We too have “junction boxes” (I don’t know what they are called in America) in India….boxes at street corners where the power outlets and (possibly) switches and fuses are. But ours are drab eyesores…and here, I enjoyed seeing how a little imagination and art can better these things…

Here’s one such box near the History Museum; aptly enough, it depicts scenes from the America of the pioneers ; that man in the raccoon hat is probably a representation of Davy Crockett or Daniel Boone ,two well-known pioneers. One can see the prairie wagons, the dresses, the hunting, the clearing, the canoeing on the rivers….

And here’s another one which I found in University City, close to Washington U. This one has a wraparound depiction of the famous non-stop transatlantic flight made by that famous son of St Louis, Charles Lindbergh , in his plane, called The Spirit of St Louis …

If a transatlantic journey seems fraught with difficulty today, with all the technology we have at our command, what MUST it have been like, all alone on the ocean? I cannot even visualize the kind of bravery it must take to do that…

And the rest of his life was so eventful, too, with the kidnapping of his son and the subsequent murder…

I look at these things, and think, when I go back home, I will raise funds to beautify such things in my city…but I know that any money I raise will go to an orphanage or to the blind, who, I ultimately think, need the money more than the city eyesores do….