A mom slowly loses grip of her impatient kindergartner in one hand while hats, gloves, and coats are piled in her other hand. The line is long and little Susie’s patience is short. Little Susie knows that If a kid can step off the line just a little and stretch to the tops of her tippy toes, she might be able to get a glimpse of the guests of honor.
The bar had closed for the night and the employees are finally sitting down for a break. The ideas that come after the bar closes aren’t the ones we expect to be great. But Sonja had a great idea. And it would turn into a 7-year (and going) tradition of serving the southern Holt County, MO community.
Take a look at some of the pages in the photo above from a local newspaper out of Mound City, MO. They cover all the local towns, including our town of Oregon, MO. In two pages, you can see all those values that small towns cling to. The importance of family, history, faith, giving, and civic duty are all covered here. There are fundraisers, free lunches, anniversary announcements, local church info and history from decades ago.
Something very special happens on the courtyard in Oregon, MO every 2nd and 4th Thursday. Everyone in the community is invited, but usually a handful or less make their way to the gazebo at 12:30pm. Community member, Theresa Mackey, saw the need for the meetings back in March of 2021. Our community and the world was in the midst of the Covid pandemic and felt division and isolation.
Both Christmas Around The Square and the Christmas music have become traditions that I look forward to every year. I will tell you more about Christmas Around the Square in a later blog post. It is amazing. But, there are many traditions here, big and small. Traditions are both new and old, with some repeated for decades.
One of my favorite things about small town life is a small town restaurant. Undoubtedly, I know many city dwellers who will travel a long way, down a curvy blacktop road, in the middle of nowhere to get to a small town cafe. The reason? The food and the atmosphere of these little places can not be beat.
Everyone can agree that we don’t want the fair to go away. We want our grandkids’ grandkids to feel the same excitement we do! We also don’t want kids sports, the town events, the pretty flowers, parks, etc to go away. Everyone has to pitch in. Many hands make light work.
Hector Sabates called his puppet show, “The Smallest Show on Earth”. But it sure didn’t feel like the smallest show on Earth! People, young and old, gathered inside the barn behind the Holt County Museum.
Watch for deer could be one of the most uttered phrase in rural small town Midwest America. Parents urge their teenage drivers to watch for deer as they head out of the driveway. Wives remind their husbands on the way to work. The words were on the inside of a glass door in a former restaurant. You couldn’t miss it as you were leaving.
Katy Morton had to fight for her life this past year. Katy struggled against covid beginning October of 2021 and still has life altering effects, including the loss of her toes. But, you can’t tell the hard times she has been through by her personality and positive outlook on life.