Cape Girardeau History and Photos

November 4, 2014

Bronze Baby Shoes

Curator Jessica and I made a quick stop at Annie Laurie’s Antiques Tuesday afternoon. (OK, I made a quick stop; Miz Jessica had to try on hats, dresses, glasses, and fondle plates before she was ready to go.)

This is her practicing her come-hither look accented by a pair of one-dollar glasses. I suggested the Athens County Historical Society could use that in a billboard ad campaign: “Hi, I’m Curator Jessica. Come by the museum and let’s make some history together.”

She didn’t like the idea well enough to pay the buck for the glasses.

Who had the last bronze baby shoe?

While waiting for her, I spied several pairs of bronzed baby shoes on sale. “I wonder when the last baby shoe was bronzed?” I wondered.

They were common when I was a kid, but I haven’t seen a fresh set in years; my brothers and I didn’t have our shoes preserved, so far as I know.

Want a bronzed cheeseburger?

A Google search led me to the American Bronzing Company’s website. It was founded in 1934 by “Grandma Vi” Shinbach. The company’s website claims it has bronzed more than 14,000,000 baby shoes.

The bronzed shoe isn’t a mold: it’s the actual shoe, although some liberties are taken along the way. Here’s a good video that shows the bronzing process. After seeing how labor intensive it is, I don’t think the $59.95 price for the cheapest pair of shoes is all that out of line.

They do more than shoes: They’ll bronze a cheeseburger for $163.95.

What happened to YOUR shoes?

Did your parents bronze YOUR shoes? If so, what did you do with them when you grew up? Did you preserve the shoes of your urchins?

November 4, 2014

Remembering RC Cars

While strolling past a store in Massillon, Ohio, earlier this summer, my eye was drawn to a window display of used radio-controlled (RC) cars. This guy was going for $200. There was another one that was priced at $575.

My first real car (used, of course) was only $1200.

Kid Adam was into these

When Kid Adam was about 12, he was into RC stuff big-time. I know he built and raced several models of RC cars, including this one running on a track between Cape and Jackson.

I wonder where they are now?

I think he sold his cars when he got older, but if he didn’t, it’s time for me to go rooting in the attic.

November 3, 2014April 2, 2021

Licking the Arkansas Arch

When Curator Jessica made her initial pilgrimage from Ohio to Missouri last December, I convinced her that every first-time visitor to St. Louis’ Gateway Arch has to lick the stainless steel icon.

She was a mere child of 29 at that time, and gullible.

Not falling for it at the state line

When I asked David Kelley of Steele, Mo., if the old concrete arch over U.S. 61 at the Missouri – Arkansas border was still standing, he said, “Yep. It’s still there. It’s only eight miles away, let’s go see it, then go down to the Dixie Pig in Blytheville for lunch.”

U.S. Route 61 is the official designation for the highway that runs from New Orleans, past Memphis, past Cape Girardeau and St. Louis, ending up in Wyoming, Minn.This section through Arkansas was once a dirt trail called the North-South Road, and was in such poor shape that it might take as much as a full day to cover 15 miles.

Highway 61 called the Great River Road because it parallels the Mississippi River a good part of its run. It also answers to the name “Blues Highway” because of the path it takes through Blues country.

Now that she’s put 30 birthday candles in her back pocket and done several thousand Steinhoff Road Miles, Curator Jessica is older and wiser. She wasn’t falling for the old Lick the Arch trick twice. She did agree to risk death by posing under the arch so you could get an idea of its scale, roughly 15 feet high and 20 feet wide at the base.

Almost a lick

I didn’t realize until I was editing the photos that she DID fake an almost-lick for the camera. I guess that’s close enough.

The arch was created by the Mississippi County Road Improvement District in 1924. Check out what the National Registry of Historic Places says about the arch and what Arkansas highways were like in the first quarter of the 20th Century. It’s a fun read and will make you appreciate modern roadways.

I love this part: The location of the arch on the directly south of the Arkansas-Missouri state lines had a somewhat strange economic effect. Highway 61 runs primarily north to south, but at the state line the road runs east to west for a distance of approximately one-half of a mile. The state line is located directly north of the section of highway.

A lower gasoline and cigarette tax in Missouri led to a concentration of businesses on the north side of the highway. At one time there were as many as fourteen service stations lined up along the “line”. Along with the service stations came several nightclubs and small gambling houses. The area around the arch became known as “Little Chicago” because of the type of activity that went on there. A long-time resident of nearby Yarbo, Arkansas, once said of the arch, “It was a good place to go while the wife and kids were in church.”

Click on the photos to make them larger.

November 2, 2014

Lights in the Night

Mother, Curator Jessica and I took off for Steele this morning – eight miles from the Arkansas border – to photograph a Bootheel farmer I met at the Altenburg museum last week.

No journey ever takes us from Point A to Point B directly back to Point C, so we wandered around in New Madrid County for a bit, then meandered all over places that I’m not sure even the Lady in the Sky who lives in my GPS has ever heard of.

Let me explain the division of labor here: my job is to drive and keep us from getting killed by wayward 18-wheelers. The job of the Road Warriorette is that of Navigator, responsible for directing the Driver toward food and lodging (and, as we will find later, Natural Breaks).

We left New Madrid with the sun high in the sky and decided to find some roads that skirted the Mississippi River, some of which must have followed the paths of drunken cows. Shortly after I pointed out that we had already been through a particular intersection at least twice, we ended up going down a road aptly bearing a sign, Dead End, that led to a well-kept Sugar Tree Ridge Cemetery.

With the sun going down on one side and the moon coming up on the other, I suggested that Mother might want to start rationing the cookies we had brought along: “This might be a long night.”

A farmers work is never done

We weren’t the only ones picking our way though the dark: we spotted lights on farm equipment dotting the countryside.

We hadn’t seen a car behind us for an hour, but the moment I stopped in the road to take this photo, I heard the whizzz of one passing us. I’m glad he had room to pass: most of the bridges out there were labeled “One-Lane Bridge.” They didn’t bother to note that the road wasn’t much wider than the bridge.

A natural break

With 43 miles to go, my Navigator gently suggested that the trip would be much more pleasant for her if we would stop at the next convenient place for her to take, as they say in the Tour de France, a “natural break.”

While waiting for a chance to get back on I-55, we spotted this one-eyed truck coming toward us. Navigator Jessica asked if I had ever played “padiddle.”

Having led a sheltered life, I had to confess that I had heard the phrase, but didn’t know exactly how to play it or exactly what it was. My navigator demurred providing details.

Basic rules of Padiddle and Pedunk

Google being our friend, I was enlightened by the Urban Dictionary: A game in which you look for cars with headlight or foglight out (padiddle) [also spelled pididdle] or tail light (pedunk) and call it out. When someone correctly calls a padidle or pedunk, all members of the opposite sex present must remove an article of clothing.
Example: Padiddle! You have to take off your shirts.

Our trip from Missouri to Ohio has just become a lot more interesting.

As always, click on the photos to make them larger. Alas, there are no padiddling photos available.