200 Years Later: The New Madrid Earthquakes

The most terrifying 45 seconds of my life were spent in the middle of an undulating street in downtown Seattle, Washington, watching skyscrapers sway back and forth like trees in the wind.  The "Nisqually" earthquake, which registered 6.8 on the Richter Scale, occurred on February 28, 2001, which happened to be my 46th birthday.  Moments before running out into the streets to protect myself from falling glass, I was  just sitting on a bench in front of the Westin Hotel, waiting for a shuttle bus to take me to SeaTac airport for my flight back to St. Louis.

I'll post details of that wild experience, some other time.  The point I'd like to get across today is that the event made a very strong impression on me.  In fact, it scared the hell out of me.  It also created an immediate thirst for knowledge about the actual magnitude of the New Madrid earthquakes.  After seeing and feeling the frightening power of a major earthquake, I was very curious about just how much more powerful they could be... especially when the New Madrid fault runs through the state in which I live.  

The answer?  Well... one of the New Madrid earthquakes (8.8 on the Richter Scale) had an approximate "seismic energy yield" of 240 megatons of TNT, which is 1,000 times greater than the 240 kiloton yield of  the Nisqually earthquake that I witnessed.  That magnitude is simply unimaginable to me and I can only hope that our region is a fraction as prepared as Seattle was, for a major earthquake.  Steve Erdelen

Read more about the New Madrid earthquakes here:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1421133/New-Madrid-earthquakes-of-1811-12

AIRPORT CITY - The Future of the Rock Road

(From the April 2011 Edition)

By Mike Hofmeister

Around the world, major airports serving as regional multi-modal surface-transportation nodes are shaping the urban environment. They attract businesses that trade goods and services on an international stage. They are becoming major commercial hubs for the cities that they serve. Many “airport cities” are rivaling their downtown counterparts as a core of economic development.

Airports represent the latest stage in transportation infrastructure that has fueled the growth of the United States: The first stage was the wooden ship, sailing across the Atlantic from Europe; the second stage included canoes, steam-driven paddle wheelers, and now barges, traveling up and down our inland rivers and waterways; the third stage, ushered in by the railroads, cut coast-to-coast travel from six months to six days; the fourth stage consisted of roads and interstate highways connecting every corner of the country, making nearly every city and town accessible by car or truck. Dinah Shore asked us to “See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet.”

The 21^st Century is marked by the rise of air transport. About 54 percent of U.S. exports move by air, up from 42 percent in 1990. High-tech companies have a 50% higher demand for air transportation than older manufacturing industries. Why? Goods are being purchased from everywhere in the world and delivered to everywhere in the world ... and it has to be there overnight. Jumbo, high-speed jets make this possible, and airports that can accommodate these jets rise in importance.

Airport cities include such mixed uses as office, retail, hotel, and entertainment facilities. Residential and recreational uses are being located around these airports. The new name, as given by John D. Kasarda, director of The Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise in Chapel Hill, N.C., for this airport city is aerotropolis.

Many of the world’s newest airports and subsequent aerotropoli are built on huge tracts of land, often miles from the central cities. They are built where enough land is available for the airport and the businesses that support air travel and cargo. These locations require that infrastructure be brought to them. Older airports, such as Chicago O’Hare, are running out of room to expand. Chicago may have to build a third airport south of the city.

The Rock Road Corridor has an airport capable of being the center of an aerotropolis. Lambert International Airport has a history and pedigree equal to any airport in the nation. In the late 1990s, Lambert was ranked the eighth busiest airport in the U.S. And with the construction of W1W, Lambert now offers four runways ranging from 7,500 feet in length to over 11,000 feet. Lambert is capable of simultaneous runway use, even during bad weather.

Infrastructure? The MetroLink light rail system terminates at Lambert, with a station at both terminals, and five major highways – I-70, I-170, I-270, SR-370, and U.S. 61/67 - border the airport, as do numerous rail lines.

According to Mr. Kasarda, “Some of the businesses locating next to airports are companies specializing in freight forwarding and third-party logistics companies; electronic commerce fulfillment centers; product assembly companies; firms selling perishable items; high-technology industries; and regional headquarters offices.”

It takes lots of land to accommodate the needs of these industries.

We have land ... lots of land. In addition to the numerous existing business parks around Lambert, there are nearly 1,000 acres of land that is newly developed or currently under development adjoining the airport:  North Park, with 550 acres and new headquarters for Express Scripts; Hazelwood Logistics Center, with 151 acres; Lambert Point Business Center; Lindbergh Distribution Center; and on the site of the former Ford Manufacturing Plant, Aviator Business Park, with 155 acres.

With the passage of state legislation this past December, the Detroit Region Aerotropolis Development Corporation (ADC) is now ready to be the next airport city.

Additionally, aerotropoli are either being built or planned in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX; Ontario, CA; Paris; Campinas, Brazil; Seoul, Korea; and Hong Kong.

Are we ready to join this list?

An airport must have business to sustain its existence. Lambert authorities are continuing to have discussions with major passenger carriers about the prospect of St. Louis becoming one of their hubs. Southwest Airlines is expanding its presence.

The Chinese government recently designated China Eastern (and its freight arm - China Cargo Airlines), one of the country’s three major state-controlled carriers, to negotiate for Lambert to become an international cargo hub. This deal will start the process of building the import/export business for the hub to support. Airport officials are also in talks with South American carriers.

The emergence of an aerotropolis spurs urban growth in the areas surrounding the airport. Along with the businesses tied directly to air cargo, other land uses oriented around airports include office, retail, commercial, hotel, restaurant, and entertainment venues; parks; golf courses; and open space; as well as a variety of residential uses. The concentration of these uses would be in The Town Centre.

Northwest Plaza would be The Town Centre. Only minutes from the main terminal, Northwest Plaza, formerly a world-class shopping mall, is 120 acres of prime re-developable property. At the time the mall opened, it was the largest mall in the world. Today, Northwest Plaza is primarily shuttered, waiting for this opportunity. A new thoroughfare could be built, offering direct access to Lambert, as well as extending MetroLink. This would be the first step toward an eventual expansion into St. Charles County, via Westport Plaza.

Northwest Plaza would be re-energized as a vibrant community, surpassing even its previous importance to the Rock Road Corridor. It would again become a destination, with access to the world.

Of course, there is always resistance to progress. However, by virtue of having survived the recent past, the Rock Road Corridor has already conquered the greatest resistance to aerotropolis development - community residents who may oppose a new runway. Been there, done that!

With the recent introduction of an “Aerotropolis Tax Credit” in the Missouri Senate, the state is taking steps to make this a reality and make St. Louis one of the next airport cities.

  

Ladies and gentlemen, we are cleared for takeoff!

Editor’s note:  The “Aerotropolis” bill mentioned in the above article, originally called for $360 million in tax incentives to build and improve international cargo handling facilities in the St. Louis area.  The bill was developed primarily by a private/public entity called “The China Hub Commission,” that was spearheaded by local developer, Paul McKee.  Although a special session of the Missouri Legislature was called in late summer of 2011, to debate this bill and others, and lasted for 50 days, legislators were unable to reach a compromise and the bill was first gutted to $60 million and finally died a slow death in Jefferson City. 
 

It is our hope that the next effort to capitalize on our airport’s central location, will not focus merely on international cargo shipments, but also on increasing passenger traffic by regaining hub status with at least one major airline.  It should also be noted that the municipalities on the southern boundary of Lambert - St. Louis International Airport, have traditionally provided the vast majority of business and hospitality services for Lambert, but were not represented on The China Hub Commission. 

Hopefully, the next time a plan for an "aerotropolis" is created, it will be more inclusive and will more directly benefit the culture and population of the areas surrounding Lambert - St. Louis International Airport.

A Farewell to Big Al

Please click on image for better reading clarity.

Pattonville graduate produces History Channel documentary on Pearl Harbor

Scott Frawley, a 2007 Pattonville High School alumnus, will be able to add the title associate producer of a nationally aired documentary to his resume. Frawley, who graduated from New York’s Fordham University in May, served as the associate producer of the documentary “Pearl Harbor — 24 Hours Later,” which will air on the History Channel at 7 p.m. on Dec. 7, marking the 70th anniversary of the attack.

Produced by Emmy Award winning filmmaker Anthony Giacchino, the two-hour documentary provides an in-depth look at the first 24 hours after news of Japan’s attack on the U.S. in 1941 reached President Franklin Roosevelt. According to the History Channel’s description of the documentary, “This special gives a rare and surprising glimpse at the man behind the presidency and how he confronted the enormous challenge of transitioning the nation from peace to war.”

After graduating from Pattonville, Frawley attended Fordham University where he graduated with his bachelor’s degree in communications with a focus in film studies. He met Giacchino during his senior year at Fordham and has worked with him on multiple projects since.

In addition to his work with Giacchino on the Pearl Harbor documentary, Frawley assisted the filmmaker as the project coordinator of an exhibit for the Brecht Forum in New York. The exhibit, called “Letters to Another Century — The Triangle Fire Letter Project,” was a commemoration of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in March 1911. The exhibit featured letters that were mailed to the addresses of the 146 victims of the fire, with the intent that they will be returned, with the stamp on the envelope evoking the reality about the memory of the individuals lost in the fire, and, hopefully, erasing the victims’ anonymity.

Currently, Frawley and Giacchino are wrapping production on the DVD of special features for the upcoming Tom Cruise movie “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol.”

The documentary “Pearl Harbor — 24 Hours Later” will premier on the History Channel on Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. and air again that night at 11 p.m. and on Saturday, Dec. 10 at 4 p.m.

Frawley currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Support Area Small Businesses This Christmas

Teamsters Vote Official Support of Occupy Wall Street

Teamsters General Executive Board Passes Resolution Following Eviction in New York

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The General Executive Board of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters unanimously passed a resolution today supporting the right of protesters at Occupy Wall Street to assemble at Liberty Park. The Teamsters further commended New York Supreme Court Judge Lucy Billings for issuing a restraining order this morning restoring protesters' constitutional rights.

"You can draw a direct line from the Wisconsin protests in the winter to Occupy Wall Street to the overwhelming rejection of an anti-union ballot question in Ohio," said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. "Occupy Wall Street is bringing new energy to a fight that labor has been engaged in from the beginning: The fight for an economy that works for everybody, not just the 1 percent."

Today's vote by the Teamsters' 24-member General Executive Board came at an already-scheduled meeting at the union's headquarters in Washington. The board, after learning of the evictions, which included a New York City councilman and a district leader, immediately ordered a resolution of support be drafted.

Hoffa said rank-and-file Teamsters have participated in Occupy Wall Street actions throughout the country. Teamsters protected encampments in San Francisco and New York, fed Occupy Oakland, led rallies in Cleveland and Chicago, marched in Occupy Chattanooga and supported the movement from Maine to California. Occupy Wall Street protesters have taken direct action against Sotheby's for locking out 43 Teamsters art handlers in New York, while Occupy Chicago protesters rallied against private-equity firm Madison Dearborn in Chicago.

The resolution states, in part, "just as 'Occupy Wall Street' demands that the nation respond to the unrelenting pressure on the middle class, on workers and on the unemployed, the Teamsters have exposed the 'War on Workers' being waged by billionaires and CEOs who seek to blame working people for the state of the economy and to 'fix' the economy by giving to the rich and taking from the middle class."

To view the entire resolution, go to: http://www.teamster.org/content/occupy-wall-street-resolution.

Rally & March for Jobs, Downtown St. Louis

Instead of the normal 15 second sound bite, we thought we would show you the length and breadth of today's event downtown.  The rally was incident free except for the arrest of a handful of people who sat down at the entrance ramp of the MLK Bridge.  We did not witness any arrest resistance or any violent incidents of any kind.

Latest News From Pattonville School District

Click here to see the PDF of the latest happenings at Pattonville School District.
http://www.psdr3.org/NewsInfo/pdf/PAW11-11-11.pdf

Read this article and I'll shut up.

(Until I can't shut up anymore.)

A few of my friends and a couple of my family members have expressed concern that I’ve posted several updates on Facebook that are very critical of the Republican Party.  It’s no secret to anyone that I’m a Democrat, but I understand that they were concerned that I might offend someone who could be a future advertiser, business associate, or employer.  It was also silently implied that I could be offending friends and family members as well.

I really appreciate that the people who are closest to me have my best interest at heart.  I honestly do.  My dilemma is that even though I crave everyone’s respect and admiration (like every other human being) I recently came to the sad realization that such yearnings are both unobtainable and unsustainable.  Part of that realization came from advancing age, but most of it came from the liberating reality of facing my own mortality. 

I was always supposed to do this and be that when I grew up.  Well… I’ve pretty much done this and been that and now what?  I’ve been a big success and a big failure and I know that you can’t be one without the other.  You can’t enjoy success unless you’ve failed and you can’t fail if you enjoy success.  There is a lot of life yet to live and I plan on doing just that.

I haven’t earned a fortune, but I just bought a beautiful new life, by surviving the terror that is cancer.  Money doesn’t impress me anymore... people who are kind to each other impress me the most. 

No, I haven’t earned a fortune, but I believe that I’ve earned the right to speak my mind once in a while.  Tomorrow, I might speak out against a Republican, tear into a Democrat, or challenge an Independent to choose a lane in which to drive.  If I offend a particular person’s sensibilities, that is unfortunate.  My intention is normally to spark healthy political debate.  I say normally, because there are occasions when I make statements that are fully intended to insult members of the Grand Old Party.   I am not ashamed of that last statement and I hope that those words don’t ruin any relationship that we may have now, or anytime in the future.

With that said, I think it’s time to quote my favorite Republican:  “The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.”  Abraham Lincoln

Steve Erdelen

     

Large Majorities of Americans Believe Top Managers Make More Than They Deserve

Large Majorities of Americans Believe Top Managers Make More Than They Deserve

Pattonville High School Salutes Veterans

PHS to host estimated 100 veterans on Nov. 11

An estimated 100 area veterans will visit Pattonville High School as students and staff recognize current and former military personnel on Veterans' Day.

Pattonville High School will host a breakfast and ceremony honoring veterans from 8 to 9:30 a.m., Friday, Nov. 11. The morning will begin with breakfast and music by the PHS orchestra in the school cafeteria. The ceremony will include a flag folding ceremony, missing man ceremony, presentation of thanks and gifts, and a performance by the PHS choir.

Among those invited to attend were veterans who live in Pattonville, veterans employed by the Pattonville School District and veterans related to Pattonville students and staff.

The Rock Road Reporter Teams Up With Encyclopedia Britannica

Our online magazine is pleased to announce that we are now a participant in the WebShare Initiative with the Encyclopedia Britannica. This initiative will give The Rock Road Reporter the ability to link to thousands of authoritative articles and give our readers access to the articles in their entirety, without paying subscription fees.

“It’s good business for us and a benefit to people who publish on the Net,” said Britannica president Jorge Cauz. “The level of professionalism among Web publishers has really improved, and we want to recognize that by giving access to the people who are shaping the conversations about the issues of the day. Britannica belongs in the middle of those conversations.”

Britannica links will soon be available in our Featured Articles section and a new World and National News section.

THE RRR IS NOW ONLINE!

Welcome!  Just click on one of the categorized page tabs above, or scroll down to start reading the online Rock Road Reporter. Please follow us and share this link on Facebook and Twitter, or by e-mails to friends and associates.

We still have a lot of work to do to update this blog and post our current and past news stories and features, but we're working on it! 

If you have a local news tip, or would like to contribute to our online blog, please contact me at: rockroadreporter@gmail.com  

Steve Erdelen 

Streetcars Changed the Course of St. Charles Rock Road

By Wayne Brasler

Thanks to the M-G-M film musical “Meet Me in St. Louis” the city will forever be associated with its trolley system.

  In fact it was one of the most comprehensive in the nation, and notable because so much of the streetcar lines traveled not on streets but through woodlands and rural areas to far distant spots.  Including the city of St. Charles across the Missouri River!

  The streetcar line in the film really did exist; it was the Hodiamont line and it passed the west of the Wellston Loop at Easton (now Martin Luther King Boulevard) Avenue at Hodiamont.

  That was where the St. Charles and Western streetcar line commenced its journey.  The history of the Rock Road, from its beginning as a westward overland passage from the Mississippi to the Missouri, is well-known.  But few people know the Rock Road had for many decades as a component a heavy-duty electric railroad line from Wellston to St. Charles.

  Few histories accurately record the route of the line and few record the fact that the present location of the Rock Road isn’t the original location for much of its route. That’s because bit by bit the road was rerouted to conform to the rail line.

  The line was built by the enterprising James Houseman beginning in 1897 in stages westward, originally terminating on the east side of the Missouri River, where passengers rode ferry boats across to St. Charles.  Then in 1904 a bridge was built over the river and the trolley line terminal still stands just off where its exit landed in St. Charles.

  The line was double-tracked in the middle of the road west from Wellston.  Just east of Lucas and Hunt Road it traveled over a humped wooden bridge with the rails laid in the wood.  At Lucas and Hunt the line met the St. Peters line, a single-tracked operation which went north up Lucas and Hunt to Natural Bridge.

  West of Lucas and Hunt each track spread to the south and north sides of the Rock Road.  Later, when the Road was widened to four lanes from two, the streetcars rode in the middle of the road until reaching St. Vincent’s Lane in Pagedale, where they spread to the outside lanes.

  In the early days the line met the Cross Country line which came north up Ferguson Avenue from Vernon to serve visitors to St. Vincent’s Sanitarium.  At Lucas Lane, which is now Normandy Drive, there was a siding to serve the Normandie Country Club and Golf Course.  At North and South Road both rails moved to the north side of the Rock Road on an impressive rail highway.

  At Brown Road (which was Birdie Avenue), where the car barn was located (the bus barn north of it still stands, hidden behind Walgreen’s Drugs), the line narrowed to one rail, and at what is now Cypress Road, the Bridgeton Line branched off to head north for what is now Lambert Field.

  Most histories have the line following the Rock Road right out to St. Charles, but not so.  At what is now Lindbergh, the rails turned northwestward to reach the town of Bridgeton, eventually curving to where the Rock Road now runs just west of I-270.  The line crossed Natural Bridge just east of its junction with the Rock Road and a siding there served Westlake Amusement park at that junction.  Many histories have the streetcar running in front of Westlake Park, but it actually ran in back.

  The streetcar line west of Westlake Park was built on an embankment because a flood plain commenced at that location, and therein lies another tale.  With rail traffic declining because of the automobile, the streetcar line was cut back to Dammerman Stop, one third mile west of Woodson Road at what is now Airline Avenue, in 1932 and assumed the name of the Woodson Road streetcar.  That’s because Woodson Road was not located where it is now, but west of that location and today it survives as Edmundson Road.

  When the streetcar stopped running west of Woodson, the state was able to recreate St. Charles Rock Road west of the junction with Natural Bridge Road to highway standards.  St. Charles Rock Road originally west of I-270 meandered along the Fee Fee Creek, which was prone to flooding.  When the Road was relocated to the route of the streetcar line to St. Charles, the road was renamed Old St. Charles and later Boenker Road, which today is unfit to drive on.

  In fact, before that, several portions of the Rock Road in the St. John and St. Ann areas were called many other names before commencing at Adie Road and continuing west as Old St. Charles Road.

  Amazingly, parts of the streetcar right-of-way remain, most notably at Fee Fee, where “Electric Avenue” at one time stood just north of the Rock Road and a short patch of right-of-way and electrical sustation still stands on the west side of the road.  The right-of-way is also visible north on McKelvey Road, where it follows a creek and winds through a townhouse development, poles still in place and, most amazingly, a short stretch of the embankment is visible on the south side of the Rock Road just east of Earth City Expressway.

  James Houseman was very proud of his electric line, nicknamed the “All Saints” because it served so many cemeteries.  His luxurious cars included toilet facilities and phones, kept to schedules, stopped wherever passengers awaited (at night lighting newspapers to signal the motorman to halt) and were equipped with loud air horns and gigantic headlights to pierce the dark countryside.

  What a saga!  And now almost all forgotten or, if remembered, gotten wrong.  Not now.

United we stand, divided we kneel.

By Steve Erdelen (From Summer 2011 Hard Copy Edition)

If you turn back a page, you’ll notice a bug on page three. Not a real bug, but what is known as a union printer’s bug. That in itself is no big deal, but I happen to be very proud that our magazine is now being printed at a union printing shop. There was never any kind of protest against our magazine by any union member or any pressure applied by anyone to print at a union shop. It was my decision to go that direction, and a very competitive bid helped me along. Decisions like that are made every day by millions of small businesses around this country, and our business is no different. The only thing that sets us apart from the vast majority of other small businesses is that our product is a direct reflection of the communities in which we are circulated.

In other words, if you pick up a copy of the Springfield News-Leader on your way to visit your child at Missouri State University or on your way to Branson, the chances are pretty good that your future perceptions of Springfield, Mo., will be influenced by that newspaper you just bought. My first job in the advertising business was in 1984, and since that time, the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that perception is everything. 

One of our contributors told me that she intentionally drops off copies of our magazine in trendy little coffee shops around the St. Louis area. She apparently does so because she is proud of the magazine, and she wants to help stop the perception that our area is on the decline and that we have very little to offer in terms of culture and commerce. As most of our readers realize, Northwest St. Louis County is brimming with great history, tremendous talent, fine businesses, beautiful homes, and very friendly people. Region- wide perceptions about this area, however, could be dramatically improved. 

Combine the devastating decline of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, the destruction of 2,000 homes and nearly 100 businesses in Bridgeton for a seldom used runway, and the effective abandonment of Northwest Plaza in St. Ann, and what do you have? What you have, my friend, is a perception problem. Pile on top of that the nationwide trend in the 1980s and 1990s to migrate out of inner cities and their original suburbs and then what kind of community are you left with? I guess the answer depends on your perspective and your insight. It depends on whether your perceptions are influenced by your peer group, people you aspire to be like, or pure, deductive reasoning. It’s sometimes easier to look down your nose at a person or a geographic area than it is to study the real facts about that individual or place.

The bottom line is that, no matter where people now reside, they are generally very proud of the area, but where they “grew up” is almost always sacred to them. I’ve seen it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears. On the local Facebook Groups I’ve organized, I’ve read thousands of fond remembrances from area baby boomers about Northwest Plaza, St. Charles Rock Road, Pattonville and Ritenour High Schools, and virtually every neighborhood around here. When I announced online that we were launching the Rock Road Reporter, I was immediately flooded (and still am) by requests for copies of the magazine from former local residents who now live in St. Charles County, Lincoln County, Warren County, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Bradenton, Fla., to name just a few. Did they think that our magazine was going to be the second coming of Time or Newsweek or Rolling Stone? Nope. They just missed the area where they’d grown up and thought that our magazine could bring a little piece of home back to them. 

The area in which they were raised was and still is considered to be “working-class” and “middle-class.” Their parents might have worked at McDonnell-Douglas (Boeing) or at the Ford or GM plant. They may have been in “the trades” as a machinist, pipe fitter, equipment operator, electrician, welder, plumber, carpenter, painter, bricklayer or laborer. Just like today, local people sold clothing and shoes and furniture and waited tables and tended bar and swept and mopped the floors at schools and businesses. They worked hard and took pride in what they accomplished. They put food on the table and sent their freshly scrubbed kids to school every day. America was booming, and it was the working-class and middle-class paychecks that kept it booming. Families would buy that new Ford or Chevy or Dodge every three to five years and the new Zenith color television and new Frigidaire, as well. It made sense that one job here created another job here. 

Things have changed quite a bit since then for the working class. Lifetime jobs with the same company are now extremely rare, as are retirement pensions. Loyalty to workers is a thing of the past, and the dignity and honor of an honest day’s work is often overlooked and underappreciated. Greed is rampant, and the divide between rich and poor is much greater than it has ever been. A good friend and top salesman that I worked with in the early 1990s told me back then: “It used to be that sales and marketing people ran companies, and now it’s the bean counters that run companies.”

His point at the time was, instead of investing in new markets and new products to create more profits, companies were beating down vendors and cutting jobs to prop up the bottom line. Very little has changed from his statement of 18 years ago. In fact, it has gotten far worse. Corporations, with the tacit approval of Congress, have basically declared war on the working people of this country. In the name of the bottom line, unions have been targeted and broken up, pension plans eliminated, insurance premiums increased, and job security abolished. “Increased productivity” typically means that one person is doing the job of two or three people and they’d better not complain about it. Most people know exactly what will happen to them if they do. Even if a worker keeps his or her mouth shut, the possibility of that job being shipped off to a foreign country remains a very real possibility. And speaking of foreign countries, American corporations are allowed to defer taxes from overseas profits to the tune of over $100 billion a year. 

Hundreds of billions of hardworking taxpayers’ dollars have been used to save banks and financial institutions that were “too big to fail.” The very same banks and financial institutions that helped to create the subprime mortgage lending crisis that ultimately wiped out trillions of dollars in middle-class home equity all over this country. Thousands of middle-class people hear a statement similar to the following every day: “We’re sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, but your house that was valued at $160,000 in 2007 is now worth $100,000. The $60,000 in equity that you thought you had has now disappeared; therefore, we cannot issue you a line of credit to capitalize your new business because you don’t have enough collateral.” 

When that happens (and I can personally attest to the fact that it does happen), new jobs are not created and small businesses are not allowed to start up or expand. The middle class is rapidly getting squeezed out of the American dream while billionaires are using millions of dollars of our tax money in the form of TIFs (Tax Increment Financing) to “assist” them in the development of big-box stores that sell mostly foreign made merchandise. (For reference, see the new Walmart Supercenter being built on St. Charles Rock Road in Bridgeton. Also remember that the Walmart at Cypress and the Rock Road will be completely abandoned and presumably left for dead.) 

Not to rub it in, but with two wars being fought overseas, we have found the “generosity” to grant the wealthiest among us a $700 billion tax break. Add to that the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, and you’ll come up with enough money to send 20 million of our citizens through four years of college. 

Following World War II, the GI Bill proved that educating Americans was a very smart thing to do. The bill helped to create the most innovative and skilled work force in the history of the world. These days, however, it seems that our tax money is better spent on subsidizing the wealthy in the hope that some of that money will “trickle down” to all of us peasants and “create jobs.” Job creation is a concept that politicians love to talk about, but have no idea how to really make it happen. Rebuilding our infrastructure and investing in inner suburban redevelopment doesn’t seem to be a viable option for them. It’s much easier to simply hand over money to corporations. 

How can ordinary working-class or middle-class people (or whatever sociologists like to call us) fight back against raging greed and self-serving politicians? I believe the way our parents did it and the way their parents did it before them was, first, to get off their rear ends and go to the polls and, second, to form and join unions. They teamed up to bargain collectively and to strike with work stoppages against unlivable wages and unnecessary greed. They boycotted companies that mistreated workers and marketed shoddy products. They practiced the time-honored lesson of vigorously protecting their own interest. The same lesson any rich people would teach their sons or daughters. 

By the way, did I mention that there was a bug on page three?

A Tardy Pardon

A Tardy Pardon and Other Buried Treasures

by Kyle Schrader

As he picks up flowers spilled by April showers, Kenneth “Ken” Cox points to a grave etched as being shared by Benjamin, George, and Dennis Lackland and explains, “When there was a flu epidemic, it was not unusual to have two children buried together, or a mother and child.”

Cox, chairman of trustees of the Fee Fee Cemetery Association, is perusing the grounds, located on Old Saint Charles Road in Bridgeton. He notes the poor readability of the Lacklands’ grave marker: “It’s worn limestone. Limestone just doesn’t stand up to the weather.” Lastly, he points out that the monument, like many others there, is an obelisk (think Washington Monument).

A man with appreciation for the details and history of Fee Fee Cemetery, Cox has held his position as chairman for approximately a decade. Before that, he “joined the church in 1986 and got on the board of trustees, gosh, probably 20 years ago, give or take.”

Cox verifies the historical significance, stating, “It is the first and oldest active cemetery west of the Mississippi.” That distinction “used to belong to one down around Ste. Genevieve, but they closed it and the church around 100 years ago.” He continues, “You’ve got old cemeteries out in the woods somewhere, but we don’t know that.”

Besides the Lackland family name, one scanning headstones might also see the locally recognizable Adie, Hickman, Hanley, Averill, and Branneky surnames, just to name a few. Regarding family plots, Cox asserts, “People bought lots back on the 1930s and are just now using the rest of them.”

But perhaps the most interesting resident in the cemetery is Confederate soldier James Morgan Utz, who died in 1864. “He was caught as a spy here in St. Louis,” Cox relates. “He didn’t claim innocence, but somehow somebody got ahold of Lincoln for a pardon. He was hung the day after Christmas in downtown St. Louis, wherever the Union headquarters was, because the pardon was not in time.”

The original Fee Fee Baptist Church, the oldest Baptist church west of the Mississippi, was organized in 1807, and the original church structure was built when land was deeded for a church and cemetery in 1815. That small wooden structure (the exact whereabouts of which remain unknown and the subject of rumor and speculation) was replaced in 1828-1829 by the brick Old Fee Fee Meeting House, which still stands today and is the oldest house of worship in St. Louis County. In 1870, a new church building was erected at Fee Fee and St. Charles Rock Road (then replaced by another church, the current one, built at the same location in 1975), and the Meeting House was converted into a cemetery office and caretaker home. It remains so to this day, with caretakers Pat and Brenda Moutray residing there with son Chris.

Just behind the Meeting House is the “Preachers’ Area,” where only past preachers of the church are buried. And as one drives up to the Meeting House, to the right is “Cremation Garden,” where the ashes of the deceased are laid to rest. There is also a gate still standing in the middle of the yard, a gate to nowhere, as it were, that was put up in 1914. “It’s too narrow now,” Cox clarifies. “A car or truck would tear it up,” as it was made for buggies. He indicates a particularly large slab of a headstone, weighing several tons, and marvels at how it must have been brought in via horse and buggy.

Referring to some of the older burials in the cemetery, Cox attests, “We do have some Revolutionary War burials in here, but they were moved from other unknown cemeteries.” He adds that he has “no idea” about the number of graves, because “there are a lot of unmarked graves.” He can, however, often tell if the ground has been disturbed. “If the ground’s real dry, sometimes I can tell whether it’s been disturbed or not.”

In addition to pointing out the popularity of obelisks on the property, Cox comments that there are a number of headstones with Masonic symbols, indicating the numerous Freemasons. And finally, he shares a story about why Civil War-era Union headstones tend to be flat or curved at the top, while their Confederate counterparts are often pointed like a rooftop: “So no damn Yankee can sit on them,” or so the saying goes.

Occasionally, Pattonville High School brings its history students to the cemetery for field trips. In 1957, Ruth E. Abraham wrote As a Tree Planted, about the history of Fee Fee Cemetery, and as the rebuilding of Fee Free Road afforded more space to be used for future burials, there is undoubtedly more history left to be written.