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March 2008
THE DUKE’S SPIN
By: Brad Reed
Creative Writer
I was parked in the Domain Street Wine Bar the other night…talking to my friend 'Bud Light'. Kinda funny, because I had a Bud Light parked in front of me also, as we reminisced about old times…'back in the day' times. Bud, the warm bodied one, grew up in South St. Louis. I'm from the North Side...Twenty-third and Montgomery. Though our lives traveled different paths to get to our eventual nests in New Town, we remembered a lot of same events; the same places. Or so it seems.
I remember bits and pieces about Busch Stadium…the original one...back before they began adding numbers behind the stadium names. Grand Avenue and Dodier Street. Yep, sitting way up in the right field nosebleed section with my Dad watching the Cardinals beat up on another foe. I don't actually recall who the visiting team was or what the score was, but when you reminisce about your childhood, the home team always wins. That's the way it should be...at least when your Dad takes you to a baseball game. Busch Stadium has been gone for years now; so is its successor, Busch Stadium II. Photos will forever tell the tales of each of these St. Louis landmarks, but the real treasures of their 'lives' is in the word of mouth recollections which always tend to add a little 'spice' to the facts...such as the memories Bud and I spilled out to one another.
Busch Stadium stood right across the street from one of the many bustling shopping areas on Grand Avenue. Most of the buildings still stand in this stretch today, but they don't do justice to the visions I remember when I was a little sprout. After a ten block stroll from our home over Franzack's Market, my Mom would meander us through these stores, occasionally picking out some trinkets for our home or some clothes for our backs. Active, vibrant, and exciting are words describing the sights my wide open, young eyes would spy. Local entrepreneurs manned a lot of these businesses; some presumably living right upstairs. Live / works? How appropriate...since Bud and I were sitting in a potential live / work as we enjoyed our conversation. Once in a great while, a stray fly ball would sail high above the right field wall of Busch Stadium and bounce it's way into some lucky passerby's hands. Wow! Those were the days.
Bud remembers those days too. His stomping grounds were in and around Cherokee Street, among other Southside neighborhoods. Brenda and I have been to Cherokee Street many times…searching for that elusive antique that was always overlooked. I can envision Bud's childhood days in this patch of St. Louis, simply because his neighborhood was similar in structure to what I remember north of the Lindell Boulevard 'equator'. Brown brick buildings standing one after another after another after another; the corner lots always reserved for a market; or a barber shop; or a tavern. Neighbors perched on their front stoops, offering conversation to anyone who passed by. Gangways that squeezed between the rows of buildings on their way to the ash pits near the alley in the back. Stick ball; scooters; jump rope.
Northsiders could revel about the Crown Candy Company; Bud would boast Gus' Pretzels; Ted Drew's. Romines Chicken did it for me; Hodacks returned the favor for Bud and the Southsiders. Natural Bridge Boulevard and it's endless stream of shops, markets, and auto dealerships headed north to the 'New World'; Gravois Boulevard kept pace heading south. Hyde Park Brewery kept the buckets full up north; AB, Griesedieck, and Falstaff returned the favor down south. Yikes, something's wrong with this 'brewery' comparison.
I guess you can see that even though our neighborhoods may have had different locations, Bud and I shared many of the same experiences; the same memories. My family moved to suburbia when I was five, but I can still recall tiny bits of these days gone by. It'll be the same for the young kids in New Town someday...when they're all grown up and begin recalling their childhoods. "I remember when the Diner was the Prancing Pony" said Bud Light III. "Yeah, but I remember when it was the sales office...up front" replied Duke Jr. Slowly, we're creating history for the next generations in New Town; setting in motion the conversations that will occur well beyond my years. And though we don't have the 'Mason / Dixon Line' comparisons that Bud and I could debate for hours, the beauty of our community will only blossom as the trees mature, the businesses fill in, and our social activities expand. Hopefully, we will all have a positive part in these future memories and become some of the 'spice'.
And those bouncing baseballs on Grand Avenue? My Mom was one of the lucky ones.
The Duke of Hempstead
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