Chili and I are back from the Bootheel. I put 373 miles on my car on this trip. We drove down Friday morning to Malden, where I dropped off Chili at my grandparents' house to spend the day. I brought Chili's doggie bed-pillow with us and plopped it down on the sunporch, hoping she'd take the hint. She did just that, as I found her there when I returned several hours later. She behaved herself nicely while I ate dinner with my Dad's family in Risco, MO. My aunt and uncle recently moved to a newer home next door to their old one and it is a very nice house indeed. I enjoyed catching up with my cousins C & T whom I hadn't seen since last Christmas. My cousin T has changed jobs and is advancing in his career in airport management.
The topics of conversation at Matlock holiday dinners can be at once enlightening and entertaining. Yesterday was no exception. Somehow we started talking about the sprinkling of tiny farm towns that dot the landscape of the Bootheel of Missouri. It turns out that the town of Canalou, MO, off U.S. Highway 60 is a town with only an entrance road, no exit road. If you somehow stumble on the town, you have to turn around on the same road you came in in order to leave it. My dad related the story of Penermon, MO which I didn't quite understand so I won't repeat it here. He made us all laugh by telling an allegedly true story about a house in that village that had an old-fashioned floor furnace. Some USDA inspectors had reason to be in that house at some point and during their visit found the occupants roasting a goat on the grate of the floor furnace. Um, OK.
My Aunt E. brought some issues of The Singing News, the official journal of Southern Gospel music. I read through them at length and was surprised at how many SG groups there are traveling the country. I guess I didn't realize that at all. I think someone who read my jazz magazine would react the same way.
Chili had much fun running around outside and getting lots of lovin' from all of us. I know my Papaw's spirits were lifted a bit just having her around. I made myself useful by sweeping off their driveway this morning before I left.
My mom and I had a nice visit with the Cook family on our way out of town. The entire "herd" (as Kmom put it) was present at their house - Cooks In Kansas and their greyhound Marsha (who didn't mind meeting Chili), along with sister Whitney and her baby Sammy.
Chili must have really tired herself out during this trip - she rested with her head on the center console armrest in my car almost the entire trip home. She's been dragging since we got home as well.
3 comments:
the kmom family was happy to host chili and her humans and hopes for a longer visit next time by all concerned
Read your story about your Bootheel trip. Being born in Canalou in 1933 let me tell you if from there you know 4 exits from that town.
Question: How far back do your Risco relatives go? Were any there in the mid-50's and were they basketball fans? Did you hear about the Canalou/Risco brawl?
It was 1957 or 1958.
I looked it up on the map and I think you are right...oh well.
My family at large is from the area but my aunt and uncle have only lived there for about 25 years or so. My late grandfather was from Blodgett and their family is from the sikeston area and points east and south.
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