By Darla Buckhannon

Happy birthday to Bobby Burks, Jeremy Chapman, Chris Robinson, Mark Robinson, Leonard Kluesner, David Lape III, Gary Kluesner, Claude Marion, Eric Cobb, Jack Coomer, Donna Fisher, Jordan Cook, Joann Tatum, Seger Ruiz, Fabian Schott, Gary Bentley, Lloyd McMullin, Joe Mohorc, Joann Schmitt, Scott Montgomery, Norman Dudley, Norma Van Gennip, Jill Graham, Debbie Schlosser, Justin Holmes, Courtney Teegarden, Diana Knutson, Becky Hanlon and Shellie Seyer.

Happy anniversary to Chris and Diana Knutson, Brad and Debra Bader, Tim and Germaine Cannon and Leroy and Sandy Bollinger.

We are enjoying a full moon, which is often called the Ripe Corn Moon and Moon of the Middle Summer.

Yards throughout town are colorful and well-maintained; we especially admired the bright red gladiolas on Parker.

Question answered: The old hospital is finally being razed after being bought by the school district. Plans include the expansion of much needed parking for the high school.

We visited Cape Memorial Cemetery on my parents' anniversary with some lovely white roses in hand. Always fun to see the peacocks, especially when the males are putting on a show for the hens.

Richard's Indian fantail pigeons and brown mookies have settled in and seem to like their afternoon recess on the grass. We were curious how they would behave when Richard let them out for the first time here. They often perched on our roof and that of our neighbor's in Dallas, and on several occasions a couple disappeared for a few days.

Snapshot of 1946

Richard and I are still sorting through things at the house. My mother gave me her hope chest years ago that I often referred to at the time as my hopeless chest. It has moved with me many times, but is finally back in its original spot. A section of the St. Louis Globe Democrat, dated Thurs., Sept. 26, 1946, has lined the chest for years. The headline of the sports page is "Birds Bow To Reds, 6-0, Miss Chance to Pull Away." Robert L. Burnes' column, "The Bench Warmer," was all about the Cardinals' previous 2-1 over the Reds, Erv Dusak and whether Reds pitcher Johnny Vander Meer should have walked Stan Musial.

Ads include Folgers Coffee, Falstaff Beer, IBC Root Beer, Union Electric and Chicago & Southern Airlines. The latter company boasts America's fastest DC-4's in its ad, with flights from St. Louis to Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans and Houston. C&S later merged into Delta Airlines. There was also an ad for Moll's on Delmar at Baliviere. Their fresh shipments of seafood arrived daily by rail; they offered produce, baked goods, such as Sunshine Cakes for 35 cents, Manhattan Coffee for 33 cents for a pound jar and Perfex, the Miracle Cleaner that does 100 tasks easier.

Visiting family

My sister Carolyn and her husband Bill Hawkins drove from their home in Ohio to East Troy, Wisconsin, to visit our sister Jo and her husband Don. As I have expressed many times before, Jo is an excellent hostess, and one is well-advised to fast the previous week so you can guiltlessly partake of her many food offerings. One of her signature desserts is Key lime pie. Carolyn said they had a restful time visiting and seeing all the sights. Carolyn and Bill sold their home in Alabama last year and moved to their new home in Springboro, Ohio, to be near their daughters.

Fourth of July

We hope everyone had a great Fourth of July. While some took to the roads, others took to the air. Jae Hopkins and his wife Akiko, of San Diego, were in Washington, D.C., with 16 other family members. They toured the Capitol on Monday and enjoyed fireworks on the mall on the Fourth.

The grills were fired up as families and friends gathered to celebrate Independence Day. There were lots of firework displays in town throughout the weekend and the Fourth. We thank fire chief Sam Glency and the volunteer firemen for their time in setting up the annual fireworks display and lighting them at Harmon Field.

Back in the day, Doc Finney's house was the place to be on the Fourth of July. Not only did he have lots of fireworks, there were also big tubs of iced down sodas and watermelon and plenty of hot dogs and potato chips for all. My sister Jo and I always spent the day there with our cousins along with many neighborhood kids.

As always

Remember to tell those special people in your life that you love them -- those three words mean so much.

Email your news to me at darbuck2@airmail.net or leave a message at (573) 887-6430 or (214) 207-7839.

And then ...

Then there was the library where one could check out tools as well as books.