Southeast Missourian Archives

December 26, 2021

Dad’s Boat in the Basement

1944 LV Steinhoff classified advertising

Every family has stories that may or may not be true. Dad often told a story about pulling his toy wagon full of sheet music for the woman who accompanied the silent movies at the Broadway theater.

We all dismissed that as his version of walking 12 miles to school in waist-deep snow (uphill both ways.)

Eventually, Mother sent me the obit of the woman who HAD played music at the silent movies. I guess he wasn’t just funnin’ us with his tale.

Dad and the basement boat

I don’t ever recall Dad mention the boat he built in the basement at Themis Street before discovering he couldn’t get it through the door. That strikes me as a story no man would tell on himself.

I was never able to determine if the tale was true, and all the folks I could ask are no long with us.

Then, I ran across a couple of Missourian classified ads from 1944. The one at the top of the page was to sell a new, 12-foot row boat; table top model radio, $25; electric jig saw, $10; and one 4 and one 6 cylinder magneto.

Maybe he HAD gotten the boat out of the basement, and maybe that’s why he was also able to sell the jig saw.

Bicycles for sale

About the same time, he was trying to sell two pre-war bicycles, like new. (And the boat.)

Mother with bikes

Mary Welch Steinhoff holds her bike and one belonging to L.V. Steinhoff in front of the garage in Advance, MO. They rode the bikes from Cape Girardeau to Advance shortly after they were married.

Decades later, she still talked about how their legs cramped up from the 36-mile ride.

The first year I started serious biking, I did the 72-mile round trip in their memory. I had quite a bit of long-distance cycling under my saddle by then – including at least one 100-mile day, so I fared better than they did.

Another bike photo

Mary Steinhoff and LV Steinhoff w Roy E Welch in background – Rolla MO 1942

Here’s Dad on a bike. Mother’s dad, Roy Welch, is looking through the screen door in the background.

I think that Advance ride dampened their enthusiasm for long two-wheeled expeditions.

July 26, 2018

South County Park’s Jigsaw Puzzle

A Facebook friend mentioned that the lake in South County Park was dry. Before I could check it out, The Missourian had an explanation. Photographer Fred Lynch fired up his drone for an excellent story-telling photo, making me feel guilty for not putting mine back together after an unfortunate connection with a telephone line.

Click on the photos to make them larger.

Project will take about two years

The Missouri Department of Conservation and the county came to an agreement that the MDC would partner with the county to stock and manage the two lakes at the county park.

The latest project will involve draining the south laket, then adding improvements like fishing jetties, a new fishing dock, an island with a gazebo, and lighted sidewalks.

When the lake is refilled, it will be stocked with bass, bluegill, redear sunfish, and channel cat.

Drained more quickly than anticipated

The original plan was to drain part of the lake and allow fishing to go on while earth work was going on.

It turned out that the bathtub emptied faster than planned, which was good for the timetable, but bad for fisherfolks who were looking forward to dropping hooks in the middle of concentrations of fish.

I was surprised that I didn’t see any fish skeletons around nor any birds feeding on them. Either they were swept away so fast they weren’t trapped in shallow pools, or predators cleaned them up quickly.

Lake was leaking in 2007

In 2007, The Missourian carried a story that the lake was leaking around an overflow pipe at the south end. I’m assuming it was this pipe, which serves as a secondary path for high water, supplementing the open spillway.

April 5, 2016

New Life for Lorimier Apartments

A reader sent me good news the other day: the old Lorimier Apartments across from Indian Park at Lorimier and William are being worked on.

When I photographed them in July of last year, I figured they would keep deteriorating until they fell in.

Laura Simon wandered around

There was nobody around to ask permission to go onto the property when I drove by, but Missourian photographer Laura Simon spent some time documenting the place if you want to wander over to see her gallery.

Bridget Brown reported that Jason Coalter and Dustin Richardson of Centurion Development are doing the renovations. What’s interesting is that Bridget wrote the apartments were built in 1925, but I found Missourian stories mentioning the place as far back as June 7, 1919.

March 12, 2015March 12, 2015

1964 or 1965 Football

This print of 1964 or 1965 Central High School football players wasn’t great when it was new, and time has faded it even more. Sylvester Johnson is third from the left in the back row.

Syl was one of the best athletes Central ever produced. After Principal Dallas Albers noticed the star player eying his suspenders during an assembly, he shot him a deal: he would award his suspenders to Syl at the homecoming dance if the Tigers won their homecoming game against Sikeston. Albers was so sure Syl was going to come through that he showed up at the dance wearing both a belt and suspenders so his pants wouldn’t fall down after paying off his obligation to Syl.

That’s Bill / Jacqie Jackson on the far left in the front row. I’m pretty sure I recognize some of the other guys, but I’ll let you tell me for sure who they are so I don’t have to run corrections.

Those blue marks

Those blue marks on the top and right margins are crop marks where the sports editor decided to tighten up the photo, probably because he wanted to be able to run the faces larger.

A couple of years ago, I hooked up with Don Gordon, my old Missourian mentor who confessed that he leaned on me whenever it came to doing page layouts. “I watched John Blue mark up pictures. He almost always put a crop mark on them. It might be just to whittle off an eighth of an inch, but he seemed to feel he hadn’t done his job unless he had touched the photo in some way. When I got a picture, I found myself doing the same thing. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I’d always take a little off the edges.”

“I knew that, Don. That’s why I always printed my photos with a little ‘air’ around them so that by the time you and jBlue got finished, the picture would be just right.”