and walk home after the show. They would give dishes out each week. Then there was Sam the watermelon man on Natural Bridge on a hot night we would walk to get watermelon. Our phone number was Mulberry 4547 but we did not get a phone till about 1953 before that Mrs. James would have her dog run down to our house and bark till my mom would follow the dog to their house to get a phone call.

Every Saturday we would buy Cheese cake at Hilberts Bakery on Jennings road and it was totally different then todays Cheese Cake . It was in sheets about 1/4 inch high and cut on a rectangle. The only one that comes close to it is Helffer's Bakery on Graham Road in Florissant, MO.

Responses from Ginia 9/9/2005
I enjoyed the latest entry about Pine Lawn, because that's where I grew up. I went to Garfield Elementary School, and on to Normandy High. In those days a big yellow bus would pick us up and take us to school.

We loved Hilbert's bakery too, and haven't been able to find anything like their peanut coffee cake.
Responses from Tim in Texas 9/11/2005
I am younger, my phone number was JEfferson 3-7432
I lived at 4375 A Laclede Ave
I would walk to to be an altar boy at the 5:30 Mass at the Cathedral. We would take the Forrest Park bus everywhere from laclede and Newstead. Nanna and I would take the University City Streetcar to Clayton we would shop in Welston. Olive street still had a streetcar as did Grand Ave.
St. Louis was a great city to grow up in!

Responses from Pattie 9/16/2005
I grew up on Howard street downtown St Louis, well till I was 10 with a outside john then we moved to warren St, the grade school I started at was St Leo's and every year they have a Reunion, grade school isn't that great then I went to Sacred Heart and Central, I remember Horace dairy delivering our milk , in glass jars too.

The hot tamale man , Mr Black the vegetable truck that came around yelling strawberries, the neighborhood house where you went to swim and do gymnastics , chain of rocks park, and there was a restaurant Clancy that I used to love their fish sandwiches no one makes anything like it anywhere.

And going downtown on a bus with my mom( who still doesn't drive) who is 87 to Famous & Barr to a basement sale , I miss Christmas downtown with all the windows animated and the trees frozen with white lights , I never appreciated what I had, those memories are like another life, I think that if we let them go ..we go with them, and the new generations have no idea how much fun it was to really be free.

The bakery on the corner where I lived (the Crumbs ) walking from my house to get donuts at 5..and the confectionery across the street from the Bakery. We got our first TV at 9 and I remember my Dad putting a piece of paper down the front of the TV to make it color ha ha ,I thought it was the bomb and I was the coolest kid on the block. And the Imperial Club where Ike and Tina Turner sang, later as I got older I still would go there for contest, I taught dancing then. St Louis was and is a Nostalgics city and it has soooooo much History & Solid Gold Memories, while I was reading some of the memories I started crying because nothing anywhere is like that anymore, even the small towns , the kids now days , they look at me my grandkids like I was poor living that way, I felt like the richest person in the world back then, they have no idea where the Heart is.Somehow we need to keep these memories alive, in another ten or so years we can write it off if we don't keep remembering. Sorry I rambled on I have forgotten a lot of things and I need this to remember, the drive ins too I need to shut up or I will go on and on.

Responses from Walt in Gainesville 9/16/2005

For Karen who's father worked at the Kroger located at Shreve and Natural Bridge....I lived two doors/flats west at 4811a Natural Bridge. I was born in 1942 andI remeber the store and the Bridge Theatre very well. Two or three check out lanes. I doubt that it was any larger than 3,000 sq fy in size. That intersection also had a dry cleaner and I think a tavern. The Bridge Theatre cost a dime to get in (under 10 years old or so) and I remeber being shocked when I had to pay $.35 admission at some point when "older". I sold Post and Globe papers on the weekend and delivered a free weekly neighborhood paper too, earning credits for bikes, etc rather than cash as I recall.

My dad directed downtown taffic and later walked a beat around the DeBalivere Strip as a St. Louis cop and my mother worked across the street at Brix Florist. Until about 1954, across Natural Bridge and just east of Brix there was a second floor bowling alley and ground floor hardware store (Moelcher-Schene I think). It burned to the ground about that time. We walked all over the place. Took Sunday drives. Rode the bus alone downtown from age 6yrs. Biked the long distance through Forest Park to visit grandparents just off McCausland Ave.

I attended Scullin grade school and then became part of the white flight to the suburbs (St. Ann) in 1954 where I attended Ritenour and Hoech Jr High Schools and Ritenour High School. Ironically, it was only then that I began to attend an integrated school as the Ritenour District had (apparently) desegregated earlier. At that young age we were pretty clueless about race and many times black and white kids would play together in the vacant lot next to the Bridge theatre and across Natural Bridge in a large park that had been a dump (now called a landfill). By the way, there was also a rather deep and large dump a few blocks east of Shreve along Marcus Avenue. I have a vauge recollection of it being filled and levelled. I'm sure it was developed but I don't recall how.

I like St. Louis a lot and visit from time to time. I'm glad to see some North St. Louis folks posting here too.

Responses from Jim Keith 9/21/2005

Dear Dave and all the St. Louis Memory fans,
Not a week goes by that I don’t check out the most recent additions to St. Louis Memories.
Dave, if you can use them….I’m adding a couple of pictures, just for grins. (See Jim's images above). Old Board of Education lunch check, I seem to think they cost eight cents.
A copy of that hand out they gave us during school about a possible H-BOMB attack…and that map. If you could make it to
The Meramec, you would live…………..Just try catching a bus to the Meramec River from Russell Blvd.
And, for me…a fond memory of my patrol boy days….at Sherman School at 3942 Flad in south St. Louis. ( Dave I copy myself when sending photos…to insure you receive what I meant to sent…quality wise.)
But, more important, at 62, and like many of you that read the “ Memories”….when that time comes…those little memories won’t be here anymore.
My daughters bought me some books…..nice, hardbound covers, but blank pages…..for me to fill in.
So now…when I have some time…I try to write a couple stories a day….about all my memories….from the earliest to the more recent.
Maybe they might not even be real memories, things seem to change as we get older….but this is what I seem to remember and I write them down...
page after page….year by year…………the little things. I guess not that little, because, you Memories writers seem to bring up….THOSE LITTLE THINGS
that were and are so important to you and us…at that time…..that we still remember them.
So, in time, Good Lord providing……my kids and grandkids…..will know all about the Merry Widow theater, Clinton Peabody projects, walking across the
McArthur Bridge, playing on the Admiral, smelling the odor of 22 gunshots at the Highlands and all those little memories that will be gone…once I’m gone.
I am the only person….with MY memories. Please share YOUR memories, the little things……with your children, grandchildren…..and with us.

Responses from Karen Vehlewald 9/21/2005

I really enjoyed reading about everyone's memories.
I wish there were some from south county. I am a Lemay girl.
Wilds Palace of Poison was a great hang out.
The Halloween parade on Lemay Ferry Rd.was a blast. Going to the Lemay, Longwood and Southway shows was so much fun. Swimming and roller-skating at the Downs.
Going to Monte Bello's for Pizza.
The Bear Pits in Carondelet Park.
Dohacks for fish and Bar b que was a must.
Going for Pizza at Cussanelli's.
I went to St. George school than to St. Andrews, than Bishop Du Bourg High School. Hanging out at LBA. during the summer.
Everyone went to Posaloskies store on Lemay Ferry.
Stopping at TipTop for a hamburger on a Friday night. Capri swimming pool in the summer was a must.
A trip to Mt Olive cemetery to see the glass top coffin was always fun to show to new people in the area.
Hope to come back often and read new memories.

Responses from Sandy in California 9/22/2005
I love your website, Dave. It's great to see so many others have the fond memories of growing up in St. Louis like myself. Even though I've been in California for the past 30 years, there is nothing like the nostalgia of growing up in St. Louis. Even my best friend from first grade is still my best friend...and she still lives in St. Louis! Great to read about the memories others have growing up in South St. Louis.

I remember my phone number was Prospect 3-7123. Since it was a party line we had to check first to see if anyone else was using it.

I remember walking home from Shenandoah Grade School for the 'hot lunch' my mother would fix for me every day.

I remember my mother giving me a nickle to buy candy at the confectionary on the way back to school.

I remember when 'eating out' meant going to the Steak 'n Shake drive-in.

I remember taking the bus downtown every Saturday with my mother and having lunch at The Forum. She finally learned to drive at 72.

I remember taking the Grand Ave. streetcar every Wed. to dance classes with Mr. Dugger across from Gaslight Square.

I remember walking to the Grand Ave. Library from Virginia and Magnolia...by myself.

I remember going to the 'watermelon stand' on Gravois St. during the summer. It was where everyone from Roosevelt High School hung out.

I remember Velvet Freeze and ice cream.

I remember the Shenandoah School picnic at the Highlands.

I remember marching in downtown parades as a majorette with the Shenandoah Drum and Bugle Corps.

I remember the 'strawberry man' pushing his cart down my street.

I remember sledriding after school in Resevoir Park on Grand Ave after a big snow fall. I also remember what a tough uphill climb that was!

I remember what a treat it was when my dad took us to Art Hill to sledride.

I remember ice skating on the Tower Grove Park lagoons and the bonfires to keep you warm.

I remember Friday and Saturday night teen towns.

The list could go on and on...what a great place to grow up!

Responses from Bill 9/29/2005
Enjoyed your history of incidental things in St Louis. Heres a few more:

1. Going to the Forest Park Highlands and riding the airplane swing, the flying turns, and racing derby.

2. Going to see the Cardinals and Browns using my free knothole game card. I could ride the Delmar streetcar and transfer to the Grand car for 5 cents each way to and from the game. I could leave my house and see a double header and come home for 10 cents.

3. A triple feature at the Pageant theater on Saturday for 10 cents

4. Joe Garavelli's restaurant had some signs hanging in it. One said "Don't talk to the motorman" and another "No Checks cashed"Does anyone remember the other ones?

5. Does anyone remember the year posted on the clock at Moll's Grocery?(Since xxxx)

6. Billy "Zoot" Reed

7. Before the plastic mills- the zinc mills and before that paper mills

8. A triple dip cone at Rapp's grocery for 5 cents.

9. My phone number was Rosedale 1871.

10. How about Green Lea ice cream parlor across the street from Velvet Freeze on DeBalivere and DeGiverville. They had the best ice cream. Also the Fountain at Pevely Dairy where you could eat your ice cream and watch the colored lights in the fountain.

11. What about the Opera in Forest Park - we had season tickets in the second row of the 50 cent seats. Can you believe. Box seats were $2,50 and there were "free" seats also.

12. Dizzy Dean broadcasting Brownie games and the school teachers getting upset with his grammar.

13. The trading of Enos "Country" Slaughter to the Yankees. (I have not had a Bush beer since)

14. Going to the Zoo and spending the day and seeing all the shows for free.

Responses from Bob 9/29/2005
From way out in Redding, CA, I stumbled across your web site and got a good picture of how old I really am............

Not much humidity out here, so when I've been back to St. Louis, always feels like I need to change my shirt by the time I get to the car. Out here they whine when it gets over 25%.

Our family was an odd one. We moved from the suburbs (Dellwood/Ferguson area) to SW City (Scanlan near Jamieson) in '64. My old house on Scanlan sat at the edge of what's now I-44. My grandma's, on Smiley, would be in the middle of 44. In Dellwood, we had "woods" along the creek and a huge cow pasture (now a shopping center) on top of a huge hill behind Dellridge Lane and Dellridge Court. Guy had several head of cattle up there, and we'd try to provoke them, then make a run for the barbed wire fence. Tore the crotch out of a lot of jeans scrambling through there.

Sold papers every day after school (Epiphany) on Arsenal and Ivanhoe fifth and sixth grade. Big rush was when Loose Leaf Metals plant let out. Pocket full of pennies tugging your pants down because the Post-Dispatch cost 7 cents and everybody paid with a dime. Nice lady a few houses east on Arsenal let us have wood from her porch to burn in the barrel to keep warm till it was time to go home for dinner. Later, on weekends, pushed one of those noisy iron wheel box carts up and down Pernod and Tholozan and Mardel and Oleatha all around Watson Road, delivering Post-Dispatch and Globe. Garage filled up with paper parts that had to be stuffed.

Ivanhoe Avenue must have had a tavern on every block, heading south from Arsenal. They were like neighborhood clubs. Never saw anything like that west of Kansas City. When the confectionaries were closed (there were a bunch of those, too), we could redeem soda bottles for the deposits if the tavern sold that brand. Scavenging bottles for the deposit was a good way to kill an afternoon in those days. Besides those businesses, in that same 5 block span, there was every business a neighborhood could need, including a doctor, a drug store, a dentist, a grocery store with a deli counter, a TV repair shop, a barber shop, and a beauty shop. Unless you needed to load up for a trip to Central Hardware or Western Auto, that neighborhood had everything you needed, including a bowling alley attached to Epiphany's gym that hired parish kids to set pins. I think they even sold beer in there, too.

Saw my first Friday night high school football game at CBC. Seemed like thousands of people there. My little high school had to play on Saturday afternoons before a few dozen family members......no lights for night games. Couldn't wait to play on Friday nights, when all high school football games should be played. Moved to LA with family in middle of high school, so finally got to play on Friday night then.

It snows out here in town about once every 3-4 years, and I shovel the driveway slowly..........my dad passed away shoveling snow on Oleatha Avenue in '68. Have to assume St. Louis cops know CPR now. We prefer our snow up in the mountains, looking pretty and far away.

My kids don't understand how I didn't need a car to get around St. Louis. Could hitchhike or grab a bus on Jamieson and get out to the golf course (Algonquin in Webster) in 20-25 minutes to grab two loops (36 holes) lugging two bags each loop for the princely sum of $16 a day. No tipping. 3 days of work a week and I had all the spending $$$ I needed. 'Course, later on, you needed a car if you wanted to take a girl out. Hard to date on a Public Service (Bi-State) bus. I remember waiting for a bus late at night on Arsenal, right outside the State Hospital. Classmate who lived near there told me they found patients in his yard all the time. Spookier than a graveyard, wondering about the guy wandering down Arsenal when the bus was late.

Used to go on the seminary grounds out west of Shrewsbury on the weekends.......huge stands of trees out there back then. I understand it's pretty developed up now. The River des Peres had lots of foliage all along the banks.........got lost in there for hours chasing each other around. Never caught a fish at Willmore Park, but it was a good way to spend a summer morning and get a long bike ride in. Always rode back through Stan Musial's neighborhood in St. Louis Hills, like he'd really be out there mowing his lawn, waiting to give us an autograph. Who knows if he really lived there.....was probably an urban legend told by some older kids who figured we wouldn't know what a snipe hunt was.

Chicago folks claim Harry Caray as their own, but if I heard his voice right now, next to Jack Buck, yelling about Julian Javier grabbing up a grounder or Bob Gibson striking somebody out, I'd be 8 years old again. No one ever called a home run the way Harry Caray did. Nothing like those two guys calling the game on a transistor with a 2" speaker, on a Sunday afternoon while the old man snored on the couch.

If I remember right, the '64 World Series was at Sportsman's Park on the north side. The nuns got mad because of the rumor school would be out the day after the Cardinals beat the Yankees. Listened to the Tigers beat the Cards in '67 or '68 (can't remember which) with the transistor to my ear sitting in the Fyler Branch library. The librarian told me to turn it up. Held a girl's hand for the first time while watching the Cardinals make a pennant run in '67 in the stadium that's about to be torn down. Learned to swim at Holiday Hill pool. Learned to ice skate at an indoor place in Wellston (Winter Garden?), then a rink in Forest Park on Sunday afternoons, after morning mass.

If we didn't have the nuns to tell us when Advent was near, the big candles on the Northland Famous-Barr (propped up the day after Thanksgiving, I think) let us know. Of course, then, so did the parents' groaning about Christmas carols on the radio. Lived in St. Louis from 1953 to 1969, but never saw snow on Christmas. Might have happened in the 50s, but if it did, I don't remember. I do remember wondering if we were gonna make it home in the freezing rain after midnight mass '64. Longest, coldest 3 block walk of my life, and that includes a winter in the Rockies.

Once a year, we'd go to Luigi's on Watson Road or out in the suburbs (Manchester?) and eat those flat pizza squares till I couldn't face 'em anymore. I still can't find pizza anywhere like that, and I've been all over this country. One visit to St. Louis a few years ago, I tasted a piece of Imo's pizza......or maybe a couple.........it sortuv tasted like that. My dad's family is Italian, and he lived on the Hill when he was growing up, so we'd go to Ruggieri's or one of the other Italian places whose names I don't remember for family reunion dinners. I tell my friends out here about that and they make it out like I was having dinner a table away from Tony Soprano.

Wrestling at the Kiel Auditorium on Saturday night. Neighbor kid (older, with a car) took us a couple of times. Remember wondering why everybody was taking it all so serious. Got in a fight when I told the guy next to me it was all fake. True believers didn't wanna hear that.
Remember a tornado in the early 60s, hit at night and killed some folks on the north side. Tore a big hole in the Arena roof and knocked a TV tower over. Years later, at Blues games, you could look up and see the newer timbers where they'd grafted in the replacement to fill the hole.

Somebody on one of these pages wrote in from Hermann, MO. Spent a summer there working on a farm outside of Hermann when I was 15 and mom thought I could get in too much trouble on my own in town. Tornado hit the first Saturday after I arrived, knocked down so many trees, we spent 3 days chain-sawing through the trunks to get the tractor out to the road. Learned to split firewood, buck hay, disk a field, and slop hogs in Hermann. The year before, my high school's basketball team was all set to clean up in the district playoffs but ran into Hermann's slow-down offense in the first round. Those farm boys won 20-18, and that game could have really used a shot clock.

Out here in Calif, when I call somebody a hoosier, people wonder why I'm talking about Indianans in that tone of voice. They wouldn't understand.

I've traveled and lived all over the west in the last 35 years; never lived anywhere besides St. Louis where people ask where you went to high school after being introduced.

Buddy of mine from Detroit, living out here, got all excited a few years ago when he found out they sold frozen White Castles at the supermarket. Tasted one and got him to agree they're nothing like we remember from the Midwest. Haven't found anything out here tastes like Steak n Shake, either. My wife, a California native who's tasted Ted Drew's frozen custard, tells me periodically that if he could figure out a way to get it out here, we could make a living selling it for him.

Finally, something I've wondered about for a while. For a couple of years early on, my parents sent me to Mt. Providence in Normandy. The northern half of the building was the boys' school; the southern half, a retirement home for Sisters of Divine Providence. A couple times a year, one of the older nuns would pass away, and all the little boys had to go to her funeral, then make a procession following her casket out to the east by the soccer field to a little cemetery they had for them. You could hear I-70 traffic beyond the trees. A few years ago a relative told me they were tearing down Mt. Providence, selling the land to the highway department to widen I-70, and moving the order elsewhere. But she couldn't tell me what happened to that cemetery. I can't imagine they'd just leave the sisters' graves there next to the new interstate lanes. No reason I need to know, just wondered. You see, the nuns tended to pass in the spring, when the flowers were really fragrant and grew all along the processional route. After a couple of years of that, I associated the smell of fresh roses with nuns' funerals. My wife is a Methodist who loves roses and always wants me to smell hers. She was very puzzled when I told her what they smelled like...................

Responses from Dave in Lilburn, Georgia 9/30/2005
Both of those 9/29/05 entries were good for causing a few flashbacks. The Californian Bob must write for a living. I think that the Moll’s clock might have said “Since 1858”, but that’s a fuzzy memory from me as a five year old who had little perspective of what ninety years might have meant. I just remember their human-powered freight elevator with clam-shell operating wooden doors, the smell of the dry grocery goods, and the way they treated my grandmother when we’d walk in. It was almost like Norm walking into Cheers. A bygone era, for sure.

What other businesses used those large clocks over the sidewalks? I seem to remember Jacquard’s Jewelers and maybe Lammert’s, a fine furniture company on Washington. There might have been another sidewalk clock near the Fox Theater on Grand. To have one of these clocks displaying the wrong time must have been the worst possible advertising for a company that sold timepieces.

The older I get, the more business smells seem to come back in my memory. The caramel popcorn smells still remind me of Sear-Roebuck; the Arcade Building lobby was a unique blend reflecting the merchant mix, and any Woolworths store had an oilcloth odor somewhere in its background. And for the life of me I cannot reason why, as a young teen delivering groceries, why most of the foyers in those four or six family flats, with the combined entry stairwells in the front, all seemed to smell the same. A good smell that must have meant “Welcome Home” to tens of thousands of Saint Louisians in the 1940-50s.

Responses from Barb Sullivan nee Russell 10/3/2005
I have just read your memories, and was just lost in the past , then I came upon one from Pattie ,I remember thinking finally found someone from North st louis and as I read I realized it was my sister , LOL she had a few things wrong however Lol the backery was called Mertz's and my girl friend lived up stairs and her name is Crumb , and the Roaches lived next door , I kid you not . but that was a neighborhood were everyone was family , and they all looked out for everybody's kids . we had a garage in the back with an upright piano and on Sat. night my dad and the guy next door both played and we would would have block parties that spilled out into the alley, so much fun. played bottle caps in that alley too. never had inside facilities until I was 12 in 1954 seems unheard of now but never thought anything about not having them then. we had 5 kids to live in a 3 room cold water flat ,went to St. Leo's school , Rosati Kane High , and moved to South St Louis when I married in 1960 , moved to St. Charles in 1973 and have been on this side of the river ever since, but really miss the people from the old neighborhood, and once a year I do go to the reunion one of my old friend pulls together every year . and it is so much fun to reminises. some of you ought to try and do that with your old neighborhoods , you would be surprised how many of them show up . I think they all miss that easy time of living and none of the fears of today . was sure fun reading , and I will write again. right now am going to write my sister to tell her I found her letter. LOl

Responses from Carol Grojean 10/11/2005
I remember well visiting my grandparents home. Grandpa built the house in the early 1900's and many came to check it out as a novelty because he had both gas and electric installed. He also had an inside bathroom with toilet. The telephone stood on a small table behind the door between the dining room and kitchen and had no dial. To speak with someone, you lifted the earpiece from its hook and told the operator either the name or the number you wanted. My mother grew up and was married there in 1934.

Some "remembers" I have not seen yet include Lucille Ball paper dolls and gas lights on Semple Ave. Both my grandmothers kept chickens in the back yard for both eggs and meat, and had "glass" eggs to encourage the hens to nest. Many houses were laid out so there was a side yard for a garden. Grandma had lace curtains which she dried on a "stretcher" and how she got those heavy rugs out on a clothes line is beyond me, but she used a "carpet beater" on them. Later, she got a "hand-pump" style carpet cleaner (non-electric.) When I was about 10, she took me down to Famous Barr only to discover I was not wearing stockings. She was mortified!

Both grandmothers had cabinets built into the sides of their kitchens to keep food cold in winter. The outside walls were louvered and the inside doors were solid.

Grandpa worked at the Elder Shirt Company and every Thursday he signed payroll checks at the kitchen table (covered with oilcloth) while he listened to Fibber Magee and Molly and Can You Top This. (I was not allowed to listen to The Shadow-too scary for a little girl. Wow, have things changed!)

Grandpa had a Ford (black, of course, which he called "The Machine") and regularly drained and flushed the radiator. (His father also bought a car (pre Ford assembly line) and read the instruction manual while driving on his way home. Says something about traffic at the time.) Three members of my family were killed in trolley accidents.

John Phillip Sousa came with his band to one of the high school (was it Rittenour?) and invited the school band to sit in with them, but they were not allowed to play, only act as if they were playing.

My great Aunt worked as a supervisor in the dining room at Famous Barr and dismissed any young lady (waitress) who was dressed or acted inappropriately by her standards. Famous Barr had a farm in the country for the employees vacations. Girls lived in dormitories and the boys lived in cabins.

Responses from Becky 11/4/2005
What a treat to find this website just a week after I returned to New York City after my first St. Louis visit in many years. So many different cities, yet the same one in thrilling ways.

I grew up in the Central West End. Summers we cooled down with fans blown over bowls of ice, or went to Pevely Dairy where the colored lights took your mind off the heat.

Learned to ice skate at the Winter Garden.

Took the street car to Glazers Drugs in Clayton.

Lived spitting distance from the DeBallivier strip, where I managed to sneak in to see Evelyn West, the biggest and the best, with her $50,000 treasure chest, insured by Lloyds of London. Sorry to hear she's gone but amazed she made it so long. RIP.

I am researching the history of my grandfather, Louis H. Egan, who was involved in a huge Union Electric political slush fund scandal that broke in 1938. He went to the federal penitentiary in 1943. I've read all the Post-Dispatch, Globe-Democrat and Star-Times articles, and there were many, but would like to find anyone who knows anything about this from family or other sources. If you e-mail me at [email protected], and put something recognizable in the subject line, I can let you in through my spamblocker. I'd be grateful for any recollections passed down about this.

Meanwhile, thanks for the memories.

Responses from Sandra LaRouche 11/8/2005

I grew up in Wellston, 6322 Ridge--my old home, minus it's wonderful porches and now, sadly drab, still stands, My grandmother bought it in 1932. I was the last person in my family to live there, returning from Houston to rehab it in 1965. The neighborhood became dangerous and we moved.
> At one time Wellston was at wonderful place to live. EVergreen 4867 was the phone number at 6322 Ridge.

The Wellston High School marching Band practiced on the street in front of my home (my Aunt and Uncle's actually) We walked one block to high school and one block in the opposite direction to grade school and Jr. high.

We watched the Kefauver Commission intently on TV in 1951. I absorbed live theatre on Channel 9 and reveled in Your Show of Shows, not knowing that someday, in my job in Special Events at Famous-Barr, that I would have lunch with Sid Caesar.

Our whole family made a popcorn and Dr. Pepper event of watching the Veiled Prophet Ball on tv-my aunt always knowing in advance who the queen would be, following the society pages as some follow sports--there's little difference.

My cousin, Julie, and I practiced THE BOW, touching the nose to the knees and gracefully rising without effort, like a swan. We could do it, we were ready. Finally my aunt told us, something we somehow silently suspected, poor girls don't make their debut at the Veiled Prophet Ball.

Gently she told us that girls such as we, would never have the opportunity to sweep grandly, but modestly, into the Khorrasan Room of the Chase Hotel, would never have Frank Eschen extol the beauty of our gowns, reveal the number of beads and brilliants in our azure blue velvet and crystal encrusted trains. It wasn't quite as much fun to watch after that.

Once I slipped which trying to perfectly execute this maneuver and got a serious rug burn--I still have the scar on the top of my foot 50 years later.

Sitting on our porch swing on our wrap around porch at the house at 6322 Ridge Ave., we sat through black outs during WWII and later, on ordinary nights, in the late summer quiet, we could hear the creaking sound of the Hodiamont street car "making the loop" in a slowly dying Wellston.

In 1955 I worked at Kresge's in electrical outlets for 60 cents an hour until, because I wore starched white organdy aprons, I got a raise to 65 cents an hour and was moved to the front of the store--artificial flowers and letter paper.(also the sound of The Restless Wind by Googie Grant being played non-stop for 8 hours a day) I was offered a clerical/receptionist job by Rembrandt Studios for an unheard of 90 cents an hour. I worked 30 hours a week during 2 years of high school.

Wellston H.S. class of '57 was the first integrated class to graduate-our school was small (max 300), I felt it was beautiful with deep teal velvet curtains in the auditorium. I never understood why it was later abandoned for a newer and not so beautiful building on Sutter Ave. The auto dealership, O'Leary-McClintock, on Wells Avenue and Evergreen, gave us a driver's education car every other year.

We bought wool skirts with double kick pleats at a shop in Maplewood (I would love to know the name of it) the pleats featured baby buttons inside them and were of such quality that ten years after high school I was still able to wear them to my office. We wore sweaters made of something called Tycora. My school shoes were purchased with one Eagle stamp book plus about $2.00 and they were always penny loafers, size 4, the size I still wear.

Now I know the close budget on which my aunt took care of us and I appreciate the hard work my uncle did to earn it. Growing up in a Wellston which had AAA rated schools with Latin, other languages and a full curriculum offered by a warm and caring team of teachers was great. It was like Happy Days on TV--almost.

As a kid, I studied dance free at Sherman Park Community Center and when I was over 16 and could afford it, I went to Ford Dance School. I wanted to be a ballerina (a highly unlikely ambition), a writer,a musical comedy performer and I wanted to travel so, of course, my guidance counselor asked me what kind of secretary I intended to be.

As a girl with no money and no social position, my prospects were not great. There were NO Junior Colleges-the small scholarships offered me weren't enough to make it happen in a college. l got a job at Commercial Credit Rating, in the pink building at the Lindell and Olive wedge. I learned to be a very good interviewer; I learned the ins and outs of consumer & commercial credit, all at at a rate of $175 a month GROSS.

Credit bureau files were on manila folder, actually more like a pocket, with the last name printed first followed by the first name in cursive. If the person was Negro a double X was written in the upper right hand corner of the file.(Imagine that now!) File clerks attempted to use roller skates to expedite the finding of files but got big shocks from the steel file cabinets. I worked in written reports and must have single handedly interviewed over half of the people who purchase homes in the Oliver parks subdivisions in Illinois. I knew the phone number of every bank in St. Louis.

My favorite name that I ever saw on file was Dimples Immergoot. I used to imagine her as a plump little woman who wore pink ribbons in her hair no matter how old she got. One file said, "Beware--Pete Ely-This Man is a Gypsy" Commercial Credit Rating was an education in itself.

White flight and the beginnings of urban decay put an end to the busy shopping center that we knew as Wellston--many people who once populated Wellston now can be found in the suburbs of St. Charles. I went in a different direction. As one of my teachers predicted I would, I traveled widely, became a credit professional, but even better a newspaper writer and editor and magazine writer, public relations manager/ events coordinator, amateur actress and eventually a non-denominational minister.

Some dreams do come true--but in their own way. One lovely night, gowned in white, I made my entrance from a draped presentation box, in the Khorassan Room of the Chase Hotel at an event given by a gay organization called The Mandrake Ball. I was The Empress of The North. After that I appeared at St. Louis First Night Celebrations and in the Thanksgiving Parade as The Snow Queen for some 12 years until I "abdicated" at Midnight, Dec. 31, 1999.

I live in a historic house in the middle of the City of St. Louis and I have loved my life here. Sometimes just as I begin to fall asleep, I think I hear the Hodiamont street car making the loop.

Thanks for reading all this.

Responses from Charles Maiden 11/10/2005
How about Park's Drug Store on 14th Street.
And Sunshine drugs right accross the street.
Crown Candy
Sobel's Clothing Store.
The dime store.(That's what we called it when we were young)
Farmer's Market on North Broadway and Branch Street. (Ever buy a watermelon there?)
Wedge Cafe at 9th and Branch.
Baden Lanes Bowling alley in Baden.
River Roads Bowl in River Roads Mall.
Strotman's Park.
The Admiral, oh yes the Admiral.
Cherokee Street.
The Ritz theatre.

Responses from Judy (Rosteck) Schilligo 11/17/2005
I stumbled across this website quite by accident, but looking at each reply brought tears to my eyes more than once. I've often told my children about calling our friends outside with the "Oh, Vickieeeee". I lived at 4106A Camellia Avenue between Lee Avenue and Kossuth Avenue and went to Ashland School. My phone number was Evergreen 2-8409. Later on I worked at the telephone company and you could always tell where someone lived by their phone number - Evergreen, Prospect, Underhill, Harrison etc. We walked to school everyday and brought our lunch. You could also come home for lunch and I can't imagine now how we ever made it home and back in time. I know the kids today couldn't do it. We had the hot tamale man at night and the snowcone man. They gave us a card to punch and after five punches you got a free one. Sometimes if you stood there and didn't have the money when your friends got one the snowcone man felt sorry for you and gave you one anyway. We used to take a cane pole and walk to Fairgrounds park and go fishing. You could walk anywhere and never be afraid. Then some boy named Bobby Greenleaf (I think it was really Greenlease or something like that but in my childhood memory it was Greenleaf) got kidnapped and my mother didn't want me out after dark anymore. Our parent's would always drop us off at the show, the Northside or Tower when I was really young and later the Rio, the Fox and the Loew's. I remember seeing Susan Hayward in "I Want To Live" and Richard Burton in "Sea Wife". They would never let kids into those movies alone today. We go to the Fox sometimes now to see a Broadway show and it's hard to believe we saw movies there. Every day after school we went to Wesley House on Lee Avenue. It was a great place for kids to go and they had all kinds of activities. My mother used to go and play "Lotto", I think it was an early version of Bingo. One of the best feelings I ever had was on a hot summer day, taking a bath in the afternoon and getting out and putting baby powder all over. We didn't have air-conditioning yet and it was so refreshing. We had our school picnic's at the Highlands where I rode my first roller coaster at 6 with my dad. It seemed huge at the time and I think it was. I still remember seeing a part of it standing after the park burned down. You could also say you wanted a re-ride and you just paid again and didn't have to get off. We also had the teen nights with Bob Kuban at St. Sebastion, St. John and James, or Jackson Park in the summer. We also went to Club Imperial to dance and saw Ike and Tina Turner there. "Dynamite" album by Ike and Tina is still one of my favorites because of the memories it brings back, but when I played it for my son he thought it was awesome!! I loved the Admiral trips we took with CYC - the games on the lower deck with the picture booths, dancing on the next floor and the top level where you went to watch the river and hope to be kissed a time or two by the boy that you came with. We went to River Roads and hung out at Spencer Bowling Alley and when we were older we spent hours driving from Jennings Steak to Circle Steak and back again. I remember getting the polio shots at school and the day I got my third one and I went home so happy because I was finally finished with them and my mom told me it was too early to get it so I had to get another one the next time. We loved going to Cyrano's after prom at Union Station, and before the original one closed my daughter and her best friend would go there to drown their sorrows with dessert if they had boyfriend troubles. Forest Park and the Zoo have always been the best, but there was Fairgrounds Park and Ofallon Park also. We rode our bikes everywhere in the city or took the bus or walked. We made up games and amused ourselves. I wish I still had that energy. I loved living in the city and now my daughter and son-in-law are thinking of moving back near where they work in the Central West End. Some of those homes around there are still magnificent. People who grew up in South St. Louis still have much the same neighborhoods, but north St. Louis is not somewhere you venture now. It is sad. Twenty years ago I wanted to show my young daughter where I grew up and there was a vacant lot where my house was. I don't know what happened to it. Ashland School still looked enormous. I don't really remember the streetcars but my dad did visit the neighorhood tavern. It was called "Johnsons Tavern" and I think it was in Walnut Park. We would go pick him up there after work and one of us kids would always offer to my mother to go in and get him so we could beg him to stay a while and play shuffleboard and eat chips and drink soda. Friday night was popcorn and soda night and Sunday night was cheesburger night while we watched "Maverick" or "Sugarfoot" or one of those shows. It was a great time to grow up. Too many memories to put down. Thanks for the memories at your site.

Responses from Anonymous 11/17/2005
Dave this sure brings back old memories;
I grew up in a little town called Hillsdale. I remember walking to school with 3 or 4 of your buddies, crossing over Clayhills down by the railroad tracks to go to Spencmar School.
Little Joe's and Aunt Mary's confectionary at Leschen Ave, we lived at 6424 Leschen, later working there at 13 selling penny candy and pop was 12 cts. Until he was robbed and shot, then they sold to someone in the news now and then Mrs. Moore.
I remember delievering Post and Globe newspapers to houses, with a half wooden-metal cart with metal wheels, clang- clang-clang -clang- yelling POST and GLOBE NEWS--PAP--ERS. after selling them at rush hour on Lucas and Hunt and St. Louis Ave.for 12cts with Mike Gilbert.
I remember how embarrassed I would get when my cousin Wilford would come around selling produce from his pick-up truck STRAWBERR--IES----WATERMEL--ON. I'd just look at my friends and shrink.
Mr Softee and the smell of the inside of the truck when it was your turn. Making our own go-carts (no motor) out of wood with a rope for the steering wheel Wearing a dog chain, sometimes two for a belt or protection.
Playing baseball on a team called the Wildcats in Hillsdale behind Normandy School. Playing in the cemetery on Lucas and Hunt and getting chased out by the caretaker who once shot at us with a shotgun filled with rock salt, that was the last time.
I remember the family who lived across the street where they made the headstones, the Fites and they had a daughter named Rhonda, one of my first fondness memories.
Hillsdale was like Mayberry 2 police cars.
Dad would make ice cream on the side of the house with salt, you couldn't buy that kind of ice cream.
Mom would make milk from powdered milk and put it in a milk bottle to fool us kids, heck you could see thru the milk.
My Aunt had a tavern called My Little Margie's which was frequented often by members of a group called the Coock-coo gang
Fuzzball-Whiffleball-Lawn Jarts (the metal tip ones) Bottlecaps
Mowing lawns without gas
Walking to Hodges Roller Rink in Pinelawn on a Friday and Saturday night to roller skate in your poly pants, pressed shirt, monkey boots with your cigs rolled up in your sleeve to skate to Eastside-Westside and girl's choice.
Our phone number started with Evergreen
The word for in between houses was called gangway
A family moved on our block they weren't very clean people and there was 10 of them so we named them the Krudbuds or the Dirty Dozen even though there was only 10 but we played down there anyway.

Responses from Anonymous 11/17/2005
After finishing chores on Saturday mornings, getting 50 cents for the show at the Varsity...25 for the ticket and 25 for snacks. Popcorn was a dime. Cokes were a dime. Most of the candy was 5 cents. If you wanted a more expensive treat, you could add candy by getting the 5 cent jujube's(they were terrible but they lasted a long time).
5 cent suckers at the show that came in clear polka-dotted wrappers.
Adults were referred to as Miss, Mrs. or Mister. They did not have to "earn" respect; they got it because they were the adults.
Teachers were teachers, not friends.
Schneidhorst's. Parkmoor before it turned into (gasp) a Walgreen's.
Library fines were 3 cents a day. It was considered somehow shameful to have overdue books. The library was for reading and studying BOOKS. There were no cellphones, no CD players, and no Walkmen. The laptop was the place you put your extra books if the table was full. There was NO TALKING. If you wanted to test this, a librarian would be straightening you out in a second.
Frozen lakes in Forest Park in the winter. You could skate for free and it was safe to be outside.
Pratzel's in the Loop in the early hours of Sunday morning. Standing at the back door to buy the freshest, most delicious bagels ever.
WigWam on Friday nights..
When the women students at St. Louis gained the privilege of wearing "ladie's slacks" (not jeans...not sweats...zippers on the side or in the back) inside the library on Saturdays and Sunday afternoons.
When a spanking at home was not child abuse. When a couple of whacks on the bottom could get your attention quickly and let you know that the offending action was not to be done again.
When thegas prices went up...to 29 cents!
When one of the worst things you could say to someone was "stuff it."
Good old days? You bet. What I miss most is courtesy and a society that was respectful. I would go back to that in a heart beat!

Responses from Warren 11/18/2005
I remember going with my dad to the local Knights of Columbus hall and watching all these guys drink beer.
I remember going to my first baseball game at Busch Stadium in 1957, where the Cardinals played the cubs.
I remember the cigar smoke at the ballgames that still remind me of the ballpark when I catch a rare whiff these days.
I remember buying a Luigi's pizza for $2.50 for a large.
I remember taking the bus from Berkeley to Wellston to catch a movie. We were 12 and 8.
I remember the Savoy theatre in Ferguson and the double features on Sundays.
Fish Fries on Friday.
Playing baseball at Champ Park just north of the Airport on Graham Road….lights and all ! Going to Dairy Queen after a little league game……win or lose.
Playing soccer for Holy Ghost…not long after I learned to walk.
CYC dances at Sacred Heart in Florissant.
Dances at Incarnate Word..under the watchful eyes of the nuns.
School picnics at Chain of Rocks and at Blanchette park in St. Charles.
Watching guys play corkball. Try finding someone west of St. Louis who's heard of this game.
Playing baseball everyday of the summer until dark…then sometimes in the dark.
Dances at Jackson Park, with Bob Kuban or the Sheratons.

Responses from Pam Pollett 11/30/2005
I share a lot of the memories shared on your site dating from the very late 50's, 60's, and 70's, even though I grew up on the Illinois side about 40 miles from St. Louis.
Television, News, Shopping, Sports, Culture, etc. all was accessible in the St. Louis Area.
I remember that the KXOK Staff would put basketball teams together and play for local fundraisers, that must have been in the early 60's.
I also remember that members Football Cardinals would be guest speakers at high school sports banquets and would show highlight films. Particularly, Larry Wilson.
I also remember watching my cousins playing summer baseball at Bob Russell Park (?) The last thing, I'll share is I can vaguely remember a bottling strike that affected the St. Louis Area. At that time they started putting soda in cans which was out of the ordinary then, but certainly caught on.
So not only was it great to grow up in St. Louis, it was great to grow up close to to St. Louis,too.

Responses from Anonymous 11/30/2005

These were great! I read every one of them. I didn't see any mention of the "Duncan YO-YO." It was the true sign of spring when the men from Hawaii came to your school and carved the yo-yo with their knives.

Responses from Christian R. (Bob) Mentrup 11/30/2005

For Karen, whose father lived on Ashland Court I grew up living at 4721 Greer Ave. I went to the Benton Grade School (on Kingshighway & St. Louis Ave.'s), graduating in 1940. I started at Beaumont High School and ended up graduating in 1944 from Affton High School. I can't quite remember Ashland Court, but remember Greer Ave. as being one block South of Ashland Ave. I certainly remember Shreve Ave. and Natural Bridge Rd.
I remember the Bridge Theater, although most every one from my block went to the Queens Theater at Marcus & Maffitt. I also remember all the holes/old quarries described. It is best that all have been filled in.
Three young boys drowned while rafting in the old quarry on Ashland Ave. between Shreve and Euclid.

Responses from RAY 12/2/2005
HELLO DAVE, EXCELLENT SITE I HAVE ENJOYED IT VERY MUCH AS I, AM, SOUTH SIDE MY SELF. I REMEMBER GOING TO SOUTH SIDE DAY NURSERY SCHOOL AND WATCHING FIREMEN PUT OUT THE FIRE AT THE OLD VALLEY FARM DAIRY ON IOWA AVE. AT ONE TIME I USED TO LIVE NEXT TO THE OLD DAIRY (VALLEY FARM) THEN MOVED TO THE 2653 BLOCK OF OREGON AVE. I WENT TO ST. FRANCIS DE SALES GRADE SCHOOL TILL THE FOURTH GRADE.ONE OF MY FONDEST MEMORIES IS A NUN (SR. GERLINDA) I HAD IN THE FIRST GRADE WHO TAUGHT ME HOW TO READ AND THE IMPORTANCE OF SPELLING. I CAN REMEMBER WHEN MILK WAS ONLY 2 CENTS A CARTON AND TWINKIES WERE 5 CENTS I REMEMBER GOING TO THE OLD CITY SERVICE GAS STATION AND DRIVING THE CLERK CRAZY STOMPING OR RIDING OUR BIKES OVER THE CORD TO MAKE THE BELL RING. I REMEMBER ALSO GOING AROUND TO COLLECT SODA BOTTLES MAINLY LOOKING FOR THE LARGE VESS BOTTLES BECAUSE THEY PAID MORE. I CAN REMEMBER WALKING TO THE BOY'S CLUB ON SIDNEY AVE AND ALONG THE WAY STOPPING TO PLAY ON THE NEW INTERSTATE 55 BEFORE IT WAS OPENED. IF WE WEREN'T PLAYING ON IT WE WERE RIDING OUR BIKES ON IT. I ALSO CAN REMEMBER ON FRIDAY OR SATURDAY NIGHTS GOING TO THE OLD GRAVOIS SHOW FOR 50 CENTS TO SEE TWO MOVIES AND THEN GOING DOWN TO CALIFORNIA DONUTS FOR FRESH HOT GLAZED DONUTS AND A PINT OF CHOCOLATE MILK. ONE OF THE THINGS I REMEMBER DOING a lot WAS RIDING THE (#20) CHEROKEE BUS FOR 25 CENTS TO THE LOOP OUT ON GRAVOIS AND HAMPTON BUT YOU COULD ALSO FOR ANOTHER 25 CENTS CONTINUE TO RIDE IT TO THE TURN AROUND IN FENTON OFF OF WHAT IS NOW OLD GRAVOIS RD. NOT A BAD WAY TO SPEND A DOLLAR IF YOU HAD IT ON A SATURDAY AFTERNOON EXPLORING ALL THE DIFFERENT STOPS ALONG THE WAY. COME TO THINK OF IT A GROUP OF FRIENDS AND MYSELF RODE OUR BIKES OUT GRAVOIS FROM (12TH STREET) NOW TUCKER BLVD. TO CEDAR HILL MISSOURI ON ROUTE 30 (GRAVOIS) BUT WE HAD TO BE PICKED UP IN HOUSE SPRINGS BECAUSE WE WERE GETTING TIRED. THIS WAS ALL DONE ON SCHWINN 10 SPEED BIKE AND 3&5 SPEEDS TOO. WE HAD A REALLY GOOD TIME DOING IT AND COME TO THINK WE WERE ONLY ABOUT 11 OR 12 YEARS OLD.BOY HAVE TIMES CHANGED.AS I WAS READING THRU SOME OF THESE I DIDN'T SEE WHERE ANY ONE MENTIONED THE FIREMEN'S RODEO THAT WAS HELD FOR YEARS AT THE OLD ARENA OF WHICH I ALONG WITH A FRIEND WENT TO FOR MANY A YEARS. WE ALWAYS WOULD GO TO WHITE CASTLE ON VANDEVENTER OR KINGSHIWAY AFTERWARD AND GET A FEW OF THOSE LITTLE BURGERS AND HOT CHOCOLATE WITH MARSHMALLOWS. I ALSO ENJOYED GOING TO STEINBERG ICE RINK ON FRIDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHTS WHERE YOU COULD SKATE FROM 7:00 P.M-10:00P.M. FOR FIFTY CENTS, THEY WOULD ALWAYS GIVE YOU A KENNEDY HALF DOLLAR TO DROP IN THE TURN STYLE TO GET IN AND ON REALLY COLD NIGHTS THERE WAS A BON FIRE GOING. MY FRIENDS AND I WOULD ALSO RIDE OUR BIKES OUT TO THE MINI GOLF, GIANT SLIDE, AND PIN BALL ON CHIPPEWA BY THE OLD LIBERTY SUPERMARKET AND GRANDPA PIGEON'S STORES. WHEN I WAS A KID GROWING UP IN ST. LOUIS WE WOULD RIDE OUR BIKES ALL OVER THE CITY AND SOME OF THE COUNTY ALSO. AS I GOT A LITTLE OLDER AND MOVED TO SOUTH COUNTY I USED TO GO TO TEEN NIGHTS AT THE BALL PARK AND RIDE THE BUS FROM CRESTWOOD MALL TO THE STADIUM AND THAT WAS FUN ALSO. AS I LOOK BACK NOW I WISH THE OLD ADMIRAL WAS STILL GOING UP AND DOWN THE RIVER ON THOSE SUNDAY NIGHTS AND AS FAR AS THAT GOES ALL THE OTHER NIGHTS TOO. I REMEMBER WHEN THE ADMIRAL WAS POWERED BY STEAM AND A PADDLEWHEEL IN THE BACK AND A CALLIOPE POWERED BY STEAM TOO. I REMEMBER SELLING THE SUNDAY POST DISPATCH ON SATURDAY NIGHTS UP AND DOWN THE STREETS OF MY OLD NEIGHBORHOOD WITH AT LEAST TWO CARTS FULL OF PAPERS AND THEIR OLD METAL WHEELS POUNDING THE STREETS LETTING PEOPLE KNOW YOU WERE CLOSE. IF WE WASN'T PULLING THE CARTS WE WOULD GET A CORNER SOME WHERE AND IN THE WINTER WE ALWAYS HAD A FIRE BURNING IN THE DRUM OR BARREL. I CAN REMEMBER THE OLD KEROSENE LIGHTS THAT THE GAS COMPANY USED TO USE WHEN THEY WOULD DIG UP THE STREETS TO MARK WHERE THERE WAS A HOLE IN THE STREET. I REMEMBER WHEN I WAS YOUNGER WE WOULD GO TO FOX PARK ON SHENADOAH AVE AND WATCH SOFTBALL GAMES AT NIGHT FOR FREE. I ALSO REMEMBER THE SHENADOAH,RITZ,AVALON SHOWS TOO. I REMEMBER THE SOUTHTOWN FAMOUS BARR WHERE YOU PARKED ON THE CHIPPEWA SIDE AND COULD GO DOWN THE STEPS AND CROSS UNDER CHIPPEWA TO GET TO THE LOWER LEVEL OF THE STORE.HOW ABOUT UNCLE BILL'S PANCAKE HOUSE ON KINGSHIWAY?CAN ANYONE REMEMBER GOING TO SOME BAKERIES AROUND TOWN AND GETTING FREE COOKIES WHEN THEY WERE KIDS? YES, I HAVE SOME VERY FOND MEMORIES OF GROWING UP IN ST.LOUIS AND I HOPE TO CONTINUE TO KEEP MAKING MORE OF THEM.

Responses from Anonymous 12/10/2005
This is a great website!! Here are some of my fondest memories.
Grew up in Carondelet neighborhood, Went to St. Boniface School.
Some of the streets were still cobblestones.
Don Fanetti and the Bugle Newpaper.
The pretzel man used to sell pretzels through the fence on the school yard during lunch
recess.We always got in trouble from Sister Germaine.
Going to Kipps drugstore for ice cream.
Going to the Michigan show.
Buying Beatle magazines at Winkleman's drugstore.
Going to the Carondelet branch library.
Having to be home before the 6pm Angelus bells rang
The Aardvarks, Good Feelin, Aerovons, New Years eve at the Batcave.
Meeting my best friend on the skywalk at the downtown Famous after seeing the Aardvarks at the Way-In Shop. Remember Delcia Devon? Chuck Conners?
These are just a few of my favorite things.

Responses from Alan Wilson 12/19/2005
Absolutely a hoot. I have loved reading of all the memories. As an expatriot St. Louis county native now residing in Arizona I have a few to relate as well.

The Airway Drive-In and that great neon majorette.

Going crawdad hunting in Coldwater creek when it still resembled a creek.

White Castle hamburgers at a dime each

Steak and Shake with real carhops.

Pattonville and Ritenour high schools being major rivals and each year altering the large lettter "P" and "R" respectively by students from each school.

When Creve Coeur Park was still in "The Country"

Summer day camp at Creve Coeur park.

Rainy Daze club (mostly for under 21 crowds) on Olive Street rod, west of Woods Mill rd and just east of Hog Hollow rd.

"Head shops" like Spectrum, when it was still in Kirkwood, near the tracks, others as well, like the Hidden Grok, on old Olive Street (near home) in Creve Coeur, and the Wicked Flame on St. Charles Rock Roead in St, John, or was it Breckenridge Hills.

Discovering the west end and the U-City loop while still in high school.

When Bigfoot, the first "Monster " truck was just a Ford F-250 with slightly oversize tires and wheels.

Watching planes take off and land at Lambert field form the small light along Lindbergh just west of the airport.

Holiday Hill amusement park.

When Northwest Plaza opened. I believe, at the time it was the largest mall in the country.

Model car contests at Walgreens at Northwest Plaza.

Shneidthorst curb service, with great burgers and only a dollar.

The Blu-Top restaurant on Page.

When Woodsmill was still a narrow road with high curbs that would grab your tires. Highway 40 (pronounced "farty, of course) west of 270( then known as 244) that was a series of dips and rises that was great at speed, particularly in my friend Rob's 69 GTO convertible, but still fun in my '68 Cougar XR7

Sledding on Art Hill

Learning to tuckpoint, pour cement slabs, plumb, wire, carpentry and hang sheetrock after buying an old house in Lafayette Square.

4th of July Celebrations and fireworks on the riverfront at the Arch.

At age 15, seeing the Beatles in 1966 at then brand new Busch Stadium.

KSHE FM, and before that KXOK and KIRL AM

The Bears Den at Washington University.

The Majestic restaurant on Euclid in the West End, particularly on Sunday mornings.

Holloween street parties along Euclid.

Being in Forest Park and imagining what it must have been like during the 1904 "Louisiana Purchase Exposition" aka, the St' Louis Worlds Fair.

Thanks Dave, for this site and allowing us to peruse these memories.

Responses from Roger G. 12/20/2005
I can remember:

Playing hide n seek in the alley behind my grandparents flat not far from McCree and 39th St. after dark.

Hollering for Stan the Man through my "megaphone" popcorn box at Sportsmans Park. He tipped his hat once for me.

Planes would take off and land at Lambert north to south. Those prop jobs were so low I could see the rivets on the fulelage at my house in Woodson Terrace.

Sneaking up to the crying room in the GEM theater in St. Johns and watching the teenagers neck. SONIC BOOOMS!!!

Riding the Hodiamont street car with the black kids hanging off the back. We must have been going 50 MPH!

Shooing off the salt trucks so they didn't ruin our sledding hill.

Hot August nights with only a cold bath and a window fan to stay cool. (no AC man!)

Collecting bottlecaps for the old men to play with.

Fishing at Ramona lake with crawdads we caught in Coldwater creek.

Snitching ice chunks from the ICE MAN truck. They were clear and as big as your fist.

Window shopping at Famous Barr downtown at Christmas time. Magical!

Watching the Arch being built. Everytime we drove downtown it would be a little higher. (my name and lots of other kids is in a time capsule to be opened when the Arch is taken down. Whenever that will be)

Trying to see what was playing at the Olympic when we drove past in my Dad's 55 Chevrolet.

A fishbowl of rootbeer at Chuck a Burger on the Rock Road.

Smoking dried out grape vines at Beaumont scout camp.

Responses from Vicki Frazier (Kurtz) ([email protected]) 12/27/2005
Although I’m now living in South Carolina and haven’t lived in St.Louis I did grow up there. Attending the Garfield Elementary school; Roosevelt High school.

Some of the things I was “allowed” to do was walk to Velvet Freeze for an after school treat.

Or even better, Concrete Malts from Ted Drews. The walk to school each day wouldn’t be heard of today. Walking from Ohion and Utah, to Roosevelt kept me running so I wouldn’t be marked tardy in advisory.

Does anyone remember walking up and down Cherokee St., the man called “Tony” who sharpened knives, or Annies fruit stand.

My father attended Roosevelt also, and was surprised when I told him I had his his old teacher, Ms Westphalinger.

It’s nice to read everyone’s entries, thanks for the memories. I’d like to hear from others that lived in the south St. Louis area. Even if I don’t remember pails of beer; I’m just old enough to recall buying cigarettes at the corner confectionary for my grandfather. Everyone knew one another then, and neighbors were actually friends.

My biggest fear was being caught misbehaving and having my antics reported to my parents *before* I could get home, yes, back then every one still scolded everyone’s child. Strange how things have changed.
Responses from Terry Taylor 12/31/2005
What a great web site. I'm from North County (Natural Bridge and Lucas & Hunt Road - a little municipality called "Beverly Hills" if you can believe that).
Here we go -
Pevely milk truck delivering ice and bottles of milk in a container on the front porch.
Soccer shoes with a hard toe and wooden spikes.
Hickey field
Goody-Goody Restaurant
Sam the Watermelon man fruit stand (I mean ice cold watermelon)
Hodges roller skating rink
The "old monastery" at the intersection of Natural Bridge & Lucas & Hunt (Normandy Shopping Center)
Tree houses
Building "crates" and racing them down the alley
Summertime kool-aid stands on the corner
Playing until the street lights came on
Water balloons on your bike spokes to make it sound like your bike had headers on it.
Being afraid of the gangs around town - Walnut Park AC's - by the RIO Theatre (West Florissant Ave & Riverview) Normandy Gang, Riteneour Gang, Riverview Gardens Gang, etc.
Central Hardware in Wellston - "just ask the orange coated experts"
Wellston Loop
Street Car rides downtown
Christmas downtown St. Louis with the trains in the windows. Touch the window and the trains stop/start.
The Highlands roller coaster
Mister Softee Truck - good ice cream
3 neighborhood confectionaries with-in a 1 mile radius - Hymans Meat Market, Sextro's Confectionary, Lentz's Confectionary.
Cruisin Steak n Shake, Totes Big Boy, White Castle, Chuck-A-Burger and then going down to Hall street to watch the drag races.
Playing wiffle ball, cork ball, fuzz ball and bottle caps
Going to the Prom in our high school gym - all decorated
Riding your bike at night with the generator on it to power your light
Taking the chain guard off the bike to look cool and then getting your jean cuff caught in it and almost crashing.
3 V cola in the big bottle
Wooden cases of glass soda bottles
White Castle hamburgers cost .10
Roller skates that had clamps on them and ripped the soul of your shoe off.
Me and my 5 brothers and sisters got 1 bottle of soda and some popcorn on Saturday night for our weekly snack.
Drawing a thick white chalk line across the neighborhood street and have me and my buddy sitting at the end of it, and when a car came by we pulled back, making it look like we were pulling up a rope to stop the car and the car would stop - and then we ran.
I could go on all day. Where has the time gone?

Responses from susan friendly 12/31/2005
i grew up ALL over St. Louis City:
lived on Eads avenue, went to Wyman school for kindergarten (walked up the stairs from Theresa and eads to get to the Grand StreetCar) , then Immaculate Conception, moved to 5947 page went to St. Barbara's school. walked everywhere including the streetcar tracks to wellston ( YES even at night!) went to the wellston and Victory shows, shopped at the 3 Sisters, my first job was at JC Penny's.
My dad was a conductor on the street cars and drove the buses for PUBLIC SERVICE for 30 years. move once to the very same address 5947 but on Maple..forgot i went to St.Rose school on Etzel and Goodfellow, where i met my best friend Doris in 6th grade (YES we are still friends).
Went to Soldan High after graduating from St. Anthony's in S. St.Louis (lived on Compton , then La. ave.) Yes we did move alot!!! just saw your page and had to say "i really loved st. louis when it was safe and i could walk with my friends , both girls and boyfriends through Forest Park at night and enjoy life as it was meant to be enjoyed...the muny..wow!
I really miss those times". How did we let everything go so easily?!