Longtime resident recounts O'Fallon memories: paper routes, businesses and midcentury life

Tom Ginevra, a longtime O'Fallon resident, shared a multi-decade oral history at the May 5 Historic Preservation Commission meeting, recounting childhood memories, family businesses and small-town life that commissioners said should be captured and preserved.

Ginevra described delivering newspapers from a young age — "I became a paper wire when I was 11, and I remember delivering 61 Globe Democrats in the morning and 62 Post-Dispatch in the afternoon" — and told stories about an ice storm in 1956 that caused multiple Main Street fires. He traced how Main Street and local businesses evolved, recalled early municipal utilities and recounted his father's work repairing radios and televisions.

Commissioners and the audience asked questions about railroad service, archival photographs and where local artifacts are stored. Commissioner Porter and others noted that some materials are already in the Log Cabin binders and the Saint Charles County Historical Society; the commission urged volunteers to digitize tapes and photos so those histories are not lost.

The presentation covered personal recollections of civic life — from hitching posts and taverns to volunteer firefighters and Boy Scout troops — and included place-based detail that commissioners said would enrich interpretive materials and potential museum displays. Commissioners suggested recording the session and scheduling follow-up interviews to ensure these memories become part of the commission's archival holdings rather than remaining only in personal collections.

The meeting closed after the commission discussed next steps for digitization and volunteer recording efforts. Commissioners committed to identifying volunteers to capture additional oral histories and to coordinate edits so the material can be used in future exhibits and publications.