When I was 3 months old, in January of 1951, my father was hired as a federal meat inspector and immediately assigned to the stock yards in National City, which was/is ajacent to E. St. Louis.
During the 1950s, E. St. Louis was a great place to live, even better than St. Louis. At the age of 10, my parents allowed me take the city bus by myself to meet my dad at his work site. At this time, hardly anyone had air conditioning so all the windows in the house were open, the car keys were in the ignition and the doors were never locked.
During the summer, when I left to play with my friends my mother never worried about me because it was a totally safe place to live and my friends parents were always keeping an eye out, just to be safe. I remember we had an E. St. Louis police officer living in our neighborhood and at a BBQ, he was telling the fathers present that if anyone were ever to “hurt” a child, just hang them and there would never be any repercusions.
We left in 1961 for South Carolina, Memphis and Omaha. When we returned to St. Louis in 1968, my parents selected to live in St. Charles. When I returned to E. St. Louis to look up my childhood best friend I was completely shocked at what happened over the course of 6 short years. The downtown area was 100% blighted with most of the buildings boarded up. A vast majority of the mom and pop family businesses were gone. My dad moonlighted at Wuller’s Drug Store at 14th & Lynch, which amazing was still open, albeit with bars on every door and window. The Wuller’s were just looking for an excuse to retire and leave the area.
In my mind, E. St. Louis is the perfect example of what happens when corrupt politicians take over. They destroy a city and it’s taken over by the criminal element.
Did E. St Louis happen to turn black between the time you left and the time you went back to visit? Time to stop giving Obama’s people a free pass on the destruction they deliberately wreak.