Cape Girardeau History and Photos

November 17, 2012

General Sherman, We Need You

I was making great progress heading back to Florida from Cape. The weather was great, traffic was light to moderate, everybody was pretty well-behaved.

Well, there was a bit of a delay at Monteagle Pass, but we’ll go into that another day. I’ve got a couple of different routes I take; this time I opted to go through Atlanta on 1-75. I’ve been lucky the last few times, blasting through the area in about 30 minutes with only a few taps on the brakes.

Coming into town just about dusk, I thought I was gong to catch a break again. See how nicely the traffic is spaced out?

Look at all the taillights

Alas, around the corner was a forest of red taillights as far as you could see. It took 1-1/2 hours to do what I have been doing in 30 minutes. The skies were clear. There were no wrecks. It was just like everybody confused and thought the Interstate was one big parking lot and they needed to practice for Black Friday.

General Sherman had the right idea

I’ve always been convinced that General Sherman had the right idea of what to do with Atlanta.

[Wife Lila, who always exhibits better taste than I do, objected to my General Sherman suggestion, pointing out the death and destruction he meted out on horrific March to the Sea. Atlanta, to me, has been the source of major traffic jams, is the home of the Atlanta Braves and was where our corporate HQ was located. None of those things endear the city to me. Maybe we could just build bypasses that bypass the bypasses that exist around the city and leave General Sherman to his rest.]

November 16, 2012

Marian Cliff Manor

On our way back to Cape after the James McMurtry concert in St. Louis and a pause at the Fourche a du Clos Valley Roadside Park, we rolled into the tiny town of St. Mary.

There’s not a lot to remember about St. Mary

It was (maybe still is) a notorious speed trap on Highway 61 (Highway 25 for REAL oldtimers).
Much of the town has been lost to Mississippi River flooding.
You don’t have to cross the Mississippi River to get to Illinois from there.
It’s where you turn off to go to Kaskaskia to see the Liberty Bell of the West.
There used to be a spooky old building up on the hill overlooking the town.

Built by slaves

The spooky old building is now a perky red and is a residential care unit. The Marian Cliff Manor’s website says that it was built with the help of slaves in 1861. The white tower was used by the Confederate sympathizer owner to view the movement of Union troops. Over time, it has been used by a number of religious non-profit groups. It is home for about 50 disabled veterans today.

November 16, 2012November 10, 2023

Mother’s Gone Nuts

I mentioned the other day that Mother and I picked up pecans in Dutchtown on one of our jaunts. As soon as we got home, she dug out the Rocket Nutcracker that’s been cracking Steinhoff pecans for better than half a century. She clamped it in the vise on Dad’s workbench and went to digging in the basement food cupboard he built at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Before long she found the very same cigar box and nut pick he used sitting his recliner, watching TV and filling jar after jar with nuts.

Metal fatigue caused handle to break

The metal fatigue from cracking thousands of nuts eventually caused the handle to break, but that didn’t stop Dad. He just welded the handle back on.

You can buy one that looks just like this one except that it has a wooden handle at the end.

She’s ready for more

I figured cracking and picking out the nuts would keep her off the street this weekend, but, no, she got them all cracked and picked out in about four days. She’s ready to go out picking up more.

Pecan cracking photo gallery

Here’s a gallery of photos of Mother hard at work cracking pecans. Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left or right side to move through the gallery.

November 15, 2012December 28, 2014

Casino at Night

Back in 1966, I shot a neat time exposure of Wimpy’s Drive-In showing the traffic patterns in the streaks of light left by cars going by and into the teen hangout. I had hoped to shoot something similar of the Isle Casino Cape Girardeau the night of November 10.

Unfortunately for the photo, the parking lot was pretty quiet. It was about two-thirds full, but there wasn’t much cruising for parking spots. You can click on the photos to make them larger.

10,000 visit in first two days

The Missourian ran a math-filled story about the first two days the casino was open. The numbers were confusing enough that they updated the story to try to get the math right. I’m not even going to attempt it, so read their version.

I figured the casino would cause the lights to go out at the bingo joint near the public library, so we drove by there after shooting the casino photos. Much to my surprise, the bingo parking lot was about two-thirds full. There must be a lot of loyal players in the Cape area.