St. Louis Memories (Chapter 6 - 2008 submissions)
David A. Lossos
To return to the "Genealogy in St. Louis" Web Site click here.
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
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 (You are currently looking at this website)
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)(Images courtesy of Bob Doerr)
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!).
2008 bonus: While scrolling endlessing through a roll of microfilm recently (yes, Virginia, I still look at microfilm) my eye caught a glimpse of some TV listings, and a movie listing also. I made copies of both, and you can take a look here for
June 27, 1955 Movie listing,
June 27, 1955 KSD TV programs listing,
June 27, 1955 KWK TV programs listing,
June 27, 1955 KTVI TV programs listing
Post from Carol Sue (1/4/2008)
Hi, I live in Oklahoma City but grew up in Clayton, lived there until I got married in 1966.
My favorite memory is of Lake Forest Bakery on Clayton Road, it only closed a few years ago.
My mom worked at Scruggs, Vandervoort & Barney on Hanley and Forsyth, she managed the childrens dept., she lived to be 91 years old.
Fitz's on Clayton Road
White Castle by the Delmar train station, we always ate there before taking the train to Iowa City where my sister and her husband lived for a few years.
Glazer drugstore on Hanley and Wydown
The Veiled Prophet Parade with the Queen and her Court in an enclosed float with beautiful flowers
Velvet Freeze Ice Cream
Ice skating at the Wintergarden
Mavrakos candy store in Clayton
The record bar in Clayton which was owned by actor Kevin Kline's dad.
Clayton High football parade days, decorating cars in front of "depo" and a police escort through Clayton while we sang our pep song as
loud as we could
Riding my bike to Famous Barr in Clayton and just parking it in front of the store, no one ever touched it
The Admiral in the summer
Caramel popcorn freshly made in a big copper pot at the downtown Kreske's
Homemade hot cake donuts at the downtown Woolworths
The absolutely beautiful Christmas windows at all the downtown stores, we would anxiously await for the drapes to open the day after Thanksgiving
The huge Salvation Army Christmas tree downtown, a new light would be lit everytime they reached another $ amount
Shaw Park swimming pool
The greatest zoo in the world
My phone number was PArkview 1-4736 and we had a party line
Thanks for a great website, I visit my best friend from high school every year in St. Louis, I always look forward to it.
Another Post from Carol Sue Taylor, Oklahoma City (1/4/2008)
This is my second posting today, I am enthralled with your website and thank you so much for creating it. I grew up in Clayton and attended St. Joseph's grade school on Meramec, was taught by the Ursuline nuns, boy were they strict. I would walk home from school down Meramec to Forsyth and then down to Hanley Road, kids today don't walk a block. We were safe back in those days, the 50's. For a special treat my mother and I would go to Straub's on Saturdays and buy their delicious Danish pastries, but they were considered upscale and quite expensive. By the time I was in high school I worked at Famous Barr in Clayton doing inventory, the store would be closed and inventory would take place on Saturday evenings and all day Sunday. I also worked at Scruggs where my mother worked and then later in high school I worked at Stix over at Westroads. I remember in college that Baker's Shoe Stores would have an end of summer sale and sell shoes for $1 a pair up to $2.99 a pair. I would save my money to buy shoes to take to college.
I also remember going to the Shady Oak Theatre on Forsyth, it was real small but you could go on Saturday afternoons for a dime and see a western, newsreel and a couple of cartoons. At Christmas time if you brought a new toy to donate, you got in free.
I remember the wonderful summer day camps that the Clayton Public Schools put on, we had arts and crafts and played all different sports against the other day camps, had wonderful field trips and swim lessons at Shaw Park.
I remember we had City Hospital and County Hospital depending whichever you were closest to if there was an accident you automatically went to one of them.
After college, I taught second grade at Holy Redeemer Catholic School in Webster Groves. Webster is still a beautiful place and I love to drive through the streets and admire the homes.
I was at Parkmoor on Clayton Road the last day it was opened and got to have their delicious onion rings.
Does anyone remember Redwood on Brentwood across from Westroads (now The Galleria). They were the first to serve charbroiled
hamburgers with a wonderful spicy red sauce.
There was also a kiddieland out on Page Blvd. where the rides were a nickel or dime.
St. Ann four screen drive in. I saw "A Summer Place" 12 times.
I also remembering saving the red mills, they were a type of plastic as I recall
Eagle Stamps given at Famous Barr, doubled on Tuesdays. Famous also had a wonderful candy dept. most of the stores had candy kitchens in their downtown locations.
Thanks for letting me come back and reminisce again.
Post from Gloria (1/6/2008)
Response to Carol Taylor.
I can remember so many of the things you wrote about. I grew up in University City, moved to Overland and then Hanley Hills. You are one of the few people to remember the Kiddie Land on Page Avenue in Pagedale.
We ate at the Redwood and the Parkmoor a few times, on our way home my Mom would stop by a five and
dime store on Ladue Road, can't remember the name of it, but it closed just a few years ago. My dad would always watch the paper for the White Castles coupon, twelve for one dollar.
I worked at Kressege's on Delmar at the loop. I worked the candy counter which was right in front of the doors on the Delmar side, it was so cold when the doors open.
I can remember the Vieled Prophet Ball at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel being on TV and the parade at night
time down town, you are right about the beautiful flowers.
My in-laws owned a tavern at the corner of Rosedale and Delmar. My husband worked at Delmar Bicycle Shop
There use to be a shoe shop in Clayton, my uncles would save all year to buy a pair of Thread's
shoes, at that time they were very expensive.
Post from Anonymous (1/10/2008)
In response to Gloria, the five and dime on Ladue Road was Spicer's, I think it may have recently reopened under different ownership. It is a small world, I found out in the 80's that it was owned by a man who married someone I had gone to grade school with. He had worked for the Spicer's while in high school and when they retired, he bought it. It was a great store, it was originally on Brentwood in the heart of Clayton a little tiny store just south of Maryland.
Does anyone remember Schneithorst's on Clayton and Lindbergh, they had a drive in behind it and on Friday and Saturday nights you would drive around and around until you saw someone you knew, but then they didn't allow you to do that anymore, you had to park in a spot and order. Their burgers had a great spicy sauce that was mayonnaise based.
Post from Anonymous (1/10/2008)
Thanks for a great site.
I grew up as a south side girl (Louisiana & Cherokee) in the late 60's early 70's then the family moved to Soulard.
My favorite early memories are of the Cherokee Street Parade. I don't know why they held it every year but what fun. The neighborhood kids would all meet at Gravois Park to watch the preparations. They would paint the horse's hooves silver and you could see the moon shapes left on the street for weeks.
Our favorite confectionary was Walter's on the corner of Cherokee and Louisiana. My mother hated the wax bottle candy we would buy because we would drink the juice chew the wax and it would end up melted on our "front stoop." It is probably still there!
My grandparents lived across the street from Gravois park and I would sit outside with my grandmother to watch the squirrels. When the season was right I was sent with her largest pan to climb the huge mulberry tree and pick till it was full. Sprinkled with sugar…what a treat. My grandfather sat out on his stoop most of the day... smoking his nonfiltered Pall Mall, drinking Bush and listening to his cardinals when possible. He would wave to every car that went by. Years after his death we found out he was a fixture/character to many southsiders, just like the knife sharpener man and "bucket man."
I don't know how Gravois park kept a blade of grass. All summer we would be there participating in the "Summer Park Program." How many popsicle stick bowls, plastic string lanyards and potholders I made! There was even an Olympics competing against the other parks. And I can't eat a bologna sandwich without thinking of sitting on the stairs of the pavallian. (White bread and yellow mustard. Still the only way I can eat it.) The park program surved this with a choice of white or chocolate milk. At St. Pius we only got white.
I learned to dance at the free program at Marquette park. But boy did I hate when the Marquette pool lifeguards would blow the whistle and make us kids get out for "adult swim." Never did see an adult take advantage of the free time…we kids were there on our own.
At Holloween my mom would take us out trick or treating. If the weather was bad, (always!) she would just take us to the corner taverns. (How many do you think there were?) And the old men would give us money. Maybe we got the big bucks because my dad made us sing a song. Where I live now the kids don't even tell jokes. I taught my kids to tell jokes while trick or treating and they always get tons more candy than their friends.
My friends and I would walk to Sears on Grand just to ride the escalators.
Dad's cookies in brown bag with string.
Helen's Pizza delivered in that envelope. How excited we were when we got to eat up those stairs at Helen's.
Going down the gangway into Gus' pretzels. Nothing beats that smell.
All day shows at the Melvin on Chippewa.
Post from Linda Nickel (1/10/2008)
I'm sure I'll think of more memories later but this was a pretty good start.
I happened upon your website while looking for some pictures of closed bowling alleys in South St. Louis because my husband and I belong to a Soulard Mardi Gras Krewe and our float this year is a bowling theme and we wanted to pay tribute to some of the old bowling alleys in South St. Louis. You don’t happen to have any pictures of any old bowling alleys in St. Louis do you? We are just looking for the way their sign out front looked so we can make our sign similar. I grew up in the same neighborhood you did. I went to the Ritz Theatre many times. My girlfriend and I would go to the Shenandoah Show on a Friday or Saturday night and the Ritz the night we didn’t go to the Shenandoah. I rode the Grand Streetcar many times as a kid. Loved the Woolworth’s on Grand and used to stand in front of LaMerite’s Bridal Shop and stare at the beautiful dresses in their windows while my Mom or Dad would go the bank at Tower Grove Bank and the post office across the street. My Mom used to do her grocery shopping at either the A&P on Grand and Magnolia or the Kroger on Grand past the Tower Grove Bank. Went to many overnight parties at the South Grand YMCA and a friend of mine’s Uncle owned Pelican’s Restaurant and we used to hang out there in the kitchen and eat free food. Never was brave enough to try the Turtle Soup though. Where did you go to elementary school? (Note from Dave: St. Pius V grade school)
Post from kim Albright (1/10/2008)
I am trying to find out information about the bowling alley that caught fire. I believe the name of it was Du Bowl Lanes. I also believe the street it was on was either Giles or Gravois. I have tried to find out about this on the internet but I haven't been able to find anything.
Post from Gloria (1/12/2008)
Anonymous, thank you for the reply. I'll have to take a trip over there and check it out. I do remember Schneithorst's on Clayton, the group I ran around with stayed more south of Forest Park.
I attended All Saint's Grade School in U. City, then Mercy High School & Normandy High School.
Chuck a Burger, Trio and Steak & Shake were are "hang outs". Ponticellos on Natural Bridge was for special occasions like birthdays and
Part of my family live around 13th and Shenandoah, then my father and his family moved to Mississippi and Park, had a bar on the corner.
We use to play at Cunningham Park in U.City, swim at Heman Park, Roller skate at the rink that use to be by the Arena, that use to be. I also made many plastic bracelets and pot holders.
My family had a reunion here in St. Louis this summer and we took a trip through the brewery and then bought lunch at Gus's Pretzels, (no table's to eat at in Gus's)
I use to buy all of my Prom dresses from La Merits down town, I think most of the girls at school went there. The dress's were very similar. After the prom dinner was always at Ruggeri's on the Hill.
We did the same thing on Halloween, I can remember being dressed as a ballerina and it starting to snow
on one Halloween night. Heaven knows U. City had enough bars at that time. There was a bar about every two or three blocks. There were two bars that sat side by side on Rosedale and Delmar and both did a lot of business.
I remember the name of Pelicans, I don't think I ever ate there, went to Mercy with some people by that name.
Post from Alan Wilson (1/12/2008)
To Anonymous of 1/10/08,
I also remember Schneithorsts and the delicious burgers. We used to park and visit with friends there on the occasional, but not every friday. Do you or anyone remember "Rainy Daze", the teen club on Olive Street west of WoodsmillRd (141) This was the late 60's, early 70s. West county was mainly travelled on 2 lane roads.
Post from "Proud to be a STL Native" (1/12/2008)
I recall a song..
Run, run, run..
I think I hear a nun..
Grab all your bottles and run!!!
If a nun should appear...
Say..
Sister have a beer..
In the cellars of good old Ascension.
Post from M Manning - Clarksville TN(1/14/2008)
Gloria,
My mom (Karen Gilles/Manning) used to work at Chuck-a-burger the at Trio years ago (60/70’s) I grew up in North County and graduated from McClure in 80. I then spent the next 23 yrs.in the Army only coming back once in a while. I’m now retired living in Clarksville TN.
I miss St Louis some day’s. I remember going to Chain of rocks Amusement and the old Amusement park by the Airport.
Listening cardinal baseball and Football. I saw my first Cardinal Football Game in 1982 in Wimbley Stadium in England. I was stationed in Germany at the Time. Playing Hockey in the street with the old metal skates.
Dave this is a great site.
Post from Tim Stone Ft. Worth, Texas (1/14/2008)
As I recall Dubowl was on Gravois just south of Grand.
I was born and raised in South St. Louis, attended Long School and graduated Cleveland High in 1973.
I've been away from St.Louis since 1992 and don't get back as much as I would like.
Post from Sandi A. in Overland (1/15/2008)
Kudos to you Dave, for such a wonderful website. what wonderful memories it triggered. i have lived in several states and am now in dayton, ohio. still get back to visit brother and other family in stl.
my parents always took me to hawks basketball games, old sportsmans park, great times watching stan kan play the organ at the fox, lunch at the forum or pope cafeterias, crown candy kitchens, ted drewe's, kiddieland. later i visited holiday hill, chain of rocks, and the highlands before it burned down.
i remember getting on a streetcar to go downtown for a day. the train windows at famous barr, stix, and the shopping at scruggs. travelling by bus to wellston. Remember the jingle "Wellston's got it every day, shop in Wellston."
Great fun in iveland, hoech and ritenour high school. 1966 graduate. we had a juke box in the cafeteria and always danced at lunch. shopping was fun in downtown overland when the fancy stores were there. i.e., sandro's was a favorite. Town and County mall and Northwest Plaza were two of the first. The Gem store on Page was a favorite and i always felt special because you had to have a military card to enter. Watching the blues play at the arena before they tore it down was always great fun. Grants Farm, the Zoo and the Admiral were true favorites. Saturday nights occasionally included a visit to the American Theatre and Gas Light Square.
Then there were the most wonderful hangouts. Steak n Shake, Chuck a Burger, and White Castle, then on down to Ponticello's. Many saturday afternoons were spent at the Gem theatre or the Beverly Theatre on Olive Road, then on to Frank and Helen's for lunch.
I suppose the best was saved for Sunday evenings at the Starlight Ballroom with Bob Kuban and Little Walter Scott playing weekly. What wonderful times we had there.
St. Louis was and is a wonderful city. on my quarterly visits, i still get goose bumps when i get within distance of viewing the arch. so much history and memories to treasure. who knows, perhaps one day i will move back. After all, there are now so many casinos, it will almost seem like a permanent vacation.
Post from Anonymous (1/18/2008)
This is for Linda Nickel 1-10-08….You have so many of the same memories as me. I grew up on McDonald and Spring. We practically lived on Cherokee and would spend hours going in and out of the stores. I think just about every outfit I owned came from either JC Penney or The Worth Shop. The Worth Shop had the coolest 60's fashions. My friends and I used to bowl at DuBowl every Sunday afternoon. We much preferred it over Grand Bowl because there weren't as many adults there. On Sunday afternoons, it was practically empty.
I even have a DuBowl story. My older sister's boyfriend always went with us and considered himself quite the bowler. He was all of 15/16 at the time. We girls mentioned that there was a machine in the ladies' room that offered a pill that claimed it would ease your aches and pains and give you great energy. One day after bowling particularly bad, Gary gave me a nickel and told me to go get him one of those pills. He took it and claimed he felt much better and more energetic. He went on to bowl a Turkey (3 strikes in a row) and swore the pill did the trick. Every time we went, he'd give me a nickel and I'd go get the magic pill for him. One day I was telling my Mother about this magic pill and she told me to buy one and bring it home. When she saw it, she burst out laughing. It was a MIDOL! We never let Gary live it down and to this day whenever I see him I bring it up.
That is just one of the wonderful memories of DuBowl, The Ritz, The Shenandoah and so much more. Just like you, I would press my nose to the windows of LaMerit and dream of my own wedding gown. Years later, I did just that and walked down the aisle of Tower Grove Baptist Church in a dress from LaMerit.
I truly enjoyed your memories. I attended Horace Mann Grade School and Roosevelt High School….Class of 72.
Post from Gloria(1/18/2008)
In response to M Manning.
I use to work for St. John's Liquor Stores in the 60's. I'm assuming that your mother worked at the Chuck-a-Burger on the Rock Road across from Ritenour High School. I remember an older lady who worked there for a long time, her name was Lil. Chuck-a-Burger was going to close at the end of 2007, it's run by the original owners son, and the person who they rented from was going to sell the property for new development, I think I read that the Rock Road store may get another chance. I think the owners last name is Stilles, not sure, his son did open a restaurant in St. Charles Mo., not the same. They have a web site, www.chuck-a-burger.com . In the spring and summer we drive over there in one of our show cars, it's a lot of fun.
The Chuck-a-Burger in Pagedale closed many years ago, not a good neighborhood.
I went to Normandy high school with a Tom Manning, he lived close to the Trio.
The amusement park you referred to was Holiday Hills, now the site of a big hotel and a Waffle House.
Post from Gloria (1/18/2008)
*In response to Sandi A.
I lived at Page and Ashby for several years until we moved into the Normandy School District. (Go Vikings).
I went to a Private grade School, but I lived close to Iveland. Do you remember the school fairs held on the
play ground at Iveland?
How about the rivalry between Normandy and Ritenour for possession of the Wagon Wheel? I don't remember where it finally ended up.
Wasn't Bob Kuban responsible for the song "The Cheater" ? Walter Scott had a tragic ending to his life.
The Gem store was a neat place to shop. I use to shop at T&C Mall all the time. Sandro's was a very nice woman's shop.
As you probably know Frank and Helens' is still open, do you remember Bengoni's they had to close a few years ago. Did you ever eat at Hamburger Heaven on Woodson Road?
Post from Jim Longo (1/24/2008)
Dave, I keep coming back and end up having more
memories stirred up. I hope this continues for a long
while. I posted once, on 8/9/200/, and thought I'd
start the year off with another posting. I have been
in Atlanta for 10 years, but love to think about the
old haunts, and tell my daughter stories about the
good ole days.
For Ruth, 4/6/200/ & 11/7/2007. The Fair behind the
Dime store was always a great time...Tilt A Whirl
always mae me sick..but I kept going back. I remember
the tornado....I was driving down Florissant Rd,in
front of Ferguson Department store, and it went right
over...very scary. I lived on Haley Ave., right behind
North Hills Dairy. It was probably the same
creek,(Moline or Maline, depending on who you talked
to. but a little down from your area. One of the kids
who wsa washed away was from the Ozenkoski family who
had the bakery next to North Hills Dairy. He was a
little younger than me, but I remember him. I also
went to McCluer, and was released in '67.
For Hutch, 8/14/2007, although I was actually a Cool
Valley kid, we also used the Ferguson Post Office. I
went to Guadalupe grade school,(don't be mad because
we got all those days off...we had to go to school
longer in the summer because of it!!) then McBride for
2 years and finally graduated from McCluer.
If anyone would like to get in touch, feel free to
email me at [email protected]. I haven't been back
to St Louis for 7 or 8 years, but the memories will
hopefully stay forever.
Post from Tom (1/24/2008)
Hi, Dave - my cousin turned me on to your great site. I'm Tom, McKinley HS class of '61 and I wanted everyone who visits your website to know about www.mckinleygoldbugs.com, which is another wonderful place for St. Louisians to reminisce. If you go to that site and click on "Features," there are a number of nostalgic stories about "dem good ol' days" which are certain to awake memories. My old phone number was MOhawk 5689, then they prefaced it with a 4. It was a 4-party line, and back when TV signals were often plagued with "technical difficulties," entertainment often shifted to listening in on the other parties.
Comment from Dave Lossos (1/28/2008)
Here's a website that's filled with History - Memories - Stories of Wellston, St. Louis County, Missouri complements of Bob Haefner. Bob's concentration is Wellston, but St. Louisians from all parts of the metro area will appreciate the stories and images. Thanks Bob.
Post from Gary (1/28/2008)
Great web site. I'm Gary, originally from south St.
Louis near Hampton and Eichelberger Streets, now in
Champaign, IL. I lived on Loran Ave between Hampton
Ave. and Francis Park.
Each Thanksgiving Day at Francis Park there was a
neighborhood football game between the Germans and the
Irish, locally known as the Toilet Bowl Game. My
brother and I and other neighborhood kids went
sledding in Francis Park at the big hill on the east
side of the park opposite about Itaska Ave., south of
St. Gabriel School. That was great fun. We wouldn't go
home until we couldn't feel our fingertips anymore.
In the summertime the park had a summer program, as
others have noted for different parks, where I learned
to play mill and mumbly-peg. I, too, made lanyards and
bracelets out of that plastic craft stuff and wove
numerous pot holders out of those stretchy fabric
loops. There was a wading pool that was filled each
morning and drained each evening. I learned to swim in
that pool. There was also a lily pond about in the
center of the park with loads of tadpoles. Great fun
to catch tadpoles and take them home. They wouldn't
last very long in a jar of water.
There was Winklemann's drug store on Hampton and
Itaska (I think) where we could get a cherry coke at
the soda fountain, and Velvet Freeze at Hampton and
Delor for an occasional ice cream cone. Knoll-Warner
bakery at Hampton and Eichelberger was also a favorite
stop for a doughnut. Bishop DuBourg high school is on
Eichelberger. I remember when that school was built.
I attended Nottingham School on Nottingham and
Donovan. When I started kindergarten we met in
temporary buildings (old army barracks buildings), but
by the time I reached second or third grade we moved
into a brand new building on the same site and teh
temporary buildings were removed. I remember when
Busch School was built a year or two later than
Nottingham. The library we used was in Buder School. I
can't remember what street that was on, but I would
ride my bike over there once in awhile.
I attended Southwest High School through the middle of
my junior year, then my family moved to Webster
Groves. My memories of WG High School are not good,
but I graduated from there.
On Friday evenings we might go to the Roxy theater on
Wherry and about Landsdowne. Admission was 14 cents in
the early 50s then the price went up to 25 cents.
Eventually it was turned into an "art" theater and I
quit going.
The first fast food restaurant I remember was Henry's
Hamburgers on Hampton around Nottingham, maybe a
little north of there. I think a hamburger cost 10 or
15 cents then. Oh, before that there was White Castle
at Hampton and Chippewa, a great place to duck into on
a cold winter evening and have a few hamburgers (12
cents apiece) and a cup of hot chocolate. White Castle
was right across from Hampton Village, where there
were several stores, among which were a Bettendorf
grovery store, J.C. Penney, and either Kresge's or
Woolworth's. I can't remember which it was. There was
also a dime store on Hampton further south, near Delor.
Post from
Lynn in Michigan (1/28/2008)
I was born and raised in St. Louis. I met my husband there while he was attending college and we moved to his home state of Michigan. St. Louis is still home to me. My husband cherishes his years there also. We were talking about those wonderful years the other night…Drag racing on Hall Street and so many other great 60's memories.
I clearly recall my parents taking my sister and I to the Policemen's Circus and Firemen's Rodeo.I was sharing those memories with my hubby and told him that you could buy chameleons there. They came in a tiny plastic box with holes in it. My sister got one and it died like 2 days later which was probably the norm.
Does anybody else remember chameleons being sold at the Arena? I think my husband thinks I'm whacky.
Post from Barbara LaRose Wear (1/28/2008)
Thanks Dave for the great web site. I was born in St Louis in 1943 at Josephine Heitkamp Hosp. later was Incarnate Word and now something else. I started school at Clinton Peabody, then in 1949 started to Hodgen. my mom & dad bought a house at 2600 blk of Eads Ave in So. St,Louis. Jefferson Ave was the shopping spot close. There was Nash Drug, Zollers Bakery. Stanley dress shop, Dime Store , Carl's grill and the Lafayette Theater. As many others Cherokee Street was the big place to go. During the Christmas Season we always went downtown to Scruggs, Famous Barr and other department stores to see the window display. Site Service station on Gravois sold christmas trees for $1.00. we would get on the street car and ride to Chippawa & Broadway and get a bus to Downs roller rink and swimming pool. Lawreys Market was on the corner of Eads & Ohio, he sold all the penny candy and nesbitt sodas. I had a very dear friend that I have been trying to find for a few yrs and if anyone knows of Delores Flannigan, she has married since then, please contact me at codeyblue06@aol or anyone else from the old neighborhood. Thanks again Dave for the great web site.
Post from Ginny in Charlotte, NC (2/2/2008)
Oh Dave, your pages have brought a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye remembering so much.
My phone number was Prospect 3384 then PR 3-3384 and I went to Holy Innocents School on Kingshighway near Arsenal where the church was, for many years, in the basement of the convent. Beloved Father Rost died (such a shock) and we got Father Palumbo from St. Ambrose. I was confirmed by Archbishop Ritter who later became a Cardinal. I had fantasies of being confirmed by the one-day Pope.
I was attending Southwest High School when the new football field and gym were built. Graduated in '66. Tag Day and Miss Gallandt and her "brother." How we loved Mr. Dripps.
I remember Ding Dong School with Miss Joan.
Rosalind Russell explaining the cross your heart bra. There was a sweater on a plastic bust and the bra was over the sweater.
Playing flips with our baseball cards.
When zones changed to zip codes.
Endless Mondays with my mom and her wringer washer and hanging up and taking down the clothes when they were dry. Then mom would proceed to sprinkle the clothes, roll them up and put them in the fridge for Tuesday which was always ironing day.
Everybody carried a Hankerchief even the boys.
Mother May I.
The first time walking into a store that had A/C.
Ladies Day at Sportman's Park. Admission for women and kids was 50 cents. Score cards were 10 cents. We sat at the end of the first base line in right field. Joe Cunningham would come over before the game and say hello.
Seeing Bonanza in color.
Ron Lundy and Danny Dark from Radio Park. Listening on our transistors.
Saddle shoes (black or brown) vs. Penny Loafers.
Petti Pants, girdles, garter belts and runs in stockings.
Bob Cuban Band (I heard Bob came to a very bad end).
Oh Pancho - Oh Cisco - those were the days!
Post from [email protected] (Barbara LaRose wear) (2/2/2008)
For Lynn in Michigan, your not whacky about the chameleons being sold at the Arena, I took my son to all the events there and yes we bought them there and tied a sting around the legs of them and let them climb on our shoulders.so you do you have your right mind .LOL thanks for the memory, I forgot all about them.
Post from Larry (2/4/2008)
For Ginny in Charlotte, Bob Kuban is alive and well, still performing. It
was Walter Scott who was murdered. Ding Dong School had Miss Frances, Romper
Room had Miss Joan, followed by Miss Lois.
Post from Gloria from Overland Mo.(2/4/2008)
To Ginny in Charlotte NC.
Ding Dong School use to be a thorn in my side. Miss Frances would do the" mirror, mirror __ ___ ___
have all my friends had fun at play?" Then Miss Frances would have a mirror that looked like the she was looking at the children at home, then she would say " I see Tommy and Nancy and whoever, and she never said the name Barbara too much, which put my baby sister Barbara into hysterical crying, because she just knew Miss Francis didn't like her. Frances Horwick aka Miss Frances died at the age of 94 in 2001.
For Barbara's fiftieth birthday I bought her a video of Ding Dong School. At Barb's insistence we watch the video and of course she had her fit because Miss Frances did not see her.
I was wondering, wasn't it Jane Russell who did the cross your heart bra commercials?
A bit about Bob Kuban, as of 2005 he was still alive, I think you were thinking about Walter Scott.
In an ironic twist, Walter Scott frontman for The In-Men and singer of "The Cheater" (whose lyrics speak of the downfall of an unfaithful lover), was murdered in 1983 by his wife's lover, with his wife's collusion. His body was dropped in a deep well behind his or the lovers home.
We use to call the petti pants, pedal pushers, I've always wondered why? Do you remember the can can slips? I can still remember how much they itched especially if they were made of netting and starched.
The Cisco Kid, Roy Rogers, Sky King, Hopalong Cassidy (did you ever wonder what kind of a name is Hopalong?)
Post from Ruth (grew up in Ferguson)(2/11/2008)
Jim Longo - I graduated from McCluer in '67 also, I had to look you up, in that ugly old brown yearbook we had, you look familiar, but we must have hung out in different groups.(my last name was Beckmann) I couldn't handle the Tilt-A-Whirl either, or the Scrambler blah... I remember North Hills Dairy, aren't they the ones with the Pig Dinners? I also remember the bakery next to it. We went there some of the time, there was also a fish fry we went to, down your way. My sister went to Guadalupe one or two years, while they were redoing St. John and James Church. We used to walk the creek between Elizabeth and Barat, but I do remember the creek you are talking about.
Are there any other 67 McCluer grads here?
Someone mentioned Dad's Cookies, they still wrap them in the brown paper bag with string. My father grew up in the flat next door to Dad's Cookies, we used to play in my grandparents yard and look in their window to see them baking. I love the oatmeal scotties, just recently I found them being sold in our Shop N Save, they still taste great with a glass of milk to dunk them in!
I remember hanging out at the library on Church St., in Ferguson. We would tell my mother we were going there to "study", did anyone really study there?
Ding Dong school was Miss Francis, but the Mirror bit was from Romper Room, if I remember correctly.
I used to hang out at Northland, I just recently went by there, it's all rebuilt, it looks so different. I remember being in 8th grade, hanging out at the bus stop at Northland with a group of friends. We thought we were so "grown up", smoking our cigarettes, or I should say choking on them, wearing our black scarfs on our chins. LOL anyone remember doing that?
To Proud to be a STL Native We sang that same song "give a cheer, give a cheer, for the girls that drink the beer in the cellars of old John and James, then it's run, run, run, I think I smell a nun, drop all your bottles and run, if a nun should appear, say sister have a beer, in the cellars of old John and James". Maybe all the Catholic school kids sang it with their school names. Does anyone else remember singing that?
I remember the Admiral too, I loved to watch the dance groups, wishing I was part of one. We would go down and play the games, and ride the little rides, I remember the one that looked like a flying saucer. I also remember the metal stamp machine, I think I still have one or two of the ones I made. Remember always seeing Peabody Coal, no matter how long you were on the boat.
Post from Judith Pfeiffer Kaufman (2/16/2008)
I love reading the stories here
Hi! I grew up on Arsenal St. just a block from Kingshighway. Holy Innocents
was my parish and my phone number was COlfax 7537. I remember the
scissor man going up our street and the bell that clanged when he came by.
You never had to leave your house because all "the vendors" came to you!
White's Bakery came by in the morning. You could go out and get bread,
donuts and other goodies. The egg man and the milk man delivered all our
dairy products. We loved the ice man in the summer. He took these giant
tongs and carried the big block of ice up to the ice box in our kitchen. Many
times, he'd chip some pieces for us. In the winter, the coal man would put a
chute from the truck to our basement window and the coal would stack up in
a little room down there. On Saturday nights, the paper boy would push his
cart up the street and yell out "Get your evening paper". I, too, remember
the ash pits. We used to go down on Kingshighway to a florist shop and
root around through their ashpit. What treasures we'd find! There were always bits of styrofoam and ribbon and, if we were especially lucky, some
flowers that were not quite wilted - sometimes good enough for me to take
home for my mother. If you had a quarter or fifty cents, you could go to the
dime store and buy tons of things for someone's birthday!! The shows we
mostly went to were the Macklind Theatre (I remember getting dishware there
one night - wish I still had it!) and the Columbia over on Southwest Avenue.
Of course, many times my grossmother would take me downtown or to
Grand Avenue to the really big theatres. I remember the Fox and Stan Kann
coming up out of the floor playing the huge organ. When we went downtown
we'd stop first at Forum Cafeteria and have lunch. My dad bowled every Friday night just down the street from our flat - at the Arway Bowling Alley.
Sometimes I'd go down there. They had a machine you could put your foot in
and it showed an "x-ray" of your foot. I just wonder how safe that was!!
I'm sure I'll be adding many other memories soon. Thanks for the website.
Post from John Faris at: [email protected] (2/16/2008)
For the past 50 years I have lived in Phoenix, AZ but grew up mostly in Maplewood.
As my memory started in life we lived on Arthur Ave. just east of McCausland. I went to kindergarten at Lindenwood School. I remember my father taking me to stand on the Fyler Ave bridge over the Frisco railroad yards and roundhouse on Sunday afternoons. We would see all of the steam locomotives firing up in readiness to go out on runs. We would watch very long trains of tank cars filled with gasoline being pulled into the yards from Oklahoma and Texas. This was before pipelines were built. I remember riding downtown on green double decker busses on the Lindenwood line. I remember going over the rickety Fyler bridge on green McCausland busses. While downtown, I remember getting on the yellow streetcars through the back door where we paid our fares to a conductor and would exit the front doors past the motorman.
I remember the city sanitation workers dressed in white uniforms who would have a push cart, broom and pan to keep the downtown streets clear of horse droppings along with any other debris.
The whole time I was growing up my parents did not own a car. We traveled any place in the St. Louis area, any time during the day or night, on a streetcar or bus, conveniently.
I remember the Veiled Prophet parades on Olive Street where the floats were pulled by horses, and later by trucks,while the power was supplied for the lights by trolley poles going up to the streetcar wires.
After moving from Lindenwood to Maplewood, HIghland 8995, I attended Sutton School, MRH Junior High School, and MRH High School.
I remember the Fats and Leans service club in Maplewood. They would play benefit softball games in the old ball park at Manchester and Laclede Station Roads. They would also have street carnivals and fish fry's on Manchester next to the high school on the land where the Maplewood city hall now stands. One of their benefit projects bought a brand new Cadillac ambulance for the Maplewood Fire Department.
I remember delivering the St. Louis County Observer every week. This was a free newspaper but we were expected to go out on our routes and collect at the end of the month. This always seemed weird to me and the “customers.” I also remember the Saturday nights when I sold the Sunday Post and Globe newspapers on routes with the carts with steel wheels. I remember having to stuff the Sunday edition of the papers into the previously printed and delivered parts of the paper before we could leave on the routes. This was done next to the big yellow building in the back of the Maplewood streetcar loop. All of the paper boys doing this created quite a scene.
I remember the war bond street dances every once in a while during World War II. These were held west of the intersection of Manchester and Sutton. There would be airplane searchlights swirling around in the sky to draw attention to the event, and of course the streets would be closed to all traffic except streetcars. These were great parties. At Sutton School, we had drives to collect spent metal toothpaste tubes and scraps of “tin” foil that were turned in to assist in the war effort.
I remember playing kick the can in the street. I remember playing step ball with tennis or golf balls. I remember the movie “Winged Victory” by Moss Hart. I must have seen it ten times. I guess it was a World War II propaganda film rather than a classic since it doesn’t appear on any of the TV movie channels.
I remember the only world series the St. Louis Browns ever played in. And wouldn’t you know, they played it against the St. Louis Cardinals. I remember the first operating television sets that I ever saw were in the display windows at Golde’s Department store. They were showing the 1946 world series between the Cardinals and the Red Sox. Even though this was a local broadcast, and the screens were tiny, it was really exciting. Something brand new.
As a small child, I remember the “Armistice Day” parades through downtown St. Louis. During the war there were a lot of military people and hardware involved, along with lots of bands. As I grew older, I marched in that parade in my high school band and later with the Naval Reserve. It was called Veterans Day by that time.
I remember Nahm’s Drive in on Manchester Road. I remember Phil’s Bar-B-Que in Afton.
I remember when the streetcar company burned many wooden streetcars in a salvage operation at Brentwood Junction on the land where the Brentwood bus garage is today.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the previous chapters of this website. I have many of the same memories. However, the few things that I have repeated were done with a sense of fine tuning or adding details.
Thank you for your good work.
Post from Jeanne in Apex, North Carolina (2/24/2008)
For Charles who posted memories on 1/9/2007 (OK, so I don't get to your Web site all that often!): the TV program he is thinking of was "Cookie and the Captain" --I don't remember the man's name, either.
I sure miss St. Louis; haven't been back there since my mother died in 2001 but my sister still lives there. I attended St. Pius school before we moved in 1953, and then I attended St. Joan of Arc (was married from that church in 1966). Graduated from Cor Jesu Academy (it was on the "Hill" then) and Webster College.
Loved those White Castle hamburgers; they have them in the grocery stores' freezer section here, but they just aren't the same.
Does anyone remember the great fire at Kriegshauser's Funeral Home on Kingshighway, sometime in the 50s? We lived at that time on Winnebago just down from Grand Ave. and the fire engines came even from that area to fight it.
Love your Web site, Dave. I'll try to visit more often!
Post from Gloria (2/24/2008)
From Gloria in response to John Faris:
Mr. Faris I really enjoyed reading your memories.
I had friends who lived in Maplewood right off of McCausland. Their name was Sparks. The street they lived on was before Manchester road, I can't remember the name, we would go south on McCausland for a few blocks, make a right turn onto the street, at the end of the street seemed like an alley, you could turn right or left, but not enough room for two cars to pass each other. Our friends house sat on the north/east corner.
Anyway this is a great web site and again I enjoyed your thread you posted.
Post from Kirt Boeckstiegel (2/29/2008)
Grew up in Pine Lawn 1944 to 1966
I remember hearing test ammo being shot at night at the small arm's plant on Goodfellow
Saturday afternoons at the Studio Movie theater and going to the Rio theater in Walnut Park.
Ed's White Front BBQ
Goodie Goodies drive inn (which is still there)
Ed the watermelon man
Star gas stations
Paying 11 cents for a pack of Lucky Strike smokes
Saving up soda bottles to cash in for gas money to cruise Streak-n-shake and Chuck-a-Burger
Gas a 17 cents a gallon
Katz Drug Store
Toll was 10 cents to cross the Chain of Rocks bridge
Fountain sodas at drug stores
The good old Goodfellow Terrace speed traps.
Terry Moore bowling alley
Pine Lawn Grill
Huge tree on Council Grove where Indians of old held counsel meetings
A lot of fond memories.
Post from [email protected] (2/29/2008)
I lived at 5242 Maple ave, My phone number was Forrest4146 . I remember watching double features at the Will Rodgers theater on Union. I remember Mammy's restaurant next door. I remember the ally behind my house. I remember going to A@W root beer stand and getting a hot dog and a soda for 25cennt. I remember selling papers on Saturday night from a wooden wagon with metal wheels. I remember going to forests part with my friends to catch snakes. I remember my friend Mike coming to my house to call me (Oh Joe). I remember going to Muller's bakery across the street from St. Marks school on Wednesday mornings and getting the most delicious cakes. I remember being the only Italian kid on the block. I remember going to the Highlands for School picnics. I remember eighth grade graduation you had to take a date on the admiral. My mom and dad owned a grocery and meat store on Paige and Hodamont. My uncle owned the Vogue lounge across from the Statler Hotel. You used to be able to walk from my house all the way to the river and no one would bother you. It was great growing up in St. Louis, I will always remember it. If anyone recognizes these memories or went to St. Marks elementary school please feel free to email me.
PS. I remember seeing the young boy hit by the Hodamont streetcar, I was there with my friend Mike Mcginty.
Post from Anonymous (2/29/2008)
to the person posted on 9/5/07,from overland,I probably know you.I graduated from ritenour in '81 and lived in st john on marvin'I remember all the things you do plus horack dairy,khoury league at woodson terrace park.cyc at st williams,fr boul,guthrie park,sands drug store in breckenridge plaza on the rock rd.I still go to erios pizza occasionally.and playing in the creek behind music palace,and riding my bike through the trails.the big slide in st ann,big boy restaraunt by holiday hills amusement park.theres so much more I cant list it all in one sittting.great site dave
Post from Gloria (3/7/2008)
In response to Kirt's posting 02/29/08:
You have some great memories. I remember my grandmother going to Sam the watermelon mans stand, if I remember correctly he sold watermelon by the slice and had tables and bench's to sit and enjoy.
Do you remember the hot tamale man, I use to see him on Easton Ave. in Wellston. It seems to me that the tamales where wrapped in something and then wrap the news paper.
I remember gas at Star gas station on Skinker and Rosedale, plus you got star stamps and you could trade them in for free gas. I think my generation and those before us knew how to save. We saved S & H
green stamps, eagle stamps, soda bottles were returned and we got as much as five cents per bottle.
Post from Gloria (3/7/2008)
To Joe chick in response to thread posted 02/29/08
I lived at 6400 and 6402 Maple, in University City, I'm trying to remember exactly where you lived. I had friends from St. Barbara's, and St. Rose of Lima's, a few from Notre Dame Grade School near Wellston.
Your right about being able to walk or go anywhere without a problem. During the summer we left our home
(after doing our chores) and spent the day at Cunningham Park, most of the time playing baseball, we didn't bother to go home for lunch. If we got bored we'd go to one of the many neighborhood bars and ask for bottle caps and go to a vacant lot between home and the park and hit bottle caps with broom or mop handles. We use to ride our bikes and skate in the alley behind our homes, never thought about playing baseball on the street or stepping foot on people's property. A lot of residents had fruit trees in there back yard close to the alley, so we did help ourselves to apples, pears, peaches from the limbs hanging over the alley, but not over the yard.
We could walk to Heman Park to go swimming, as long as it was in a group, of course a lot of families in our neighborhood had five to ten children in the family, we had eight and I was a grandchild so we had our own group.
Walks to the Delmar Loop, having lunch at Kressege's five and dime or one of the drug stores on Delmar then going to the U.City library. Going into Lambs quarry between Olive Street Road and Delmar when we were told never go there, I heard the rock for All Saints Church came from that quarry.
Our school picnics were held at West Lake amusement park way out near St. Charles, I thought we would
never get there, that was one of the few occasions Father Ryan rented school buses for us to ride. At that time we were lucky if we had one car per family, so transportation was a problem.
Our eight grade graduation was held on May Day, all eighth grade girls wore formals, and the boys suits and whoever was elected May Queen had a party at their home, we went on the admiral several times each summer.
Post from Gloria (3/7/2008)
In response to Anonymous posted 02/29/08
I would think you might have been in the age group of my children. Did you go to Home Heights for grade school. I would imagine you might remember the boy who was abducted on his way home from school and
after weeks of searching that area over there he was found murdered . At that time I-170 hadn't been built.
Was Big Boys restaurant on the north-east corner of Brown and Natural Bridge? We use to eat a Trio all the time over there.
Post from Robert D. Gassner (3/7/2008)
My memories of South St. Louis ( I am what is known as a state street hoosier ) IDAHO
Mister Softie
Cobble stone streets
chasing the milk man for a piece of ice
step ball
run ups ( hot box)
filling a pillow case at Halloween 10-12 block radius NO PARENTAL ASSOCIATION
Leaving the house at 8am and returning for dinner
WILLIE the bug man ( are we not all chemically imbalanced from chasing this guy)
concrete street lamps
FUZZ BALL
P.S. what a great web page this is, brings back many fond memories of the simpler times in life.
Post from Dave (3/7/2008)
Great website - thanks.
I was raised in Kirkwood (TAylor telephone exchange) and the things I remember -
If you couldn't ride your bike or walk - you wouldn't go there
Teen Town upstairs from Color-Art
St. Joseph's Seminary ruins (now Meramec Community College)
The nuns at St. Peter and all my classmates from 1st to 8th grade
Going to Sunday matinees at the Osage as a little kid and going to there Friday evenings to meet girls as an older kid
Going to Jake's (the confectionary on the corner of Geyer and Rosehill)
The Santa in the Steamboat across from the St. Louis City Hall each Xmas season
Tree Court and Holiday Valley swimming pools in Valley Park
Ducking into Katz Drug Store, Kirkwood Rexall, and the train station to catch the air-conditioning in the summer heat
On Jefferson you'd buy 45s at the Record store, a model at he Hobby Shop, cross the street for some Buster Brown shoes and a haircut at Larry's and get a pair of Levis at the "Model " on the corner of Jefferson and Kirkwood Road
The smell of the Woolworth and buying a "class" ring for $1.50 to be given to a girl
All of the store windows painted for Halloween
Post from Anonymous (3/7/2008)
Lived at 3113 Norwood, COlfax-0358; attended Benton elementary; Beaumont H.S. and Normandy. Graduated '55. Our street was 2 blocks west of Kingshighway, acrossed the street from the St.L.Public Schools Stadium. Soccer matches of foreign teams from Germany, Poland etc. Track meets in the spring, Football in the Fall, Shriner's Circus every summer with a fireworks display that at the time was unmatched anywhere.
My husband and I are St.Louis history buffs and have books on the 1904 World's Fair and also collect W.F. memorbilia. If anyone is interested we would love to have you join us... we meet at the south county library on Lindbergh. Reading the stories about the amusement parks in and around St.Louis city & county I've discovered a new book about the Highlands. It's called "FOREST PARK HIGHLANDS" by Doug Garner. You can get a copy at your library or Amazon.com.
Would love to hear from former "Bentonites" .... if interested in the World's Fair, please go to our website: www.1904worldsfairsocitey.com Thanks again for a great website!
Post from Kit Koenig (3/7/2008)
I was googling to see if Mavrokos (sp?) was still in existence so that
I could send my 93 year mother her favorite candy for Easter when I
spotted your website. The first thing that popped up was a picture of
Mills. I was so excited because I've tried to tell people about these
mills worth 1/10 of a penny that I had as a kid but no one knew what I
was talking about and thought I must be remembering things incorrectly.
Thanks for this great website. It's fun to look back sometimes.
Post from Anonymous (3/13/2008)
I love this website and go to it often. I went to Notre Dame in Wellston from 1951 until 1955. I still think about that school and the kids who went there. Does anyone else remember Notre Dame? [email protected]
Post from Kathy from North County now in West County (3/13/2008)
Thanks for such a great site!
I remember growing up in North County and :
going to River Roads and Northland Shopping Centers and on a nice day a trip to Northwest Plaza was like going on a long drive.
not able to wait til May for our grade school picnic at Chain of Rocks Amusement Park and first walking through the neighborhood letting everyone know it was school picnic time and boarding the buses and meeting our parents at the gate of the amusement park.
eating chicken at Romaines on Sunday afternoon
going to The North Drive In and sneaking in by way of the trunk
eating at Chili Barn at the intersection of 270 and Dunn Road
playing softball at Surrey Lane and then our family eating at Kelly's on Bellefontaine Road
bowling on a kids Saturday morning league at Lewis & Clark bowling alley on Chambers Road
eating brain sandwiches at Pete's Hole in the Wall at the corner of Halls Ferry & Chambers Roads
going to St. Casimir's Friday night dances during the school year
when KXOK would come to Thomas School and Johnny Rabbitt came and sold 45's for 50 cents
spending the summers at Bellefontaine Country Club and meeting new people at the swimming pool
I could go on and on but these are some of my best memories!
Thanks for this super website!!!
Post from Larry Janzen (3/16/2008)
My memories of St. Louis was our phone number EVergreen 8122. We lived in the Wellston area.
My favorite past-time was playing in the ashpits. The ash pits we used as a fort. The allys were our favorite place to play as well.
Ray's Market was on the corner, Beans Confectionary near by, the fabulous bakery that baked the most wonderful bread and Parissi's tavern where all the adult folk went in search of spirits.
The Victory show in Wellston where we saw Tom Mix and Roy Rogers for 10 cents.
My favorite stores were the dime stores, Kresges, Woolworths and Neisners. We got our clothes at Busy Bee and our shoes at the Red Goose Store.
Television didn't exist but we had radio. Why did we all sit around and look at the radio? Who knows.
Mother took me to Ray's Market to buy our groceries. During world war II we had to use ration stamps. After the war ended, I couldn't understand we didn't buy meat with stamps.
I attended Laclede school for Kindergarden later transferring to Notre Dame Catholic school for the rest of my schooling.
One of my big treats was when my mother and I would walk two blocks to the Velvet Freeze on Goodfellow. Oh, the ice cream was so good.
The Wellston area was a very safe place to live. Everyone knew each other and our doors were not locked. Even during the war with the black outs.
My big treat of the day was when I was given a ride on the City Limits car to Ferguson. Our next door neighbor was a motorman with Public Service, he would take me for his last run of the day. My big treat was to turn the crank of the fare box where the money would be counted. At the end of street, Wabada, was the Hodimont and City Limits line.
My name is Larry Janzen, I now reside in Citrus Heights, CA.
I will be returning to St. Louis this summer to attend my 50th high school reunion. I graduated from Normandy High School.
Post from Connie Stevens (3/20/2008)
Our St. Louis vacation every summer was the high point of childhood in the 1950s. We came down from Quincy, IL, and stayed at the Mayfair. It smelled and sounded like "the city." The bellhop, in his regal uniform, made noises like different animals for the kids in the elevator. We always included a visit to Forest Park to rent opera glasses and sit in the back seats for a magical outdoor opera like Oklahoma. All my major life decisions were made when I was at the St. Louis zoo. Of course, the Cardinals were the big draw - the nights of Stan Musial, Red Schoendist, Kenny Boyer at third, Larry Jackson in on the mound . . . and the ever present "Cold Beer Here! Cold Beer Here!" and "Get Your Ice Cream, Peeeeeeevely Ice Cream!"
I once had a recipe for the Mayfair cheesecake, but I lost it. Does anybody still have a copy of the recipe? I'd sure like to make one of those fluffy tall pieces of heaven once again. Connie Stevens, [email protected]
Post from Phyllis (Knox) Robinson (3/20/2008)
Attended BENTON grammar school K thru 8th. Graduated 1951. Any one out there who is a former Bentonite? Most of us went on to Beaumont, Hadley or Ranken. I lived across from the Public School Stadium. I remember Saturday trips downtown for "shopping" and lunch at the Tearoom in Famous-Barr. Most times though we had a hot dog and rootbeer at the dimestore and we did this standing, I can't remember if there were stools. Remember all the great stores within walking distance, Famous, Stix, Vandervroots, Sonnenfelds, Kline's, Cunninghams, was Montaldo's downtown? Shoe stores for women.... Bakers, Burts, Lees ..... oh well you St.L gals will remember now. Phyllis (Knox) Robinson. Love this site!
Post from Carl (3/20/2008)
I just came across this site of wonderful memories. Thanks so much for putting it all online. I lived in East St. Louis from '43 to '56 and in St. Louis from '56 to '69. Reading comments from people whose memories I share almost brought tears to my eyes.
Post from Gloria (3/20/2008)
In response to Larry Janzen
Larry , I enjoyed your thread, good memories to say the least. I know we grew up in the best of times.
I hope you do make it to the class reunion, you won't regret it, especially if this is your first reunion.
It's nice to find another Viking on this web site.
Post from Richard in Carmel (3/24/2008)
I was directed to your site from a Cardinal baseball forum I frequent- Gatewayredbirds.com.
I live in Carmel by the Sea, Ca. now, but spent my early years in St. Louis during the 30's and 40's. We moved from Bonne Terre, Mo. when I was a baby, and lived on Lawn Ave. at Pernod- one block off Kingshighway. Went thru 6th grade at Kennard Grade School, then moved to St. Louis Hills in the late 30's. I was interested in the 1/28/08 post by Gary in particular. We lived on the same street, Loran, between Hampton and Tamm Ave- where Francis Park begins. Our address was 6244, a few doors from the park, and I have many of the same fond memories of activities there. The hill for sledding, and the lily pond with the tadpoles. There were 8 clay tennis courts which we enjoyed greatly, as long as it had not rained lately. They had to close until they dried out. In the meantime, we could bash balls on the handball court, as long as no one wanted to play handball.
The drug store Gary mentioned was Wykles, I worked there one summer jerking sodas at the fountain. That was one tough job, hot nights with people stacked six deep waiting for some hand packed pints and quarts. Great for your tennis muscles though. The dime store was Ben Franklin, as I recall. The grade school I attended was a group of portables just west of Hampton, called Adolphus Busch, on the other side of the no mans land that ran south of Eichelberger. We used to snare rabbits out there, and make forts.There was a good baseball field next to school, and I spent lots of time there playing baseball, softball, Indian ball,and corkball- that great old StL game. That area has been long since built up, and a fancy new school followed the old one. I have to say that I really enjoyed that old school, as humble as it was. Great group of kids.
We were always looking for after school and summer jobs- we needed spending money all the time. I worked for a Nascar type guy in a Mobil gas station on Hampton and Walsh, washing and greasing cars, and pumping gas. Gas was pretty dear: 14 cents for regular, and 16 for ethyl. Black market gas during the war was 25 cents at the station on highway 66 next to the famous Coral Court Motel. Just don't get arrested for doing something illegal.
My Dad was an official of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, so I got to spend lots of time around Union Station, and traveling down to Arkansas with him. Wonderful experiences with engineers, conductors, and porters. Sleeping in double berths and all. Tailor made for a young boy. Too bad none can experience it today.
Worked one summer for the Dept. of Agriculture, checking traps for the dreaded Japanese Beetle, that was invading the area. We found a few, and I got to work on the spraying crew for a few extra bucks.
Worked one summer as a leather creaser and cutter for Prince Gardner Co. on South Vandeventer Ave. This was a highly sought after job among those of us at Southwest High School. It paid very well, and we could work after school and then the summer following. After attending Missouri U, and Washington U., plus 4 years in the Strategic Air Command with B-45's and B-36's, I was a salesman for Prince Gardner for 15 years, traveling out of Denver and, later San Francisco. In 1970, my wife and I went into business here in Carmel, and are still at it.
All the comments from everyone bring back lots of fond memories. Spent part of every high school day at Parkmoor on Kingshighway and Chippewa. A Famous Barr went up on that site later on. Saw some of my first movies at the Avalon Theater across the street. I think that was the first time I saw Gunga Din, one of my all time favorites. Attending Southwest High School from 42 through 46 was a very nice time. Great bunch of students and pals.
All for now, maybe I will think of more things- so will be back later.
Post from Florita Samantha Abernathy (3/25/2008)
I remember the pink streetcars that went down Lockwood in Webster Groves; the twin boys (one body and two heads; two legs and three arms) named Billy and Bob who sold newspapers across from Old Orchard Drugs and the 1949 Turkey /Day Football game when Webster beat Kirkwood 101-37
Post from Patsy L. (3/31/2008)
(Regarding) A post from Gloria dated (1/6/2008).
I too worked at Kressege's on Delmar at the loop, at the cosmetic counter. My "best girlfriend" worked at the rootbeer counter.
Small world!
I moved to the West coast, my girlfriend moved to the East coast. We are still friends to this day
Post from Gary (4/1/2008)
My name is Gary. I grew up in Lemay back in the 60’s. I now live in Florida. I remember Tony the knife sharpner. I read another person mention how we would call are friends at their windows to come out to play. I thought we only did that!
Does anyone a band called the Midnighters? They played at the Barn in St. Charles. My brother was the lead singer. He also played with Bob Cuban.
I remember our fourth grade class foing on a field trip to watch them put the last piece in the Arch. And of coarse Sportsman Park and then Busch Satdium.
Great idea you have here Dave.
Post from Gloria (4/1/2008)
In response to Patsy L. post on 03-31-08
It really is a small world. I spent a lot of time at Kressege's when I wasn't working and before I got a job there.
I stayed in St. Louis County. It's true about friends I have several I went to kindergarten with, we still get together for birthdays. My Mother's family went to the same grade school I attended, so four or five of my friends mothers went to school with my mom. My husband went to U. City High School.
I'd bet somewhere along the line we know or know of each other.
Post from Leonard Louis currently living in Westlake Ohio. [email protected] (4/1/2008)
Does anyone remember the "Nickel Show" held each Saturday night in
McCready's basement on Dodier Street in the 1940s. For five cents
neighborhood youngsters could see a cereal, a full length movie and
possibly have their name pulled out of a hat to win a candy bar. The
drawing was held while Mr. McCready changed reels on his projector. The
basement was set up like a movie theater with folding chairs for the
youngsters and an elevated projection booth in the back. These were
simpler times - parents could feel safe about their kids participating
in such an activity. Its such a shame we have lost our innocence.
Post from Mary Wiley Proemsey (My telephone number was Highland 8750, and it was Maplewood 17, Mo., on the address) (4/5/2008)
I have always lived in St. Louis and have wonderful memories of tap-dancing by stepping on tin cans we found in the alley. The cans would form around our shoes and making clicking sounds.
I remember "Wrestling at the Chase" being shown on the only channel St. Louis had. It was on Saturday night. My family didn't own a TV, but I babysat for people who had one. Everybody watched wrestling.
I remember going everywhere on the streetcars and later on the buses. I was about 9 years old the first time I went alone to my aunt's home, had to transfer twice to other buses. What freedom!
My Girl Scout Troop 607 went to Forest Park for drawing and painting at the Art Museum, cookouts, hikes, the Jewel Box, Zoo, and day camp. We took a train from the Maplewood Railroad Station to Union Station and then walked to Quality Dairy for a tour. Took the bus home. The girls always sat at the back of the bus on all our trips and sang Scout songs. No one ever told us to be quiet. Maybe we outnumbered them. We sure had fun.
Later, as a Scout leader for my daughter's troop, I took the girls on a hike from Kingshighway across Forest Park to the southwest corner of the park at Clayton and Skinker. We lived in South County and it was 1969--most families had at least one car and maybe two.
I remember school picnics that were held at the Highlands. We had a parade from Sutton School in Maplewood to the bus loop on Sutton where we loaded onto streetcars and later buses, some of them were double deckers. Our families met us at the Highlands with picnic lunches and we spent the whole day.
I remember living on Flora and waking up in the morning to a whole block of yellow streetcars that were packed with people standing. They were coming from Webster and Kirkwood and were taking people to work. Later I remember the red streetcars and then the buses lining the streets. Sometimes on Sunday when I was bored, I spent a nickel on a bus ride from Maplewood to the end of the line in Kirkwood and back.
I remember my mother taking my brother and me downtown shopping for Christmas clothes, eating at Pope's Cafeteria, seeing the Christmas Decorations and mother sending us home in a "motor car" (taxi).
I remember sledding on Art Hill and ice skating on the lagoon at the foot of the Art Museum in Forest Park.
I remember when the Freedom Train was parked on the St. Louis Riverfront, and taking a bus on a very hot summer day and waiting in a long line to see the historical documents of this country, such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. No Arch there in those days. We were dressed up to view such famous materials.
We could walk to shop on Manchester in Maplewood, but we had to take a streetcar or bus to Midtown (Grand Ave.) or Downtown.
I remember having $5.00 to spend on Christmas gifts for my family.
I remember riding my bicycle around town with my friend, Harriet, and also on River Des Peres road. Not so many cars then.
How about those ice trucks that delivered ice to the homes? The driver sometimes had to break the ice with a pick and he would give us slivers of ice.
There are so many happy memories of growing up in St. Louis. It would take too long to list them all and some have already been mentioned by others. Thanks for letting me share my memories.
Post from Patsy L. (4/5/2008)
In response to post from Gloria (1/6/2008)
We went to the Parkmoor a few times. Remember one of the drinks they served there, called "The 400" ? It was chocolate milk poured over ice served with a straw ( in it ). We felt like "we had arrived" drinking our 400. ~smile~
We watched the Veiled Prophet Ball on tv, and would go downtown to see the V.P Parade. That was always a thrill. My Daughter said we need to go to St Louis next year to see the parade. I think that is a very good idea.
I loved going to White Castle to get burgers 12 for a dollar. We couldnt wait to get home, so we ate them in the car, along with our orange soda. I have bought them in the supermarket here in California, but its not the same.
I have so many wonderful memories of growing up in St Louis.
Post from Dave DeLaney 573-751-2261 daytime 573-893-5712 evening(4/5/2008)
Does anyone remember an old restaurant at Grand & Magnolia called the “Mission Inn” or later “Pirone’s Mission Inn”?
I ran across your website and thought that those that frequent it might be able to help me. This restaurant is considered the founding location for the US Jr. Chamber of Commerce or the Jaycees back around 1915. Our organization credits the restaurant as where the initial meetings were held. We have very little information other than some old post cards and a few photos. If anyone has any other information we would be happy to hear from them. I am in Jefferson City.
Post from Anonymous (4/5/2008)
Went to Our Lady of Mount Carmel grade school and lived on Hornsby new McLaren which is two blocks from Riverview and two block from the Halls Ferry Circle more or less. We moved into that new house in 1951. I remember the grand opening of Katz Drug Store on Riverview at the Circle - sometime in the mid 1950s. That was quite an event with a carnival and high wire trapeze act. Those were fascinating times for a 9 or 10 year old kid. At the corner of Riverview and McLaren was Gerwitz Drug Store, Simmons Market, and Jenny Wren Ice Cream. I remember roaming the shell of River Roads Shopping Center when it was still under construction, and several times we walked to Northland Shopping Center to spend the day, and then walked back home. We went even farther on our bikes. My cousin and I rode our bikes out all the way out to the fireworks stands that were between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers on the way to Alton. In eighth grade we rode to Belleville, Illinois and back for our Boy Scout cycling merit badges. My scouting career started at Baden School when we were members of their Cub Scout Pack. Later Mount Carmel began its own Scouting program. Mt. Carmel had Cub Pack 1, Boy Scout Troop 1, and Explorer Post 1. My first summer camp was at Iron Dale followed the next year by Lion's Den. Thereafter we went to Beaumont at Antire Road. Worked at the news paper box at the corner of Riverview and McLaren a few time as a substitute. Also delivered the Morning Globe on my bike as a substitute when the regular kids were on vacation. We would deliver each paper to the door and collect the 5 cents. Those were long nights for 7th and 8th grade kids. The papers arrived at the corner at about 7:45 PM and the route was finished at 9:30 or so. I remember swimming lessons at Fairgrounds park and later at Chain of Rocks. We also had our school picnics at Chain of Rocks and later on Mt. Carmel's school grounds. We would take the Lee Avenue bus and transfer to the Kingshighway to get to Steinberg Skating Rink, or the lakes in Forest Park when they were frozen. Ah, yes. Those were fascinating times.
Post from Anonymous (4/15/2008)
What a great website! I'm just wondering if anyone remembers the following or can supply any information. Thank you in advance!
Does anyone remember Hollywood Miniature Golf Course? If so, where was it located?
Does anyone remember the exact location or address of Golden Fried Chicken Loaf which was probably the greatest fried chicken restaurant of all times?
Post from RAY RUMINER (4/15/2008)
I GREW UP IN SOUTH ST.LOUIS, UNTIL THE AGE OF FIVE .EVEN THOUGH I WAS YOUNG,I STILL HAVE THOSE MEMORIES COMPLETE AND INTACT.I WAS BORN IN 1958, AND WE STAYED UNTIL 1963, WHEN WE MOVED TO THE COUNTY ,OUT IN HAZELWOOD.
WE LIVED IN A FOUR FAMILY FLAT ON EILER ST.ON THE ONE CORNER WAS THE LAUNDRAMAT.MY SISTER AND I USED TO PLAY WITH THE GIRLS WHO`S MOTHER RAN THE LAUNDRAMAT,DOROTHY AND SUSIE BOYD.THE LAUNDRAMAT WAS ON THE CORNER OF EILER AND VIRGINIA..ON THE OTHER CORNER, EILER AND ALABAMA, WAS KOHLER`S STORE.THE OWNERS WERE SO NICE AND PATIENT WITH ALL OF US KIDS , TRYING TO DECIDE ON WHICH PENNY CANDY WE WANTED .I REMEMBER WHEN THEIR DELIVERY TRUCK WOULD PULL UP ALL OF US KIDS WOULD GET IN A LINE , SO WE COULD TAKE OUR TURN ON RIDING THE TWO WHEELED DOLLY.
MY GREAT AUNT AND UNCLE ,CLARA AND MIKE OVERSTREET,LIVED IN THE NEXT FLAT OVER.MY AUNT WOULD TAKE US UP TO BELLRIVE PARK IN THE SUMMER.HOW MANY PEOPLE I WONDER, STOOD ON THAT RUSTY OLD FENCE, TO WATCH THE BARGES GO BY?.I KNOW THAT MY MOTHER DID WHEN SHE WAS A GIRL.
I HAVE THE SAME MEMORIES THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE DO I THINK OF THOSE TIMES,THE SOUNDS OF THE SACADA`S IN THE SUMMER, RIGHT WHEN THE STREET LIGHTS WOULD START UP.THE FATHERS AND UNCLES, AND GRANDFATHERS SITTING OUT ON THE BACK STEPS,LISTENING TO HARRY CAREY.THE SMELL OF TAR ,IN THE SUMMER FROM THE ROOF WORK ALWAYS BEING DONE,THE SCHOOL PARADES THAT WOULD COME DOWN ALABAMA,THE PAPER GUY ON SATURDAY EVENING THAT YOU COULD HEAR COMING FOR BLOCKS.THE RAGMAN . THE TAMALE MAN.THE VIT-A-C MAN,THE COAL MAN.
I ALSO REMEBER A LITTLE GIRL THAT I CALLED MY GIRLFRIEND, COLLEEN KELLY.HER DAD,FRANK, WAS A CITY POLICEMAN.TO THIS DAY I WONDER WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO HER , I KNOW WHEREEVER SHE IS , AND WHATEVER HER LIFE HAS BEEN , ONE THING IS SURE .SHE IS STILL GORGEOUS
THERE WAS A CLOSED MOVIE HOUSE ON VIRGINIA AND VERMONT, THAT I DO NOT KNOW THE NAME OF, BUT WAS ALWAYS FASCINATED BY THE ARCHCITECTURE OF THE BUILDING.TO ME IT LOOKED LIKE A CASTLE, WITH ITS ROUNDED SHAPE.THIS IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG OF MY MEMORIES, BUT I GUESS THESE WILL DO [email protected]
Post from Mary Esther Jahn (4/15/2008)
I don't know if you can help me with this problem or not. I am looking for a fragrance that I used to get at Stix, Baer and Fuller. It was called Ambiance (or could be Ambience) and I think it was made by Clime Soleil. I can't find anything regarding this wonderful scent or the designer and thought maybe you could help me. I would order it in the mid to late 1960's.
Post from Pat (4/15/2008)
Growing up in North County back in the 50's and 60's were the good old days. Underhill 7-5567 was our number. We had a party line, kids today would never make it with a party line. I went to Holy Cross in Baden. My dad use to drop my brother and me off at Hildebrands bakery in the morning before school and then we would walk. Walked home to Bellefontaine neigbors from school. What a haul that was back then. I remember the Baden show and the Rio show on Riverview. We grew up swimming at Suburban swim pool and bowled at the bowling lanes at St Cyr. There was a little confectionary by the park on Broadway, they use to have the little Freund fruit pies. Made many a trip to Riverroads and Northland shopping center. There were small carnivals that would come to town. Some would set up at Riverview plaza, at one time the Royal American shows played on some ground on Hall St.
Remember the good time!
Post from Gloria (4/17/2008)
Response to anonymous 4/15/08.
Golden Fried Chicken was in the 6100 block of Delmar. The Pageant Theater is located at 6161 Delmar.
We always used the parking lot behind the restaurant it was much easier to find a parking space then in the front.
When the restaurant moved to Olive Street Road and Warson Road. The chicken tasted the same, but it was a very small building, mostly carry out. Then after a few years the owner moved the place further west on Olive, didn't stay open long.
I don't think you could go wrong at Golden Fried Chicken.
Post from Anonymous (4/17/2008)
I just found this site by accident. It's fantastic. I lived in St. Louis from 6th grade til after graduation. Normandy Jr. and Sr. high.
I remember Hanley hills and my best friend , whom I have lost touch with and wish someone could help me find, Maureen Oconnell. Staying outside til dark. Trying to get mom to agree to let me wear shorts when it was way too cold so we could look "cool". Teepeeing the yard of a guy I liked on Halloween with pink and blue toilet paper. Spending the night with Maureens aunt and her letting us get in her make up and stay up late and go outside after dark!
Lots more.
Post from Barbara Coyne at [email protected] (4/22/2008)
Please help me identify a piano my uncle used to take with him in his roadster to evening gigs around St. Louis in the 1920s. Piano is a Princess, made in Japan, 31 inch tall upright, 3+ octave keyboard. It isn't a toy.
Post from Gloria (4/22/2008)
Response to Anonymous 04/17/08:
This is a great web site, I get so much enjoyment reading the interesting comments.
You are the second "Viking" I've found on this site.
Your looking for an old friend, have you tried classmates.com or the Normandy High School. com web site?
Do you know about our Alumni Association?
Post from Tim Howard (4/22/2008)
Lunch with Nana at the Stix, Baer & Fuller counter and customers would stand behind those almost finished and wait for the counter chair. The best Dog, Fries and Malt in the City!
Any adventures with Nana and always by bus or Streetcar.
Walking to the Cathedral at 5:30 in the morning from Laclede Ave over Newstead to serve Mass at 6:00 am.
Friday night and Saturday mornings at Steinberg Rink, we walked there too.
Summer history programs at Jefferson Memorial
Taking the bus or streetcar everywhere, we where 10 and never feared the bus to take anywhere, Clayton, U City, the Park, you name it, we went
Post from Karen (4/22/2008)
In response to anonymous; Hollywood golf was on Manchester. I can't remember just where. I loved going there is was a big treat. It was not like the little put put courses. Ray , when I first cot married in 1960 we lived in a flat on Eiler and Compton behind the A & P store. My brother Lived on Fassen across Virginia from me. I remember the laundermat. . I grew up in Lemay. I first meeting for the Lemay Baseball association was held in our basement. My dad and 6 other men started it. I spent a lot of time at ball fields,especially Heine Meine's Those were the days.
Post from Jim 'THE DAD' Keith(4/22/2008)
Hey Dave and all the other St. Louis Memories Fans,
There is a fellow on the internet that has a site dedicated to the 'old' SANDY'S HAMBURGER shops. Best way to find it on the net is just GOOGLE, Sandy's Hamburgers.
He'd love to make contact with anyone that has memories of Sandy's, maybe pictures or any thing that concerns Sandy's.
He also sent me an email requesting any information I might have....and now I pass it along to you......ANY one remember large outdoor advertising neon displays called ' ROTO SPHERES.'
There is a site on the net regarding the history and whereabouts of any of those signs left. St. Louis was reported to have had five or six at one time. The only one known at this time is at Lou Fuz in the Kirkwood area...and the points are now missing.
Thanks for the Memories
Post from Anonymous (4/26/2008)
I didn't know there was an alumni group for Normandy, could you post info? thanks so much
Post from Ray R. [email protected] (4/26/2008)
In my last post i stated that i lived in South St. Louis from the time i was born until 1963(5 years) .I lived on Eiler st.I had stated that i didn`t know the name of the closed movie house on Virginia , and Vermont.In the past few weeks , i have found out the name of it . It was called the Virginia Theatre. It closed in 1950.It is now being used as Victory independent Baptist Church.
I can remember some of the places our family would go for dinner .We went to Al Smith`s on Grand ,Dog-n-Suds on Gravois.In the summer , it was a treat to stop on the way home from my grandparents home in Pine Lawn,and get ice -cream from Ted Drewe`s or the Velvet Freeze on Gravois at Compton.
Speaking of Pine Lawn , does anyone remember Chicken Cottage on kienlen ave.?My parents had their wedding day breakfast there with their wedding party ,on October 1, 1955.We went there occasionally in the early 60`s .I remember they had red and white checkered table cloths , and a velvet picture of a Matador and Bull on the wall .
In South St. Louis, i remember my Aunt taking my sister and i to Cherokee St to go shopping.I remember one time while we were there we visited with a neighbor of ours (mrs.Bertha Brown) who worked at S.G. Adams.We were able to go up to her office on the second floor.I rememeber this because the upstairs all had wooden floors.
Post from Chuck Nowotny (4/26/2008)
I have been reading some of the memories so familiar to me having grown up in St. Louis [Cleveland Class of '63] and St. Louis County until the Marines took me away in 1965. I would like to know if anyone remembers the name of the drug store on Hampton Avenue near Tillis Park, near the Hill that had a homemade wonderfully think and very strong ROOT BEER. The taste of licorice, the dark creamy head and the chilled glasses were just the ticket on a hot steamy July afternoon as I worked as a Park and Recreation leader with Suzanne Zepp from the summer of 1963 and 1964. My dad taught piano at Hynek Studios on Hampton and I'd walk a couple of miles just to get great big frosty frothy glass of that licorice beverage. For the life of me, I've gone back to get some of those wonderfully salty corner bread pretzels form a street vendor at Gravois and Carondelet on the county side of River Des Peres and a glass of root beer but it seems I can’t find either anymore. Bummer.
I am Chuck Nowotny my first phone that I recall was Flanders [1] 9358 Now in Huntington Beach,[Surf City] Ca.
I saw something about Cookie and the Captain, "Eight Bells Matey, What time is it, It's Popeye Cartoon time !" the Captain was Janice Mogle's uncle, I went to school with Janice. Then there was Texas Bruce Cartoon show.
Remember [Paul] Heimbergers Bakery and Gooey Butter Cake. Paul Heimberger and I went to Kiddy Garden at Pease Lutheran in Lemay used to be by Sylvan Springs. I also went to Cleveland with Ole Jerry Posoloski who's dads had a five and Dime Store in Lemay near Heine Meine Field. I stood up for poor Jerry many a time when bullies picked on him. Problem was, Jerry didn't seem to care at all.
I have been reading some of the memories of so many, all so familiar to me having grown up in St. Louis [Cleveland Class of '63] and St. Louis County until the Marines took me away in 1965. I would like to know if anyone remembers the name of the drug store on Hampton Avenue near Tilles Park, near the Hill that had a homemade wonderfully think and very strong ROOT BEER. The taste of licorice, the dark creamy head and the chilled glasses were just the ticket on a hot steamy July afternoon as I worked as a Park and Recreation leader with Suzanne Zepp from the summer of 1963 and 1964. My dad taught piano at Hynek Studios on Hampton and I'd walk a couple of miles just to get great big frosty frothy glass of that licorice beverage. For the life of me, I've gone back to get some of those wonderfully salty corner bread pretzels form a street vendor at Gravois and Carondelet on the county side of River Des Peres and a glass of root beer but it seems I can’t find either anymore. Bummer.
I grew up first in Jefferson Barracks and attended Peace Lutheran School until moving to Allen and Mississippi where I went to Emmaus for a year or two. Then we moved to Morganford and Carondelet by the National Food store that now is a Goodwill. I attended Salem Church and School until being forced to attend Cleveland High School in 1959 – 1963. All my parochial chums and chumettes went to Lutheran High
School South. I lived on the border of the county but was still just a smidge within the St. Louis City Limits by Kettlers Farm on Weber Road. I dated all Lindberg girls until I left Missouri.
We played Cork ball with broomstick bats, I recall fondly the dad’s playing Bottle caps at Cedar Lake each summer Sunday. Fuzz ball and waffle ball in the back yard for hours on end. The Crest Theater in Afton, the Granada to see Psycho. The Fox and Stan Kann at the organ when you were with a hi-dollar date. Steak~N~Sheak at Gravois and Germania. Vic’s Tropical Fish, the landmark rotating VESS bottle at the Loop. The bear pits at Carondelet Park with nary a bear in sight.
Ahh, Cusinelli’s fried ravioli and their great thin crust pizza before that icky Imo’s greased up the streets. Heck, right up the hill from my house on Weber road was Monte Bello's Pizza.
Belly bombers at three o’clock after a great date of sneakin in the South Twin or Ronnie’s Drive Inn’s. Wishin I could afford the doins at the Coral Courts Motel and wishin while I was at least wishin that I had a gal to spend the imaginary money on while there. Evelyn West and her Million Dollar Treasure Chest???
Lake Tishamingo, Cedar Lake, Sunset Country club as a caddy with old Buzz the Hobo! Driving to Ironton to Johnson’s Shut Inn’s and diving not jumping but diving off the cliff into the pool below, dodging the boulders without killing myself over and over again. Velvet Freeze at Bates and Grand while transferring and waiting for the next bus which came every 15 minutes or so. What a concept? Public transportation that really worked.
Speaking of Sonja Henie, she was my second cousin once removed? Go figure!
Who remembers "Phil" the Gorilla at the St.Louis Zoo? Why sure I do, I even have a movie of Phil swinging on a tire and spraying everyone with water from the moat. I used to be able to ride the big Galapagos Tortoises at the Zoo with the Pink rocks.
I remember pony riding in Hampton. Well Norma, before my senior year in High School, I used to work as a ride operator for the fellow who had the Kiddy land and pony rides on Hampton and Devonshire. My dad worked across the street at Hynek’s and taught Piano.
Ice cream trucks, sno cone carts cruising the neighborhood like clockwork selling ice cram samiches the occasional popsicle and of course, nut covered drum sticks to ward off the oppressive heat. Of course in those halcyon days, I don’t even recall it being hot much less humid. I only found out about heat and humidity when I returned to St. Louis after coming home from d’nam.
Oh, and of course there was the mosquito man driving through the neighborhood spewing out a pink fog of who knows what to kill the skeeters. We kids drove our bike in and out of the billowing poisonous cloud totally indifferent to the hazard of what ever it was. I am 62 now and still no mosquito will come within a hundred feet of me. Even went to Vietnam and did not catch malaria.
Summer barbeques in everyone’s back yard with the hickory smoke rising straight up over the pork steaks and the air spare ribs redolent of Maulls scented. Thje Admiral cruising by my house in J.B. and the steam calliope on the top deck playing happy tunes.
Jack Salmon at Dohacks restaurant on Lindbergh. For those who asked, Jack Salmon is Whiteing and they still sell it at Schnucks and Deerbergs last time I checked. I would go to Joe Tangara’s Chariton restaurant on Broadway for Jack Salmon, Frog legs sometimes a whole frog and deep Fried Chicken.
Pinky Pevely and the Milk man? Harry Carey, Stan the Man and Red Bird Lanes. Kenny Boyer, Red Schoendienst, The bleachers at Sportsmans park.. Wally Moon? Yes Wally was a left fielder for the Cards.
Oh wow! Memories of downtown with my Mom on a bus and streetcar. The Animated Stix, Baur & Fuller and Famous and Barr Christmas displays and the little theater inside with puppet shows like Pinochio, Monstro and the Fox.
Many many more, it was a charming childhood of getting my dads beers for him form the dedicated beer refrigerator in the basement and after poping the cap, drinking a few large swigs on the way back from the basement. No one cared, it was expected and I seldom drink, never to the excess to this day.
Post from Gloria (5/1/2008)
In response Anonymous 04-26-08:
The address for the Normandy Alumni Association is: NHSAA, P.O. BOX 210869, NORMANDY MO. 63121 Or go to: NormandyHighSchool.com
RESPONSE TO RAY R 04-26-08:
The Chicken Cottage was right down the street from my Aunts apartment, we went there a lot during the sixties,not there anymore but my Aunt still lives there. She is very brave and a little silly to live there now.
Response to Chuck Nowotny 04-26-08
I take Jamison ave. to Chippewa on Sunday, the pretzel vendors are on the street corners about noon.
Pretzels cost $5.00 for a bag of six.
Post from Kristine -Omaha, Nebraska (5/3/2008)
Hey, what about the areas that had Woodland or Victor as prefixes???
I grew up in the 50's and 60's in the Crestwood/ Sappington area. I went to
every grade school in the Lindbergh School District. The district kept
changing the boundary lines of who went where. I would go to Grant School
and then the kids across up the block would go somewhere else. I can
remember waiting in the summers to find out who went where and then being
upset that your friends up the street weren't going to the same school as
you were.
Does anybody remember E.J. Korvettes??? What about Yacavellis (don't know
about the spelling on that one.) They had the lobsters up front in tanks and
you could chose for dinner. I don't know, maybe it is still there. I move
away from 35 years ago.
I don't know, but I think that this might be the only city I know of where
people still ask people where they went to high school, even up into their
90's. Ha! Ha1! Where you went to high school gave you so much information
about the other person.
What about asking for a soda and meaning Coke, Seven-Up, etc.
This is a wonderful website and I hadn't thought about a lot of this stuff
for years!!
Did not know anyone else experienced the bug spray truck that put off that
horrendous white cloud to ride you bicycle through.
Wonder if it really did any good killing off those big nasty Missouri
mosquitoes!
What about that horrible tornado, can't remember the exact year, that took
off part of the roof on the Arena?
Gosh, I could go on and on and thought you guys had pretty much covered it
all!
It's funny what memories can do,
Post from Gloria (5/5/2008)
In response to Kristine 05-03-08:
The tornado was in February 1959, of course the Arena was brought down in February 1999, seems like February was a bad month for the Arena.
Yacavellis is still around.
I do remember E.J. Korvettes, we were one of the first people in our neighborhood to purchase an above ground pool from Korvettes. We shopped at the one in Cool Valley.
Post from Lynn (5/6/2008)
I remember Korvettes! We bought many of our school clothes there. They had the coolest 60's fashions. We also shopped at Worth's down on Cherokee Street. My 8th grade graduation dress came from there in 1968. It cost $11 and my Mom almost didn't buy it because she had set a $10 limit. I got the dress and felt so pretty. I always wanted to shop at the Libson Shops, but they were too expensive. I never knew Famous Barr had clothes anywhere other than the basement for years! Mom did her best and looking back, my sister and I were just as well dressed as anyone else.
8th Grade Graduations were a big deal in the City. I went to Horace Mann School and remember our party was held in the basement of the Oak Hill Church. It was catered, we had a live band and all the girls were dolled up. We had our hair done and everyone got new dresses. The boys all wore suits and ties and for the first time didn't seem to be afraid to ask us girls to dance. What I wouldn't give to see pictures taken that day. I know several people took pictures. How I'd love to see them. Horace Mann…Class of 68. Mrs. Freer was our Teacher. What a great time that was.
Post from Anonymous (5/12/2008)
I grew up in Pine Lawn in the early 60's and had an EVergreen phone number.
We lived off of Natural Bridge on Oakdale Ave and went to St Paul the
Apostle school, which we walked to because there were no buses at the time.
I remember the Steak n Shake (mostly counter service only) on Natural Bridge
and Ponticello's which was next to the Bettendorf-Rapp grocery store and
Muntz TV. Muntz TV had a Minah bird in the showroom and we tried to get it
to talk to us. Next to Muntz TV was the library. I remember on Saturdays
they showed movies in the basement for us kids.
Other memories---5 cent ice cream cones at Silver Bros Drug store, Hodges
Roller Rink on Friday night, Velvet Freeze (everyone seems to have had a
Velvet Freeze). The 905 liquor store-"the party begins at 9-0-5"! Katz Drug
Store.
I also remember asking a storekeeper for his "window" every October so we
could paint Halloween pictures on it! The Chamber of Commerce came out to
judge them and the winners got lunch at Terry Moore Bowl.
Also Hickey Field and cherry Cokes at Goody Goody! Britt's department store
at Natural Bridge and Lucas & Hunt.
Did anyone go to Camp Viking? Normandy School District ran a day camp every
summer and their buses picked us up and we went out to Normandy Junior and
Senior High schools. We swam, trampolined, learned archery and crafts and
all kinds of other fun stuff. It was great!
Post from Laurie in Dallas, Texas (5/12/2008)
Thank you for maintaining this terrific site. I recently returned from a family visit to St. Louis and, as always, fell in love with my home town all over again. I grew up on Hanley Downs in Richmond Heights in the 50s and 60s before Highway 40 lopped off my bike-riding route. To anonymous who inquired on Jan. 10th whether anyone remembered Schneithorst's on Clayton and Lindbergh: yes, yes, yes! I loved the onion rings. Not only that but I went to school with Janie Schneithorst, the founder’s daughter, and my father went to school at Principia with Mr. Schneithorst. Goodness, I must be older than dirt!
Regarding the Cardinals! My great grandfather, who was by then quite deaf, listened to the games at top volume. One of the commercial sponsors was a lending company, “Friendly Bob Adams.” Friendly Bob promised to help you pay off your bills by consolidating your loans into “one easy payment,” to which my great grandfather replied, at a multi-decibel volume, “You just miss one of those payments, and you’ll find out how friendly he is!”
Post from Mike in Dallas, Texas (5/12/2008)
I remember reading the Globe over a 905 beer and eating pork steaks or a fried cow brain sandwich covered in provel watching all the hoosiers go by.
I remember watching the Cards in my “Mets are Pond Scum” t-shirt and going to Rich & Charlie’s for some fried ravioli afterwards.
I remember going to Thurmur’s with my grandparents after bowling tournaments.
Post from David and Diane Kanis (5/19/2008)
Hello! Our names are David and Diane Kanis from central Minnesota and our email is [email protected] . My wife Diane was raised on Walch and Louisiana Street. As a child she used to go to the Virginia Street Show and they would get their groceries from the old Wilhelms Market. Her mom used to shop at Scruggs, Vandervoort, and Barney. We used to go to Bush Stadium and see Orlando Sepata and Julio Havierre play ball when visiting St. Louis. Dianes childhood phone number was SWeetbriar 7709 I worked at the Bell telephone Company at 1010 Pine street downtown. When our kids were small-about 40 years ago we used to go to Ronnies or South Twin Drive in. Sometimes our friends would stay at the old Corral Courts Motel. They were old stone cabins on Chippewa. We would take our kids to Ted Drews Frozen Custard stand and sometimes we would see Ted working in the stand. We also used to go to White Castle and after the car hop would take our order she would take the little magnet that was attached to a chain around her neck,place it on the speaker and give the order to the person inside. Jefferson memorial and the Art Museum was great. Thick with memories we are. Could go on forever but don't want to bore you. Email if you like!!! Dave and Diane
Post from anonymous (5/19/2008)
I lived in Hanley Hills & I went to Normandy Jr. high in 61/62 62/63 then moved to Carson Rd. and went to Normandy Sr. high, gradutated 67. I think my friend, Rose Parrino lived in Pine Lawn, the girl who lived in Hanley Hills was Maureen Oconnell. Still haven't found her. We were friends all the time I lived in St. Louis. I was reunited with another friend a few years ago and it was like we'd never been apart. Laughed and talked and still keep in touch by email and cards and visits.
Post from Linda (5/19/2008)
I came across your site when I was looking up some info about Bishop DuBourg High where my hubby and I graduated in 1975.
I was born in Saint Louis in 1957 on Wyoming Street in Holy Family Parish. Our phone prefix was "Prospect"
Later we moved to Epiphany parish and our phone prefix was "Sterling" I remember I was so disappointed because all my new friends had the phone prefix of "Mission" Silly, but fun!
I remember the Fuller-Brush man coming to the door when I was a child. I think it was usually on a Monday, and boy was he pushy!
I remember Mr. Softee trucks. My friend's brother operated a Mr. Softee ice cream truck.
I remember playing Red Rover in grade school...Red Rover, Red Rover, send.(insert name)....right over!
When kids came to your house to play they would call at the door, "Oh.(insert name)...can you come out to play?"
And most of all, I remember wonderful Bishop DuBourg high school and great teachers like Mr. Floyd Hacker (Mr. Bow tie). Sr. Rita Marie, Mr Merriott., Mrs. Humphrey,.,Sr Mary who ran the school newspaper....and all the others.
Those were the good old days, that's for sure!
Thanks for this site and for the trip down memory lane!
Post from Linda (part 2) (5/19/2008)
I went to Horace Mann school for kindergarten (in 1963 Holy Family did not have a kindergarten.) My kindergarten teacher was Miss Pickering. From first grade to 4th grade I went to Holy Family school, then we moved and I finished grade school at Epiphany of our Lord.
I went on to DuBourg High. My friends and I used to hang out at either Jack in the Box (right next to DuBourg) or go further down Hampton and eat at Taco King. They had the best tacos and french fries! On weekends our group would either go to Steak N Shake, or sometimes to IHOP. Sometimes we even got "Belly Bombers" at White Castle. I remember getting dressed up on a Fri or Sat nite and go dancing on the Admiral. When I was a little kid our whole family went on the Admiral during the day during the summer months. It was so much fun!
Post from anonymous (5/19/2008)
Does anyone remember the jingle, Crestwood Plaza where the big stores are!
I remember the big hole in the ground, before they starting building it.
Wasn't it the first big shopping St. Louis? I also remember when John F.
Kennedy came through on a campaign stop and spoke at the shopping center in
the parking lot.
Post from Mrs. Gibb (5/19/2008)
I too thank you and my 82 year old parents loved the stories as I read
them this past weekend.
My Dad was a South St. Louis kid and Mom was from Pine Lawn off
Sylvan. They will write there own post soon for the very important
early St. Louis memories (which I find completely fascinating). I am
one of 5 daughters raised in North County. Claudia, Lesa and I had a
magical childhood riding our bikes in Frostwood (Berkeley) back in the
late 50's thru 1971. Then we moved with two more sisters, Laura and
Jill, to Wedgewood East where my folks still reside.
The local public pool in Frostwood was a great place to spend summer
vacation. I can still smell the rubber of those silly old swimming
caps. We rode our Schwin bikes everywhere even over to January Wabash
park and back again. Never felt frightened playing dodge ball after
dark in the light of the streetlight.
There was a neighborhood IGA, a Ben Franklin with penny candy where we
bought all our Christmas presents for the folks, a Brooks hardware
store that had everything you needed. The IGA lot was where the
carnival (and pony rides, ferris wheel, little cars that went around
in a circle) were held for the neighborhood kids. Cotton candy aroma
for blocks... I think there was a Rexall drugs there too.
The corner gas station gave a bag of candy and sometimes a full set of
glassware with a fill-up. Dad would send us there for gas for the lawn
mower (25 cents filled the can) and we rode our bikes to IGA often for
a loaf of bread or gallon of milk. Sidewalks the whole way.
We attended St. Bartholomew grade school (Fr. Garvens, Mrs Schardt,
Mrs Orso, Mrs Patterson, Mrs Lambert, Sister Celeste (the
terror)Sister Elaine and Sister Carmen. We must have lived through
sweltering heat before school let out for summer. We wore wool
uniforms even then. Went thru 1st - 8th with the same kids. All
friends. Then off to St. Thomas Aquinas for 4 years. We were polite to
adults, held the door for others, called adults Mr or Mrs... Dances in
the cafeteria on Friday night, Christmas Bazaar that was fabulous,
Class of 1960 - 1968. Bonnie Lampert, Donna Pell, Nancy Klein, Debbie
M, Jim Orso, Tom Watson, Matt Gilmore, Mel Stearn, Dave Walters, Pat
Cheetham, Mike Heuer, Judy MacClaine...
My husband and I just moved home to St. Louis after our careers in the
southwest. We have always enjoyed St. Louis and wanted to be part of
it as our StL folks age. I am grateful to all you who stayed here and
keep things up and stay active in these beautiful communities.
Favorite things: noshing thru da Hill (as Steve Miserany would say)
eating Gus' pretzels, Amaghettis (on the Hill only), Forest Park,
Missouri Botanical Garden (Shaw's Garden forever to me), Ferguson
Farmers Market today, Soulard in yesteryear and today, the Science
Center; everything Forest Park. Still hear the Johnny Londoff
Chevrolet song we listened to, while praying for school closing. There
never was a snow day in those years. Picture for a Sunday Afternoon
which was usually Johnny Wisemueller or Charlie Chan or Sherlock
Holmes. Industry on Parade at the Grandview Theatre.
Memories: Luigi's at Airport Road, that little store across the
railroad tracks from the Frostwood Pool, Bettendorf Wrap bakery (those
crescent cookies and eclairs) the bakery off Church Street in
Ferguson, those bakery ladies in Baden who ate eclairs and crank a
small glass of beer at the same time (They also had a long braid which
they pinned in a crown around their head), donuts from the bakery off
Washington in old part of Florissant. Our family visits always seemed
to include a box of donuts which is very St. Louis.
Are there any good sites or recollections of the history on Berkeley
Integration out there? My sis and I are very interested in the
politics behind the law.
-home again, Mrs. Gibb -
Post from Melody Schmitz (5/22/2008)
Does anyone remember a beauty shop on St. Louis Ave. approx. 1968. The
ladies name was Betty?
Post from Gloria (5/22/2008)
In response to Anonymous 05/19/08:
I went to www.NormandyHichSchool.com , clicked on the online directory and found Rosemary Parrino, It will give her married name, there isn't an email address.
Next I went to Classmates.com and found a Phil Parrino who graduated in 1961, he may be related in some way. I would email him and ask if he is related to your friend.
What part of Hanley Hills did you live in, if you don't mind my asking?
As for Maureen O'Connell, did she go to Normandy?
Hanley Hills was a nice place to live at one time.
Post from Mark J.P Manning(5/22/2008)
REF: Mrs. Gibb.
My mother Karen Gillies (Manning) and Aunt Sandy Gillies
(Skellington) both went to St. Thomas Aquinas. She had a friend Gloria
who moved to CA she went to school with. My mother past in Nov 2003, I
came back from Iraq for her last days.
Post from Mrs. Gibb (5/25/2008)
for JP Manning from Mrs. Gibb
JP, you might find some of your Mom's classmates at the site I am now
sending you. Some have emails so you could contact them. The site is
for many years at St. Thomas Aquinas. I believe she was in a different
class than mine.
http://aq-mercy.epconline.com/aquinasgrads.htm#1972
Good luck!
Post from Carol Sue (5/27/2008)
I have written in before but just got back from my 45th high school reunion from Clayton High. I stayed with my best friend, who now lives in South County. We went to see Jersey Boys at the Fox, it was great being inside that wonderful old theatre again, thank goodness they never tore it down. We drove all over even though gas prices were high. I loved going through Forest Park and even got to go on a home tour in the Central West End. When I am there it feels like I never left, I never venture too far west, just don't know anything about all the new areas past Chesterfield and such. Glad to see people continue to write their memories, I love your site, thanks again.
Post from Anonymous (5/31/2008)
I have been reading memories for the past year and had to add mine-- Grew up in Northwoods. Telephone # EV-55476. Went to Ascension grade school. I remember: Sr. Mary Donald, Sr. Barbara and my favorite 5th grade teachers Mrs. Lee and Miss. Abbott. The parade on last day of school and bus trips to Blanchette park for school picnics. Playing softball in the summers and crowding 6-7 girls in coaches' volkswagon to get to games (no seat belt law in those days). The dead-end street Reder where all the kids would play until dark. The cut-through next to the Pages' house to get to the shopping center. Going to Riviera swimming pool-it was huge. Halloween--you actually went into everyone's house and had to tell a joke or sing a song to get candy. Calling "Oh Melanie" to get your friend to come out to play. Taking the bus from Northland shopping center with Straight A tickets to the cardinals' games--watching Lou Brock steal bases. Riding bikes to the airport with girlfriends. The earthquake of 1968--I was watching a Shirley Temple movie that Saturday morning and soon the whole house was shaking. Creature Feature and Wrestling at the Chase on Channel 11. Going to visit my grandma on Hiller Place in Walnut Park and playing "runup" in the alley. The Rio theatre and $1 matinees in the summer. Going to Normandy high school for 3 months before my family moved to Crestwood--we might as well have moved to Mars. After about a year, I became aclimated to south county and now have very fond memories of my teenage years there.
Post from Gordon & Phyllis (6/5/2008)
Dave, love this site. QUESTION: Does anyone remember the name of the movie theater at GRAND & NATURAL BRIDGE?
I thought it was the TOWER, however, my husband doesn't agree. Gordon & Phyllis email:[email protected] (Comment from Dave Lossos: Score one for the husbands of the world! The theater at Grand and Natural Bridge was the Norside. The Tower Theater was located at 2138-40 E. Grand Blvd., near the water tower.)
Post from Anonymous (6/5/2008)
I don't remember the street we lived on in Hanley Hills, I just remember we lived on top of a hill. There was a cemetary behind us. At the bottom of the hill was a little bridge. I think that might have been where we caught the bus to Normandy Jr. high. Thanks for the hint about www.normandyhighschool.com.
Post from GP (6/5/2008)
My phone number was STerling 2354. You knew the area where people lived by the phone exchanges.
Media people: John Roedel, Dottie Bennett, Pookie Snackenberg (on Jack Carney's radio show.)
Ike & Tina Turner played at the Sunset Hills Teen Town on Wednesday nights.
Hodge's Chili Parlor downtown.
The Parkerhouse rolls at the Forum Cafeteria downtown.
Dime stores sold hot peanuts in their candy counters & you could buy a nickel's worth.
Ice cream cones were 5 cents for 1 scoop & 10 cents for 2.
The Powhattan Theater in Maplewood showed movies outside during the summer. Like a drive-in but without the cars.)
You knew to come home when the street lights came on.
The big Katz drugstore downtown sold big, long bags of popcorn & every Katz had one of those photo booths where you made funny faces with your friends all packed into the booth & got a strip of pictures through a slot.
Brain sandwiches were still being sold a few years back at the tavern on the corner of Reavis Barracks & Gravois.
Rather tough girls in the 50's wore their headscarves with the knot tied just below their lower lip, rather than under their chin. Those girls dated Hoods. :)
A Mission Box was on the teacher's desk in Catholic grade schools. The students were urged to drop their coins in to buy "Mission Babies."
Later, moving to the suburbs you were a Schneidy-Packer if you hung out at Schneidhorst's at Clayton & Lindbergh.
Parkmoor's onion rings were the best! So were their Kingburgers.
It seemed there was a German bakery or a tavern on every street corner in S. St. Louis.
One of the tea rooms in either the downtown Famous or Stix store had a magnificent dessert for little girls. The base was a block of cake topped with ice cream with the whole thing overed in whipped cream with sprinkles. A doll was stuck in the top so it looked like a lady in a ball gown (sort of an early Barbie cake.)
What exactly WAS Jack Salmon?
Odorizzi's Steak House downtown. The owner's daughter, Cathy was killed in a car accident on Lindbergh the summer after she graduated from St. Joseph's Academy.
Ruggieri's Steak House. Stan Kann also played the organ there sometimes.
The Toll House restaurant in Webster Groves.
Roncaro's Steak House.
Broasted Chicken.
Fried pie stands.
My mother listening to Arthur Godfrey on the radio while she did her housework or else she listend to Ed Wilson.
Polio scares & not being allowed to go to Maplewood pool for fear of catching it.
Driving out Hwy 66 to the Diamonds as a teenager.
Going to the East Side to drink illegally. Also, the Blue Note in E. St. Louis & seeing Muddy Waters perform and going further south on the East side & seeing Chuck Berry perform "My Ding-a-Ling." (Can't remember the name of the club.)
Evelyn West & her "$50,000.00 Treasure Chest" as insured by Lloyd's of London. She appeared at a burlesque show on DeBaliviere or in that area.
Charm Schools put on in the summer at the downtown department stores. I think they may have been sponsored by Helena Rubenstein. You were to learn how to walk & sit gracefully as well as how to apply make-up.
HoJo's on Clayton Road for the best hot dogs.
Post from Larry (6/5/2008)
Ah the Rio Show...I remember so many Saturday matinees. Mr. Dwyer was
the manager. One day he arranged to have the St. Louis Knights football
team there in person. What a thrill. There was a house on Riverview near
the Rio that had an outdoor goldfish pond. In the winter those fish were
all frozen in the pond, then came back in the spring.
I remember the Arena Roller Skating Rink, a first class facility. Girls
had to wear skating skirts and boys had to wear slacks. No jeans. It was
beautiful and the music was provided by a live organist. During each
skating session they would have "couples only" skating and special
"demonstration" skating. That's when the really good skaters with the
super quiet "precision skates" did dance skating. I remember the
Fourteen Step and the Tango, etc. All that was lost with the huge
tornado that blew the roof off the arena and destroyed the rink that was
in the building next to it. My skates were in for repair and I never saw
them again.
Post from Gene brussman (6/17/2008)
My name is Gene brussman sr and presently live in Panama City Fl I have many happy memeries of St Louis. Does anyone remember a hotdog stand called Worthingtons or Wethingtons ? It was on Hampton close to Oakland. I graduated from Soldan High in 1958.Remember the Union wellston victory and palm theaters as well as the Fox ,Lowes . White Castle hambergers 5 for 25cents I lived in the 5300 Theodosia close to Union andEaston.Go to the St Charles A&w root beer stand for a nickle root beer. I many times wish I still lived in St Louis
Post from Unknown (6/17/2008)
This is in response to Kim Albrights question about the bowling alley on Giles and Gravois. It was in fact, DuBowl Lanes. My grandpa was Virgil Rosa, the manager who helped people out of the building that day it caught fire. It caught fire from electrical problems. The DuBowl lanes that is on Lemay took the name after the fire. I believe the fire was in 1976.
Post from Pat in North Carolina(6/17/2008)
Thank you so much for your time and effort. I really enjoyed your site when my brother forwarded it to me.
Especially the person who noted remembering that Suthwest High School paid for statues out in front of the building instead of a swimming pool. That one is a clear memory!!!
Post from Gloria (6/21/2008)
My grandchildren are spending the summer with me and my plan was to try to show them things that happen when I was growing up. Which I think might be a bit difficult to an extent. The Highlands, West Lake and Holiday Hills amusement parks are gone. It's against the law to raise chickens in St. Louis County, so no fresh eggs each morning.
Anyway, the boys were getting ready to jump in our pool and it started raining, no lighting or thunder just a soft summer rain, as they came back in the house they had a sad look on their faces, I told them to cheer up that when I was a child I would go outside and play in the rain, or sit on the curbs and float little paper boats down the street, or just lay down on the grass and chew on a few sprigs of peppermint leaves,then when the rain stopped we went swimming in our pool. What a wonderful time.
While they were in the pool I brought out my clothes line and clothes props to hang up a load of laundry, I
can remember the smell of clean fresh clothes, and nothing better the aroma of fresh sheets on beds.
The boys ask me if my clothes dryer was broken which gave me a chuckle. Later I found out that newer homes in some areas do not allow you to hang out laundry, especially the ones with a Home Owners Association. Can you believe that one. People just don't know what their missing.
If anyone has a few memories of fun times in the summer let me know. It's a shame the Holiday,Airway and St Ann's drive in theaters are gone. Lots of fun memories for a dollar a car load.
I know for sure they will remember picking strawberries and other fruits to start the canning season.
Post from from Paul Jackson, Sr. (6/21/2008)
The old Midland School (now gone), and Ritenour Jr. High, which was,
back then, the old high school building.
My AAA Safety Patrol helmet and badge (we had ranks; I was a sergeant).
Going to Handee House after school.
The feud between Coach Schroeder and Miss Burkey, the music teacher
(both long-since deceased). They certainly didn't think highly of
each other.
Going to Chuck-A-Burger, and the tricked-out cars lining the parking
lot on Saturday nights.
Mowing lawns in the summer for two bucks (three for a big one),
pushing my lawnmower all over Overland, Charlack and Sycamore Hills.
Stopping for a 15-cent bottle of Pepsi from the vending machine at the
Lackland-Midland Clark station; in mid-August, the bottles would be
frozen.
Velvet Freeze on Woodson Road near Lackland. Sometimes they'd have a
'special', when they would refill the root beer in your float as long
as you still had ice cream left.
Getting my hair cut at Jack Welch's Shop on Midland near Woodson.
Once, John Auble from KSD-TV went there with a camera crew to point
out to Mr. Welch that whoever had painted the shop's name on the glass
window had painted "Barler" instead of "Barber".
The infamous rumor, circulated all over Ritenour High, that the
Midwood Building was a house of prostitution (you could see red lights
through the windows). An investigative crew from the school
newspaper, 'The Pepper Box', found the red lights to be exit signs.
Freddie Haefner's American Music Store and his 50-Star Guitar Band.
Freddie had a really cool red, white and blue Corvette.
Dances at Ritenour Jr. High, with "Purple Haze Revue" and "The
Saints". The bands couldn't play in tune, but they looked cool.
Going to Lambert Field to see my dad leave on trips. You parked right
outside the terminal, walked in the front door, and anyone could go to
the gates, no security of any kind.
Getting my car painted at Earl Scheib's for $19.95.
Bill Egsieker's Auto Repair, which was right in the middle of what is
now I-170 at Lackland Road. Bill didn't mind helping a teenage kid
with car trouble, even if I didn't have enough money.
The Friday fish fries at Legion Park -- still going strong today!
Post from Gloria (6/23/2008)
Responding to Paul Jackson Sr:
What memories, I lived around Page and Ashby, we use to walk up to Kimlers drug store a lot, they sold 45
records, if they didn't have what I was looking for we would catch the bus on Lackland and go to downtown Overland. There was a record shop on the east side of Woodson just pass the Children's shop.
Woolworth's, Sandro's the Bakery close to Baumann's and the other bakery on Lackland close to the old Overland Post Office. Do you remember the name of the cafeteria on Lackland a few steps from the YMCA?
I can't remember the name. Then there was the Sycamore Inn at Lackland and Brown, plus Ralph Clark drug store.
I remember stories H. Ritchey would tell me about Handee House. And Ritenour High School, he was proud to be a Husky. My family moved and I became a Viking, do you recall the Wagon Wheel, I wonder where the wheel ended up?
My first speeding ticket I almost got in Charlack on Walton Road, the cops would park in the alley way that ran from Walton Rd. to Marshall ave.
Velvet Freeze, at one time they had Apricot sherbet, it was so good. I could go on forever with my wonderful memories of Town and Country Mall, but I won't.
Post from Unknown (6/25/2008)
I grew up in southwest city-near Jameison and Arsenal
Great memories of school picnics at the Highlands, then later at Chain of Rocks.
Walking to the Maplewood swimming pool.
Shopping at Hampton Village and Southtown Famous. Taking the bus downtown at Christmas and seeing the window displays.
As a little kid, watching Howdy-doodie,crying when Clarabelle talked.
Playing outside and having to be home when the church bells rang at 6pm.
Teen-town at Epiphany on Sunday nights and dances at Joan of Arc and St.James on Friday nights.
Taking the Tower grove bus to High School. Walking three houses to my gradeschool.
A scary nun who taught us math. A brilliant nun who taught us history and english. An inspiring nun who taught us music.
Playing softball and winning two City Championships.
Great parents,big family,lots of love..................
Post from Unknown (6/25/2008)
Responding to Gloria:
The record shop on Woodson was Paul Turner's. Mrs. Turner ran it for
years after he died, she also sold guitar strings and picks, etc. so
all the guitar players in the community knew her...nice lady.
I remember the cafeteria you mentioned, near Ortmann Funeral Home, but
I can't recall the name. The Ortmanns lived across the street from us
in Sycamore Hills. The Sycamore Inn was owned by the Harnagels. I
was in the same class at Ritenour with their daughter Joan. I ran in
to her several years ago when I was living in Ballwin.
I don't know if they still play the Wagon Wheel game anymore, but I'll
try to find out.
It's funny, I got my first speeding ticket in Charlack on Lackland
near Walton Road. I guess I can say this now (since I'm the only
living party) -- I went to court, paid the ticket, and later that
evening the city court judge (a friend of our family) showed up at our
house to 'pardon' my offense. He wanted to be sure I'd learned a
lesson.
I became friends with the Adams family who owned Velvet Freeze and
Adams Dairy. Mr. Adams passed away just a few years ago, he was quite
a guy and an expert horseman. Town & Country Mall is now Overland
Mall, same place, all new. The Venture Store is now a Home Depot.
Remember the Gross-Aire Manufacturing Company on the southwest side of
"the wedge" (across from the Midwood Building)? There was also a shoe
repair shop there, run by Mr. Drozda, and a barber shop. How about
when Louie Shoulders, a union boss, got blown up with a car bomb on
the National Supermarket parking lot? I think we were generally a
little more violent society back then.
I used to love the hotdogs and rootbeer at Dog 'n' Suds on Woodson.
Back before convenience stores, there was a 'mom and pop' market on
Brown Road near Olden Ave. I used to stop there for a cold Vess soda
-- this was years before you could get Coke or Pepsi in 1 or 2 liter
bottles, and Vess had these big 24 ounce glass returnables. We'd all
get one and 'chug' it.
Post from Gloria (6/26/2008)
Responding to Unknown -06-25-08:
The Surrey Inn was the restaurant near Ortmann's. Lackland furniture was next to Surrey Inn. The place I am thinking of was on the corner of W.Milton (not sure this is the right name for the street) and Lackland.
I was wondering if it could have been Grone's first place of business?
I remember Hamburger Heaven on Woodson road, now Woofie's.
Post from Gloria (7/1/2008)
While at Blockbusters I saw a movie called "The Little Rascals." The children on the box did not look like the Little Rascals I remember.
So I started to remember old Television Shows. Here are some of my favorite show:
I LOVE LUCY...LIFE OF RILEY...LITTLE RASCALS...MICKEY MOUSE CLUB...CRUSADER RABBIT..BREAK THE BANK..BEAT THE CLOCK..MILTON BERLE SHOW..LORETTA YOUNG SHOW..
TEXACO STAR THEATER..THE ALDRICH FAMILY..I REMEMBER MAMA..THE GOLDBERGS.. THE PHILCO TELEVISON PLAYHOUSE..KULA FRAN & OLLIE..FATHER KNOWS BEST AND MY FAVORITE,
THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE AND HARRIET
Can you remember any??????
Post from Unknown (7/1/2008)
I grew up in North St. Louis on Kossuth, attended Scullin School and then Beaumont, did not finish school as my parents moved to Wright City and I graduated there.
I have thought so much aobut the old neighborhood and wow your site broght back a lot of memories.
I was wondering if any of you remember the name of the show that was on Natural Bridge it must have been close because we walked from the house down Euclid. We called it the "Bloody Bucket" don't ask me why.
My dad drank and I can remember the tavern was not to far from us as he pulled us on a sled one night. I thought it was on Natural Bridge also thought it or the show one was called the Embassy.
Our number was Evergreen 3-2151.
Attended church at Calvary Baptist over in the Walnut Park area. wa married at Eculid Baptist Church still there but now under a different name.
Post from PKN (7/5/2008)
To Anonymous who grew up on Kossuth.... the name of the theatre on Natural Bridge was :The Bridge" and we did call it The Bucket. I grew up on Euclid and Kossuth, went to Scullin and Beaumont too. Great old neighborhood,,, sad to see some of it now.
And our number was CO 6046 the CO 1-6046
Post from Barbie-Lew (7/5/2008)
To the Post from Anonymous 5/12/2008. I spent a portion of my childhood on Oakridge Blvd. My parrish was Ascension on Nelson in the old North Woods. My mom grew up Kemp in Velda Village Hills. She went to Saint Ann's on Natural Bridge until Ascension was built. She was eldest of eight kids, and I remember her younger sisters who are just a few years my senoir sometimes going to mass at Saint Paul's on ocassion because the priest said a short homily and talked really fast...:) Yep, I remember the T.V. store next to the Library...
Gloria,
Camp Viking....Yep..I remember Camp Viking. I went to Camp Viking late sixties for a couple summers. I learned how to sew, had a craft class, and even a class with fieldtrips around Saint Louis.
I think my mom even went to Camp Viking.
Why don't schools do that anymore?
Someone mentioned Ponticello's. There still exists a Ponticello's restraunt. It is located on Bellefontaine Road in Spanish Lake.
To Dave DeLaney 4/5/2008.. I'm not familiar with a Mission Inn restraunt..but maybe the later....
http://www.pirronespizza.com/
When I was a teenager I worked for Angelo Pirrone at Angelo's Pizza in Black Jack.
I'm pretty sure he was related to the people who own Pirrones today. I think relatives own Saullos Pizzeria on Larimore Road in Spanish Lake.
Well anyhow.. Angelo had a restraunt off of Jennings Station Road or maybe Union, or Lillian near Walnut Park prior to Black Jack. I know they did because I remember my parents taking me there when I was a kid.....and watching pizza's being tossed in the air through the glass window from outside.
My dad used to talk about racing hotrods on Hall Street. He grew up on Arlington in Walnut Park.
My Aunts used to talk about gaslight square. I am sending them the website address. Perhaps they might post some memories.
Post from graceanne (7/5/2008)
Dave, did you ever think your website would take off so big like this? what a great terrific place to visit.
I now live in Port Orchard, WA and have been back to St. Louis a handful of times and wish it could be more often.
We lived on Rowan in St. Barbara's Parish. Any readers from that area? At one corner of Rowan was Barrett's Market and at the other end was Freidman's (or Freeman's) Deli, which was so tiny of a place. Oh, but he had some awesome donuts!
I'm hoping your readers can help me with this one: things we use to say as kids. Some examples I have are "nee-ner-nee-ner-nee-ner", "get outta here", "so there", "step on a crack and break your mother's back", "Yeah, right". I know there were lots more.
Sure wish I could locate a 1959 St. Mark's High School Year Book. Anyone know of one?
Thanks Dave for this great website that definitely joins all of us St. Louisans, no matter what state we live in.
Post from unknown (7/5/2008)
Memories of growing up in Ferguson in the 60's
-A&W Root-Beer stand
-The church bells at St. John & James
-The clock at Galt, Hartwick & King
-decorating windows in downtown Ferguson at Halloween
-Ben Franklin & the Dime Store
-Dottie at Scott's Market on Church Street
-Charlie the Barber
-Ethel the Bottle Lady
-Pop Krieders
-The Circle K Lounge
-the chimes at Hamiltonian
-Emma Ogle School of Dance
-Dances at Jackson Park
-Playing the the 'woods', before the Quick Shop was built, at Florissant Rd. and Royal Ave.
-testing TV tubes at the Quick Shop
-walking to Northland (following the tracks)
-The Christmas Club at Hamiltonian (50 cents a week)
-Chuck-A-Burger
-the scale at Hamiltonian
-movies at January Wabash Park
-Pete the Wino
-double features at the Savory (15 cents)
-Milo's Snackateria (pinball for 5 cents)
-accordion lessons at Dorthy Noble Lord's
-the 'old' National
-Krogers
-'Jackson' phone numbers
-Ferguson 35, Missouri
-going to Holiday Hill (collecting lightning bugs for free tickets)
-going to Putt-Putt
-E.J. Korvettes
-the trampoline place at Chambers and West Florissant
-Peaches (and Peaches crates to keep your albums in)
-Bag of Chicken at Florissant and Dunn Rd.
-skinny dipping in Wabash Lake
-Ferguson Lounge and Art Romano
-the bakery on Airport Road
-Ponticello's on Chambers
-Eagle Stamps
-Hereford when is was two lanes wide (remember the huge yards)
-teen towns, CYC dances
-the drive-thru Hot Dog stand in downtown Ferguson (was it Das Weinerhaus or Der Weinerschnitzel?)
-the Ferguson Loop
-the hot pretzel machine at Famous
-the soda counter at Quillman's
-actually shopping for clothes at Ferguson Department Store
-following Bob Kuban wherever the band played
-Boyd's at Northland for Pringle sweaters and WeeJun's
-KXOX, Johnny Rabbit, Bruno J. Grunion, the TOP 40 list with song lyrics on the back
-the Bat Cave on Airport Road
-Prom Magazine
Post from graceanne (7/7/2008)
other TV shows back then/when:
The Lone Ranger
Ed Sullivan Show
Red Skelton as Clem Kadiddlehopper
Ted Mack's Amateur Hour
Sid Caesar and Imogine Coca
Perry Como Show
Colgate Comedy Hour
Your Hit Parade
Jack Benny Show (never could stand his humor)
Art Linkletter's People Are Funny
George Gobel Show
boy, there were lots of great programs on TV back then. And remember when TV went off the air at night with the NBC peacock?
Post from Gloria (7/7/2008)
I went to Mercy High School for two years, a lot of my classmates were from St. Barbara's Parish. I graduated from Normandy High.
My uncle married a girl from that parish also. I don't recall St. Marks High School. Where was it located?
It's amazing how many people on this site have gone to Catholic Schools. It's one of the best sites I've found.
Post from Tom Caulley Spring Hill FL ( [email protected] ) (7/7/2008)
I keep checking back ever so often to see what others remember, and to see what I may be able to add. Please post that the Classmates web site is now offering a new community called NEIGHBORHOODS. So far, they are only including the entire city as one neighborhood. So, I sent them the following list and suggested that they add them as choices within the city of St. Louis: (Maybe if other members of Classmates make the same suggestion we'll get a useful NEIGHBORHOODS option on Classmates):
* Arlington
* Baden
* Benton Park
* Bissell - College Hill
* Cabanne
* Carondelet
* Central Business District
* Central West End
* Cherokee
* Clifton
* Compton Heights
* Dog Town
* Fairgrounds
* Grand Prairie
* The Hill
* Hyde Park
* Kingsbury
* Lafayette Square
* Marquette
* Midtown
* Morganford
* Oak Hill
* Oakland
* Old North St. Louis
* Riverview
* Shaw
* Soulard
* Southwest
* Tower Grove
* Walnut Park
* Yeatman
This part is for Gloria who was remembering the old TV shows. Last year I got on a nostalgia kick and started a list of TV shows that I remembered from the 50s. Well, that snowballed into a web site, which split into 3 pages "1940s Television," "1950s Television" and "1960s Television." You can access all three of them at http://caulleycorner.myweb.io/1950sTV/1950sTV.html
Post from Jerry Glomski (7/11/2008)
I also wish I could go back to the 60's in St. Louis. I was born there in 1945 and went to St. Wenceslaus grade School in South St. Louis. We lived on Cherokee Street near Cherokee and Pennsylvania next to what was Conway's Service Station. I went on to graduate from St. Mary's High School in 1963, graduated college, and went into the Air Force because I wanted to fly since I could walk. I left St. Louis in 1969 for OTS and flight school not to return until 1985. When I did return the full truth of the saying "you can never go home again hit me hard." Neighborhoods changed, people died or moved away, the whole flavor of South St. Louis had changed. Cherokee Street had become one long antique store with scattered Mexican restaurants along the way. No more D&W snack shop, no more Cinderella show, and sadly, no more feeling like home. Don't get me wrong, I have tons of memories that serve me well when I want to try and capture some of the great feelings that growing up in St. Louis gave me. It seems that as I grow older, songs like "Lost in the fifties again" trigger these memories. I can associate with about 75% of the things others have mentioned such as Steak and Shake, Hall Street, muscle cars, and drive in movies, etc. But I would like to add a few of my own if I may…..
-Starting first grade with Sister Leonella at St. Wenceslaus (she must have been 150 years old)
-Captain Midnight and the "Secret Squadron"
-my mom always threatening that she was going to ship me off to "boys town" if I didn't shape up. She would flash the return address on the letter they sent every year asking for donations as proof of my pending exile
-The wrestler named the "bouncing gardenia" on wrestling at the Chase
-45 records
-My first crush in the fourth grade
-The absolute joy of "snow days"
-The confusion, fear, dread of the 8th grade "prom"
-Mr. Zucker (Cherokee Street florist) who would sell me Orchid Corsages for 3 dollars
-Bill Haley and the Comet's old beat up green truck that I used to service and clean at Conway's service station
-Washing cars for 50 cents each to make date money
-Teen Town at St. Anthony's
-My first date after getting my driver's license (drive- in of course)
-The first true love of my life who lived wayyyyy out in Lemay
-The second true love of my life (who also lived on Cherokee Street) that dumped me for a secret boyfriend at Roosevelt High
-Listening to the Beach Boys and cruising in my friends Corvette
-Wearing the green and white letterman's jacket from St' Mary's High with the big Dragon on the back
-Wearing the motorcycle jacket with a "DA" haircut and yes, we did have a pack of "luckies" rolled up in our black T-shirt sleeve
-Watermelon stand at Cherokee and Compton
-Koppe's market across the street from my house
-Ice skating at Forest Park
-sitting out in the back yard and watching the Starlings climb high in the sky and then dive down causing their wings to make wind noise when they pulled out, and then off they would go to do it again
-The day F.W. Woolworths at Cherokee and California got air conditioning (people were dropping like flys due to the temperature differential ,100 outside, about 55-60 inside)
-Basement parties (could spend a lot of time on this subject)
-Parking in Tower Grove and Crondolet (sp) parks
-The awesome Fox theater with Stan Cann on the organ
-Sylvan Beach swimming pool
-The old wooden roller coaster at the Highlands
-Playing the roll of "Tiny Tim" and staring with awe at the massive electric train set in J.C. Penny's window at Christmas time
-snow cones on hot summer days
-Hot soft pretzels from the pretzel man next to St. Wenceslaus school (5 cents)
-Hot brain sandwiches from the bar at Gravois and Chippewa (OK, but I like the show "Bizarre Foods" also)
-Riding on the Wabash "Bluebird" train which ran from St. Louis to Chicago and back every day (my dad worked on it)
-Bowling at Du-Bowl lanes and eating at the "Alba Restaurant" next door
-Dragging a paper wagon and yelling "Post and Globe Papaeeerrrrrrssss" to make a few bucks
-Our first TV had a round 6 inch screen with a large magnifying lens in front that you could move back and forth to focus the picture (Muntz brand)
-shoveling snow until you wanted to puke, but then playing in it for hours
-the everlasting effects of the senior prom, both good and bad
-the witnessing of the invention of one of mankind's greatest achievements- Short-shorts
-Alton drag strip and the Blue Note Club
-the hundreds and hundreds of "firsts" that happened during these years in St. Louis
I could blather on and fill half the hard drive on my computer but I think it is time to turn the floor over to someone else who would like to share memories with us. And like everyone else, I consider this site something very special and visit it often. Too bad we can't all get together at a "sock hop" and pass the stories on in person.
Post from John (7/25/2008)
I am John, one of St. Anthony's long line of Alter Boys from the
South Side in Dutchtown. My memories include.....
Walking through the mud to the carnivals that came along the
riverfront on the North Side. It was my first exposure to side shows.
Summer nights and smelling the cut grass in Forest Park as it
seemed the whole city met to play softball.
Watching the final piece of the Arch go into place from the
steeples of St. Anthony which we were told was the highest point above
sea level in St. Louis.
Selling newspapers daily in front of Winklemans Drug Store, and
walking the streets with our huge wooden wheeled papercarts on weekends
as we delivered the weekend edition. The sound of the wheels on the
brick streets had a wonderful sound. I lost teeth one Saturday night to
a curb as we awaited our papers and messed around.
Being up at 6am on Saturday and roaming the streets collecting
paper for the church and bottles for the 2 cents each return gave us to
spend.
Searching in Tower Grove Park late at night with flashlights for
the huge worms that came out after soaking rains.
The long parades which began and ended at St. Anthony's on Meramec
and the cannon being fired from that location as we covered miles of
neighborhood.
Augustinian Academy and it's incredible landscape which had trees
of every kind on one piece of property. It was there that my first
smoking experience ended with a "green" ladyfinger and my lunch leaving
my body.
Trying to learn to float on my back at Marquette Park swimming lessons.
My family living together on the same street in 3 places. We
started at Caroline and Virginia, then moved to 3 homes on Henrietta
just north of Immaculate Conception, before going on to a 3 family flat
across from St. Anthony. Until we moved to Florissant in 1969 my
Grandfathers 4 daughters and their family's never lived more than a
couple of blocks apart at any time. All of time and all events were
spent around family.
Roller skating not just on weekends in St. Anthony's gym floor, but
Wednesday afternoons.
Sportsman Park and Cub Scouts loose everywhere.
Saturday morning at the Melvin Theatre with stars such as Elvis.
I remember the nuns sending us home with no explanation when our
President was shot in 1963. We all had someone home back then.
Union station and my uncle returning from Korea. My grandfather
lead me through the wonderful sounds and bustle of movement. While we
waited for his sons train, my grandfather took me into a tobacco shop to
get his Pall Malls and bought me my first comic ever (Tom and Jerry).
Marching the Arena floor with flags for Boy Scouts, building a
tepee on its floor for scouts, playing hockey on its ice for my high
school, watching my daughter play on it's floor with her soccer team,
seeing the 3 Stooges walk past and wave from it's floor, seeing her roof
missing after the tornado.
Stopping on Hwy 40-61 shoulder on the side in Front of Forest Park
with probably 25 other cars to watch the Highlands burn.
Riding our bikes to the Amusement Park by the Airport (now a hotel)
and blowing $10 before pedaling home.
Listening to Bob Kuban and his band playing at both the Cardinal
Football Games and on the Admiral. Loss of the engines in the Admiral
(to John Connelly of Pittsburgh) was the end of an era for St. Louis as
we all had spend weekends days running her decks and nights dancing in her.
St. Mary's fields and its legendary status as powerhouse of soccer
as "it should be played". We, thanks to our relatives who moved here to
work for the 1904 Fair and stayed, formed the core of soccer in America
in our time. Most South St. Louis boys were shown a bible and a soccer
ball and told soon they would know both equally well.
We grew up proud of heritage. From Lithuanian to Polish. From
Dutch to Italian. It wasn't a bad thing. It still isn't. My
grandmother rattled it off with pride "I am Scott, Irish, Dutch, German,
Lithuanian, Polish, and Hungarian". She didn't say it like it was
something to be ashamed about.
I later (late 60's - mid 70's) was in Florissant when the plane hit
the M-1 Gym at McCluer and was sticking out of the windows above the
entrance. And the commercial plane that went down in Cool Valley short
of the airport.
Post from Gloria (7/25/2008)
In response to Jerry Glomski:
You have some great memories thank you for sharing. I agree with you about going back and it never seems the same. That is the way it is meant to be, mainly because we aren't the exact same people we were back then, but "the back then" person is what made us who we are today.
My first grade teacher was Sister Huberta, she would use a ruler to smack our hands if we did something wrong. You know as I look back I wonder if nuns weren't the inspiration for child abuse.
Post from Bobbi (7/27/2008)
In Response to Gloria:
I've been reading this website, off and on, for a couple of years but have never written. It's really a wonderful way to "remember".
I've especially loved your entries.
I, too, grew up in Overland.
I went to Our Lady of the Presentation grade school..........you HAD to love the nuns!!!!! They were responsible for a lot of bodily damage (especially to the boys......they took more than their share).
I lived close to the Burton and McKibbon intersection (one block south of St. Charles Rk. Rd., two blocks east of Brown Rd.)
"Beautiful" downtown Overland was the best place to be.........in the day. Actually it was the ONLY place to be (before Town and Country Mall came along). That main drag of Overland was always crowded on a Saturday back then. My best friend and I would walk to Overland on a Saturday (we were still in grade school), have lunch at Woolworth's, and look around in there. Then we'd go over to P.N. Hirsch, then to Paul Turners and look at the records (and even buy one, once in awhile), go to Sandro's and "wish". From there, we'd walk south on Woodson Rd. (up "the hill") to Lackland (sometimes stop at Velvet Freeze) and walk to the library that used to be upstairs over the Overland City Hall. (The "Beanie Malone" series of books was HUGE back then........there were several in the series and sometimes you had to put your name on the list to get one.........this was strictly "a girl" thing.)
I also remember the cafeteria you spoke of on Lackland across from the bakery. I can't remember the full name but it was "Guy........something". And the Surrey Inn was originally "Jody's", when it first became a restaurant.
I can also remember the very first Overland Post Office before they moved to the building on Lackland (and, yet again, have moved a third time). It was very small (later became the Overland Moose Lodge, I think). It was down on Woodson, next to the SW Bell business office (at the time), right across from where Argyle meets Woodson. Also in that block was a drive-in restaurant with a dine-in area, where there were those little juke boxes on each table.
I remember the huge fir tree with all the lights at Christmas time, which was in the circle, at the intersection of Midland and Woodson........no stop lights at that intersection back then......traffic was so different!!!!
I remember the Kroger Store on St. Charles Rk. Rd. that is now the St. John City Hall. (Kroger eventually moved to the corner of Brown and St. Charles Rk. Rd.) Mom used to send me down to the original Kroger's to get things for her. Sometimes I'd get the wrong thing and she'd send me back. I always hated that.
I remember spending so many Sunday afternoons at the Gem Theatre.......two movies for 25 cents. Sometimes the line went down St. Charles Rk.Rd. and all the way around the corner onto Marshall Ave. But, to see a first-run movie, you'd have to go downtown......that was a big deal.
I remember the Ben Franklin Five and Ten (owned by Pat Patterson) right down the street from the Gem, and also Buschman's Market (right next door to Ben Franklin), which later became a Top Value Stamp Redemption store (my brother and I did a lot of Christmas shopping in there.........very reasonable prices........obviously, not exclusively a "redemption" store). There was also Ed's White Front Market in that same run of buildings, and way way back, a dry goods store called Schoenholz' (they had old wooden floors in there).
I remember Mac's Barbeque and the Steak and Shake on St. Charles Rk. Rd. I patronized both of those places a lot. They were both very close to where I lived.
Also I can vaguely remember going into Wellston with my Mom and Dad to go to JC Penney's (or maybe it was Sears?) when I was really young. I can remember that there was also a Central Hardware in Wellston. There was a roller skating rink upstairs, I think over Central Hardware (I skated there a few times in grade school). I can also remember taking a bus into Wellston with my aunt and cousin for some shopping. Then Northland Shopping Center came along, which was the closest "mall" to Overland. After that, I never went back to Wellston. River Roads came along not too long after that.
I can remember taking the bus to Steinberg's Ice Skating Rink in Forest Park. We'd have to transfer at the Wellston Loop (and always get popcorn at the Katz drugstore in the Loop), then again at Easton and Kingshighway, and the bus would let us off right up the hill from the skating rink in the park.
I can remember spending countless summer afternoons at Legion Pool. A parent would take turns dropping a huge group of us off. We'd stay for several hours, then another parent would pick us up. (We girls weren't allowed in the pool if we didn't have a swimming cap........they were very strict about that at the time......they always said that hair clogged the filter.) And we'd always have just enough money to buy some little "treat" at the concession stand. I also remember my brother playing baseball at Legion, and also the Overland Lions Fair used to be at Legion.........now it's at Norman Meyers Park.
I can remember bike riding constantly with friends, our boundaries being laid down by our parents. Sometimes we "overstepped" our boundaries......unbeknownst to our parents, of course.
I can remember when Midland didn't go all the way through and stopped at the Lackland-Midland wedge where the church is. Lackland continued from that point, but Midland didn't. You had to take Lackland to Gilrose and Gilrose to Midland. I think Midland picked back up at Walton Rd.
I can also identify with what you said about going outside, in your bathing suit, when it was raining, but Mom always made us come in if it started to thunder and lightning. Somehow, Moms really "watched" back then, didn't they? Didn't matter how many kids they had, either. They always knew what everyone was doing.
I can remember so many great things about my childhood.......obviously, it was a happy time.
I really didn't intend for this to be so long, but once I got started, more and more thoughts came flooding in. I guess some people might think "get a life"..........actually I have one. I also have a lot of great memories.
Post from Gloria (7/27/2008)
Response to Bobbi 7-27-08:
I loved you memories, we must have passed by or saw each other at Woolworth's, the Overland Library, Northland or River Roads at some time in our lives.
I never noticed the nuns being harder on the boys, I was too busy watching out for myself. And heaven help us if my parents found out about getting in trouble at school, we would get it again at home. So I was smart enough not to complain about the nuns when I got home.
I went to Mercy High School for two years, one morning I was early for school, I was talking to one of my fellow students in the hall way, when Sister Barbara came down the hall, she gave us both a lecture, then I was sent to the Chapel and the boy went on to wait for his classroom to open, to this day I cannot figure out what we did wrong. I graduated from Normandy and loved every minute I spent there.
I never went to the Gem theater, we use to go to the Tivoli or Varsity . I miss Krogers and the smaller stores close to my home.
One of your memories brought a "oh my gosh" and that was top value stamps. What store gave them out?
I remember eagle stamps, S & H green stamps and we even got stamps at the Star Gas station that you could redeem for gas, after all gasoline was nineteen cents a gallon back then.
Don't worry about someone saying get a life, seems to me you have a life and your younger days were
fabulous .
Post from Gloria (8/6/2008)
Today a nice police officer knocked on my door and informed me that someone had complained about my not parking my car closer to the curb. When he was leaving I said : "It's really a shame they did away with curb feelers." The young officer looked at me kind of funny. I got to thinking there are a lot of words and things we used in the 50's that you never hear.
Can you think of any? This is my list of phrase's from yesterday:
Fender skirts, steering knobs, continental kits,emergency brake is now a parking brake, it use to be wall to wall carpeting over hardwood floors, now it's wall to wall hardwood floors. In the family way, rat fink, ooh,what a put down that was, here's a good one ask your grandchildren what a percolator is. Can you think of anymore.
Post from Bobbi, in response to Gloria. (8/6/2008)
First of all, thanks for this website, Dave...........and what a great idea. It must take up a lot of your time. Hope everyone appreciates that.
Kroger gave out Top Value Stamps (I think). The Bettendorf Rapp stores gave out S&H (I think). I know that Famous Barr gave out Eagle Stamps. I can remember putting those stamps (all three brands) in books for my Mom. She had five kids. She bought a lot of "stuff".
As far as the nuns being tougher on the boys...........at Presentation, they were. I can close my eyes and see those poor boys being backed into a corner between the wall and the blackboard, and being plummeted by erasers, thrown by the nuns. I never once saw an eraser thrown at a girl. I can also remember one of the boys being hit with a yardstick, as he was backed up against a wall trying to protect himself (looking back, these seemed to be daily occurances) . Some of those nuns were very old and very crazy. After witnessing that stuff, I was probably the "model" student. Didn't want that to happen to me.
And, there was no such thing as a "snow" day. The nuns lived in the convent right next to the school. We had very few lay teachers. School was never called off. Only one time in my entire grade school career do I ever remember school being closed and that was due to a faulty furnace. And you walked to school......rain, sleet or two feet of snow........every day. I also can remember taking flowers to school in May, for the "May Alter" in our classroom.
I dated a guy from Mercy. He graduated in 65. He was on the basketball team. They won the CAC title that year. That was an exciting time.
I remember all of the CYC dances that Presentation had in the church basement. We had Bob Kuban a lot. My parents chaperoned once. I was mortified!!!!
Where ever Bob Kuban played, it was always jammed. You could hardly move or find a place to dance. Once Starlight Ballroom came into existence, my then-to-be husband and I spent every Sunday night out there...........again, Bob Kuban. We danced every dance. Didn't sit down one time all night. I loved Walter Scott (a shame that the guy was murdered and thrown in a well.) Remember The Imperial?..........a unique dance to St. Louis. If you could find a guy who could do that, you latched onto him.
After I was divorced, I moved back to Overland..............not too far from Thorpe and Ashby.
Post from unknown (8/12/2008)
I thought of a couple of more things. I remember that at Normandy Jr. high we had to wear pants under our skirts. No pants without skirts.
I do remember snow days since some of the times the buses couldn't get into Hanley Hills.
Does anyone remember a little shopping center in Hanley Hills? I think it had a dime store, maybe an ice cream shop and maybe a bakery? Not sure, memory is going. It just seems I remember going there and getting a chocolate chip cone and it was like a bittersweet chocolate chip and I loved it. Also my mom got some cookies that looked like lots of little stars in a big cookie and it just melted in your mouth, must have been some kind of butter cookie.
Didn't we go swimming at the jr. college next to the Normandy Jr. high at Camp?
Just a question. I remember that my friend, Maureen, whom I have lost contact with and can't find, went to a Catholic school until we were in high school ( I was a year or 2 a head of her). I think quite a few kids did that, either started public school in Jr. or Sr. high?
I don't remember if I mentioned these or not. But, I remember on the night before halloween the teens would go out and "tee pee". I once did that to a boy down the hill in Hanley Hills with blue and pink toilet paper, another memory, they don't make colored toilet paper any more, do they? It seemed like it always sleeted on Halloween. I'd take my little brother and we collected for , I think, muscular dystrophy.
After Hanley Hills we moved to Carson Rd. I loved it there, too. The Warners lived across the street and had lots of kids and I loved to go over there. I have lots of memories from living on Carson Rd. I love this site, thanks.
Post from Peggy Toole, Colorado Springs, CO (8/12/2008)
One of my strongest memories of the 1950's in the Saint Louis, was the
"Pickquick Cafeteria" at Famous and Barr, Northland. The whole
cafeteria had the walls painted with scenes from Dickens "Pickwick
papers". I don't think I really knew who Mr. Pickwick was at the time-
took me another 35 years before I ever read the novel, but I have a
vivid memory of light tans walls with paintings of Pickwick and friends
with hand lettered quotations from the book. It seems like the
illustrations were done in warm fallish colors with highlights of gold.
We lived in Ferguson and on Dollars Days, my Mom would bundle my baby
brother into the car, pick up my aunt Stephanie, and we would spend the
day at Northland (which I believe was the first "shopping mall" in the
Saint Louis area.) We would always eat lunch at the "Pickquick". The
cafeteria was located at the back on the store on the lower level- it
was slightly elevated above the level of the shopping floor, up about 5
steps. To the right of the Pick Quick Cafeteria was a formal sit-down
restaurant called the "Jade Room." It was all done in shades of
malachite green and in my child's eyes looked quite elegant. I know my
Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Rol who were childless would sometimes have
dinner there but I only remember eating there once with my mom and
younger brother later on when I was a teenager.
I would love to see pictures of the Pickquick and the wall murals if any
still exist.
Post from Linda (Owens) Henderson (8/12/2008)
To Kirk Boeckstiegel, Hi I just want to let you know I was raised in Pinelawn also I worked at Goody Goody the watermelon man was Sam I used to sell Newspapers across the street from the Pinelawn Grill.What fun my brother and I had at the Pinelawn Grill,I was nine when I sold papers and I was 12 when I worked at Goody Goody,thats the first rest I ever worked at and I was pretty shy back then but to get the order to the cook you had to yell the order out ...1 on(hamb.) redbowl.(chili) somethings you never forget,I read a lot about people from St.Louis and I guess we lived just about everywhere but Pinelawn and Wellston were our stomping grounds for many years. My Grandparents lived in Pinelawn for years.Thanks so much for those memoeies that grill really brought back some memories so did Goody Goody's Love It Thanks again
Post from Patsy L. (8/13/2008)
I love to visit " Memories " as often as possible. It is a wonderful escape into the past.
I lived at 6136 Plymouth Ave.
St Louis 36 Mo......We did not have zip codes then, just zones. Mine was zone 36.
I lived close to the Hodiamont street car line.
We shopped in Wellston for groceries at A& P. Occasionally we would drop into Krogers for something. My Father went to Central Hardware for everything else. Their slogan was "we sell everything from scoop to nuts, including the kitchen sink."
I took roller skating lessons at the "Arena".
Went to Hempstead Elementary School (no middle school or Jr high back then). Went K-8. Graduated, then went to Soldan Blewett High School.
I walked to Hempstead, through the worms on the sidewalk in the Spring and through the snow in the winter. We did not have snowdays. When I was a small child the snow sometimes would be waist high, and I would walk out in the street, which was cleared. I rode the Hodiamont streetcar to High School.
My brother had a paper route. The first time it rained he quit. I took the route for a brief time. The fellow delivering the papers from the truck to my paper box said girls were not allowed to sell or deliver papers. That was the end of my carreer. We didnt argue with adults.
I was a Patrol Girl at Hempstead. At 8th grade graduation I received a patrol girl diploma along with my 8th grade diploma.
I loooved going to the art museum in Forest Park. I would spend hours there. I especially loved the mummies.
The Starlight Opera was one of my favorite places to go as was The Jewel Box. The "fountain of youth" with its shooting waters and changing colors was another favorite.
At Hempstead our teacher would sometimes show a movie, starring Shirley Temple, called "Heidi". I still love that movie.
Ms Thym, my singing teacher in high school, would show the Jenette McDonald and Nelson Eddy movies. What a treat!
My phone number was PArkview ----.
I could go on and on, but its time for someone else to bask in their "Memories."
Post from MIKE CAROSONE (8/13/2008)
MIKE CAROSONE FROM AFFTON HERE FOR ALL OF YOU STILL OR FORMER NORTH COUNTIANS AND I'M TALKING FROM THE CIRCLE ON OUT TO WHAT BECAME 270 AND WEST FLORISSANT TO THE RIVER.
ANYONE RECALL THE IN GROUND TRAMPOLINES AT WEST FLORRISANT AND CHAMBERS,WHAT WENT ON TO BECOME AL WEISS LINCOLN MERCURY( AL WON SOME KIND OF LOTTERY AND CLOSED UP) AND THE SCHNUCKS ACROSS THE STREET WHERE OUR PARENTS WOULD DROP US OFF AT THE LITTLE THEATER IN FRONT OF THE STORE. THERE WAS SANDS DRUG STORE BY A&P. WE ALWAYS SHOPPED AT THE SAFEWAY STORE UNTIL THEY BUILT THE KROEGER STORE AT JENNINGS AND HALLS FERRY, THEN WE SHOPPED THERE BUT STOPPING AT DAIRY MAIDS FOR OUR MILK AND WE ALWAYS HOPED FOR A "TREAT" WHEN MOM CAME OUT. I WENT ON TO ST. SEBASTION FOR 8 YEARS, THEN TO RIVERVIEW. STARTED WORKING IN 67AS A BUS BOY AT THE TOP OF TOWER,AND AFTER WORK WE WOULD GO UP TO OZELLOS ACROSS FROM THE NORTH DRIVE IN. GRANDPA WOULD COME TO OUR HOUSE AND ASK MOM FOR 2 BITS SO HE COULD GO GET A BEER DOWN AT RED LIGHT (CHAMBERS & HALLS FERRY) SOMETIMES DURING THE WEEK.
MAN ALL THE THINGS FROM THAT TIME, SPARTANS DEPT. STORE WHICH I WORKED AT AND MET MY FUTURE WIFE( HER FATHER WAS THE DISTRICT MANAGER), GEM, A&W'S TUESDAY NIGHT SPECIAL .25 CENT HOT DOGS. THE STAGE COACH DONUT SHOP DOWN AT THE CIRCLE.WHEN WE WERE YOUNGER WE MOM WOULD HAVE US WALK DOWN TO NARSHES OR CAMBELLS AND BUY A POUND OF BALONY, LOAF OF BREAD AND BE ABLE TO GET A SODA OUT OF THE MACHINE WHERE ALL THE BOTTLES STOOD UP STRAIGHT AND YOU HAD TO BRING IT THROUGH THE MAZE TO GET IT OUT, PLUS YOU TRIED TO GET THE SPECKLED GUM BALL SO YOU COULD WIN THE RACOON'S TAIL THEY KEPT BEHIND THE COUNTER. WHEN SHERMANS BUILT THEIR SUBDIVSION THEY DESTROYED OUR TREE HOUSES AND FORTS WE HAD BUILT, THE PEVELY DAIRY DRIVER WOULD ALWAYS STOP AND LET US HAVE CHUNKS OF ICE IN THE SUMMER AND IN THE EVENING YOU HOPED MR. SOFTEE WOULD COME BY. GOTTA GO FOR NOW, BE BACK SOON!
Post from Gloria (8/17/2008)
The Hanley Hills shopping center consisted of several stores. Turning off of Hanley Road going east was Sands Drug Store, which had a fountain and grill. Then a barber shop ,beauty shop, National Foods Store, a Velvet Freeze, Ben Franklin 5 and dime store at the very end. Across the lot was a Hardware shop and a shoe repair shop. I don't remember a bakery. Do you remember on the corner of Hanley Road and Alert was another drug store, the also had a fountain and grill. On the other corner was a grocery store.
Post from Carol Sue (8/17/2008)
Hey Laurie in Dallas, just read your posting I live In Oklahoma City but am in Dallas a lot, my daughter and her family live there. I love reading everyones memories of St. Louis. When I first moved here in the late 60's there were no bakeries like Lake Forest on Clayton Road or Schmidt's, in fact 40 years later there still are none. Did you ever eat at Fitz's drive in on Clayton Road near Brentwood? They made the best sauce in the world. The one that is in UCity now just isn't the same. It is a small world, I have a catering business here for the last 30 years and I was meeting with a prospective client last fall and they didn't know anything about me and all of a sudden the groom who was my age mentioned St. Louis, I said are you from there he said yes, he graduated from Mercy in 1959, I graduated from Clayton in 1963, anyway we talked about lots of fun places and they hired me to do their wedding this past June. I love catching up.
Post from Unknown(8/17/2008)
I stumbled on the site during a search on a completely different topic.
How often does that happen?? Anyway, I noticed in a few early posts
people recalling how they would call a friend to play by standing
outside the house and yelling the friend's name at the top of their
lungs. "OOOHHHH DENIIEEE" Several thought this was unique to St. Louis.
Well, I was born in 1946 and raised in Chicago. That was the routine
method in my neighborhood. However, as I remember, the Chicago version
began "YOOHHH".
Post from sheila kuhlman mchale vanmullen (8/17/2008)
a friend sent me your site from a couple years ago, is it still going? I grew up in st louis, st louis hills, lived on loran,delor and tamm avenue across from francis park, went to nottingham grade school southwest high, ascension lutheran church. married 2 career marines who each served 30 yrs in the corps and who passed away from cancer due to agent orange they contracted in vietnam, they are both in national cemetary here in beaufort sc (parris island sc home of usmc boot camp) 29902 It brought me many fond memories and i really enjoyed recalling so many places such as the arena (went roller skating here) Listened to Audry play the organ (joe garriagola's wife) Thanks for the memories.
Post from Carl Moore (8/17/2008)
I’ve been interested in Saint Louis history for quite some time. So imagine my surprise yesterday when I found your website, and learned that it has been out there for over 8 years. Spent most of last night reading the posts from 2001 to 2008. Your readers have so many wonderful memories of our fine city. I’ve got quite a few of my own.
For reference, I was born in 1947. Here are some of the things that I remember:
Growing up in Jennings. But with relatives all over Saint Louis, I spent a lot of time in all areas of the greater Saint Louis area.
Watching Gillette’s Cavalcade of Sport on TV at nights.
Seeing the bears and Phil The Gorilla (when he was still alive) at the Forest Park Zoo.
Going for boat rides in Forest Park.
Buying ice cream cones from Dairy Queen, where the tops were dipped in hot chocolate. The price was 10 cents.
Nickel sodas from the vending machines.
Riding the Tilt-A-Whirl and the Wildcat at Holiday Hill Amusement Park on Natural Bridge. Also played some miniature golf there.
Visits to January Wabash Park, and Chain of Rocks. Occasionally, my family would go “way out in the country” and have a picnic at Creve Couer Park.
Shakees Pizza Parlors. Wish they would have never closed.
Driving with my friends up and down Natural Bridge for hours at a time in my 1953 Ford, sometimes stopping in Totes for a hamburger, French fries, and a root beer from their curbside service. Wouldn’t want to try that today with gasoline costing $4 a gallon.
The Apollo Theater on De Balievere, back in the days when they still showed movies that were fit to me seen by the entire family.
Going with my family to The Chicken Cottage.
Sitting on the front porch of Aunt’s home, who lived on Lafayette in South Saint Louis on hot summer nights. (Didn’t I say that I had relatives all over Saint Louis?)
Going to the baseball stadium to watch the Cardinals.
Setting up a tent in my back yard during the summer nights, and actually sleeping there. Sort of like going camping without having to leave home.
Of course, not all memories from the old days were happy ones. While reading the posts from 2005, I saw where a lady named Helen wrote, “Be glad if you don’t remember when mothers were supposed to give their children enemas.” I never got one of those from my mother. But I did get one of those awful things in 1955 at the Jewish Hospital when I was there to have my tonsils removed.
Back then we didn’t have all the material possessions that children have growing up today. But we didn’t miss them, because we didn’t know about them.
Post from Diane G (8/17/2008)
I remember Hodges Roller Rink in Pine Lawn. In its early days it had open sides.
I remember waiting for the milk man to come by in the morning and begging for a chunk of ice to share with my friends.
I remember making necklaces or long chains out of clover growing the yard.
I remember sleeping at the opposite end of the bed on hot summer nights.
I remember walking to Wellston on the streetcar tracks.
I remember my Colfax telephone number. And some people having party lines so you had to wait till they were done to make a call.
I remember hanging out at the airport on weekend nights for something to do.
Post from Wayne R. (8/21/2008)
For years now I’ve been reading the posts from your webpage. But I’ve never before posted anything. Last night I came across a posting from 2005 that I can’t believe that I overlooked before. Otherwise, I would have responded to it back in 2005, rather than 2008.
Anyway, Sandra Larouche, who had many good memories to tell, mentioned a car dealer in Wellston, known as O’Leary McClintock Motors. I didn’t remember it when I was little. But I remembered my father talking about it.
The car dealer was located on Easton Avenue , which is now Dr. Martin Luther King Drive . It was a Plymouth-Desoto dealer. In December 1949, my father purchased a brand new 1950 Desoto Custom 4 door sedan. He drove that car until July 1957, when he traded it in for a 1957 Chevy 210. I remember the Saturday before Easter in 1957 when my father took the entire family plus his two parents for a ride in the Desoto. As we sat waiting for the stoplight to change at the corner of Page and Sutter (in Wellston), the car vapor locked. All we could do was sit there, and wait for the vapor lock to “unlock”.
When my father passed away in 1989 and we were going through some of his old papers, we came across a repair bill from O’Leary McClintock Motors for his 1952 Desoto. The bill was for 4 hours of transmission work (the car had a semi-automatic transmission). The total cost was $35. The last time I looked in that box I didn’t see the repair ticket. As nearly as I can figure out my mother may have cleaned out the box and threw it away.
Post from Wayne R.(8/21/2008)
Can you believe this Dave.
I (Wayne R.) just sent you some memories of Saint Louis, and here it is 10 minutes later, and I'm ready to send you another one.
I just read Patsy's post from earlier this week. She said that she grew up at 6136 Plymouth. From 1952 to 1960 my father owned a business (shampoo manufacturer) about one block away from there at 6118 Gambleton. His front door was practically right at the street car tracks. Looking in the other direction, you could see the intersection at Gambleton and Hodiamont.
When I was growing up in high school I had a friend who lived in the 6500 block of Avalon in the eastern end of University City. I recall him once telling me that the house he grew up in until the age of 6 was in the 6100 block of Plymouth. So depending on what year Patsy lived there, he may have been one of her neighbors.
I agree with Patsy that the original Fitz's had great sauce for their hamburgers. But another place that had great sauce was Hamburger Heaven, at the corner of Olive St Rd. and Pennsylvania in University City. I lived right down the street from there.
Post from Gloria (8/21/2008)
Reading the last four or five post got me to thinking about the St. Louis Street Cars, I can remember walking down Maple Ave. to get to the street car line. In order to do this I had to climb an steep embankment, cross the train tracks and then down the embankment on the other side to get to Hodamont street car, I always remember the weather being warm.
My question is, where the street cars heated in the winter?
Post from Dave Brownell, Atlanta, GA (8/21/2008)
Regarding the question about streetcars being heated in the winter: Yes, the PCC-versions of the streetcars St. Louis Public Transit operated in St. Louis (until 1966) were heated. They had perimeter electric heat around the sides, near the floor, and booster fans under a few of the seats. They did a great job when it was cold, but only one street car experimented with air conditioning (it did not work out well) to deal with the heat and humidity of a St. Louis summer. Perhaps this was one more reason for some of these beautiful streetcars to go away to San Francisco and Guadalajara, Mexico. St. Louis Car Company, in Baden, was once the world's largest fabricator of street and subway cars. They built their last streetcar in 1952, and it is still in daily service in San Francisco. Their motto "The Quality Shops" said it all.
The older Peter Witt streetcars, also built by St. Louis Car Company, in the mid-1920s, used electric heat, along with the drive motors, taken straight from that one trolley wire above the tracks. These were the cars with the cane-type seats, that would leave marks on your bare legs after a block's ride. The heater boxes were under those seats, too. Those cars were mostly retired by 1952. No fairy tale ending with those. Most every one of them was scrapped.
Post from unknown (8/22/2008)
With people talking about the Streetcars, it makes me so glad that I can actually remember riding them. I was born in 1953. We lived in Wellston and later Tower Grove Heights. I can clearly recall riding the streetcars with my Mom. I have lived in Michigan for many years and am always astonished when talking with others my age how many of them never knew the joy of riding a street car or the old passenger trains (AMTRAC doesn't count!) Every June a few days after school let out, Mom took my sister and I to Union Station and put us aboard the passenger train bound for Corning, Ark. to spend a few weeks with our Grandparents and Cousins. I clearly recall the clean, white linens placed over each headrest….the Porters with their boxes of apples and sandwiches and the way my Grandfather would always be waiting at the Station in Corning to pick us up. Mom never worried. She knew we were safe on that train and the Porters and Conductors always promised her they'd get us there safely. Can you imagine doing that today? Mom stayed in the City to work and would join us a few weeks later. We always headed home at night..not sure why. Gramps would take us to the Station in Corning and wave a lantern so the train would know to stop since Corning wasn't a regular stop. I will never forget those wonderful times and I'm so grateful to carry the memories.
Oh, does anyone remember the Three Sister's Shop in Wellston? I can still remember the beautiful mosaic in front of the door. It was Three Sisters in Profile. Anyone else remember that?
Post from Wayne R (8/22/2008)
A few more memories I have of St. Louis:
Going to the evening concerts outside of Heman Park Swimming Pool. Afterwards, I walked from one end of the park to the other alone in the pitch dark. Imagine doing that today!
Watching movies and cartoons at the Varisty Theater in the Delmar Loop.
Eating the best Chinese Food I've ever tasted at Shanghi, in the Delmar Loop. (I believe they closed sometime around 1960.)
Does anyone remember Embassy Bowling Lanes on Ferguson Road? I believe it has been an empty building, since it closed in 1984.
Or how about Nor Lakes Golf Course, near Dellwood. I played my first round of golf there in 1963. They closed around 1970, and were replaced with a housing development.
Like so many other readers, I remember the Hodiamont strretcar. One of the Hodiamont srttecars is now on display at the Museum of Transportation. And when I tried to tell some of the Museum's employees that this streetcar ran in Saint Louis, they did not believe me!
Speaking of streetcars---Have any of you read the book, Saint Louis Streetcars by Mark Goldfedder? Very good book for anyone who is interested in this. I knew Mark back in grade school and high school.
Post from Gloria (9/1/2008)
In response to Wayne R. 8-22-2008:
It seems like the world gets smaller and smaller everyday. I would save my lunch money and just as soon as Mercy High School let out I'd rush over to Hamburger Heaven and get a hamburger and eat it on the walk home from Mercy.
If you lived down the street from HH can I assume you live on Pennsylvania? My father use to deliver mail in that area. If I remember correctly there was a contestant from the 64 thousand dollar quiz show who lived in that area also.
Was the Shanghai east of the Tivoli theater ?
My husband and I use to bowl at Embassy Bowling Alley for years. We were on a couples team on Sunday nights, the only couple I can remember is Ollie and Fran Fisher played in the same league..
I went to Mercy but graduated from Normandy, yesterday I our alumni paper came in the mail and there was a very interesting article on street cars and Mark Goldedder name was mention in that article also.
In response to Unknown 8-22-2008:
I have relatives who lived in Corning Arkansas, my neighbors grew up there also.
I remember Three Sistersdress shop.
Post from Sandy Krshul Robine - Warrenton, MO (9/1/2008)
Just a question. I posted my memories about 4 years ago. I do so enjoy reading the recent ones too. Keep up the good work Dave!!
In all the "memories" you have seen, do you remember seeing any telling what years the Heitman Dance Studio was in business. The owner/dance instructor's name was Henry Heitman. I took ballroom lessons from him at Bayless School in, approximately, 1960 or so. He would come to the school after school hours and teach ballroom dance. I also took ballroom lessons at his studio which was in a basement of one of the stores in Hampton Village. Also around that time.
He knew my dad but, as is the case so often now, my dad and everyone else that I could ask is in heaven.
My main memories (very fond ones) are of my grandparent's, and then my dad's, restaurant/tavern at 9012 Gravois in Affton. AL'S TAVERN. Our family business began in the 1930's and we sold it in 1967 to L.K. Wood. Dad also had a corner tavern at Spring and Wyoming during the 60's called THE KRSHULS.
Our former restaurant in Affton is now a Pasta House. It is fun to go there and tell folks about what it was like back in the day when we literally, lived there too. FYI, the ladies room was my bedroom!! hahaha
I would appreciate any info on the years Heitman had his dance studio.
Post from Unknown (9/1/2008)
I've enjoyed the heck out of this site! Thanks for the memories you've brought back!
For all of you North St. Louisans who have been begging for news from the old neighborhood, here goes!
I am not a native St. Louisan, didn’t attend school there, but my parents were. Our mother’s family lived in the 4400 block of Athlone Avenue, the second street from West Florissant and O’Fallon Park. Grandpa and Grandma owned our house and the one next door, which was a two-family flat. Their eldest daughter and her husband lived upstairs there for years and raised a family. Various family members lived downstairs over the years, including their son and family.
Our mother and her twin sister (born in 1909) attended Harrison Grade School and graduated from the first class of Beaumont High in 1927. I have the yearbook! I have a picture of Mom, her oldest sister, and nephew at what must be Fairgrounds pool during the Twenties. During the Twenties Mom and her twin would go on trips to Wright City with their “club” girls—a lifelong band of high school friends. One was an original Rockette. The last surviving member is 99 years old. When our mother married and moved away, the club would always hold a meeting when she was in town. Two of those great, loyal gals were among the last to see Mom before she died.
Mom and her twin, when they were smaller, used to go to the wading pool at O’Fallon Park. One day a terrific storm came up; the children were supposed to wait while cars were arranged to transport them home. Mom and her sister, fearing retribution, ran home, with trees crashing down behind them. They found they were to be punished for foolhardiness: no pool the rest of the summer.
Our grandmother had a black cleaning woman. One day she told Grandma she couldn’t come as she had no one to look after her daughter. Grandma said, “Bring her along; she can play with my two little girls.” After the adults left them alone, they looked each other up and down, as children did. Then the little black girl said, “I can bite you all till the blood comes!” She was alpha dog the rest of the day!
Our mother taught us songs she sang as a child: I don’t want to play in your yard/I don’t like you anymore/you’ll be sorry when you see me/sliding down my cellar door. And: Smarty, smarty, smarty/thought you had a party/don’t forget what the teacher taught/you’ll be sorry if you get caught/I’m going to have a party/and see if you don’t care/you’re nothing but a smarty pants, so there, there, there!
When Mom and her twin graduated from Beaumont, they attended a secretarial school. They were chosen to help answer the avalanche of mail Lindbergh received after his historic flight. I remembered that fact as she and I watched the Shuttle launch from the banks of the Indian River in Titusville, Florida.
Mother and her twin were at the Highlands once with an older sister. They were on, I believe, the Flying Turns—that bobsled-like ride that went roaring through a tunnel without a track! Their sister fainted in the middle of the ride. They had to prop her up between them; there was no stopping that thing!
Mother, her twin, and Daddy’s sister used to go to the O’Fallon Theatre on West Florissant for the free dishes.
Mother and her twin avidly read the Grace Harlowe series. Anyone else remember those? I have the original set—almost 100 years old. You used to be able to pick up an occasional one at the book fair at Famous Clayton parking lot—for 50 cents.
Our dad’s family lived various places—Palm Street, Shaw Avenue—before fetching up next door to our mother’s family. Daddy was born in 1903 and carried as a babe in arms to the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. He used to play on the old bear pits in Fairgrounds Park, after they moved the bears to the newly formed St. Louis Zoo in Forest Park. [A number of people have talked about the bear pits in Carondelet Park. I don’t know about that, but I have a picture of the ones in Fairgrounds in a book called St. Louis: Its Neighborhoods and Neighbors, Landmarks and Milestones by Robert E. Hannon, photographs by Jack Zehrt, 1986, published by the St. Louis Regional Commerce and Growth Association. And if you go on Google Earth and click on one of the little cameras close to the Natural Bridge/N. Grand intersection, you can see that distinctive building, looking like a castle with its crenelations.]
Our father, as a boy, went to take swimming lessons at the YMCA (the one on Grand, maybe?). He took his little swimming trunks, but they wouldn’t let him wear them. So he took his swimming trunks and went home! He never learned to swim. My sister says he swam like a stone!
Dad was a lifelong baseball fan. I remember his telling me the story of Grover Cleveland Alexander—old Pete—who pitched for the Cardinals in 1926. During the World Series that year between the Cards and the Yankees, old Pete had pitched two games already. Rogers Hornsby, the player/manager, told him he probably wouldn’t be needed again. So Pete went out and tied one on. Turns out the Cards did need him. Hornsby, with the bases loaded, walked out to the bullpen to look into Pete’s eyes. They seemed clear enough. So Pete stood on the mound, looked at first, second, and third. He said to himself, “There’s no room for this guy.” So he struck him out. Daddy told that story over the years, made it his own. It wasn’t until years later that I found out that game was played in New York! Daddy couldn’t have witnessed it; he could only have heard it on the radio. And when Ken Burns’ documentary Baseball ran on TV, I had tears pouring down my face as they related the story of old Pete. How Daddy would have loved that series.
Daddy’s mother was terrified of storms. She would hide under the bed. And, once, she called up Daddy at work, saying, “Ohhhhh, Brentie! It’s coming from the east and it’s coming from the west!” She and his whole family loved to play pinochle (good Germans!). In later years, when she was crippled with arthritis, she’d hold up her stiff, bent fingers and say, “I had this many of your trump, Freddie!”
Mother and Daddy married in the mid Thirties and for a time lived in the flat two doors down from Mother’s family and next door to Daddy’s. Daddy worked for Allied Chemical, then Barrett, from the age of 16. He started as an office boy and eventually became Traffic Manager. In the early Forties, Daddy was transferred to the New York office, thus making them the first of their families to leave St. Louis. My sister had been born in St. Louis, but I was born in New Jersey. Then, when I was two, Daddy was going to be sent to Ironton, Ohio. He went on ahead while our house in Kentucky was being built. Mom and I stayed with Grandma. My sister went to live with one of mother’s sisters and our cousin, so that her school year would not be interrupted. She and our cousin went to Herzog School.
But our parents never forgot their heritage. Every summer we would drive from Kentucky to St. Louis. Sometimes we’d take the trains (C & O to Cincinnati; B & O to St. Louis). We’d stay with our maternal grandmother, Grandpa (early on), and mother’s twin. Here’s what I remember from the late 1940’s to 1960:
Walking to Steinkamp’s Bakery on Rosalie at Clarence(?) for deep butter cake (25 cents) and cheesecake with raisins and cinnamon on top (20 cents)
The bells of Bethany Church (UCC) on Sunday morning and a smorgasbord there
The sound of a manual lawnmower
Closing the shutters and drapes in the morning where the sun was and reversing the process in the afternoon
The summer of 1954, 110 degrees, sitting in the basement with our feet in a large bucket of water, playing cards
Cowboy shows (Ken Maynard, Bob Steele, Cisco and Pancho, Hoppy) all morning long on Saturdays
The neighborhood markets—Thurman’s Confectionary at Athlone and Carter; Karl’s Grocery across the street at Carter and Athlone; Henry Neimeyer’s at Carter and Redbud; Cammer’s at Athlone and Rosalie (most of this from my sister!) My sister was always given braunschweiger and crackers at Karl’s.
Sitting around the back steps in the evenings, Mother and her sisters in their summer voiles, Daddy and the uncles smoking cigars, drinking beer (again, good Germans!), listening to Harry Caray broadcast the Cardinal game
Going to Sportsman’s Park with Daddy. Since he was a traffic manager, he’d get box seats from the B & O or N & W Railroads. Dizzy Dean sat in front of us one memorable game. He was broadcasting for Falstaff at the time, wouldn’t drink a Bud, and sent someone out of the park to bring him a Falstaff.
The funny mirrors at the Highlands
My very first cloverleaf at Chambers Rd. and Highway 67. I remember how strange it was to make two right turns to go left. One of our uncles completely rejected the Interstate system when it came into being. He knew every back alley and detour to avoid them. As far as I know he drove I-70 one time; he lived to be 89.
Hickory-smoked burgers at Redwood
Miss Hullings’ split layer cake
Scrubby Dutch women wearing housedresses, Oxfords, and white socks scrubbing their front porches every Saturday morning. And you were talked about if you didn’t!
My sister remembers having to mop the kitchen floor at our aunt’s house on Saturday, then covering the floor with newspapers so it would be “nice” for Sunday!
My sister remembers Grandma’s phone number: Goodfellow 5116
My grandmother’s expressions: “Send a goose, and you get a goose back.” “What you haven’t got in your head you have to have in your feet.” (When you’d be sent to the store and forget something.)
Going to Wright City on Sundays for fried chicken at Big Boy’s (?)
Anyone remember a TV show called “To the Ladies”? I can still hear their theme song.
Shopping areas on West Florissant near Warne Avenue. My sister says Woolworth’s was there. And Math Hermann Funeral Home where all of our family has been laid out since great-grandpa in 1918. Once, Mother’s twin was there for Mrs.______’s viewing. A woman who was a stranger to my aunt stood at the casket next to her. Then she said, to my aunt, “Well, she sure did me dirt!”
Phil the Gorilla spitting on me as a child. I don’t really remember this, only being told about it. A woman standing next to us shook her finger at him and said, “Oh, you mean, nasty thing!” Phil looked down his nose and spat on her, too!
Anyone remember, probably in the same building where a stuffed Phil was displayed, an elephant skull with a bullet hole in it? An elephant who had gone mad and attacked his keeper (NOT Miss Jim)
My sister and a female relative going shopping downtown, saying they had gone to Famous, Stix, Scruggs, but never found Grand Leader! (In later years Mother and her sisters decided maybe they should stop calling Stix “The Grand Leader” as it dated them!)
Grandma used to wear union suits. She “brushed her biters” with salt and baking soda. She loved Fritos and oranges and pie. She could harmonize.
Mother’s twin taking me to the Campbell House. We used to play Canasta. She always won and she always took the stack!
Mother’s sister would always take me out to eat or to a movie when we came to St. Louis. We’d take the Grand Avenue bus home at 10:00 p.m. and think nothing of it.
Our aunt’s dogs: Dolly, the Pomeranian and Daisy and Heidi, both dachshunds
Mother and her twin shared a cat, named Fluffy. Her twin gave her to mother when our family moved to New Jersey, surely a selfless act. Fluffy lived to be 18.
Wasn’t there a dance hall at Chain of Rocks park? Everyone danced, children too.
Grandpa going to bed with the chickens since he had to be up at 2:30 a.m. to go to his store on Produce Row (now I-70)
Walking to my paternal grandmother’s, at Newstead and Anderson, to play Canasta (apartment building still there)
Walking to the Aunties’, Grandma’s maiden sisters, on Redbud. They had a canary. And despite numerous male relatives in the area, they always saved up their “honey-dos” for Brentie, my father, when he was in town.
Bowman Methodist Church and Miss Lillie, singing, “Old Bowman is the school we love, the school we love, the school we love each Sunday morn.” An ice cream social there
One of the Auntie’s mahogany devil’s food cake
Watching the political conventions on TV when the outcome was a surprise
My aunt and I taking Dolly, the Pomeranian, around the block each night and stopping at the Confectionary. Mr. Thurman would give me six scoops for a dime!
Tom and Jerry puppets I had. A cousin, six years younger, and I used to play “Hide Puppets” in Grandma’s back yard. There were lots of hiding places: the goldfish pond, filled with dirt and planted with pansies and something called moss; the ash pit planted with petunias; and the ivy-covered stable/garage.
Daddy used to drive us to St. Louis in the summer, then drive back to Kentucky and go back to work. He would drive back again, take the rest of his vacation, and drive us home. Once I was told he was coming the following day. I insisted he was coming that day and parked myself on Grandma’s back steps. Sure enough, he came from the alley through the next yard; he had driven all night. One of the thrills of my life.
A pair of ducks my uncle gave me one memorable summer. I kept them in a huge tub of water. My sister says her early memories of me always involved a pail of water of some kind. I was either washing a porch or watering flowerbeds. Or standing in the pail!
We would travel from Kentucky over Highway 52 to Cincinnati, then 50 to St. Louis. We always stopped at the old stagecoach stop near Xenia, Illinois. It was called the Old Halfway Tavern, because it was halfway between Vincennes and St. Louis. Built in 1818. I have a picture of my children as toddlers in front of it in the early Seventies. Anyone know if it’s still there? And we always stopped at the motel in Lawrenceville, Illinois.
Several of you mentioned cottages on the Big River. We had a clubhouse in, I believe, Rivermont Estates and used to drive to a sandy beach on the Big River to swim. It was the last house on the road, and from the top of the hill to our place was gravel. My sister and I had to be pulled up that hill one winter night by a truck or tractor and a chain. The house had an outhouse, was wired for electricity, but had no running water! There was a living room, a bedroom, and a big screened porch. We had to take our water with us, and all the years we owned it could never get on the well. There was an icebox on the screened porch, and we stopped in House Springs for a big block of ice. Anyone remember the huge swimming pool in House Springs? Fed by spring water? It was cold. Mother’s twin and another sister and her husband owned it jointly; I believe they paid $1000 for it in the Fifties. That was back when “down on the Gravois” was the back of beyond.
Seeing a revival of Gone With the Wind at the Fox about 1960. I got up to leave at intermission—thought that was the end!
When we moved to Kentucky, my sister went to her friend’s house, stood outside in the grand tradition of St. Louis, and hollered, “Oh, Dixie!” Dixie stuck her head out of an upstairs window and said, “Dixie’s here, but ‘Oh’ isn’t!”
In later years, after Daddy retired, my parents moved back to St. Louis where they could be near their families. I was at Deaconess at the time. The old home had been sold and the move made to Spanish Lake. We started losing the older generation, but Mom and Daddy had their siblings and nieces and nephews. Later Mom and Daddy moved into an apartment. Mother woke up one morning to find no morning Globe and to learn that Kroger’s was closing all over the north county. She thought the world was coming to an end! Wonder what she and her sisters would think about no Stix or Famous. And Anheuser-Busch!
Mother and her twin enjoyed antiquing and shopping. They loved to eat lunch out—not at fancy places. They knew which dime store had the best piece of pie. And they enjoyed the club girls still living in the St. Louis area. Daddy played golf at Berry Hill Golf Course on Fifi Road and North Shore on Riverview. He came home all excited one day saying, “Would you like to shake the hand that shook the hand of Mike Shannon?” Mother and I both said, “Who’s Mike Shannon?” It burst his bubble!
When I was at Deaconess in the early Sixties we spent a lot of time at the dances on Saturday night at the VFW hall in St. Libory, IL. We ate pizza at Marietta’s on the street behind Deaconess. We spent a lot of time at Forest Park. Remember Siegfried the Walrus? When he got sick there were numerous get well cards taped to the window of his tank.
While I was home for summers from college in Kentucky (Go Wildcats!), I met my future husband. We went all over St. Louis: the Muny, the ballpark, the Admiral. We would end some dates at a hotel lounge which had carriages you could sit in while having a drink. The Hilton, maybe? Anyone remember? My husband has no recollection of this place. Says it must have been the other guy! We also saw “The Drunkard” on the Goldenrod Showboat. I still have an album by the St. Louis Ragtimers. And we rang in the New Year at the Zodiac Room at the top of the Chase.
Well, we’ve lived in Florida for forty years now, but when I need to go to a quiet place, I picture Athlone Avenue in the Fifties with my grandparents, aunts and uncles, parents, sister, cousins. You can’t go back for real, and in some ways you wouldn’t want to. Society was rather rigid back then. Women could be either nurses, secretaries, or schoolteachers. Or homemakers. We had polio. No air-conditioning. But it was a simpler way of life.
When I return to the St. Louis area now to visit my sister, there are three things I must have to eat: deep butter cake, liver sausage, and frozen custard. When my husband and I went to Germany in 2001, I was so disappointed to go into a bakery there and ask for butter cake. They looked at me blankly. Guess that’s a St. Louis thing. And would someone open a Culver’s down here, please?
If you want some real nostalgia, go to Chesterfield and ride on the restored Highlands carousel. The clang of the calliope will bring it all back!
I’ve rattled on long enough. Thanks, Dave, for letting me reminisce.
Post from Unknown (9/1/2008)
I remember going to Forest Park Highlands for our Adams School picknic. Fishing in the lakes of Forest Park in the summer vacations. My friends and I stopped at Walsh Stadium one fall evening in 1948 and saw Babe Ruth as the guest peaker introducing the 1949 Fords. As we approced Mr Ruth The men in charge asked if we wanted to shake his hand. We did shake his hands, He died not much longer after that. We caddied allot at Forest Park in the 18 hole and 9 hole golf course. Going to the Art museum and the Solders Memorable. Seeing Phil the goralla at the St.Louis Zoo.
Post from Patsy L. (9/4/2008)
Re: Wayne R. post 8/21/08
I remember the business' on Gambleton next to the Hodiamont streetcar tracks, not perse, except one. Mothers cousin owned a bronze store. They bronzed baby shoes. That was popular for years, but like most things, went the way of the "Admiral" , just disappeared (or did it?). Someone told me, they thought it had been moved to New Orleans. I had a lot of fun on that boat when I was growing up.The cousins bronze store faced Hodiamont, and was a few doors down from Gambleton. I dont remember your Fathers shampoo business. You said it was 1952-1960. I moved from Plymouth in July 1955 to Calif. We arrived July 17, 1955, the day Disneyland opened.
Re: Your friend on Avalon in U City. He didnt move far. Where Plymouth dead ended, U City began. I was a baby when we moved to Plymouth, and was almost 17 when we left for Ca.
I still miss St Louis, particularly at Christmas Time.
Post from Unknown (9/4/2008)
To Gloria 9-1-2008…..I was so surprised to read that you even knew where Corning was much less had people there! How I'd love to talk to you about Corning and see if we knew anyone in common. As small as Corning is/was, surely we must have known some of the same people. My family were the Robertsons. I spent every Summer of my life there from 1957 through 1967. By then, Granny was gone and we were teenagers. Some of my best memories take place in Corning. Jimmy's Drive-In was the place to be. I remember I heard the song "The Letter" there for the very first time in 1966. To this day, whenever I hear that song, it takes me right back to Jimmy's and Corning.
Post from Wayne R.(9/4/2008)
in response to Gloria (9/1/08):
You asked if I lived on Pennsylvania . No, but you’re very close. I lived on Roth Avenue , which was one block east of Pennsylvania . Standing in my back yard you could see Hamburger Heaven, Dairy Queen, the fire station, and Mercy High School. My next door neighbor was Saint Louis County Sheriff Arthur Mosley. (He passed away in 1967.)
I did, however, know four different families who all lived in the 1000 block of Pennsylvania . Which was the same block as Hamburger Heaven.
I attended University City High School , although I knew quite a few people who attended Mercy High School . One of those people graduated in 1961, and is still a good friend of mine today. Although most of the people who I knew that attended Mercy were a little younger than that.
As to whether Shanghai was east or west of the Tivoli Theater---I’m not really sure. I believe it was in the very same block and on the same side of the street as the Tivoli Theater. But whether it was on the east side or the west side is something that I don’t recall for sure.
Speaking of Delmar, here is a trivia question for you. How many businesses or individuals can you name who live in the 6400 block of Delmar? I’ll save you the trouble of looking it up in a Cross Reference Directory. The answer is none. For reasons that I don’t know, the buildings on Delmar skip from the 6300 block to the 6500 block. Not sure what happened to the 6400 block.
I bowled quite a bit at Embassy Lanes from 1960 to 1968. Both open play, and on the Saturday Afternoon Junior Leagues. I was carrying around a 140 average during the last year that I bowled on the league. (Bowling averages in those days were quite a bit lower than they are today. Probably due to improved bowling balls, better lane conditions, livelier bowling pins etc. That’s really a topic of its own.) Don’t remember Ollie or Fran Fisher. At least not by name. There were a lot of bowlers at the house who I knew only by sight. Do you remember when Bernie Marcus , who was the house manager? Or Lou and Natalie Soupic who owned the bowling alley? (Not sure about the spelling on that last name.) How about their candy machine with the “guess what” selection?
Curiously, Mark Goldfedder lived right down the street from Embassy Lanes. He actually graduated form University City High School . His father owned the Wellston Fisheries Store on Saint Charles Rock Road . As I recall, it was actually located in Pagedale, even though the word “Wellston” was in the business name.
Going back to Hamburger Heaven, here is some trivia about them. Hamburger Heaven closed in 1973. Twelve years later in 1985, the owner sold the name and his recipes to a former neighbor, who reopened Hamburger Heaven in Chesterfield Mall. The business operated there until 1995, when it closed up. Their food was good, but not quite as good as the original Hamburger Heaven.
Although I don’t know this for certain, I was once told the original Hamburger Heaven’s sauce was a mixture of Maulls Barbecue Sauce with some brown sugar mixed in. The person who told me this never worked at Hamburger Heaven, so I can’t vouch for how accurate his information was.
I’ll tell you a funny story about Hamburger Heaven. You know how some people are know it alls? They think that they know more than everyone else on any subject. A lady who was the wife of one of my co-workers was that way.
One Saturday in March 1990, this lady, her husband, another one of my co-workers, and I went shopping at Chesterfield Mall. This lady suggested that we eat lunch at Hamburger Heaven. As we were walking to that part of the mall the lady said, “I’m going to tell all of you about this place called Hamburger Heaven where we will be eating lunch.” I said, “Wait a minute. I lived across street from Hamburger Heaven from 1955 to 1973. I knew the original owner, and I know the story behind how they happened to come to Chesterfield Mall. So how about if I tell you about Hamburger Heaven.” When I got done talking the lady had to admit that I did know a lot more about Hamburger Heaven than she did.
Post from Nancy Hawkins (9/4/2008)
I was wondering if there is any way of finding the name of a restaurant that had as one of their specialties Green Goddess Salad. We visited the restaurant during the 1960s and it was located on Page Avenue in St. Louis.
I love reading about St. Louis memories. That's where I grew up and it sure brings back lots of things I had forgotten.
Post from Paulette (Manning) MacDougall (9/12/2008)
Believe it not I stumbled upon your website and the tumbling list of memories doing a web search for “Grandpa Pigeons” (sp?). Does anyone remember that store?
I was born in St Louis but my parents moved “across the river” to Illinois, first East St Louis and then Collinsville where I grew up from the age of 10.
Both my parents are from St. Louis but my dad grew up in the city of St. Louis. His parents rented many apartments, mostly on “the hill” (which isn’t what they called it back then!). My parents rented their own first apartment on the “Hill,” which is when/where I was born (on Daggett Avenue).
I remember taking walks down streets lined with brick houses and wire-metal fences and fancy little gates. According to my Aunt Boots (Beaulah), I liked to shut the open ones as we passed along and announce that I had done so.
I remember the smell of yeasty pizza dough and bakery goods and that EVERYONE went to the bakery after mass.
I remember visiting my grandparents house where everyone played cards, smoked cigarettes and drank beer and the occasional high ball.
I remember my Aunt Pat working at the White Castle where we sometimes drove to buy little white bags full of burgers they brought back to the house and all the kids circled the table to see the commotion and grab a tiny little burger with soggy fries
I remember my grandpa and my dad drinking out of a beer bucket at taverns or beer gardens and us kids going with them where we drank soda, shared potato chips and played the juke box
I remember when they built the arch and my dad got really mad at Mayor Cervantes for wasting our taxes on a really stupid idea
I remember people calling other people "hoosiers" and they weren't talking about people from Indiana or their basketball team. Does anyone else remember that?
I remember going to see the Cardinals with my CYO group (Catholic Youth Organization) and sweating to death just so I could drool over the cute president of the CYO
I remember when the Cardinals won the world series and the nuns were so excited they brought in televisions so the class could watch the final game
I remember Sister Gregory getting very mad because the Cardinals wasted (vs drinking) all that champaign when they won and poured full bottles over their heads
I remember Catholic school parades and picnics with cordoned off sections for a “beer garden” where the priests joined the parishioners to drink beer in metal pails or glass mugs (and noticed the nuns were never there)
I remember all the german food my grandmother made when we grew up. Cabbage, kielbasa and sauerkraut. I was never sure if we ate Irish food but know we ate lots of navy beans with ham hocks and pot roast with mashed potatoes and gravy. And that my grandmother on my mother’s side grew her own vegetables, canned her own tomatoes and made her biscuits from scratch.
I remember eating braunschweiger sandwiches on Saturdays or after church topped with mustard and onions while hearing stories of how much my Grandpa Mueller used to love limburger cheese and onion sandwiches that stunk to high heaven
I remember lots of Italian food even though we weren’t Italian (!) because so many people in our family married Italians or most of our neighbors and friends were Italian! We ate so much Mostoccioli at family gatherings my brothers hate it to this day (but it was cheap, filled you up and we all had huge families!).
I remember my dad telling me about the origin of cork ball which he played as an adult with long skinny bats and what looked like golf-balls in a big fenced-in cage (vs. sticks and bottle caps with a group of boys in an alley).
I remember riding the bus downtown with my grandma to shop for a winter coat, where we ate lunch at a department store restaurant or a Woolworths counter and came back with fancy shopping bags that had handles on them. And going to bed with a stomach ache from gorging myself on bags of candy corns or orange marshmallow treats.
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The memories you’ve collected on this site have touched so many people and stirred so many more memories. Thank you for inspiring me to write this down!
Post from Unknown (9/12/2008)
To Nancy Hawkins, would that have been the Blue Top Restaurant? I remember my dad always talking about it because that's where they would go after their union meetings!
Post from Wayne R (9/12/2008)
concerning Paulette's post of 9/12/2008:
I just read your post where you said that you lived on Daggett. I never lived on The Hill myself, but my Great Aunt and Uncle (on my mother's side) lived in the 5100 block of Daggett. They later moved a few blocks away to Elizabeth Avenue . They were close friends with the lady who owned Leona's Market on Daggett.
Post from John Sullivan -
Humboldt County, California (9/13/2008)
I remember blackouts during the war—my father was an air raid
warden. His gas mask was in the attic for years. Going to the school
auditorium to watch war newsreels. The frenzy of horn honking when
the war ended.
I remember Babe Ruth Day at Sportsman's Park in 1948, sponsored by
the American Legion. Kids got in free. The dying slugger told us,
"Baseball is a good game for boys because it teaches good
sportsmanship." Then DiMaggio and the Yankees clobbered our hapless
Browns, as usual. I remember the Knothole Gang. Colorful Cardinals
like Whitey Kurowski and Red Munger.
Playing run-ups and wiffle ball 'til there was no grass left in our
yard. Compton lot and Hodgen playground. Playing step ball. Running
out into Henrietta Street to provoke the car with the funny OOGA OOGA
horn.
I remember my grandfather's classy two-tone '46 Chevrolet. I could
identify any car, by make and year. When Grandpa showed his home
movies in our back yard, the neighbors brought chairs onto their back
porch to enjoy the free show! Grandpa also had a "magic lantern"
that could project images onto a screen.
QUIZDOWN on the radio. Frank Eschen, John Roedel, Roberta Quinlan,
Texas Bruce, Ernie Heldman, Marlon Perkins on TV. Davy "The Nose"
Bold and Gaslight Square. "Hot Rod" Moore. Playing card games like
"Authors" and "Old Maid." Looking at faraway places through Tru Vue
stereo glasses. I remember when the POST-DISPATCH comic section came
out in COLOR—on weekdays! Amadee's cartoons on the sports page.
Classes at the People's Art Center. Mowing lawns for a quarter.
Riding the Southampton street car. Riding my bike in South St. Louis.
The Mid-America Jubilee in 1956. Chocolate malts at the Velvet
Freeze. Big Bevo sandwiches. The heat and the humidity. Picnics at
Blanchette Park in St. Charles. What a park! School picnics at Westlake.
Post from Unknown (9/18/2008)
The pool on south Broadway was Down's. The roller rink had the same name.
Here are just a few more of the wonderful things I remember.
Tuesday night movies at the Melvin Theater on Chippewa.
Dances held at Tower Grove Park sponsored by a local radio station. Everybody came.
The Comet at Forest Park Highlands.
Onion soup at Famous Barr.
Sunday afternoons at the fabulous Fox.
Teen towns all over south St. Louis. Some with DJ's and some with local bands.
Ted Drew's ice cream.
Toasted ravioli.
High school football games (go Rough Riders).
Sitting on the front porch talking to friends until very late on a summer night.
Putting $1 (sometimes less) in a car and riding around for hours.
Learning the dances from bandstand. And Bob & Justine being the most popular.
Dick Clark.
The original Micky Mouse Club.
Spin & Marty.
Hula hoops.
Post from Patricia Patton, nee Corey(9/18/2008)
I used to live on 1909 Hebert St. and went to Ames School. The house we lived in is long gone, bu Oh what wonderful memories I have. I haven't
had a chance to read all the letters that others are sending with their memories, but I have enjoyed the ones I have read so far.
I was so tickled to find your sight.
I'm still looking for someone that would remember the circular's that were at Stroutmen's Park, I'm sure I'm not the only one that remembers them. I loved playing on them.
I had a friend that lived across from Bremen Park. but I just can't recall the name of the Street. The family's name was Prusick. (I think I spelled
it right ?) I wonder if it was in the phone book ??
I still think of the hot fudge sundae's from Crowns on St. Louis Ave. My niece still goes there a couple times a year with her family.
Well thanks again for creating this site. It's great. I'll be back again real soon.
Post from Dave Lossos (9/24/2008)
I was recently contacted by a Production intern at KETC Channel 9 – St. Louis Public Television. They are planning an episode for airing next February that will mark the 50th anniversary of the devastating St. Louis tornado on February 10, 1959. He is looking for people that remembers the tornado, or was personally affected by it in some way. If you have a personal story to share send to Dave Lossos , and I will pass it on.
Post from Wayne (9/24/2008)
From Wayne R to Nancy Hawkins post of 9/12/08:
I believe the response of the Blue Top was accurate. According to the Saint Louis Post Dispatch Archives there was an article on May 20, 2000, which said that The Blue Top Supper Club was located on Page Blvd and sold green goddess salads.
It didn't say what block of Page this was on. Page was a very long street. But I vaguely remember a restaurant like that around the 9700 block of Page, near the Federal Government Record Center.
Post from Wayne (9/24/2008)
I'l like to follow up on some qustions and discussions that took place earlier this month. The following information was found in the 1959 Saint Louis County Cross Reference directory:
The question was raised as to whether the Shanghai Restaurant in the Delmar Loop was east or west of the Tivoli and Varsity Theaters. Shanghai was located at 6312 Delmar. The Varsity Theater was located at 6610 Delmar. The Tivoli Theater was (and I believe still is) located at 6348 Delmar. So the Shanghai Restaurant was several doors east of the Tivoli Theater, and a couple blocks east of the Varsity Theater.
Also, there was some discussion about the Blue Top Supper Club Restaurant on Page, which served a really good Greek Goddess Salad. This was located at 9800 Page. In my last post I guessed that it was somewhere around the 9700 block of Page, so I didn't miss it by too much.
Post from ME in VA (9/27/2008)
In answer to the writer who asked about the mosaic of the three women at the entrance of the Three Sisiters store in Wellston. I remember it well. I remember Wellston very well although I do not remember the street names. Every Saturday our family would walk from our home on Wabada up to Wellston.
The library was on the corner. During the summer our names would be on display in the window for reading books. Albert's, another department store, had a picture window on the second floor. A bridal party was always on display in that window. I remember the Penny's store. It had a very large restaurant on the lower floor. There was also a Kreesge's store that served the best barbequed beef sandwiches. Kreesge's also had balloons at the soda fountain that had different price tags in them. The waitress would pop a balloon and the customer would pay the price on the tag. Walgreen's in Wellston had the best chocolate sodas.
The two movies were the Victory and the Wellston. I saw the Audie Murphy movie, To Hell and Back when I was about 7 at the Victory. His medals were on display in the lobby. The Victory also gave away cowboy dishes at the Saturday matinees.
There was also a dance school, Joy Smythe Dance Studio in Wellston. The Wellston loop also had a very big Katz Drug Store with a revolving neon cat on the roof. Koob's Bakery was also in the loop.
Across from the loop was Floyd Heckle florist. Floyd Heckle, Jr. went to Notre Dame in Wellston. He was a year ahead of me.
Throughout Wellston there were tamale and popcorn carts.
It was especially exciting to go to Wellston at Christmas time and see the decorations.
Halloween was also fun because all the store windows were painted.
Is anyone else out there from Wellston or Notre Dame?
Post from Gloria (9/27/2008)
In response to Wayne on 09-24-2008:
I agree the only restaurant I remember was the Blue Top, if I remember correctly it was owned by E.J.Sloan and his brother in law Carl Roth, with their other business right across the street Sloan's Mayflower moving and storage, plus a parcel delivery company that was originally on Hodamont and Olive Street Road.
I think the restaurant was round and just west of it was the Holiday drive in.
In response to Dave:
I lived in Hanley Hills in 1959, how I found out about the tornado was a phone call from my grandparents in New York calling to see if we were ok. A few days later my parents drove down to where the tornado had done the most damage, it was unreal.
My parents gave some of our clothes, shoes and coats to a church in that area. My sister had this beautiful coat she had gotten one Christmas, since we were a hand me down family I knew that in two years that coat would be mine, at the time of the tornado the coat was too small for my sister and still too big for me to wear, but I had plans of where I would wear that coat the first time it would be mine.
While packing the clothes for the tornado victims my mother went to the closet and brought out the "coat of all coats" as she pass by my room she looked in and said "sorry". It was like a flash of lightening, I had to watch my dream coat be packed in a cardboard box, the coat I was going to wear on my first date, (at the time of the tornado I wasn't old enough to date) with a white silk scarf and white gloves and my date would take me to the Fox, where a photographer would take my picture then hand me an envelope to send in to get a copy of the picture of me in my grand coat. I looked at my mom and smiled and said that's OK.
Post from Wayne R.(9/27/2008)
I do remember the tornado which hit Saint Louis on February 10, 1959. I was in the third grade at the time, and had been off sick from school for a few days. I remember that evening the Weather Bureau had issued a tornado watch for the Saint Louis Area. I was listening to Perry Como’s song “Tomboy”, when they interrupted the broadcast to mention the weather advisory.
When I woke up the next morning I turned on the radio, and here is what I heard. Later during the previous evening the US Weather Bureau had given the all clear signal, and stated that the danger was over. Less than 20 minutes later a tornado touched down and skipped around various parts of the City and County, doing very heavy damage.
The following day’s newspaper was almost exclusively pictures of the wreckage, along with names of people who had died. I believe it was 21 people in total. The newspaper photographs looked like a war zone that had been hit with bombs. Easton Avenue (which is now Dr. Martin Luther King Drive ) had homes that were almost totally demolished for several blocks. And these were heavy brick homes. The tornado also did substantial damage to quite a few homes nearby on East Prairie Avenue . Quite away in the other direction near Brentwood Blvd. the tornado knocked down a building that was a service station crushing a parked 1956 Mercury. And as most people know, the Channel 2 tower was knocked down.
The tornado did not come close to the street where I lived. So neither I nor any of my classmates were directly affected. But it is an incident that I will never forget.
Post from Wayne R. (9/27/2008)
to Paulette's Post:
If you lived on Daggett did you by any chance remember a restaurant named Cassanis? They were located on Daggett right down the street from Rigazzis. Cassanis was open from the 1950's through the late 1970's. They had the best barbecue beef I've ever tasted in my life. And it was priced very cheap! In the late 1970's the name of the restaurant was changed to Galimbertis. But the menu was essentially the same. In 1990 the restaurant close down, and was essentially an empty building for about 15 years. There is now another restaurant in the building, but it is totally unrelated to Cassanis or Galimbertis. And they don't sell barbecue beef.
Post from Alan Wilson (9/29/2008)
I,too, remember the Blu-Top restaurant on Page. Our neighbors frequented the restaurant often and, in time, my parents, then my sibs and I joined them. The blu-top was round, and had a series of sharp gables that eminated from a central point. The roof was, of course, a bright blue. Hence, the name. My mother was a fairly successful Avon rep. and I remember the Sloan delivery trucks bring her orders. My sister, and sometimes, I, if I couldn't make m'self scarce at the time, would unpack the large boxes and set about building the individual orders.
I vaguely remember the tornado of 1959. being out in the county, I never saw the damage 1st hand. I do remember the tornado of January, 1967. It was unusually warm for January, and, by late afternonn, the sky was growing darker, much earlier than the usual january skies. The usual thunder, lighning and heavy rain. Suddenly it all stopped and at that time, my brother stated he could smell sulphur. we ran to the yard and looking in the direction of Maryland Heights, could see the wall cloud settling in across the landscape. not really saw a funnel, but we knew what it meant. The next morning, my brother and I accompanied our father in retreiving his car, which he had left in St. ann. to travel with a colleague to a meeeting, downtown. Amazing damage, we found Dad's Pontiac. There was one entire frame wall draped over the car, with an intact window, still hoding the window air conditioner. Dad got into that car, and stated it up, then slowly backed it from beneath the wall and other debris, all the while, a St. Ann patrolman watching. That storm unroofed the new Pattonville Jr. High school, and broke most of the windows in the old Pattonville High on St. Charles Rock rd. It took out a lot of the business district in St. Ann. Does anyone have any memories of this particualr tornado?
Post from ??? (9/29/2008)
To ME from VA 9-27-08…Thank you for sharing your memories of Wellston! I was thrilled that you remembered the mosaic of the Three Sisters. I sure enjoyed your very vivid memories of Wellston at that time and it brought back several of my own. I know to look at it today, some might find it hard to believe that Wellston was once a beautiful, SAFE area to live and shop. It's sad to see what it has become. I have such great memories of Trick or Treating as a kid and feeling just as safe as can be. We kids walked to each other's houses and to school with no fears of any danger. Your memory of the balloons with the price tags in them nearly made me cry. I can recall begging my Mom to let me pop a balloon to see if I could win a free banana split! What sweet, sweet times those were.
Post from Diane G (10/3/2008)
Thanks, Dave. This is great.
Those were the days alright. We first lived in Hillsdale on Edmund Avenue. Went to McKinley Grade School. Did anyone else actually walk to Wellston on the street car tracks? The worst my sister and I ever encountered was what we referred to as a "wino." They never bothered us though. Kresges Drug Store had great ice cream sandwiches made with waffles and neopolitan ice cream. How about the Wellston Loop and the Ramona Bus? There was a great bakery there. Can't remember the name right now. Wonderful gooey butter cake. Later moved to Pine Lawn. I took dance lessons at Duggers on Natural Bridge. Graduated from Normandy in 67...but dated a guy from U City and hung out with Mercy kids too. Had totally forgotten about Hamburger Heaven. Someone asked where Hollywood Mini Golf was. I could be wrong....but I think it was off Manchester near 270. We spent a lot of time at Hodges Roller Rink and Holiday Hill Amusement Park up near the airport. Someone asked about Rosemary Parino. I'm pretty sure she was in my class. I still live in St Louis...but not in touch with many Normandy people. I do get the school paper though. Any other Vikings out there living in South County?
Post from Bill Handy (10/3/2008)
Hi Dave, what a great site. So many memories as I read through the postings over the years.
Name is Bill Handy, born in 1935. Lived at 3926 McDonald in a four family flat. Phone LAclede 6194. Atttended Rose Fanning Grade School and then Southwest High after moving to 5500 Mardel. From 1945-50 my dad owned Certified Electric and Refrigeration at the corner of Chippewa and Sulphur. I worked Saturdays and summers at Meyer-Wyatt Mobil Station on the same corner.
I remember the Chili Parlor on Grand Ave. a block from Fanning where we were allowed to go for lunch if we didn't walk home.
I remember the Carpenter Branch Library where I got my first library card.
Riding Grand Ave. streetcar end to end and back just for fun and only a nickel.
The Ritz, Melba and Granada theaters.
Was very involved in St. Marks Episcopal Church Youth Group during HS years.
Hung out at Stake & Shake on Watson Rd.
Dad worked at Emerson Electric all during the war building belly turrets for B-17s. Was on his last deferrment when the war ended.
School Parade down Grand Ave. past St. Pius school and hear those kids taunting us about Fanning, Fanning run for your life, here comes Pius with a butcher knife"
Boarding the special yellow streetcars pulling a trailer car out to the Highlands for the picnic.
I could go on and on. So much has already been covered but I truly believe that we had something "special" growing up in St. Louis.
Interesting note, I visited Fanning School about four years ago. It is now a Middle School but except for lighting and air conditioning nothing has changed. The same beautiful wooden floors, original slate blackboards, the stained glass windows on the old kindergarten room. Even the same drinking fountains. I was so impressed. The then principal gave me the run of the building.
Now retired and living in deep South Texas. [email protected]
Post from Mary Ansel (10/4/2008)
Love your website! So many of those wonderful memories shared by your readers are mine as well. They generate a cozy, familiar vibe. I am a 67 yrs. young, born and raised St. Louisan, now transplanted to Michigan. Ya gotta love St. Louie, though, and I do! While I have not read all the blogs on the site, and certainly could have missed what I'm after, I'm looking for others who may have lived in Jefferson Barracks during the post-WWII years. The military post was decommissioned and became a low-cost housing venue for those having difficulty finding homes after the war. My family lived there from 1947, until 1954, when we bought a home in Richmond Hgts. Those were happy years for me, but most of my photos are of the inside of our unit and outside in the yard. I would love to know of anyone who lived there, at any time, and would be willing to share copies of photos of the barracks in general, or even their little corner of it. Please keep up this wonderful montage of yesteryear, and...thank you! [email protected]
Post from Carol (10/7/2008)
In regard to Wellston, I knew Wellston well and I lived far away in south St. Louis on Grand Avenue. I had a friend who lived on Wabada Avenue, wondering if M.E. from Virginia knew the family. They were the Kohler family. They went to the parochial school. They lived on a corner, across the street from a bakery. I used to take the bus from Cleveland high school up to the Wellston loop and then walk to Wabada. Margie and I would go to basketball games. Wellston was a wonderful shopping area, and I have been to the movie theaters as well. I loved the Three Sisters store.
Post from Bill Handy (10/8/2008)
I have read, I think, just about all the postings that have been made over the years. I have seen a couple of names that I think I went to school with at Southwest High, Ed Wickline and Tony Meglio.
Lot's of mention of sledding at Art Hill. Sledding? That was our favorite place to go "park" and "neck". Maybe that is a version of sledding. And maybe we might have done a little or even maybe a lot more of that at Francis Park too, Lot's of bushes to hide in as I remember but then that was a long long time ago,
Finally saw a mention of Sylvan Beach, also a favorite hangout of our bunch.
Remember the layout of the hopschotch courts at school? Much different than any place in the country I have ever seen except in St. Louis.
Yes, I remember the wading pool at Fanning school, and the playground, and the dirt area around the trees where we played marbles at recess, and throwing .22 shells at the iron doors in the school yard seeing if they would go off.
The Pretzel Man at the corner waiting until we got out of class.
Smoking cigars (don't know whether bought or stolen) in someone's ashpit and getting rather green.
Scounging for soda bottles.
And Hits or Cracks from Camel Cigarette Packs? Couldn't believe that anyone would ever remember that except me.
Sitting in the back of the steetcar on Arsenal going east and banging on the bell and then getting off and accidentally pulling on the rope to get the trolley off the wire and running like all hell.
Our Senior Prom at the Chase when Peggy Lee was appearing there and came up and sang a few songs for us. What a thrill.
Frankie Laine came and sang at an assembly at SW High. Now that was exciting to say the least.
Spent a lot of time skating at the Arena and swimming at the Highlands, and that was during the Polio scare too. It was still great fun,
And of course the Admiral. Many a romantic evening spent aboard with a favorite girlfriend. Snuck aboard some Rum to put in the Cokes? First class entertainment in my opinion,
Evenings we kids would play a game called Movie Stars on the sidewalk. Anyone remember that one? Opposing team would call out initials like "A L" and if you guessed that it might be Alan Ladd then they would run and you would try to tag them before they got to a certain spot. That was always fun along with the usual hide and seek, statues, etc, Lots of girls in the neighborhood so we very few boys would, by neccesity join in their jump rope games too.
Hot summer nights my dad would drive us through Tower Grove Park and we would all take a geuss at how may cars we would see parked while the folks were out trying to sleep on their blankets to try and stay cool. The hotter the night the more cars there would be.
Trying to peek through the fences at Little Sisters of the Poor on Gustine to see what really might be going on in there. Never did see anything or find out anything either,
My first, and best, Pizza was at Parente's, somewhere closer to downtown. Wow!
Post from Lynn in Michigan, Roosevelt Class of 72, Go Rough Riders! (10/13/2008)
Wow..once again Bill Handy brings back more memories for me. He and I have discovered that we lived right next door to each other only at different times. Bill has a few years on me. Too bad..I might have been one of the girls he was necking with on Art Hill! I certainly did my share there and Bill is right, it was a great spot to find a romantic moment. Bill really brought back memories by mentioning the hopscotch courts on the school yards! I had completely forgotten those! I think Bill is right. I have never seen them anywhere else. Oh, I must have left my footprints on the ones at Horace Mann! Remember we called our rock or whatever we were using a "Pickle." If your hand slipped, you called out "Butterfingers!" Have we found another St. Louis only tradition? Hot Summer nights in Tower Grove Park. We'd park as close to the pond at the Ruins as we could in the hopes of getting a cool spray of water from the geyser fountain. Any kid from South St. Louis who lived without the luxury of air conditioning HAS to remember those. I recall once or twice when either overloads or a storm would take out the power. Mom would have us get in our PJ's and robes, put some ice water in the big thermos and another filled with coffee for Dad and off we'd go to TGP. We always found others out there seeking relief from the relentless St. Louie heat and humidity. We'd go around and meet other kids and make new friends. It didn't matter if they were friends you would likely never see again. It was just such fun to play with new kids. Mom and Dad would sit and smoke and share their coffee with another couple. No one even minded the heat and it was almost sad to see lights start coming back on. We'd see them blinking through the trees from the homes on Magnolia.
I had the joy of coming home just a week or so ago. It was first time back in over 6 years. I was happy to see the old neighborhood coming back. Lots of the old homes have been renovated and many more are in the process. That made me happy. Last time I was there, it was heartbreaking to see the decay of a once lovely, peaceful, safe neighborhood.
I was deeply saddened to see what has become of the once wonderful shopping district of Cherokee Street. It looks awful. Completely unrecognizable. We girls used to walk down there and spend hours shopping at JC Penney and The Worth shop. We just gazed in the window of The Lisbon Shop. We couldn't afford those clothes. I got my 8th grade graduation dress at Worth's. I can only hope my next visit home, perhaps Cherokee will have begun to come back too. That would be swell.
Post from Father McGuire (10/17/2008)
Like almost all of those individuals from years past, I too say thank you so much for this “walk down memory lane.” WOW, does it ever bring back some wonderful memories of my childhood.
I grew up in Maplewood. Lived “down on the hill” on Kensington Ave. 7130 Kensington to be exact. What many will not know is that the home I grew up in had been a model home at the 1904 World’s Fair of St. Louis. My parents were the 3rd owners of the home. Amazingly, that small home (a front hall-VERY tiny-a living room to the left of that hall, a bedroom to the right, and behind that bedroom was the “original” kitchen. Off of the kitchen was the bathroom, and behind the bathroom was a large back porch. The 2nd owners of the home turned that porch into a kitchen, and the old kitchen became a 2nd bedroom. On our street, growing up, there must have been a couple dozen kids – truly. My mom told of counting 25 kids in our back yard one day.
Our phone number was Sterling 6767, later to be known as Sterling 1-6767. An interesting thing about that phone number was that over on Southwest Blvd. (I believe that is correct) there was a refrigeration company (cannot remember the name), their address was 6767 Southwest, but their phone number was Sterling 7676. Suffice it to say we received many a phone call for that company.
I attended Sutton School Grade School (later torn down and replaced with a new school called the Nolan M. Bruce Grade School-Named after our beloved Principal, who, by the way, attended MY ordination in 1976). Also attended Maplewood Richmond Heights Junior High on Sutton, (that school was also later to be torn down, and is now a vacant lot), and Maplewood Richmond Heights Senior High, graduating in 1957. Our class just held our 50th reunion September of 2007. What a blast.
I remember the Powhattan Theatre on Sutton Blvd. That theatre had the “inside” theatre and the outside, open air theatre. If you attended a movie in the evening, at intermission you would walk outside for the 2nd movie. It cost 25 cents on Sunday for the Cowboy movies. There were lines clean around the block. It was 10 cents to get in, and 5 cents for popcorn and 5 cents for soda and 5 cents for some candy. WOW, what a bargain.
At the corner of Manchester & Sutton was the BIG Katz Drug store. East of that, across the street was a bank, across the street from the bank was a Woolworth store, and east of that was J. J. Newberry’s. Further east, and on the other side of the street was Goldies Department Store. West of the Katz Drug store, squeezed between Katz and Neisner’s Department Store was a tiny White Castle Hamburg joint. Further west on the same side of the street was Lange’s Photo shop, which was across the street from the J. B. Smith Funeral home.
I can remember as a kid, almost drowning in the river Des Pares which was at the bottom of the street from us. It was winter, and a buddy and me were walking on the ice, the ice broke, I fell through, and to this day I say it was the good Lord who saved me. We used to go to the Maplewood Swimming Pool in the summer time. And when I was in grade school we would go to the Forest Park Highlands for our school picnic each spring before school let out for the summer. Remember those rides on the old Admiral. Wonder how many can remember the name of the two “pumping arms” on the Admiral – Popeye and Olive oil?
I remember cork ball, putting bottle caps between the spokes of our bike, using a clothes pin to attach playing cards to the frame of our bikes so they made a sound like a motorcycle. Skating down the hill with those “clip-on” skates, and forever losing the key you needed to keep the skates clamped to your shoes.
Wonder how many will remember that St. Louis had two major league baseball teams – the Cardinals of course, and the Browns? And didn’t the Browns play baseball at the old stadium just east of the old Musial’s Restaurant, and wasn’t that on Oakland Blvd. Who remembers what happened to the Brown’s baseball team? They were sold and became known as the Oriels (I believe), but I could be wrong on this.
I now live here in southern Oregon close to the coast, but I guess instead of leaving my heart in San Francisco, I left my heart in St. Louis (Maplewood). I still return to visit friends (no family left there), and it is always a “walk down memory lane. I’m certain that if I continue to sit at this computer I can recall many more fond memories, but this note is already WAY too long. Again Mr. Lossos, thanks for helping us “old timers” remember the “good old days.”
Post from Liz Collier - aka lizzie hewitt - [email protected] (10/26/2008)
Hello, Dave,
I just found your website/info. What fun? Why DID we stand outside a friend's house and yell, "Oh, Steve." Did you ever find out of this is a St. Louis thing?
My husband and I went to Scruggs School in South St. Louis and then graduated from Cleveland High School in 1963. In fact our class reunion is in a couple weeks, 11/7/08.
I am trying to find some memories of the terrific summer playground programs we had. I went to Scruggs, and we had kick ball teams, End Ball teams, tumbling, summer pageants, crafts, and just plain fun.
I still have scars on my knees from the "circulars." It was standart playground equipment, along with the swings, in the 1950s. The person ahead of you would deposit a rock and you would retrieve it and then deposit it for the next person in line. This was actually a very dangerous activity.
Other brief memories:
Ted Drews frozen custard, of course.
Chex Grill near the pharmacy at Grand and Meramec.
Erwin's -- a place on Grand between Cleveland High School and Jewel Baptist Church we kids from Scruggs would eat lunch. The hamburgers were pretty lousy and the buns were rock-hard. But dressed up wth catsup and/or mustand and pickles made them more palitable.
Wilhelm's Grocery at the corner of Grand and Walsh -- an icon for many, many years.
Schmidt's [sp] Bakery, also on the corner of Grand and Walsh. Wonderful twisted butter donuts.
The little Meramec shopping area east of Grand. The streetcar's Southernmost point was here and it turned around up in that area. St. Anthony's Church was on Meramec too -- anybody remember the skating rink there? Gosh, those nuns in South St. Louis scared the heck out of me with those huge habits they wore.
Scruggs, Scruggs, full of bugs; Resurrection, full of infection!
ATTENTION JIM LONGO
Are you related to Pat Longo? I have been trying to locate her via the Internet for years. She worked at Carpenter Steel in St. Louis with me.
Post from Gloria (10/27/2008)
Response to Liz Collier's post:
Even my 86 year old aunt remembers calling from the sidewalk for friends. During warm weather our windows were open so people inside the house could hear you call, I was under the impression that if we went up to the door and knocked we might be disturbing the person's parent and that was being disrespectful. And heaven help us if we ever showed disrespect to our neighbors, not even the mean ones who told us to go play on the other side of the street. Those people had radar, no matter how you approached their front sidewalk or curb. As a matter of fact they would run us off if we were playing in the alley behind their house. Of course we got even on "picket-night" and they never gave out treats on Halloween. I lived part of my life at my grandparents home, had eight aunts and uncles I made number nine
and I could run as fast as the rest of them, my uncles would put us on their shoulders so we could soap the very top of the windows, the next day we would sit on my grandparents front porch and watch the people
come out to wash windows carrying a step stool.
The crabby man next door to my grandparents ask me"Gloria how come your grandma's windows never get soaped?" I said " because she is not an old buzzard like you".needless to say I had to scrub the front steps two Saturdays in a roll.
Happy Halloween
Post from unknown (11/12/2008)
the memories you have brought back are incredible,our phone# started with colphax,but remember listings like evergreen,parkway.the old holiday amusement park I think it was located close to the white castle and there was a hamburger stand on the rock road called "the oasis"best pineapple shake around.I grew up in wellston,so i have fond memories of the old wellston loop,the white mill hamburger stand,central hardware,wellston bowlingalley,the wellston theater the matinees were 25 cents,skating at the hodges skating rink.I too remember going to get a pail of beer,for my dad and his buddies and them putting salt in it when they would want to put a new head of foam on top.playing outside all day and allnight,hoping your mom wasn't the first to call you home.back then bars were supposed to be closed on sundays but my dad would take me with him on sundays to sunnys tavern and go behind to the back door and in we went.back then your dad would take there kids to the bars and you would play with the other kids who were there with there parents.mr.softee trucks,the mosquito smoke we would run thru(bad idea).thanks for bringing back a bunch of forgotten memories. oh yeah remember captain eleven?
Post from unknown (11/30/2008)
I went to Woodlands Elem on Sunbury from 62-66. Then Jennings Jr, then transferred to Ferguson Jr, finally, Mcluer 73. Remember Griffith's Hamburgers on the corner? Walking to school with plastic bags in our boots? Went to Northland and painted windows for the holidays. Going to Kresge's and popping a balloon with the price inside. Couldn't wait to grow up to really shop and buy at Boyd's for Bass Weejuns. Dancing at Jr high dances to "Hey Jude." phone number started with evergreen... Y-Dances when we got to high school. First real job was cart girl at Norwood's Country Club.
Post from Phyllis Robinson (11/30/2008)
THE ADMIRAL EXCURSION BOAT?
Do you or anyone "out there" know of the Ladies Lounges that were on the Admiral? All I can remember is "Sonja Henei"
I was with a group of gals today, and none of us could remember. These restrooms were decorated to the hilt, mirrors, fancy dressing tables & chairs, fancy lighting. To girl of 16 this was the most glamorous place.
Post from Joyce Thatcher Lambrecht (11/30/2008)
I now live in San Miguel de Allende Mexico......;two weeks ago I met a neighbor here in Mexico who as it turned out had been a neighbor in St. Louis over 55 years ago...our connection in conversation wasthe Roxy Theater off Chippewa between Hampton and Kingshiway. His name is Don Koberg and he delivered pamphets for the movie house as a way to earn money. He is now a famous architect in California with several books published and beautiful homes developed...he attended Buder Elementary and I attended Malinckrodt. We shared memories of White Castle Hamburgers, street cars. He remembered attending a circus on a lot before Southwest High was built..across from Arway Bowling..his grandfather and father built the Insane Asylum on Arsenal..both of us shared many memories of what we knew as South St., Louis.
Post from Katie Kelly (12/1/2008)
If any of you have doubt about what we kids paid for a coke and a sandwich at Woolworths ( How many don't know what Woolworth's was?) in the 1950's, here's proof of the era we lived in........
Post from Unknown (12/12/2008)
Love the Woolworth's Menu. What a treat to see that. I can remember when I was in high school at Roosevelt, on Wednesdays and Fridays, Mom had to work, so she'd give me a dollar to eat my supper out. I'd always stop at Tilmans on the corner of Grand & Arsenal. A cheeseburger DELUXE which came with fries and cole slaw was 75 cents. A Coke was a dime and I left the rest of the dollar Mom gave me as a tip. I also remember McDonalds advertising 2 burgers, fries and a drink and change back from your dollar. Of course, back then McDonalds was a real treat as there were only one of two in the city. We rarely ate there. In fact, I was in high school and dating a boy with a car before I ever got to eat there. White Castle was our spot. We had one within walking distance.
Post from Unknown (12/12/2008)
I posted awhile back and just love to come back every couple of weeks and
read the memories. As a child growing up in Pine Lawn in the early 60's (St
Paul the Apostle School), I have more memories of that idyllic childhood. I
remember the games we played outdoors almost all year long because there was
so few TV programs on the 4/5 channels we had! Channels 2,4,5,9, 11 and the
new-fangled 30 which came much later!
Anyway us girls played lots of jump-rope.
Anybody remember---"Cinderella, dressed in yella, came downstairs to kiss
her fella, how many kisses did she give him?" Then we had to keep jumping
til we missed.
How about---"blue bells and cockle shells and evie ivy over" You had to sway
the rope for the "blue bells" part, then go all the way around for the rest.
Another one where 2 of us turned the rope--"changing bedrooms one by one,
two by two", etc. One person started, then at two by two somebody jumped
in, then on and on till we all missed! How goofy was that!
Remember the hand-clapping rhymes? We stood facing each other and had a
rhythmic hand clapping routine with the other person? One rhyme I still
remember was, "A sailor went to sea-sea-sea, to see what he could
see-see-see...etc".
We also played with "jingle jumps". They attached around your ankle and you
had to swing a plastic ball attached to a cord around and jump over it!
I remember Red Rover, rock school (you had to have steps in front of your
house for this), kickball and Duck, Duck, Goose! Us girls never sat around
much back then, we were very active!
And we played all these games while we ate our Bonomo Turkish Taffy that we
threw on the concrete sidewalk to break into pieces!
Post from Howard Parker (12/12/2008)
Thanks for this site. My wife ran across it and thought I'd like it. She is from Jefferson City. My name is Howard Parker and a 1970 graduate of St. Mary's High. I though I'd jot down a few of my memories, some that have been mentioned and maybe some that have not.
For those that remember guys selling pretzels, they would get them from Gus's Pretzels still in business on Arsenal by I-55. I remember running through the mesquito spray in South St. Louis. First house I remember living in was in the Patch on Marceau three houses from the end of the street and moved to Lemay after St. Louis Ship bought our house. I remember there used to be a drive in on south Broadway near Gasconade. Other drive ins were the South Twin, Ronnies, and 66 Drive In in the south.
My memories in Lemay were Wilds Palace of Poison, Capri pool, Cusanellis, Monte Bello Pizza, Tip Top hamburgers, Lemay Bowl, Kroger supermarket, Debasio Furniture at Bayless and Lemay, Posloskis, Lemay Auto Parts, A&P Market, Dohacks, GEM discount store(you had to be a member), Steak N Shake with curb service, Sylvan Springs, serving mass at Notre Dame Convent, and Bettendorphs Rapps (spelling) supermarket. I'm sure I missed a few.
In south St. Louis, Velvet Freeze, Coke plant, Michigan Theater, Ted Drews,(still going strong), Playing St. Mary's home football games at Roosevelt High School, Western Bowl, Cleveland High School, teen towns and parish schools dances with live bands. Somewhere to go every weekend. Parking at Carondelet Park and Clifton Park. Junior Achievement. Downs swimming pool and later skating rink. Hyland Park, the wooden roller coaster, the train the electric boats.
Other St. Louis memories, the Charlotte Peters Show and Stan Kann. The Hill in it's prime. When they first put the train in at the zoo. Going to Lambert Air Port to watch the planes take off and land and come into the gate while outside on the observation deck, smelling the prop engine fuel. Going to Union station with my dad and getting to sit in one of the cars. Going to the riverfront just to sit and watch the river,( work by it now), Gas light Square, the arena and the annexes, Arena Bowl, Stein Brothers Bowling Alley. Not having to worry about being mugged.
I also remember the Stardust Burlesque and Evelyn and the other local TV shows mentioned. I remember the St, Louis Hop also. The Forum downtown that had the best mashed potatoes. The train in Famous Barrs window and going through the Christmas show on the way to see Santa on the 8th floor. Streetcars and the south Broadway loop.
Other unhealthy things we grew up with besides running throw mesquito spray, eating dirt pies, sharing drinks,not washing our hands much, and doing most of the things they are so concerned about these days. We used to get spanked, and if we misbehaved at a neighbors' house they could spank us and if we told on them it usually led to another spanking at home. We could play cops and robbers with play guns and not have to worry about anyone thinking they were real. It's amazing how we lived through it all.
Who doesn't remember the smell from the rubber reclamation plant on the east side of the river, or the smell of the river itself. Something that will remind you of St. Louis when you are far away and smell something similar.
I'm sure I don't recall some things that if I remember I will write again. Again, thanks for this site.
Post from Unknown(12/17/2008)
I was born and raised in south St. Louis. Near 14th and Park Ave. I leftMissouri in 1984. I remember the Veiled Prophet Ball and Parade. The Christmas decorations downtown at Famous Barr and other stores, we went to see them every year. I remember the Casa Loma Ballroom.
White Castle hamburgers. Not the frozen ones. Ice sledding down art hill outside the Art Museum. Shopping on Cherokee ave. Blustein bridal and formals. Screens covered with material to make your skirt stand out. We bought the screen at a hardware store and they cut it to fit. Black and white oxfords. The Muni Opera. Ted Drews ice cream.
The Merry Widow Theatre on Chouteau ave. Tickets 20 cents. Forest Park Highlands. Charlotte Peters show. My favorite disk jockey Ed Bonner. Disk Jockey Johnny Rabbit. Blab it to the rabbit. That terrible show Carol and Gil Newsome the local couple. She was a terrible dancer. Jumped around the studio in a tutu. Cliff and Nance St. James.
St. Louis Zoo. Sitting out at night in front of my house in the summer and playing too. We stayed out as late as our parents as long as they sat outside too. We played tag, red rover, jacks, dodge ball, hide and seek, war games, cowboys, paddle ball, mumblie peg with a knife. Catching lightening bugs in a jar. Crickets at night. The smell of honeysuckle.
I remember slam books. The books were circulated during school hours. Each page had someones name on it, and we would write our opinions of the person. You got to see what others thought of you. Ritenour Jr. High, Clinton Peabody School, Holy Angels Church. Manual training in school, and sewing and cooking for girls. Soulard Market every weekend. Milk delivered in bottles. Mail delivery twice a day. Rose's confectionery in Sth.St.Louis. Hobo sandwiches. The Fox Theatre and Stan Kahn. Peanut Park off of 14th st. Carondolet Park.
Church on Sunday. Fried chicken. Washing on Monday. Drying clothes outside in the sunshine and ironing on Tuesday. Watching howdy doody. Trick or treating on Holloween. Some nearby neighborhoods gave out nickels. White Bread company. There trucks came around to our neighborhoods selling bakery goods. Coke for a nickel a bottle. On very hot days, the fire hydrants would be opened so kids could get cool. Otherwise we shot one another with a hose. Pevely Dairy. Stan Musial. Heman Park, Bush Stadium. Lafayette Park, and the old turn of the century houses. All the beautiful old houses near Forest Park.
Snowball ice cones. In Sth St. Louis, during the summer peddlers came around selling new shoes off a cart. You could sit on one of their stools and try them on. On Park Ave.and 14th street the women came out early in the morning and scrubbed down their front porch with soap and water. The restaurants off Morganford. All the great Italian food.
I moved from South St.Louis when I was 18. When I was 33 I went back to show my son where I grew up. If it had not been for the signs, I would have never recognized it. It was a total slum. When I left there all the houses had yards and gardens filled with floweres. Flowers on trelIises on the side of houses, window boxes. It went from being immaculate blue collar to a wreck. I guess sometimes you cannot go back.
Post from Unknown(12/17/2008)
Does anyone remember station WIL’s Jack Carney and his created character, Pookie Snackenberg? How about Vanity Fair cigarettes? They came in pastel pink and pastel blue! I’m still looking for anyone who lived in Jefferson Barracks between 1946 and 1953. Since the Barracks was near Lemay, I remember many of those landmarks mentioned by a previous blogger. Our phone # back then was Sweetbriar 0715, and later, TWinbrook 2-0715.
Post from Unknown(12/17/2008)
I remember knife sharpeners, rag pickers, cobblestone streets, the ice man bringing ice in on a black piece of rubber carrying it on his shoulder. He would toss ice out to us. We still had an ice box instead of a refrigerator.
When we lived on Terry Ave. off sth Kingshighway, we could see the high aerial act when the circus came. We saw them from our attic window. Wellston had great shopping and a wonderful restaurant Hendricksons. At that time St. Louis was the largest shoe manufacturer in the world. And Wellston was loaded with shoe stores like downtown St.Louis. Katz drug store. Steak and Shake. Shaws Garden. My first phone number as a kid was Forest 1234. Cork ball and roller skates that would not stay on no matter how tight you turned the key. Bobby socks and full skirts and white blouses and pony tails. Tangee pick lipstick. Harry Carey calling the games for the Cardinals. The St. Louis Browns baseball team. Gas was 15 cents a gallon. And if you filled up you got glasses or a carton of root beer. Ice skating at Forest Park. Fake white mouton jackets. Pink fuzzy sweaters. Levis were 6.00 dollars a pair. Kresges&Woolworth dime stores. Roller skating car hops. Bottle caps game hitting them with a stick. Collecting bottle caps and baseball cards. Movie magazines with tear out full color pictures of movies stars.
Shoes: flats, wedgies, black and white shoes, penny loafers. Eddie Fisher, Johnny Mathis, Rosemary Clooney, Arthur Godfrey, Frankie Laine, Danny and the Juniors, Shake,rattle and Roll. White lipstick you wore with a tan. Or cotton candy lipstick lighter then the color of Pepto. But you could only wear these with a tan. St.Ann Drive In. Airway Drive In, Page 66 Park In.
Non run nylons, Luster Creme Shampoo. Revlon no smear 24 hour lipstick. Maybelline cake mascara you put on with a little water, or spit. Street cars in downtown St.Louis. Quiet and no smell and run by overhead electric wire. They used to rock a little back and forth. And so quiet you could actually hear yourself think or talk. In the 50's we had six daily newspapers. And so many different beers made in St.Louis. McKinley High School. Wellston High School. Soldan High, Rosatta Kane, not sure of that spelling. Beaumont, Normandy High, Clinton Peabody, Holy Angels School.
Penny candy, tinsel and bubble lights on the tree. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
Post from Unknown(12/17/2008)
Lived in the North County area until the mid 60's
I remember the Savoy show in Ferguson 14 cent to see 2 movies, and a chance to win a bike if they called out the number on your ticket stub.
Quillmans drug store by the bus loop, St. John liquor store, a pack of Luckies for17 cents.
Biermans Hardware, I think they sold electric trains and sleds and all kinds of "neat" stuff there.
Ferguson department store, really nice clothes.
Bag o' chicken on Dunn road, North hills dairy at Florissant and Woodstock
Hill brothers shoes, I think by the Savoy show.
Most of all, the simple, care free days, and "good buddies"
Post from Alan Wilson(12/19/2008)
Dave. Came upon an interesting site called "historic Aerials" A compilation of flyover shots from earlier time periods. St Louis City and County are featured, and have aerial shots back to 1958.You can pan and zoom in and out. That year against the aerials taken in 1971 and 2007 show the changes very visually. Just looking at the flyover maps from an earlier time triggers memories.
Thanks again for building this repository of St. Louis area memories. I am not certain, but only the bay area has sites similar to this.
Post from Gloria (12/19/2008)
I really enjoyed the last several postings. So many good memories. I totally forgot about the white lipstick.
My most cherished memories about Christmas Time as a child were the windows in down town St. Louis, seeing Santa at Famous and Barr. Our Christmas Party's at All Saints Catholic Grade School. Father Ryan would be on stage and each child had to walk across the stage, Father would give us a decorated box of hard candy, oranges and apples that were as large as a soft ball and a statue of the infant Jesus in his crib make of straw.
Dressing up in our new Christmas outfits to go sing at midnight mass. The Church was decorated so beautiful.
High school years were full of invitations to party's during the Holidays.
Remembering all of my family getting together for Christmas dinner at my grandparents home, I don't know how we all fit in the dinning room, eight aunts and uncles, plus all the cousins and in-laws and everyone came and we all got along so well. Most of group are gone now, grandma's house was torn down, but all I have to do is close my eyes and I'm right back on Maple Avenue.
Happy Holidays to everyone.
Post from Maggie (12/29/2008)
What a wonderful site! I grew up in Webster Groves, 342 Spring Avenue. I remember walking to Old Orchard stopping at Velvet Freeze, Rexall Drugs and Schatgrens (spelling?) Bakery.
What great memories! I went to Lockwood School (now Collegiate), Webster High and Mizzou. I loved skating at Winter Gardens and going to Forest Park Highland.
Thank you for this site.
Post from "Violet" (a "Loyal Friend of Evelyn's") (12/29/2008)
My name is "Violet" and I grew-up in North St. Louis in a German town called, "Baden"
In the 1970's, I met Evelyn West. We became very good friends. I knew she and Al both.
Evelyn West was, indeed, a very "Classy" lady. She dressed to perfection, was quite intelligent, and had a tremendous sense of business acumen, a great deal of it coming from Al, her husband. It is for these reasons, I would like to defend her in death as follows:
On Saturday, December 26, 2008, I visited the library and scrolled down to October 28, 2004, where I saw that a guy by the name of Terry Klasek wrote an article under St. Louis Memories Chapter Two stating Evelyn West was reduced to serving drinks in the Stardust Club; that her dancers were local, and that the dancers in question were granting sexual favors in the back rooms. While Terry Klasek contends that he is a "friend and fan" of Evelyn West, is this the type of thing that a friend says about someone he supposedly likes and admires by declaring to the whole world that a classy lady such as Evelyn West was no more or less than a pimp? I think not. I do not call such conduct as being a friend of anyone much-less Evelyn West.
Also, if Evelyn West had to "reinvent" herself as a waitress at a much older age in life in order to survive, Who cares? Isn't that what all of us do? In addition, if, in fact, Evelyn's dancers granted sexual favors in the back rooms, Terry Klasek must hae been one of the men who was a recipient of these sexusl favors. Otherwise, how would he know what went on in the club? He must have thought it was a "pretty good thing" or he wouldn't have been spending his money there! There is an old saying to this effect: "give a person enough rope and they will hang themselves." I think Terry Klasek did just that when he chose in front of the whole world to humiliate and belittle Evelyn West at a time when she could not defend herself because of death.
In Terry Klavek's case, usually when a man has to pay for a good thing, he doesn't boast about it in bars or to anyone else much-less manipulate and circumvent the situation by turning the story around to fit his grandiose needs. He keeps his mouth shut. In this case, however, the extremely ungrammatical Terry Klasek would like to thwart his readers by making himself feel and appear important to the world through the use of atrocious spelling by suggesting that in his opinion, the Stardust Club became somewhat of a bawdy house even though it was still good enough for him to be a part of as evidenced by his knowledge of what supposedly went on in the back rooms. In reality, and in the end, Terry Klasek got caught with his finger in the cookie jar. He, himself, had to have been a participant in those back rooms and paid for all the good things he stated other men paid for including memorabilia he bought on E-Bay from Evelyn West herself.
It has only been recently that the death of Evelyn West has been known to me. Because of having spent many years in the United States Army, I was not award of same.
In summarization, let it be known that I was very proud to have known Evelyn West. Evelyn West had the "guts" to do the things she wanted to do, and felt had to be done in this world, in comparison to other people who get nothing done and only think or bother everyone else about how life should be lived.
I have a very glamourous picture of Evelyn West and I together. It is in my Personal Memoirs. I look at the picture all of the time and reminisce.
Thanks to you Dave,
Post from Unnamed (12/29/2008)
Grew up in the Delmar loop area about a block from All Saints church.
I can recall:
Milk delivered in glass bottles with a paper cap by Pevely dairy from a
horse drawn wagon.
Milkmans name was Roy.
Summertime corkball games in the alley with care taken not to step in
what the horse left behind
Blondies hot dog stand on Delmar adjacent to the Gus Jacobs gas station.
Jaspers grocery store on Cabanne across from Eastgate Park
Eastgate park with the summertime wading pool, swings, seesaws and slide
Midwest laundry at Skinker and Cabanne. They had drive up curb service.
Star gas station on Skinker across from Midwest Laundry. Free dishes
with gas purchase.
Kroger grocery store adjacent to Midgate walk between Delmar and Enright.
Kurlanders drug store on Eastgate Ave and Delmar.
O'hara's Loop Market on Delmar and Syracuse.
Barkens Drug Store at the Delmar streetcar loop at Enright and
Kingsland. Lots of penny candy.
SunShine Press for school supplies on Enright at the Delmar Loop.
S.S. Kresge and Woolworths dime stores adjacent to each other on Delmar.
Stiver's Lincoln Mercury dealership just east of the Tivoli theater
Ed's Pool room at the current main entrance to Blueberry Hill
Emil Vescovos Bar and Restaurant and the Coffee Pot Restaurant both at
Skinker and Delmar
Blue Moon restaurant just east of Hamilton on Delmar
The best hamburger sauce in the world at Medart's on Clayton at Skinker.
Sneaking out of U. City High School to grab lunch at Hamburger Heaven on
Olive St. Rd.
Sam the Watermelon Mans place at Olive St. Rd. and Ferguson Ave. and on
Natural Bridge just west of Goodfellow.
The best barbecue beef sandwich in St. Louis at Ed's White Front at
Goodfellow and Natural Bridge. Served on white sliced bread with cole
slaw on the sandwich.
Weekends ice skating at the Winter Garden.
The Goody Train restaurant just south of the Winter Garden where the
food was brought to the counter seat via a Lionel electric train.
The Hodiamont street car loop at the Katz drug store in Wellston.
Saffians clothing store at Hodiamont and Easton Ave. Levi's were $3.65
a pair.
The Emporium on Easton Ave in Wellston
Bonnie Buttered Beefsteak factory at about 8100 Olive Street Rd.
Downtown St. Louis at Christmas time with the displays at Famous Barr,
Stix Baer and Fuller, and Scruggs Vandervort and Barney.
Loads more but will quit for now.
Thank you Mr. Lossos for the great site and the opportunity to post.
2009 St. Louis Memories continues HERE
