Monthly Archives: November 2017

The picture show 8-year-old Madelyn Heim around 1925, just when she was going through a particularly rough time. Her father had just left her mother for another woman, and her mother suddenly would die. But happier times were ahead, as a Bevo Mill neighborhood family took her in. The family gave her a name –Continue reading “Moving Toward 100 Interviews”

Here’s your chance to buy one of the last copies I have of The Colorful Characters of St. Louis following the fire at the Reedy Press warehouse. Reedy will reprint them, but I don’t know when.  So if you want to get a copy for Christmas,  you should buy one of the 16 remaining collectors’Continue reading “Buy ‘Em Before They’re Gone”

Various friends and relatives may have questions about how the fire in the Reedy Press warehouse affects me. Here’s my explanation. All of my books were burned in the fire.  I didn’t have insurance,  but I and the other Reedy Press authors didn’t need it. Let me explain. They were our books, but they wereContinue reading “What the Fire Meant to Reedy Authors”

We’ve seen the movie. We know what happens next. But it’s good to remember this. A businessman faces disaster, so much that he goes off to end his life.  An angel-in-training intervenes and stops him and convinces him his life was worth living. He returns to see his many friends have restored his fortunes aContinue reading “Reedy Press Will Be Back”

Up to now, you’ve been great. Whenever I’ve asked for help in finding people for Growing Up St. Louis, you’ve come to my rescue. Now I’m coming to you with two specific requests. First, I’d like to interview someone 97 years old or older about his or her experiences growing up in St. Louis. I’dContinue reading “Your New Assignment”

Valerie Schremp loved playing in the woods behind her home in Oakville. When her mother told her not to play in the creek in the woods, she naturally played in the creek. It was the kind of thing you’d expect from someone who grew up to be a journalist. Today, she writes as Valerie SchrempContinue reading “The End is in Sight”