Carrollton, Missouri ... A Love Story

I grew up in a little farming town in northwest Missouri. Sure, there are problems with growing up in a small town ... maybe too many people know everything about everything. Maybe it is REALLY hard to break free from how others define you when everyone knows you and everything you have ever done since you were in preschool. Maybe it is hard to find exactly what you need at the local stores, sending you on long journeys to the big city to shop. Sometimes the service lacks friendliness when they know that you have no choice but to shop with them. Maybe. But there are so many great things about growing up in a small town as well. There is a sense of security that comes from knowing your neighbors and knowing that they are looking out for you. There are opportunities to get outside and explore the world without some of the fear that might come about when you don't know your neighbors so well. It seems insane to me as a parent now, but my brother and I walked about a mile to our elementary school when we were in KINDERGARTEN. I would never even think about letting my kids do that today. It still freaks me out a little for them to walk on their own after school when they are in middle school. It's a different world, I guess.

I love my hometown. It is home to me. It will always be home to me. I love taking my family around the town when we traveled to Grandma and Grandpa's house, telling them the happy stories of my youth ... even as Herman kindly smiles as he hears the same stories for the ten thousandth time. But yesterday I said goodbye to my hometown for the last time in a long while. Due to health concerns we moved my parents to our area last winter so that we could be closer and able to easily help them in their times of need. Since that time their home (my home) has sat empty. We couldn't figure out exactly what we wanted to do with it. Sentimentality made us want to keep it. Practicality let us know that it wasn't realistic to hold. After putting it on the market it finally sold, so we made one last trip to the big city of Carrollton to grab some last items for my parents and get the house ready to hand over. Tomorrow I'll take some time to give some love to my childhood home, but today I want to give some to my town.

Yesterday people in the Carrollton area might have noticed a crazy old lady wandering the town, taking pictures of some things that made sense and others that didn't. That was me. I wanted to capture some images of the things that made me love Carrollton. The town has changed A LOT since I was there. So much that I loved is no longer there, a result of an economy that is not exactly kind to smaller town retailers, changing shopping habits, businesses moving from the town center and congregating around the main highway (a trend in all towns that I really, REALLY don't like ... but understand), a more mobile society, and so many other factors too numerous to name. So things are different, but there are still so many things that are part of my childhood memories that I wanted the chance to record them for my children.

So here are a few images of the hometown that I love. Here's to you, Carrollton, Missouri!

I had to start with this seemingly insignificant bridge at 6th and Locust. You know, for awhile sidewalks were not thought to be as important in city planning as they used to be. They can be expensive to maintain, and people don't walk everywhere like they used to. I love the sidewalks of Carrollton. We walked on sidewalks everywhere from our house to the park or the square. This bridge stands on the path we always took when walking from home to our different elementary schools. Many stretches of that sidewalk have gone into disrepair, and some home owners simply planted grass over them. But this bridge still remains. I wonder if communities would take on the expense to build a little bridge like this on a rarely used sidewalk these days. I am glad this one is still there. My brother and I spent many days swinging over the edge of this bridge or running through the tunnel that went under 6th street. It isn't fancy or pretty or anything, but I love this bridge.

My Schools

 

I attended kindergarten and 1st grade at Adams School. Biggest regret ... I told my mom that I didn't want her to walk me inside on the first day of school. I wanted to be a big girl. I REALLY wish that I had let her come inside ... especially now that I am a mom and know just how hard it is to send my babies to kindergarten on that first day.

I can't show any pictures of the two old schools where I attended 2nd through 6th grade because those schools were demolished several years ago. But I was super happy to see that they preserved the name plates off those schools and displayed them at the entry to the football field.

Worst decision ever ... attaching the junior high and the high school into one building. Sure, it is convenient to have the ability to pool some of the special classes like choir and band, but I think it is a horrible idea to give 7th and 8th graders the idea that they are emotionally as mature as older high school students. I feel like I grew up way too fast. Junior high years are awkward and hard no matter where you go. It sure would have been nice to suffer the awkwardness and difficulty without being directly in the shadow of older high school students ... but that's just my opinion. :)

Ah, the glory days of high school! CHS was a spot where I got to experience some great fun and some horribly embarrassing times that I wish I could wipe from my memories. That's life, I guess. But I have to say that I am super proud of the amazing high school where I attended. Small towns can sometimes end up settling for teachers who are just passing through on their way to bigger, better, and higher paying jobs, or suffer from the lack of funding that comes from having a rural tax base. But my school was extraordinary. We had dedicated, talented, and super intelligent teachers ... and I'm not just saying that because my dad was one of them. We had a supportive community. We had opportunities to compete with larger Kansas City schools in sports, academics, music, speech and debate, etc., and we held our own. I never regret the education I received here. 

These are the stands at the football field ... WAY nicer than they were when I was in school. I can still remember picking up trash on the morning after games with Key Club (one of the nastiest jobs ever) and standing on squishy boards in the stands, wondering if my weight would hold on such flimsiness. Nothing quite compares to the fun and enthusiasm of a small town football game.

This is one of those dumb and pointless pictures I took. This was the spot where we parked our '76 Chevy Vega every morning during school. Since we always got there super early for band practices we had the pick of the lot. This was our spot. Isn't it nice that in a student lot full of cars, for some reason the students didn't take my spot?  They must have known I was coming.

The Park

Carrollton has a nice little park, and amazingly, many of the same playground equipment I used to play on as a child is still there. Surely there is some safety hazard in that, but I don't mind so much. It is fun to replay on the items as a slowly deteriorating adult. Here is the park entrance in front of the nice municipal pool. I learned to swim in that pool ... or rather, I didn't learn to swim in that pool. I totally failed beginner swimming lessons ... TWICE. I managed to learn to swim eventually, but I never really recovered from the tragedy of those two failing experiences. :)

I will always associate this piece of equipment with my hometown park. Many a summer day was spent hanging out at the very top of the rocket with friends talking about important things that probably weren't all that important.

And here's the view looking up.

Best BFF swings ever. You could swing like normal with your friend while the whole contraption swung around ... the sort of equipment that would get me nervous as a parent today, but was way fun as a kid.

Another great bridge. We probably could have just hopped over the tiny creek, but this bridge lends a sort of elegance to the park, I think. And it is always fun to just swing your feet over the edge and talk to friends.

Totally a safety hazard, I'm sure, but I still remember how amazingly cool I felt when I had the guts and capability to climb all the way to the very top without killing myself.

This, my children, is what we called a teeter-totter. They don't put these in parks any more. Maybe they are considered safety hazards too. They probably are, but there is nothing like the sense of accomplishment you get when you get your brother way up high on the other side and watch his face of horror as he realizes that you are just going to jump off and cause him to go crashing down.

Another cool bridge. I find it hard to believe that this is still safe after all these years. It always looked a little rickety. But it was fun to race across when I was little.

Love the horse swings!

I couldn't leave Carrollton without one last trip down the tornado slide!

The Square

I love the Carrollton square ... well, to be true it makes me sad to see it now, but when I was growing up it was a thriving spot for small town businesses and great eating establishments. It has one of the more beautiful courthouses I have seen in a small town. Today it is horribly empty. As I walked around the square I couldn't bring myself to take pictures of the empty storefronts or the giant hole in the ground left over after a devastating fire took out a few buildings. As I walked all around the square at 3:00 on a Wednesday afternoon I couldn't believe how many of the businesses were closed for the day. I remember shopping at these stores during the days, eating meals in the evenings, and cruising around the square on weekend nights. No one seems to do that in Carrollton any more. It made me sad. Still I did take some pictures of things I wanted to remember.

I will always associate the statue of General James Shields with the square. You can hardly read my picture of his plaque, but it basically says he was a really important guy that died and is buried in Carrollton.

I had to take one picture of an abandoned building on the square. I think that Roseberry's actually closed while I was still in high school ... or at least shortly thereafter. Now it is empty because of a fire that at least gutted the building next door (you can see the boarded up exterior). It may have gutted Roseberry's as well. My brother and I used to walk there after school when we attended Root School for 5th and 6th grade. They had a counter at the back of the store where you could buy flavored sodas and things you think of when you think of an old fashioned drug store counter in the old days. Loved it!

This is a really old building on the corner of the square. My memory totally fails me, but I think that this is the jail ... maybe. Luckily, I never had to visit it in person, so I can't pull up any experiences to remind me what is housed in this building. I should have checked it out as I took the picture.

The old courthouse bell displayed outside the building.

This was not my library when I was growing up. When I was growing up this spot was a giant hole in the ground, but someone generously donated a large amount of money in order to build this amazingly beautiful library building. I adore this. It makes me want to donate my estate to the city to build beautiful buildings to replace the crumbling ones on the square after I die ... but I don't think Herman is on board with that. (But I still have time to convince him ... maybe). My parents loved the Carrollton library. My dad served on the library board for many years. Before their health began to fail they went there every week to borrow books. I am so glad that Carrollton has this spot.

Other Things

There are lots of things that I cherished when I was younger that I didn't have the chance to take pictures of. I really loved the local movie theater. I remember seeing some of my favorite movies of my youth there. One of my youngest memories was of seeing Superman in the theater. For some reason I remember that because I remember the Browning family sitting right in front of us and Mrs. Browning reached over to cover up a baby's ears as the music played. I don't know why I kept that memory, but I'm glad my town had a little theater to show relatively new movies locally. Theaters don't really work that way any more. Bigger is better. I am a bit nostalgic for the smaller theaters of yesteryear. Holy Cow! I'm starting to sound like an old person! Moving on ...

Carrollton has the most beautiful post office I have ever seen. I can't remember the story about the history of this building, but I love looking at this huge structure. It is hard to believe that Carrollton has enough mail to warrant such a large post office, but I am sure proud of it.

I have always loved this little church that sits right off the square. A year or so ago I drove by and noticed that it was in disrepair with peeling paint and broken windows. It made me a little sad. It was the Episcopalian church, I think. Hard to imagine that there were a ton of Episcopalians in Carrollton, but there must have been enough to require a cute little church like this. I was happy to see that someone has sided the place in the past year. I love all of the churches in the Carrollton area. There are some beautiful places of worship there.

I had to take a picture of one of those buildings. When we first moved to Carrollton my family attended this Methodist church. I think it is so beautiful with the stained glass windows and the neat masonry outside. This church sits on a street next to several other churches. It is a peaceful stretch of road in the town. I loved hearing the local church bells peal every Sunday morning when it was time for church. I wonder if they still do that. I don't hear anything like that in my town today. It is a sound that makes me happy for some reason.

Ah ... Mulch's. Spot of my first real job ... if you don't count the weeks during the summer when I hoed beans or worked at Pioneer helping pollinate corn (or something like that ... I was horrible at it). I have a huge scar on my thumb to remind me of my time there. I sliced it open on the meat slicer in the deli. Ick! Some of my good high school friends worked there beside me. I became a fan of country music after being subjected to it day after day in the break room. And I became a super good sacker. To this day I cringe when super market baggers mix cold meat items with fresh fruit. 

Heading into the south side of town. You can see evidence of the farm presence in this town with the grain elevator in the background there. Don't be deceived by the speed limit sign. It is actually ...

Does anyone in Carrollton (besides my mother when she was driving) actually drive the speed limit? I know the people driving by my parents' house on Ely drive a whole lot faster.

I never ate at Burger Bar when I was growing up. I don't know why. [So ... I guess I should edit this and offer a tiny bit of explanation since facebook chatter shows that there are a few out there that seem to take it personally that I never ate at Burger Bar growing up and think that is the weirdest thing ever. My family hardly ever ate out. We couldn't afford to. When we did eat out it was a special occasion  ... usually during a trip out of town. Unlike the eating places on the north side of town, Burger Bar was not exactly on my walking route, so I never had occasion to go there on my own. I still managed to have a lovely childhood, despite me lack of the Burger Bar experience.] But I did have ice cream at Dari Maid. Now the two businesses are combined in one. I had to stop by one last time to get an ice cream on the way out of town.

The new building is on top of the old Dari Maid, but here is the old Burger Bar building with its iconic sign.

The Brown Derby half eaten. Sorry for having to display my enormous thumbs. 

I love the old train depot building at the south side of town. You can almost see the place where passengers would have gotten on and off trains in the old days.

Seems fitting that we would meet a train blocking traffic on our way out of town. I'm sure others found it annoying, but I always loved the sounds of the train horns blowing that I could hear from my house growing up. 

So there you have it. This is just a tiny snapshot of my hometown. But, you know, it isn't the buildings or the businesses that make Carrollton my hometown. It is the people and the experiences of my youth. Overall I would say that I had a fairly ideal childhood, and I count myself lucky that I could spend my childhood in a town like this.