Time Traveler

Like I posted last week , I attended a wedding of my nephew in Sullivan, Mo. this past weekend. It was a good time and seeing family is always....well most of the time an enjoyable experience. On our way home we took the time to visit the area of Texas County, Missouri where my book, The Holders, Missouri Beginnings is set. I seen the old farm place, the shop where my uncle cut hair and the little country store that I got my first taste of a one stop county store. Just like Wal-mart Merl had just about everything you would need, plus the post office! These pictures are glimpse of my childhood growing up and learning to be what I am today. From The Town Square in Summersville, to Gaston's store, to the old farm, I took the time to stop, get out of the car and remember what it was like to ride down the lane to Grandpa's house while standing up behind him as he drove the team home from Gaston's store. My Grandpa A never drove a car, he had only one eye. He always said he felt to drive a car a man needed two good eyes. He lost his eye as a young man. He always wore a pair of dark green sunglasses with the lens out covering the good eye. He would every once in a while take out his handkerchief and clean the dark green lens over the eye that was blind. Grandpa A had a sense of humor. I've often heard it said that a sign of a mans success was being able to keep his pipe going as long as the tobacco lasted. Grandpa would take his time and slowly pack his bent stem pipe from his "Prince Albert in the Can" tin. He would light the pipe using a strike anywhere wooden match and he'd smoke it for several minutes until it was going good. Then he might take a nap. Us children would set and watch as he slowly nodded off. We knew he was sleeping cause a small dribble of spit would slowly seap from his lip just where the pipe went into his mouth. The dribble would ever so slowly roll down his chin and just as it was about to drop off on his shirt he would come awake suck it all back into his mouth and puff on that ole' pipe. Sure enough the thing was still burning. Grandpa A may have never driven a car, or flew in an airliner, but he was a very successful man. He was the image I seen of Michael Holder in my book. He was not a very tall man, 5 foot eight or so but he was a giant in my eyes. He married my grandmother and together they had seven children. They raised them in that time between the First and Second World Wars, They waited as three of their four sons answered the call to arms in World War II, The fouth was to young, he was 10 in 1941. Then again as two of them fought in Korea. Most of those years were on the farm, the setting where Sam Holder built his mule farm.

Things will always change, that is a fact of life. It was a bitter sweet afternoon for me. Memories of shooting my first squirrel, the hours spent walking behind my Dad as we hunted for frogs or rabbits. Fishing the old farm's ponds and in later years going hunting by myself or with a friend. I even took my wife to the farm one weekend...that's the topic of another blog entry! I was a little sad to see a house on the place, especially since it's setting right where my character Sam had his camp. My wife Judy came to my rescue, she held me a little and told me that things that don't change get stale, and my memories are much better because of the way things are. Summersville is a very quiet little town with a lot of vacant buildings. Houston has been by passed and most of the town's businesses are along Hwy 63. In my memories they will always bee thriving little bergs with lots of people in the streets and on the sidewalks,

One of the new businesses in Houston is the Twist and Shake. The best little ice cream place in Houston! There is a real "Holder" running that operation and I'm here to say its the best soft ice cream you'll ever lick on a cone! Its right on the main road on the north side of town. Matter of fact if your coming from Rolla on Highway 63, its right there at the north Houston City Limits sign. My book is on sale there! Stop in and have some ice cream and get yourself a copy!