40 South News (http://40southnews.com/series/doug-houser/page/2/)
My neighbor’s wife is a scrapbooker, I’ve heard. I’m not sure exactly what these scrapbookers are doing or what their scrapbooks look like. I’ve seen only a couple in the past. My grandmother started one when my father was born. My sister has that one.
Perhaps 15 years ago I first heard of the existence of a trove of historic images and documents belonging to the Sutton Family. The information came from a man named Bill Hayes. He was a descendant of James Sutton. I believe he had lived in a house at 7345 Elm when he was a child. This home had once belonged to one of Kate Sutton’s daughters.
When first I visited Larry and Jean Wiss McDaniels (whose historic family photographs we saw in my last post) they had laid out on their table in addition to their impressive collection of family photos many other interesting items. Larry had books about Bataan and Corregidor, two islands where important battles took place during WWII for control of Manila Bay in the Philippines. He also showed me newspaper clippings about a hero named Arthur E. Huff. It was on the island of Corregidor in 1942 where Captain Huff made news when he and several other men restored the flag of the United States to the top of a flagpole after Japanese artillery had shot it down. For their bravery they were awarded the silver star. All well and good.
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.
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?”
Don’t it always seem to go
You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone? From “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell
The history of Freemasonry (whose practitioners call themselves Masons) is long and complicated. Google it. The list of famous members is also long and mostly male since the Masons were fraternal organizations for most of their history. George Washington was a Mason as were Mark Twain (in St.
If you’re like me and get more emails than you can possibly read, then I want to say in this first sentence if you haven’t eaten yet at Toasty Subs, you need to get over there. I don’t know how unusual it is but the menu includes toasty subs and sushi. This suits my wife and I just fine. On our recent visits the food has been excellent. You can find the menu online very easily.
Thinking back to my own high school years which all fell in the 1960’s, those were some pretty rough times. Kids are cruel to each other. If you had the typical teenage short sightedness which I certainly did, it can be tough to see past it. I hadn’t realized it until I started thinking about this latest information from our memoirist, Bill Jones, but back then regardless of age the women always wore skirts and dresses. I think.
With apologies to Wallace Stegner, crossing to safety or more accurately, crossing safely as been an area of concern for railroad communities for a long while. Generations have lived in close proximity to the railroad tracks. Very many have lived right next to them and still do with unfenced yards. Though all sorts of constructions and devices have been created to protect folks from locomotives, now and then the unthinkable occurs. I have been aware of numerous near misses and catastrophes during the time I have lived just a half block or so from the tracks.
OK, you’ve had a long day at work. You’re hot, tired and the crowded, polluted city is getting on your nerves. You need a break so what can you do? You can choose the balm that a large number of your fellow city dwellers regularly do. That is head out to Maplewood, that leafy, shaded, cool suburb that’s only a nickel ride away on the electric car line.
Those two words together, Maplewood and Hippodrome, just seem crazy, don’t they? From Merriam-Webster, a hippodrome is an oval stadium for horse and chariot races in ancient Greece or an arena for equestrian performances. These folks also state that the first known usage of the word was from 1585. If this is true then I have to wonder what did the ancient Greeks call it? Never mind. This is one of those subjects that I have meant to do a bit more research on but haven’t gotten around to it. So let me just put it out here and perhaps one of my hipster readers may be able to add some information to this Maplewood mystery. As you read this article from a 1914 issue of the Maplewood Champion newspaper pay attention to the construction details. This was a very substantial building. I am curious as to how this came to be built in Maplewood and what happened to it?
Well, it is not the actual Maplewood memoirist Billy Jones who is unadorned here. It is his latest story which he has been kind enough to send to us. It is unadorned with photos because I can’t think of any that may relate that you haven’t already seen. After you’ve read the story I’ll provide a few links to the buildings he has mentioned. I hope you are not too disappointed by the misleading title.