Then and Now

I was so excited to go to Nauvoo because it meant flying into St. Louis.  My family lived there from 1960 to 1964.

The seven of us 

Here it is today!

Back yards.  So many memories!!  Picture this as a big park.  No fences, no sheds.  Our house was at the head of "the park".  Hours and hours of hide and seek, color tag, and chasing grasshoppers.

Dad worked as a test pilot at the McDonnel plant.  It later became McDonnel-Douglas.

Dad had to wear a space suit because he would test the jets up to the edge of space.  So cool.  He would fly over our house and break the sound barrier (when it was still legal to do so).

It is now the Boeing Plant.  I took a quick picture from the highway on our way back to the airport to fly home.

50 years ago, this was the Florissant dairy.  We would walk up the highway and get candy.  I know it is the right building because it is next to the storm culvert.  We would slither down into the storm drain in front of our house, walk through the pipes to the other side of the highway and pop out just short of the dairy.  Don't tell Mom.

New Halls Ferry Grade School.  Joy, Diane, Brad, Raelene, and I all went here.

This is a steel doorstop.  I broke my front tooth on one in the second grade while playing on the playground.  I was running away from Robert Kegel and tripped.  I would tell people I broke my tooth on a doorstop and they would look at me like I was crazy.  How do you break a tooth on a doorstop?  I am so glad they still had a couple so I could get a picture.  Now people won't think I'm crazy.

This is where it happened.  Looks like they have removed the step and the doorstop. (Had to comply with handicap rules.)  The door would swing out and clamp on the doorstop.  I don't know how they keep the door open now.  Not my problem.

The famous Chain of Rocks Bridge we crossed on our way to Illinois and Scott Air force Base and the commisary.  I looked for the Chain of Rocks Amusement Park.  It wasn't there.  It was pretty old back in 1960 so I am pretty sure the roller coaster (which was rickety and scary then) finally fell into the canal.
Such a fun trip to show Charlie where I used to live.