Cape Girardeau History and Photos

October 28, 2015

A Model Hobby

Dad and I spent many a winter evening building plastic models of ships and planes. Well, to be more accurate, I sat at the table WATCHING Dad build plastic models of ships and planes.

He was a follow-the-directions kind of guy, so he would get frustrated when I skipped around and ended up having to take apart stuff that I had assembled out of order. Before long I would be relegated to applying decals and sorting parts.

One of our largest projects – at least in size – was The U.S.S. United States. It wasn’t the most complicated, but it lit up and it was about two feet long.

A memorial to my Grandfather

Here’s something about the model I never told anyone: when my grandfather, Roy Welch, died when I was 10, I wiped all the dust off the deck and vowed that I would only dust half of it in the future as a way of remembering the passage of time since I had lost him.

When I took it down from the attic to put in a box of stuff going to Annie Laurie’s Antiques, I looked for the dust demarcation, but 30 or 40 years had made it ALL dusty.

Despite that, I still remember my Roi Tan cigar-chomping grandfather. I guess I really didn’t need the U.S.S. United States to do that.

October 28, 2015

Fish On My Windshield

It was time to run some errands this afternoon. My first stop was to turn around and put on a long-sleeve shirt and to ditch the sandals for socks and shoes. It was one of my first tastes of what I remember Missouri winters to be like. It wasn’t all that cold, but it was gray, drizzling with just a tiny dose of ugly mixed in.

I turned the ignition key, decided I didn’t need to activate the seat warmers yet, flipped the switch to clear the rain off the rear window, then reached for the front wiper to flick off rain droplets and a plethora of leaves.

That’s when it suddenly felt like I was INSIDE an aquarium looking at fish swimming through a field of bubbles.

We don’t see this in Florida

I apologize for the recent flood of fall foliage photos, but we don’t get colors like this in South Florida. The only way we can tell the seasons are changing is by watching the color of the tourist license tags.

It won’t take too many depressing gray days before I start digging through my files for pictures of sun, beaches and palm trees, so be patient.

October 27, 2015

Gravel Hill Methodist Church

A search for fall colors took me past a neat, well-kept white frame church at the corner of Highway 34 and Route U near the Cape – Bollinger county line close to Crump.There was nothing really spectacular about it, but my rule of thumb is that if it catches my attention, then it deserves at least a couple frames. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

There was a fairly modern sign post out front that proclaimed it was New McKendree at Lake Girardeau. There was space below the name for a message, but it was left empty.

Renee Gordon

I was just about to pull out of the parking lot when a woman walked by. I gave her a wave, which she returned. When she unlocked the door, I asked if I could take a look inside.

It turned out the woman was Renee Gordon, who was hoping to close on the building this week. She plans to turn it into an art studio, gallery and school of the arts.

The church has changed names several times over the years, having been known as the Gravel Hill Methodist Church for a long time. She thought the building might be as much as 125 years old, but I found a 1997 Missourian story about Cape county churches that said the fieldstone foundation made it look like it might have been built in the 1930s. In 1997, the church still had an outhouse. It has a modern kitchen and bathrooms today.

Great space for a studio

I expected to see a dimly-lit, rundown auditorium with rows of dark pews lining the room, but Renee said what you see is essentially what the church left – open space with nice lighting and beautiful floors. It also still has the bell in the tower, and a rope hangs down in the lobby / kitchen area if you are moved to ring it (I didn’t want to ask).

A scan of the Missourian’s archive turned up lots of funeral services, potluck dinners, homecoming affairs and other typical happenings of a small rural church.

One story DID catch my eye: in 1927 a man (I don’t think it’s necessary to name him after all these years) was given a fine of $20 and 15 days in jail for disturbing religious worship at the Gravel Hill Methodist church, “but he was paroled as to the jail sentence pending good behavior.”

October 26, 2015

Searching for Fall Color

I went out looking for colorful leaves a couple times in the last week. The sun was bright and the sky blue on the first day, but the leaves hadn’t turned yet. The last couple of days have been a bit overcast with passing drizzles, but I did the best with what I had to work with.

Color came looking

After driving all over Cape and Bollinger counties, I took a short nap, then headed out to pick up some groceries. This is what hit me as soon as I opened the door. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sky as blood-red as this one. Even the Boltons across the street were marveling at the sight. Based on the number of Facebook posts I’ve seen, everyone in Cape must have been standing slack-jawed in their yards.

Not more than two minutes after this picture was taken (and it’s not enhanced, by the way), all the color was gone. Just goes to show: “shoot ’em when you see ’em.”

Photo gallery

Some of the photos were taken in my back yard; some were at the City Park in Jackson; the tractors were on U between Crump and Gravel Hill. Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move around the gallery.