LouFest Music Festival-Forest Park August 28 and 29

I wanted to help spread the word for this event.  Here's the lineup:

                                              SATURDAY                          SUNDAY

And ticket info:

2 Day Pass              = $64.00

Saturday Only         = $38.00

Sunday Only            = $38.00

No service fees!  Re-entry only on 2-day passes; no in/out privileges for single day tickets.

You can purchase tickets

here

.

Carondelet Park Rec Plex "We never turn anyone away because of an inability to pay."

That's a quote from the YMCA website.

We never turn anyone away because of an inability to pay!


No one is turned away from the YMCA of Greater St. Louis because of an inability to pay. Financial scholarships are available at all branches thanks to the generous support of those who give to our annual YMCA Partner Campaign. Applications for assistance are available at any branch service center or available to download below.

Once completed, bring the application and a copy of your 2009 tax return to the Carondelet Family YMCA.

I've made several posts on the Carondelt Rec Plex on this site.  No other topic has received more page loads, comments and emails than this one.  Most are negative comments complaining about how the city paid for this, and then allowed the YMCA to run it at a premium membership fee.  True, it's not cheap, and it's a big family/personal decision to make room in your budget for this luxury.  It should not be free. Can you imagine that cluster mess?  It's already filled to capacity at peak hours. 

The YMCA is able to run this facility like a business.  It is kept very clean, the staff is attentive and kind, they tolerate very little rude/obnoxious behavior.   This place is very diverse with people of all economic, age and racial backgrounds.  Just visit, I think you'll agree with me.  Do you think the city would be able to maintain this place at this high level?  I'm a city booster, almost to a fault.  But if there is one thing that needs an over haul, it's the nepotism and incompetance that exists with many city and SLPS employees.  Not all, but many.  We have plenty of horror stories regarding the service, demeanor, racist behaviors and ineptitude of so many public school employees it's ridiculous.  The fact that they get away with this is beyond me.  I wouldn't go to the Carondelet rec plex if it was run/staffed like that.

And just to reiterate, anyone is available for financial assistance if you qualify.  If you don't qualify, you should count your blessings that you have the financial means to be independent of help and pay your way.

I can't wait for the outdoor pool area to open.  The grounds are starting to really look beautiful as well.

Dig For Fire

St. Louis has a rich history.  I can feel it, I'm trying to be in tune with it.  The strings are loose, but the tension is starting to tighten up and converge with notes.  Eventually chords.  I'm connecting with it, it's becoming a song.  I'm trying to be part of it.  Rich history.  Rich like good chocolate that she brings home from expensive places, rich like Midwestern glaciated soil deposits.  Black from native minerals and decomposed organic materials.  Black from coal smoke and soot.  Black from factories.  Black from making steel and tires and brake pads and belts that spun wheels for every reason under the industrialized sun.  Dirty, black and rich.  Not always clean, not always proud, but history nonetheless. It's all around you.

You don't have to dig too far to discover the back story or previous use of the land you live on, or the neighborhood you call home.  You just need to polish the surface to see what they used to do.  How they lived.  And if you scratch a little...dig a little, things become unearthed.  Sometimes a history that's not well recorded becomes a mystery.  An intriguing find.  Sometimes it takes the naivety of a kid to find stuff in places we don't normally look.

The park in front of my house looks innocent enough.  A bike trail, trees some native, some not.  But oh, to be a kid.  To find a hand spade hanging on the peg board and become curious.  You dig with that, dad?  How far could I dig with that.  I want that spade.  I will dig with that today.  I will dig and find stuff.  I will dig as long as they'll let me.  I'll dig 'til it gets dark.

And when the weather breaks and the sun warms, so does the curiosity.  The soil in March is moist and arable.  These are digging days.

I will make an unconfirmed statement that the park in front of my house was once a landfill or was mined for coal and clay and filled with dirty spent soil from the turn of the 19th century.  I don't know.

But, I have evidence.  The kids keep bringing this proof to me, like a tom cat with a fresh kill.  They bring it to me and wonder.  They collect it, they admire it.  They think about it.

Depression glass?  Snuff can?  Tonic jar?  Pestle?  Tea cup?  All this stuff makes it's way past the threshold.

Here's today find:

We discover our history in many ways.  Sometimes it takes the innocence and desire of a kid to just dig a little to bring the past up to the surface.  Ask and inquire.  Don't hesitate to do some digging in this city, you'll find some mysterious stuff and start new conversations.