Myrtle remembers St. Louis

The Jewel Box in Forest Park

My cousin Myrtle read some of the Blogs I have posted, and remembered more things about St. Louis in the 1940s and 1950s. Here is what she wrote.

When my sister Merilyn and I moved into the apartment on Leland Avenue, we spent many Saturdays going to the Varsity or Tivoli movie theatre's. The Varsity was only one block away, and the Tivoli, about three blocks away, so we were able to walk to them. It cost 10 cents, when I was in the first grade. By the time I was in the sixth grade, I think it went up to 20 cents. As TV was not yet available, News of the Day was shown. It changed every week, and was mostly on the war being fought in Germany and Japan. Then, a short serial--usually a western, was shown. You looked forward to the next episode shown on the following week. The movies were wonderful, and though they had no ratings, our parents didn't worry about the content as they were almost always for family viewing.

On other Saturdays, we walked to Forest Park. Forest Park was built for the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. We might take a picnic lunch along. Our favorite spot was the waterfall. We would climb up it. Merilyn fell one time, and cut her hand. We walked home with it bleeding. She probably could have used a few stitches in it, but in those days you didn't run to the emergency room. We just bandaged it when we got home. We would also go to the zoo and the Art Museum. On Sunday's in the summertime, our Dad would take us to the lagoon and we would rent canoes and paddle around. Oh hot summer nights we would go to the Pavilion and watch the light display on the fountain. No one had air conditioning, and in St.Louis it got very hot and humid, so sleeping was sometimes very difficult. Our cousin Bip went through a phase where we had to go by the zoo every evening to say goodnight to the birds in the big cage. The zoo was an interesting place to go. The animals performed. You could watch the chimpanzees who they dressed in sailor outfits perform. There was an elephant show, and a lion and tiger show as well. They no longer perform as they like to show the animals in their natural habitat these days. My parents enjoyed showing the zoo to Merilyn and my children and grandchildren. A trip to St. Louis was not complete without a trip to the zoo.

Some of the other things we liked to do was visit the Jewel Box. The Jewel Box is a wonderful glass in garden with displays of flowers related to the various seasons. This time of year it will be full of poinsettias. In the early fall they will have chrysanthemums. On Sunday afternoons, my father's cousins would gather at the "comfort" station below the Municipal Opera, also in Forest Park. We would bring a picnic lunch, and the adults would play cards. We children would explore the creeks, climb the trees, and have a wonderful time. In the wintertime, the card game got moved inside on a week night, and we children were not invited. My father's cousins played cards at least once a week for many many years. They called it the "Cousin's Club". We went to a different park, Tillis Park, on the 4th of July, and all of the cousins would gather there. All of my father's generation are dead as well as many from my generation.Many of us have moved from St. Louis. I'm sorry to say that we have lost contact with most of the cousins.