Cape Girardeau History and Photos

December 31, 2020

I Struck Gold on New Year’s Eve

I have to admit that I’m worth less at the end of 2020 than at the beginning. (Some of you might charge that I’m worthless all the time, but that’s a different spelling and a different thing.)

Every year when I’d go back to Florida at the end of the year, Wife Lila would have me make the rounds of doctors who would examine me, literally, from head to toe.

I couldn’t figure out if she was trying to determine if it was worthwhile to let nature take its course or if she’d have to help it along in order to collect my life insurance.

Anyway, my dentist gave me a laundry list of stuff that needed to be taken care of, but I had to get back to Missouri, and I put it off until I could find a Cape dentist who would take my insurance and knock me out with nitrous oxide.

At least some undertaker didn’t harvest it

On the last day of the year, I went in to have an old crown replaced. The doc said it was gold, something that was commonly used when the precious metal was cheaper (now that I think of it, Dad had a gold filling in one of his front teeth).

When I jokingly asked him if I’d get a discount if he kept the gold, he said that I’d be going home with it, and that some of his patients DID sell it.

He also noted that some old-time undertakers would offer to harvest the gold from their guests’ mouths in exchange for a reduced bill. (You have to ask yourself how many unscrupulous undertakers mined for gold just before the lid was screwed down.)

A quick internet search said that the price of gold fluctuates so much that it’s hard to set a price, but it’s generally fifty bucks or less.

December 26, 2020

I DID Have Christmas Decorations

While sitting on the throne on Christmas, I looked to my right and realized that the house DID have decorations up.

These towels have been hanging there for no telling how long. I know they’ve been there since Mother died in 2015. It just never dawned on me until today that they were seasonal.

Obviously, I don’t use them.

I started to crop out the lacy thing on the right, but decided to leave it for historical accuracy, and as a sample of earlier customs. It’s a loop that was designed to hold extra rolls of toilet paper.

I don’t use it, either, but I’ve left it up for sentimental reasons. Any of the Steinhoff Clan who would like to claim it can speak up. I’ll even pay the postage.

December 23, 2020

The House in a Hole Is History

Back in 2014, Niece Laurie asked if I knew the story behind the “house in a hole” on Campster Drive just north of the Drury Inn. I had always wondered about it, too. so went to my best source, Mother.

She knew the woman who lived there, Mrs. Earl Siemers, from church, but she didn’t think she’d talk with me.

I gave it a shot, but Mother was right, as I should have known. Mrs. Siemers would talk with me only if I promised it would be off the record. In the real world, I’d have honored the request, but then I would have done an end-run to find a source who WOULD tell me the whole story. You folks don’t pay me enough to go to all that trouble, so I left things vague.

I posted a photo of the house and an aerial map, and, true to form, my readers told me “the rest of the story.”

Click on the photos to make them larger, then use your back-arrow to go back to the story.

Laurie the Stalker

Niece Laurie must be some kind of House in the Hole stalker because she tipped me in November that it looked like the house was going to be demolished.

It was almost sundown when I got around to checking it out, so the light wasn’t great. It did look like the white siding had been stripped off the building, so I figured its days were numbered.

What’s funny is that the photos I liked best were not of the house. I loved the trees, outbuilding and leaves in the late, Golden Hour light.

Dandelion and leaves

I was impressed with the last dandelion of the season struggling to peek out from beneath the leaves.

The Things Left Behind

I’ve always been a sucker for the things that are left behind when homes are abandoned. I raised the question, “What would you take?” to go with a blog post about an abandoned house in St. Mary.

I wondered how many flies that swatter had dispatched in its life.

Here was the naked house

I didn’t spend much time shooting the house because the light was lousy, and the building wasn’t all that interesting in its naked state. (I bet that’s the first time I’ve written that.)

Soon nothing will be left but memories

When I was running errands on Tuesday, I happened to look over the hill and saw that the yellow Cat had ripped out the trees I liked so much, knocked down the outbuilding, and crunched the house down to the basement.

If a few days, all that will be left will be memories, and those will fade, too.

November 19, 2020November 20, 2020

Power to the People

Charging stations at Schnucks 11-17-2020

Charging stations for four electric cars have been added to the Schnucks parking lot in Cape.

Here’s the press release from Ameren. I am pleased to announce that I managed to compose this post using only one pun. Still, I hope you get a charge out of it. (Oops.)