Report for the Meeting of 20 2020

The meeting was called to order promptly at 12:00 p.m. by President Bob Garagiola, who led the Club in the Pledge of Allegiance and a recitation of the Four-Way Test. Bob Zangas delivered the invocation, which was followed by the undersigned’s attempt to lead the Club in “My Merry Oldsmobile” in line with the automotive them of the program. The Club and the songleader, however, were literally not on the same page of lyrics, leading to the rapid termination of tunification. Blessedly, all proceeded to lunch immediately thereafter.

After an interval, President Bob returned to the podium for announcements, starting with a reminder that next week’s program will be presented by Kitty Ratcliffe, formerly of Downtown St. Louis, and now president of “Explore St. Louis”, a/k/a the Convention and Visitors Commission. The following week (3/5), Don Pohl of Ranken Technical College will join us to update the Club on activities at the school.

Trivia Night is coming! Mary Jane Thomsen thanked those who have committed and assured those who haven’t they are welcome to sign up.

Bob Zangas spoke on behalf of the Community Service Committee and reminded attendees that grant proposals are due by March 12th and the form is on the Club website. Any member may sponsor a group applying for a grant.

President Bob then took back the mike, reminding us of the next opportunity to participate in serving dinner and meeting with students at Lift for Life Academy on March 17th . He also gave fair warning of an idea from the Membership Committee about trying out a breakfast meeting at the MAC West as an alternative to a lunch meeting. Polling by e-mail is to begin soon. Bob finished by reporting on the most recent happy hour at Pietro’s – 40+ attendees and much fun.

Sergeant-at-Arms Dan Conway next appeared and shared a great story about a period of time at the family firm when new hires were tested by the Girl Scout cookie test – could they survive the period of time between when cookies were ordered and when they were delivered? No comment on this from Past President Jim Conway as of this writing.

Dan also recognized Emmanuel Amoaka (guest of Rose Cooper) and the perpetually visiting J.Gary Neal of the Fresno Sunrise Club.

Curt Linton then introduced our speakers, Molly Butterworth and Tom Eyssell, who shared highlights of their new history of St. Louis automotive life, They Will Run, the first serious work on this subject in nearly 40 years. Molly and Tom tag-teamed, emphasizing the importance of the city’s central location and emphasizing that it was both a center of wagon-building (no surprise to fans of the history of western expansion) and cycling (a new on me, anyway). Banner Buggy and Moon Brothers were big in buggy-building before the arrival of the motorcar, which first was built in the city by the St. Louis Motor Carriage Co. in 1898 and their “Rigs That Run”, which seems apt for so many “horseless carriages” being such glorified rigs.

The first noted maker, though, was George P. Dorris, the chief engineer and mechanical genius behind those running rigs, whose own company (at least one former factory of which survives as a loft condo building on Forest Park Avenue) built everything from touring cars to trucks and perfecting the float-feed carburetor for internal combustion engines. Sadly, the Great Depression took down the company, as it did possibly the best-known St. Louis company, Moon Motor Co., whose bankruptcy case lasted from 1931 through 1966, apparently a record.

The last main subject was a quick gallop through some of the buildings on the automobile rows which grew out of a 1908 zoning ordinance, which explains the extinct grouping on Locust on the way west toward Grand and the survivors on South Kingshighway. At least one prominent architect, Preston Bradshaw, made a good living designing dealerships in a wild variety of styles, abetted by the automotive craze of the 1920’s. A lively question-and-answer session followed, closing with the trivia item of vehicles being required at first to be preceded by someone carrying a red flag to warn animal-drawn vehicles of the raucous approach of the self-propelled.

Steve Rosenblum was the lucky drawer of the eight of hearts for the 50/50 contest and the meeting was adjourned at 1:06 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

W.R. Piper