Rerun: Santa Mystery Solved

Shopper eyes Santa Claus in Cape Girardeau (actually Jackson)As promised, I’m taking a short break over the holidays and offering up rerun links to older posts.

This story about Christmas shoppers from December 9, 2009, was one of my earliest posts. I made some guesses about where they might have been taken in Cape.

It set the tone for all my posts to follow:

  1. I got most of the facts wrong
  2. My readers went to great lengths to prove I was wrong and to provide the correct information.

By December 12,  Brother Mark, Bill Hopkins, Chuck Blitstein, Jesse James and Brenda Bone Lapp chimed in with opinions, speculation and photographs, but it took The Missourian team of Fred Lynch and Cathy Hancock to determine the photos were taken in Jackson, not Cape.

Hey, close is good enough in horseshoes, hand grenades and nuclear war; I mean I was only seven miles off, give or take?

We know where this is

Rexall Drugs in Jackson, MOBy December 14, the Fred and Cathy team helped figure out where in Jackson these photos were taken, too. Jim Vangilder filled in more blanks.

After that, I wasn’t afraid to post mystery photos. With few exceptions, someone always stepped up to the plate to provide the (maybe) correct information.

This is one of those exceptions: nobody has come up with who these cheerleader-looking types are.

 

 

Second Christmas Shopper Mystery Solved

Rexall Drugs in Jackson, MOI posted a gallery of photos of Christmas shoppers last week that set off a scavenger hunt to figure out where they were taken. You can read about the search and eventual outcome here.

They cleared up where Santa was, but how about the other stores?

Missourian photographer Fred Lynch rode to the rescue here, too.

Here’s Fred’s account:

Ken’s pictures of Christmas shoppers inside a Rexall drug store were taken in Jackson. Not Cape Girardeau.

Old Jackson Rexall Drugs

Anita Schulte, left, in Rexall Drugs Store in Jackson, MO, in the mid-60s.Fred asked Cathy Hancock at The Southeast Missourian’s Jackson office to take a look at Ken’s Rexall photos on his blog.

Cathy said: “I believe the drug store shot is Jackson Rexall Drugs, owned by John & Anita Schulte. Anita is the lady behind the counter. It was on High Street uptown and there was a Kroger store across the street, hence the bananas sign.”

Cathy is mostly correct

Fred walked inside the store Cathy remembered and was told that indeed it used to be a drug store. Now it is Amelia’s Fashion Exchange.

He called Cathy’s neighbor, who worked uptown before retiring, and learned that the grocery store was the A&P rather than Kroger. The A&P was located in what is now Siemer’s Best Brands Plus, an appliance store. He also confirmed the Jackson Rexall Drugs. So imagine looking through Amelia’s window and across the street in the window of Siemer’s is a sign for bananas.

By the way, Kroger was down the block from Rexall at the time.

Old A&P grocery store in Jackson

Jim Vangilder provides more info

Jim Vangilder: These photos were taken in Jackson.  The drug store was Kistner’s Rexall Drug.   The A&P Grocery store was across the street.  The Santa and package wrappers were in Priest’s Department Store.  The photo with the china and glassware was Cox’s Variety Store.