I remember FLW very well. When I was a kid living in SW Missouri during Vietnam, they had one of those big double-rotor copters flying either to or from FLW, and it apparently developed engine trouble, so it made an emergency landing in the parking lot of a motel in our little town, about 40 miles west of FLW. I remember the whole town coming out to look at “the Jolly Green Giant” … even had its photo on the front page of the next edition of our small county newspaper!
Yep, finally moved out of Springfield back in '89, right out of college, and would probably be stunned to see what it looks like now, 30 years later. Back then it was one of the fastest-growing cities in not only MO but the U.S. for its size (130K pop., IIRC - Bass Pro Shops and O’Reilly Automotive started out there) but based on the last few censuses it seems to be going downhill in pop. now. In any event, I bet it’s still blessed with a CHEAP cost of living, which was a very big plus to it back then.
Reminds me of going about 80 miles due west of there on I-44 when I was in high school, to Joplin. Back then you could go across the border to Kansas, and drink at just 18 (before the federal law hit) So, the liquor stores and bars were ready for ya as soon as you crossed the line. I remember one time also getting lost on a side road off the main drag (66 Highway) on that side of the border and running across a “massage parlor” or “relaxation station” (= whorehouse) in a big mobile home there out in the woods. Nobody would even suspect it would be there if they did’t know how to get to it. I wondered how many drunk teens ended up being “directed” to that place … One thing I didn’t like about KS was that it has no law requiring that places that serve food also have a public restroom. Wondered sometimes if I should threaten to go out behind their building, or something … Don’t know if it is still that way today, though. One good thing about KS is that it did not require a front license plate back then, either.
Ha, as a basic training troop I didn’t get the luxury of seeing the strip except when leaving and I didn’t stop to look back Springfield was my stomping ground but lived about 20 miles south west deep into the Ozark woods (I went to Hurley High School with 12 classmates). Left in '70 so its been a long time but had relatives there so took many trips back, last time about 5 years ago. They are all gone now but 3 cousins. Soon there will be no evidence in MO that our family ever lived there except tombstones even tho our family history goes back to the 1800s.
pauls
“Those days are gone my friend we thought they would never end”…" the resonators and engine that just helped him go right to sleep as Jane held him IN HER ARMS. When he was small he would SIT ON THE CENTER COUNSEL and SHIFT THE GEARS for me as the three of us took the car to a local Tastee-Freeze "
NOW we have car seats and seat belts. So, all the above family interaction…IS GONE.
Very nice story to remind me of the interaction I had with my Mom and Dad…but those days are GONE.
Yep remember the KS rides too. Lived in KC for a year and had 3 roomates that would make the run. Didn’t like beer, still don’t but they called it 3.2 beer, do they even make it anymore? A big chunk of my family lived in the Mt. Vernon area so not far from Joplin.
pauls
That’s where I lived from age 4 to 13 or so … GO MOUNTAINEERS! When I moved out of Springfield ('89) I was working nights in a popular Mexican restaurant there … at that time we still had that 3.2% “water” beer … As did OK and, IIRC, Arkansas … Only booze you could buy on Sundays (or was it order in restaurants?), IIRC. You could drink 6 of those and still hardly get buzzed … The “Blue Law” was a way of allowing people to technically still drink w/o getting the Sunday crowd in an uproar.
While doing business in the Bahamas in 1978, I flew on a DC-3 many times with Bahamas Air, the national airline for the Bahamas. On board, in the overhead racks, were chickens headed to the out islands. The planes could land on short runways and were extremely reliable, but slow. In 1978 I flew on a C-46, the cargo version of the DC-3. Rough trip but fun.
Large sections of Arkansas never adopted the repeal of prohibition. We live in a dry county. No liquor sales in stores, but you can buy a beer, wine or mixed drinks in some restaurants. It was initially odd to walk into a grocery or "C " store and see no beer coolers or spirits and wine displays. The next county to the East is wet, At the Blackwell exit just over the county line are several liquor stores. I suspected most of my students would be hard pressed to find Togo on a map of Africa but could probably tell you the exact mileage to Blackwell.
This thread has probably drifted far enough off topic to be moved to the Pub. It reads to me like some of the participants may have already been there for most of the evening…
Mitch,
I don’t think I want to be responsible for inflicting some of the content of this thread on the Pub audience. I suggest that anyone who feels that they may have gone too far in a post in this thread, simply delete that post. Anyone can delete their own posts by clicking on the three dots at the bottom of the post, and then clicking on the trash can symbol.
-David
In that case you may know my cousin’s wife Judy Goodman she taught school in Mt. Vernon all of her adult life. Serious thread drift here but cool to see how paths cross.
pauls
Wow Well, funny when I moved down here from MO back in ‘92 … I fully expected to see “saloons” (bars, not cars ) on every corner here, given Texas’ history. Instead, I was stunned to discover that, like Arkansas, we have dry and wet counties here, and even in the mostly dry ones (I guess?) there are liquor “oasises” where liquor stores can be located, but only in those very small “zones”. If you wanted to order alcohol in a restaurant you had to show a “Unicard” in order to do so. Those cars are (were?) a joke, in that they only showed you paid a small annual $ fee to the state for the “permit” allowing you to order alcohol. Texas eventually allowed beer and wine sales in grocery stores (except on Sundays or after midnight ) a few years ago if a county - like Dallas - approved it. I guess the idea was that if potentially-impaired drivers are going to drive great distances to obtain liquor, then might as well keep it as close to home as possible to minimize chances of accidents in transit.
Until just a year or so ago the neighborhood I live in Houston just a couple of miles from downtown was completely dry. Very small area probably less than a square mile. One of the big grocery store chains came in and bought some high price property and got it put on the ballot to change the area and it passed after about 100 years of being a dry area. So yes it can be very strange here in Texas.