Cape Girardeau History and Photos

April 20, 2013

Plaid Shirt School Uniforms?

I stumbled across this shot from a Central High School pep rally. I didn’t want to put a name to the cheerleader, but I notice a “67” on the C on the front of her sweater, if that helps you narrow her down. (You can click on it to make it larger.)

The photo was taken Friday, September 9, 1966. I know that because the next frame over was of a fatal car crash at the intersection of I-55 and Hwy 61 intersection between Cape and Jackson. It’s one I remember well. Too well, in fact.

I never come to that stoplight without looking both ways before pulling out, even if I have the green.

Detail, details

I blew up the image on the screen and started looking for details in the crowd. The first thing I noticed was a handful of girls wearing handmade Tiger spirit badges made out of construction paper. That’s a dead giveaway that they were probably freshmen.

As I scrolled down the row, I was going to comment about how loafers were the shoe of the day, but I didn’t see a single penny in any of them.

That’s when spotted what had to be the unofficial school uniform for boys: at least 10 of these guys were wearing plaid shirts. I don’t know if it was a coordinated effort (knowing guys, I doubt it) or a coincidence.

The pep rally must not have been too successful because Saturday’s Missourian said “Lean Chicks Take Advantage of Tigers’ First Game Mistakes.” The Blytheville (Ark.) Chicks defeated the Tigers 27-13 in Central’s opener at Blytheville.

April 19, 2013

Chaffee Hwy 77 Bridge Hearing

Many photographers hated covering meetings, but I usually didn’t mind. Even dull but necessary governmental hearings offered up opportunities for interesting portraits and studies in body language. (You can click on the photos to make them larger.)

This meeting was to bring together all the principle players to hear why it was taking so long to complete a bridge over the Cotton Belt Railroad tracks on Hwy 77 north of Chaffee. The project had kept the most direct route out of and into town blocked for more than a year.

The Missourian’s caption said “Chaffee residents demonstrated their concern Saturday with the slow pace of construction on Highway 77 at a hearing held by Jack Stapleton and Albert C. Riley of the State Highway Commission. Mayor Robert H. Capshaw of Chaffee gestures as he describes problems created by the construction. Clockwise around the table are, Elbert Masters, Maurice Montgomery, R.P.Stephens, contractor for the project, W.D. Carney, District 10 highway engineer; Mr. Riley and Mr. Stapleton.”

A trip to the construction site

I never met a barrier you couldn’t walk around, so I shot this picture of the movers and shakers looking through the barricade.

They got bold

When the group saw nothing bad happened to me, they moved closer. Yep, there’s no bridge there.

Mayor makes his points

The Missourian said, “Mayor Capshaw describes the highway problem to Mr. Stapleton as Keith Moore and Mr. Masters look on.

One day there will be a bridge here

There’s still a long way to go before a bridge is going to sit atop that pier.

Do NOT do this!!!

I was doing a freelance job for a railroad insurance adjuster when I did what this guy is doing: I walked on the rail.

“Do you know what one of the most common injuries I see?” the adjuster asked.

“What?”

“People who are walking on the rail like you are. When their foot slips off, it slices the ankle bone clean off.”

I never walked a rail again.

Not a happy crowd

You can tell this crowd is not happy by the dour expressions and the crossed arms.

W.D. Carney, the District 10 highway engineer disputed a statement made by Mayor Capshaw that the Chaffee Merchants had been damaged by the shutdown of the highway. “This is not true,” the paper reported he said.

“Town is not divided”

Mayor Capshaw asked permission to interrupt and asked for a a show of hands from those in the audience if they thought Chaffee had been done an injustice by the highway department. Every hand in the room was raised.

“Don’t come and tell us we have not been done an injustice,” Mr. Capshaw directed at Mr. Carney. “This town is not divided in its opinion we have been done an injustice.”

The crowd was so big it spilled over into the corridor and out onto the lawn.

Albert C. Riley

This is Albert C. Riley of the State Highway Commission. I don’t know who the reporter is who is behind him. I don’t think he was with The Missourian.

Jack Stapleton

Jack Stapleton of the State Highway Commission

April 18, 2013May 9, 2016

Alice Godwin at Cape Airport

I shot Alice Godwin at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport on April 12, 1967, but I can’t find the story that I know ran. I looked at every Missourian over a three-week period and couldn’t find a single word about her or why she was putting a plaque in a showcase.

For what it’s worth, this is a nice portrait of a woman in a cockpit. I’m sure I didn’t use fill flash, so I must have gotten lucky with an overcast sky that kept it from being too contrasty.

Not-bad plaque picture

If you have to shoot a cliche picture, you might as well do it well. This is better than average. I just wish I could read what the plaque says.

Like Terry Eiler, my Magazine and Newspaper Photography instructor wrote across one of my college assignments, “Congratulations. You are now a better than average hack.”

First thought was Powder Puff Derby

My first thought was maybe this might have been related to when the Powder Puff Derby came to Cape in 1966, but I couldn’t confirm it.

Here are some aviation stories from over the years.

[Editor’s note: I originally identified this woman as Alice Higgins, but David Seesing set me straight: “The lady in the photo is Alice Godwin wife of John Godwin. John and J.T. Seesing owned Cape Central Airways. Alice and John competed and won numerous aviation competitions. I have since updated the post.]

April 17, 2013April 18, 2013

Drops of Rain

I had four situations on a roll of film: the St. Charles Hotel, the Indpendence traffic jam, the actual assignment (I’ll publish it later) and this random shot of rain drops.

I probably shot the assignment at the airport, then cruised around looking for stuff to burn up the rest of the roll.

There were four frames of the raindrops, but I like this one with a drop making its escape at the bottom the best.

The key to shooting something like this is to shoot so that only the important part of the photo is sharp. I probably used a 105mm or 200mm telephoto set at a wide aperture so there would be very little depth of field – in other words only a little of the frame would be sharp.

Through a screen fuzzily

This looks like it was shot though the screen on our side porch. It’s interesting, but not interesting enough that I was going to spend much time spotting out some ugly scratches at the bottom.

Nikon D7000

I got a box in the mail Tuesday with a shiny Nikon D7000 in it. I mentioned that my Nikon D3100 started hiccuping on my way back from Cape in March. I thought it might have gotten a bit sticky from experiencing cold weather. It turned out that a piece had been rattling around for almost a year after I crashed on my bike. It’s been out of service for a couple of weeks and a couple of hundred bucks.

(By the way, if you are interested in buying those cameras, click on the links and I’ll get a piece of the action to help pay for MY camera. Also BTW, the first link to the Nikon D7000 is for a body by itself. If you want the basic Nikkor 18-55mm lens with it, you’d go here.)

It dawned on me that had it crapped out at the beginning of the trip instead of the end, I’d have been in a lot of trouble. That gave me an excuse to buy a second, much improved camera body. That will also mean I don’t have to switch lenses when I use the 55-200mm lens birthday present the boys bought me.

The only thing is that I’ve had it almost 12 hours and I haven’t had the nerve to so much as put the camera strap on it. The operating manual is about as thick as War and Peace and just about as easy to understand as the Russian language version of the book.

I long for the days when I could eyeball the exposure, focus on what was important and change the shutter speeds and f/stops by feel. The camera shouldn’t be smarter than the photographer.

Wow, half a century

I was talking with the Athens County Historical Society Museum curator Jessica Cyders this morning. She was putting together a bio for an upcoming exhibit and wanted to know when I got into the newspaper business. “April 17 – HEY! That’s today – 1963. I was 16 and didn’t even have my driver’s license when my first picture appeared on the front page of The Missourian.” Today would have been my Dad’s birthday, too. He would have been 96, which puts him on the verge of being old.”