Thoughts On Our Silver Jubilee — Tom Hoerr

Historical April 1995 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.

Twenty-five years is a long time. It’s longer than the reign of many kings and queens, five times the length of WWII, more than 8, 000 sunrises and sunsets, and long enough for men’s narrow ties to have been in, gone out, come back, and gone out of fashion. Dick Clark hasn’t changed a bit, but otherwise the world is a lot different than it was in 1970, when The Times of SkinkerDeBaliviere (founded as “The Paper”) first began. Twenty-five years ago Richard Nixon was President of the U.S. Watergate was just a hotel in D.C. Our government’s involvement in VietNam was still increasing; the ROTC building at Washington University was burned in protest.

The baseball Cardinals had lost the World Series the two preceding years; the football Cardinals were drafting poorly and losing games.

The St. Louis Hawks were playing in Atlanta and a new sport, new to St. Louis anyway, hockey, was taking hold. Twenty-five years ago Skinker-DeBaliviere was a neighborhood in jeopardy.

For that matter, the entire City was at risk. Few real estate agents would show housing in the City; the “War On Poverty” was already failing in many respects. Mayor Cervantes took a good deal of public criticism for acquiring the Santa Maria and for advocating that a second major airport be built in Illinois. Many things have changed in twenty-five years, and many haven’t moved a bit. Our public officials now are under scrutiny that was unheard of twenty-five years ago. One aftermath of Watergate and VietNam, a cost that extracts a very high price, is that we no longer trust our public institutions — or our public officials. Fortunately, Skinker-DeBaliviere has survived and flourished. Indeed, our neighborhood is often used as a model of how people can work together and make a difference. Like all good things, this didn’t happen by chance.

The first St. Louis Art Fair and House Tour began here.

The paper you’re reading was started as St. Louis’ first neighborhood newspaper too.

The Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council was formed as well. What these endeavors shared is that they were vehicles for people to come together and work for the common good.

They achieved that good, and made the participants stronger in the process. What were we like twentyfive years ago? We’re all different now, too, but there are still a few things that surely are relevant for all of us. Twenty five years ago, we didn’t need glasses, or we didn’t need glasses as strong as the ones we’re wearing today. Twenty-five years ago we weighed less than we do today (or else the sizes of clothing has changed and they’re making things tighter than they used to). And probably twenty-five years ago we were all a bit more idealistic — or is it less realistic? — than we are today. That doesn’t mean we hope or want for less; just that we’re wiser about the vagaries of life. Throughout these changes, and non-changes, The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere has been a constant in the neighborhood. Editors and writers and ad-takers and deliverers have changed, but the paper truly hasn’t.

It has always been what it remains today: an opportunity to share thoughts with friends and neighbors, a tool to remind us that we all live together in a special place.

Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April 1995.

Read this article in the original newspaper issue.

Archival transcription note: Source retrospectively says Cardinals lost World Series in two preceding years; historical assertion retained as author’s1995recollection, not independently corrected.

Original source: SD_Times1995_04.pdf, printed page(s) 10; PDF page(s) 9.