This week’s block has brought back many childhood memories. My childhood home was in a neighborhood a bit south of downtown San Antonio. I was a Downtown girl. Today, the neighborhood is called Southtown.
My elementary school, St. Mary’s, was a four story building. We had recess on the rooftop. Each morning, we would go through the tunnel under St. Mary’s street that led to St. Mary’s Church. The school library faced the San Antonio Riverwalk. I used to love to sit there and read.
My mom worked at the Tower Life Building, further down by the Riverwalk. When I was in second grade, I convinced my mother to let me stay downtown after school with my friend, Jodell. I promised her that we would stay at the San Antonio Library, which was near her building, on the Riverwalk. Things were a bit different back then, and my mother allowed my friend and I to stay downtown from 3:00 to 5:00. We would walk to her building where my dad would pick all of us up.
The San Antonio Library was located on Market Street, right along the Riverwalk, from 1930-1968. The Riverwalk was not yet developed as it is today. It was still a beautiful place to spend the afternoon. Jodell and I spent most of the time in the library. I remember the excitement we felt when we moved from the downstairs children section, to the upstairs level, where we checked out Jane Eyre! We sat by the river reading this classic. The library also had the Hertzberg Circus Collection. There were some pretty odd and awesome things in this collection that kept us pretty enthralled. We used to climb up on the elephant that sat in front of the library. At this time, the elephant was grey.
Luckily, San Antonio preserved the elephant. It is now located in front of the Witte Museum. It is called Cinnamon Kandy, and it is now painted like a circus elephant.
My granddaughter, daughter-in-law, and I went to the museum last week. When I saw the elephant, it surely brought back so many memories.

Cinnamon Kandy

I just had to capture this memory for my fabric quilt journey. I decided to make the elephant without the circus painting, since that is how it was when I was a child.