St. Louis.
Many thoughts and images come to mind when I hear the name St. Louis.
I think first about the St. Louis Cardinals. No, not the ones playing on the west coast right now during baseball season which has allowed us for much better hotel rates near the Scottrade Center and downtown St. Louis with those Cardinals out of town.
I still think about the St. Louis Cardinals playing football in the old Busch Stadium that was a part of cookie-cutter stadium history. Round and used for football and baseball for a time. Jim Hart is still the quarterback. Jim Otis and Terry Metcalf still run the ball. J.V. Cain and Jackie Smith play tight end. Pat Tilley and Ike Harris and Mel Gray are receivers. Conrad Dobler and Dan Dierdorf play on the O-Line. Jim Bakken is still kicking straight-on. I better stop…my apologies to Roger Wherli.
How pathetic is that? Forty years ago, that is how!
Thank God for music. Tonight my dear wife, Carrie, and I are walking over to the Scottrade Center to take in a concert by Hall and Oates…and more importantly, for us, the group Train. Their song Drops of Jupiter is an acquired taste. For a long time I, like many, thought the song was overplayed. I did not like it. When it came on the radio I turned it in a hurry. In 2013 Carrie and I saw Train live at Virginia Beach on a whim. We were in the neighborhood and she was studying furiously for an exam she was about to take. I thought she needed a break. I looked at Ticketmaster and scored some sweet seats for a price that seems archaic now. Anyway, that night I heard Drops of Jupiter for the first time like I needed to. That in large part, is why we are here. That and many other good songs too. To share this with Carrie is priceless.
St. Louis? Dred Scott. Unreal slave gets his freedom story. I never tire of hearing the result even though it is hard to take. Still is a story that so shows the resilience of the spirit and the showcases a time that is hard to fathom.
Scott eventually got his freedom.
Below, this was on a building here in town.
Where did that go?
Lincoln had the house divided thing right, you know.
You looked around lately? Wow.
St. Louis…
I think about Fred G. Sanford on Sanford and Son. He used to talk about growing up in St. Louis. “Back in St. Louis…” he would say.
My dear wife, Carrie, and I have been fortunate enough to travel many places. St. Louis has not been a place we have frequented. Music brought us to town in September of 2015 to hear Justin Hayward play in a hall that seats about 700. Tonight there will be that many folks standing in line to use the bathroom at any given time. NHL Hockey Arenas are big places.
That’s the Spirit!
Speaking the rights…
Danny Johnson