ONE WHOLE BLOCK MISSING

This has been a big KHS week for me. One day I spoke on the phone to 4 different KHS65 men. And had a Facebook message from another. There are days like that aren't there? Something specific must draw others to us on a particular wavelength! Jim Herb says HI; he & Jim Olson had lunch together and called to report in. Jim Day is working hard and having a good time. He & Linda recently ran into Lary Lazier; Linda is Lary's State Farm insurance agent... Gary Schmidt is helping his mom this weekend, before she moves up to Michigan to live with his sister after the recent death of their father and the impending sale of the parents' home in Kirkwood.

Yesterday I drove into Kirkwood to fetch Steve Huber's mom, Nancy, to go to a luncheon & meeting with me. We both belong to several hereditary societies and see one another frequently. On the way home I took Manchester Road west from Geyer. I always look around when I hit Des Peres because we lived in Harwood Hills for several years from mid-11th grade & I like to see how the area is doing. As I passed thru the light at Bopp Road I saw on my left a tall construction fence and could hardly keep my eyes on the road! The whole block from Bopp to Lindeman on the south side of Manchester is GONE! I don't know how deep, there were houses behind that area of commercial buildings (Biederman's Furniture at one time, later a bookstore, and many other stores), so maybe some of them were leveled also! I immediately called my best Kirkwood-go-to-information source Peggy Entenman Kramer, who tells me Dierbergs grocery is going in there!!! Not so amazing, Dierbergs is still expanding BUT if you recall, just west of Bopp on the north side of Manchester is Schnucks!!! [NOT, please see the comments below, I completely forgot about the new Schnucks super store at Ballas! What was I looking at when I drove by it Saturday? My phone probably, I think I called Peggy right away as I was so amazed!] So what's that going to do to the grocery biz in Des Peres?????? Some of you marketing types might understand this better than I do... The point of my telling you all this is that I was just amazed that the whole area is GONE! I had JUST been talking to Nancy on the way to our luncheon about how things are changing in Kirkwood; streets with teardown houses replacing those we remember, streets being changed, etc., but that when I am in Kirkwood I always know exactly where I am and how to get where I'm going even amidst change. If you haven't been back to Kirkwood in awhile, better start planning to attend our 50th Reunion, it'll be here before we know it. Maybe you should come sooner before too much of our memory is bulldozed under! And if you live here in St. Louis County, better just make a run thru Kirkwood soon!