My Spazzmatical Mind
February 13th, 2006 | Posted by Shannon
A little Britt business first, before I get into some random thoughts and images of Missouri, and home.
There is someone out there who is even more obsessed with Britt than me – Kelly from Louisiana, who has graced us with a travelogue of last week’s Texas shows in her blog. She found my blog and now I’ve found hers. If you like reading crazed Britt material (of course you do, otherwise why do you read Poptarticus?) then check out Kelly’s blog for some killer stories from the road.
Also, the be-all end-all of my Monday, and for many Mondays, other days, months and years to come, as long as it may last: a a stream of Spoon’s February 2nd Austin show. Mi Dio! It’s like, totally the best thing to ever happen. At least today. Killer.
OK, that’s it for Britt stuff for awhile, I promise. Onward. Here are some images of Missouri.
This starkly beautiful scene is an hour and a half from St. Louis, near the town of Hermann. The house is crying for love, and I saw ghosts all around it. Time travel is possible with an overactive imagination.
In the little town of Hermann, I woke up to snow.
A visit to St. Louis for an old movie junkie like me would not be complete without a visit to Judy Garland’s address in “Meet Me in St. Louis.” 5135 Kensington Avenue (and 5133) is now in the ghetto. Both houses are gone. This is the lot where they once were.
Another shot of what was 5135 Kensington Avenue.
One of the weird things about St. Louis is, there are these ghettos but then two blocks away, there are streets with huge, opulent houses.
Chop Suey restaurants are all over the place in the bad areas of town. I kept asking, what up with all these Chop Suey places? What IS Chop Suey?
The sale cart at the best market in the U.S., if not the world: Global Foods in Kirkwood, Missouri. Get ready for my soon-to-be-completed essay and photo journal of this place. I LOVED it.
Hard to argue with that, isn’t it?
But now I am home, and it is beautiful here. Last night my brother helped throw a birthday party for Sooty Hendricks at Winstons, and his band played, and some other bands, and everyone was there. I sometimes think about leaving OB but then a night like last night comes around and I realize I can’t leave, not for a while. It was a wild and colorful party, and the Mudsharks were awesome.
What a life.
September 13th, 2011 at 5:00 pm
I was wondering if you could tell me where that house was the one thats outside of hermann…..I grew up in hermann and I have never seen this and it drives me that I have never been to this old farm house. Thank you my email is marley131313@gmail.com
April 25th, 2012 at 9:20 pm
I may be wrong, but as I recall from a “making of” MMISL documentary on the 2-disc DVD set, there was no 5133 Kensington. Obviously Benson lived at 5135 (now an empty lot in the ghetto), but the “boy next door” lived at 5137. It was changed to 5133 so that it fit better in the lyrics for the song, “The Boy Next Door.”
While we’re talking about Meet Me In St. Louis, did you know that the trolley mentioned in both the film and Benson’s book ran directly behind 5135 Kensington? This was the Hodiamont streetcar line, which was somewhat unique because it ran on its own dedicated right-of-way (rather than on tracks in public streets as most streetcars did). This was, incidently, the last trolley route to run in STL. After it was discontinued in 1966, the tracks were paved over and became the route of the #15 Hodiamont bus, which was only recently discontinued. The ROW is still owned by the bus company, and is still labelled by Google Maps as Hodiamont Streetcar ROW.
My little bit of trivia for the day 🙂