RIVER CITY JOURNAL: TAKING STOCK: RIVER CITY OF ROSES HAS CHANGED SINCE 1994

In a few days, my wife and I will mark seven years of Cape Girardeau-hood.

Gosh, is that really possible?

In 36 years of marriage, the longest we've stayed in one spot is eight years. That was in Maryville, Mo., which is still the town our sons consider to be home, even though neither of them was born there.

As a result of moving so much, we've seen a lot of the United States and have met scads of wonderful people.

I still remember the day, while living in New York with an about-to-be-1-year-old son, that we received a call from my friend and former colleague in Idaho who asked if I'd like a job on a newspaper there.

Sure, I said, we've never been to Idaho.

But the days when my wife and I could pack up and relocate with comparative ease (our first move was in a Volkswagen bug) are long over.

The very thought of moving again gives us both the creeps.

Not that we wouldn't consider it, especially if the Rust clan bought a paper on the Oregon coast (Newport would be nice) and decided the Sullivans ought to tend to things there.

But my wife and I also are aware that this spring has given us several weeks of delicious weather we call "Oregon days" because of the cool daytime temperatures, frequent rains and made-for-sleeping nights.

Plus, we can look forward to autumn's colors and next spring's beauty without enduring the gray monsoons of an Oregon-coast winter.

See. The silver linings are there. You just have to squint sometimes to see them.

(Hey, Joe. You skipped over Missouri's summers. Yep. There are some things you never want to discuss in polite company.)

Considering the fact that I continue to stir the pot regarding such things as never-ending street work and roundabout construction/trial runs/revisions/debate, I thought I might take the occasion of the coming anniversary of our Cape Girardeau citizenship to reflect on some of the good things we've seen in our River City of Roses.

Yes, we both consider Cape Girardeau to be "our" home now even though we still can't force ourselves to call this place "the Cape." But give us time ... .

Who knows? If we stay long enough, we may even learn to speak fluent Bootheel. We both understand it well enough to get by for visits. But whenever we try to speak it, we still mangle most of the words. I guess what we need is to have an exchange student from Malden living in our home so we could practice our conversational Bootheel.

What amazes me about Cape Girardeau is the incredible growth in restaurants, medical facilities, shopping opportunities and schools in the years we have been here, even though the population has nudged up only a bit. This accentuates the city's role as a "regional hub," a description that is used excessively but accurately.

I'd like to know what the daytime population of Cape Girardeau is. I've heard estimates of more than 100,000 when you consider workers, commuting students and patients waiting to see their doctors.

Shucks, I'll bet a census of people eating in Cape Girardeau restaurants at 6:30 p.m. on any Friday would be double the city's official 2000 population.

When we arrived in Cape Girardeau in 1994 during one of our town's famous heat inversions, Siemers Drive was a pretty empty street. Wal-Mart was there, and Lowe's was just opening. But most of the phenomenal development along the city's new retail center was still just a plan.

In the same time frame, we've watched the construction of a Catholic high school, a business building and polytechnic building at the university (plus a lot of other changes), umpteen dozen eating places, gobs of retail establishments (large and small), the city's big community center, banks galore, hospital expansions, an elementary school, medical office buildings, a career and technology center, the flood-control project, walking-biking trails, some of the biggest and most beautiful churches to be found anywhere, miles of streets and expressways, super-duper underground sewer systems (not very sexy, but essential to a city with a future), huge subdivisions and a good chunk of a bridge across the Mississippi River.

In short, Cape Girardeau's landscape has changed drastically in seven short years.

Just take a drive around town. As you go through residential areas and commercial byways, categorize what you see as pre-1994 or post-1994. You will be absolutely amazed at the changes.

Some things are missing too. Like the old hospital building. And some historic homes. And a narrow stretch of Broadway from Clark Street to Perry Avenue. Finally.

Also missing are some of the friends we've made since moving to Cape Girardeau. Some have moved away. That's the reality of our times. And some have died. That's the reality of all time.

If I were a betting man, I'd wager the Kelo Valley farm that Cape Girardeau seven years from now will show even more phenomenal growth in the kinds of things that make our town a great place to visit, work, eat, learn, get well and retire.

Retire.

Let's see. How long will that be, exactly ... ?

~R. Joe Sullivan is the editor of the Southeast Missourian.