I read on UrbanSTL that there is a Mississippi River cruise company, I think from Europe, that wants to run modern cruise ships up and down the Big Muddy for tourists.
It got me dreaming of the St. Louis stop. Let me tell you, the thing we need are new sets of eyes on our city. Not necessarily suburbanites/small towners in the region, they frequently tend to not see St. Louis in a supportive or positive light, we need people from far, far away to see us at our best and realest.
Sure, send tourists to the Arch, check out Union Station, Forest Park, even Busch Stadium. Baseball is a coveted American commodity in Asia and Central and South America…and we nail that experience.
But you better, BETTER, hit em with some good food and architecture downtown and in Lafayette Square. You have to get them to City Museum at a minimum. You have to get them to at least one neighborhood that is not Downtown to dine and drink. They need to be served our local beers.
Give them a card at each stop with a choice of docent-led tours. Let them choose what they want to get out of St. Louis.
Here’s the daydream part: have a tour stop option at the former Homer G. Phillips hospital and Chuck Berry’s home. Hit em with this reality. Get em crying our tears and thinking: “I want to help fix this”. The Ville story should be available to tourists who want to dig a bit deeper than the typical tourist stuff.
Sure, some travelers, more so tourists, can be annoying braggarts/experts. But, many are genuine explorers looking to be struck by somewhere different, somewhere outside their day-to-day world. Something beautiful and sad off the beaten path. Civil Rights, historical redlining, Rock and Roll. Europeans love American Rock and Roll, ever been to Sun Studios? Brits and Germans abound.
Tell the history of the Ville and what happened in real terms. Ask them to be patient. This is the REAL America. This is the real heartland. This is us and we need help.
Someone on the boat checks that box and you may just form a relationship with the fellow box checkers of this one. Let em know it’s not all wine and roses in the U.S. of A.
I know if I see someone with a Big Star shirt, I will scratch out eyes to get to this person and talk. Rolling Stones shirt, cool, but can’t you get one of those at Target?
Maybe, just maybe, they will want to help. Maybe we could raise money to help preserve some of North City that is in full-on abandonment mode.
I drove to Memphis recently and was blown away by the messages and presentations of civil rights and gave some money to the Stax Museum…Big Star, Rufus/Carla Thomas and Isaac Hayes, y’all! But the movie they showed before the music stuff that spoke to the racial unity in the Memphis musician community before the assassination of MLK sunk in hard.
Tears we both had, it was moving and memorable to hear black musicians say they just couldn’t jam with the white musicians due to the negative emotion after the assassination and turmoil and raw feelings.
Maybe they will be the help we can’t give ourselves.
We need outsiders. Maybe someone smart and caring and compassionate will see our assets and our struggles in one trip and it’d leave an indelible mark. Maybe they’ll be the ones to chip in.
I can see pretty pictures on Instagram of the perfect places people go and the amazing trips to iconic places. But, it’s the strays from the beaten paths that forge stories and memories of the historical messes and the current conditions that stick with me when going to American cities. Memphis is cool and all for the BBQ, music, museums and all, but go try to find Aretha Franklin’s childhood home and see how we live on the non-tourist trail. Go check out the Big Star house.
Digging deeper is the joy I take from travel, and I’d love to have a tour stop available in the Ville for these tourists.
To see and talk to folks from far away seeing our warts would be refreshing and confessional and honest. Swallow this damn bitter pill, y’all, it may be uncomfortable for awhile, but just might be the most real thing these folks have seen on how we live and how we treat our people and past history.
Drink it up, soak it in, get back on the boat and head to Memphis (they’ll tell you). By the time you get to New Orleans, you will be ready for our middle American experience once again.
Make it real ship boat captain…leave em with the real deal. Memories will be formed, bank on it.
The Ville is worth outside investment and love and awareness…lest we repeat…
