So  far, 14 families are participating.  Many details have been posted to googlegroups.  Terrie (5035) has been organizing and questions can be directed to her.

Friday, June 11th 5:00 pm to 11:00 pm, Saturday, June 12h 11:00 am – 11:00 pm, and Sunday, June 13th 11:00 am – 5:00 pm

Ah, spring!  Listen to the sound of the birds chirping in the trees, the bees buzzing from flower to flower.  Hark, what’s that you hear?!  It’s the sound of the garbage trucks rolling through our alleys.  Project Blitz is here!  Empty your basements, get rid of the pile of junk in your yard, clean out the alleys.

Blitz Day is in our neighborhood is Saturday April 24.

Plan to get out your rakes, brooms, clippers, and gloves, and join your neighbors on the East end of the street on Saturday April 24 at 9:00.  We will be dividing up into teams to clean up our street, tidy the alleys, and plant the monuments.

And if the sense of camaraderie and accomplishment isn’t enough to entice you to come, there’s more!  Coffee and doughnuts will be served.  (The first person to spot a peacock wandering our street will win a second doughnut.)

Cheers,

Dahven Doctor

5070 Westminster Place

Project Blitz is Operation Brightside’s annual campaign to clean up city neighborhoods.  Below is a link to the web site and some more information on trash collection.  

http://stlouis.missouri.org/501c/brightside/enter-operation.html

Blitz Info & Trash Instructions

Pete Littlefield, a longtime resident of Westminster Place, died Saturday night peacefully at home. He lived in the condos at Lake and Westminster. He and his wife Joyce, who died last year, raised five children on our street.
There will be a memorial service April 16 at St. Louis Cathedral in the evening. More details to follow.
-Jeff Fister

Many of our newer residents may not be familiar with Pete and Joyce Littlefield, who lived at 5048 for more than 35 (?) years before they moved west  to the Lake condos.

Together and separately they were dedicated leaders on the block, serving multiple terms as Trustees, among their other contributions.  For many years Pete kept our street lights functioning — he loved to fix things and he loved to solve problems, so that was a perfect challenge for him. On many occasions I saw him on ladders tinkering with the temperamental lights we had for so long before the rewiring.   Both of them were take-charge types, and their contributions to us over the years were unequaled, in my opinion.

Some of our children grew up together, so I knew them well during those challenging times.  But, they were also very kind and generous neighbors in later years when all the kids had moved on. They are a legend of caring and service to our WP community.

-Marilyn Carpenter

The following is a reprinted article by Jeff Fister:

When I’m 80 years old, I hope I have the kind of day Pete Littlefield had on Sept. 20.

Littlefield was the oldest passenger on board a balloon during the Great Forest Park Balloon Race that day.

Littlefield, a longtime CWE resident, rode in the balloon sponsored by the West End Word. He’s a neighbor and a friend of mine, and he had a great ride.

Littlefield has beaten cancer and raised five kids (with a little help from his wife of 55 years, Joyce). He walks nearly two miles every day (except for days that he does Meals on Wheels) and has to be one of the most active, open-minded people I know.

Littlefield bid on an auction item last summer to win the balloon ride. When he won, I assumed he bought it for one of his children or grandchildren. “No way, I’m going,” he told me.

On Sept. 20, Pete got to the balloon race around 1 p.m. It was a picture-perfect-postcard kind of late summer day in St. Louis: crystal blue skies and temperatures in the low 70s.

The 31^st annual race, it has become one of the city’s signature events. Each year more than 100,000 people crowd Forest Park to watch 70 or more balloons take to the sky.

Urban balloon races are rare, and Race President John Marlow (also a longtime CWE resident) said only the best pilots are chosen. “We have to deal with tall buildings, roads, power lines and highways,” he said. “This isn’t New Mexico.”

While pilots can pick when and where they take off, once aloft, they are at the mercy of the prevailing winds. The only direction the pilot can control is up and down until the fuel runs out.

This has made for some memorable landings over the years: in a convent, in suburban backyards, in Illinois farms, even in the Mississippi River. Each year, the balloons take off and chase the Energizer Bunny_® balloon to try to win prizes like… a broken toaster or an old bird cage.

“We do this for fun and to give the community a good time,” said Marlow, one of the four founders of the race. “The pilots pass up big-paying races to come here in September because of the great atmosphere here.” Any funds raised each year from sponsors (the race is free) goes to Forest Park Forever for park improvements.

After he checked in, Littlefield wandered around the race field until he found pilot David Rapp and his crew of the “St. Louis” balloon. With Rapp, a St. Louisan and balloon race veteran, was a crew of six people. The crew is needed to unpack, inflate and retrieve the balloon after it lands.

Liftoff was about 4:30 p.m. The balloon was one of the last to take off, as the balloons leave in “waves” to chase the Energizer Bunny_® balloon. For the race, balloonists try to match the path of the Energizer Bunny_® and be the one who drops a marker closest to the landing site of the Bunny.

This was not Littlefield’s first ride. In 1994, on a trip to France, he flew in a balloon over the hillsides of Burgundy. There, he said, the pilots were worried about cows, not power lines.

Littlefield was in good hands. Rapp is a veteran balloon pilot who is also licensed to fly airships, gliders and airplanes. He is an FAA Designated examiner, Director of Balloon Federation of America and balloon ground school instructor at St. Louis Community College.

Aboard the balloon with Rapp and Littlefield were two of the six crew members. The crew do their work in exchange for occasional rides.

What was the ride like?

“I’ve lived here all my life, but when I looked down it was hard to figure out where I was,” Littlefield said. “There were a lot of trees.” Littlefield added that the flight was “wonderful,” especially how quiet it seemed floating above the city.

Littlefield said he watched the pilot as they flew. “While we were enjoying the ride, he was constantly busy, checking his instruments.” Rapp told Littlefield that once they took off, he started looking for a place to land. “Rapp said he had to watch out  for ‘hummers,’ or high-tension power lines. In an urban flight, he said, you always have to be ready to put it down.”

After about an hour and a half of drifting slowly to the northwest, the balloon started descending. Rapp picked a small park near Dielman and Olive boulevards to set down.

“We bumped a few times on the ground and stopped. It felt like a perfect landing, until we looked up and Rapp said ‘uh-oh.’”

While the balloon had landed fine, it had stopped next to a pine tree. And the balloon was draped over the tree.

Within a few minutes, a crowd of about 30 neighborhood people gathered around. Rapp told the crew to stay in the balloon.

This was not a small problem. The balloon fabric weighs more than 300 pounds, and a tear would be expensive to fix.

Suddenly, out of the crowd, a slender young man volunteered to climb the tree and try to free the balloon. Rapp consented and the man scampered up the tree. After a few tense minutes, the man managed to free the balloon and the crowd cheered.

Balloon ride over, Littlefield glanced at his watch and realized he still had time to make another event: an alumni dinner at his old fraternity at Washington University, Tau Kappa Epsilon, as part of the university’s 150^th anniversary celebration.

Littlefield, a 1945 graduate of the school, said he had taken a tie with him for the dinner and went straight from Forest Park to Washington University.

Littlefield said that he was “the old geezer” at the dinner, which happened to feature the national chapter president of the fraternity. “Everybody else was at least 40 years younger, but they were very nice,” he said. At the end of the dinner, Littlefield was presented with a surprise award for his years of supporting TKE.

But his day was not yet over. On the way home, he decided to stop by Forest Park for the traditional post-race pilot’s party, which was held at the World’s Fair Pavilion.

“I showed up and the whole crew saw me and waved me over to their table,” Littlefield said. “We had a great time.”

Littlefield, who lives near Forest Park, said he was home by 10:30; “a little past my bedtime, but it was worth it,” he said.

All in all, not a bad day for someone 80 years young.