May 4 is traditionally the day when I heed the admonition of my old friend and chief photographer, John J. Lopinot: “Never forget,” referring to the killings at Kent State on that date in 1970.
Last year, he and I agreed not to forget that date, but the pandemic that was just starting to crank up made Kent State feel like ancient history.
Here is the 2020 post, Portrait of a Pandemic. It contains a lot of links to past pieces I did on the era.
My new world
Phoebe and deer 05-03-2021
For more than a year, my world has contracted to a few grocery and hardware stores, Phoebe the Bleeping Cat, and the view out the windows on Kingsway Drive.
The PTBC photo above is the precursor to the lead shot. I try to give her as much outdoor time as she’ll eat, but she seems to have gotten too addicted to the great indoors. The webcam picked up the deer in the background, so I headed over to the door for a better view.
The Phoebes took that as an invitation to come in. Unfortunately, there was no good way to frame the backyard livestock with her.
When I chanced to glance around, I saw not one deer, but two and a huge coon. Looking more to the “garden” yard, I spotted eight ears that belonged to four more deer, for a total of six deer, one coon, and an annoying cat.
The funny thing is that I had just mentioned to a friend the other day that I had only seen one deer here in the past couple of months. Maybe they’ve been vaccinated and feel more comfortable to move around.
I was on my way back from getting gas in Jackson (something that I’ve only had to do about once a month in the past year) when I decided to turn into the South County Park to check out the lake.
The first thing I saw was a batch of geese (if they aren’t geese, I’m sure somebody will correct me) and goslings. They wandered away from the road before I could get stopped and grab my camera.
I was going to write it off as a missed opportunity when I saw where the birds and birdlings were headed. They must have been checking out the folks who were taking what I assume to be prom pictures.
Click on the photos to make them larger.
Let’s make another pass
I was in no hurry to get home, so I elected to make another loop of the lake. That’s when I spotted this picture which was improved by the Golden Hour late afternoon sun.
My mantra is “Shoot it when your see it,” but that doesn’t mean you should quit before you see a better picture down the way.
Dad was born April 17, 1917, which would have made him 104 this year had he not died at 60 in 1977. I found some old letters in his files recently that have helped fill in some blanks and also confirmed stuff I had heard (or misheard) over the years.
I did a blog post in 2010 where I used a post out of his scrapbook to show me and a check he had received for what sounds like the first job he and his new partner, James Kirkwood, did in Ellington.
1949 letter to his brother, Paul Steinhoff
Here’s the three-page letter he wrote to his younger brother, Paul, on Oct. 3, 1949. You can click on any image to make it larger, then use the left and right arrow keys to move around.
I’ll pull out excerpts from it, and add comments.
Paul, Dad and Their Father
Paul – LV – Louis Steinhoff c 1934
This was in Dad’s high school scrapbook, so it must have been taken in the early 1930s. Paul is on the left, Dad is in the middle, and Louis Steinhoff, their father, is on the right. This may be the only photo I’ve seen of him.
It’s hard to read, but, based on other photos on the scrapbook, it was taken at 116 North Middle Street. That would have made it possible for him to be close enough to the Broadway theater to have used his toy wagon to carry music for the woman piano player to play in the silent movies. We always thought that to be a family legend until we saw an obit for the woman in the past decade or so.
Mexican Vacation
The folks wanted to take a trip so we, along with Mary Lee’s Dad and Mother took off to the south. We spent 3 weeks with everybody having a good time. Kenny finally had to give up his bottle in Mexico where we couldn’t get any milk. That was one good thing the trip did or he might have been on the bottle yet.
In February I took in a partner by the name of James Kirkwood. Kirkwood was an engineer for the Highway Dept. for 20 years, having a very good background.
Mother Had to Run Her Dad’s Store
We moved the trailer to Ellington and was there until July 14, except that Mary Lee had to come home in the late part of May and stay at Advance. Mr. Welch had a serious heart attack and was forced to stay at home in bed for three months. He is just now being able to do a little work at the store. Mary Lee had to take care of the business during this time. I moved the trailer to Charleston, but batched it during this time.
Steinhoff & Kirkwood Built Rt. W from Cape to Fruitland
On July 29th we were successful bidders on Route W in Cape Girardeau county. This job begins on Perry Ave. outside of Cape Girardeau city limits and runs to Fruitland, Mo. It’s a rather large job but are doing well, and except for weather conditions we should finish sometime this month or the first of next.
Our Trailer Was On a Now-Gone Hill behind Colonial Restaurant
We have moved the trailer to Cape and have parked it on Hyway 61 near the Colonial Restaurant in a private-owned yard. Kenny likes it back at Cape and has several playmates. Kirkwood has one boy 6 months older than Kenny and one girl that is just beginning to go to school.
Kenny is quite a big lad now and talks a blue streak all the time and is plenty heavy for his age. He has a tricycle and rides all the time. He is crazy about books and I do believe that he has well over 100 of them at the trailer and at his grandmother’s.
1949 Cardinals vs Cubs
There is one thing he will be able to say when he grows up, and that will be that he saw a National League baseball game as soon as his daddy. We went to St. Louis a week ago Sunday and saw the Cardinals play the Chicago Cubs. He finally went to sleep before the game was completed. We spent the morning at the zoo taking in the Monkey show.
Ice cream and a life of crime
He goes to the stores here at Advance and gets his own ice cream cones and soda by himself and he really thinks he is doing something.
Lila Perry Steinhoff – Ken Steinhoff Lila Senior Prom 1966
February 14, a day that strikes fear in male hearts. If you are dating, have you been dating long enough or too long to recognize and celebrate Valentine’s Day?
William Saffire, one of President Nixon’s speechwriters, penned a political thriller where one of the characters had something go extremely wrong, and he “experienced a Klong – a sudden rush of excrement (not the word he used) to the heart.”
That’s what the married man experiences late in the day on February 14 when he looks at the calendar and thinks, “That date sounds like one I should remember…KLONG!!!”
See if you can pick out the good sport
So, here’s a collection of old and a few new photos of couples, relationships, queens and kings and the like. Most were taken in Missouri, but some oddball shots could have slipped in.
See if you can pick out the one shot taken early in someone’s relationship that could have ended it had the girl not been a good sport.
Valentine’s Day Gallery
Click on any photo to make it larger, then navigate around using the arrow keys. X or Esc will get you out.
Maybe I should have used the disclaimer I used when I went to take photos in some redneck bar. I’d stand up on a table and say, “I’m here from the newspaper to take pictures. If you aren’t supposed to be here, or you’re here with someone you shouldn’t be, hang out over in that corner (pointing) until I’m done. You’ll be safe.”
