Smelterville reunion brings old neighbors back together

The second annual Smelterville reunion Saturday didn't take place in the south Cape Girardeau neighborhood known for poverty and prone to flooding by the Mississippi River. The neighborhood that once existed to the southeast of the Southern Expressway is gone. But the bonds that grew out of living through struggles was enough to bring a few hundred to Arena Park for food and friendship.

Tana Stinnett, who brought 300 pounds of chicken to help feed Saturday's expected reunion crowd of 500, defined Smelterville.

"It was where people who grew up with nothing made something of themselves."

The reunion offered an occasion for people to go back to revisit a place that now only exists in memories. The 1973 flood and the lack of funding available from the federal government to rebuild housing led to the demise of the area named for a nearby smelting plant.

Jess Bolen was born in Smelterville in 1942 and lived there until 1965. He's been manager for the Capahas baseball team for 36 years. His baseball skills were honed in Smelterville.

"If you lived above Tollgate Hill you were considered rich," he said, describing the area's northern boundary. "We played baseball on a softball diamond right on Tollgate Hill. It was the start of some really great softball beginnings."

Unlike others attending the reunion, Bolen's bad memories about Smelterville center on the fact that the town is totally gone.

"I come to this picnic and I see people I haven't seen in 30 years," he said. "Those were the best people I ever knew in my life. We were all poor, we all liked each other and respected each other."

But for most, bad memories were defined by flooding. Water rose just about every spring and according to Marian Lewis Walker and Lee Dora Taylor, both Cape Girardeau residents, you'd go to bed one night and wake up the next morning with water as high as your bed.

Larry Kitchen lived across from the former Cape Grain Co.

"I'd build a new home down there if I could," he said.

At the house where Kitchen grew up, there was no waterline until the late'50s.

"I remember carrying water from the town pump right in the middle of town when I was 5, 6, 7 years old. There were no showers. You took a bath in a No. 4 washtub. You also burned your trash because there was no pickup."

Doc Yallaly didn't live in Smelterville but said he spent all his time there as a boy.

"I was raised in south Cape on South Hanover. Most of my friends were in Smelterville," he said. "If I needed help that's where I went to get it. I didn't go north."

Bolen recalls loading up the family truck -- which wasn't hard since they didn't have much -- to live with relations for two or three weeks during the floods.

"The worst part was cleaning up," he said. "We came back because that was where home was. I was born and raised in Smelterville and I'd still be there if I could because they were good people. They hung together."

At this year's reunion awards were given to Georgie Wren in appreciation for being there in times of need; to the William Bollinger family in remembrance of William Bollinger, who was a local singer for over 50 years; and Jack Kitchen in appreciation for being there in times of need.

cpagano@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 133