| THE BUCK STOPPED WITH HIM (excerpt) |
| By Carole Kayes Schaefer |
| In 1947 as the '48 election loomed, Truman's electability was poor. The liberal Democrats split from the party becoming the Progressive Party and nominated Henry Wallace for president and the Dixiecrat Party nominated South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond. The undivided Republicans nominated Governor Thomas Dewey of New York. Even Democratic civil servants began selling their homes in DC. |
| Reprinted from Marshall Writers' 2023 Anthology |
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| LOST STORIES (excerpt) |
| By Rayvin Sidney Freeman |
My head is filled with words
Filled with stories
Stories that demand to be told
To be taught, to be preached |
| Reprinted from Marshall Writers' 2022 Anthology |
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| SHOW ME MUSIC (excerpt) |
| By Sidney West Sullivan |
Countless musicians --
Enough to flood the soul
While time's insistent drumroll
Touches all Missourians.
Twenty decades gone
But the melody stays
And the heartland sways
As the beat goes on. |
| Reprinted from Deep Roots in Missouri © 2021 |
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| MY STORY (excerpted) |
| By Sharon Eiker |
| This summer Sam Dyer and I went down to the river to watch the fish swim by at Miami. The water was out of its banks. "Sharon, you know the river owns the land between the bluffs." We visited Mount Carmel Cemetery and remembered the night Nelson Weber called Sam and told him the church was burning. We planted flowers on Nina's and Mary's graves and paid our respects to IG and Pete Dyer. We passed the Dyer Place and drove the back roads of Saline County. Sam pointed out where Pearl and Sadie Thompson had lived on the back of the Dyer Place. Sam and his twin brother were called Sadie's twinsies. He pointed out where the lane had been and the house. All gone now but fresh in his memories. |
| Reprinted from Diverse © 2019 |
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| CONFESSION OF A PACK RAT (excerpted) |
| Betty Sue O'Dell Simonson |
| If you have moved twenty-two times as my late husband Ray claimed, you have lost many valuable possessions. You may no longer have your baby shoes encased in bronze, your high school yearbooks, or your first clip of hair from the barber. All of your grade school art work has been trashed for sure. You probably won't bother to save the button that just fell off your shirt. You have eliminated all but the bare bone necessities. That is good. Always good to lose weight! More | |
| Reprinted from Write On! Fact and Fiction | Past and Present © 2018 |
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| DANCING ON MORROW STREET (excerpted) |
| By Penelope Brooks Callaway Athon |
| Somewhat unnerving, the scene reminded me of a moment from the movie, The Birds. Then they rose as one, moving in formations, dipping and swooping together. First a circle, then an oval, and finally a teardrop as a few dropped closer to the earth. | |
| Reprinted from Saline County Structures and Stories, Volume II © 2017 |
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| TENT CITY: Marshall POW Camp (excerpted) |
| By Edward Richards |
| Development of POW internment camps in Missouri started in 1942. There were four base camps: Fort Leonard Wood and Weingarten (Ste. Genevieve Co.), Camp Clark (Nevada), and Camp Crowder (Neosho). In addition to the four base camps there were twenty-eight branch camps in Missouri. More than 15,000 prisoners populated the Missouri camps. | |
| Reprinted from Saline County Structures and Stories © 2016 |
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| THE MOST INTERESTING PERSON I WILL NEVER FORGET (excerpted) |
| By Holly Forsman |
| At the August Marshall Writers' Guild meeting, the AARP suggested topic of "the most unforgettable person I ever met" presented a challenge to me because, well, I'm not an AARP fan. The first week I turned 50, AARP sent me a loud and clear "invite" to join when I happened to be living with a man who thought I was a few years younger. The more I thought about AARP, the more I wondered why they didn't use their considerable lobbying clout to do more for seniors while raking in big bucks from big pharma advertising for their AARP magazine. | |
| Reprinted from On The Street Where You Live © 2015 |
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| UNCLE GEORGE HAYOB'S MARY LOU THEATERS (excerpted) |
| By Virginia Sprigg |
| Movies were becoming very enterprising in the early 1900s. Thus Uncle George decided to open a movie theater. His wife, Mary, had a niece named Mary Lou. Mary Lou was the daughter of Lena and Henry Bertman. Henry Bertman was in the grocery business at the time Uncle George's theater on North Street, the Mary Lou, opened. To honor the family he named the theater after his wife's niece. | |
| Reprinted from Notes and Notables of Saline County © 2014 |
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| NUMBER, PLEASE (excerpted) |
| By Trish Kleine Borgman |
| The 1950s (whether early or late) -- my thoughts go immediately to Rosemary Gibbons, my dear childhood friend and our daily walks home from school. Living in Slater then was idyllic for two young girls in grade school. Of course, the environment looks quite different through a child's eyes than an adult's, but I recall the impressive maple tree-lined streets and giant two-story houses of our trek, all of which gave a special home-like secure feeling to little friends sharing their day's activities and future dreams. It seemed we could never get enough conversation in, and as we parted, each having a block or two left to our respective homes, the familiar announcement rang out. "Call me when you get home!" | |
| Reprinted from The Late '50s, Marshall and Elsewhere © 2013 |
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| TIMES WERE CHANGING FOR FAMILIES IN MID-MISSOURI (excerpted) |
| By Edgar Phillips |
| Grain crops were corn, wheat, oats, and barley; soybeans, a major grain crop today, was not widely grown then. In 1950 Father retired his one team of horses and did most of his field work with a 1938 WC Allis Chalmers, which had no lights or power steering, and was hand cranked. In the spring of 1950 he bought a new WD Allis Chalmers. He put a short tongue in the two row planter and five foot mower and bought Woods Bros. one row pull type corn picker and stopped picking corn by hand. We shoveled all grain. | |
| Reprinted from The Early Fifties, Marshall and Elsewhere © 2012 |
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| POLIO: THE DREAD DISEASE (excerpted) |
| By Andrea Hatfield |
| In the 1940s Poliomyelitis became a worldwide epidemic -- a disease greatly feared by parents because it most often afflicted young children, causing symptoms ranging from minor aches and pains to muscle paralysis and even death. Survivors of polio were often crippled for life. In 1949, my grandparents' fears were realized when their eight year old son (my father) was diagnosed with polio. |
| Reprinted from The Forties © 2011 |
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| LOOKING AT IT |
| By Melanie Dees Campbell |
Feeling Lower Than Low,
Banknotes Called In,
Farm Foreclosed.
No Work, No Hope,
Movin' Home,
Nothing, No How,
Round The Table,
Family Sharing Stew,
Hopeful Hearts,
Together Making Do,
For A Better Tomorrow. |
| Reprinted from The Great Depression BitterSweet Days 1929-1939 © 2010 |
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| THE PLAQUE: (excerpted) |
| By Jacob Hatfield |
| It was a cool day. Crisp, and gray. A light breeze whispering from the west.Dull green February grass sparsely covered the hilltop. I stood. Staring. Glaring. A weathered plaque in front of me.The Plaque was faded, like the day. But it was vibrant. It told of a battle. A raid. A victory for one. And a loss for another.An era of turmoil. Brother against brother. That was the mantra. That was the tale.I looked. I saw. Two battle formations described on the Plaque. One blue. One gray. A Union. And a Confederacy. |
| Reprinted from Saline Silhouettes © 2009 |
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| OBEY YOUR DADDY (excerpted) |
| By Katie Sharon |
| I had recently retired from many years of teaching. During that time, I had seen and read about so many children in home situations that I knew should be different. Then I noticed a feature article in the Marshall Democrat News about CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates, for children. Intrigued, I made inquiries and signed up for the training. So much information, so little time! |
| Reprinted from More Marshall MOments © 2008 |
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| HOME TO MARSHALL (excerpted) |
| By Susan Long |
| Our Voyager van sailed along the highways from Iowa where we'd participated in the memorial service for Jim's mother. She'd been almost 98 when she died, two months ago in August, just a few weeks after her extended family had gathered for a reunion. That reunion was the last time many of us saw Mother. It seemed like the end of an era. |
| Reprinted from Marshall MOments © 2007 |
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