Author: Ken Steinhoff

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Fort D in 1966

I’m pretty sure the photo with the tire ran in The Missourian, but a quick Google Archives search for 1966 didn’t pop up the story.

The stories that DID show up that year included one where some out-of-town tourists wondered why Fort D didn’t have any historical markers telling its story.

How long has that thing been missing?

“Darn!” said the City Fathers. “There used to be one up there. Wonder how long it’s been gone?”

The city had a caretaker living in the Fort for awhile, but when he moved out, all of the windows were broken out. (In a story that may or may not have been related, a caretaker was arrested for drunken driving and may have had other housing assigned to him.)

Weeds and trash

Weeds and trash were allowed to grow up around the landmark.

Fort D tourist-worthy in 2008

When Brother Mark and I rode up to Fort D on our bikes in October 2008, the grounds were well-kept and there were plenty of interesting historical markers to make the trip worthwhile.

The building is missing its roof, unfortunately.

I wrote about the history of the Fort on my bike blog. in 2008. Follow the link to read more about the fort and to see more contemporary photos.

I was disappointed to find that this isn’t the original fort. The American Legion bought the site to save it from development in 1936, and the WPA built the building in 1937.

Fort D Photo Gallery

Here are more photos from 1966. Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the photo to move through the gallery.

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Cape Aerial Photos from 1966

These two photos, taken in 1966, show the heart of Cape Girardeau, looking from the southwest to the northeast. Click on them to make them larger. I increased the resolution of the photos so you can see more detail.

Cape Central High School is in the bottom left. Diagonally to the right would be Southeast Hospital. Academic Hall and Houck Stadium are in right center. There’s a white smokestack next to the river on the right side just above the wing strut of the airplane. The shoe factory is in front of it, so that must be the old power plant.

What’s interesting is that Cape quickly becomes farm land once you get behind the university. Cape, when you get right down to it, wasn’t all that big of a town in 1966.

Cape Girardeau floodwall

The plane had flown slightly more to the east in this photo. You can see Cape’s floodwall gleaming in the sun at the right. The white smokestack mentioned above is more prominent, and you can make out the shoe factory smokestack if you look closely (or have a good imagination).

The Mississippi River Bridge barely shows up next to St. Vincent’s Seminary on the far right center.

The trees sticking out on the curve of the Mississippi River north of town would have been Cape Rock.

Other aerial photos of Cape

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Bunny Bread’s “Used Bread Store”

I was in Sam’s Club the other night right at closing. While I was standing near the baked goods area, I watched an employee culling the shelves of product that was hitting its expiration date. I thought to myself, if I had shopped there 10 minutes ago, the baked goods would have been considered fine; now it’s considered stale.

That got me to thinking about the old Bunny Bread facility at William and Christine St.

Toast from the “Used Bread Store”

My brothers and I were raised on cinnamon sugar peanut butter toast. If we were lucky, we got it made out of raisin bread. It didn’t matter if it was plain white bread or raisin break, it was almost always from the “Used Bread Store,” as we called it. My folks said the bread was perfectly good, just past the sell-by date. They assured us that we were going to eat it up so fast that it wouldn’t have a chance to get stale for real.

Bunny Bread Comes to Southeast Missouri

When Raymond Lewis died, his Sept. 25, 2001, obituary in The Southeast Missourian had information I didn’t know about Bunny Bread (previously known as Bamby Bread).

In 1925 Raymond Lewis and his two brothers, A.C. and Arnold, launched Lewis Bakeries in Anna, Il., with $300 they borrowed from their mother. Mr. Lewis took over the bakery in 1944 and grew the company into a major regional bakery.

In 1950 he originated and copyrighted the name “Bunny” and in 1951 he built a new bakery in Anna. Soon “That’s What I Said, Bunny Bread” and “Get the Rabbit Habit” were heard all over the Heartland.

The company is now comprised of seven bakeries selling fresh bread products in 14 states from Michigan to Alabama and from Ohio to Arkansas, and frozen products nationwide.

He became known for many original aphorisms including, “Grow or go,” “You don’t have to be big to be good,” When you get through changing, you are through,” “Keep your business as modern as your car,” “Just look in the mirror if you want to see your bad competitor”, and “The right time is when you make it.”

His marketing magic must have worked. Son Matt remembered having a Bunny Bread T-shirt when he was a kid, so he insisted that his grandmother send him one for Grandson Malcolm (for the record, he isn’t up to his normal cuteness standard in this photo. The sun must have been shining in his eyes. Malcolm, I mean.)

Bunny Bread Teen Age Club fundraiser

These three girls were going door to door trying to sell Bunny Bread to raise funds for the Teen Age Club. The negative sleeve said it was taken Aug. 24, 1967.

Ad shows Bunny Bread storefront

This ad showing the history of Cape businesses probably ran at Bunny Bread’s high point.

A May 29, 1956, Missourian story announced the start of construction of the building shown above. “The structure, declared cost of which is $21,000, will be 130 feet long by 50 feet wide. Three sides will be concrete block and the front brick. The bakery, 533 Good Hope St., will continue to be used by the firm while the new structure will be used as a loading point for trucks which distribute the products. ” The new building was needed to quarter the company’s fleet of 15 trucks.

The end was near

On Dec. 3, 1992, the other shoe dropped. Bunny Bread Bakeries, which was founded in a log cabin in Anna in 1925, announced it was closing its Anna baking operations. The Cape Girardeau bakery closed in 1988. Loss of population from the area was given as the reason for the restructuring.

I’m not sure when the “Used Bread Store” morphed into C.A.P Supplies.

 

 

 

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Sprigg and William

If  you say William and Sprigg to most Cape Girardeans, they’ll probably say they think of St. Mary’s Cathedral. After all, that’s the biggest landmark around there. Lila and I were married in the church in 1969. You can see my deer-in-the-headlights look here.

Wonder how many trucks have hit this?

Churches, smurches. My interests run in other directions. I’ve always been fascinated by this I-beam bumper that protected the traffic signal on the corner. It and the other posts have been scuffed and bent by decades of 18-wheelers having “Oh, bleep!” moments when they cut the turn too short.

Truck route to Mississippi River Bridge

When you look at all the dents and scuffs, you can figure out why so many trucks crossing the Mississippi River Bridge used to slap mirrors. Some of those drivers may have had depth perception problems.

Used to be Clark Buick

The building on the corner across from the Cathedral was Clark Buick when I was growing up. I think that’s where we bought the 1969 Buick LaSabre station wagon that carried us on the Great Steinhoff Florida Vacation in 1960. (That’s the same car I inherited when I was in high school.)

The owner’s daughter was in some of my classes, but I don’t recall her first name nor if we were in Trinity Lutheran School or in Central. The building houses an antique store now, but it was hard to tell if it was still open or not.

Did you buy a TV at Lorberg’s?

If you bought a television set in the middle 50s, there was a pretty good chance that it came from Lorberg’s.

The early sets came with a black ceramic panther with eyes that lit up. Mother thought they looked tacky, as I recall, so I think it was traded for something else or for a discount. I’ll have to ask Niece Laurie what that thing would be worth today in her antique shop.

The photo I shot of JFK’s funeral was probably taken on our original set.

New construction at St. Mary’s School

The looks of the neighborhood is changing with new construction going on at St. Mary’s Cathedral School. It’s nice to see some life coming back to Sprigg and William.

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