My St. Louis Locations

I admit, I haven't worked much with land records or maps. I know I need to, but I find it to be a time-consuming project and I am far from retirement.

This week's theme prompted me to download Google Earth, and at least map out a couple of places that were important in my own life. 

My First Home

9320 Sterling Place

Affton, Missouri

We lived in this little house for the first ten years of my life, 1965-1975. Originally this was a two bedroom house, but my dad took part of the family room (I think) to make a third bedroom. The grassy area next to the house was not there at the time. It was a creek. I remember many happy hours playing in that creek.

The gravel road is where my sister Elaine lost a tooth. We tried to look for it awhile but never found it. At the far end of the gravel road there was a family with some teenage girls. They gave us their old Barbie dolls. I remember they looked a lot different from the Barbies we had. I wish we had kept them. They may have been the original ones.

Directly across the gravel road was a family with three boys. They were all about the same ages as me and my sisters. Sometimes we got along, and sometimes we didn't. I believe our fighting ruined the friendship of our mothers.

I remember there were some "hippies" that lived across the street, and a teenage girl living next to us had a baby that she named Amy. I remember asking how she had a baby when she wasn't married, but I don't remember my mom's answer.

The man behind us, Mr. Fish, grew tomatoes. The couple across the street, the Hermans, had two granddaughters that we liked to play with when they visited. Mr. Herman used to fall asleep in his lawn chair, often without a shirt on. When he stood up, you could see tan lines from his stomach folds from sleeping in the sun in his chair.

Going to the Park

Times were different then. For some reason, my parents let us ride our bikes, alone, to a nearby park called Ohlendorf Park. According to Google Maps, the trip was 1.3 miles and took about 7 minutes by bicycle. It was all side streets, but my daughter lives near the park and there are still very few sidewalks. We rode our bikes with no helmets, and we had no cell phones to call if we had a problem. The park looks different now, but I remember there was something you could climb on with a large, triangular piece of metal that several people could slide down at the same time. I burned the backs of my legs more than a few times on that thing. It also make a squeaking sound when you slid, which was basically your skin sticking to the hot metal. 

I decided not to put my second house here because my sister lives there now, but my first job, at age 16, was at Missouri Botanical Garden. I sold tickets to get in, and sometimes I worked in the gift shop or in the plant shop.

A lot of teenagers worked at the Garden, and sometimes we would get together and do things we weren't supposed to do, like look around at everything in Henry Shaw's house (the historic house of the garden's founder which is open for tours). I have always been proud that my first job was in such a great place. We are members of the Garden now, and we visit pretty often. My granddaughter Rose, who likes plants and flowers more than any kid I've ever known, enjoys our visits. She likes to see the Rose Garden. She thinks it's her garden, and we don't correct her. 

When I graduated from college, my first job was at St. Louis Children's Hospital as a Registered Nurse. At first I worked on the Cardiology/Cardiothoracic surgery floor. I also spent a year in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. The PICU was boring. I know that sounds silly, but all of the patients were sedated, and I worked at night so not much went on unless it was bad. I later transferred to the Emergency Unit, and I absolutely loved it there. 

I left the hospital in 2003 and started working in Student Health Services at Washington University in St. Louis. I was drawn by the benefits (tuition benefit for the kids + good retirement plan). I like working with the college students. It's a fun age group. I get to meet students from all over the world, and I enjoy hearing about their studies and plans for the future. We do what we can to keep the students healthy so they can complete their studies. Our office is in this building, Dardick House. We are in the basement where the green awnings are located.

We park behind the building, between the building and the baseball field. Like anyone who works at a school, we really look forward to summer. Each spring, as I walk to my car in the afternoon, I can hear the sound of a ball hitting a metal bat and I know summer's coming soon! 

The Resurrection of William Andrew Rigsbey/Rigsby

I'm excited to share one of my favorite photographs. There it is, just to the left of the title of this week's post. 

The man on the left was just a boy here, in his late teens I'm guessing. 

Meet William Andrew Rigsby (or Rigsbey). He went by "Andy."

Andy was born in 1878 in Crab Orchard, Kentucky. His family, including aunts, uncles, and cousins, moved to Macoupin County, Illinois between 1880 and 1900. They all changed the spelling of their last name from Rigsby to Rigsbey when they moved. According to family lore, 

they wanted to disassociate with their father.

My husband's branch went back to the original spelling. Most of the others did not.

Andy's parents were John William Rigsby, born in Lincoln County, Kentucky, and Anna Eliza Conn, born in Garrard County, Kentucky. 

This was her second marriage.

You can see "Eliza" Rigsbey below. 

Andy, my husband's great grandfather, spent most of his life in St. Louis, Missouri.

He was an artist - a sign painter.

Back in those days, billboards were actually painted by artists. I'll talk more about this in a 

future post (he took photos of his work!).

This week's theme is "Mistake."

Andy enlisted in the U.S. Army and served for 3 years. I don't know much about his service yet, mostly because the information is more difficult to find. He wasn't in one of the "big" wars. He served in the Spanish American War and in the Boxer Rebellion.

At some point, his family thought he was dead. I can't imagine how his mother felt when she heard the news. It must have been horrible. I came across an article about her happy ending published in the Daily Illinois State Register in Springfield, Illinois on March 30, 1902.  I learned from his military headstone application that he was also awarded the Purple Heart, but I don't know how he was wounded. There is always more to discover!

Extra-Curricular Activities: Richard Leroy Kienlen and Sharon Eileen Aden at School

I was 9 when the Little House on the Prairie television show started, and I, of course, read all of the books. So when my mom told me she went to a one-room school house, that's what I would think of. I still do, but as an adult I know it couldn't have been the same. She went in the 1950s. I need to ask her brother about it, but in some ways I don't want to change the images I've imagined. She, along with her older brother Tommy and younger sister Diana, grew up in the town of Poplar Bluff, in southeastern Missouri. "PB" as we called it. After elementary school, she went to 

Poplar Bluff High School and graduated in 1960. 

My dad's education was different. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, a big city compared to Poplar Bluff. He attended Siegel Elementary School and then McKinley High School. The high school was just down the street from from the four family flat where he lived with his parents. He was an only child. He loved to travel around the city on the street cars. He used to talk about going off 

on his own, just to explore new places. 

Both of my parents were involved in extra-curricular activities in high school. My mom was the librarian for her Future Teacher's of America organization. Although she never because a teacher officially, she was an involved mother.

My dad was in the Chess Club. He taught me how to play chess, although I haven't played since I was a kid. He also tried to teach my oldest daughter. I'm not sure how far they got.

Dad was also in the Camera Club, and eventually became a photographer. He used to have stacks and stacks of photography magazines in our basement, tied together with twine. Photography magazines and National Geographic magazines. Both magazines were full of beautiful pictures. 

No wonder he wanted to keep them.