1240 South Sprigg Street, Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

New house, new school, new neighborhood.

My mother, my step-father, one of my brothers, and I moved to South Sprigg Street while I was in grade school. We had come from an upscale neighborhood just off Kingshighway where we had lived in a summer house owned by my mother’s boss. The summer house was located on a private drive and was considered by most to be on “the right side of town”.

The new neighborhood on South Sprigg Street was, however, referred to as “the wrong side of town”. I was not aware of that distinction at first but, to be sure, someone pointed it out to me soon after we moved there.

My new school was May Greene School. It was across the street from Fort D – a civil war fort positioned on top of a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. I was to spend many a day playing at the old fort with my friends, imagining what may have happened there during the civil war. There were big bunkers built all around the property which were fantastic for hiding from people. Every Easter, May Greene School students participated in an Easter egg hunt on the Fort D grounds.

Fort D, Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Mississippi River is to the left in this image, May Greene School is to the right.

Fort D, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Gun Pits surround the fort.

I will be writing of the friends and neighbors of those days, the changes in my life because of them, and how I view it now after so many years have passed. Although some did refer to the South Sprigg Street neighborhood as the “wrong side of town”, I remember it as a place where people were down to earth and I have many good memories of those days.

spriggstreet@hotmail.com

Thank you for reading!