Ella: Summertime in ESTL

Summers in East Saint started like this: me in the backseat with my little brother, anxiously awaiting our arrival at Grandma’s. The route to Grandma’s changed as my father’s duty stations did, but the destination—Grandma’s little pink house—remained the same. I would run up the stairs with my arms outstretched, because there she would be: my Grandma Mae. As she wrapped me in a bear hug she would exclaim, “Hey baby!”

I would then run from the front of the house to the middle room where a pull-out sofa awaited me; and oh, how I awaited it. That room felt like a mansion. It doubled as my playroom and meeting area. After all, I was the cousin from out of town, so of course, I needed a room where I could entertain my guests. Looking back, I think I enjoyed this room for its centrality. The room was in the midst of it all: I could hear Grandma’s chatter on the phone as she sat on the bed; hear whatever was on the TV in the kitchen; all while being within eyesight of the front door. I loved running to the door to peep outside the window next to it and announce to the rest of the house, “Oh, it’s Uncle so and so!” “Oh, it’s Aunty so and so!” But these visits had to happen in the evening or night. Or you better call us the day before to let us know you were coming, because the crew—my mom, me, and my grandma, and my dad and brother—were on the road. We were outside before you could be outside. All because of Ella.

Ella hated nothing more than being home. You would hear her tell people all the time, “I don’t be at home.” And she was right: she loved people, so she went where her people were. She would make her way to East Saint Louis’ main thoroughfare, State Street, and take the bus or the MetroLink to her destination. She loved sports. My father passed down his love of sports to me, but Grandma passed down her teams. To this day, my teams are the Bulls, Cardinals, and the (St. Louis) Rams because of Grandma. Grandma did not have cable, so mornings at Grandma’s consisted of Price is Right, all of her favorite soap operas—Young and the Restless, Bold and Beautiful, and As the World Turns—the local news, and then Jeopardy! And then sports. At her house, the Chicago Bulls and St. Louis Rams were above all else. If you did not like Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce, or Terry Holt, you need not enter. She loved her teams and her players. When the Rams were in St. Louis, she would go to the Edward Jones Dome and Busch Stadium, where the Cardinals played after the stadium opened in 2006, to partake in any of the free revelry. Anything free they were giving out, she received: signed Rams cheerleader posters? Branded towels? Brochures? T-shirts? Check, check, check, and check. Ella got it, and I, and anyone else who visited her, would be the beneficiaries. I got so much Rams and Cardinals gear.

“Baby, I got this for you. You want it? This is good stuff!”

As a little girl, I would take everything she gave me. Candidly, as the years progressed, I stopped taking everything she gave me; looking back, I should have taken it all.

The Clyde C. Jordan Senior Citizens Center was another Ella hangout. The camaraderie, the games, and the chance to connect with her fellow East Saint Louisans. And frankly, that is also where Ella could see if she still had it. Clyde C. Jordan was an East Saint Louis council member who founded the East Saint Louis Monitor in 1965. If she was not at a sporting event, or at the senior citizen center, she was shopping. She was, first and foremost, a diva who loved to shop at Macy’s, Famous-Barr, and other stores in St. Louis and Fairview Heights.

Summers in East Saint always included Eastside. Events always took place at the stadium and the entire city would come out. As I got older, I still visited the stadium but was running track. I ran track for the East Saint Louis Railers, and my coach was the great Nino Fennoy, the famed East Saint Louis track and field coach of Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Dawn Harper. I loved running for the Railers and I loved the ode to the city’s history that the name gave. 

Many people do not know the history: East Saint Louis was an industrial powerhouse. In “Brothers Notorious” by Taylor Pensoneau, Journalist Carl Baldwin, who wrote for the St. Louis Dispatch and grew up in East Saint Louis was quoted as saying: “East Saint Louis seemed to be sitting on top of the industrial world in 1920. It ranked No. 1 in the sale of horses and mules and was near the top in hog sales. It was the world’s largest aluminum processing center, the second largest railroad center (behind Chicago), and led the country in the manufacture of roofing material, baking powder, and paint pigments. It was the third largest primary grain market and had the cheapest coal in the world. Its population was over 75,000.”

Happy birthday, Grandma. Although it is not the same without you, I am comforted by all our summertime memories in the city.