“I live in my small home town Warrensburg, Missouri. I choose to live here after being gone for nearly 40 years. It is easy to live here. Last night coming from having cocktails with friends, I was stopped at a railroad crossing by a freight train for 18 minutes… freight trains and Amtrak are on the rails that run right through the middle of town, all day and all night long. I had my sun roof open, Leonard Bernstein’s Candide Overture was playing on my Sirius Radio, and the train crept slowly by me and I felt happy that this, truly is, as LB wrote – the best of all possible worlds…”
I wrote the above paragraph two years ago. I have been stuck on the next letter for this Blog for months – having thought of “H” words that would have been provocative but not insightful on any level – except perhaps only in my mind. So, here is Home Town, Warrensburg, Missouri…
Growing up here was simple – it was the late 1940’s so the war was over, it was the 1950’s so it was Eisenhower as President, jobs were mostly held by men in industrial or agricultural occupations or in the skilled trades. My situation was different, my Father was a Dean at our local college so I went to the College Laboratory School on the college campus instead of the public school. My Dad drove us to the college every morning and I walked home from school every day. Sometimes, I would stop at the Rexall Drug Store downtown and have a green river or I would just go directly home and my Mother would fix me a Pepsi and maybe some popcorn. We didn’t have Sesame Street or other children’s programming – well mostly because we didn’t have televisions! (Do I sound “old” now…?) And we played outside in our neighborhoods after school until we went home for dinner.
My parents often hosted dinners at our house on an inclusive basis. We had international students from around the world, we had faculty from all disciplines, and we had neighbors and other friends from the community. I was always included and learned so much about other cultures and global perspectives. Looking back, I see those events as salons – where a lot was talked about and many slides were shown when people had taken fascinating trips!
School was likely as normal as an elementary school was in the 1950’s, however there were not many of us at College Laboratory School so our classes were small. We took the four R’s, but had music, art and physical education classes every day. Those classes were held other buildings on campus and we thought nothing of walking outdoors to our classes.
We went to assemblies with the college students every Wednesday in the large auditorium the Administration Building on campus. We probably didn’t know of the folks we heard speak or perform at those assemblies but I know now that it was people such as Aga Kahn, Bennett Cerf, Bea Johnson, the Norman Luboff Choir, Eric Sevareid and others who came to campus.
I, of course, attended College High School on the campus – it was an experience certainly in the early 1960’s. John Kennedy was President and Lyndon Johnson was Vice President. We took English, History, Science and Math classes. We had a girl’s glee club and a boy’s glee club. Most of the boys played sports. We were all part of a stage performance every year, from the Nutcracker to a not so famous operetta, Love Pirates of Hawaii! We had Homecoming activities, Snow Dances, and junior/senior proms. We had a Student Council and the National Honor Society. Some were cheerleaders and some were avid Pep Club members. We had a Chess Club, and other special interest clubs to keep us busy mostly after school. Many of my classmates were the children of military personnel from the Air Force Base that is nearby. We also had classmates who came to our school from a nearby K-8 school in a nearby town. Again, there weren’t very many of us and we all seemed to get along splendidly!
And then, President Kennedy was killed. I was a senior that year and Editor of our yearbook, The Rhetorette. The day of the assassination, we were having pictures taken for that yearbook – it was a solemn day. We had closed circuit televisions in many rooms and we all gathered together and heard the announcement. It was a Friday, November 22, 1963. We couldn’t have anticipated how the United States would change in the coming years.
And then there was college – unlike you might expect, I went off to the University of Missouri my freshman year. I flunked out. This small town girl wasn’t ready for a big university, very savvy “city kids” from St. Louis and Kansas City, a French class that began at 7:30 every morning and walking miles to get there, a dormitory full of lots of girls and a huge shared bathroom. So, my sophomore year I returned to Central Missouri State College, lived at home but felt much more comfortable (and I so dislike that word) for the next four years or so. During those years I met friends who are still friends today. I finally mastered the French language, minored in French and went to school for a semester in Dijon, France. I became a Sociology major because the curriculum spoke to me. I ended up with an English degree because of all the classes I had to take to bring up my down hours. But graduate I did, finally, met my first husband, and ended up getting my MA in Sociology.
I was a hippie for sure, I learned to be a good bridge player, I loved the theater and the music that I was exposed to in college, I learned about the world, I learned about politics, I learned about law, and by the time I really got myself out into the real world I was prepared. Prepared to accept the process of learning for what it is. Growing up in a small town had its benefits certainly. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
I am still friends with most of my high school classmates. Prior to the pandemic, we gathered every year for a day of friendship and talks about how lucky we were to have had our experiences together. There is one of us that still remembers all the words to Love Pirates of Hawaii….We live all over the country now, all retired from some astonishing careers, are great grandparents but still hold our home town close.
I was 50 when I returned to Warrensburg – the year Lady Diana died. After getting my PhD in Administration and Management from Southern Illinois University, I had a very successful and long career as an administrator of nonprofit, employment and training organizations and working with state and federal governments and educational institutions in the field of public policy. So, I have been back in Warrensburg for 24 years. I started my own consulting business in 1998 and have been very successful with great contracts until recently when my favorite word has become NO.
I have been very happy to be home, actually in my parent’s house that they built in 1964, around people that I have known my whole life, around so many new friends, involved in the community in so many ways, involved with the college that has become a university. Someone suggested that I am a legend. I accept that label.
When I returned though, a man that I have known my whole life asked me, “Why did you move back HERE?” I answered, “Why did you stay here?” I’m pretty sure our answers to that question are the same.
…and I know where the airport is!