One City Corner At A Time

This morning I got an email from the gym that my Aqua Zumba class had been cancelled. I knew that might have been coming, because the instructor mentioned last Thursday she was going out of town and didn't know if there was a sub for the class. So just like that my morning was free.

Hubby Tony and I filled the time by doing a good deed for the cat shelter we foster through, picking up a prescription for one of the other foster cats at a vet's office and dropping it off at the shelter. The day started off brisk and a little cloudy, but by the time we were finished at the vet the skies were bright blue with puffy clouds. We took advantage of a walking trail that wound around the strip mall, but when we saw a dangerous gaggle on the sidewalk ahead of us we took a short cut 🤣.

After dropping off the medicine Tony and I decided to walk the South St. Louis neighborhood around the shelter (called Benton Park West). We chose a street we hadn't been on before, and when that dumped out into an arterial road we turned back and took the first residential street. I love looking at old house, and this area has some good ones. Lots of red brick, a mix of styles, and I'm guessing the majority of the houses were built in the early 1900s.

Eventually we had almost made it to another busy street. Tony wanted to turn before we got there, but just then I saw a sign on a building across the street and crossed over to see what it said.

The sign indicated I was looking at the Silver Spur, "The Midwestern United State's only homestead for retired cowboys and cowgirls.

A friendly-looking man about our age was hanging an American flag from the a pole next to the building. We asked him about the building, and learned that it was a small assisted living home that had been decorated with a Western motif by his brother in law in the 1970s. The turn-of-the century building was originally a hospital, then a rooming house. Around the corner there was a hitching post and mounting step from pre-auto days.

I think the gregarious man would have continued the conversation, but Tony and I had to get back home so we thanked him for the conversation and continued on our way. We made it to the main street, turned right for one block, then headed back to the car. The second street was more commercial than the first; instead of residences I had a good time seeing the businesses that we passed.

Five years ago: What Do You Think?