Girardot Archives

January 29, 2016

CHS Gym Headed for History

The countdown has started for the gym we old Central High School students remember. The Missourian reported that the 84-by-50-foot gym, built in 1955, will be replaced by administrative offices and other features sometime in March.

The public is invited to see the gym one last time on Saturday, January 30, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. I guess it won’t matter if we walk across the polished floor in our street shoes this time.

Here is a collection of stories I’ve done where the gym was featured.

Beware of Ghosts

Coach Terry Kitchen felt the presence of spirits when he was moving old trophies out of the gym. Wonder how restless they’ll be when the walls start tumbling down?

1963 Girardot Pep Rally

Kid Adam looked at this picture and commented, “Did dark socks not exist in that time frame?” The post has several random CHS photos in it. (Click on the photos to make them larger. Click on the links to go to the original story and more pictures.)

The dreaded rope climb

I remember how much “fun” PE was. I always wondered whose job it was to inspect the “Jesus Nut” that held the rope to the ceiling.

“All you could hear was breathing”

Students gathered around a TV hastily pulled into the gym so they could hear details about the shooting of President John F. Kennedy. Our Age of Innocence was over, and it was only going to get worse.

Locker rooms, real and imagined

Cape CHS Girls volleyball — © Ken Steinhoff All Rights Reserved (so don’t repost it)

I envisioned my female counterparts being ushered into individual cleansing facilities where there would be soft music playing, the water would come out at the perfect temperature, towels wouldn’t be needed because each compartment would be equipped with air-drying fans and there would be a gentle spritzing of the perfume of the girl’s choice on the way out. Attendants, probably freshmen, would take care of nail and hair maintenance and see that clothing was restored with nary a muss.

Manager Terry Crass patched them up

Terry Crass served as manager of the football, basketball and track teams. His life after high school was impressive.

1967 Girardot Queen court

There’s no telling how many queen crownings I shot in that gym.

The September 21, 1967, Missourian listed the 1967 Girardot Queen court: Miss Mary Hirsch, center, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Hirsch, 1855 Thilenius, was crowned Central High School Girardot Queen at ceremonies last Friday in the school gymnasium. Her attendants are, from left, Miss Holly Lueders, daughter ofMr. and Mrs. Paul Lueders, 1115 North Henderson; Miss Jane Dunklin, daughter ofMr. and Mrs. Maurice T. Dunklin, 839 Alta Vista; Miss Georganne Penzel, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Penzel, 1844 Thilenius, and Miss Debby Holland, daughter of the Rev. and Mrs. W.T. Holland, 2221 Brookwood.

Gym Jim putting up decorations

Jim Stone and some other classmates were decorating the gym for something or other.

More decorating pictures

Right after I published Jim, I discovered more pictures of the gym being transformed into something special under the watchful eye of Miss Sackman.

Secretary Helen Ketterer watching wrestling

Quiet Helen Ketterer became a different person at a wrestling match.

Coach Bob Goodwin 1925-2014

Bob Goodwin taught a total of 33 years in Southeast Missouri schools, including Lilbourn, Chaffee, Cape and Jackson. He died in 2014.

1966 Prom Queen Linda Stone

Linda Stone tells what it’s REALLY like to be a prom queen.

Syl Johnson earns his suspenders

Principal Dallas Albers, an inveterate suspenders-wearer, noticed Sylvester Johnson admiring the pants-holder-uppers at an assembly one day, so he made a “deal” with him: if the team won the homecoming game with Sikeston, Syl wouldn’t have to worry about his pants falling down at the dance – they would be securely held up by the coveted suspenders.

Plaid shirt pep rally

I don’t know if it was coincidence or conspiracy that a sizable chunk of the males at this pep rally were sporting plaid shirts.

Student vs Faculty basketball

Math teacher Ralph Ford looks like he’s revving up for takeoff . He doesn’t seem to notice the ball is behind him.

Narrow ties and white socks era

This pep rally made me think of the TV series Friday Night Lights.

Looking for contact lens

I’m pretty sure this was the first game I covered that involved a lost contact lens. Follow the link to check out the pep band in their tiger-stripe jackets.

1965 Majorettes

After taking several outside shots, we moved the 1965 Majorettes indoors to the gym.

1970 aerial shows new gym being built

This aerial view of Central High School from the early 1970s is looking from the southeast corner roughly to the northwest. Caruthers Ave. is running along the right side of the photo. The new gym is under construction and the swimming pool with its bubble hasn’t been started. The post also has more recent aerials of the school.

World’s ugliest cheerleaders

I’ve shot scads of cheerleaders at high school, college and pro games. Every organization must have used different qualifications. Some girls were picked for looks; some for popularity; other for spirit; others for athletic or dancing ability; others must have been daughters of community movers and shakers. This group must have been selected for having the hairiest legs.

I remember Anne Buchanan

One of the pictures I found of Anne Buchanan was with the other cheerleaders collecting for the March of Dimes in 1963. She’s on the right.

A tour of “Old” Central

This post contains a batch of photos taken when we toured “Old Central” during the 2010 reunion. Of course, we stopped in the gym.

March 5, 2015

Debaters Not Worth 20¢

I posted pictures of a mad feeding frenzy after the Girardot yearbook had gone to press and the photos in it were made available for purchase. When I was going through a box of prints the other night, I found this one of what I assume to be the Debate Club. It had the price of 20 cents written on the back of it.

Despite the people clamoring for photos in the other post, apparently nobody thought we were worth two thin dimes, so I ended up with it.

I think I have figured out who all the players are. Back row, l to r, Chuck Dockins, Ken Steinhoff, Bill East, Jane McKeown, Mike Seabaugh, Debby Young and Shari Stiver.

Front row, l to r, Pat Sommers, Joni Tickel, Vicky Roth and Sally Wright. Click on the photo to make it larger.

December 9, 2014

Garber’s Men’s Store

Terry Hopkins’ box of his dad’s General Sign Company photos produced this Garber’s Men’s Store sign. Peeking out from the bottom is “Gladish,” which would have to be Gladish-Walker Furniture Company. I was trying to figure out where the store was located, but more about that later.

Garber’s founded in 1954

The Missourian’s A Century of Commerce had these business notes for 1954:

Lester Rhodes bought Orpheum Theater Building on Good Hope Street to convert it to business use.
Rigdon Laundry’s equipment was sold to Tipton’s Whiteline Laundry Inc.
Sunset Motel on Highway 61 North was sold to St. Louis investors.
Charles Garber founded Garber’s men’s store.
Star Vue Drive-In Theater, large enough for 600 parked automobiles, opened.
Pletcher & Haynes Sinclair Service Station opened on Highway 61West.
Hobb’s Grill No. 3 on Broadway, formerly Wilson’s Cafeteria, opened.
Cape Manufacturing Co., North Main Street, handling Maxine equipment, was incorporated.

Moved to Town Plaza in 1960

There was a lot of activity in 1960:

Charles N. Harris founded Atlas Plastics.
B & J Refrigeration opened as partnership between Marshall Bailey and Leon Jansen; later became Jaymac Equipment Co.
Montgomery Mobile Home Sales opened.
Pop’s A & W Drive-In opened.
Professional Business Systems was founded by Lloyd Lorberg.
Charles Garber moved Garber’s, men’s clothing store, to Town Plaza.
The old Joseph Sciortino Grocery Store building in 600 block of Good Hope Street was razed.
Making room for parking lot, 103-year-old brick mill building on Water Street was razed.
Model Grocery closed, after serving Girardeans 39 years. The last location was at 521 Broadway.
Ruh’s Market, in operation 53 years, closed.
Victor L. Klarsfeld, owner of Rialto Theater, purchased Broadway Theater building.
New 17,000-foot tower of KFVS-TV went into operation.
B.I. Howard purchased Wulfers’s building on Broadway. It housed Howard Athletic Goods Co.

Gladish-Walker Furniture formed in 1932

I found some ads for Gladish-Walker Furniture that said it was located at 633 Good Hope. That means that Garber’s was located a couple of doors to the east in a building that was constructed at about the same time, 1880 or so based on information in the National Register of Historic Places.

I thought 633 Good Hope sounded familiar. It’s because I did a story about the building collapsing this summer. Garber’s would have been in the building to the left. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

Garber’s sold to Rodney and Dimple Bridges

When Charles Garber retired in the early 1970s, the business was sold to Frank Hamra, who had Hamra’s Men’s Store in Anna, Ill. He hired Rodney Bridges, 20 and a newlywed, to manage it. A year later, Bridges and his wife, Dimple, bought the store. For more detail, you can read an interview with Bridges in the March 14, 2011, Missourian.

When Garber’s was founded, Bridges pointed out, Cape had nine men’s stores in town; today Garber’s is the only one left. The store used to carry all the big name brands, but the chains and outlet stores have taken over that business. To survive, he said, he has to bring in lines that aren’t shown everywhere. In the last 40-plus years, the store has been expanded twice and remodeled four times, increasing from 1,500 square feet to 4,300.

Garber’s has a clean-looking website, showing that the store has been around for awhile, but it keeps up with the times. The shopping center photo above was taken in 2011. That space was occupied by something called Arcade in a photo in a 1962 Girardot advertisement.

I have to confess that I usually counted on Wayne Golliher at Al’s Shops to put clothes on my frame.

February 19, 2014

Girardot Poster Party

Nancy Jenkins (left), Ron Marshall and Marcia Maupin work on posters to help sell the 1965 Girardot in this much-scratched negative.

Nancy was Editor in Chief, Ron was Art and Literary Editor, and Marcia was on the Art Staff. The Marshall coat of arms on the wall leads me to believe the art extravaganza was taking place in Ron’s basement.

Teem bottle

There’s a Teem soda bottle on the table. I couldn’t remember the last time I saw one of those, so I turned to our old friend Google: Teem is a lemon-lime-flavored soft drink produced by The Pepsi-Cola Company. It was introduced in 1964 as Pepsi’s answer to 7 Up and Coca-Cola’s Sprite.

Teem was sold in the United States and Canada until 1984, when Lemon-Lime Slice was introduced, though it was still available at some soda fountains into the 1990s. Sierra Mist has since taken over the Teem role in the US.

Teem remains on sale today in Brazil, Uruguay, Honduras, South Africa and Pakistan; it survived into the 1990s in other markets too, before Pepsi authorized vendors to replace it with 7 Up.

Teem’s TV ad campaign in the early 1980s challenged viewers to “go ahead… build up that thirst until you can’t stand it any more…” (showing, for example, a disheveled old guy eating “two plain dry tacos” bought from a street vendor in the Southwest) “…then BLOW IT AWAY with TEEM.”