Through the Years

"She listened to her heart above all other voices."
                                   ~  Kobi Yamada

Two very special people are celebrating their 69^th wedding anniversary this month.  From my perspective as their child, I could not have asked for a more loving home.  But this is their story.

Dad grew up on a hard-scrabble farm, the second-youngest of fourteen kids.  By the age of six, he was responsible for driving the meager herd of cattle out to the pasture every morning and rounding them up every evening to earn his keep.  He really did walk three miles to school every day - not wearing shoes until the weather turned cold in the fall – and never missed a day.  One of the few possessions he kept from his childhood is a certificate of perfect attendance from his grade school.  He felt that education was his way out.

Tracy at six years of age

Mom was a city kid, starting school at Fremont Grade School in St. Louis.  She was artistic, and once got in trouble for collecting colored paper in the alley behind a nearby dry cleaners.   Following her grade-school years, she was boarded out with various family members until my great-grandmother eventually brought her to live permanently in her loving home.

Dorothy at six years of age

Dorothy, eighth grade graduation from Fremont Grade School

Tracy and Dorothy met in high school, where he was a sports star.  Dad once had an invitation to try out with the St. Louis Cardinals, but couldn’t afford the spikes and new glove that he would need.  A high school coach encouraged him to continue his education. 

High school sweethearts

Married in 1948

Mom was – and still is – a strikingly beautiful woman.  She has always been outgoing and supportive of others, and it is no surprise that their stars crossed.

Marrying young, money was often in short supply, but love never was.  Armed with a high school diploma, Dad first taught in a one-room school, where some of the “kids” were nearly the same age as he.  He continued to teach in Missouri during the academic years, while he and Mom both attended Western New Mexico University for seven summers to complete their undergraduate degrees.  Dad eventually went on to complete a Master’s Degree in Education.  Four years after their marriage, while they were still "commuting" to summer classes in New Mexico, I came along!  They both worked various jobs to support themselves and their young daughter during those years.  I can still remember getting up at dawn and riding in the car to pick up my Mom at the hospital when she finished her overnight shift.  Dad, at various times, worked as a police officer and a school janitor.  He often said that all jobs are honorable if you do your best.  Both of them took full course loads every summer, and worked full time, but they arranged their schedules so that one of them was always available to be with me.  And they did it all with a smile and a happy heart.  On top of everything else, they were terrific tennis players. 

One of Dad's many jobs, at a Sinclair gasoline station

Dad's first teaching job, in 1948, in a one-room school.
"Mr. Brown" is pictured in the upper left.

Dad and me, sometime in 1953

Summer of 1954, in New Mexico 

Dad would spend hours playing checkers or cards with me, but he never “let” me win – winning had to be earned.  I never became an expert at any game, but I learned to be a gracious loser.  Dad sees the world clearly.  In his eyes, there is a definite “right” and “wrong”.  One summer, he was teaching a PE course at Western New Mexico.  It just so happened that he needed a PE credit, so the chairman of the department told him to sign up for his own course.  At the conclusion of the course, he gave himself a “B.”  Because of a sinus condition, he couldn't hold his breath and swim underwater as long as he expected of his students.  He didn’t feel that his performance merited an “A” and he would not give himself any grade he did not earn.   That incident fairly sums up my Dad.

Graduation, 1959.  Mom got her Bachelor's, Dad got his Master's degree

Tracy Brown, circa 1959

Mom never met a stranger.  She exudes an understanding warmth that others instantly recognize.  Whether it was as a teacher, who saw to it that one child got a dime to buy ice cream like the other students (some 20 years later, that girl told me the story) or as a caring and sympathetic stranger who sat up all night, on a train ride to Albuquerque, while a grieving woman recounted the recent passing of her mother.  Mom is the only person I have ever met who really listens, not only with her ears, but with her eyes and her heart.  You know she is fully present.  She believes you should be kind whenever you can - - and you always can!

Mom finds joy in every day - and everyday things

Both of my parents worked hard and enjoyed their careers.  Dad went from PE teacher to history teacher to assistant principal to principal of a junior high school.  (His school literally had defined “up” and “down” staircases – another example of his clear-cut distinction of right and wrong.)  Mom taught hundreds of kids to read and to write in beautiful cursive penmanship.  She once even taught a football star to knit.

Mrs. Brown's third grade classroom, Manchester
Elementary School   (c. December 1960)

Dad was appointed Assistant Principal at
Parkway Central Junior High in 1961

Mom and Dad visiting the courthouse in Arkansas where they were married.
This photo is from the mid-1960s

Manchester United Methodist Church
directory photo from the mid-1970s

In 2012, Tracy Brown was inducted into the Western New Mexico University
School of Education's Hall of Fame, for a lifetime of work in the field of education.
Dad said that next to his family, he is most proud of this recognition.

Travel was always part of our lives.  From car trips to the Sequoia National Park where a moose once stuck his head in the car window, to visiting a pineapple plantation in Hawaii, to watching fireworks from a gondola on the canals of Venice, those adventures will always be magical memories.  There were trips to Egypt and to Turkey, and a staple for my folks for years was an annual train trip to Scotland, where they stayed in bed-and-breakfasts.

Dad, Mom and me in Hawaii in 1966, the summer before I started
high school.  (And an unknown waitress who photo-bombed us.)

Mom tried her skill at camel-riding at the Pyramid of Cheops
in Egypt in 1988.

On board a cruise ship on the Nile River in Egypt, summer of 1988

Over the years, Scotland and her off-shore islands
were some of Dad's favorite travel destinations

Dad is always in a hurry, and everything he does is at a run.  One summer, on a train in London, he decided that they should be on a different train, and he stepped back onto the platform, just as the doors slid shut behind him and the train pulled out, with Mom still aboard – along with both of their passports, all of their money, and their luggage.  With his persistent nature and her ability to remain calm and not get flustered, they eventually were reunited at their scheduled B & B.  The only repercussion was that Dad, thereafter, carried his own passport and a little money.

Mom and Dad have always been supportive of me.  When I became engaged to a divorced man with two young sons – and, most objectionable to my Dad, a beard – they had some reservations about my choice, but they accepted and grew to love the man, the boys and now their families, including three great-granddaughters.  (It did help, too, that the man eventually shaved his beard.)

Mike, still wearing his beard, at the Lake of the Ozarks
on Mom's birthday in 1989.

Dad and me in Jefferson City in the spring of 2006.  We were there
to fill out the paperwork for my retirement from a career in education

Thanksgiving 2017 - Mom and Dad with grandson Matt and his family:  wife,
Becky, and daughters Allison (next to Mom) and Abby., along with Mike

Thanksgiving 2017 - Mom and Dad with grandson Tim,
his wife, Mary, and the newest great-granddaughter, Zoey

Mackinac Island, 2008.  We took this trip in the fall, because after
Mike retired at the end of 2007, this was the first year since 1948 that
one or more of us wasn't involved with school in September.

On a cruise to celebrate their 60th anniversary in December 2008

Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona, February 2017

September 2011

As much as Mom and Dad enjoyed their travels, their beloved Hidden Valley Farm, which they purchased in 1965 and to where they moved full-time after Dad's retirement in 1980, always beckoned them home.   For many years, there were farm animals:  registered Black Angus cattle, Angora goats, pygmy goats that a daughter brought home in dog crates in the back seat of her car.  There were barn cats and house cats, and a couple of dogs:  Moneypenny,  the sheepdog, and a loving rescue dog named Samantha.  To top it off, for decades Mom and Dad kept our dogs nearly every summer weekend as we went to the lake.  Maggie, litter-mate to their sheepdog, and two Airedales, Fergie and Tasha, were always welcome at the farm.

Cats and cattle populated Hidden Valley Farm

Two sheep and a herd of Angora goats, after shearing.  Mom spun
the wool and hair and used it to knit beautiful sweaters and scarves

Sitting in the shade with our dogs - Fergie, the Airedale
and Maggie, the Sheepdog

Dad loves to sit and gaze out over the farm that he worked for so many years

Mom seated in a chair on our front porch

Today, the farm animals are all gone.  Puff-Puff, the barn cat, and Princess, the house cat, are the only remaining four-footed residents, but visiting wildlife – deer, turkeys, raccoons and birds – are still fed and looked after.  Dad still cuts wood; Mom still knits.  There is still the nightly “best of three hands” of Rummy. 

60th anniversary, 2008, at lunch at a favorite restaurant...

...and on a cruise, where they won the "Newlywed Game" and were celebrities
for the remainder of the cruise (and I learned more than I wanted to know.)

Though he has slowed down a little bit, Dad still cuts a lot of
his own wood...and splits it all by hand

With the animals gone, Mom no longer spins as much as she once
did, but still knits a great deal - and still goes barefoot year-around.

After 69 years of marriage, they still hold hands...

There is a fire burning brightly in the fireplace, and a couple sitting in rocking chairs, holding hands.  There is love.

...and there is love.

I doubt very much if many people have been as fortunate as I to have such special people as parents.  I am proud and grateful to have been a part of their Road Stories.

State Parks at the Century Mark

2017 marks the 100^th birthday of Missouri’s State Parks.  The state’s ninety-two parks and historical sites offer great diversity in both natural and cultural landscape.  The more than 150,000 acres open to the public offer an amazing array of activities.  In addition to hiking, some destinations offer fishing, canoeing, horseback riding, mountain biking, and two offer ATV trails.  Accommodations vary by location and include cabins, motels, lodges, and even yurts.  Over 3,600 campsites are available at forty-one different parks and historic sites.  Twelve parks have dining facilities.  Historic sites include covered bridges, mills, Civil War battlefields, homes of famous Missourians, cemeteries, and heritage sites.

Deutschheim or "German Home" in Hermann.  By 1860, more than half of
foreign born Americans were from Germany.  Deutschheim became a
State Historic Site in 1978

This is the rear of the home, with a German four-square "kitchen garden." 
The style of the home is German Neoclassical. It belonged to the
widow of one of the settlement's founders.

Germans settled along the Missouri River because it reminded them
of the Rhine Valley in Germany.  The area became the home of the
Missouri wine industry.  Some of the vines are over 100 years old

The park system was established in 1917 with the creation of a state park fund to purchase property.  Funding was through the purchase of hunting and fishing licenses, and the park fund was part of the state’s Fish and Game Department.   Six years passed before Arrow Rock Tavern (also known as the J. Huston Tavern), in the mid-Missouri town of Arrow Rock, became the first property acquired by the fledgling park fund.  The first land tract was purchased on October 17, 1924 and was designated as Big Spring State Park.  In 1937, the management of the parks was separated from the Fish and Game Department and placed under the auspices of a newly created State Parks Board. 
 

John Huston's Tavern in Arrow Rock, built in 1834, is the oldest continuously-operating
tavern and restaurant west of the Mississippi River.  It was the first property
acquired by the park fund and still operates as a restaurant with a contracted operator.

Big Spring State Park, Alley Spring State Park, and Round Spring State Park were subsequently recognized as nationally significant and were donated to the National Park System.  The Current River and the Jack’s Fork River are among the very few free-flowing rivers in the country.  Those two rivers and the high-volume springs and associated caverns are important natural features.  In 1964 Congress authorized 134 miles of rivers as part of the National Park’s Ozark National Scenic Riverways, the first-ever national scenic riverway designation.

Round Spring, once a State Park, is now part of the Ozark National Scenic
Riverways. The deep turquoise color is caused by the water being filtered
through limestone. The spring puts out 26 million gallons of water each day

A River Otter enjoys a swim in Round Spring.  In the Ozarks' springs and
subterranean waters live 38 species that are found nowhere else on earth

In 1974, the re-organization of state government created the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which, among other responsibilities, took over the parks from the State Park Board.

In 1985 the extensive work completed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in and for the Missouri Park System was recognized when 247 buildings and 95 other structures located in Missouri’s parks were placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

This picnic shelter, in Bennett Spring State Park, near Lebanon, is a wonderful
example of the work done by the CCC.  This structure is now nearly 75 years old

Bennett Spring is the largest (by volume) spring in any state park, with a flow rate of
over 100,000 million gallons per day.  The water holds steady at 57 degrees Fahrenheit

At Bennett Spring, the CCC built bridges, cabins, trails, roads, a post office,
dining room, and the fish hatchery, as well as this dam

The water from Bennett Spring flows into the Niangua River, which eventually flows
into the Lake of the Ozarks.  Bennett Springs State Park was established in 1924

Ha-Ha Tonka became a State Park in 1978, but originally was the dream of Robert Snyder
of Kansas City, who wanted to build a European-style "castle" to be used as a hunting
lodge on 5,000 acres that he owned.  Snyder was killed in an automobile accident in 1906

Lake of the Ozarks, as seen from the castle. In the lower right corner of the picture, a spring
which once served the castle, feeds the lake; however, the lake did not exist during Snyder's
lifetime. This used to be one of our favorite spots when we were boating on the lake.

In 1967, the legislature directed the State Parks Dept. to preserve the four remaining
covered bridges in the state, including Sandy Creek.  It was the only one of six covered
bridges built in 1872 to allow traffic to move from Hillsboro to St. Louis that remained.

Sandy Creek Covered Bridge at Goldman.  Even after being
designated a State Historic Site, the bridge continued to
carry traffic on the old Hillsboro / Lemay Ferry Road until 1984

First Missouri Capitol, St. Charles.  This building housed the legislature and
governor from 1821 to 1826, while Jefferson City was being built further west.
The state did not own this building; it was rented from a local merchant

The Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site at Florida, MO.  The cabin was moved
from its original site three different times, in 1915, 1930 and 1960.  Samuel L. Clemens
(Mark Twain) was born in this cabin on November 30, 1835, but not on this site

To preserve the cabin, it is now housed inside a building on a high point overlooking Mark
Twain Lake. Some of the furnishings are authentic; all are period-correct. Also in the museum
is an original hand-written manuscript of the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The Katy Trail State Park near Rocheport, in mid-Missouri.  This was the first section
that opened, in 1990.  It is the nation's longest rails-to-trails project, at 240 miles
long by 100 feet wide.  There are 26 official entrance points along the trail

The Katy Trail at St. Charles, nears its eastern terminus.  "Katy" was the acronym
derived from the initials M-K-T, which stood for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas
Railroad.  Headquartered in Dallas, the Katy Railroad operated from 1870 to 1988

Bollinger Mill State Park.  This mill, built in 1865, replaced the original
1800 mill that was razed by Union forces in 1861 in retaliation for an
attack carried out by one of Bollinger's Confederate grandsons.

George Bollinger came to this area in 1790 from North Carolina, with a Spanish
land grant specifying that he settle and develop the land. He brought with him
20 German and Swiss families along with a number of German-speaking slaves.

The Burfordville Bridge is the oldest of the four remaining covered bridges
in Missouri.  Construction began in 1858.  It spans the Whitewater River.

Route 66 State Park was established on the site of the former town of Times Beach, which
was evacuated and razed after being contaminated with dioxin.  A massive EPA clean-up
made the land safe to use. The Bridgehead Inn (circa 1935) is now the park's Visitor Center

Graham Cave State Park near Danville, MO.  University of Missouri archeologists
have uncovered artifacts revealing Native Americans used the cave for shelter dating
back more than 10,000 years.  The cave is sandstone, unlike most caves in the state.

Montauk Mill, a grist mill built in 1896, ceased operation in 1926 when Montauk
became Missouri's 4th state park. This is a turbine mill as opposed to the more
picturesque water wheel mills typically found from this time period.

Montauk State Park, located at the headwaters of the Current river, and fed by natural
springs, is an ideal environment for rainbow trout.  The river is re-stocked each night from
an on-site fish hatchery.  My mom sits in the old-fashioned soda fountain in the lodge.

Missouri is characterized as "the cave state"with more than 5,500 caves
Onondaga was the name of a tribe of the Iroquois and means "Spirit of the
Hills".  Visitors to the 1904 World's Fair could ride a train to visit the cave.

Echo Bluff State Park, one of the newest parks in the system.  From 1929 to 1980,
it was operated as a summer camp, Camp Zoe.  It is located on the clear waters of
Sinking Creek which drains into the Current River, in Shannon County.

The Lodge at Echo Bluff has a stone fireplace soaring 3 stories tall.  It contains
20 guest rooms, each with a balcony and a gas fireplace. The brand-new
park and lodge opened in July, 2016

To access Current River State Park, near Salem, you have to travel a very rough
gravel road, but it is worth the trip. The facility, constructed between 1937 and
1945, was once the corporate retreat of the Alton Box Board Company.

There are 20 buildings on the property, which were originally men's and women's
barracks, a dining room, boat house (on a man-made lake), and a pool hall.
All of the furnishings are original to the property.

The property also contained this gymnasium.  In addition to being a State Park,
all of the buildings, located along a two-mile frontage on the Current River,
are on the National Register of Historic Places.

My Mom and Dad, Dorothy and Tracy, enjoying a beautiful fall day
at Current River State Park.  Though not quite at the century mark,
in a few weeks, they will celebrate their 69th wedding anniversary.

As part of the Centennial celebration, the Missouri Park System made available a State Park Passport (similar to the National Park Passport) that a visitor could have stamped when visiting each of the parks. This is a fun activity and gets a person visiting places one might overlook.  Mike and I made day trips, stopped along the way to and from other destinations, and discovered new RV opportunities.  My Mom and Dad and I have enjoyed time together on day trips and overnights at lodges.  In addition to enjoying natural and historical sites, these park visits have allowed us to enjoy being together and appreciate what the “Show Me State” has to offer.  Through 100 years of the Fish and Game Department, the State Park Board, and now the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, there are plenty of fascinating Road Stories.  

The Dogwood - the Official State Tree of Missouri

The Bluebird - the Official State Bird of Missouri

The pictures shown and the state parks mentioned in this blog are a random sampling of the parks that we've visited in my quest to fill our State Parks Passport.  We've visited others, and there are others yet to be visited.  Watch for more in the future.