St. Louis Conference Trip Redux

One of the most formative experiences of my teenage years was a high school journalism trip during my senior year. Our school paper, The Buzz, won a prestigious award and a few of us were chosen to pick it up at a conference. So, in the fall of 1989, I boarded a plane with our adviser Ron Bennett and my friend Rebecca, who was the paper's editor in-chief.

I have many vivid memories of the trip. I remember my first taxi ride ever, the tall buildings in downtown St. Louis, and the obligatory ride to the top of the Gateway Arch. Another friend named Renee, who was attending Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri, got bus tickets and met us at the conference.

A couple of weeks ago I returned to St. Louis to attend another conference, this time an environmental training symposium. I'm usually a bit of a hermit when I go on these business trips, preferring to hole up in my hotel with a book rather than go out on the town. But I decided to break out of my shell and see what had changed since the last time I was there.

One of the first things that struck me was that almost 20 years had passed since my last visit. Since that time, downtown St. Louis seems to have been slowly declining. The St. Louis Centre, which was a glistening three-story shopping mall in 1989, has been shut down and boarded up. The city itself was pretty quiet, with very few people on the sidewalks.


Since the conference I attended was happening very near the defunct mall, I walked past it every day I was there. Every time I did, old memories from the journalism trip began to whisper from the corners of my mind. I began to remember walking down to Union Station almost every day with my friends. I remembered how Becky dragged me down to the hotel lobby to buy a Sprite because I refused to drink Coke out of a vending machine. I remembered watching a newly married couple and their well-wishers stream out of the church near the base of the Arch.

Resolved to revisit some of these places, I went for a stroll the night before I was to return home. I walked down Market Street to Union Station.



Once inside, I could see that much had changed. While the food court was fairly active, most of the other shops struggled to draw customers. The big name shops that were there before (I specifically remember Banana Republic) are now gone, replaced mostly with places that sell St. Louis Cardinals or "Budweiser" paraphernalia.

The only place that seemed to have survived was "The Fudgery," which was my favorite place 20 years ago. The large candy-making crew would sing and dance and put on quite a show while mixing fudge on big slabs of marble.



Crowds would gather around and try free samples. Even this former hotspot seemed to be on its last legs. The three guys working there still sang a few songs, but hardly anyone was there to listen. Saddened, I bought some fudge to bring home to the kids.

I decided to ride the new subway back toward the hotel. The train stop was back behind Union Station, and as I approached I saw the movie theater we went to during my last trip. We watched the next movie showing, which unfortunately turned out to be "Worth Winning," starring (?) Mark Harmon. Trust me, this is a movie not to put on your Netflix queue. When we went to find our seats that night, we were literally the only people in the place, and we quickly realized that the million or so St. Louisians who didn't watch that movie that night were on to something. I don't know if "Worth Winning" killed the theater, but the place is definitely dead now.



The last place I revisted was Charlie Gitto's, an Italian restaurant on Sixth Street. I remembered vividly the dusky atmosphere and the signed photographs of athletes and celebrities on its walls.


It already looked like it had been there forever back in 1989, and it was largely unchanged when I went in. I ordered a large plate of rigatoni proscuitto, which was undoubtedly the best meal I had during my return to St. Louis. I sat at my table, with only my memories to keep me company. Well, Butterscotch was with me, but she's not much for conversation.



The extreme solitude of dining solo lends itself to contemplation, so I thought about how much St. Louis seemed to have changed since I was there last. I realized that I shouldn't be surprised. After all, much has happened to me during the 20 years that had passed. Since then, I've spent eight years at various universities, been happily married 15 years, and held a handful of different jobs. I'm in the process of raising a bunch of great kids, which never cease to challenge, amuse, and entertain me. Life has been good to me, and I have been very blessed.

Now that I think about it, St. Louis is more like it was in 1989 than I am.