Exactly 3 Hours To The Kentucky State Line

The ad in the paper said: 
COME VISIT PADUCAH, ONLY 3 HOURS AWAY.

Ever since I first saw Paducah on a map as a kid, I wanted to visit a place with such an intriguing name.  So, I took a day off from work.  I left our house at 7:04 AM, and I crossed the Kentucky state line at 11:04.  The ad in the paper was correct.

What I found is that Paducah is a city of architecture, a city of history, and, most of all, a city of art.

Paducah is lucky to have a large number of 19^th Century buildings still gracing its downtown.

The American-German National Bank:

Another bank:

The grand downtown commercial hotel:

Shop Historic Paducah:

Paducah is where I found out about America’s first sojourn into government health care.  President John Adams knew that America’s prosperity depended on merchant ships, and in 1798, health care was provided to merchant seamen.  It was then extended to the men who worked on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

Paducah was the site of a Confederate raid in the Civil War.  The town displays its history in public, on its flood wall.  Over 50 flood wall murals describe the history of Paducah, including its industrial history.

Paducah was the home of Vice President Alben Barkley.  Barkley captured my imagination because of his moment of death.  He was giving a speech and quoted Psalm 84:10, saying "I would rather be a servant in the House of the Lord than to sit in the seats of the mighty."  He died on stage just minutes after saying that quotation.

Art abounds in Paducah.  The biggest tourist attraction in town is a museum of quilts and fiber arts.  But the city has deliberately sought artists to boost its economy.  They have an artist relocation plan, and pay artists to move to Paducah.

The artists get low-cost houses in Lower Town.  The house serves as a studio, a gallery, and a residence.  I talked to artists who had moved from Michigan, Vermont, California, and the State of Washington.  They were all ecstatic to be in Paducah.

Before heading back to St. Louis, I had to visit the town's piece de résistance for a fan of architecture: the Paducah Post Office.  It is a midcentury modern building designed by Edward Durrell Stone.  It is a small-scale version of the US Embassy that Stone designed for New Delhi, India.

Paducah, Kentucky,which I had wanted to see only because it had an intriguing name, proved to be a city with intriguing architecture, intriguing history, and intriguing art. 

- . - .- . - . - . 

A 4-minute YouTube tour of Paducah:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y55ikhMl45g


- . - .- . - . - . 

NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com

Gesticulating In Gratitude

The roads in Hawaii are mostly two-lane.  

We were on vacation, driving from Kailua-Kona to Hilo, when the car behind us wanted to pass.  We slowed down and pulled to the right to give the car lots of room to pass.  After the car passed us, the driver stuck his arm out the window and gesticulated at us.

What was that?  Was he mocking us?  

The driver had extended his thumb and his pinkie and had curled his middle three fingers to his palm.  And he shook his hand.  I started to get annoyed, but then I remembered something I read in a travel book about how Hawaiians use a certain gesture as a way of saying thank you.

The guy who passed us was giving us a Hawaiian thank-you wave.

St. Louis has a thank-you wave.  You simply extend all five fingers into a flat palm and move it right and left, like a windshield wiper.  The Hawaiian wave is more dramatic, probably because you can drive with your car windows open all year round in Hawaii.

I like being courteous to my fellow drivers in St. Louis.  And I like to have my courtesy acknowledged, but I only get a thank-you wave about fifty per cent of the time.

Every morning when I drive to work, I get an opportunity to be courteous.  There is a Mobil On-The-Run convenience store at a busy intersection.  If the light is red and there are six cars waiting for the light to change, the entrance to the On-The-Run will be blocked by the sixth car.  People who just bought their gas, coffee, or breakfast cannot leave the On-The-Run.

Unless the sixth car is me.  If I see five cars waiting for a red light, I will stop early so there is a big gap between the fifth car and me.  That way people can drive into or out of the On-The-Run.

Many people recognize my act of courtesy.  They wave their hand at me as they drive through the gap I created.  One driver, however, was busy consuming his breakfast as he drove, so he waved his breakfast as me: a 16-ounce can of Bud Light.

- . - .- . - . - . 

A favorite Bud Light commercial: "The Clothing Drive":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8znLXlD33No



- . - .- . - . - . 

NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com

My Wish On Yoko Ono's Tree

Three of us entered the restaurant and started walking down a long hallway to reach the hostess stand.  The hallway was decorated with black-and-white historic sports photographs.

There was a woman in the hallway pointing to a photograph and asking a busboy to identify the person in the photo.  The busboy had no idea; he spotted me and told her: "The man in the beard will tell you who this is."

The woman turned to me in anticipation.  

I looked at the photo and told her: "This is Lou Gehrig, who was born in 1903 and lived at 307 East 94th Street.  My father was born in 1903 and lived at 329 East 94th Street.  My father and Lou Gehrig were boyhood friends.  At that time, New York City allowed students to choose their high school, and my father and Lou Gehrig both chose the same high school.

Lou Gehrig joined the high school baseball team and my father became the manager of the team.  Their friendship continued beyond high school; Lou Gehrig would send the Schneider family a Christmas card every year, even when he was playing exhibition baseball in Japan.

                          (This photo shows my father standing in the back row, 1st on the left.
                                                     Lou Gehrig is sitting, 3rd from right)
                                    
The woman in the restaurant hallway was fascinated by everything that I told her.  She told me that she walks in the yearly ALS fundraiser because she has a friend with ALS (aka Lou Gehrig's disease).

It was four years since I had set foot in that restaurant.  I certainly did not know that busboy.  There were three of us walking down the hallway; what would explain how the busboy picked out the person whose father was Lou Gehrig's childhood friend?

My high school classmate, Liz Bogen, had an explanation.  Liz Bogen once said “Doug Schneider leads a charmed life”.

I spent many years not believing what my classmate said.  I viewed my life as simply a life that just happens, not as a charmed life.

I am now in the last month of my 69th year --- it is a time to look back.

Looking back on: Growing up in a town with salt water on three sides.  Attending an Ivy League college.   Getting to teach in the most interesting school in the most interesting city in West Africa.  Being sent by the US Army, not to Vietnam, but to the West Coast, where I had never been before.  Living in Europe.  Getting into Information Technology just as it started to become a driving force in American society.  Following my heart and finding love and settling in Missouri in a house with a white picket fence and two dogs in the yard.   

Now, as I am about to begin my 70th year, I am ready to admit that my classmate Liz Bogen might have been right.  Ready to admit that there was something cosmic about a busboy singling me out to answer someone’s question about a black-and-white photograph hanging in a restaurant hallway.

Last summer I went to the St. Louis Art Museum, and headed straight for Yoko Ono's wish tree.  I wrote my wish on a tag and tied it on a branch.  Yoko took all the St. Louis wishes to Iceland, where they are now interred at the Imagine Peace Tower.

The tag that I hung on the wish tree said: "Wishing to continue a charmed life".

- . - . - . - . - .

Here is a 6-minute video filmed at the London Palladium.  Neil Hannon, the lead singer of The Divine Comedy, sings a tender song about his wish that his daughter will lead a charmed life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csef7e_2SUA

- . - .- . - . - . 

NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com