On November 15, 2000, our then oldest list-member of our Dogtown e-mail
discussion list, Sister Thomas More Duggan, wrote the first of four essays reflecting back on Dogtown as she remembered it in the 1920s and
1930s. She was a graduate of the class of 1931. Within a few days her
status as "senior" member of the list was challenged by Kitty O'Schaughnessy Krall, class of 1926. For some weeks the two of them riveted out attention as they remembered that period and jogged one another's memory.
I present here those reflections, organized by topic. It is my hope that some of you who read this may have living relatives who were in Dogtown during this period and can share these memories with them, having them add to the process. Or, if documents -- letters, tapes,
videos made with them at some point survive, or even just the memories
of their versions of this early history, I urge you to share those with
the list and allow me to add them to this important historical document.
Bob Corbett
June 2001
The class photos of our two e-mail historians, may be seen at:
Class photos of St. James school
Then check the class of 1926, 2nd girl from left in row 2 for Kitty O'Shaughnessy,
and then class of 1931: middle row, 4th girl from left, just
behind Father O'Connor and to the right is Agnes Duggan,
now Sister Thomas More Duggan.
THE TOPICS PRESENTED ARE:
Wed, 15 Nov 2000
It was in 1928 that the new Church was ready for use and its former quarters were converted into five or six classrooms. This was the building known to all who attended St. James from 1928 until the present facility was built about 1954 (?). The Seventh and Eighth Grades, Kindergarten, and lower grades occupied the new rooms and middle grades were upstairs. I was in Sixth Grade that year . We had a room upstairs with Sister Estelle, our teacher. She was an exceptionally good teacher who had us believing school was fun. She gave us the opportunity to work for Penmanship Awards in "Palmer Method". Those interested stayed after school to practice ovals and vertical strokes using a long handled pen with removable nib and a bottle of ink. When these exercises looked satisfactory, Sister sent them in and we waited anxiously for our bronze pins and, as we improved, a blue pin.
Every Friday we had drawing which consisted of copying a geometric design from one of a set of cards. She also introduced us to singing which we learned by imitating her voice ( the only musical instrument available). No Art, Music or Phys Ed Teachers then. When she sensed restlessness, she had us stand with windows open and do a few simple exercises. Another treat was her reading stories to us for a few minutes each day.
The extra rooms at the front of the building were used for many different activities. Sister Gabriel hired a music teacher to teach the upper grades to sing parts of the Mass. Mrs. Bess Gallagher who had been a physical ed teacher and whose husband had recently died was hired to give dancing lessons.
Doctors and nurses came periodically to keep us immunized and to examine vision and hearing, heart and lungs.
There's a story that one of the Cenatiempos left class suddenly one day only to explain on his return that he saw from the window of his classroom that his cow got out. He ran home to save the situation. He lived on Graham Street behind the school. Many Italians lived on Graham and kept some of the old world customs. A goat or a cow, chickens and a vegetable garden were common sights in their back yards. Many others including our family had gardens (and we had chickens) especially during The Great Depression. Benny Cenatiempo often walked his cow down Victoria Avenue and over Hampton to Forest Park to graze.
Physical Aspects of St. James School in Early Twenties
St. James School was a two story building across the front with a basement, and like the vertical stem of a T extending eastward from the front was the Church (one story with a basement).The horizontal part along Tamm was the school. Four classrooms occupied the first floor (the four upper grades). The Eighth Grade was at the front where the principal Sr. Alphonsus could play many roles: teacher, security guard, overseer of the school in general, school nurse, scheduler of events, and anything else that came up in a day's work. The lower grades occupied the upper floor. Two grades in a room where necessary. The teacher's desk was on a raised platform. Student desks were attached to wooden runners - three or four to a runner. Floors of oiled wood helped keep the dust down. Windows facing Tamm Ave. were up high requiring a long window pole to open them from the top by pulling inward. The side windows were regular. Each room had four bare electric light bulbs hanging from single long cords.. When light was needed, Sister helped a boy stand on a desk to reach the short metal chain that turned on the light ( I think, a 25 watt bulb - perhaps 50 watt) which didn't do much. All three classrooms on the second floor opened onto a wide hallway leading to wooden stairways at either end.
I can still hear the noise of a hundred feet coming down those stairs where at a turn the steps became triangular and were hard to negotiate when you were two on a step.. To try to avoid parades by individuals from the top floor to the lavatories which were quite a distance for little ones, classes were taken down twice a day two flights of stairs, to the very back of the church basement ( girls' playroom or boys' playroom as the case may be). A Cafeteria lay between the two playrooms - rather small, but adequate I suppose. Most of us went home for lunch except in bad weather.
Mrs. Plengemeier with help from volunteer mothers did the cooking and served hot chili or hot soup, hot dog sandwiches, hamburgers or something else that was simple They did an excellent job. I thought it was fun to stay for lunch.
Boys played on one side and girls on the other of the unpaved schoolyard. When the bell rang, we lined up and entered from our respective grounds to the Assembly Room under the school where we recited prayers together, learning where to pause etc. Announcements, commendations, corrections etc. were followed by marching out to respective classrooms in march time played by Sr. Raymunda's advanced piano students. I recall Eileen Houlihan and Mary Catherine McGrath as two such.
One day as we returned from lunch, (I can still see it) the sky was a greenish gray. As we arrived, we were ushered directly to the Assembly Room and were kept there until what we later learned to be a tornado had come and spent itself out. Fortunately, our area was spared. It was THE tornado often referred to in history. It was either 1928 or 1929. The girl next door to us went to Central High School. I'm not sure where that was, but the students had to walk home. No streetcars, no telephones! Her parents were worried until she got home at five or six o'clock. I recall passing apartments on Kingshighway near Oakland where from the streetcar we could see rooms still standing after the front walls were torn away by wind. I have great respect for improvements in weather forecasting today - even if sometimes it is in error.
The Sisters' Convent, a small stucco house, stood next to the school. Moore's house was next; then the old white wooden Church and the Rectory which was an ugly yellow. Special functions in the Old Church, I will tell about it later along with "Special Days".
Sr. Thomas More
==========================
Sat, 18 Nov 2000
I remember the second floor classrooms and the third grade which was taught by Sr. Francis Borgia. She was a good and very strict teacher. Oh, those stairs. To class in morning, then down and up them for recess and down and up them at lunch and down them for dismissal. We ought to have had good leg muscles. The fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades I remember very clearly. They were taught respectively by Sr. Joselita, Sr. Thekla, Sr. Raymunda and Principal Sr. Gabriel ....a splendid teacher and administrator. I also remember the names of most of my eighth grade classmates.
SPECIAL HOLIDAYS AND SCHOOL DAYS
Thu, 16 Nov 2000
Essay from Sister Thomas
My first special day was First Communion. Sister Patrice prepared us and as the time neared, we were brought to the Old White Church where Fr. O'Connor put in the final touches and examined each of us in the group by asking one question of each in turn. He told a story about THE LITTLE DAHG the moral of which was "Thou shalt not kill". I don't remember the story, but I'll never forget the answer. It was my turn. I answered correctly, but he couldn't hear me. The more he said "Eh?" with his hand cupping his ear, the more I thought I was wrong and the weaker my voice got. He announced me as a failure and I was put out of the class. The girl next to me, giving the same answer nice and loud, passed. Sister Patrice and Sister Marie Therese commiserated with me. They and my mother assured Father O'Connor that I knew my Catechism, and I was reinstated. Funny how we can remember all these tragedies.
Another Day in the Old Church was the Christmas Party. The whole school gathered there and sang all the carols and Christmas songs we knew until we had a signal that Santa was coming. Then with bells jingling and Santa (Mr. Riegal) ho-hoing, we broke into Jolly Old St. Nicholas. With some help from mothers who sponsored the party, we were given Christmas candy. We may have had cake and ice cream before that, but all attention was focused on Santa's arrival. In the lower grades, it was really exciting.
Valentine's Day was another special day. Someone in each class volunteered to decorate a box with a slot to receive valentines which came gradually for several days prior to the day itself. On that day, at an appointed time Valentines were given out by Sister with the help of designated messengers.
Having done this myself as a teacher, I found out what bedlam it was. Every teacher goes home with a headache at the end of the day. Food Showers were special days of our own making Someone would get the idea, secretly ask the members of the class to bring a food item on a certain day. At noon while Sister was at lunch or minding the yard, a committee stacked the items as attractively as they could adding colored streamers or some other decoration. With the help of another Sister, we arranged to have our Sister detained while we got seated and waited quietly for her to appear at the door when we shouted "Surprise!!". The day may have been an occasion like Thanksgiving or Christmas, or just a time when we wanted a free afternoon. The motive was not always pure, but we did have an afternoon of games and/or stories, drawing or singing. The showers were probably started by some of the mothers who knew that sisters at that time earned a dollar a day which did not cover food, education, medical costs transportation, clothing etc. Lots of good things were brought in by the students. Transporting it all to the convent was another job to be delegated, and, of course, every boy in the class wanted to do it.
Sister Thomas More
From: sister thomas duggan
Children anticipated the St. James School Annual Picnic as soon as warm weather set in. Each Class chose two colors; someone volunteered to make a banner for his/her respective class. The banners were made with a barrel hoop nailed onto an old broom handle or a length of other wood.
They wrapped strips of crepe paper around the handle and the hoop, cut streamers that hung from the hoop. On picnic morning, after assembling in our classrooms, we lined up eight or ten abreast and marched down Tamm Ave. (each class behind its identifying banner) to Oakland Ave. where we boarded open-air streetcars that took us to Creve Coeur Lake Park.
There were no rides, but if I remember correctly there were boat rides.
The parents sponsored a variety of races suited to age levels. I don't recall how our parents got to the park, but get there they did with baskets full of food. Since food preservation wasn't so easy, they had to pack perishables in ice and add mayonnaise to salads as lunch time neared. Neighboring families tried to get tables near one another and provide variety in the menu - especially the desserts.
Parents played cards or just visited while the children were off to races and games like baseball and softball. The sisters were always an important part of the day. Mothers provided a lunch for them after which they made the rounds visiting tables. Picnic planners deliberately avoided parks that had rides because of the expense to families. We sometimes went to O'Fallon Park or Carondolet Park. Many of the fathers couldn't come until after work. We all went home tired. Think how tired mothers must have been!!
Kitty Krall O'Shaughnessy adds:
Those school picnics at Ramona and Creve Coeur were wonderful. We traveled in open sided street cars and sang happy songs........like
Strawberry shortcake , pickles, and ham,
we are the girls from Wade and Tamm.
Great, eh?
This reminded Sr. Thomas More of "another elegant ditty for picnic days and games:"
Stand 'em on the head;
Stand 'em on the feet;
St. James, St. James can't be beat"
Later on Bill Vorbeck asked Kitty about the "song" the chant came from. She replied:
Sunday, November 19, 2000
Wow, what a windfall. Thanks. A quick answer to that Vorbeck kid who graduated 20 years after I did. The "cheer" we yelled while riding those wonderful open sided street cars to Creve Coeur Park for the school picnic was not part of a song, just a school cheer. Dallas Cowgirl cheerleaders copied us.
Tue, 30 Jan 2001
Kitty O'Shaughnessy Krall (class of 1926) writes...
When I was in grade school, of course we had St. Pat's Day off. Father O'Connor was Pastor. What's more St. James parishioners were dispensed from the Lenten fast for that day - and in those days it was a strict LENTEN FAST. Our families saw to it that we wore "a bit of green"... for the girls usually a modest sized hair ribbon. Not a big deal, really, in Dogtown. Of course St. Louis had its Irish Societies such as the Hibernians and they celebrated with parties. I really don't remember any big parades. Kitty
THE MOTHER'S CLUB AND MINSTREL SHOWS
Mon, 20 Nov 2000
Sister Thomas More Duggan epiph@mindspring.comThe Mothers' Club raised funds for the parish several times a year. Euchre and Lotto was big in the twenties. The Lotto section was in the Assembly Room with Mrs.Ruth Bovard the caller. The cafeteria and the boys' playroom housed the Euchre which was played at card tables. Always a good crowd came to these affairs.
The Mothers also sponsored a Minstrel (we didn't know any better then) once a year. They were held in the Old White Church until the parish outgrew it. Then they went to some temple on Kingshighway. I can't recall the name of the temple. Spanish Temple comes to my mind, but it doesn't sound right.
Adele McVey Conroy, Corrine Gittens, Mrs. Plengemeier were prominent in minstrels. In case younger readers do not know what a minstrel is. All who took part blackened their faces, wore men's clothing, covered their hands with white gloves and sat on chairs facing the audience. Interlocutors sat at either end of the front row and carried on a dialogue between songs and dances. The dialogue was conversation about funny situations involving Father O'Connor, Father Pohl or some prominent member/s of the parish. We had some very good singers who entertained with songs of the day and even a bit of tap dancing. I'm sure some of your readers can add more names and details. I really enjoyed them. I don't know how long they continued past the twenties. I think they were always scheduled for or near St. Patrick's Day. Perhaps Kitty can add to this.
Sister Thomas More
From kitty
Subject: Mothers' Club ...Sr. T.M. and Medicine Shows
As I remember it, when the Mothers Club needed a larger place to put on their shows, they went to Scottish Rite's Moolah Temple. Does that ring a bell, Sister? I have a vivid memory of the Medicine Shows that stopped in Dogtown. Their performances were given in the vacant lot on Tamm and Manchester, right next door to the Wack family's home. They put on minstrel shows too but the emphasis was on their product... SNAKE OIL IN THIS 8 OZ. BOTTLE , and so cheap. Real con men {and women} they were too. What fun it was to attend their shows.
Later on Kitty writes:
When I was in my early twenties - which would be the early l930's, St. James Parish had a Drama Club. I was in ONE play only. I do not remember the title of the play, but I do remember I played opposite the really really handsome Dan Sheehan. The Sheehan family lived on the East side of Tamm between Wade and Manchester Aves. The Sheehan family operated the Sheehan Realty Co. which was located in the now famous (to Dogtowners) building at the northwest corner of Tamm and Manchester. The plays were put on at the Moolah Temple on Kingshighway near Oakland. I do not remember how long the Drama Club lasted, I'm sorry to say.
Kitty
Wed, 22 Nov 2000
From: sister thomas duggan
Since Victoria Avenue is the street I know best, and since it is typical of life in general in the early twenties, that's where I'll begin.
Streets were paved with bricks which often buckled up in very hot weather. Benny Cenatiempo came along every evening at dusk to light the gas streetlights. He carried a pole with a sort of pilot light at the top. In the morning he went around again to turn the lights off. (We had gas jets in our house also in case a storm blew out electricity.) In early morning the clop clop of horses pulling the milk wagon from door to door making deliveries told us that it was nearly time to get up. How pleasant it was in the dark of winter to turn over for a few more winks! When we opened the front door to fetch the milk on a very cold morning, we might find the cream frozen and pushing the cardboard top above the surface of the bottle. Since milk was not homogenized, there was a good heavy cream in the top three or four inches. We poured this off for coffee drinkers.
Later in the mornings the iceman came with his wagon filled with blocks of ice measuring twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five, or a hundred pounds. Each house had a cardboard sign to place in a window indicating the size wanted. The iceman with heavy tongs slung the block of ice over his shoulder which was covered with a sheet of canvas and carried it directly to the icebox. In the cold of winter, however, we seldom needed ice. We had on a kitchen windowsill a small icebox accessed by opening the window. At regular times other horsedrawn services came by: The coal man, the rag man chanting "Rags Ol' Iron", and the garbage man. In the summer time the stench of the garbage wagon was overpowering.( Notice we had no euphemisms.)
In the very late twenties or early thirties wheels took the place of horses, and some new services were introduced. The Hot Waffle man drove an open wagon with a counter on either side and hit a hanging triangle as he drove along. His waffles were nice and crisp and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Then came the ice cream man, White Bakery, and peddlers with fresh produce.
In summer and fall evenings, a Hot Tamale Man walked down the street carrying a little warmer whose light shone in the dark as he chanted, "Hot tamale red hot tamale".
Automobiles were few and far between. So we could play ball, Red Rover and other games which I will tell about at another time. Johnny Doran drove a Model T Ford. Sometimes I saw him get out and crank the handle at the front of the car to start or restart the engine jump in and drive on.
Red-lettered Quarantine signs marked the front door of a house with Measles, Scarlet Fever, Mumps, Whooping Cough, Diphtheria, or Chicken Pox. A spray of flowers on the front door indicated a wake in that house. (Funeral Parlors were not in vogue yet.)
We knew all the people on our block and they knew us. Ben and Edith Gratiot lived in the old homestead across the street and their sisters, Mrs. Blythe and Mrs. Johnson in the next two houses. Ben told my father that he would not sell the lot next to us until the children were all grown and that we were free to use it. My father lined the front of the lot with a beautiful flower garden and he plotted a vegetable garden toward the back. When telephone poles in the alley were replaced, my father asked for and received the old poles from which he made swings and a seesaw.
Many a baseball game was played on that lot also. A wonderful playground and enough kids in the neighborhood to keep it active most of the time.
Another prominent neighbor on Victoria was Dr. Brent Murphy who passed our house many times on foot making house calls. He carried a black satchel which really puzzled me because I had always heard that the stork brought new babies, but that bag made me wonder. A child's world was completely separated from the adult world. Adults never spoke of adult affairs or problems in front of children. At least that was so in our house.
Other neighbors on our block were: the Bernard Brady family, Jim Coad Family, McLaughlins, Klaseks, Wiber - Henchens, Gallaghers, Engelhardts, Lotts, Burkes, Lossos, Begleys, Plackes. Before Wibers moved into a house a few doors from us, The Holy Family Fathers lived in the house for a few years and offered Mass at St. James. They were from Belgium and spoke very little English. I often met one of them backing out of their garage, and was offered a ride to Church. That must have been about 1928 or 9. They moved to Ashby and Midland when their building was ready.
Sr. Thomas More
Kitty responds on Victoria:
GRAPE ORCHARDS
Oh yes I remember the grape arbors. We had a very nice one in the back yard on Wade. The dark blue grapes were so good. On hot summer days my cousin Tom (a girl my age who was called Tom because when she was born she was so little she was called Tom Thumb, and ever after just Tom.... we almost forgot her given name was Margaret) and I spent many happy hours playing with our paper dolls in the arbor. I wonder if anyone else remembers those paper dolls? We were avid readers in that grape arbor, too, and Tom was crazy about E.A. Poe. Favorites were Murders In The Rue Morgue and Telltale Heart.
That grape arbor kept us relatively cool on hot days and sort of hidden from younger brother and sister. You might say our families "didn't have much" but had lots of fun that didn't cost much. That's it for grapes. No wine making but Mom did make beer and we had a lot of exploding bottles too... Kitty
Fri, 24 Nov 2000
Paper Dolls
From: sister thomas duggan
Of course I remember paper dolls. We cut them from Ladies Home Journal and/or McCalls and spent hours dressing and undressing and making new clothes for them. The Grape Arbor in our back yard was a refuge from the heat also on summer days.
From Kitty
The Gioia family is part of my earliest memories of Wade Ave. They were across the street neighbors. Mrs. Gioia was one of the first women automobile drivers I knew of. She sat majestically at the wheel of a large Hupmobile.........and woe betide anyone who got in her way. (Just kidding!) She was really an imposing figure though, .....AND that automobile was so gorgeous in those days.
Kitty (Catherine) O'Shaughnessy Krall
Wade Ave, when I was quite small, consisted of only 6 houses on our side of the street. Then came "Cook's Field. We were aware that clay mining was done there before our time. We were always admonished to be very very careful lest we fall into a shaft if the ground was soft and gave way. While I cannot positively say it is so, I do remember hearing that someone had fallen into a shaft near Dale Ave., and that was very close by. Many ball games and other games were played in Cook's Field, such as Go in and out the window and Drop the handkerchief. Hide and seek was popular too. No bad accidents where we played.
Kitty
Sat, 11 Nov 2000
From: Sister Thomas Duggan
There was a very small candy store on the west side of Tamm, owned by "Old Lady Fox" in the early twenties. When Miss Fox died, her Nephew (?) Vince Keegan took it over, and one day we were fascinated to see it being moved to the East side of the street onto a lot near Plengemeier's house which was the third house north of the old school. Vince earned many pennies and nickels from St. James Kids.
On the corner of West Park and Tamm were four stores well patronized by St. James Parishoners. Meyer's Market (NW). Kies Bakery (NE), Joe Sharamataro's Produce (SE) and Miss Catherine's Dry Goods (SW). On Sunday Mornings Kies' and Joe's were crowded after each Mass. Both of these were exceptionally good during the depression - giving extra measure and allowing people to run up a bill.
On the SE corner of Victoria were two stores. The one on the very corner was once a grocery store, then a meeting place for Pentecostals. This was very curious. all windows and doors were covered so that we could never see inside. Next door was Pleezall's Confectionery run by two very patient ladies. Candy was displayed in a glass counter, and in our family each of us spent our "Sunday Nickel" there buying a bag of penny candies, e.g. 7 pans (mint squares) for a penny, 5 greenleafs. 2 Mary Janes, 5 "Nigger Heads"(licorice) (That was not politically incorrect at the time), 2 chocolate soldiers, 1 tootsie roll. I think we tried to see who could get the most for a nickel. Those ladies waited so patiently while we thought and thought before each penny selection.
At this same store was our access to the library. We had a printed list of books available at the Roe School Branch Library. We selected from this list and deposited our lists in a special wooden box. In a day or two our books would arrive tied together with our name on it. Books were returned via that same box. There was a series of THE TWINS: The Irish Twins, The Dutch Twins, The Scotch Twins etc. For older children: Nancy Drew Mysteries and others.
Sister Thomas More
=========================================
From Kitty's first post:
I even took embroidery lessons at Miss Catherine's dry goods store. I was terrible. I remember with affection Joe and Sadie Sharamitaro, as well as Peno and JoJo. The Kies bakery was wonderful . MY favorite coffee cakes were apricot and deep cheese. And oh, those heavenly aromas on late summer when they were baking bread.
Further on Tamm, I was a frequent customer of Mrs. Pleezall's. Mr. Bissick's Drug Store had a beautiful marble soda fountain. He had a candy counter too, and dispensed the loose candies in cute red and white striped paper bags. No Mary Jane's though, those were gotten at Mrs. Fox's. Vince Keegan was, I am quite sure, her son from a first marriage.
On the corner of Tamm and Wise was Lehmann's Hardware store, where good looking George Ode worked. Next door was Hense's Market. Mr. Hense at one time sponsored soccer teams of the neighborhood. On Clayton Road, who could forget Randall Dwyer's White House and Beer Garden? Next door to Randall's was Johnny the Barber who probably cut most everyone's hair, including the curly locks of Nora and Kitty O'Shaughnessy
Hi-Pointe Movie Theatre
Can this movie house be considered a part of Dogtown? I sincerely hope so. Many happy Saturday afternoons were spent there. For a dime - ten cents, we got the feature film and a comedy and the News {usually Pathe} AND a segment of the serial they were currently running. My favorite of the serials was "Fu Mancho". It was so deliciously scary.
Sister's memories of Victoria Ave, {her turf} are very interesting. Does she remember the Congregational church and their ice cream socials?
I had a favorite ice man, Mr. Rohlhaus, who when he got to our house and I WAS [really] swinging on the squeaky front gate, would sing out "Hellooooooo Catherine Caroline" Caroline isn't my middle name but I wish it was. I like the combination. We kids, including Sister's Thomas More's brother in law, whom we called all his life "Dee", would beg for pieces of ice and would wrap them in newspapers and enjoyed them for as long as they lasted. The Newports were our next door neighbors...old time residents like us and the Corbetts. And weren't we lucky to live so close to school and church. We could get to each in only several minutes. Kitty
That Dolan Realty Bldg. it was formerly a Saloon with a hotel above. I well remember walking down Tamm Ave. on a hot summer evening with a large glass pitcher and in that saloon having it filled with delicious root beer. THE CREAMY FOAM LASTED TILL WE GOT HOME TOO. That root beer was the best I ever tasted. That could be wishful thinking though. Kitty
I remember well the wonderful ICE CREAM SOCIALS at the Congregational Church. The church was on the corner of Graham and Victoria. Is the church still operating? I remember too that just across the street from the church lived the pretty Brady twins, Dorothy and Dolores.
Kitty
Nov. 22, 2000
from Kitty O'Shaughnessy Krall
A memory of Fr. O'Connor...He would visit the 8th grade and give out REPORT CARDS. Sometimes he congratulated and sometimes admonished the hapless student "TO DO BETTER". In June he gave out medals.....for best student and for best attendance and for RELIGION. Here he got a surprise. The best student of religion was Tony Kollias who was of the Greek Orthodox faith and a faithful student at Greek Orthodox religion school on Friday late afternoons. CONSTERNATION. Fr. was very complimentary to Tony though. I thought Tony very handsome. Kitty
Fri, 24 Nov 2000
I remember with awe and affection this remarkable man. I like to remember him living in that old rectory with his beautiful dog.....a red Irish Setter named Toby. Father O'Connor was a sportsman and also loved fishing, which he did {with the physical help of a few strong friends), up to the very end of his life. My sister, Nora O'Shaughnessy Purcell, was his Secretary during his long illness. His heart was very strong and the illness lingered and lingered. Father could be, and indeed was harsh with us misbehavers. I am positive he is enjoying Heaven. Dogtown owes him!!! Kitty
Sun, 3 Dec 2000
From: Sister Thomas Duggan
When the Arena opened in 1929 or 30, there was a back gate at the foot of Berthold St. where a policeman was always on duty. Most of the time it was a chubby jolly man who would let us in.
The attraction then was a dairy show held in a wing at the east end of the arena itself. Other shows followed showing household items, flowers etc. That wing was torn down when such shows move to Kiel or elsewhere. The Dairy Show was a real education for city folk. I learned that cows were not just cows but Jerseys, Ayrshires, Black Angus, Holstiens and more.
We walked to the Arena with an empty pail, and had it filled with milk for a nickel. There was more to learn - the art of butter making, of whipping cream until it was just right. We had delicious desserts using the cream, and of course with seven kids drinking milk, none of it went to waste.
I don't recall how long the show lasted, but I know we brought milk home more than once or twice during its course.
Another early event at the Arena itself was a Rodeo. We must have gotten in free for that, too. I saw one Rodeo, but had no strong desire to see another. I thought it was kind of crazy to take such risks.
The St. Louis Flyers played Hockey there in the thirties. I recall seeing a few of their games, and we often ice-skated at the rink on Saturday afternoons.
Ringling Brothers entertained annually in the forties and fifties, I believe, because as a teacher, I took classes to the Circus.
Fri, 1 Dec 2000
from Kitty (Catherine) O'Shaughnessy Krall
Re the Arena... I loved going to the Flower Shows. They were wonderful. The Home Shows were very popular too. I do not remember getting any milk from the Dairy Shows. Wade Ave. was a distance from the arena though, and those much closer to it got in on the free milk.
I wish to interject at this point a brief paragraph from an oral interview I did with
Sam Bellamy when I first began my Dogtown history work. This
whole fascinating interview may be seen by clicking here. However, relevant to this
discussion, Sam told me:
"During the early years of the depression Sam had the paper boy corner at Tamm and Clayton, a most desired spot, and raking
in $12 to $18. a week, he was making more than many men in the neighborhood. At this time the Arena was being built as
was an extension to Deaconess Hospital (is there ever a time when they weren't building an extension to Deaconess
Hospital?). Sam would get his afternoon papers early, take a stack up and leave them at Deaconess. People would take their
paper and leave the money on the papers. Ha! Try that one today. Then Sam would hurry up on Oakland Ave. to be there
when the workers were leaving their jobs. They would buy papers from him. He would head back to his corner at Tamm and
Clayton and finish out his day. Sam was, of course, still in elementary school! Being a non-Catholic, Sam went up to Dewey
School and not to St. James."
Sports Teams:
I must mention that St. Louis is and has always been a LOYAL sports town. I surely remember standing in really, really cold weather watching Dogtown soccer teams play. We rooted for our favorite players. Some of the girls had SPECIAL feelings for some of the players and were so loudly happy when a particular player scored for our side.
Love, Kitty
From Kitty
I rode the streetcars a lot. The Manchester line mostly. In those days there were no smoke abatement laws and the coal that was burned left us with stinging eyes and sooty nostrils in winter. In those days Scullin Steel was still operating and the molten steel glowed in the vats. I thought it a pretty sight. In the winter while waiting for the street car to arrive from out Maplewood way, we would take shelter in Dolan Realty's doorway. My father was a motorman and worked on the Manchester as well as other lines
Kitty
THIS ENDS THE EXCHANGE OF LAST YEAR BETWEEN SISTER THOMAS MORE AND KITTY O'SHAUGHNESSY KRALL. However, I am appending a few things which I sent to the mailing list last year telling them about the treasure trove of data in the 1925-1932 series of church bulletins, LET'S GO.
LET'S GO: ST. JAMES CHURCH BULLETIN FROM 1925-1932
Fri, 1 Sep 2000
From Bob Corbett to the mailing list
I thought I'd take a few minutes this morning to tease you a bit more with what lurks in these 1300 pages of church bulletins we're cataloguing.
I have indexed only the first 36 pages, covering three issues.
Here are a few highlights:
Note from June 2001: I now have more than 600 pages indexed, but only some
40 pages scanned. None of the scanned pages nor the index is on line yet.
Father O'Connor's going to get a job
And go to work each day;
Dinner bucket under his arm
With lively step, and gay
And when his daily work is done,
And homeward bent;
St. James will be the gainer
Of another four per cent.
There is lots of fun in the reports and kidding. There were constant "shows" in which parish and neighborhood folks performed for their peers. I remember those days in the 1940s as well. It seemed like there were constant plays being mounted, musicals and variety shows. In nice weather they were on the back stage. Later, after 1950 and the first half of the "new school" was opened they were on the stage in the school -- which no longer exists (the stage, not the school).
I think television utterly ended that era and made entertainment something that is done almost exclusively by professionals or school children. I saw some marvelous entertainment in those days!
The parish and neighborhood is laid bare. There are, of course, also the merchant ads -- many of them including Joe Sharamitaro's Fancy Fruit and Fine Vegetables; Hense Grocery; John P. Dolan Realty Company (as the building comes down); Forest Park Bakery [Tamm and West Park]; Houlihan Nursery and Bisso's Flowers; The Schmidt Sisters' Cafe [6330 Clayton Ave.]; Frank's Service Station; Lehman's Hardware; Cody and O'Gorman's Lloyd/Childress Subdivison Lots; Forest Park Laundry;
and many many more.
Ha, no ads from my uncle Randal's White House Tavern or Jack O'Shea's. Maybe they wouldn't take tavern ads.
Bob Corbett
| HOME | DOGTOWN |
| Bibliography | Oral history | Recorded history | Photos |
| YOUR page | External links | Walking Tour |