The Kansas City metropolitan area spans the state line between Kansas and Missouri. Kansas City, Missouri, is larger than Kansas City, Kansas, though both are part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Statistical Area. There are actually fourteen counties in the Kansas City MSA, nine in Missouri and five in Kansas. […]
Continue readingTag Archives: Missouri
Spring Floods and the Oregon Trail
Here in the Midwest, we are experiencing serious flooding this spring. St. Joseph, Missouri, one of the prime “jumping off” points for the Oregon Trail, has had worse flooding this year than in any year in its long history. On March 22, 2019, the Missouri River reached 32.11 feet at […]
Continue readingAnother Treasure: Photo of My Husband’s Relatives, 1950
Last summer when I cleaned out a cupboard, I found some treasures. One treasure was a picture of my husband’s parents, paternal grandparents, aunt and uncle from the Marshall Democrat-News. The picture was republished in the January 24, 1989, edition of that local newspaper. I found it in an envelope […]
Continue readingThe Santa Fe Trail at Stanhope, Missouri: Historical and Family Significance
A few weeks ago, my husband and I were driving through Saline County in the farmland around Marshall, Missouri. His family owns land in the county, and although they have lived in town for a couple of generations now, they still speak of “going to the country” when they drive […]
Continue readingJesse James—Robin Hood or Rogue Criminal?
The History Channel recently reported the anniversary of Jesse James’s birth in Clay County, Missouri, where I now live. Jesse was born on September 5, 1847. I’ve done a lot of research about 1847 for my novels, examining locations from Missouri to Oregon, but I hadn’t encountered any reference to […]
Continue readingAnother Treasure: “Brought a Girl Home to Mother”
My last post contained some pictures I found as “treasures” from my cleaning projects. This post is about another treasure—a postcard my husband sent his great-aunt after our first trip together to Missouri, my first trip ever to Missouri. I’ve written about this visit before, the first time I met […]
Continue readingAshes to Ashes: Requiem for a Tree
We moved into our brand new house on a block of other brand new houses in October 1984. Within a few weeks after we moved in, the city of Kansas City, Missouri, planted trees in the parkway up and down our street. My husband and I were both at work […]
Continue readingGoogle Alert on the Oregon Trail: The Small Pleasures of Being a Writer
I have set up a Google Alert for references to “Oregon Trail.” Every week in my email inbox, I get a list of internet articles referencing the Oregon Trail. My purpose in setting up the alert was to keep up on what is happening along the trail. Most of what […]
Continue readingSounds of Cicadas
Many memories are triggered by milestone anniversaries—things that happened five or ten or twenty-five years ago. But this memory of mine returned because of a seventeen-year anniversary. The seventeen-year cicadas are back this summer. It’s been so rainy that I haven’t been outside to hear them much, but the news reports […]
Continue readingTime Is Ticking
I wrote a few weeks ago about preparing for the bar exam. I revealed in that post that my husband and I both passed, but I didn’t write about the difficulty of the exam itself. In the summer of 1979, the Missouri Bar held the bar exam for aspiring lawyers […]
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