On a hot July day more than a hundred years ago, my grandmother was born in St. Joseph, Mo. Although Granny has been gone from us for many years, we still mark her birthday and remember. Until her death in 1980, it was her custom to spend most of July with our family in Neosho and so summer has never quite been the same without her presence. Although St. Joe was always “home” for her, Granny liked Neosho as well and enjoyed her annual visits in both July and at Christmas.

Her other favorite south Missouri destination was Branson, long before Branson exploded into a mega vacation spot. In the years when Granny and Pop made a yearly trek down to Branson, they spent most of their time on the porch of their rented cabin enjoying the breezes off Lake Taneycomo. They enjoyed the quiet and rural aspects of Branson back then and the changes to Branson would amaze as well as dismay my grandparents. A few of the constants remain — Dick’s Five and Dime was a favorite stop — but many other favorites have changed almost beyond recognition.  

Neosho has changed, too, since the time Granny spent here. There is no longer a Mayer’s Chalet where she delighted in a pineapple sundae, a cool vanilla shake, or a Big Beef sandwich. There are no more Sterling’s and Ben Franklin discount stores on the Neosho Square. Jerry’s Cafè on the Square where I worked when I was 16 is no more.

When Consumer’s Market opened in 1974, Granny found it the most modern, cleanest, well-stocked supermarket anywhere. Mode-O-Day on the Square is just a memory and many younger residents will not even recall that ladies-ready-to-wear shop on the south side of the square. She liked to visit Evan’s Place and shop at the cavernous, seemingly huge Johnston’s True Value Hardware. There is no longer a MFA grocery, Foodtown, Safeway, or Pruitt’s Market. And, the old Intermediate School is now senior housing.

However some things, good things, have remained the same. Big Spring Park has changed little. Although many former businesses are just memories, Neosho has many new places that my Granny would approve. With her fondness for dime and discount stores, I know she would like the Dollar General and the Dollar Tree. The size of the current Wal-Mart Super Center would boggle her mind. Her favorite Mexican hot tamales, seldom available in Neosho of the past, are on the menu at El Charro.  
Intermediate is a memory but the other schools her Neosho grandchildren attended are still here and she would find her great-grandson’s new Carver Elementary magnificent.

She never visited my current home or that of my parents, but I know she would find my home far more than satisfactory. It would please her that I live in the same
neighborhood as my parents as well, much the way that her sons lived nearby in the old neighborhood in St. Joseph.

Her numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren are scattered from Chiang Rai in Thailand to Alaska to the old hometown and Neosho as well as many places somewhere in between. Most of us, if not all, think of her daily and as one cousin remarked on the anniversary of Granny’s birth, we wish for her wisdom in these troubled times. As someone born in the 19th century who watched the advent of everything from automobiles to sliced bread, a survivor of two world wars, and shaped by life experiences, we know she would have sound advice.

Those of us who had what the same cousin calls “the training” are well equipped to deal with whatever life throws our way, all due to my remarkable Granny whose birth we remember each July.