Koran-Burning Preacher Terry Jones and Rush Limbaugh: Class of 69

Rush Limbaugh USED to be Cape Girardeau’s most prominent export. One of his classmates from the Central High School Class of 1969 is dominating the news right now: Terry Jones, the Gainesville, FL, preacher who is threatening to hold an “International Burn a Koran Day” on September 11.

In 2010, Jones published Islam is of the Devil, which denounces Islam as a violent faith.

His church also maintains a Gainesville boarding school, called the Dove World Outreach Academy. The Gainesville Sun newspaper reported that students of the academy are prohibited from outside and family contact including attendance at family weddings and funerals, and work without compensation selling, packing, and shipping furniture for TS and Company, a business owned by his current and second wife, Sylvia.

(His first wife was Lisa Barker, of Marble hill. She died of a heart attack in 1996.)

Equal opportunity hater

In March 2010, Dove World posted a sign saying “No Homo Mayor,” referring to Gainesville’s first openly gay mayor; after Americans United requested that the Internal Revenue Service investigate the sign as an undue participation of a non-political tax-exempt organization in the political process, the church then changed the sign to simply read “No Homo.”

On April 18, 2010, members of Dove World participated in a joint protest against homosexuality with the Westboro Baptist Church, a group known for disrupting the funerals of U.S. soldiers. On April 21, Dove World member Fran Ingram published a blog post proclaiming the church’s endorsements of the Westboro Baptist Church’s protests against homosexuality and homosexuals.

Left, right and actress denounce Jones

Jones has done a masterful job of uniting all ends of the political spectrum. Here is a short list of people who have denounced his book-burning plan:

The President of the United States, Barack Obama
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
Gen. David H. Petraeus (who says Jones’ actions will place Americans at risk, both here and on the battlefield)
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck
Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain
British Foreign Secretary William Hague
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
Franklin Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham (who has, himself, called Islam “evil.”
Actress and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ambassador Angelina Jolie

Actually, a list of supporters would be shorter. (I don’t know that Rush has weighed in.)

Terry Jones pitched for Cape Central Tigers

The photo above is from the 1969 Central High School Girardot yearbook.

An April 25, 1968, Southeast Missourian sports report said that “Terry Jones took the Central win with six strikeouts to his credit. Marvin Hammack’s single in the third was the only Green Dragon base hit, but Jones ran into control problems as he walked one man, hit another, and threw four wild pitches – one resulting in the Ste. Genevieve run in the second.” He batted twice, but went hitless.

[Editor’s note: looks like he had control problems even in high school.]

Jones awarded honorary doctorate

The Missourian carried this story about Jones receiving an honorary doctorate of divinity degree from California Theology School in 1993. A Philadelphia TV website describes the the California Theology School as being “an obscure school that boasts that it’s so independent it’s never been accredited.”

Former classmates remember Jones

Van Riehl noted, “I think this guy may have been on my Babe Ruth team, The Mets. Interestingly enough so was Rush Limbaugh. ”

Gregg Hopkins said, “I knew him the early 70s. He graduated from Central (I think) in 69. He was a funny, friendly guy back then, when he was dating my friend, Lisa. My how the years change some people. Every picture I’ve seen of him, he’s wearing an intense scowl. A couple of our Marble Hill friends figured out his connection about the same time I did. Sickening. His former in-laws, Lisa’s parents, are fine folks. I feel embarrassed for them.”

Rush Limbaugh High School Yearbook Photo

Here’s Rush (better known as “Rusty” back then) Limbaugh’s senior picture in the 1969 Girardot. He was on page 132. Terry Jones’ photo was on page 130. I don’t THINK they are on the same page today.

Editorial comment

Had I not been able to come up with the yearbook pictures, this is the photo I was planning to run with this piece. Terry Jones is a train wreck waiting to happen. Let’s hope his actions don’t provide the spark to ignite worldwide violence.

Frederick Douglas paraphrased Hosea 8:7: “When men sow the wind it is rational to expect that they will reap the whirlwind.”

[Note: thanks to Bill East for pointing me to the 1969 Girardot and to sis-in-law Marty Perry Riley for dragging out her 1968 yearbook and copying a picture from it.]

“When men sow the wind it is rational to expect that they will reap the whirlwind.”

Frederick Douglass

September 9, 2010

Broadway Demolition

When I first saw this photo, I thought it made have been the razing of the St. Charles Hotel on Main Street. I’m going to let you tell me what building is in the foreground, because I’m not sure. Here are some clues, though.

Criss Cross Cafe?

This photo, shot from a little more to the east shows a tantalizing amount of info. There’s a Pepsi sign advertising what looks like Criss or Cris Cross Cafe on the side of the building.

Like the movie Blowup

A 1966 British movie about a photographer who photographed what might have been a murder scene came to mind here. The photographer took the negative into the darkroom and made increasingly larger blowups of it trying to figure out if he really saw what he thought he saw. Of course, the bigger the enlargement, the more the image degrades, and the less sure he was.

Playing the British photographer, I blew up just a portion of the frame above, enhanced the contrast and applied some sharpening filters to bring out maximum detail. That provided a few more hints.

Clues to the location

There is a street sign that looks like it says Broadway.
There’s a Rt. 34 marker
There’s a Conoco Station sign.
There’s a three-story building with a doorway on the corner. It looks like it might be Finney’s Rexall Drug Store.
There’s some kind of parking, maybe for a hotel and / or cafe.

Did Subway shop replaced Finney’s?

This October 2009 photo looks like a Subway shop may have replaced Finney’s. A Google Earth aerial of the intersection shows a vacant lot at the northwest corner of Sprigg and Broadway today. That might mean that these workers razed the whole building, or it might have been taken down later.

Any idea what was in the building being torn down?

September 7, 2010April 11, 2021

Radioactive Teenage Girls

When I first ran across the photos of this giggle of girls in front of the Arena Building, I thought they might be refugees from some kind of band camp. One girl is strumming on a guitar, there’s at least one other guitar case there, and another girl has what appears to be a ukulele under her arm.

Ouija Boards and sleeping bags

Then I noticed a Careers board game, a Ouija Board, sleeping bags, canteens and other camping paraphernalia.

Is this a Girl Scout campout?

If it is, they certainly don’t travel light. They appear to be a thirsty bunch, too. I see canteens of various shapes, thermos bottles, an insulated jug and a pitcher. Those square boxes look like they might contain beauty aids. Or ham sandwiches.

Headed INTO the Arena Building

They weren’t meeting in front of the Arena Building to go somewhere, they were headed INTO the building. That’s interesting. If you have really sharp eyes, you can see a Civil Defense triangle on a box on the table at the top of the stairs. Maybe that’ll provide a clue to what’s going on.

What is that on her head?

There is some kind of signing up going on here. I covered lots of Boy and Girl Scout events, but I don’t every recall running into the ceremonial or protective headgear the girl at the table is wearing.

Elaborate forms to fill out

The forms these girls are holding look more formidable than the ones we face on April 15 every year. What ARE they up to?

Civil Defense and National Security

Then, I finally found the two frames that made it all clear. Notice the small box with the Civil Defense triangle on it the man is holding? It’s a Geiger Counter.

You have to remember that this was at the confluence of The Red Scare and the Dawn of Rock and Roll, you know, Devil’s Music.

The girls were suspected of being Radio Active

Some busybody neighbor must have heard these girls listening to rock n roll on the radio and passed the word to the local Civil Defense office. The message got garbled at each stage along the way until it finally read, “Scores of teenage girls in Cape Girardeau are radioactive.”

The next thing you know, buses were dispatched to snatch the girls and quarantine them in the Arena Building until they could be screened with Geiger Counters.

That’s my theory and I’m sticking to until someone can come up with a better one.

September 6, 2010

Riverside West vs ISC

Newspapers in the 60s and 70s didn’t expend a lot of ink covering women playing sports, so I didn’t shoot a lot of it.

All I know about this game is that some of the women have shirts with Riverside West and ISC on them. I wonder if ISC stood for International Shoe Company?

Limitations of electronic flash

Technically speaking, these pictures suck canal water. It was dark enough that I used a strobe to punch up the lighting. The problem is that strobes are great for stopping action – they have a very short duration – but the cameras of those days required you to use a slow shutter speed, generally around 1/60 of a second. That meant that you picked up ghosting and movement from the ambient light.

On top of that, the negatives were scratched up from being rolled up in a coffee can for 35 or 40 years.

Photo Gallery of Riverside West vs. ISC

Y’all have been getting really good of late at identifying people and places. Maybe you can fill in the details of this game. Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the photos to move through the gallery.