December 22, 2009

Now: Today I traveled to the southeast corner of Missouri for an appointment. It was a five hour drive thru "Lap Land". For those not familiar with this part of Missouri don't bother looking on the map. Even the latest edition of Rand McNally does not show "Lap Land". It is the area along the southern border of Missouri where Arkansas "laps" over into Missouri. It is difficult in this area of the state to differentiate between the Missouri and the Arkansas Hillbillys. :-) A prime example of this is the name of the first business I saw in the historic district of Cape Girardeau. The name is, and I kid you not, "Rufus' Mud Sucker Liquid Lounge"! I can just imagine what the speciality drink is in that fine establishment!! LOL

Then: The year I started kindergarten we still lived in the house on Lincoln Street in Monett. I met "R" in school. As it turned out, his aunt was our neighbor. We soon became good friends. One beautiful, warm sunny day "R" and I were playing outside. Eventually, we grew tired and sat on the curb in front of our house. My new friend and I began playing with the valve stems of my Dad's car, he at the front tire and me at the rear. The noise of the air leaking out was almost intoxicating. At the tender age of five we did not understand the concept of airing "up" a tire until my Dad came home from work. "R" was not there for that part of the "education" of course but I NEVER let the air out of a tire again! :-) This was the beginning of a long friendship as "R" and I graduated from high school together 13 years later.