1 of 2
Photograph by Matthew O'Shea
2 of 2
There’s something enjoyably transitional about May. It’s a time for all things spring—new wardrobes, newly tended gardens—but we can practically hear the sounds and smell the scents of summer. For the staff at St. Louis Magazine, this meant creating a May issue that has a bit of both.
Cardinals baseball? We take a studied look at rookie Colby Rasmus, currently the buzz of Cardinals Nation (“Learning to Fly,” p. 54). The season’s new fashions? Style editor Nicole Benoist Edgerton has put together one of the most striking portfolios we’ve done in recent years (see “Pack a Punch”). Local activities for the kids, who beg of you, Please, can we just go outside and do something? We name the city’s 50 best (see “Child’s Play”). Ideas for a summer-vacation spot that’s both scenic and drivable? We highlight six for you to start researching now (see “Summer Escapes”), all of which offer a chance to relax and recharge.
This last feature is the one that had me traveling most quickly down memory lane. One of our issue’s six destinations—Door County, Wis.—was my own family’s summer escape during the early 1980s. For a half-decade, the five of us drove the station wagon north and spent a week in the same rented, wonderfully isolated cottage. There are two things I don’t remember about those trips: phones and TVs. (There were none.) And there’s a lot I do: Cherries, which we picked for pies we baked and ate that evening. Fresh fish bought right off the boat (also eaten hours later, pre-pie). Riding bikes and ferries and watching, with surprise, our dog chase butterflies through the wildflowers. An otherwise contentedly lazy Lhasa apso, Finnegan seemed to sense that each of those weeks was also his time to let loose and have some fun.
Don’t we all, once a year, owe ourselves that much? We hope this issue helps you close out spring with a smile, and transition into summer with the same.
Stephen Schenkenberg
