By Bob Van Leer

  (St. Louis, MO, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008) - This morning I took the shuttle back to St. Louis and was picked up at the airport by my younger sister, Ruth Chiodini, and her daughter, Sandy. I'm to stay with my other sister, June Pallardy, Steve's mother.

  In the evening we had dinner at June's home with Paul Collins and his wife. Paul is a friend from childhood and Paul brought me up to date on friends from a half-century ago.

  That night what was left of Hurricane Ike hit St. Louis. There was not a whole lot of wind, only a few tree branches were broken and some power outages. But there was a deluge of rain, 4-5 inches in a few hours and the drainage was not capable of handling it so there was some severe flooding in low spots. Since the rain was so concentrated the flooding went down quickly but there was a lot of cleanup to do.

OLD HOMESTEAD

  Sunday June and I went out to the old family homestead near Union, MO, about 45 miles southwest of St. Louis to see my aunt, Vi Van Leer.

  Aunt Vi still lives alone at the age of 103 but a son, Marvin, lives just down the road and keeps a close eye on her. When we visited Marvin was there and also cousin Glenn, who retired last year after 25 years as mayor of Union.

  We returned to St. Louis and had dinner that evening at Ruth's home with her family also as guests.

   Monday we visited the Missouri Botanical Garden, known locally as Shaw's Garden for Henry Shaw, an Englishman who created the garden and made it his life work. Shaw is buried on the grounds.

  The garden was opened to the public in 1859 and is the oldest continuously operated botanical garden in the nation and is a National Historic Landmark. For anyone visiting St. Louis, it is well worth visiting.

OLD NEIGHBORHOOD

  We drove around through the neighborhood where we did much of our growing up. It is a pre-Civil War neighborhood, once grand but the large houses were cut up for multiple units before we moved there. Our old house is still standing but looking way out of date.

  Some of the houses in the neighborhood still had slave houses behind them. As a boy I knew one man, Jim, who didn't have a last name, who was a slave when he was born. He was an old man when I knew him and we boys would visit him rocking on his front porch and talk. His family stayed on with their former owners after Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. When his former master died he left Jim a life tenancy in the slave house.

  This was to be my last night in St. Louis and we went to dinner on The Hill, the Italian section of St. Louis, to the Canetto House of Pastry. On The Hill you can get some of the finest Italian food anywhere.

OFF TO CANADA

  The next morning I left St. Louis for the last stop on my trip, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where my grandson, Rob Johnson and family live. He is Molly Walker's oldest son.

  I wanted to see my latest great-grandchild, Sadie, who is now two months old. Of course, she is the best baby in two countries.

  Rob and his wife, Becca, live on the outskirts of Toronto in a neighborhood mostly farming country and Rob says government rules should keep it that way. The center of the community is the small town of Caledon.

  We took a drive around the region which reminds me of the American Midwest.

   Canada is a high-tax, high-service state. Thee is no medical charge for birth of a baby and there is a one-year paid leave for the parents which can be taken by one or split up by both.

  Payment for the leave is unemployment compensation. The government medical system seems to work well except for elective procedures. There is a long wait for elective surgery.

  But everything must be paid for somewhere and Canadian cost of living is high. Prices are high to begin with and there is a 13% sales tax. I was looking for a small computer which is available for $500.00 in the U. S. I found one in a large store, but the Canadian price would be about $800.00 so I didn't buy it.

NON-STOP TO SAN FRANCISCO

  Thursday, Sept. 18, Rob took me to the airport for a non-stop flight (4 hours, 49 minutes) to San Francisco where I caught another flight to Crescent City and then drove home.

  While I was traveling the U. S. financial system was crashing and it was a frequent topic of conversation but there was nothing we could do about it. It was spilling over into Canada also.

    It was a good trip but it is always good to get home. I know more than when I left and that is always a good gauge of success.