The Intersection of Art, History, Science, & Route 66

Arnold00:00:00

If you want the intersection of art, history and science, you must go to the neon Museum of St. Louis on historic Route 66. The Neon Highway. We're going to talk about the neon Museum of St. Louis on St. Louis in Tune. Welcome to St. Louis in Tune.And thank you for joining us for fresh perspectives on issues and events with experts, community leaders, and everyday people who make a difference in shaping our society and world. I'm Arnold Stricker along with co host Mark Langston.

Mark00:00:42

Hey, you're the host with the most.

Arnold00:00:45

Oh, the root or the route?

Mark00:00:46

Oh, here we go.

Arnold00:00:48

I know, Route 66.

Mark00:00:49

That's right.

Arnold00:00:50

We had that conversation when we talked about the book. Route 66, right?

Mark00:00:54

Yeah, yeah. I think it's common to say Route 66. In the. In my broadcast journalism class, it was a point of discussion. It should be route or root.And I think actually it's root, but it's evolved into route.

Arnold00:01:11

And we just discovered before the show went on that the hundredth anniversary next year and the date was significant. That's what we discovered. It's November 11, 1926 was when Route 66 was established. November 11th being Armistice Day.

Mark00:01:29

Wow. And you mentioned something about the 11th. What's the elevens?

Arnold00:01:33

Yeah, it's the 11th day of the 11th month and at 11 o' clock was when World War I ended.

Mark00:01:40

Wow. A lot of 11 there. Yeah. That is crazy. Now with Route 66, was that when did they cut the ribbon or was it.Was it when the concept of the road was announced and we're gonna. We're gonna build this road. This might be a trick question, but. And it doesn't really matter, but we're.

Arnold00:01:59

Going to build this route on rock and roll.

Mark00:02:01

Okay.

Deborah00:02:03

Okay.

Mark00:02:03

That sounds right. Sounds perfect to me.

Arnold00:02:07

We're glad that you joined us today, folks. We want to thank our sponsor, Better Rate Mortgage, for their support of the show.You can listen to previous shows@stlintune.com please help us continue to grow by leaving a review on our website, stlandtune.com, apple Podcasts, or your preferred podcast platform. We're going to skip our thought to ponder right now, Mark, because our guest is. She's just glow with neon.And Deborah Katon is the executive director of the neon Museum of St. Louis. Deborah, welcome to St. Louis in Tune.

Deborah00:02:38

Thank you for having me today, Mark.

Arnold00:02:40

Last night I know you weren't able to make it, but last night I went to the museum and Deborah gave me a tour and I was just fascinated by all of the things that you have in there related to neon. So how did this all get started?

Deborah00:02:54

I am a sculptor and one of the materials I use for my pieces is neon.And I had some large works that needed to be hung and then had this idea we should have a pop up gallery and showcase neon works from all the artists in the St. Louis area. And 13 of us got together and had a pop up gallery at a building on Route 66 which is now the Neon Museum.It took about a year to transform into the museum with a lot of help from other artists and enthusiasts around. So now we've been there for almost three years.

Arnold00:03:37

Because you've been. You started out what, glassblowing?

Deborah00:03:41

Yes.Glass has been one of my main materials since undergrad and through grad school and then through working at atomic neon and glass and teaching neon and had taught a lot of glass classes at Craft alliance before that.

Mark00:03:56

So.

Arnold00:03:56

So you've done a lot of teaching with that. And why glass? What was the why that medium number one.

Deborah00:04:03

There's some of us heat. We like summer and hot. And you get addicted to standing in front of that. That's with the glass blowing.And then I, my work got smaller and started doing torch work.

Arnold00:04:15

Okay.

Deborah00:04:16

And then from there I went to the tube bending, which I thought was going to be just an easy transition. And it was a bit humbling having to learn that new skill.

Arnold00:04:25

Yeah. What's different about that?

Deborah00:04:28

We have different torches, the tube bending and when we blow in it, we just have a little blow hose that we. With a little glass tip in our mouth that goes into the tube with a cork. So when you do a bend, when the glass gets soft, it moves.You don't want it to collapse on itself, so you give little tiny puffs of air.

Mark00:04:49

Oh my. Just knowing how much air to blow in. There has got to be a talent.

Deborah00:04:55

Yeah.If you blow too much, which is very common when you're beginning, it makes a really thin, tiny bubble of glass that then shatters and sprinkles, which is something you don't want to breathe.

Mark00:05:06

Oh. Oh.

Deborah00:05:10

It's beautiful when it gets big and transparent.

Mark00:05:14

Yeah.

Arnold00:05:15

Not when it explodes though.

Mark00:05:16

No, we don't. No exploding. No, please, no.

Arnold00:05:19

So neon. Explain neon to us.

Deborah00:05:21

So neon is one of the noble gases and we use mostly neon and argon gas, sometimes krypton and xenon. But we call everything neon, no matter what gas we're using inside.

Arnold00:05:36

And a noble gas is a gas that can't be mixed with another gas.

Deborah00:05:41

It's called an inert gas.

Arnold00:05:42

Okay.

Deborah00:05:43

And so yeah, it doesn't combine. And when you light them up, they exhibit different properties, different colors.And there's helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon will kill you and comes up from the earth, so we don't use that. Helium is the one gas that's extracted from the earth, so it's a non renewable resource, which I find very interesting.And the other gases are extracted from air and we buy them in like 6 inch bulbs that get mailed to us from. The magic of extracting individual gases from air.

Arnold00:06:27

How in the world does that happen?

Mark00:06:28

Yeah, this is. That's crazy. Crazy.

Deborah00:06:31

A lot of physics, a lot of science goes into the whole neon making process. So there's the glass part, then there's the mad science part, and then there's your high voltage electricity part.

Arnold00:06:45

Yeah, I've got a question about that one coming up here.

Mark00:06:47

I never really understood. So it's the gases that make the neon glow.

Deborah00:06:53

Correct. And the colors inside the tubing. If it's a clear tube, it's a red neon. If it's a clear tube, it's the blue argon.The rest of the tubes, almost all are phosphor coated on the inside. I showed you that. How they look white until you light them up and then they glow different colors.

Mark00:07:10

So you put the gas in and then you have to plug it.

Deborah00:07:13

Everything is hermetically sealed by flame. So when you melt it together, no air, no gas can get out.

Mark00:07:22

I'll be darned.

Arnold00:07:24

And then to electrify it, you put a. You were showing me that there's a little.

Deborah00:07:29

While we're working, there's a piece at the ends called an electrode where the electricity can enter. There's wires that come out, still sealed, so no gas gets out.And before you seal everything up, there's a little tube that comes out of one of those electrodes. It's a tubulated electrode and that gets melted onto the manifold where your neon piece then gets bombarded with high electricity to make a vacuum.And you need the vacuum so you can then fill it with the gases that you want. And there's little. Which is like hot and cold, but instead they're neon, argon or air, things like that. Another whole skill set.

Mark00:08:13

Wow. It's just.

Arnold00:08:14

It's not like buying a set of paints and a canvas.

Mark00:08:17

No.

Arnold00:08:17

And going to it.

Mark00:08:18

Yeah.

Arnold00:08:19

This is really intricate.

Mark00:08:20

It is, yeah.

Arnold00:08:21

The thing that I think got me was the electricity and the amount of electricity that it takes. And you have to have a Transformer.

Deborah00:08:29

Yeah. The neon all runs on a transformer. Small neon. Like your little clocks.They'll run on those little packets that just plugs for the wall that are like smaller voltage. But neon runs on high voltage. And because the way the neon bombards, the way the electricity bombards the gases.We are big sign hanging in the window. The neon Museum of St. Louis. We have four transformers running that in four sections. And we have a 15,000 volt and some 12,000 volts.

Mark00:09:04

Wow.

Deborah00:09:05

And so we cover everything with what we call little booties. Safety to cover whatever is live.

Arnold00:09:15

I can understand. And you don't want to break neon while it's being electrified, do you?

Deborah00:09:20

You don't want to break neon ever because the gas goes right into the air. Right back to the air. And then you can't repair that. You'd have. You could repair it. But it has to be refilled. The ends have to come off. New ends on.It's another long process. That's why getting your neon repaired is not an inexpensive process.

Arnold00:09:42

Wow. I was.

Deborah00:09:45

Oh yeah, yeah. It's all good. It's all worth it.

Arnold00:09:48

It reminded me a little of fluorescent lights that you're not supposed to break either. That they have a gas in them.

Deborah00:09:55

Correct.

Arnold00:09:55

I don't know what kind of gas it is.

Mark00:09:56

Not a good one.

Arnold00:09:57

Not a good one.

Mark00:09:58

No.

Arnold00:09:58

You're not going to inhale it. But a very similar kind of concept too. Because those have transformers too. Or on. On the ends of it. But it's not that high voltage.

Deborah00:10:07

Correct. Remember, neon was what we had first. It was invented in the 1910s and it's pretty spectacular.

Mark00:10:15

My next question was when did all neon start? I didn't.

Deborah00:10:18

It started in the 1910s and it evolved on the neon highway with the usage of the automobile. Because people needed signage to see where to stop for food and gas. And then hence our Route 66 with our little byways through St. Louis.Because the roads were ever changing and improving. But the neon as well was evolving. Artists started using neon just because it was a new material. So there's a long history of neon art of the times.Different neon artists have different styles. So it's regional. When you go to different places around the country. You can see how somebody bends and like what their curves look like.

Arnold00:11:06

Interesting.

Mark00:11:08

Does the. Does one of these artists pieces last a long time?

Deborah00:11:12

How can the neon will last until you break it?

Mark00:11:16

Okay.

Deborah00:11:17

As long. And so we have pieces in the museum. There's a piece on one of the artists work. Ken Stahl's piece outdoors.And you could tell it's over 100 years old because of the kind of tape that they used on it. It was made out of a fiberglass.And it was used as a what we call a blackout where you don't want to see those areas of the neon because they'll be distracting. In a word, because the glass is all connected. We use the blackout paint now. We don't use that. So things like that help us age things and photographs.And I think the longest light bulb that's ever been lit, which is like somewhere small town in US has been 114 years.

Mark00:12:02

Wow.

Arnold00:12:03

The old time neon signs, they were just like one continuous piece.

Deborah00:12:07

They all are. Because neon, the way it works, it's on a circuit.

Arnold00:12:11

Okay.

Deborah00:12:12

So you always have two electrodes, one on each end. The electricity goes through one, goes all around the other.Because the way it bombards the first, electron bombards the second, electron bombards the third. So I forget the question now.

Arnold00:12:29

No, that it's one continuous piece of words.

Deborah00:12:31

Yes. So when you're making words or letters, it's one continuous piece. So there's different levels of it.There's the backside you don't see and then the front side. And that's flat. That's your word. Yeah, it's continuous.That's why if you break it, you have to do the whole word Unless it's an individual letter or individual pieces.

Arnold00:12:52

So there's a flat side to that. I didn't realize that that was all.

Deborah00:12:55

Round to neon text. There is, yes. And sign. So the front is flat and then the back goes back a couple inches with your bends.And the bends are there because you have to keep it all connected or else you'll have a mess. A straight line with 2.

Mark00:13:12

Do they automate manual when they make these? And I love that an artist can. You can blow the glass and do it all by hand. Are they doing any automated.

Deborah00:13:22

No, this is all handmade.

Mark00:13:25

So if I see something in a bar for some beer and a lot of the. Somebody's made that.

Deborah00:13:29

A lot of the commercial signs are being made overseas. You can still buy commercial neon. A lot of it's coming from China. It's good work.The transformers, I've heard are iffy on that, like how long they'll last.If you want your neon repaired, you have to go to one of the places I think there is to people that are doing it in St. Louis again, I've got to meet all the neon people around town. And people have put work into different Shows.

Arnold00:14:01

It's amazing. And it really shows the skill level. If you're writing a word and it's one continuous thing and you've got to do all these curves.You were showing me some patterns last night of some things that people would. How they would figure out what to do.

Deborah00:14:17

We work on the patterns. All of the neon benders work on a flat pattern with a screen on top so the paper doesn't burn. It's been drawn out. We have circles and lines.Tells us where to bend, tells us how it connects, tells us where the beginning and the end of your piece is to where. So that's where you put your electrodes. Your pattern will have which pieces are separate.So for the neon Museum of St. Louis sign, the letters in the Neon Museum are all separate, but of St. Louis is three different words. So that would all have been drawn out. And so the bender would know exactly where to bend it.And now if something were need repair, they would go back to the original pattern so that they can bend it. Because everything is then put on. Assembly is a whole other thing with the neon because it's different levels. So we use things called standoffs.Because it can't really sit flat unless it's a flat piece, which there are. So you have to elevate it from the background. You have to secure it. You'll see bar signs are made with structures like little steel grid systems.Some people work on plexi as a way to do it. And my work is. My work is freeform. I don't bend on the screen. I am a sculptor. So I make parts and bend in the air and assemble.And then they're used as pieces, hanging chandeliers or in sculptures. So I don't always need to use that. But we have different wire that you use. So we use something called GTO to hook up our electricity.Again because of the voltage that's going in it. So different materials.

Arnold00:16:09

And the bill must be high to charge all these things and keep these things lit at home.

Deborah00:16:14

I leave a bunch of money on lit all the time. Probably seven pieces, smaller pieces. But once you get as many pieces as we now have in the museum on, we even have things on rotation.I told you there's this thing called math. So, you know, you times the amount of neon times five, and that's what you do to your bill. So.

Mark00:16:39

Oh, my.

Deborah00:16:43

A fact of life. So we don't keep the lights on all the time. We turn them off at night when we keep always our sign on and some pieces on.But we're looking for grants and sponsors for things like solar so that we can keep the lights on more, charge them up.

Arnold00:17:02

We're talking to Deborah Caton. She is the executive director of the neon Museum of St. Louis.And folks, you can go to neonmuseumstl.com neon museumstl.com and you were located on Choteau. And what is that?

Deborah00:17:18

30, 35, 37 Choteau.

Arnold00:17:21

3537 Choteau, just east of the intersection of grand and Choteau. 35, 30, 37.

Deborah00:17:27

Correct.

Arnold00:17:29

And you have talk about, you've mentioned a little bit that you have things that the museum owns and then you have some artists who are displaying works. And let's discuss some of the things because I was. You have a huge sign from grand center down there that's just magnificent.And there's a little key to the vacancy, no vacancy little thing that's on top of it.

Deborah00:17:55

So we were donated the museum was a set of the park signs that were from grand center, the Kransberg Arts, they donated the set of orange park signs to the museum. So we have the smaller of the park signs, which is still about 14ft long, hanging in the museum with the no vacancy sign up at the top.When somebody's in our restroom and they turn the light on, the no goes on for no vacancy, which they can't see and probably most people don't know happens. But that's very entertaining for us. So, yeah, we have signs that have been donated. We have a lot of things on loan.We have a lot of things for sale, all of the artwork, the contemporary work. And we're showing work now from around the country. So we have artists in there now from the east coast as well as from the Midwest.All of their work is for sale. And soon you can look and see more on our website.

Arnold00:19:03

Right.

Deborah00:19:03

As we get more sale things put up. And you can also see the work on our social media.

Arnold00:19:11

And you just don't have. It's just not a museum. You do other kinds of things there. And you're going to be coming up with some activities coming up.

Deborah00:19:19

Yes. So we try and get the light out, make the world a brighter place, one happy visitor at a time. That's our motto.That's our mission statement, actually. So coming up, we're going to be doing some craft nights. They're the last Tuesday of each month.And we have a watercolor one happening and then an ink on paper. I believe they'll be doing a collage one. And I think they may even Be doing a Shrinky Dink craft night.

Arnold00:19:48

What's a Shrinky Dink?

Deborah00:19:50

Shrinky Dinks. When you're kids, you draw in this plastic and then you put it in the oven and it shrinks down very small, about a fifth of the size.

Mark00:20:00

Love it.

Deborah00:20:00

Yeah, it's just a throwback.

Arnold00:20:02

Yeah.

Mark00:20:02

Yeah, Sounds like fun.

Deborah00:20:04

We're also going to be doing. We have some. It's called our Neon Elixir Pop up dinners. And it's a kind of local celebrity chef named Colleen Claussen.

Mark00:20:14

And.

Deborah00:20:14

And she is the chef at Milquetoast on Jefferson. But so she'll be doing some pop up dinners again until the end of the year. So there'll be three more coming up.And all of our events are through Eventbrite.

Arnold00:20:27

I was going to mention that. And folks, you want to go to Eventbrite to check that out, just plug in the search engine. Neon Museum of St. Louis.So that craft night is Tuesday, September 30, 7pm Then there's one Tuesday, October 28, and the Elixir November 1. That's a Saturday evening at 6:30pm I had a question related to. Gosh, where is it? How neon. Yeah, that's exactly right, Mark. Yeah.Yeah, we're getting ready for double jeopardy here. How neon has evolved. Do artists. I'm sure the purists still use the same kind of techniques. Maybe the transformers are a little different.But have people. As the media move forward, I know we see these string lights now that are used.

Deborah00:21:25

String lights are all led. They're less expensive and less fragile. And I think they're wonderful because they're adding more color to the world.And everybody needs that because color induces dopamine and makes us relaxed and calm like you would be in a bar surrounded by neon. But there's something spectacular and magical about real neon.When the electricity goes through and makes that plasma makes our fourth form of matter, people. And you can really feel it.

Arnold00:21:58

Yeah, she's got this plasma thing there that's just.

Mark00:22:01

I love this.

Arnold00:22:02

It's wild. Yeah, it's wild.

Mark00:22:04

Yeah, it's. Are there many artists that do this?

Deborah00:22:07

That there are artists around the world and I am assuming it's a smaller community on, on our social media, on the Instagram and the Facebook. And then if anybody comes through town, everyone wants to share knowledge and see everyone else's studios.And we get people coming from around the world through the museum. We have a nice connection. Now a gentleman from Canada and he made a plasma xylophone that I've yet to see.But one of the things that we're working on, we have different exhibitions and different openings is to do a plasma exhibition and kind of introduce people to that. And plasma is really affect what happens when you put these gases and light them up in a larger container than the tube.Because technically all lit neon is plasma.

Mark00:22:59

I'll be darned. Are there any classes?

Deborah00:23:02

Yes. If anybody's interested in learning neon as a profession or even for fun, they call the museum. Then I can give them the information on who to go to.

Arnold00:23:13

And that number folks is 314-585-0538. That's 314-585-0538. The website again is neon museumstl.com neon museum stl and the museum. I just want to give this background.Founded in 2022 was just a pop up and then grew into this permanent museum. I there's a schnook sign there, Mark. There's this rhinoceros, neon rhinoceros in there. It's just magnificent.

Mark00:23:47

I love it.

Deborah00:23:48

Thank you.

Mark00:23:49

I saw some photographs of it. Very interesting. Really an interesting place. I'm sorry I missed the tour, but I will be there to take a look at it all. There's that kaleidoscope.Is it a kaleidoscope?

Deborah00:24:00

Yeah, we have, we call it our resident kaleidoscope.And it's a real kind of fun, exciting way to see that there's more than meets the eye and everybody smiles when they see their picture taken through it.

Arnold00:24:14

Yeah, I love it. I've got my face just kaleidoscoped around.

Mark00:24:18

Helps keep the rodents away. His face does.

Arnold00:24:21

I didn't break the mirrors.

Mark00:24:22

No, we have a picture behind the desk here. Keeps all the bugs away.

Arnold00:24:28

Is this a place for kids?

Deborah00:24:32

It's not a place for toddlers or kids that are going to touch things. It's a place for kids that are interested in science, if they're interested in art and if they just love color.So of course you don't want to touch anything. We have stanchions but yeah, we do get middle schoolers and high schoolers.And that's another thing we're starting is doing bringing in the high schoolers for education because we touch on all of these topics and how they intermix and how nothing is separate. And so that's coming up.

Arnold00:25:11

Yeah, I got in there and she was, she whipped out the periodical table.

Mark00:25:15

I was like, you're in trouble.

Arnold00:25:18

I am in trouble. I'm periodically in trouble, especially that that time. Thank you for coming in and talking about this.

Deborah00:25:26

Thank you for having me. And I hope everyone takes the time to come visit us. You need to check our hours.

Mark00:25:33

What are your hours? Yeah.

Deborah00:25:34

So for tours, we are open every second and fourth week of the month on Wednesday and Saturday night. And we give tours every half hour during that time starting at 6:45. We open at 6:30.And then we have other opportunities that we talked about to come and see the museum. The different and also people, they can come and rent the space or have private tours. Again, everything is on the website or they can call.So we have different ways to reach different demographics.

Arnold00:26:11

And you'd like to gear it up for the hundredth anniversary, Correct?

Deborah00:26:14

Oh, that's very exciting.So because we're on Route 66, we've been very involved with the centennial coming up, the hundredth year anniversary of Route 66 and the fact that we are the only neon museum directly on the neon highway as I think it's pretty.

Arnold00:26:35

Special for St. Louis, the neon highway and the clocks. She has a collection of clocks. Neon clocks. Oh, it's cool. It's really cool.

Mark00:26:43

It's very neat. Very neat.

Arnold00:26:45

Thanks for coming on, Deborah.

Deborah00:26:46

Thank you guys.

Arnold00:26:48

We're gonna take a brief break and don't go away, folks. This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston of St. Louis and Tomb. We'll be right back.As strange as it may sound, at Better Rate Mortgage, we love talking to people about mortgages. Everyone in St. Louis promises a better mortgage rate. But what you really need to turn that perfect house into your dream home is a better mortgage.At Better Rate Mortgage, we open the door to so much more. So where are you in the home buying process? Researching, maybe wondering how much you can afford? House hunting?Get a pre approval from Better Rate Mortgage Ready to buy. Our team is ready to make your mortgage process fast and easy.Whether you're purchasing your first home or taking cash out to make your dream home even dreamier, our door is open. Come on in and get started. Today. We'll show you how.Call Sean directly at 314-375-3293 or online@betterratemortgage.com Remember, at Better Rate Mortgage, a better rate is just the beginning. Betterratemortgage.com MLS High Beach 401335 and equal housing lender the United States has a strong tradition of welcoming newcomers and refugees.The welcome Corps is a new service opportunity. Americans inspired to welcome those seeking freedom and safety and in turn help strengthen their own communities.Welcome Corps is a public private partnership that is inspired by what Americans represent to so many around the world. A beacon of hope and refuge. All it takes is a helping hand. Are you ready?To learn more, contact the International Institute of St. Louis at infoistl.org or call 314-773-9090. That's info-tl.org or call 314-773/9090.

Mark00:28:48

Tickle in those ivories.

Arnold00:28:51

Welcome back to St. Louis in Tune. That's Mark Langston on the other microphone and he's doing. He's playing air piano. There's.

Mark00:28:57

That's right. Tickle in the ivories. I love it.

Arnold00:29:03

There you go.

Mark00:29:04

This guy's good.

Arnold00:29:04

Now you're playing air guitar.

Mark00:29:06

He's jamming.

Arnold00:29:07

This is Bob. Bertha Cell.

Mark00:29:08

Yeah.

Arnold00:29:09

Ought to talk to Bob sometime.

Mark00:29:11

What a concept. That'd be great.

Arnold00:29:14

Bob, we're playing your. We're playing the theme song like all the time.

Mark00:29:17

So come on in. I know you got a lot of jokes. I've got.

Arnold00:29:20

No, you're fine. I appreciate Deborah and what she's doing there. It's a 501C3, a non profit museum and folks, if you get an opportunity, go down there.We have a lot of museums in St. Louis and this is one worth going to. And because you do have science, you have art, you have history. And she is very knowledgeable. She does some work.There's a lot of artists work that is displayed there. You can purchase it. Some of it's like just on loan for display and. But it's history. I was watching this one clock and so that is the coolest clock.Like the neon thing goes around and I remember seeing those at this will. This will date me. Filling stations where somebody used to come out and fill the tank and wipe the windows too.

Mark00:30:10

And check my oil.

Arnold00:30:11

Yes, and check the oil too. Yeah.

Mark00:30:13

And some of the other fluids. The fluid. Yeah. I know it's crazy. Got some crazy days that are today. Or crazy what is today is go with your gut day. Do you ever go with your gut?

Arnold00:30:27

Sometimes.

Mark00:30:28

Oh, you're too educated to go with your gut?

Arnold00:30:31

No, but you got to trust your instincts.

Mark00:30:32

You do. And I don't think folks trust their instincts as much as they should. Let's see. Education Technology Day, International Day of Sign Language.Do you know any sign language?

Arnold00:30:47

I do, just very. And what's interesting about sign language is every country has a different set.

Mark00:30:54

What?

Arnold00:30:54

It's not one universal thing. Yeah. I was like, you go to another country and they're not going to understand what you're saying so when I was.

Mark00:31:02

A Cubmaster, that's one thing. We teach the kids how to do the ABCs in sign language.

Arnold00:31:08

This is. Thank you.

Mark00:31:09

Yeah, but we don't do the. Yeah, the. You're doing the gestures for folks that can't see. Yeah, that. That mean things. We just did the things with the fingers. Okay.So my name is Mark. Yeah. Yeah.

Arnold00:31:22

Okay.

Mark00:31:22

So we could do that. National Apple Cider Vinegar. They said that's good for you.

Arnold00:31:27

Do you drink that every day?

Mark00:31:28

No, but I should. National Checkers Day. When was the last time you played checkers?

Arnold00:31:35

I haven't played checkers for a long time.

Mark00:31:36

You should be playing checkers today, I'll tell you that. I know it. I know it. National Dog in Politics Day. I should read more about a dog in politics. The President's Head.National Dog in Politics Day celebrates the first dog of the United States. A FOTUs. They call it FOTUs.

Arnold00:31:57

FOTUs.

Mark00:31:58

First Dogus. Who holds an important place in the hearts of all American dogs. So I guess this president that we have now does not have any animals.

Arnold00:32:06

I don't believe he doesn't.

Mark00:32:08

I think most every president that I can think of has had a dog.

Arnold00:32:14

Yeah.

Mark00:32:14

Or something like that.

Arnold00:32:16

I agree with that.

Mark00:32:17

Restless Legs Awareness Day. National Voter Registration Day is today.

Arnold00:32:21

Restless legs. I had restless legs and I got a new mattress and it seemed to help out.

Mark00:32:26

Is that right?

Arnold00:32:27

Yeah, I got one of those where they go. Comfort sleep. Comfort. It wasn't Sleep comfort brand, but it was one of those kind of mattresses, and it seemed to help out a lot.

Mark00:32:36

Can you adjust the front and the back? No.

Arnold00:32:38

It's not one of them fancy pants ones.

Mark00:32:40

Yeah, the fancy pants. I like it. Seed. Get. Seed gathering day is today.

Arnold00:32:44

And I think that's about seed gathering.

Mark00:32:46

Yeah. Where you gather all sorts of different. Let me see what you gather. All sorts of different kinds of seeds.Participating in seed gathering season celebrates should be. Let's see, the top of your list. In autumn. So we're just right. We're officially, I guess, in autumn now.

Arnold00:33:01

We are.

Mark00:33:02

So you go out and. Oh, grab seeds. I've. I do that all the time. I go out.We have a garden, a wild garden, and I'll take some of the flowers, dry them out a little bit, get the seeds, and I'll save them till the next season.

Arnold00:33:13

And you throw them out there and they work. Yeah.

Mark00:33:15

And it works. For me, to make it work is an amazing thing.

Arnold00:33:19

That's pretty good.

Mark00:33:20

Yep. So that's. I'M just trying to find more things to ask and say because I'm trying to put you off.

Arnold00:33:26

Oh, okay. No, you're fine. You're fine.

Mark00:33:28

I have so many jokes that I'm just so worried about.

Arnold00:33:31

I have a lot, but I can't log on to my Facebook account. So I have things saved there. But I do really.I did miss the thought to ponder because we wanted to get right to our guest and get into that particular conversation. But our thought to ponder today is don't watch the clock. Do what it does. Keep going.

Mark00:33:50

That's good. I like that.

Arnold00:33:52

And it's to remind people to be persistent and focus on moving forward, not dwelling in the past or we're freezing in time. You keep moving.

Mark00:34:03

Can't move.

Arnold00:34:04

Yep, Keep moving.

Mark00:34:05

That's a good. That's good advice.

Arnold00:34:06

So don't watch the clock. Do what it does. Keep moving.

Mark00:34:09

I like that. That's the current studio audience does too.

Arnold00:34:12

Yeah, they do. I finally did it, Mark.

Mark00:34:15

Okay.

Arnold00:34:16

I bought a new pair of shoes with memory foam insoles. No more forgetting why I walked into the kitchen.

Mark00:34:27

Have you ever done that?

Arnold00:34:30

What? Buy new souls?

Mark00:34:31

No.

Arnold00:34:33

Yeah, I do that all the time. Like, why don't I come in here? Sometimes I have to go back to where I was and then I know.

Mark00:34:38

I'm starting to do that too. It's a little scary, folks. It is scary. Okay, go ahead.

Arnold00:34:43

Now you will really get this if you're in St. Louis. If you're in maybe you will get this where you live around the world. But in England, they drive on the left. Where I live, we drive on what's left?

Mark00:34:54

There you go.

Arnold00:34:59

And maybe some of you remember the actor who played Ironside and Perry Mason. His name was Raymond Burr. He had a lumberjack brother named Tim.

Mark00:35:12

Oh, my. You really said that, didn't you?

Arnold00:35:17

And tonight we're having Himalayan rabbit stew for dinner. We found him a laying on the road.

Mark00:35:28

Wow.

Arnold00:35:30

And I do know that for the radio station KXOK 1029 FM here in St. Louis, you can ask what Alexa to play the station.After a massive public outcry from users believing Alexa was listening in on their everyday conversations, Amazon has announced it will be releasing a mail version as it won't be listening to anything at all.

Mark00:35:56

Wow.

Arnold00:35:59

Then there was this headline, cross eyed teacher loses job. Could not control her pupils.

Mark00:36:07

Oh, my God. So bad.

Arnold00:36:14

And ants never get sick.

Mark00:36:16

No.

Arnold00:36:17

They have little antibodies. Now we just, the season's just changed. We turned to autumn. Or some of you might call it fall.

Mark00:36:30

Yeah. Right.

Arnold00:36:32

There's a Halloween coming up at the end of the of October and the places already have all the stuff hanging out. Some people already have their yards full of stuff.

Mark00:36:40

Yeah.

Arnold00:36:41

Anyway, this is something you could do. Folks dress up as a screwdriver this Halloween. You're sure to turn a few heads.

Mark00:36:50

Wow. Wow. Oh gosh.

Arnold00:36:55

And some, some people are really hoity toity or they think they're too big for their britches. Stuff like that. No matter how big and bad you are, when a two year old hands you a toy phone, you answer it.

Mark00:37:06

Yes, I would say you've got to do that.

Arnold00:37:11

You've got to do that.

Mark00:37:12

How would you not see here? And who are you going to talk to?

Arnold00:37:17

Yeah, you just do.

Mark00:37:18

Hello?

Arnold00:37:18

Hello, I have somebody important on the phone here and I guess we could close with this one. Salons always have hair on the floor. Garages always have oil on the floor. Banks. What's your problem?

Mark00:37:31

Yeah, yeah, I like that one. That one. We need that. Yeah, but is their problem. I don't know what is wrong with them.

Arnold00:37:41

Folks, what's your favorite museum?

Mark00:37:43

Ah.

Arnold00:37:46

Or maybe you have many.

Mark00:37:47

Oh, good question.

Arnold00:37:50

Think about that.

Mark00:37:51

Do you have a favorite?

Arnold00:37:52

But do I have a favorite?

Mark00:37:53

Wow.

Arnold00:37:53

I always judge museums off of the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield.

Mark00:37:58

Oh, very. Oh, what a great museum.

Arnold00:38:01

Yeah, great museum.

Mark00:38:02

Actually one of my favorites. That's a good one. I didn't even, I didn't even.

Arnold00:38:05

And a lot of them it's.

Mark00:38:07

If you've never gone to that museum, you should go.

Arnold00:38:09

Yeah. It's an hour and a half east of St. Louis.

Mark00:38:11

Take the train.

Arnold00:38:12

Take the train. Stops right in the middle of town.

Mark00:38:14

We've taken the train and gone before. Yeah, what a great museum that is.

Arnold00:38:17

But some museums don't have the funding to be able to do some of the hands on kind of activities or the, the you get it in visual kinds of things. But take a check, take a look at, at the museums we have and here in St. Louis and check them out.There's a wide variety of them, especially the one that we talked about today, the neon Museum of St. Louis.

Mark00:38:38

And some of their funding is getting cut.

Arnold00:38:41

Right. Because of, there was a lot of kind of government reevaluation I would say about what are we funding, why are we funding it?And they had apparently lost some support that they were getting. And so it's always good to support the local folks and see what's going on. So don't travel to Springfield.Travel down to 35, 37 Choteau just east of grand and go to the neon Museum of St. Louis.

Mark00:39:05

Yeah, great. I'm going.

Arnold00:39:07

Yeah.

Mark00:39:08

Hope I'll see you there.

Arnold00:39:09

It's a good time.

Mark00:39:10

Yeah.

Arnold00:39:10

So don't forget you can go to Eventbrite, folks, and check out the activities that they have there. That's all for this hour. Mark.

Mark00:39:17

Wow. It's a lot of fun, actually.

Arnold00:39:19

It was. And we're glad to have Deborah Caton on our show. Want to thank you folks for listening.If you've enjoyed this episode, you can listen to additional shows@stlntune.com consider leaving a review on our website, Apple Podcast, Podchaser or your preferred podcast review platform. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue to grow.We'll need to get Bob Bertha Sell on the show so we can thank him in person, but he's our theme music composer. Want to thank our sponsor, Meta Rate Mortgage, our guest, Deborah Caton. And I want to thank Mark Langston, our co host.And folks, we thank you for being a part of our community of curious minds. St. Louis in tune is a production of Motif Media Group and the US Radio Network.Remember to keep seeking, keep learning, walk worthy and let your light shine. For St. Louis in tune, I'm Arnold Stricker.

Mark00:40:30

Sam.