Jessica Cyders Archives

December 2, 2013December 2, 2013

Back (Florida) Home Again

I made it back to West Palm Beach Saturday night, November 30, after leaving town on October 12. In that time, as I wrote last night, I drove 6,393.8 miles through Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and several side trips through the State of Confusion. I had Friend Shari as a road companion from Florida to Missouri, celebrated Mother’s Birthday season with Wife Lila, and Brother Mark and his Fiance Robin.

After that, I headed out to Athens, Ohio, to do a presentation on the birth of the student rights movement with former OU Post colleague Carol Towarnicky. Athens Historical Society Curator Jessica, who just had to see with her own eyes if Missouri in any way came close to my stories, followed me back to Cape. After roaming around in SEMO for a couple of weeks, I made a pass back through Ohio, where I got snowed in.

I slept in Sunday, unpacked the van, had some belated (and very good) turkey leftovers, then headed out with Wife Lila to see the grandkids.

Grandson Elliot, loves hearing weird sounds, something that we Steinhoffs are very good at providing.

A flower for Gran

Grandson Graham picked up a flower off the ground in his backyard and insisted that Gran put it behind her ear. The kid is going to be a lady killer, I can tell.

When I told him that his grandmother had told me that he had grown a foot while I was gone, he held his legs out to prove that he still only had two.

It might be a caulking gun to YOU

Don’t let appearances deceive you. What looks like an ordinary caulking gun turns into a laser blaster in the hands of a 2-1/2-year-old. He also has a magic wand that turns his grandmother into a chicken. You will NOT see a video of that. I have no desire to be smothered in my sleep.

Malcolm concentrating

I bought these rainbow-hued twirly things in St. Louis on my last trip. I gave one to both West Palm Beach boys and one to Mother. A windstorm took Grandon Malcolm’s out, so I brought him a new one. Here he is assembling it. He’s a serious computer geek and reader. He can also feed you the last half of Groucho’s line: “A book is your best friend outside of a dog.” [Malcolm:] “because inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”

Your cute is leaking away

Here he is with the finished product. While I was shooting it, I warned him, “Sorry, kid, your cute is leaking away. You’re going to look like a teenager soon.”

November 20, 2013February 14, 2021

Selfies and Smoke Signals

The webosphere had been all agog this week because Oxford Dictionaries declared “selfie” to be the word of the year for 2013. For you old folks, a “selfie” is defined as a smartphone self-portrait shared on social media.

For you young folks, a “dictionary” is what we used to call a non-electric spellchecker that was accessed by sneakernet and could be used by only one person at a time.

2013 ain’t 1968

While I was in Athens, Ohio, to do a presentation on the birth of the student rights movement, Curator Jessica finagled a field pass to the OU vs Miami of Ohio football game. Ostensibly she wanted me to shoot members of the undefeated 1968 football team to go along with action shots I have of them. I think she really wanted me to watch her younger sister, a member of OU’s Marching 110 prance around on the field playing her slidey thing. (Jessica is a band alum.)

I was less than excited. It was cold and parking was somewhere close to Louisville. Still, Curator Jessica can be persuasive.

Since I didn’t have to worry about game action, I wandered around looking at the spectators.

It became apparent very quickly that actually watching the game was secondary to gazing at portable electronic devices.

Here’s how we did it in the old days

One of the female students I was photographing while she was busy texting away gave me a “What is this creepy old guy looking at?” look.

I walked up, introduced myself and said, “I’m here doing a compare and contrast with football games from back in 1968. See, in my day, we didn’t have these fancy gizmos to keep our friends updated on the game. We had to use smoke signals. The stadium people would have small fires in pots scattered through the stadium so we could keep in touch with the folks on campus.”

“Really?” she asked, not quite convinced.

“Sure,” I said. “Wander around after the crowd leaves and you can probably still see small circles here and there burned into the concrete.” Then I walked away.

Urban legend or fodder for 30th Reunion

There is no doubt in my mind that the young woman went back to her dorm and shared the information I gave her.

It is either going to be the start of an urban legend or a story that will haunt her when she goes back for her 30th reunion.

Photo gallery of the New Age

Here’s a photo gallery of a modern university football game, one with nary a signal fire to be seen. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the sides to move through the gallery. And, just like when I was a student, the stands emptied out as soon as the Marching 110 finished the halftime show. It’s good to see that some things never change.

November 8, 2013

Hey, Look at That!

OK, it’s a bad pun. I couldn’t decide to go with that headline or one that read, “Hay, Look at That!” Both are equally bad.

Sometimes you run into a fortuitous stop sign. I had to show Curator Jessica Old Appleton and the Old Appleton bridge on our way up Hwy 61 to St. Louis. While I was waiting at the stop sign for traffic to clear, the light hit this field of hay bales just right.

(Click on the photo to make it larger.)

Older farming stories

November 7, 2013

Ted Drewes Frozen Custard

Brother Mark introduced me to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard on the old Route 66 in St. Louis many years ago. It was only natural that I drag Curator Jessica there before she had to fly back to Ohio. (You can click on the photos to make them larger.)

The official Ted Drewes website says that Drewes has been making frozen custard since 1929, after getting his start in Florida. The Chippewa location where we ate opened in 1941. With St. Louis’ westward expansion and changes in dining habits, this store is open all year except January.

Something I didn’t know was that Ted Jr. (his dad died three decades ago) goes to Nova Scotia every fall to personally select the best Canadian balsam fir Christmas trees to bring back to St. Louis for sale.

“What’s a Concrete?”

“What’s a Concrete?” she asked.

“Think ‘Better Blizzard.”

She wisely suggested we order “mini” sized Concretes. A “regular” would have been too much and a “large” would have killed me. I don’t remember what she had, but I enjoyed the Hawaiian.

She couldn’t understand why the server inverted the cup when she handed them to us.

“That’s to demonstrate how thick the custard is and why it is called a Concrete. Try that with a DQ Blizzard some time and see what happens.”