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New Library at Old Central

I can’t help it. It might be a junior high school today, but it’s still Central High School to me. I wondered what they were adding to MY school this summer. By the time I was getting ready to leave, it had taken shape enough to figure out that it was going to be a new library.

Photos of the old and new high school libraries

Gallery of new library photos

Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery.

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Mike Schuette Memorial

I missed Mike Shuette’s memorial service, but managed to make it by Capaha Park to see his stone and to capture city workers grading the infield. The memorial wasn’t where I thought it might be, so I asked a city worker for help. He led me right to it.

It’s sitting a little back from the field, but the guy said they are going to be making some changes to the facility, so they put it far enough back that they wouldn’t have to move it.. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

Brad Brune’s tribute

Brad Brune posted this on the Class of 1966 Facebook fan page. I can’t improve on it.

Dear Friends of Mike Schuette,

 Mike’s Wake and the internment of his memorial stone went off without a hitch. It was a beautiful Summer day at historic Capaha Park, and there was an American Legion Baseball Game scheduled for later in the afternoon. Mike was in his now permanent celebrity seating with a great view of the field by game time. We couldn’t have planned it better.

 Though the weather was extremely HOT and HUMID as has been the norm this Spring and Summer here in the River City… attendees kept amply hydrated with soft and adult beverages supplied by your kind donations. Thanks again. Some fitting toasts and numerous old stories were offered and enjoyed by all. It was indeed a bitter-sweet occasion as you would guess, but I assure you the laughs and good feelings won out easily.

 We had hoped Mike’s beautiful flowering cherry tree would be planted by now, however the unseasonably hot and dry Spring prevented it. I will follow up some more photos this Fall when it is added.

Unique tribute stone

 With the cooperation of Liley Monument Company we were able to design and create a one of a kind tribute stone for Mike with two special corings in the bottom for most of Mike’s cremations. We had to get special permission from the Cape Girardeau Parks Department, and we appreciate their cooperation and understanding.

Every kid who slides into second…

However,we felt it unwise to advertise our intentions to also make Mike forever an meaningful part of the “Infield Soil” around his beloved 2nd Base. This feat was accomplished without notice fortunately, and the park grounds crew was none the wiser. Just a few old fat guys walking around the infield remembering their lost youth and fond days gone by.

[Editor’s note: y’all weren’t as unnoticed as you might have thought. When I mentioned that the guys grading the infield were shuffling one of my classmates, the park guy just smiled.]

 Randy Smith (Mike’s chosen “keeper of the Ashes”) and I then drove to St. Mary’s Memorial Park off Perryville road and to the site of the Schuette grave site. As was Mike’s desire some of his cremations were scattered on his parent’s graves. This will also be the location of his Veteran’s Memorial Plaque commemorating his service to his country and the US Army during the Vietnam War. His father, Lester, was also a proud veteran of WWII and his plaque is on the back side of the Schuette grave stone.

It was a great day all around and I feel some relief in a treasured task nearly completed. We are still waiting for Mike’s brick on the Memorial Wall at the VFW Post to be placed, and this October hopefully his flowering cherry tree will be planted next to his marker at Capaha. If there are any funds left after final accounting we will come up with another small but fitting gesture to make in brother Schuette’s honor.

 Thank you again to all who participated in this good venture, and if you have not donated for what ever reason, feel free to make a small donation to your favorite charity, or an organization dear to Mike, in his name.

Sincerely,

Brad.

Photos and mentions of Mike

Brad and some of his eagle-eyed brethren have spotted or mentioned their buddy Mike in some of the old stories:

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Stalking Wild Asimina Triloba

Mother came in from hanging up the laundry in the back yard bearing something the looked like a soft peanut on steroids. She said it was a pawpaw, known formally as an Asimina Triloba. It’s a distant relative of the Custard Apple, and it’s considered the largest edible fruit native to America. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

Where’d they come from?

There’s an excellent website that says they are “native to the temperate woodlands of the eastern U.S. The American Indian is credited with spreading the pawpaw across the eastern U.S. to eastern Kansas and Texas, and from the Great Lakes almost to the Gulf. Fossils prove the pawpaw is indigenous to the U.S.”

The ones in our back yard have a less exciting origin than being spread by American Indians. Mother said forty-plus years ago Dad brought home a big batch of them from a jobsite. After we had eaten all (more) than we wanted, he pitched the remainder over the fence into the cow pasture behind us.

How do pawpaws grow?

Dad didn’t know it, but he pitched them in just about a perfect place for them to grow. The website says they prefer a humid continental climate. The young plant requires filtered sun for its first year or two. Once established, they prefer full sun. That probably explains why our trees never got too big: they were too shaded by the walnut trees. Because they are on a fairly steep hillside, they stay well-drained. Years and years of being used as a cow pasture provided them with plenty of “organic fertilizer high in potassium.”

I had never considered cold to be essential to plant growth, but pawpaws “require a minimum of 400 hours of winter chill and at least 160 frost-free days.” To break dormancy, the site says, the seeds require exposure to cold temperatures for 90 to 120 days.

Fruit looks a little like a mango

Gardener Lila has several good photos of the mangoes in our back yard in Florida here and here. Pawpaws don’t grow as large as our mangoes, though; they top out at 5 to 16 ounces and three to six inches in length. The pawpaws also have that elongated peanut shape when they’re ripe.

Chiggers have been waiting

There’s still a little bit of the old wire fencing separating our yard from the former cow pasture. My buddies and I used to climb it frequently to roam and camp in Mr. Hale’s fields. I couldn’t get a good angle for my photos, so I tentatively climbed up on the fence just like I had when I was 10 years old. Mr. Hale bought a good brand of fence, because it was still sturdy enough to hold my weight. It’s comforting to know that I can still climb a fence. (He had a couple of bulls that offered encouragement for doing it quickly when I was a kid.)

The local chigger contingent must have remembered how tender that 10 year-old-boy was and put out the word that he was back after half a century. I was down in their neighborhood for no more than 15 minutes, but I picked up at least half a dozen hitchhikers behind my knees and thighs that kept me itching for a week.

My readers must like me to suffer. Some of you were kind enough to punch the DONATE button at the top left of the page after I told the sad story of my bee encounter at Franklin School. The bee that left his stinger in my upper lip hurt a lot more, but those chigger bites drove me crazy night and day, no matter what concoctions I slathered on them. Hint, hint.

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