Cape Girardeau History and Photos

May 25, 2013

Majorettes and Others

Here’s a fact of Internet life: you get a lot more search engine traffic if you have the word “Majorettes” in the headline than if you say “Boring Guys in Suits.”

You’re going to get a mixed bag today. All the negative sleeve says is Jaycee Golf Awards – CHS majorettes, teachers 64-65.” I’m going to guess they were shot for The Girardot rather than The Tiger.

Your homework assignment

I know that school is out soon, but you have one more assignment before the final bell rings: identify these people and what they are doing. I could root through the old Girardots, but that’s what I have you folks for.

Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the sides to move through the gallery. OK, you may pick up your pencils.

May 24, 2013March 2, 2021

Ford Maverick – $1995*

These guys were ready to sell you ‘the first car of the 1970s at 1960 prices.” Step right up and drive off with a Ford Maverick for $1995. There’s an asterisk after the $1995, so that’s probably where they tell you that the tires, engine, steering wheel and seats are extra.

Are car salesmen born or made?

I hated shooting advertising photos. Partially because you ended up having to take hokey shots like this; partially because the next time you ran into them at a news event, they thought they still owned you. It gave me a great deal of pleasure to disabuse them of that idea.

These were taken for The Athens Messenger in April 1969. Based on the expression, these guys didn’t seem to think there was anything unusual about pretending to be roped cowboys (I’m not sure I understand that symbolism). I guess they figured anything goes so long as they met their quota.

Cape car dealer ads

Here are some Cape car ads that ran in the 1956 Sesquicentennial booklet. I think one of the most curious slogans was in the Clark Buick ad: “We will deal until we deal.” They must have offered a pretty good deal to get Dad to buy our 1959 Buick LaSabre station wagon from them. Whoever did the Goodwin Motor Co. ad didn’t quite know the difference between the “roll” and the “role” of a Mercury-Lincoln dealer (it “is of ever increasing importance to Cape Girardeau”).

If you want to read about the early days of automobiles in Cape, follow this link. Here’s a piece on “Rusty” and Rueseler Chevrolet.

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May 23, 2013

Cape Cut Rate Endangered

The Cape Girardeau Historic Preservation Commission announced its list of 11 of the city’s most endangered buildings in hopes of raising awareness about the building’s uncertain futures.

One of the buildings is the old Cape Cut Rate Drug Store at 635 Good Hope, the southeast corner of Good Hope and Sprigg. I’ve been shooting the building for at least three or four years, but I kept putting off doing a story until I got the photo I wanted. I guess it’s time to go with what I’ve got.

Going to be teen club

I was on a bike ride a couple of summers ago when I noticed a dumpster in front of the building and some work going on. I stuck my head inside and was told that someone was going to fix it up for use as a teen hangout to give neighborhood kids a place to go. I didn’t have the equipment with me to shoot in the dark, so I said I’d come back. That was the last time I saw any activity in the place.

Roof peeling off

In the few minutes I spent inside the old drug store, I could see that the roof had been leaking for quite some time and that the interior was charred like it had caught fire at some point. I happened by the place on a windy day and say big pieces of roofing material flapping in the wind, so I know where the water came from.

A regular stop

No telling how many times I passed through these doors because we spent a fair amount of time in the Haarig district.

Dad’s construction office was in Farmers and Merchants Bank, the place we did our banking.

I got my hair cut by Ed Unger at the Stylerite Barbershop.

We bought our ice from the Pure Ice Company

Suedkum Hardware was better than Disney World. (Or course, Disney World hadn’t been invented yet.)

You hoped you weren’t sick enough to see Dr. Herbert

If it was REALLY serious, you went to St. Francis Hospital

We could buy clothes at Schades and shop for groceries at Hirsch’s Midtown.

At Sprigg and William, in the next block up, you could go to church at St. Mary’s, buy a car at Clark Buick and a TV from Lorberg’s.

In later years, we’d stop in to see Doris.

What is Haarig?

Haarig was the heavily German section of Cape Girardeau. You can read about the history of Harrig and its buildings in this National Register of Historic Places registration form. Here is a list of last year’s endangered buildings.

Old Jefferson School has been removed because it was torn down.

635 Good Hope Photo Gallery

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May 22, 2013

Bill Cosby in Concert

SEMO Classmate, photo buddy and, eventually, best man, Andy McLean introduced me to Bill Cosby. Andy had every Cosby LP every pressed and had memorized every routine until he could do them better than Cosby.

So, when I had a chance to see Cosby in concert at Ohio University in 1969, I snagged two tickets for Fiance Lila and me. We had a front-row seat for his performance in the round (OK, it was in the square, but I didn’t do all that hot in geometry, so I didn’t quibble).

Unusual experience

This was an unusual concert for me. Usually I’m so busy shooting the show from every angle, including the overhead catwalks, that the actual performance is a blur to me. Well, my pictures are sharp, but my memory of what the artist performed is fuzzy. This time, though, I enjoyed the performance as a civilian. I still shot pictures from my seat, but I got to enjoy the show.

Depending on your generation, you may remember Cosby as Fat Albert, Cliff Huxtable or the guy who pitched Jell-O, but he’ll always be Noah to me.

“Come around, Idiot, Come around”

Cosby’s routine about driving a stick shift in San Fransisco resonated with me. See, Athens is said to be built on seven hills, and some of them are ungodly steep. Usually with a stop sign at the top of them.

I had never driven a manual transmission before, but I wanted a Volkswagen Squareback. I bought the car and trusted that Lila could teach me how to drive it. Trust me, if your girlfriend can teach you to drive a stick and still be willing to marry you, then you better snatch her up.

There was one killer hill (with a stop sign) on the way from the house to the office. She taught me the technique of pushing the clutch down with my left foot, putting my right foot on the gas, holding up on the emergency brake with my right hand, and frantically waving my left arm out the window while shouting, like Cosby, “Come around, Idiot, Come around.”

Did he cut it short?

I had a coworker on The OU Post who thought Cosby had cheated the audience by putting on a short show. If it WAS shorter than usual, the audience around me didn’t seem to mind.

Well, maybe Andy could have done it better, but I was pleased with the performance.

Other performances

I was telling someone the other day that I’m embarrassed to have shot a bunch of performances and paid so little attention to them that I don’t know if they were famous or not when I run across the negatives. Here are some I DO remember:

Bill Cosby photo gallery

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