I realized today, as I looked from the parking garage, that summer is just about here in St. Louis. The haze obscured my beautiful view down Chouteau towards downtown. From my favorite spot on Level B (just up the ramp so I get exercise walking to get my books out at lunchtime) I can see the Sheraton City Centre and the rest of the downtown skyline.I look for the Cosand Center (my old haunt at St. Louis Community College) but I think some of it is obscured by the new stadium.
One of my classmates and I ate outside on a park bench and then strolled the neighborhood. It has really changed. There are new homes going up and a lot of things going on near SLU. We treaded areas I would have never driven through when I was at SLU and saw some of the neighbors, mostly elderly people, sitting out on their shaded front porches. I regaled him with the stories of the "bad old days at SLU" (tongue firmly in cheek) when I was here the first time in the late 80s and early 90s. We saw the old Allied Health Building, which is now a social service agency, with a coffee shop in one of the retail areas, the Ronald McDonald House, which was somewhere else my first time here and all the additions at Cardinal Glennon Hospital.
Next, we traipsed past the old nursing school building facing Grand and then we strolled down Caroline Mall, which was once a through street. The doors where I entered the Med School to see the orthodontist in grade school are still there, but they only exit. The Orthodontics folks have their own brand-spanking-new Advanced Dental Center down the street.
It got hot, so I was happy to retreat to the cool inside of school.
