Photography by Carmen Troesser
For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a love affair with St. Louis summers, and no amount of time or experience will dampen my point of view. Editing this issue, with all its talk of pools and patios and outdoor living essentials, has brought back a flood of memories I’m more than happy to relive.
Up until I turned 10, my family lived in a small city in Colombia, less than 200 miles north of the equator. The story of my early life unfolded amid whitewashed colonial architecture, centuries-old cobblestone streets, and tropical afternoon rain showers that gave life to lush, verdant courtyards and patios arranged with attention-grabbing orchids and ferns. But my summers were spent many miles away, in St. Louis, where my brothers and I lived for three months in unbroken bliss with our American grandmother, who awaited our arrival every summer at the end of the TWA jetway. I remember well the mornings of our departures for St. Louis; there was nothing more thrilling than dressing up for the flight, a travel requisite of the time. In my mind, I could easily have been traveling to Paris or London.
But once we were stateside, dreams of overseas adventure gave way to summers filled with an assortment of charming, simple pleasures: entire days whiled away at the pool, homemade dinners with our cousins, reruns of American television. At my Aunt Marietta’s Kirkwood cottage, where she hosted plenty of outdoor parties, I learned to combine simplicity with personal style.
Now that I’m older, summers aren’t quite the same, except that they’re mostly spent right here in St. Louis. Certainly the luxury of time isn’t as abundant as it once was—there are, after all, children to raise and a magazine to run—but the anticipation of a St. Louis summer still holds true.
Beginning this June, I’ll take a longer look at my pool house, once a garage and now a storage space, and weigh the costs and benefits of designing an outdoor living retreat inspired by the designs in this issue. Dining editor George Mahe’s story about paella has stirred the food lover in me to plan an outdoor party with the classic Spanish dish as its centerpiece. And, as I do nearly every year right around this time, I’ll wish my newly purchased orchids a long life despite my less-than-stellar track record with them. Finally, what would a St. Louis summer be without Cardinals baseball? As our team prepared to photograph the home of Joe Buck and Michelle Beisner-Buck, I made a mental note to save at least two evenings for games at the ballpark.
