Short Essays (500-1000 Words) Archives - Page 6 of 6

2019: Ode To Ginkgo, Or Eau De Ginkgo

Soon after a craft beer festival in Lafayette Park, a neighbor whose dog was mixing with mine commented on a strong smell, like that of someone having barfed nearby.

That odor actually IS the smell of someone barfing nearby. It’s butyric acid, and it’s formed by the rotting fruit of the female ginkgo tree. I say female because there are two sexes to this tree. Not that this would help you select one to plant, as they are also known to change sex from male to female on short notice.

1892: Can You Hear Me Now?

A reference to ‘speaking tubes’ appeared during a look at the 1892 real estate listings around Lafayette Square. Being from split level suburbia, I’d never heard of them.

2020: Lafayette Park Ferns – Of Fiddleheads and Rabbit Holes

We live in a neighborhood steeped in its own history. The times change fast, but it’s comforting to consider the constants around us, and Lafayette Park holds a big bouquet of them.

1885: The Dark And Mysterious Places of St Louis

Among so many, there is a certain wonderful booklet from 1885 in the Mercantile Library, called “The Dark And Mysterious Places Of St Louis.” It’s an armchair investigator’s delight, in terms of being somewhere without having to go somewhere. This ‘where’ is St Louis society’s urban underbelly, full of, as the book cover promises, “Gilded Sin and Naked Vice!”

1896: Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show Comes To St Louis

From May 18 through May 24, 1896, the most famous show of its type, the original and biggest spectacle of its age, stopped in St Louis, setting up at the corner of Compton and Manchester. The show was so large that it required 15 acres of empty ground to stage.