We, Raul and I, used to live in the Central West End neighborhood, near to Med Campus – where the Barnes and Jewish Hospital, Children’s Hospital and school of medicine are. We had Forest Park half block away from our building, where summer time was so enjoyable when visiting the zoo, or jogging, riding a bike, spending a nice evening at the Twilight Tuesdays in front of History Museum, or ending the heat wave with a balloon race in mid September, just before welcoming the fall with the digital camera ready to capture the reds, yellows and oranges from the trees…
The activities at “The Loop” included going to the movie festival at Tivoli theatre around November; the dining out at places like Blueberry Hill (and later going downstairs for a concert listening to … Chuck Berry!); buying some goodies at the chocolatier - that probably wasn’t too local for the Saintlouisians to visit that often, but became one our favorite stores. And of course, only at The Loop you could find the one place to have “floats” (root beer with five scoops of vanilla ice cream – have it once and it’ll be enough, believe me).
American holidays never came to my attention until 2002, when I started what I call the “Labor Day weekend marathon” with the great feasts at the Greek Festival at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church; or the Japanese Festival at the Botanical Garden.
Apple, peach or strawberry picking at the farms; wine tasting and picnics at the wineries and yes, watching the cherry blossoms at the Japanese gardens were the perfect scenarios to mingle with friends and their families; with WUSPA members or “my kids”.
Of course I could tell loads more about it... although that book with all its different chapters is closed now, only to be opened when feeling nostalgic, like today.
