Cape Girardeau History and Photos

November 16, 2015

2015 Altenburg Christmas Trees

The Altenburg Lutheran Heritage Center & Museum has brought back their ever-popular Christmas tree display. The museum has undergone some major renovations to make more room for genealogical research, so I was wondering how they were going to find space for all the trees I had seen in previous years.

Director Carla Jordan said they have about the same 47 give-or-take trees they’ve always had, but they’ve made more efficient use of the space available. I’ve been going to the exhibit since 2010, and I recognize some ornaments, but they are used in different ways, so don’t think just because you’ve seen it once that it’ll look the same.

If you are looking for decorating ideas before putting up your own tree, you’ll find some great ideas here. The museum is open daily 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free (and the place has the cleanest bathrooms in SE MO). The volunteer staff will make you feel right at home. This was one of my mother’s favorite places. It’s a pleasant 30-mile drive from Cape over some beautiful farm country. The exhibit will be up from now through January 15.

Earlier exhibits

Christmas tree photo gallery

Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.

November 13, 2015March 1, 2022

The Night Belongs to Me

I like roaming the streets at night. Maybe part of it is that I don’t like to get up early. Even most of my bicycle riding was done as the sun was going down and later. The streets were quieter. People weren’t in as much of a hurry. It was fun cruising through neighborhoods chatting with people walking their dogs, pushing baby strollers or rolling their garbage cans to the curb.

If you saw a flickering light in a darkened room, you knew the residents were watching TV; if the light was steady, they were on their computer. If their windows were open, you could smell their dinners cooking, and maybe even guess what part of the country or world they were from by those fragrances.

After I dropped off my late-night meeting or sports photos at The Missourian (so I wouldn’t have to get up early in the morning to do it), I’d roam up and down the streets and alleys listening to police calls, talking to the night watchmen or just enjoying a city asleep. The cops all knew my car, so they never stopped me to see if I was up to something.

View from Fort A

The view from what had once been Civil War Fort A at the end of Bellvue is arguably the prettiest view of Cape Girardeau. I wish I had been there 15 minutes earlier so the barge would have shown up better in the reflections of lights on the river. Of course, had I been there 15 minutes earlier, the boat would have been below the bridge, and it wouldn’t have mattered what the light level was. As it turned out, I had to wait about five minutes for it to get where it is here.

KFVS antenna farm

Coming down the hill from Bellvue on North Lorimier from Fort A, my eye was drawn to the KFVS tower and the antenna farm behind it. I drove past, wondering if it was worth a shot. When I saw the crescent moon over the Marquette Hotel. I circled the block and was lucky enough to find a parking spot just about where I needed to shoot. (You can click on the photos to make them larger, by the way.)

A car pulled in across the street just about the time I got out of mine. The driver must have wondered what I was up to, because I could sense he was watching me. Finally, when I opened the door to get back into my van, he got out and walked across the street. I didn’t stick around to see if he went into KFVS or walked down the hill to what used to be the the N’Orleans, the brick building on the left.

The antenna on the right is a twin to the iconic one on the last hill on Highway 61 coming into Cape from Jackson.

November 13, 2015

Preying Mantis and Winter Wheat

While cruising around the Bootheel this afternoon, I noticed lots of fields sporting what looked like green, green grass. I asked my guide, David Kelley, what had been planted.

He’s gotten used to my total lack of farming knowledge, so he didn’t even give me the head-shake, eye-roll I deserved. “It’s winter wheat.”

“We’ve already had one night below freezing. The cold weather doesn’t hurt it?”

“Nope.” (I discovered that wheat planted in autumn needs the cold weather to make it “head” in the spring.)

The irrigation system made me think of a huge preying mantis making its way across the field. (Clicking on the photos make them larger.)

Trucks at night

I was a little drowsy, so I pulled into the truck stop at the intersection of I-55 and 80 in New Madrid county for a short nap. It was still light when I stopped, but the sun had just dropped below the horizon when I headed out of the parking lot.

Even though it’s the same intersection where Curator Jessica spotted a Padiddle last year, I couldn’t pass up shooting a picture that will help me illustrate how the Interstate has siphoned traffic off Highway 61.

November 12, 2015

Asian Aliens Invade

I don’t think the Asian lady beetle invasion is as bad as it was several years ago, but there were plenty of them out and about on Saturday. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

Various extension service websites say the insects, which resemble our home-grown lady bugs, were imported as early as 1916 to eat aphids and other soft-bodied insects. It’s only been in the last 30 years that they have established themselves pretty much all over the country.

Wife Lila bought 1,500 native lady bugs to control pests in her raised vegetable gardens. Her brightly colored bugs weren’t nearly so prolific as the foreigners (although you can see them giving it a go to increase their numbers in an R-rated video on Wife Lila’s gardening blog).

They’re looking for somewhere to spend the winter

In their native Japan, the bugs spend the winter en masse in rocky outcrops on the sides of mountains. In the U.S., though, they are attracted to light-colored buildings and human houses, where they enter through cracks, crevices and small openings.

The University of Florida reported that 15-20 thousand of the beetles will invade a single house. A large infestation can be heard moving around inside the walls as they look for a cool place to spend the winter. In Florida, they may not be happy with the warm temperatures inside the walls, so they’ll find an opening that will take them into the air-conditioned interior.

Do they bite or sting?

Most sites say that their only defense is to emit a yellowish, acrid secretion that can stain surfaces. A Kentucky entomologist writes that when there is a large infestation, some of the insects may land on (and, trust me, UNDER) clothing. Lady beetles, being insect-eaters, have chewing mouthparts, and can bite or “pinch.” The bite, he says, feels like a pinprick and is seldom serious.

If they get into your house in large quantities, one way to get rid of them is to chase them down with a vacuum cleaner. It is suggested to create a “trap” inside the cleaner’s hose to “bag” them instead of collecting inside the machine, where their acrid secretion can give your vacuum bad breath for a long time.