Thanks For The Memories:

A Tribute To St. Louis

Yes, I remember you

elegant lady with a past;

 

Married to a French king

            you never even met,

abandoned

then

married forever to ‘THE OLD MAN*’

 

 

Yes, I remember, too

 

exploring your many ways

            on veins of nickel streetcar rides;

Woodson Road, the Wellston Loop,

            downtown

and back again

 

 

Speak to me of beforetimes long ago

 

when life with you

            was a new beginning!

 

Do you remember-

 

When Choteau’s Pond was a real

            and Sacajawea** lived next door?

 

When your All American boys

            all passed through Jefferson Barracks

            and some returned

            to sleep forever?

 

When ten thousand sons

            asked you ‘which way West?’

            and you let them all go?

 

 

Yours was the place

            for the gathering of eagles

 

 

Some only came to fish with The Old Man,

            and still do

 

Other fledgling space eagles soon gathered

            and one by one

            stepped off and out

                        into infinity

 

Names forever emblazoned

            upon your eternal sky

            Glenn Curtiss

            Orville Wright

            Lindy, Shepard, Glenn, Armstrong;

All first tried out their equipment      here.

 

 

Yes, I remember you

 

            your Grand White Way of escape palaces

                        in 1904,

            your Who’s Who of celebrated children,

 

            your streets with French names that

                        still change three times in an afternoon!

 

 

So,

tell me

 

Do your stainless steel legs

            still glisten in the morning sun?

 

 

And,

tell me,

mother of river cities,

 

Is today tomorrow, yet?

 

 

Then-

Eero’s*** epitath still speaks well

            for both him and you.

                       

                        by     Bill Vivrett

 

NOTES

*THE OLD MAN-     

            The Mississippi- traditionally the only river ever designated as male and always referred to as The Old Man.

 

**SACAJAWEA-

            Young Shoshone Indian woman. Key guide for Lewis and Clark.

She settled, for a time in St. Louis.

 

 

***EERO-

Eero Saarinen

            Brilliant American architect who first completed design for the Arch in 1948 and won the International competition. He died before Its completion in 1965, but his genius was so thorough that associates were able to complete it.

Its classic beauty lies in its simplicity.