Photos around Cape Archives

May 11, 2010

Cape Aviation Day, 1964

I saw a mention of an Air Festival on the City of Cape Girardeau Facebook fan page. That, in turn, led me to the Cape Air Festival 2010 homepage.

Follow that link to get tickets for the 2010 Cape Girardeau Regional Air Festival to be held June 19 and 20. The U.S. Navy Blue Angels will be among the performers.

10,000 attended 1963 Aviation Day

Sounds a whole lot bigger deal than the July 26, 1964 Aviation Day I covered. I don’t have any details because that week is missing from the Google Archives. An advance story said that about 10,000 people attended the show in 1963.

Today’s tower looks more substantial

I don’t know if the thing that looked like a plywood tower in the old photos was something cobbled together for the air show or if it WAS the tower.

Municipal Airport Terminal

Today’s Cape Regional Airport has a modern tower, but I don’t think it’s populated. In fact, I’m not sure there are any commercial flights coming into Cape these days. I can remember climbing onto those old lumbering DC-3s for the Ozark Airlines hop into St. Louis.

Airport Security 1964-style

Flying was still special

Flying in those days was still special.People dressed in their Sunday go-to-meetin’ clothes and were greeted by stewardesses (they were all young women then) who were actually pleasant. Kids were given tours of the cockpit and given pilot’s wings, among other things.

Airlines worked hard to hook young fliers by promoting discounted “student standby” flights. I recognize my caboose has expanded since those days, but I believe the seats WERE larger back then.

I cheated a bit with the shot on the right. It wasn’t taken at Cape. We talked an airline into letting us shoot an illustration of some kind on one of their jets while it was at the gate at Palm Beach International Airport.

My son, Adam, who was used as a model, took advantage of the opportunity to see what’s behind the curtain.

Cape Girardeau Regional Airport

May 10, 2010

Serendipity in Old Town Cape

I was walking down Main St. in October shooting mug shots of store fronts. Some of the buildings had neat patterns of light and shadow. Others had some nice reflections. Others were just there.

I shot 10 frames of this building or parts of it. None of them were particularly inspiring. Just record shots in case it burned down next week.

What’s that in the window?

It wasn’t until I looked at the photos on a large screen that I saw the cat in the window. Here’s a slightly tighter crop of the same photo. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

He / She was in the frame taken at 15:50:18 and was gone in the next frame at 15:50:25. I would love to lie and say I saw the feline and managed to capture the decisive moment, but shooting it was pure, dumb luck.

Serendipity made the photo, not the photographer.

May 7, 2010

“New” Cape Central High

When I was in Cape this fall, I made a run out to the new Central High School. It’s not exactly on the beaten path. I had to pull out my GPS to find it. It’s a far cry from a neighborhood school where a good percentage of the students live within walking distance.

I didn’t spend too much time there. I popped in long enough to shoot something specific for a piece I’ll be running in the future.

Phil Ochs came to mind

The place is so spread out that a line from Phil Ochs‘ I’m Going to Say It Now popped into my mind, “To get around this campus, why you almost need a plane.” It takes an aerial to get a good overall photo of the place. (I would have created this using Google Maps so you could pan and zoom into it, but the most recent photos there had a big cloud obscuring the school.)

School cornerstone says 2002

I think this might have been the cafeteria.

The school’s cornerstone is dated 2002, so I guess it’s only us old farts who think of it as the “New” Central High School, much like the students who went to the Central High School on Pacific Street probably still call our school on Caruthers “New” Central.

Wonder if we could tour “Our” Central?

The reunion organizers have scheduled a tour of the new school, but to be honest, I’d rather prowl the halls of the building that houses OUR past. Wonder if it could be arranged?

I spent the better part of a day in the “Old” Central High School on Caruthers and a couple of days in the the Central High School on Pacific. I’ll be posting those pictures before too long.

It was astounding how well maintained Central was. The halls and walls were shiny and clean.

May 1, 2010November 25, 2011

Jackson’s 1938 Swimming Pool

I get amused when I hear people complaining about federal stimulus programs, because a lot of the same gripes were made about FDR’s alphabet soup of the CCC, NRA, WPA and the like.

In 1938, Jackson agonized over spending $2,000 for materials needed by the WPA to build a swimming pool for the city. The Missourian reported June 7, 1938 that a delegation argued “that such a pool is a necessity, that other cities nearby have such pools and that the pools are frequented a great deal and pay for their upkeep. It was also said that the construction of a pool in the Sanford Park would redeem the park which has become more or less of a white elephant to the city and that, unless something is done to utilize it, the park might as well be sold.

“It was also pointed out that daily Jackson people visit the swimming pool in Cape Girardeau, that, if Jackson had a pool, graduating classes from other towns could be invited to use it, that the pool would serve to keep the youth of the city off the streets in the idle summer months, that the Board of Education is spending $10,000 of the people’s money on a stadium that is used probably four or five times a year, and that only $1,500 of the people’s money is being asked for to build an $11,000 swimming pool that would be used 120 days a year.

The pool, as planned, would hold 140,000 gallons of water. The biggest concern was how much it would cost to maintain the pool. The City Council ducked making a decision by ruling that it would circulate a petition “to ascertain the feelings of the citizens regarding the matter.”

Jackson Swimming Pool and Drive-in

The voters must have decided they wanted the pool, because it WAS built. This aerial photo from the late 60s shows the pool in the middle of the photo. Jackson’s Drive-in Theater is at the bottom right. It’s the site of the new pool, which replaced the 1938 WPA project in 1976.

All good things come to an end

Oct. 13, 1965, The Missourian ran a story that said the old pool was too old and too small. James R. Nelson, summer pool manager and principal of Jackson High School, said the pool had become outmoded, machinery is believed to be in danger of collapse and huge leaks are releasing tremendous amounts of water. In one three-day period with no activity, the pool leaked 90,000 gallons of water, about half its capacity.

Nelson thought the problem was in the circulation system. When the pool was built, pipes were laid in the concrete around the pool. During the first 20 years of operation, the acid level of the pool was rarely checked and it was believed that acid over the years had eaten the pipes away. The presumed result was that the circulation system consists of holes in the concrete instead of pipes. Water leaked out at every joint or crack in the concrete. Water in the pool met safety standards, but just barely.

Pool has been filled in

I’m not sure when the old pool closed, but a new pool, opened in 1976. The old pool has been filled and turned into a Tot Land. If you look closely at some of the photos in the gallery, you can still see where the lifeguard chairs were mounted and see barely make out the NO DIVING markers.

Jackson Pool Photo Gallery

Here is a collection of vintage and current photos of the Jackson pool. Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the photo to move through the gallery.