Surprise, Surprise

I was surprised to see hits from Ecology Of Absence, I wondered who had been hitting them from here. I was even more surprised when I saw that I hadn't linked them yet. I had meant to from the first time I visited and saw a post about a place I'll never forget. I'll never forget it because I discovered it by accident while driving with my son. We had gone to a skating party at what used to be Ron's Roller World. On the way home, I realized my son has never wandered his own neighborhood. (being an only child, he has no one to wander with)
I thought about all the wondrous discoveries he'd missed out on, and decided then and there to change it. So I turned right at the next corner, saying, "Let's see where this takes us, ok?"
And so we drove. Always taking the road less traveled (the street less occupied), wending our way toward my beloved Mississippi River. Within minutes, we had found a road that appeared to go nowhere. There were no gates or signs to keep us out, just this scrabbly old road.
To what wonders would this broken pavement lead? We drove along (maybe all of 3 short blocks) and found a magnificent old factory compound. My breath caught in my throat, and I hoped no developer ever discovered this place. It was built when bricklayers were true craftsmen, and it was beautiful. I spied a clearing toward Broadway, and slowly drove in that direction. I was so worried about damage to my tires, or disturbing some vagrant who might consider this place home, that I didn't see it at first. My son whispered, "mom..." and turned his head toward the clearing. And there it was. A young deer. Standing in the bright sunshine and scrubgrass. Staring at us. I wondered if the deer was as awestruck by a truck in this place, as I was by a deer in the middle of the city.
The deer looked his fill and then casually strolled away. After a time, we left too.


In writing this, I figured out that the blog isn't the website, although they're both by the same people. So go read the blog. Ecology Of Absence is so damn good. It's really warming to see people who love St. Louis, and it's glorious architecture, the way I do. Kudos to Michael and Claire for their awesome writing and interest.