Chillin' in the Midwest

I've been in Sunset Hills (a suburb of St. Louis) for the past few days. Here mainly for the baptism of my newest granddaughter. (See photo of my oldest daughter holding the the little one--BORN ON MY BIRTHDAY--accompanying this blog post; see also photo of my new granddaughter under a quilt sewed by my Mom).

Have noticed a few interesting tidbits during my visit.

1. Don't try to take communion if you are not a Catholic. A priest directed me back to my pew (thank you very much) when I sashayed up to the alter and asked to partake during my granddaughter's big day at church. Stupid me (I guess). But I did find the service solemn, moving, uplifting. And I won't forget the sanctuary, framed on the inside with statues of key figures from the Holy Bible and brilliant stained glass windows. The actual baptism took place in the back of the church. A flying saucer shaped vessel--about 3 feet in diameter--held the water. My little cute one was like a perfect angel when the priest christened her. As an aside, son-in-law sent me the following tickler link on something called the Real Presence for my "edification," as he put it, when he read an earlier version of this blog post:

http://www.catholic.com/tracts/the-real-presence


2. If you visit the farmer's market in Kirkwood--near where my daughter lives in Sunset Hills--do not take your dog. That is, do not take him or her if he's breathing. (See curious sign that I noticed this evening at the market.)

3. I don't often read the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (winner of 16 Pulitzer Prizes, according to the newspaper's nameplate/flag), but I think some excellent journalists work for this paper. Consider the following sentences from a profile story in today's edition about an undertaker:

The reporter wrote that the object of his profile calls himself an undertaker. Why? Consider the undertaker's rationale:

"I once told somebody I was a funeral director and he wanted to know what films I had directed."

And then there was this--later in the story (which I'm offering as my quote of the week).

"My grandpa was an embalmer. My Dad was an embalmer. My uncle was an embalmer, and I have been a licensed, practicing embalmer for over 32 years. I'm a damn good embalmer and really good deconstructionist."

4. If you come to St. Louis, eat at the Spaghetti Factory. It's down by the Mississippi River among a bunch of ancient cobblestoned streets. Kind of hard to get to but worth it. Food's delicious. Last time I ate there was about 1980, when I worked as a journalist about 70 miles away in Vandalia, Ill. Never dreamed I'd come back for another meal 35 years later!

5. My daughter and her husband, parents now of three wonderful children, have a sign posted in the living room of their home. (See accompanying picture). Good rules for everyone to live by!

6. Remember Officer Darren Wilson--the cop who last year killed Michael Brown? (See his mugshot with this post). Remember all the fuss and riots and burnings and protests? Officer Wilson lives just a couple of blocks from my daughter. Really and truly. But no one has seen him in months. Is he in the Witness Protection Program? I wonder.

7. Lastly (related to number 6), there was another cop shooting of a black man last night in Ferguson, prompting violence (but not as much as last year, thankfully), and generating a fair amount of racial tension. How will it play out? Only time will tell. Got a chance to chat with a park ranger at the St. Louis Arch. Here's what he told me about the trouble in Ferguson: "We're waiting for it to go away. It's what you make of it. We've got the 80/20 rule here in St. Louis. 80 percent 're good; 20 percent 're knuckleheads." Well put.

Footnote: Get a chance, check out the following blog: http://dailymovesandgrooves.com/ It's by a member of my extended family. She's an excellent writer. We need more bloggers and less Facebookers. You go, girl!