We passed a sign that said Chapel Hill Cemetary (sic). Imagine any English teacher buried there, eternally damned to lie under a misspelled word. Then again, maybe the sign was painted by one of her students, in which case she … Read More
Skunks, Laws and Hardware
“That there’s not a skunk,” the guide pointed to one animal pelt on a table, “That’s genuine Alaskan sable.” It was a skunk, the guide admitted, but to the European fur market in the early 1800s, the term Alaskan sable … Read More
A Toast to the World’s Hottest Museum
A witling would say it’s a description of Hell: 4,000 toasters, no bread. But hey, if Richard Larrison ever used all his toasters at once, it might create Hell, or havoc, or at least a lot of heat, pulling enough … Read More
Well-traveled children…
“Got a ham bone?” I asked the undertaker. I pulled a two-pound bag of great northern beans out of my overcoat pocket and plopped it on his desk. He looked puzzled. “Last request,” I said, and told him about my … Read More
I broke in…
Lewis Café doesn’t look like much from the outside. It sits on Main Street in downtown St. Clair under an old 1930s-looking awning in an old 1930s-looking beige brick building. But in the restaurant world, the homely facade means there’s … Read More
Watery Grave
Looking upriver from the Hermann bluff, I could almost see Sonora Chute. It was a cold February day in 1856 when Captain Bill Terrill ran his sidewheeler Sonora through ice floes near Portland, Missouri. At 363 tons, the Sonora was … Read More
Bothwellian
Detouring to the top of a high cliff, I stopped to see an old friend. On a clear day, she’s hard to miss, built on the edge of this bluff and sticking out of a forest canopy like a Bavarian … Read More
Signs along the road. Today’s batch from Ft. Worth…
They guide us and remind us, inform us, direct us. The good ones bring a smile.
The fountains of Sundance Square
On a recent trip through Texas, we stopped in Ft. Worth to eat at Joe T. Garcia’s, world’s greatest Mexican restaurant. We greeted the cowboys in the paintings by Remington and Russell. And we played in the fountains in a … Read More
Local flavor. Local stories. Missouri’s back yard.
In the aftermath of the tragic events of 9/11, folks wanted to stay closer to home, closer to loved ones. They didn’t trust travel, especially airline travel, until airlines started offering round-trip fares for fifty bucks. Then, magically, people felt … Read More