40 South News (http://40southnews.com/author/doug-houser/)
If this Maplewood History blog were a wagon it would have been stuck in a rut for about the last month. The touch screen on my Lenovo All-in-One computer began to act up about the beginning of April. Thus started a chain of events that I won’t even try to repeat here. Mostly I just want to forget them. That computer would have been two years old this November.
This will be the last post about the Shaw-Stephens Post 103. In 1956 the name was officially changed from the Maplewood Memorial Post 103 to the Maplewood-Richmond Heights Memorial Post 103. The document concerning this (posted below) states that the post was originally chartered as the Maplewood Memorial Post 103. This seems to be inaccurate. According to a 1919 article from the Post-Dispatch (copied in my first blog post on this subject), the unit was organized as the Shaw-Stephens Post 103.
What follows are more images salvaged from the large pile of stuff the folks at Post 103 were forced to leave behind when they closed their doors. If you missed the first blog post about 103, you can find it here.
On October 1, 1919 what would become the Maplewood American Legion Post 103 was organized as Shaw-Stevens Post 103. In 2007 I got a call from Evelyn Detert of this post. She invited me to come by and photograph anything that appealed to me from their 88 year accumulation of artifacts. This I did. Then a few years ago I got another call from a woman at the Legion Hall whose name I have unfortunately mislaid.
When I published the first half of my images of Gene Kitson’s unusual matchbook cover collection, I wanted to come up with an unusual and clever title. Failing that I decided to use the one above. My thinking is that if the title is clever or unusual enough it will attract more clicks than Miner’s. Should that occur I’ll consider myself the winner of Editor Miner’s weekly “Most Viewed” designation that his articles usually always win. Anyway, the subject – Matchbooks – started me thinking about burning which led to Elvis’ “A Hunk, A Hunk of Burning Love” song which is definitely a strange title for a song.
According to my meticulous record keeping (Translation: If my camera didn’t do some of this stuff automatically I would have no idea when some of these events occurred). I got a call from Gene Kitson in early 2007 who was wondering if I had any Maplewood matchbook covers. When I said I did not. He said, “Well, I do. Would you like to borrow them?” I said I would and I did.
Maplewood’s premier memoirist Bill Jones is remembering them faster than I can get them out. Here’s three more that I know you will enjoy. DH
The Hershey Chocolate Bars – Maplewood High, 1943
Our high school a capella choir was excellent. I felt privileged to be invited to participate. We harmonized beautifully.
This is my third and final post about the McGregor family. If you’d like to refresh your memory, here are the links to the first and second posts. It’s hard to know where to quit with these folks. So many of them are/were accomplished people. Doug McGregor who supplied most of the material for these posts had this to say about his grandfather and family.
Not to mention the Thomases, Halkers and Doughertys? If any of those ring a bell you might find something familiar in the following email I recently received from Mrs. Janet Thomas Tigue. DH
Dear Mr. Houser,
I have read and enjoyed a number of your articles on the history of Maplewood. Although I no longer live in the area and haven’t since 1967, my family roots are there. My mother, Vera M. Thomas, nee Fluetsch, was born on Bartold Ave.
Bill Jones is back with another of his priceless memories. After you read this story about an experience a female friend of Bill’s had, I think you’ll agree that when her date wanted to rush things, she was definitely not colluding. DH
“THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE AND MEN OFT GO AWRY”
We Maplewood kids were all good kids . Sexuality was never a discussion in my 4 years at Maplewood High and my close friend waited four decades before sharing
this tale with me. When a teenager, she met a tall young man at our Esquire Bowling Lanes and befriended him.
A little over 11 months ago I created a post entitled, “A Serendipitous Encounter with the McGregor Family Home and History.” It turned out to be very popular. 46 comments. Wish they all got that sort of attention. One of the very positive things that came about was that contact was made with some of the descendants of the Maplewood McGregors. Through their family historian, Doug McGregor, and with input from other family members more information and historic photographs were gained. The task of an editor is deciding what to pass on and what “to leave on the cutting room floor” as Doug McGregor put it.
I discovered this week that our favorite internet magazine, “40 South News”, courtesy of both Doug Miner, our editor and Doug Houser, our Maplewood historian, is faithfully read by our BJC Extended Care team of outstanding physical therapy instructors. Their spokesman was Tim Fulte. They all read our little news letter and these classy medical professionals enjoy our “news”. While I was in therapy, Tim suddenly stood up and came across the excellent lab to where I was working out. He asked, respectfully, “Are you the Billy Jones authoring these Harper Drugs/Ted’s Motors stories we enjoy?”