Missouri Hospitality

Missouri Hospitality

One cannot help but notice some similarities (and differences) between Arkansas and Missouri in the layout of the land (similar) to the degree of Unionism and Road Production (different), to other intangibles I am still mulling over. I grew up in Arkansas and hear many similar night time noises in Missouri, smell the air and get a sense of childhood, and yet it feels more...shall I say it, Yankee? The people seem a bit more northern, a bit more liberal, yet hang on to many of the aspects of rural life as it permeates both states peoples. In Arkansas one feels as though the people of the city just got there and haven't shed their country ways. In Missouri it feels more like Alexandria Virginia was uprooted and part of it's population resettled here, including the health food stores, the College nightlife pubs, the eateries and the massive structure around disposing of garbage.

One cannot merely throw away trash, nor even discard a bag of recycled trash. One must haul it to public bins and sort the plastic paper and glass, take other reusable jugs in to local stores and buy water at 25 cents a gallon out of vending machines that pour it in your jug, and the food waste?...well that's between you and your conscience. Pay a garbage man a fat fee or compost it in the back yard.. To do all that trash juggling takes a filing system during evening meal clean up, with one pile of food waste going one way, the plastics and papers two others, and living under the constant fear of letting anything not scheduled to going in the real trash can.

But one can't complain the place isn't tidy and well kept can they? The other unusual shortage I found in the town of Columbia is a complete lack of fly swatters. Our first week here saw outside construction on Susan's house, putting new siding on the older trim and wood surfaces. Many flies found their way in the doors till the house was all abuzz. I asked Susan if she had a fly swatter and she replied no she did not. I figured it a friendly gesture to pick one up for her, so the next time I was out and about all the round-abouts they have at every other street corner here, I stopped in to a dollar store. Sorry, fresh out. Target...nope out of stock. Groceries? Half a store full of vitamin shelves, a section for incense, but no fly swatters. I was beginning to think there was some sort of local cultural live-and-let-live attitude about flies in this state. Susan then explained to me this was the reason she had no fly swatter, she couldn't find one either. Hmmm. I did not give up. Finally at a Tractor supply place on the edge of town, in the horse care section I found fly swatters 2 for two dollars. I bought four. Sean and I got to work in an orgy of cephalopod murdering frenzy; the flies literally dropped like flies. We broke one swatter and kept on going, ten, twenty, a hundred, it was an insect Armageddon. It was good to sit down to a meal again without looking for enemy aircraft coming in for a strafing run.

Its family night and the group gathers for some Dungeons and Dragons board game played till the wee hours of the night. Left is Nikki, (that is Susan's son Robert's Girlfriend. Susan sits in the middle with Bob to the right in the red vestments robe.

On the other side of the table are my nephew Noah left and Robert, Susan's son on the right. Noah is the Game master, the others the characters in their


imaginary world of non-computer generated play. Its funny to think of Dungeons and Dragons as old fashioned, but that it is these days. Getting the kids away from the computer to socialize is harder than it was in the days of the TV. Everyone is off in their own virtual world from their phone to their game system to their PC. Interacting with fellow human beings is becoming a rarer and rarer evening pastime. Of course, I sit here typing on a computer giving others advise on social interaction. Duh.

So they play D and D while Sean and I enjoy a bit of quiet time in our room which is a bit over-crowded with our stuff right now. I feel like I am urban camping to be honest, but with a very nice set of Park Rangers to care for us as we sack out.

My bed is a army cot with several quilts and a bag of dirty laundry as a pillow. It is really quite comfortable though I tend to step on Sean when I get out of bed at night to powder my nose. He sleeps on the air mattress to the right of the bunk. That's about the size of it; small and a bit cramped at the moment. Sean got two job interviews today while I tried to coat a brick with plastic polymer. This job at the nursery is beginning to give me room for doubts about the sanity of the project. 1000 bricks. Polymer that is finicky and difficult. A laser to cut brick with. Am I in an episode of Buck Rogers and don't realize I'm fictional?

To the right Robert and Noah are taking Sean to a shooting range where he is learning to fire his Grandfathers Mausberg 500 which is a fancy name for a Sears Shotgun, as well they fired other exotically numbered firearms with tough sounding military names. They are apparently expert dirt shooters since the target range has no targets to shoot at. There are plans in the works for a big wild Farrell pig hunt this fall. If Sean is as lucky at hunting as he is at fishing, we will have piglet giblets at least for one breakfast after that.