Author Archives: Jim Merkel

In the 1950s, Margaret (Tinius) Walker (left) was a polio poster child for the St. Louis March of Dimes. This story by Margaret (Tinius) Walker is on Page 76 of Growing Up St. Louis: Looking Back Through the Decades by Jim Merkel. To buy a copy, go to https://merkels-books-and-things.square.site/ I got very sick with polioContinue reading “A Terrible Disease”

The picture above shows Darren Seals as a teenager in the 1980s. On page 128 of my book, Growing Up St. Louis: Looking Back Through the Decades, he relates that he netted $3,000 or $4,000 a month selling drugs when he was a high school freshman. “I got clothes, shoes, jewelry, girls,” he told me.Continue reading “Big Money at a Cost”

I had special reasons to remember the Feasting Fox Restaurant. Covering St. Louis’ South Side for the old Suburban Journals from about 2001 to 2009, I wrote about Marty and Sue Luepker, owners of the restaurant at Grand Boulevard and Meramec Street. I ate there and came to appreciate the fact that it was oneContinue reading “Remembering the Feasting Fox”

For sheer chaos, few places in St. Louis County match Manchester Road at Interstate 270. The West County Center, numerous strip stores, office buildings and a mass of suburban homes in all directions combine to bring more many thousands of vehicles a day to Manchester just east of I-270. Traffic is so great that eastboundContinue reading “My Life as a Country Boy”

People say St. Louis is the world’s biggest small town. You’re always running in to somebody with a connection to yourself. I can believe it, after seeing one huge coincidence in the writing of my book, Growing Up St. Louis: Looking Back Through the Decades. I interviewed more than 100 people about their experiences growingContinue reading “A One in a Million Coincidence”

For months, I had big plans for April 12. That was the date of the big Launch Event for Growing Up St. Louis: Looking Back Through the Decades at the Central Library downtown.  I expected to fill all 250 seats, with people I interviewed, friends and folks attracted by an extensive publicity campaign. That endedContinue reading “A Safe Place for a Public Event?”

“Remember the year school was canceled, vacations were postponed and birthday parties consisted of drive-by parades? Young St. Louisans will have vivid coronavirus tales to tell to their own kids and grandkids?” writes St. Louis Post-Dispatch Book Editor Jane Henderson in her review of my book Growing Up St. Louis: Looking Back Through the Decades.Continue reading “The Post-Dispatch Reviews My Book”

We got some good news. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is putting its story about Growing Up St. Louis: :  Looking Back Through the Decades on the cover of its premiere weekly entertainment magazine, GO! Magazine. That kind of mention in the Friday publication is about as good as a book can get in the P-D. Continue reading “We Made the Cover of GO! Magazine”