To Sikeston, MO

I bailed Elizabethtown early... another night of little sleep. On my drive the night before I saw they had a Panera Bread place in the direction I had to go. I know Panera has wireless so I jumped in there for a cup and to get some work done. When finished, I hit the road again. After about 15 minutes something didn't feel right. I think I was tipped off by the highway number, I was expecting a different one. I consulted my map and realized I was heading Northwesterly when I wanted to be headed Southwesterly. Sigh. I managed eventually to hit the expressway. Yes I was starting out the day on an interstate. Kentucky is big, I wanted to get to Cairo and had 250 miles to go. Cairo is in Illinois at the juncture of the Mississippi and the Ohio River. Mark Twain's Huck Finn and Jim were trying to get to Cairo early in their adventure. For some reason I just had to go there.

Oh what a drive. Insomnia had taken the brightness out of my mind. The coffee at Panera hadn't done the trick. At least I had gotten an early start. I blazed down the expressway at 70 mph and made good time. I got off at Paducah and started on the side roads on the way to Cairo. The lack of sleep made me feel numb and stupid. Strangely, it gave me an affinity for these sluggish little towns I was passing through. "Gee," I thought, "this would be a nice place to stop and watch the lichen grow on my shoes until I die."

I was saved. One of the sleepy little towns had a cafe, a tiny local place that I hadn't seen the like of since North Carolina. This one was even better, it wasn't as polished. It was in a low building that had porch-like additions put on two sides which gave it the appearance of an afterthought. It was called the "Bluegrass Cafe." Their Menu had more than just the standart breakfast of eggs, hash , pancakes and meat. I had a delicious breakfast and their coffee was so good! I left that place a happy boy indeed! It was an opportune meal. Soon enough I crossed the Ohio River and was in Cairo.

Cairo. What it is about Cairo that drew me so strongly? In the age of Steam Cairo was a crossroad os steamboat and railroads. In 1886 the combined shipments from river and rail that passed through Cairo was evaluated at $60,000,000, that was a heap o' money back then. It gave Cairo the highest per-capita commercial valuation in the United States. Yes, my friends, Cairo was flush back then. They built mansions, grand hotels and beautiful buildings down town. With its location in the far Southern tip of a Northern state, Cairo was a strategic location during the Civil War.

I arrived in Cairo, Illinois expecting grandeur and I found it. Buildings designed on a grand scale abandoned and left derelict for 30 years or more. Beautiful brick facades crumbling into piles of rubble in the sidewalks before. Mansions and churches with windows and doors broken out staring out at empty streets.

I accosted the one passer by I saw.

"What happened?"

"The interstate bypass was built in the 70's nobody had to drive through town anymore, the town just died."

In the old downtown strip there is a single business still alive. It was a bar. I went in for a beer. The bartender gave me another angle. In the 1960s, during the civil rights movement the citizenry of Cairo was violently split. There was an outbreak of riots and shootings. The black people boycotted white-owned businesses. Rather than give in, open their minds and hearts to hire blacks, the white business owners, one by one, closed up shop and moved away leaving a vacuum that has not since been filled. What's left is a beautiful carcass. Dead, rotting but you can see echoes of its former glory.

I think Cairo would be perfect for an artists colony. I'm sure property there is cheap. It is easy for people to get to you only have to give them a reason. What better reason than great art? Artists need cheap housing. Many artists in one area will draw art lovers who would revel in the smorgasbord of different styles and media. Cairo could become a Midwestern Mecca for art. What fun!

Cairo, Illinois at it's height in 1920, had a population of over 15,000. Now it is harbor for around 3,000 souls. It is a sad, sad town.

That said, I decided I wasn't going to stay in Cairo that night. Instead, I would go to Sikeston, Missouri. Sikeston, Missouri was another one of those places I just had to go to. It was a pilgrimage of sorts. A geekish pilgrimage. See, back in the 1940's, 50's 60's and 70's there was this fellow named Paul Eakins. Pauls Eakins loved old, mechanical instruments. You might be thinking: "Oh, like a player piano." Yes, like a player piano... and better. One step better than a player piano is an orchestrion. A player piano with drums and some pipes that played off of a roll of paper just like a player piano. But things get bigger and better. There are Band Organs! Band Organs are wonderful contraptions with, literally, drums, bells and whistles, along with sets of deep thundering pipes and an amazing array of sounds, akin to a Theater Organ but without the need for a human to play it. The songs are stamped out of a long paper that has been accordion-folded. If you are fortunate you might have heard one at a merry-go-round. Back in their day they could be found in the fanciest of establishments. As they aged they were sold to circuses and further down the musical food chain.

Paul Eakins loved these wonderful old relics from the Victorian age. When he started purchasing and restoring these beasts they were considered by most to be dumpy old contraptions from sideshows and the like. Paul Eakins brought them back to their original glory. The best ones have lots of ornate, Victorian trim and a carvings. They were panted and highlighted in gilt. Each one was unique and handcrafted inside and out.

Paul Eakins went one step further. In the 1950's the birth of the "Hi-Fidelity" sound system was at hand. There was a record label named "Audio Fidelity." You know your computer-techno-geek friend? Well, if this was 1950, instead of computers, he would be into hi-fi and would be spending big bucks (for the 50's) for Audio Fidelity Lps.

One of Audio Fidelity's trademarks was that they would capture the very best quality recordings possible and be ultra-careful when making the record so that it would "test" your sound system to it's best. This was back before stereo. The first commercially available stereo recordings were in 1955 or so, but who had stereo players at that time, 20 years before they were common? (geeks! Ya just gotta love 'em!) Anyhow, Because the dynamic and tonal range of Band Organs were so extreme Audio Fidelity got together with Paul Eakins and started making recordings of his wonderful machines.

Later on Paul Eakins put out a record with Disney & had his own label with records of his many wonderful machines. I have as many of those records as I have been able to find... missing about six...

What does this have to do with Sikeston? Paul Eakins had a place called the "Gay 90's Village" which he had as a museum for his wonderful collection and the "Gay 90's Village" was in Sikeston. I wanted to see if I could find it. When I was pricing hotels I asked the lady at the first hotel if she had heard of it and knew where it had been. "Oh the place with all of the player pianos? I remember going there when I was a kid." She gave me instructions and I managed to find the place. I recognized it from the pictures on the back of record covers. But if I hadn't there was a sign that said "Eakins Plaza." Paul Eakins wonderful collection of mechanical instruments was broken up and sold individually. He saved many wonderful instruments and spurred interest in them that is sustained today.