Our public radio station's photo walk ended in a secluded area at one end of the Arch park. The circular area in the center of the picture is known as the Explorers' Garden. We divided into several small groups to discuss our impressions about what we saw and the issues confronting our city. Peaceful ending.
Seen along the public radio station's downtown photo walk. A young man sits alone on a tree stump by the reflecting pool (and yes, it has algae), playing his guitar and singing. Sadly, he was out of earshot. Our group left him to his reverie.
One of the stops in the downtown photo walk was the Old Courthouse, whose history is too long and rich to discuss here (although it's part of the Arch national park and well worth a visit). The ironwork on the outer fence is covered with turtles and there is a cute story. A 19th Century building caretaker named James Quigley had a pet turtle. It lived in the outdoor fountain in the warm months and inside the rest of the year. It was beloved by locals and its springtime return to the fountain was noted in the newspapers. It died in the 1870s and received an obituary in the papers. Quigley himself never did.
We have a marvelous public radio station. In something new for them, they organized a downtown photo walk yesterday, starting in a central plaza and ending in a peaceful garden in the park north of the Arch. It was cosponsored by a local arts organization called Loutopia. Thirty or forty people came. We split into groups, talking about and recording our urban core and its history, emphasizing what unites and devides us. More ot come.
Curtain call at the last production of Opera Theatre of St. Louis' season, Andre Previn's interpretation of A Streetcar Named Desire. It was stunning, a story by itself tight to the breaking point intensified by perfectly matched music. Stella!
