Cape Girardeau History and Photos

August 28, 2015

Steinhoffs Had a Gas Station?

Man, you never know what you’re going to find when you scrape the Mississippi River mud off an old glass. I had intended this to be a quick nostalgia piece about the days when you got all kinds of giveaways when you filled your gas tank.

Little did I know that it would let me discover something about my family that I never knew.

A search hint

Here’s a little hint if you want to search The Missourian’s archives. In this particular instance, I typed “DX service station” in the search box. (The quote marks means return that exact value, not every story with the words “service” or “station” in them.) Then, when I hovered over the SEARCH button, I waited until choices came up, then selected “Archive since 1918,” which will return the most results. (That’s a hint from Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders who has a blog of her own.)

Above is what came up. Click on the photos to make them large enough to read.

Employed by Steinhoff DX Service Station?

My eye went straight to the last entry: “…employed by the Steinhoff DX Service Station.” What the heck is that?

The link took me to an October 4, 1945, war brief about two soldier sons of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Lacy who had been serving since 1944. The story said Pfc. Donald Lacy, a graduate of Central High School, was employed by the Steinhoff D-X Service Station on Broadway before his induction in October, 1944.

That’s the first I had ever heard of such a station. This is one of those times when I wish I could ask Dad or Mother for background info.

Bill Wescoat station at Broadway and Perry

The next story I checked was a brief from July 18, 1940: “Workmen have started to build a concrete drive and areaway at the Bill Wescoat D-X service station at Broadway and Perry avenue. Also a lubrication and washroom is to be built on the west side of the station and adjoining it. Westcoat is building the annex and the Midcontinent Petroleum Corp. is making the driveway.”

The station at the far right of this wreck photo taken in the mid-60s is probably that station, although it was a Texaco here.

H.H. Steinhoff, Proprietor

I struck paydirt with this March 29, 1946, ad. H.H. Steinhoff was listed as proprietor of Steinhoff’s D-X Service at 1700 Broadway. H.H. was Hubert Steinhoff, my dad’s brother.

1700 Broadway is the intersection of Broadway and Perry avenue mentioned in the 1940 story.

Uncle Hu

Hubert – Uncle Hu we called him – was the “funny uncle,” and not the kind that the family keeps locked in the attic. He was a jolly guy, always ready to fool around with us boys.

He particularly enjoyed giving us presents that would drive my parents crazy (until they came to a agreement that live animals and toys that made loud noises were not appropriate gifts). I don’t claim to be a snappy dresser, but I AM happy that I didn’t follow in Uncle Hu’s sartorial footsteps.

I don’t know how long he was associated with the service station. When I knew him, he was working for an asphalt company in Illinois. I was always impressed that his car had one of those long, low-band two-way radio antennas that went “twanga-twanga-twanga” when you came to a sudden stop.

Our monogrammed glasses

I don’t know where the glass came from that started this search, but it appears that it DOES have our family initial on it.

August 27, 2015

Hurricane Erika – Stay or Go?

I wasn’t much concerned about Hurricane Danny. Every model predicted unfavorable conditions that would inhibit development. Hurricane Erika had a bad feel about it, though. She was following Danny like a girl hoping be noticed at prom time.

I particularly didn’t like Wednesday’s 11 A.M. track that showed the center of the cone knocking on our back door. The only problem was that different models said it would dissipate before it got to us, would swerve north to spin fish in the middle of the Atlantic or would come out of the Bahamas as a piddling Cat 1 storm, with the potential of cranking up to a Cat 2.

Before you dismiss my “piddling” Cat 1 hurricane, imagine yourself in the back of a pickup truck going 75 miles per hour. Now imagine yourself trying to hold up a 4×8 sheet of plywood while being blasted by a firehose.

Wife Lila and Kid Matt have been trying to talk me out of coming home. They both subscribed to the No Big Deal models, and Matt said he’d put up the storm panels if I wasn’t there.

This looks a little better

The model spaghetti is beginning to favor a northward turn before it gets to the coast of Florida. The state will probably get some much-needed rain, but be spared high winds. If the 11 A.M. Thursday advisory keeps the turn, looks like Cape is going to have to put up with me a little longer.

I’ve seen a few storms

We had four hurricanes pass over us in the 2004-2005 season. Here’s an account of Frances.

Here are some good disaster preparedness tips that are useful even if you aren’t in a hurricane area. I chased 13 hurricanes and had more than half that many chase me. Experience is a good teacher.

August 25, 2015

Weeds and Windshields

I was blasting down State Route C on the way to Cape from Altenburg when I noticed tall stalks of what I took to be corn in the middle of what I think is soybeans (my farm knowledge is somewhere between erroneous and inadequate).

Traffic on C can move pretty fast, so I turned right onto 516 at New Wells, and took the next right onto 517, which put me on a little-traveled road on the backside of my field. There was a cornfield on the driver’s side of the car.

It was from there that the errant corn must have escaped. Or, maybe the farmer hadn’t cleaned his equipment off when moving from field to field. Or, maybe a bird dropped the seed. Who knows?

What is a weed?

Funny what sticks with you from grade school. The teacher asked the class if they could say what a weed was.

The answer was predictable: dandelion, crab grass, ragweed, Jimson weed…

“How about an oak?” the teacher asked.

“No, an oak is a tree. It’s not a weed,” the class protested.

“A weed,” the teacher explained, “is a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants. So, wouldn’t you consider an oak tree in the middle of a wheat field to be a weed?”

She had us there

So, somewhere back at Trinity Lutheran School, in the middle of the 20th Century, the seed of a weed oak tree was planted in my head.

You can click on the photo to make it larger. I’m sure somebody out there will tell me that that’s not corn in a soybean patch, that’s really a radish popping up in a field of rutabagas.

August 25, 2015

Lyndon Moore of Bloomfield

Last year about this time, I met Lyndon Moore at his exhibit of tools at the Altenburg Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum. Not only did he have a fabulous collection of vintage tools, he could tell you in minute detail every factoid related to them. The guy is also a natural storyteller.

Dropped in on him

He made the mistake of saying, “If you’re ever down in Bloomfield, stop by.” I was IN Bloomfield on Monday and decided to take him up on his offer. With careful turn-by-turn directions over the cell phone by his wife, Margaret, I managed to find his shop on the outskirts of town.

As soon as he sat down, a dog the size of a small pony hopped up on top of him. Lyndon said the 7-year-old got accustomed to being a lapdog when he was a puppy and never gave up the habit when his paws got almost as big as my hands.

Travel all over the country

The couple are on the road all the time (along with their dogs) looking for more tools to add to their collection.They’re headed off to Indiana next.

They are leaning on their drivable 1915 Model T. It’s not a restoration, Lyndon said. Most of the parts are original.

Driving was an art

Looking down at the floorboard, I noted three pedals: “Gas, brake and clutch?” I hazarded?

Not even close. The throttle was a lever on the steering column that looked like a turn signal. The pedals, in conjunction with the emergency brake handle and used in a mystifying combination would allow you to start, stop, go forward in two speeds, and back up. They could do 30 to 40 mph if the roads permitted, but few were that good.

Lefthanders had fewer broken arms

Lefthanders like Lyndon had an advantage. They were less likely to wind up with a broken arm if the engine kicked back when it was being hand-cranked.

The 1915 model had some major advances, like electric lights and an electric horn. Just to be safe, though, they kept the kerosene lights for backup.

I could have spent all afternoon with the Moores, but I had other folks to annoy.