October 05, 2004
Going Home
Driving east across Missouri, I was able to visit two of my three former homes in that state. The earliest, the first house I lived in, is now gone. In its place stands McMansions. This was in Fenton. We moved from there to Clayton, a wealthy suburb right on the edge of the city, it was still rather urban and just a couple small blocks away from Forest Park (site of the 1904 Worlds Fair).
Clayton (the DeMun neighborhood) was an excellent place to be a kid. Parks all around, plenty of places to safely ride bikes and run around. The nieghborhood has not changed much, this was great to confirm. However, it is now quite fashionable and there is no way I (nor my family) could afford to live there now. Luckily, my neighbors have never left and I was able to visit with them.
DeMun now has a coffee shop which roasts its own, yet it was sadly terrible by my perhaps elevated Seattle standards. They use robotic machines (offering no control to the barrista) and seemed to be in too much of a rush.
One of the benefits of the neighborhood was the wonderful Concordia Seminary campus. Aside from the best sledding hill around, it has amazing sandstone architecture and a carillion in the tower which would chime out the time as well as spectacular concerts. I was never able to ideologically or politically sympathize with the Lutherans there, but they sure did maintain a splendid campus.
I made a quick visit to Jefferson City, where I spent some time in high school. I hated the school, hated the town, so I left quickly. It was nice to see the neighborhood had matured though, the trees were larger and our old home was well landscaped.
Posted by dokodemo at October 5, 2004 05:26 PM