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My Home Town

My home town, St. Joseph, MO, is one of the most historically significant places in the country. It was the last major hub before early settlers headed out to expand West. Enriched with beautiful architecture, much of the downtown areas buildings and districts are in the National Register of Historic Places. There are distinct museums to visit, each with its unique character. The Pony Express began, Jesse James met his demise, and Lewis and Clark played a significant role here. Relive history with a short visit of St. Joseph through this video. The church in St. Joseph has always reminded me of the Cathedral in Saigon. My forefathers came to the area during the early to mid-1800s. Maybe some day I’ll share some of the family stories about their very, very wild adventures back in those day.

What’s your home town like?

Enjoy! 🙂

Bob

3 comments to My Home Town

  • Kenneth R. Yeager

    What is a home town? I know that many of the SKs settled down after college and marriage, but I didn’t…..my job had me continuing to roam. Is Titusville, Florida my home town – I lived there for a total of two years, worked as a cop there but then moved one. My folks are buried there, but my sister lives in a small village north of T’ville. My son in Casselberry. Is Grosshansdorf my home town? It’s where I live now and it is home, but is it my home town. I don’t know.

    • Ken – I know what you mean – LOL – “Where is home”???

      I was born in St. Joe, but we left there when I was about 4 years old – only returning for a few days on vacations to visit family every few years. Then I returned for a couple years after I got out of school. Then again a few years ago, just to be around *family* so I could *get to know* my family which I’d never really known because of a life of travel *wandering* the world (Side note to Frank – that old song “The Wander” seems to come to mind – lol). I’ve found it interesting that the majority of my relatives (on both sides of my family) have never been more then about 100 miles from home. Many to this day *refuse* to fly on a plane – I have a hard time understanding that – lol. But, they are all *good ol’ country folks* who still believe *family* is everything and are of a mind-set that right is right and wrong is wrong – and, there ain’t no inbetween.

      For the last 150 years St. Joe has been a place of *the haves* (5%) and *the have nots* (95%). The *haves* own and control everything. The *have nots* work for the *haves* which involves continuing cycles of employment followed by ‘lay offs’ and unemployment. So one day I was at a family gathering where many where complaining about the BIG lay off at some factory they worked at. They’d been laid off for over a year trying to get by on unemployment compensation, etc. So, I asked, “well why don’t you move some place else where there are jobs?” Suddenly, they looked at me with *shocked* looks on there faces as they said, “This is our HOME! We can’t leave here!” … to this day I’m still pondering that thought.

      If the place I was born is my home town, then St. Joe would be *home*. But, then if the place where I lived the most total number of year is *home* then it would be Hawaii.

      Yet, there are still so many places to see and visit, and so many adventures yet to be experienced. Will I ever stop my *wandering* ways … I doubt it!! 🙂

      And, when I arrive at each new place, they will still ask me, “where are you from?” … and I’ll never really have an answer to that question – LOL.

      Born to wander … Bob

  • Kenneth R. Yeager

    In January of 2010, I have been living in Germany for 10 years with six of those years in Grosshansdorf. This is the longest I have ever lived in one place and we are still in the same apartment that we rented in May 2004 when I retired. I guess that since this is where my wife and I chose to live, it is now “HOME.”

    Let me describe this “dorf,” or village. It is located just off the A-1 (Autobahn) about halfway between Hamburg and Lübeck and our digs are about 300 meters from the A-1 (too close) as the crow flies, according to Google Earth. The dorf is kinda “U” shaped with three parts – Schmalenbeck, Kiekut and Grosshansdorf. It is it has these names because they are the names of the three U-Bahn (subway) stations that are here. The Kiekut station is 477 meters, again as the birdie flies, from our house. (NOTE – I say house and apartment interchangeably….it is a free standing house but with two flats…we are the bottom flat but we have the garden/yard, garage, carport and basement storage.) There are two primary schools, a junior high and a high school in the dorf, plus a police station, volunteer fire department, a hospital known for its treatment of lung problems, and a German Red Cross station (engaged mainly in helping elderly folks). Kiekut, in addition to the subway station has an Italian restaurant (not half bad), a bicycle shop, a newspaper/candy store, hair dresser and a flower shop. Up the street is a gas station. Oh, and we have the town hall. Schmalenbeck has a large grocery store (part of a cheapie chain), bakery outlet, doctor’s offices, pharmacy, banks, and a few other shops along with my pedicurist. Grosshansdorf (proper) is the main shopping area with a couple of grocery stores, bakery, a konditorei (pastry shop), flower shop, banks, wine/liquor store (note – once can by all sorts of beer, wine and liquor in grocery stores in Germany), and more stuff too numerous to mention…Oh, an ice cream shop and three restaurants (Italian, Greek and “international). My wife and I seldom shop in any of the local grocery stores as we do most of our food shopping at the twice-weekly market in Volksdorf (a suburb of Hamburg), about 20 minutes away by car. We do our banking in Ahrensburg along with a number of other shopping activities.

    For some reason, Germany is packed with pharmacies, physical therapists, doctors and dentists. What we don’t have is a sauna, closest being in Ahrensburg, to which we have only been to twice in our six years here. Despite our being retired, we never seem to have the time…weird, huh?

    I guess my three months in Frankfurt sort of takes any wanderlust out of me since I occasionally do have to travel. If my part-time job requires me to fly somewhere, fine, but if it is up to me, I’d never set foot on an airplane again. Besides the generally unconfortableness(?) of an airplane (especially in cattle class), I just hate the security stuff, especially in the U.S. As someone wrote in a blog, the TSA people at the security check points are just a bit above the McDonald’s workers when it comes to smarts (I will probably piss someone off with that remark…actually I have more respect for the McDonalds workers). So if I can’t get there by car, I don’t want to go.

    As I was getting ready to retire I had second thoughts about living in one place for the rest of my life. Having what I assume is a certain amount of Gypsy blood in me (figuratively speaking, of course – I don’t believe I am related to any Gypsies or Roma), the idea of being in one place for more than four years was a bit scary. Well, that fear is long gone. I don’t even want to move and I know we will have to some day when the yard work gets to be too much for my old bones, but as long as I can continue to handle my 700 lb. motorcycle, I guess I can continue to push a lawnmower, rake leaves and acorns. Besides, I like where we live. Yesterday, the weather was perfect and we had guests for the German tradition of afternoon cake and coffee. We sat on the terrace and enjoyed the cake, tea (no one drank coffee), birds fluttering around and the squirrels scampering in the trees. Today it has done nothing but rain.

    So, to answer my own question, Papenwisch 26 B, 22927 Grosshansdorf is home. Gisela is here, my motorcycle is in the garage here, and we are settled into a place that is warm, Gemütlich (comfortable ambiance) and filled with our treasures and pictures. Or to put it simply, this is where I hang my hat so it must be home.

    I hope everyone has a nice Sunday.

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