What a great day! Two of our dear teenage friends were chosen to carry to torch on the two leg of the trip to end at the Art
Museum, which was a part of the St. Louis World Fair in 1904!

St. Louis also hosted the Summer Olympics one hundred years ago as well in 1904!

And we even have "Meet Me In St. Louis" performing at the Muny (St. Louis Municipal Opera), which, of course, is based on the 1904 World Fair. The movie staring Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien as we all know. I remember my mother barely remembering it, as she was five years old and attended. A memory of a five year old isn't the greatest but it meant alot to hear what she said, and then to look at the pictures later.

We are quite honored to be a part of the momentous occasion, and especially proud of our two girls, Lauren and Stephanie, for being chosen. It's the second time, incidently. They also were chosen to carry the winter olympics torch four years ago (I think!)

Proud to be a Missourian!!!

...tested positive for steriods...,z

Where, or where, do you get these replies? Do you have a reference book or do they just crop up into your brain?

Never, in a million years, would I have ever thought of such a reply. You are utterly amazing. . . .



Lux

A Lux sighting in the Locker Room!

Hurry up and grab your towels men.



I think Fred F competed in the 1904 Olympics.


Nice to see you here Luxy Momma!

Bill

Hey, who was that masked man darting around the corner? Cute tush!!! I must remember to stop in here more often!



Lux

[ARIES3032]

That mst have been a great day. I also have a similar picture of the arch only laqrger and it hands in my kitchen. Pete & I went to the top of that Arch and took some great pictures of downtown. I have a good friend who I have visited there.

[pattisam]

Thanks Lee for reminding me of this thread. When Lux posted it, the other day, I immediately went looking for some pics to post, which I did. What I didn't do was to take the final steps to actually complete the process. My train of thought frequently jumps the track.

Exciting day, it was, Lux!! My five sisters met (I was working...of course!!) in the Central West End to see the torch relay. I witnessed this cool event some years ago, so I don't feel like a total loser.



A family waits for the torch, in unique 'fashion', in Webster Groves (all pictures and articles are from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

[pattisam]

Olympic flame travels through St. Louis
By Diane Toroian KeaggyOf the Post-Dispatch
06/17/2004

Amid a throng of ballerinas, Greek dancers and civic leaders, the Olympic flame started its 34-mile journey through the streets of the St. Louis area at about 1 p.m.

Comedian and philanthropist Joe Torry was the first of 125 runners to carry the silver torch. He was cheered by hundreds of spectators as he climbed the steps of the Gateway Arch en route to America's Center.

"The eyes of the world are on St. Louis today," Mayor Francis Slay told hundreds who gathered in the shadow of the Arch on the flame's second leg of a four-city U.S. tour.

After passing on the flame after a quarter mile to the next of what would be 125 torchbearers, Torry breathlessly reveled in "the proudest moment of my life."

"Oh, my gosh, it is just so exciting to be part of this," said Deanna Jacobson of Chicago, who is in town for a family wedding. "This is something our family will never forget."

The Olympic spirit burns eternal even if the torch does not. The Olympic Torch motorcade stopped briefly on the South Grand Loop this afternoon after the torch's flame went out. Luckily, the official keeper of the flame was ready with a replacement.

"See, anything can happen. It's a good thing that they had a backup," said Joy Chibnall of St. Louis.

Chibnall, a self-described "torch groupie," and her 12-year old son John spent the afternoon trailing the Olympic Torch Relay as it winds through St. Louis.

"There's a lot of emotion to this," said Chibnall. "The torch is going to the Olympics and now we have seen it."

Along the way, Bonnie Blair -- no stranger to Olympic glory -- took her turn with the torch. With five gold medals as the most-decorated American Winter Olympian, Blair beamed as she jogged into a Saint Louis University courtyard, then was greeted by a cheering crowd. Admirers closed in for autographs she gladly signed on Olympic flags.

"This is very cool," Blair said, a bit breathless in the swelter but still bubbly. "This is a little warmer than the Winter Olympics."

The route included a pass by Washington University's Francis Field, rededicated Wednesday as the site of the track-and-field events of the sweltering 1904 Games.

The torch also was to pause at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church to recognize the games' links to Greece. Festivities at the church were to include more Greek dance and food, even a children's Olympics with olive wreaths and medallions going to the victors.

The torch's final stop will be closing ceremonies at Forest Park.

The Olympic flame arrived at Lambert Airport at 10:15 a.m. Spiros Lambridis, an ambassador on the Greek diplomatic board, presented the flame to Slay in front of " Zeus" a 747 jet. The jet is transporting the flame around the world. This is the fourth time that the flame has toured St. Louis.

"This is very, very exciting," Slay said after stepping from the charter 747 that bore a depiction of Zeus and the slogan "Pass the flame, unite the world."

Smiling broadly while holding high the flame-filled aluminum cannister, Slay said that "it's just a real honor to bring this back to St. Louis, to bring the warmth of this flame back to St. Louis."

Some had tracked the torch all day, others live near Fairground Park and did not want to miss seeing the historic flame. But they all seemed not to mind the heat.

Sam Lollie, of Moline Acres, carried a newspaper clipping outlining the torch's trail through St. Louis. He and his wife Delores Moore-Lollie had been on the trail of the torch since it left the Arch.

Despite the sizable crowd on the corner of Natural Bridge and Grand Avenues, Delores Moore Lollie expected the crowd to be larger.

"They should have talked it up more with community leaders," Moore-Lollie said. She thinks more people, especially children, would have come if they had known about it.

"It motivates them to want to do something athletic," Moore-Lollie said.

She suggested having posters mark the torch's trail if it comes through St. Louis again.

Stan and Susan Hammond, of Weldon Spring, know that the torch is source of inspiration. They came to Fairgrounds Park with dozens of family members and friends to witness one source of inspiration in their own lives, their daughter Stephanie, 17, pass the torch to another source of inspiration, their daughter Lauren, 14.

"They both have a can do attitude," Stan Hammond said.

In what he and his wife Susan said can only be described as a miracle, both girls were selected by the Olympic Committee and Coca-Cola to carry the torch through St. Louis.

This marks the second time that their oldest daughter Stephanie has held the flame. She carried the torch 2 years ago when it came through St. Louis on its way to Salt Lake City.

Caleb Winter, 10, of St. Charles County, thinks what Stephanie and Lauren have accomplished is 'pretty cool'.

"I'm surprised she (Stephanie) got to do it again after having done it before," Caleb said.

Members and associates of the St. Louis Dream Center celebrated by giving away free barbecue to anyone who dropped by. "The Lord said feed his people," Michael Hughley said. "The best four letter word out there is free," Hughley laughingly said moments later.

Deanizha Pate, 4, and her grandmother Yvette Austin, of St. Louis, were also in good spirits despite standing in the heat for more than twenty minutes as they waited for the torch to arrive.

"I've got a front row seat," Austin said.

She decided to bring her granddaughter after she heard about the torch on the news.

Deanizha said very little but looked excited as she waved a red flag bearing the emblem of the Olympic games at the large crowd of people onboard a truck and two Hummers.

The vehicles traveled ahead of the torch and blared Nelly's summer anthem "It's hot in herre!" over their speakers. One of the riders shouted 'St. Louis make some noise'.

After the torch passed by Fairgrounds Park Rahjnae McDonald, 7, of St. Louis, skipped miles ahead of her aunt, Kea Thompson.

It was the first time Rahjnae had seen the torch and she's never watched the Olympics.

"It was fun." Rahjnae said. "I would want to see it if it came by again."

After seeing the torch Rahjnae said she will definitely watch the Olympics this summer.


Joel Currier and Patrice Relerford of the Post-Dispatch and wire services contributed to this story.

Bonnie Blair (My sibs got her autograph!)

[pattisam]

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A century since becoming the first American city to host the modern-era Olympic games, St. Louis once again is holding the flame.

The torch, on its second stop of a four-city U.S. tour, was to be escorted by charter plane to St. Louis by Mayor Francis Slay, a day after the torch arrived in America and made its way through the Los Angeles area.

St. Louis' day with the small, Athens-bound flame was to begin at the Gateway Arch along the Mississippi River, complete with traditional Greek dancing and appearances by Olympic gymnastic legends Nadia Comenici and Bart Conner.

The torch eventually snakes 34 miles -- in quarter-mile installments by 125 runners -- before arriving at the sprawling green of the city's Forest Park. The route includes a pass by Washington University's Francis Field, rededicated Wednesday as the site of the track-and-field events of the sweltering 1904 Games.

The torch also was to pause at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church to recognize the games' links to Greece, host of this summer's games. Festivities at the church were to include Greek dance and food, even a children's Olympics with olive wreaths and medallions going to the victors.

"Greek-Americans in St. Louis are very proud of the fact that the torch will be passing by the church, and that we have a chance to show our pride and our gratitude to the people of St. Louis," said Nick Karakas, a member of the church and head of the local torch-relay committee.

St. Louis' celebration culminates in Forest Park, where the final torchbearer -- Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee of nearby East St. Louis, Ill. -- will light the Olympic cauldron at the base of Art Hill.

Those ceremonies were to include fireworks, a symphony performance and appearances by other former Olympians, marking the St. Louis area's latest brush with the Athens games. St. Louis hosted the women's marathon trials in April, and last week the U.S. diving trials were held in nearby St. Peters.

The flame is visiting previous U.S. Summer Olympic cities -- St. Louis on Thursday and Atlanta on Friday. It will also be in New York on Saturday and tour Montreal on Sunday before heading overseas again.

The flame's 46,800-mile journey began June 4. It passed through Africa and South America for the first time. The relay will make a final trip around Greece before arriving in Athens for the opening ceremony Aug. 13.

In St. Louis, torchbearers included the young and old, the wealthy and not-so-well-off, the famous and the largely unknown.

Among them: Home-based financial analyst Janice Herold, 57 and paralyzed from the waist down since a 1997 automobile wreck. "God can take bad things and turn them into good if we let him," said Herold, mother to a newly adopted Guatemalan boy who turns 3 on Friday.

Befitting the mantra that torchbearers are "ordinary people who live extraordinary lives," participants also will include Teri Clemens, 48, of the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon.

Clemens, who coached Washington University's volleyball team to seven national titles, with her husband, has six adopted children -- two from Russia and four found abandoned in St. Louis and Dallas. Clemens quit coaching because of worsening asthma and severe blood complications.

St. Louis' hosting the 1904 Olympic games was part of a memorable year here, where the city also staged the World's Fair and the centennial of Lewis and Clark's departure from this area.

A century ago, the Olympics featured boxing for the first time, along with a spectacle of a marathon that started in the peak of the afternoon broil. That race's apparent winner later confessed he'd ridden a third of the way in a car. Handlers for the runner-up helped him keep his pace by administering a mixture of strychnine sulfate and raw eggs with a brandy chaser.

Finishing fourth was a Cuban mailman who became something of a folk hero. With no strategy, handlers or training program, he ran in a long-sleeved shirt, street shoes and long pants, stopping along the way to practice his English with spectators. He even detoured into an apple orchard to snack.

Those Olympics were said to be thin on global participation, partly because European athletes would have to make a trans-Atlantic voyage, then a long train ride to Missouri.


Jackie Joyner-Kersee (She was born, just across the river. I was lucky to see her compete in the L.A. Games 1984)

[ARIES3032]

What a great articule PLatti. I loved the pictures. I know just where Forest Park is. I have a friend who has a place that opver looks the park. What a great day for St. Louis. I can hardly wait for the games to begin. )