At The Arch, I'm Fretting Over a Photo

Here’s a fun little game to take your mind off more important things for a bit. Let’s go a little “Rorschach” for a moment.

Take a gander at the photo above -- the one featuring the most recognizable symbol of my hometown, St. Louis, Mo. -- the Gateway Arch. Look closely at the green space just west of the iconic monument, in the foreground of the photo.

Now, tell me what you see. Squint if you have to. Or close one eye. Stand on your head if it helps.

If the image you see reminds you of a lady on a beach, or a butterfly, please consider seeking immediate counseling.

However, if you look at this photo and see something resembling a very large stringed musical instrument that rhymes with the word GUITAR, then it’s, Winner Winner, Hodak's Dinner for you!

Look again! See it??

Ok, time for some background.

As you may know, officials cut the ribbon a few weeks ago on a $380 million makeover of the national park grounds that surround the Arch. The weather guy from the Today Show came to town to cover the event. Newspapers and TV reporters from around the country did the same.

And the attention was well deserved. It’s hard to articulate just what the Arch has meant to St. Louis over the last five decades, but as a starting point in the discussion, let’s just say it has literally changed the landscape of my hometown. Flash a picture of downtown Philly or Houston or Atlanta in front of someone, and watch how long it takes for them to figure out just which city they’re looking at. 

Do the same with a picture of downtown St. Louis, and the recognition factor is instantaneous.

But it’s about more than just recognition. In one TV interview I saw a few days ago, a native St. Louisan was asked what the Arch meant to her. Her voice choked with emotion as she replied, “whenever I’m away for a while and I come back and I see it, I know I’m home.”

So, yeah, the Arch has earned its place in the spotlight. 

Yet, amid all the news coverage, nobody seems to have raised the question I did when I saw the widely distributed picture above.

Did the renovation project’s architect incorporate into the design a replica of a massive acoustic guitar, perhaps as a subliminal tip of the cap to the town’s strong musical heritage? A nod to homegrown guitarists like Chuck Berry and Billy Peek? Or as an homage to the National Blues Museum, which calls St. Louis home? Did the designers slip one past the goalie to honor our hockey team, the St. Louis Blues?

Nobody seems to know, or at least, they’re not telling. So I reached out to the renovation project’s architect. 

So far, I’ve gotten no reply.

I then put the question to that always reliable, modern-day Oracle at Delphi: the Internet. On a Facebook page devoted to St. Louis landmarks, I stated that what I saw in the photo sure looked like a big guitar to me. I asked the group if this was:

A: intentional

B: unintentional.

C: a figment of my overactive imagination.

(I've learned over the years to frame the wording of Option C this way, as it as it diminishes the embarrassment of people actually calling me a stark raving loony.)

Plenty of people responded. In the 48 hours after my posting, 36 people had shared my post, and nearly 300 had commented. Many chose Option C, as in “crazy.” A few others thought it was “B,” unintentional. 

But quite a few thought I had discovered something. Someone named Paul Beck wrote, “Maybe one of the designers had a fondness for guitars and threw it in there and no one really noticed. Stuff like that happens more often than people realize.”

Mr. Beck and I are not alone. I reached out to one official at the Arch, who replied via LinkedIn, “I thought the same thing too.”

I’m actually having some fun with this, since, through the years, I’ve always been someone who has taken pleasure in debunking rumors.

When all of my friends were ruining their stereo needles in the late 1960’s by playing Beatles records backward in an effort to prove “Paul is Dead,” I was the one saying, “Guys, McCartney is alive, and probably will be playing sold out arenas until he’s 76, when he will sound like, umm, McCartney at 76.”

I was always pretty sure Elvis did, indeed, leave the building in 1977. I didn’t think much of reports that The King was later seen staffing a register at some QuikTrip in Memphis, ringing up processed meat sticks and cups of coffee-to-go.

I think Oswald acted alone.

But while my “left brain” logical side is dismissing this Arch-guitar notion, my “right brain” view has me a little charged up. I’ll tell you, there is a certain “rush” to having possibly discovered something that no one else has. I feel like Louis Pasteur.

And while my “find” isn’t on par with discovering the principles of microbial fermentation, unlocking the mystery of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance or discovering where Hoffa’s buried, it is quite fun.

So I await an answer from the architect.  

Either I’m ONTO something, or I am ON something. Either I’ve stumbled onto a neat little find, or I’m completely full of Ted Drewes.

Meantime, if you find the answer, please contact me. I’ll be with Elvis at that QuikTrip in Memphis, enjoying some dark roast and jerky.

Till then, as always, thank yuh. Thank yuh very much, for reading.