Walnut Park

     Walnut Park is an area in North St. Louis and in the past (1950 -70) was populated by mainly blue collar workers and their families.  I (Jim L) was born in 1948 and grew up on Pamplin Place in Walnut Park.  Pamplin Place dead-ended in to and alley on one side then West Florisssant on the other.  Directly across West Florissant was Herzog School on Pamplin Avenue.  Down a couple streets on West Florissant was Jennings Boat and Motor (Era Ave).

     It was a different world then, as a kid you lived outdoors, we had TV’s but channels were limited and as young kids we watched mainly cartoons, cowboys and Cardinals baseball.  In the summer we spent most days outdoors playing which included spud, Indian ball (is it appropriate to say that in these days, forgive me maya copa, maya copa, maya copa) or sometimes we would just hangout.  We had phones (landlines, well just rotary phones, landlines wasn’t a word yet) but as kids we hardly ever user them some were 40 call or party lines.  It wasn’t something that we were prohibited from using it just wasn’t in our DNA. 

    When you went out to for the day you would go to a hangout or to a friend’s house but you didn’t ring the doorbell you just stood outside the door and yelled their name.  People always had their windows open so you were always heard.  Someone would usually yell back to come in or tell you they weren’t home.  You generally stayed out all day or until you got hungry.  When it was time for you to come home in the evening your Mom would stick her head out the front door and yell your name.  If you weren’t in hearing distance sometimes a neighbor would pass the message on to you or somehow you would be tracked down.  No one ever wore a watch, I had one but only wore it for certain occasions.  We were never concerned about what time it was.  We had no agenda of things to get done.  Not having a watch and not caring about the time sometimes lead to trouble.  We walked everywhere, we had bikes but walking seemed to be the preferred mode of transportation.

    In those days families didn’t move around a lot, you picked a neighborhood and stayed there.  So consequently, you knew your neighbors and spent more time with them.  It’s likely that there were many communities like Walnut Park throughout our country during those years, that’s just the way middle America lived.  I went to Nativity School along with my friends in the neighborhood, which included kids on Pamplin (Jim M, Frank B, Reinhard A), Mimika (John & Mike O) Floy Ave (Mike N, Dave & Kenny B).  There were other friends in our neighborhood that attended public grade school (Earl, Dennis & Mike N, John S, Bill K).  Many of us had siblings that also attended the same schools.

     We played organized sports but only Summer baseball and Winter soccer (yes, winter), we started in the Fall and played in the mud, slush and snow and we enjoyed running around in the mud. The organized sports were always a school/church team, (Nativity, St. Aldalbert’s, etc.) there were very few select teams the only one I remember was Kutis (sponsor by the Funeral Parlor) soccer.  We always played other school teams in both baseball and soccer so we got to know kids from other schools.  I enjoyed soccer more than baseball, partly because I was better at that sport than baseball and I didn’t play it at first but my buddies convince me to join the team.

     Summers were great we were always outside running around playing ball, Hide and Seek, roaming the streets/alleys or just riding down a big hill in a cardboard box.  Summers are when the Tamale man, snow cone man and Mr. Softee Ice cream truck would come around.  I remember that I loved the tamales.  We even had a guy with a pony that came and gave rides.  I used to buy model car kits from Henze's hobby shop, which was across from Walnut Park School, then put them together with tube glue (airplane glue). That’s the  glue that kids used to get high on in later years. I would paint the cars, put decals on and sometimes enter them in contest at Henze’s.  On Friday nights we would regularly go to the Rio Show, It didn’t really matter what was showing it was what we did on Friday at that time in our life, strictly fun with no worries. Jimmie the midget was the usher. Everyone knew him but now I’m told he wasn’t a midget just a really short guy, Not trying to hurt anyone’s feelings but that’s what everyone called him.

     There were lots of small mom and pop businesses in the Walnut park area, one of which was Shady Grove with outside service and we must not forget Ed’s White Front with great BBQ sandwiches plus many more small stores all in walking distance.  These were different times, less stressful, less complicated, a much simpler life.