Geriatric Obama Fan, Legs in the Street, and Local Cage Fighter

Ever since the beginning of the Barack Obama Presidential candidacy we have heard about the enthusiastic millions of young supporters that he has particularly on college campuses. While there is no doubt that is true a passenger in my cab illustrated the point that fervent Obama supporters are not limited to the young.

I picked up an elderly African-American woman from a bank in U City and brought here to a retirement home on North Kingshighway. On the way there the lady told me of her undying love for two things; Obama and the Cardinals. She said she has been going to Cardinals games since the 1940’s when the Cardinals played at the old Sportsman’s Park on North Grand.  She said she still goes to the stadium on a regular basis but has been embroiled in controversy with her fellow church ladies in her Sunday school.

She routinely goes to Busch Stadium on Sundays after church and some other church ladies have deemed that to be a violation of the Christian Sabbath.  In order to clarify the issue the lady went to her pastor who informed her that as long as she attended church services there was nothing wrong with enjoying herself at the ballpark. Besides, she told me, even if going to the game was wrong she had never slept around with married man like some of the other church ladies had.

Obama also excited her. After going on and on about how good looking he was she told me she just loved him and had sent him 30 dollars (a real life example of the small donors to Obama you are always hearing about in the media). There is only one thing Obama could do to upset her and that is to make Hillary Clinton his VP choice (she likes Edwards). Along with being a lover of Obama her take on most local candidate’s was ” does Clay support them or not” except for Mayor Slay who she had words for that cannot be used in church.

Pevely Closing City Location

Maybe you have driven by the Pevely Dairy on Grand just south of Chouteau a thousand times and never paid to much attention to it and maybe you have purchased Pevely products countless times at the store. What you may not know is that after 100 years at the South Grand location Pevely (owned by Prairie Farms) is moving out to Hazelwood in North County to the old Schnucks diary. I found this out from a passenger who had been working there for 27 years and lived in the Metro East. He told me when they make the move he will take his retirement.  He speculated that St. Louis University would buy the location.

Accidents

A lot of people read or heard about the bad accident on Highway 40 in West County this week involving a semi-truck that killed two people and injured a dozen others. On that same day a fellow driver and friend of mine while working witnessed a 3 car accident on the North Side resulting from an illegal street race up West Florissant. One cars lost control at the intersection of Union went airborne, crashed, ripped in half and ended up near a liquor store parking lot. This left one guys leg in the street and the rest of his body about 50 feet away. Guess his car was not “Death Proof” and maybe it is not a good idea to race on city streets but then again all of us do things we shouldn’t. Of course, as tragic as these two accidents are, today at Imo’s on Forest Park and Taylor I heard of one even worse; a lady lost her young child in a car accident connected to a police chase (not sure when it happened).

Cage Fighter

Being a huge boxing fan I only pay mild attention to the world of Mixed Martial Arts and I have stated many times in the past that the biggest draw for MMA is the league format which helps to make good fights for the fans and the fact that unlike in boxing most of the MMA grapplers have the complexion for the connection. Last week I had a local cage fighter in my cab and asked him his thoughts on the youtube street fighting phenomena turned MMA fighter in the EliteXC league Kimbo Slice and he stated “Kimbo is  a punk…I could kick his ass”. Apparently, there is a lot of animosity towards Kimbo from grassroots MMA guys because they feel he has not paid his dues in the sport and is making money other guys should be earning. But, like in boxing, in MMA you are paid based on your marketing power. For the record, I agree with my passenger, Kimbo would be crushed against any top-ten MMA fighter or boxer. The guy in my cab told me he got his start in the biz competing in unsanctioned street fights for money in Sauget…and I thought the strippers with attitudes in my cab had a tough job over there.