February 1, 2005
Do you ever just get frustrated with the way things seem to be changing? Just last week we heard that Federated Department Stores might be buying Famous-Barr. If they do, the name "Famous-Barr" will probably cease to exist. They will almost definitely close the downtown store.
I hate to age myself, but I used to love to go downtown on the bus with my mom on a Saturday, especially around Christmas time. We'd go to Stix, Baer and Fuller, and Vandervorts, and Famous. I remember there were Stix people and Famous people. My mom was a Stix person, so that's where we would go first and where we'd spend the most time. My two aunts were Famous people. They liked the Eagle stamps. Evidently there weren’t any Vandervorts people. They’ve been gone a long time.
Sometimes we'd have lunch at Kresge's or Woolworths, or even Walgreens. Most of the time we went to the Forum Cafeteria. Remember the Forum Cafeteria? It was on Sixth Street, right across the street from Famous.
Sometimes, for a real treat, we'd go to a movie downtown. We'd go to the Ambassador, or the Lowe's State. All of these names are gone from Downtown St. Louis except Famous Barr, and it looks like they may be gone soon.
Now we're hearing that the Post Dispatch will be sold to a company from Iowa. You may have noticed that I'm no fan of the Post, but there is a tradition there that goes back to the 1800's. the Pulitzer family has been putting out a daily newspaper in St. Louis for all those years. At one time they had competition. Years ago there were several papers in St. Louis. Then there were just two, the Post and the Globe. The Globe has been gone for a while and now, even though the Post will continue to be, it won't really be a "St. Louis" paper.
Last week I read that SBC wants to buy A T & T. SBC Corp used to be Southwestern Bell, our phone company. They were actually part of AT & T. Their headquarters were in St. Louis. When the government decided that we needed to have competition in the phone business, they forced AT&T to sell all of their local phone companies. Eventually Southwestern Bell moved their headquarters to San Antonio and changed their name to SBC. Now, it looks like they're going to buy the company that used to own them. Good grief!
Used to be you could throw an AT & T telephone out of a tenth story window, go down and get it and hook it back up and it would still work fine. Nowadays, phones are disposable. When they break, and they always do, you throw them away and buy another one.
What about grocery stores? Do you remember: Bettendorf’s and Rapps and then Bettendorf-Rapps? What about the A & P, Krogers, and National? In the neighborhood you had IGA stores and AG Stores and Clover Farms, maybe even a Piggly Wiggly.
With so much change going on all around us, isn't it good to know that one thing never changes; our Catholic faith. In today's Gospel, Jesus is healing the sick. 2,000 years ago, He worked His miracles, making the blind see, the lame walk, and the leper clean. He still works the same miracles today, He just works them through the skills of the doctors. Every time I visit patients in the hospital, I can't help but be amazed at the miracles I see.
People are getting new lungs and new hearts and new knees and hips. They come in on Monday, have a stent put in and go home on Tuesday. As time goes by, the doctors just get better and better. Our faith doesn't change. We believe that God will do what's best and He does. Whether he does it by smearing mud on a blind man's eyes in the first century, or by the miracle of microsurgery in a 21st century operating room, His love for us never changes. Isn’t that good to know?
I hate to age myself, but I used to love to go downtown on the bus with my mom on a Saturday, especially around Christmas time. We'd go to Stix, Baer and Fuller, and Vandervorts, and Famous. I remember there were Stix people and Famous people. My mom was a Stix person, so that's where we would go first and where we'd spend the most time. My two aunts were Famous people. They liked the Eagle stamps. Evidently there weren’t any Vandervorts people. They’ve been gone a long time.
Sometimes we'd have lunch at Kresge's or Woolworths, or even Walgreens. Most of the time we went to the Forum Cafeteria. Remember the Forum Cafeteria? It was on Sixth Street, right across the street from Famous.
Sometimes, for a real treat, we'd go to a movie downtown. We'd go to the Ambassador, or the Lowe's State. All of these names are gone from Downtown St. Louis except Famous Barr, and it looks like they may be gone soon.
Now we're hearing that the Post Dispatch will be sold to a company from Iowa. You may have noticed that I'm no fan of the Post, but there is a tradition there that goes back to the 1800's. the Pulitzer family has been putting out a daily newspaper in St. Louis for all those years. At one time they had competition. Years ago there were several papers in St. Louis. Then there were just two, the Post and the Globe. The Globe has been gone for a while and now, even though the Post will continue to be, it won't really be a "St. Louis" paper.
Last week I read that SBC wants to buy A T & T. SBC Corp used to be Southwestern Bell, our phone company. They were actually part of AT & T. Their headquarters were in St. Louis. When the government decided that we needed to have competition in the phone business, they forced AT&T to sell all of their local phone companies. Eventually Southwestern Bell moved their headquarters to San Antonio and changed their name to SBC. Now, it looks like they're going to buy the company that used to own them. Good grief!
Used to be you could throw an AT & T telephone out of a tenth story window, go down and get it and hook it back up and it would still work fine. Nowadays, phones are disposable. When they break, and they always do, you throw them away and buy another one.
What about grocery stores? Do you remember: Bettendorf’s and Rapps and then Bettendorf-Rapps? What about the A & P, Krogers, and National? In the neighborhood you had IGA stores and AG Stores and Clover Farms, maybe even a Piggly Wiggly.
With so much change going on all around us, isn't it good to know that one thing never changes; our Catholic faith. In today's Gospel, Jesus is healing the sick. 2,000 years ago, He worked His miracles, making the blind see, the lame walk, and the leper clean. He still works the same miracles today, He just works them through the skills of the doctors. Every time I visit patients in the hospital, I can't help but be amazed at the miracles I see.
People are getting new lungs and new hearts and new knees and hips. They come in on Monday, have a stent put in and go home on Tuesday. As time goes by, the doctors just get better and better. Our faith doesn't change. We believe that God will do what's best and He does. Whether he does it by smearing mud on a blind man's eyes in the first century, or by the miracle of microsurgery in a 21st century operating room, His love for us never changes. Isn’t that good to know?
posted by Mike at 5:57 PM
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