Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Memory Check in Clayton

When I first moved to St. Louis to go to grad school I lived here.
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It was a somewhat rundown apartment complex then, and I had a huge 1 bedroom apartment for about $400 a month. It didn't look like this. The fountain was broken and the shrubs were dead or missing. My stove was a depression era antique. No one really batted an eye when we built a crane to lower boxes of books out of my friend's 3rd floor apartment, or used a toboggan to drag the boxes across the yard. I don't think that would fly now. Now these are Fountain View condominiums in Old Town Clayton, featuring one bedroom condos starting at $252, 500. Clearly, I don't know how to live the good life. I'm much happier in my small 3 bedroom house that I bought for a third of that silliness.

The Shady Oak theater hasn't seen the rejuvenation my old apartment got.
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It's empty, and near the end of its life. I think I read that the owners were going to knock it down and build a parking lot. I understand there isn't a big demand for single screen art house theaters any more. My tastes have changed as much as anyone's, I guess. I used to walk down here and avoid accounting homework on Saturday nights. Now I'd just as soon sit at home an watch a DVD. The popcorn's cheaper and the chairs are much more comfy.

Besides, if it reopened some literal type would come along soon and force a name change. I've never seen a shady oak in downtown Clayton, just fluttery ginkgoes.

Okay, no more rambling. I'll get back to photos tomorrow.

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