Old Courthouse

Last week, we visited the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the riverfront in St. Louis. Operated by the National Park Service, this memorial includes the Gateway Arch as well as the Old Courthouse. The Old Courthouse if famous primarily for a trial that was held there: the Dred Scott case, one of the contributing factors to the Civil War.

Here's a photo I took of the Courthouse that I subsequently doctored with a website that turns your pictures into tilt-shift style miniatures.

Breakfast with Santa in ESL

One of the most painful aspects of living in Belleville, Illinois, is that we are right next to East St. Louis. East St. Louis is one of the poorest municipalities in the state, and its population is almost all African American. The city is blighted and littered, the infrastructure of a formerly thriving city is in serious decay, and everyday there is more news of homicide or drug-related violence.

This is painful on its own, but when East St. Louis is compared to Belleville, its immediate neighbor to the east, the tremendous and crushing weight of America's problem with race is obvious. While Belleville is more and more racially integrated, the difference between these two largest cities in St. Clair county is nearly inexplicable. Belleville is tidy and quaint, trees line the streets, and there are many well-kept businesses.

This morning, at the invitation of a family acquaintance, we went to a "Breakfast with Santa" event at East St. Louis High School. The activities were in the school cafeteria: cookie decorating, ornament making, a magic show, face painting, a toy raffle, and, of course, photos with Santa Claus himself. Teenage girls, who were dressed up with felt reindeer antlers, escorted in St. Nick, clapping and stomping. When he came into the room, the Jackson Five's "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" was piped in over the loud speakers. There were probably 500 adults and children there enjoying the festivities, including our family, and Alex and I were the only white people.

The Rock and Roll Craft Show

One of the ways that we know that we are still hip is that we go to the Rock and Roll Craft Show. Nicely hand-crafted goods from the local crafty-DIY crowd are on display for a weekend in a local art space with live music.

Our two older kids, Tom and Lily, picked up some silk-screened t-shirts, and we got a Christmas gift or two for friends. Some of my favorite creations this year were a series of old-fashioned looking paintings of pastoral scenes upon which a new artist had painted a great big orange monster; a white ceramic serving platter with a well-executed black skull painted on the surface as decoration; hunting trophy magnets that featured the heads of plastic toy animals and Star Wars characters; and several very beautiful scarves.

Being in the neighborhood, we ate at Duff's, a family favorite.