Author: Josh Renaud

I'm the Emperor of the Renaud Empire, which is to say that I'm the husband of a Boliviana and the father of three daughters and one son. When I'm not conquering lands and expanding borders, I'm a developer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Find me on Twitter (@Kirkman).
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Joseph recaps his (and our) 2024

[Each year I ask the kids to write “a paragraph” about their year which I can include in our Christmas newsletter. This year Joseph turned in nearly 650 words. I couldn’t use anywhere near that much in print, so we’re running it here instead. Below is his lightly-edited, but unabridged, account.]

I turned 14 this year. Now I’m in high school. Great. This year I had to perform at the UMSL Des Lee concert with like 50 random people I’d never met. Fun. Now, whatever person decided to pick the clarinetist at the bottom of his class, well you should reconsider your life choices. It was kind of fun I guess.

Joseph and Josie were selected to play in the Des Lee Music and Arts Festivals at UMSL in February.

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Missed the guitar concert? Don’t fret

This spring, Yoli and the St. Louis Classical Guitar orchestra performed their program “World Dances Across Time” in two venues. I made a video of their April concert, which was special because it also featured a quartet premiering several new pieces commissioned by Dan Rubright, who played unique classical guitars built by the luthier Alvin Fry.

Please watch/listen! I think you’ll especially enjoy their finale, “Take On Me”.

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John Becker, the WWI cenotaph, and fudged paperwork

The name “John A. Becker” is listed on the cenotaph at the Soldiers Memorial in downtown St. Louis.

Joseph and I visited the Soldiers Memorial in downtown St. Louis this weekend. We looked at the cenotaph with the names of World War I dead, and I saw “John A. Becker”. I wondered if this was my great-great-great-uncle John A. Becker, who was beaten and robbed in November 1917 while he was on leave in Chicago from the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. He died a few hours later in a nearby building.

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Renaud winter performance wrap-up

Josie holds flowers after a performance of “Nevermore.”

In early November, Josie made her high school acting debut in the role of “Sissy Clemm,” the teenage bride of Edgar Allen Poe, in the musical “Nevermore.”

She, and all the STEAM High actors, gave a wonderful performance. Poe’s life is pretty depressing, but Josie did a great job of showing Sissy’s lightness and spark. She looked at home on the stage.

A few weeks later, Ludi performed for the final time with Miss Kathey’s Academy in the “Christmas Is…” shows held in Orlando and St. Louis. She’s been part of MKA for seven years, and has grown enormously in her confidence and stage presence each year. It was bittersweet to see her on this stage with these folks for last time, but we’re thankful for she’s been able to have this amazing experience.

Ludi holds flowers after a performance of “Christmas Is…” in St. Louis.
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Riding bikes in the Thanksgiving parade downtown

Joseph and Josh take a selfie on Market Street with the Arch in the background, just before the BWorks group began riding in the parade.

About a year and a half year ago, Joseph earned a new bike through the BWorks program in St. Louis. Since then, he and I have enjoyed a number of biking adventures through BWorks’ alumni rides, including riding the Riverfront Trail, and then canoeing back downtown.

But this November, BWorks sent us a very unexpected last-minute invitation: Did we want to ride our bikes in the Thanksgiving parade downtown?

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