Linda's wonderful garden in LaRussell, MO.....

It started out rainy yesterday but by the time we had driven to LaRussell (about 40 minutes) the rain had stopped and the heat was moving in.  It was a beautiful morning in our friend Linda's yard.  She works so hard on this but it's her "happy place".  I know how she feels because I feel the same.

LaRussell is a very small town where we spent several years when my sisters, Judy and Mary, and I were young.  Our parents owned the local mercantile and my dad, because we lived in this house, was mayor.

It was a wonderful environment to grow up in and we made many life-long friends.  It's still a wonderful little town full of many really good people.  We love going back for visits especially when we get to roam around Linda's yard.

Behind this flower bed is where our grocery store was originally.  Someone has made it into a home now.  So good to see the building being used.

 

More of the yard....

 This was a shed that Linda inherited from Mr. Graff.  He lived in the farm next to where she grew up.  It is so cute and I informed her that if she would put in plumbing, I could live out my golden years here.  She's done so much work to it and the inside is perfect for spending an afternoon with a good book.

 Linda and her friends, Sandy and Jim Pharill.  Sandy writes a gardening column for the Joplin Globe.

 

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 It was just the perfect way to spend a summer Saturday.  We drove through the countryside the rest of the day and so enjoyed it.  I'll close the post with one of our surprises.  Judy got out and stood in the weeds for this shot.....hope she didn't get chiggers!

Have a wonderful week!

Monday morning ramblings......

It's been a couple of crazy busy weeks in my world.  With fall open house at Leola's, my friend, Barbara, coming for a visit from California, and reunions in both Sarcoxie and LaRussell it's been a whirlwind.  Oh, didn't mention that it was mine and my sister, Jean's, birthdays.  Think I'll take a couple of days and just do nothin'!

Barbara flew in on Friday evening (yes, her arms were tired) and we left early on Saturday morning to go to Sarcoxie to see old friends and be a part of Chief Sarcoxie Days.  We lived in LaRussell for 5 years when I went to grades 8 through 12.  Our high school was in Sarcoxie.  It's always fun going back and reconnecting.

This next picture is of Judy (sister) and our friend Barbara behind one of the old buildings in Sarcoxie.  When we lived there, it was such a vibrant little town.  So sad to see it so dilapidated.

On Sunday we headed to LaRussell.  It was a beautiful weekend and a great day to set in the little park and enjoy our old friends and the bluegrass music.

I'm sorry but we thought this sign was so funny.....

There were 4 of the "Routh girls" at the reunion....Mary, Jean, Judy and myself.

It was such a fun little town when we lived there.  There was originally a train station and several wonderful old buildings.  Our parents owned the mercantile which burned while we were there.  It was rebuilt using ugly concrete blocks and has long been closed.  It does still have a post office.

 

This is the pump in the middle of the street which is always decorated by Linda Whitehead Heman for these occasions.

 



Our good friends, C.D. & his sister, Sue, lived in this house with 13 other family members.  Would love to know who built it.  It has such different architecture for LaRussell.  The first picture is a horse shoe that was embedded in the sidewalk.  They said it was there when they moved in.

This is C.D. visiting with Judy and me.  He now lives and works in Montana and North Dakota but comes home every chance he gets.  He's had more life experiences then anyone I know.

 This is his sister, Sue.  She still lives close by.  Her parents house is now empty but she still owns it.  We want to go inside so bad but she says it's in too bad of shape.

These are a few more of the little buildings around LaRussell.

There's so many rocks in this soil that they used those as cheap building material but can you just imagine how long it must have taken to build this.......& how bad your back would hurt?

We're so lucky that the weather has finally improved.  Cooler temps and nice rain showers over the weekend.  It's feeling very fall-ish so think I'll go in the back yard and cut sweet annie.  It's just beginning to turn.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Changes......

The summer before my 8th grade year was when my dad announced to us that he had purchased a general store in LaRussell and we would be moving there.  It was a town of 100 people that had a 2-room school with an outhouse and a pump to get a drink.  Our teacher, Mr. Henry, was elderly, chewed tobacco & had very few teeth.  There were only 2 kids in the 8th grade that year -- me & Freddie Whitehead.

It wasn't as difficult a transition as I had thought because the town was full of really good, decent people who made us feel at home.  It was just so different from Springfield. 

This is how our store looks now.  It's empty and dilapidated like most of LaRussell.  This is not the original store.  It burned while we owned it and was rebuilt.  It was a wonderful old building that had our store, a feed store, dentist's office and the post office.

This is the pump that sits in the middle of the street.  Once on Halloween some of the boys in the area put an outhouse over it.  Now there is an effort to save the pump.  The county wants it removed but the people who live there have stood up and said "no".  Last year on Thanksgiving night they had a pump-lighting and strung Christmas lights all over it.  They've created a FB page and have printed t-shirts.  One of the elders in the community wrote an amazing story about coming home from WWII and seeing the pump in the middle of the rode and what it symbolized for him.

While we were in LaRussell at the reunion, we went to visit Mr. Graff.  He's lived in the same house on the same farm for all of his 92 years.  He led the music at our little church and has always been held in the highest regard.  We had such a good visit.  When we left his house, the moon was up and full over his barn.

This is the LaRussell Baptist Church.  This is where Mike and I were married by Rev. Chester Waggoner.  It is so good to see that it's still well tended and services are still held here.

It's so strange how you take for granted little changes in your life.  That move totally changed the direction of my life.  I can look back at it now and realize how lucky I was that we moved there.  I'm certain that the most important effect it had on me are the people from there who are still such a big part of my life.

It was good to go back and see people I hadn't seen for ages.  It was also good to have them tell me that they remembered me and my family and that we were valued in that community.  What more could you want.