Missouri Life December/January 2013-2014

[ WINSTON WONDERL AND : THE CHURCHILL MUSEUM]

a few of our

THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY

FAVORITE

THINGS

Paintings and teapots and holiday bling

15 Caring

Causes

12 Historic

Churches

10 Skating

Rinks

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Contents DECEMBER 2013

featured >

[19] MO MUSIC St. Louis band Spelling Bee works as hard as it rocks. The members are writers and radio DJs, too.

[78] SHOW-ME FLAVOR The man behind Cravings Restaurant and Bakery shares recipes that will have you craving more.

[26] A STROKE OF GENIUS

[72] SHOW-ME HOMES

Bryan Haynes has crafted many murals for Missouri companies, such as Nourish for Novus International in the St. Louis area.

Built by one of St. Louis’s most notable architects, the Shank home has been restored and houses some outstanding pieces of modern art.

[101] MUSINGS ON MISSOURI

special features >

It takes skill to take a joy ride in an old clunker.

[30] PUT FUN ON ICE Looking to sharpen your broomball skills? Wondering what broomball is? Find out as we skate some of Missouri's most intriguing rinks.

[34] COUNTRY CHRISTMAS CHURCHES Tour twelve stunning Southwest Missouri churches. Each one is lavishly decorated for Christmas and more than a hundred years old.

[40] WINSTON WONDERLAND In 1946, Winston Churchill gave a historic speech at Westminster College in Fulton. Today, one of the most impressive museums in the state stands there.

[46] A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS Shop local, and give the perfect gift all without leaving your home! Check out

special section > [54] HOLIDAY SHOPPING GUIDE Every corner of the state has a nice shopping area.

Pick an appealing one, and make a day trip there.

[70] CHARITY GUIDE This season, help those who need it most by donating to a few organizations that are doing good in communities across the state.

our gift guide featuring all Missouri-made products.

[84] HOLIDAY FOOD GUIDE

[58] MISSOURI LENDS A HAND

Savor these holiday food ideas, meats, wines, and more. Dine out at a few delectable restaurants.

Learn more about these fifteen outstanding nonprofits that are making a difference in communities across the state, and see how you can help.

[96] TWO REMARKABLE MISSOURIANS

[88] 21 BEEF AND WINE PAIRINGS One of four people in the world to be named both

Janet Moreland takes a 3,700-mile trip down the Big Muddy. Plus, few can top

Master of Wine and Master Sommelier, Doug Frost

Jack Steppelman’s Christmas decorations and holiday spirit.

pairs twenty-one beef dishes with Missouri wines..

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Contents

CONTENT BY LOCATION 17

MONTH 2013

30, 58

departments > [10] MEMO [20] SHOW-ME BOOKS

easy, but we ended up with a work of

Root around Missouri River Country, or

art. Plus, we learn anew how travel

get to know some shady strangers in

broadens our perspective.

the latest book from Richard Burgin.

46

14, 23, 30, 46, 46 58, 72, 58 46 40 30 78, 81 46 30 30, 46, 46, 58 46 58, 99 34, 81 58 58 81 30, 58 14, 58 46 58 46 14 46

30 46 30, 58, 46

This issue, selecting a cover wasn’t

46 46

And check out four more books.

[12] LETTERS Readers reflect: performing with the

[76] PRESERVE MISSOURI

[103] ALL AROUND MISSOURI

piano at the Capitol, growing up in

The Premium Saltine Cracker wasn’t

Get out and go visit arts and crafts

Missouri’s state parks, and a fan from

always an American staple. Frank L.

shows, try bird watching, attend a

Queens, NY. Plus, find out how you can

Sommer invented it, and now his St.

1920s-style speakeasy party, and don’t

help with our new state parks book.

Joseph home is at risk.

miss holiday celebrations galore.

[14] MOMIX

[81] DINING WORTH THE DRIVE

[122] MISSOURIANA

Join the Jam in Southwest Missouri, explore a boutique with southern flair,

Try some down-home catfish, mouth-

icy winters in the ninteenth century;

carol in the Lou, and explore Missouri’s

watering pies in an old bank, and a hip

some things never change.

skies with an amateur astronomer.

chocolate bar.

People were complaining about our

– THIS ISSUE –

On the Web

Sign up for Missouri Lifelines, our free e-newsletter, and follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MissouriLife or on Twitter @MissouriLife.

CHRISTMAS CHURCHES

THE VIRTUAL MCCLURG JAM

MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR

We have all the information that you need to

If you can't make it out to the jam in South-

We are thrilled to have won “Magazine of the

participate in this year’s Christmas Country

west Missouri, watch our video, and read one

Year” at the 33rd Annual IRMA Awards. Read

Church tour on our website.

fiddler’s story.

more at www.missourilife.com/IRMA2013.

Shop our Missouri Store!

Procrastinators, fear not. Missouri Life

T-shirts are the perfect gift for everyone on your list. Don't delay. Order yours at www.MissouriLife.com.

on the cover> WINTER ON GRAND ARMY ROAD This stunning, snow-soaked piece by Bryan Haynes was the first painting to be featured on our cover since the current owners revived the magazine in 1999. It is a 12-by-18inch acrylic painting on canvas and a gorgeous example of Bryan’s unique take on his home state, Missouri.

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John Knox Village East

THE SPIR IT OF DISCOV ERY 501 High Street, Ste. A, Boonville, MO 65233 660-882-9898 | Info@MissouriLife.com

People love living here.

Publisher Greg Wood Editor in Chief Danita Allen Wood EDITORIAL & ART Creative Director Andrew Barton Art Director Sarah Herrera Associate Editor David Cawthon Associate Editor Jonas Weir Special Projects Editor Evan Wood Associate Art Director Thomas Sullivan Graphic Designer Taylor Blair Calendar Editor Amy Stapleton Contributing Writers Tina Casagrand, Jim Diaz, Winn Duvall, Doug Frost, Kathy Gangwisch, Suet Lee, Jeremy Myers, Sheree K. Nielsen, Barbara Gibbs Ostmann, Jessica Walsh, Jim Winnerman Columnist Ron W. Marr

Ask us about this surprisingly affordable retirement option.

660-584-4416 • www.johnknoxvillageeast.com • Higginsville, MO

Love living here.indd 1

Contributing Photographers Jeremy Myers, Jim Diaz, Harry Katz, Sheree K. Nielsen, Alise O’Brien

5/30/13 1:31 PM

MARKETING •800-492-2593 Sales Manager Mike Kellner, Central and Northeast Senior Account Executive Dale Monteer, St. Louis, South Central, and Southeast Sales Account Executive Paula Renfrow, Inside Sales Advertising & Marketing Consultant Brent Toellner, Kansas City and Western Advertising Coordinator Jenny Johnson Circulation Manager Amy Stapleton DIGITAL MEDIA MissouriLife.com, Missouri eLife, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest Director: Sarah Herrera Editors: Taylor Blair, David Cawthon, Jonas Weir, Evan Wood Missouri Lifelines: Evan Wood

Events Rolla Christmas Parade

Dec. 7

Breakfast with Santa

Dec. 7

A Folk Christmas

Dec. 13

SNO-GLO 5K

Dec. 13

Thodos Dance Chicago

Jan. 25

Presented by Ozark Actors Theatre Presented by Leach Theatre

Presented by Leach Theatre

TO SUBSCRIBE OR GIVE A GIFT AND MORE Use your credit card and visit www.MissouriLife.com or call 800-492-2593, ext. 101 or mail a check for $19.99 (for 6 issues) to: Missouri Life, 501 High Street, Ste. A, Boonville, MO 65233-1211 Change address: Visit www.MissouriLife.com OTHER INFORMATION Custom Publishing: For your special publications, call 800-492-2593, ext. 106 or email Greg.Wood@MissouriLife.com.

Back Issues: Order from website, call, or send check for $7.50.

For more information on these and other events and activities visit

www.VisitRolla.com

Rolla Area Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center

Rolla Area Chamber of Commerce • 1311 Kingshighway Rolla, MO 65401 • 573-364-3577 or 888-809-3817

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Upcoming Events November 23: Christmas Parade DOWNTOWN MEXICO 573-581-2765 www.mexico-chamber.org

December 5-8: “Oliver” PRESSER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 573-581-5592 www.presserpac.com December 15: Holiday Express 326 SOUTH JEFFERSON, TRAIN DEPOT 573-581-2765 www.mexico-chamber.org

December 19: 73rd Christmas Evensong MISSOURI MILITARY ACADEMY 573-581-1776 www.missourimilitaryacademy.org

Mexico is a perfect combination of small-town charm and urban style. Artsy boutiques, jewelry, quilt shops, scrapbooking, antiques, and cultural offerings give Mexico a sophisticated air with a family-friendly attitude.

Come visit us today!

MEXICO AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE We work hard as a Chamber of Commerce to be the pulse of the community, assisting all to provide services that will nurture and encourage our businesses and strengthen our community. www.mexico-chamber.org | 573-581-2765

PRESSER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER With a 920-seat auditorium, Presser Performing Arts Center has many arts education programs for the public, such as Dance, Piano, Voice, Film, Writing, Photography, and of course Theatre! The calendar fills up fast year after year with concerts, ballets, plays, musicals, lectures, gallery shows, special events, and classes. We strive to offer the best professional, highly qualified instructors in the state of Missouri. This holiday season Presser Performing Arts Center, Mexico Area Community Theatre, and Mexico Parks & Recreation will once again present the annual Christmas production of “Oliver” December 5-8, 2013. Tickets will be available online at www.presserpac.com and at the Presser Performing Arts Center box office (noon to 5:30 p.m.) from November 25 through December 5. Presser Performing Arts Center is centrally located in the state of Missouri, serving mid-America with quality cultural performing arts. Check out the upcoming events online! www.presserpac.com | 573-581-5592 [9] December 2013

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MISSOURI

emo

GOOD TO GO— AND GET BACK

A FIRST FOR OUR COVER

I HAVE recently reconnected with fellow Missourian and author William Least Heat Moon. We were actually in the same photojournalism class together back in the mid-70s at the University of Missouri, before he went on his journey across the backroads of America that launched him into international fame. He has a Twain-like succinctness whenever he puts pen to paper, especially if it has anything to do with travel or the people he meets on the road. He wrote this in Blue Highways: “When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.”

It’s always good to travel outside our borGREG WOOD, PUBLISHER ders as it gives us new perspective on life and on ourselves. As Mark Twain said: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.

Dream. Discover.”

As great and enriching as traveling is, it’s always good to come home.

Last fall after three weeks of traveling out West, I’ll never forget the longing I had to see something green. It was great seeing mountains and the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley, but it was great to get back to Missouri. Perhaps the English philosopher George Moore said it best: “A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.”

One of the things that I have developed and found over my tenure as publisher of Missouri Life is the sense that I can go anywhere in this state and feel at home.

It’s a pleasant combination of feelings to know that as I travel around the state, I might find adventure around the corner, but I can also stop about anywhere on the road and have a friendly conversation with a complete stranger, as if I’ve known them all my life. And, almost without exception, if you talk long enough, you’ll find out that you know some of the same people or maybe that you’re related by blood or marriage. Some Missouri connection will likely emerge.

Writers like Least Heat Moon and Twain inspire us all to get out there—no matter where “there” is. So I encourage you to travel our great state and also step outside the boundaries as your spirit wills you, knowing that home awaits and that your mind, your heart, and your soul will be all the stronger for it.

Anyone out there interested in traveling to Ireland with us? See page 75 for more details.

THIS IS THE FIRST TIME we’ve run a painting on a cover of the magazine. Our Creative Director Andrew Barton outdid himself presenting more than ten cover options. The thing I appreciate so much about Drew is that he always says, “I won’t give you a cover that won’t work.” That means no matter what we choose, we can’t go wrong, even though we sometimes do wring our hands at having to make a choice!

I hope you like this cover as much as we do. By artist Bryan Haynes, it seemed to capture peace on earth, the season’s beauty, and the Christmases we remember, even though the title is Winter on Grand Army Road. The scene is of a road near DANITA ALLEN WOOD, EDITOR Bryan’s home at St. Albans that was allegedly a route of the Union Army as they marched to meet Gen. Sterling Price’s Confederate Army near Washington, Missouri.

Bryan says, “For us, it is a beautiful little country road where friends vie for the experience of being the first to travel down the road in fresh snow. One year, I was there at night for the honor.”

But I have to tell you, it was a tough choice. We had other paintings by Bryan, as well as the beautiful St. Joseph Catholic Church on page 35, as well as the chocolate cake with a hint of orange and coconut haystacks on pages 82 and 83 as possible covers. We put all of the options up on the wall, had our entire staff offer their opinions, and discussed the pros and cons of each.

Usually, most of us tend to favor one. This time, we were wildly divided.

And if you’d like to find out why, visit us online at www.MissouriLife.com to see our other options and a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the magazine business. I’d love to hear which one you might have chosen.

Another reason I’m happy about our cover choice, besides breaking new ground by using a painting, is that Bryan Haynes is such a nice guy. His work is beautiful, and he’s earned a reputation as a neo-regionalist, following the tradition of artists like Grant Wood, John Steuart Curry, and Missouri’s own Thomas Hart Benton. He has introduced his own storytelling approach to that tradition.

His reputation goes beyond our region. His award-winning artwork has graced the pages of national magazines, international advertising campaigns, CD covers, and book covers from Agatha Christie to Scarlett, the sequel to Gone with the Wind.

Missouri Life was honored to be chosen as the publisher for Bryan’s new book that showcases his work, New Regionalism, The Art of Bryan Haynes. It would make a wonderful gift for your artsy friends, and to learn more, see page 26.

Peace on earth, and good will to each of you.

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DECEMBER

LETTERS from all over You write them. We print them.

GRAND MEMORIES

My dad died in 1992. Any mention of

When I saw the picture of the state’s grand

our state parks reminds me of him and of-

piano in the October (2013) issue of your

ten brings a tear or two to my eye. Yes, in-

magazine and read the story of its refur-

deed, our state parks are truly our great-

bishment, I was thrilled beyond words.

est treasure.

In 1996, our group of singers gave a mu-

—Helen Woods, Iberia

sical program in the rotunda of the Capitol, and of course, we were accompanied by

OUR KING OF QUEENS, NY

that magnificent grand piano.

I grew up in Sedalia and went to MU. Have

We were there at the invitation of our

been here in Flushing, Queens since 1965,

representative, Jim Sears from Memphis,

but I never forget my Missouri heritage.

Missouri. Sadly, Jim died soon after in an

Look forward to your publication.

auto accident on his way home.

—Roland Wade

Evening on Broadway, as we called ourselves, were honored and excited to sing in our Capitol. Our members are mainly

The late Representative Jim Sears invited Evening on Broadway to perform at the Capitol.

Members were from Northeast Missouri, including Jim, front and center, leaning on the piano.

from Memphis, Kahoka, and Edina. We still

such a treasure for all Missourians.

—Anna Lynn Kirkpatrick, Memphis, Missouri

Missouri State Parks and Missouri Life Media need your help to publish a new book that

sing together and enjoy it so very much.

Thank you for the update on the piano, which is

KICKSTART OUR NEW BOOK

captures our amazing state parks’ heritage were to stand in sub-freezing temperatures before

in beautiful full-color photographs and compelling es-

dawn on March 1, the opening day of trout season.

says. Many of you have told us you still have the original

In Pomme de Terre, my mom would take food scraps every evening to feed some baby foxes whose

book published in 1992. Since then, Missouri has added eleven parks, and much has changed about each.

PARK LIFE

mother had been killed by a car. Mom would stop by

More than two hundred photos will grace the book’s

On the October (2013) issue’s Memo page, the

the road, bang on the pan with the food, and return

projected four hundred pages that tell the fascinating

mention of Missouri’s greatest treasure—our state

to the truck. The kits were always waiting for her,

stories of each of our state parks. To help us start our

parks—touched my heart in a very special way.

and as soon as she returned to the truck; the four of

journey, visit MissouriLife.com, and follow the link.

I grew up in three different parks: Roaring River,

them would race to the food and wolf it down.

Pomme de Terre, and Meramec.

In Roaring River again, we saw a huge herd of

SEND US A LETTER

My dad was hired in early 1968 as assistant super-

deer in our picnic area one December 24. My dad’s

intendent at Roaring River, and we moved to Missouri

response to mom’s surprise at such a large number

from South Carolina. After a year, dad became super-

of white tails was that families always get together

intendent at Pomme de Terre. In 1972, we returned

on Christmas Eve. It was here, too, that I had the

Email:

to Roaring River when dad became superintendent.

incredible honor of watching a bald eagle grab a

Fax:

In 1975, right after my high school graduation, we

trout out of the river. This was in the mid ’70s, and

Facebook:

moved to Meramec and were there until dad’s retire-

bald eagles were an endangered species.

Address:

ment in 1983.

In Meramec, we watched an incredibly large flock

I remember the first real snow my brother and I

of wild turkeys cross the Meramec River into the

experienced (sixteen inches) during our first time in

picnic area to feast on insects, etc. It was the best

Roaring River and how insane I thought the fishermen

childhood anyone could ever hope to have.

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Mo MIX McClurg

Join the Jam IN AN old building in a small Taney County community, you can dance and play along to a piece of Ozarks history.

The late Ailene Adams, a friend of local musicians, started the McClurg Jam in 1984 in her house. She moved it to the current building in the early ’90s with two rules: no drinkin’ or dirty talk.

McClurg has no businesses and only a few houses, but musicians and visitors travel there from across the country for the weekly jam session and potluck. Beginners and experienced players can play their instruments, kick up a jig, or dance a waltz. You might hear “Granny, Will Your Dog Bite?,” “Grey Eagle,” or “Fort Smith.”

James Bryan, fiddler for the Grammy award-winning folk singer Norman Blake, has played some fine fiddle there, but it’s the local musicians that people come to hear. David Scrivner, a long-time McClurg fiddler, continues the tradition of his instructor—that’s the late Bob Holt, National Endowment for the Arts awardee. Fiddlers, like David, emulated Bob’s style and performed his tunes. In

Cape Girardeau

addition to the jam, David plays at local square-

Show-Me Southern Style

dances and at several festivals. Alvie Dooms has been providing guitar accompaniment at McClurg for as long as the jam has existed and has played guitar much longer than that.

After eating fried chicken, beans and

CLAIRE BRUCE spent her summers trav-

cornbread, or any other dish musicians and

eling the South with her parents, and she remembers

visitors bring for the potluck, those who ven-

how Southern women would put on makeup, their

ture to McClurg will leave with a full belly and a

best jewelry, and fur coats to go grocery shopping.

tune in their hearts.

“There was always this little bit of sparkle, this little

The McClurg Jam starts at about 6:30 pm every

bit of opulence,” she says.

Monday at 3899 State Hwy W. —Jeremy Myers

Now, the native Mississippian designs jewelry in Missouri for the type of woman she calls the “modern Southern belle.” For almost two years, she’s run a jewelry

St. Louis

Caroling for a Cause

sissippi River in Cape Girardeau. She creates most of the

SARAH LEWIS

or beads with sterling clasps. Nearly every piece includes

pieces that line the tiny shop with vaulted ceilings.

Her designs often feature freshwater pearls, crystals,

was twelve years old

The organization started in 1911 when Ralston Pu-

when she first caroled with her Girl Scout troop.

rina founder William H. Danforth caroled with friends.

a vintage element, often in the form of a pendant; a

Fourteen years later, and she’s still at it with that

Although they sang for sport, listeners gave dona-

jade-colored glass charm carved in Japan in the 1950s

same group, part of the Lou’s largest caroling orga-

tions. Danforth gave the money to the group’s first

dangles from a bracelet strung with cream-colored

nization, the St. Louis Christmas Carols Association.

beneficiary, the Children’s Aid Society.

freshwater pearls. Another necklace made up of glit-

“My favorite part about caroling is getting togeth-

Fast-forward 102 years, and the family still leads

er every year, being goofy, and raising money for a

the organization and its thousands of carolers. Dona-

broach from 1950s West Germany. Brokers on the coasts

good cause,” Sarah says.

tions go to forty-two children’s agencies in St. Louis.

help Claire find beads and baubles forgotten for decades

Last year, there were approximately five hundred

in the attics and warehouses of far-flung places. Claire

groups caroling. Joan Koontz, executive director of

also designs many custom pieces.

the organization, says that there is no other chari-

tering, inky onyx and crystal beads showcases a vintage

At first, jewelry making was a hobby for Claire, who

table caroling group in the country like the St. Louis

crunched numbers at a marketing research job. She

Christmas Carols Association.

moved to Cape Girardeau to take graduate classes and

Anyone can join. Visit www.stlchristmascarols.org to

fell in love with the town. She decided to stay and design

sign up and coordinate with an area chairman. You can

jewelry for the modern version of those Southern beau-

also hire the association’s costumed group, the Kingsbury

ties in her memories. For more information, visit

Place Singers, to perform at your event. —Suet Lee

www.sloanandthemis.com. —Jessica Walsh

JEREMY MYERS, COURTESY OF ST. LOUIS CHRISTMAS CAROLS ASSOCIATION, TURYA NATIONS

boutique called Sloan + Themis on the banks of the Mis-

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Get Ready for the Holidays Benton County, Missouri

Christbaumfest Craft Show

November 23, Cole Camp The Christbaumfest (Christmas tree festival) offers Christmas gifts and goodies.

Christmas on the Harbor

November 30, Warsaw Thousands of Christmas lights will blaze over the downtown and Harbor area.

Christkindlmarket

December 6, Cole Camp With carolers, FREE horse and buggy rides, AND SANTA!!!

Kaysinger Christmas

December 6-7, Truman Dam Visitor Center, Warsaw Come to the annual celebration of Christmas 1800’s style. Enjoy hay wagon rides, singing of carols, candles, luminaries, old-fashioned decor, hot chocolate and cider.

Santa Days & Warsaw Lighted Parade December 7, Warsaw Santa is coming to...Warsaw!

“Good Old Days” lighted parade floats and attractions.

Lincoln’s Christmas Parade

December 14, Lincoln Parade, pictures with Santa, crafts and food booths, treats for the kids and drawings for prizes.

www.visitbentoncomo.com

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Mo MIX WHAT’S UP IN THE WINTER SKY?

• LATE NOVEMBER-JANUARY COMET ISON: If it survives its 730,000-mile pass by the sun, it could be the comet of the century.

• DECEMBER VENUS: Throughout the month, our solar system’s brightest planet will be viewable just after sunset.

• DECEMBER 13-14 GEMINIDS METEOR SHOWER: This shower is considered to be one of the best with more than 120 meteors per hour at the peak viewing time.

• DECEMBER 21-22 URSIDS METEOR SHOWER: This shower results from remnants of the Tuttle comet, discovered in the late seventeenth-century. Wait for the moon to set.

• JANUARY 5 JUPITER: The planet will be at its closest orbit to Earth and illuminated by the sun. You might see its moons, which are bright dots on the sides of the planet.

Sources: seasky.org, space.com, and astronomy.com

Albany

The Backyard Astronomer DAN BUSH didn’t realize his passion until he

more mobile than the one he purchased in 2000. It’s

bany and looked up. The eight year old saw thousands of

a twenty-inch (that refers to the lens’s diameter)

celestial bodies and the Milky Way weaving through the

Dobsonian telescope, named after its creator John

August night sky. Decades later, his hobby matured and

Dobson, the so-called hippie monk and well-known

inspired an observatory that he and his brother forged

amateur astronomer from California who created a

in his backyard.

low-cost Newtonian reflector telescope.

“When my telescopes got bigger, I needed something more permanent,” Dan says.

Dan’s first telescope was small. Rickety. Difficult to

Dan, who works as Albany Schools’ IT specialist, connected a modified surveillance camera to his telescope, so he can record footage of the night

position. Over the years, he would upgrade, until his

sky on his computer when he’s away. He records

seven-foot-long model became a hassle to move. So,

footage on several hard drives, culls through it for

Dissecting an Amateur Telescope

he built a backyard observatory.

meteors and other astronomical finds, and saves

Dan can aim his telescope in any direction. It is essentially three

the good stuff on DVDs; he has 254 and counting.

pieces: the lens at the top, the mirror at the bottom, and the

After browsing homemade designs from COURTESY OF DAN BUSH

Inside, Dan’s current telescope is lighter and

escaped the bright lights of Kansas City, moved to Al-

across the world, he used his brother’s carpentry

“The sky is always changing, and it is never bor-

truss tubes which connect each end. The telescope is about

know-how and finished the observatory in 2000.

ing to me,” Dan says. “That’s what keeps me going.

eight feet tall, and a ladder is required to look out the top when

Bush Observatory, as Dan dubbed it, has a slanted

It’s just the love of the sky.”

it’s positioned at a steep angle. When Dan records footage, he

retractable roof system operated by a hand crank.

See what Dan has captured in the sky, how he

removes the viewing piece, connects his modified surveillance

The raised wall blocks blustery northern winds and

built his observatory, and his telescope live feed at

camera fitted with a fisheye lens, and feeds what the telescope

Albany’s city lights.

www.missouriskies.org. —David Cawthon

sees to his computer. Disassembled, it can fit in his Dodge Caliber.

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MISSOURI

BUSY AS BEES

St. Louis rock duo spells out what hardworking means.

BY JONAS WEIR

COURTESY OF THEO WELLING

SPELLING BEE was famous for exactly forty-eight hours when the rock duo toured Boston.

“We had a run-in with the Boston police over email that went viral,” drummer Joseph Hess says. “We were still out on the road at the time the story broke and was getting spread, so each show on tour was a pretty wild experience. We were internet-famous for exactly forty-eight hours.”

To wrack up noise violations, the Boston Police Department allegedly posed online as punk rockers to infiltrate do-it-yourself concerts hosted in private homes. Boston musicians were suspicious when police were arriving before the concerts, but it took some investigating from Spelling Bee to break the story.

Before the show, the band had received a strange email that asked for the address, which had been kept secret. The band replied. Hours before the concert started, an officer showed up to the house and said that they couldn’t host a show.

The email chain made the fishy emailer look foolish. Slate, Spin, and Boston.com posted stories online about it, referencing the band’s email. Plus, the band moved the location and still performed.

That night, they were heroes in Boston.

The duo’s roots, however, are in St. Louis, where they are devoted to independent music.

Both Mabel Suen, guitarist, lead vocalist, and occasional saxophonist, and Joseph are music writers for the St. Louis alternative newspaper The Riverfront Times, so they are journalists, but not the investigative kind. To add to their busy schedules, both Mabel and Joseph are DJs at the nonprofit, community radio station 88.1 KDHX FM, and they run their own music blog called Wrong Division. From the media to the mosh pits, Mabel and Joseph have a hand in every aspect of the music community.

In fact, they played in public for the first time in 2009 because the owners of Apop Re-

cords, a local record shop, concert venue, and label, pushed the two to perform. Since then, the duo has been finding time to practice, record, and tour together.

“We’ve done more than ten tours through the United States since 2009, so songwriting has always been a sort-of rushed affair between tours,” Joseph says. “Because we live, work, and play together, band practice tends to come whenever we can get around to it, so it took us until early 2011 to really focus on writing.”

When they formed, Mabel and Joseph were too swamped to even agree on a band name that had staying power and reflected their music.

“We wanted to settle on a name that was ambiguous, so we could take the music in whatever direction we wanted,” Joseph says. “We’ve never had an attachment to the name; it was always a placeholder.”

The band members’ hectic schedules are also reflected in the restless tone of their music. Technical drumming, off-the-wall structures, and math-like guitar riffs create the soundscape of the

Guitarist and lead singer Mabel Suen and drummer Joseph Hess make up the band Spelling Bee, but ironically, their website misspells the band’s name: www.spellngbee.com.

band’s only full-length vinyl record, Caterwaul, an appropriate title for the noisy, yet melodic album.

They have been playing raw, energetic concerts for close to four years, and Caterwaul has been out for more than a year. But neither has garnered much attention outside of a community of underground music fans. It makes no difference to Spelling Bee. “There’s a great quote that goes something like, ‘If you think a small impact means nothing, try sleeping with a mosquito,’ ” Joseph says. “It’s in reference to making a change in your community no matter how big or small. Simply existing and making something that’s true to you and challenging to others makes an impact. We could just stay in the basement and play for ourselves, but I think the drive to diversify and ultimately give back to the community we take so much from is what keeps us playing out.”

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SHOW-ME

Books

ALONG THE BANKS

Explore the sights, sounds, and tastes on a hundred-mile stretch of the Missouri River. BY EVAN WOOD You might be surprised to learn that in the first hundred miles of Lewis and Clark’s expedition, Lewis nearly fell to his death from a cliff. But that’s just one of the many stories in Missouri River Country waiting to be told. The book covers those same hundred miles of the mighty Missouri River, from the confluence to Hermann. With images on every page, the journey is a visual one; the reader can indulge the landscapes presented rather than having to imagine them. You may even find yourself flipping through pages from cover to cover chasing down each and every captivating picture.

But the book offers more than visual stimuli.

Written in a conversational, straightforward style, the book’s essays have been penned by a diverse pool of authors, including James Beard Award-winning food writer Todd Kliman, prolific St. Louis restaurateur Gerard Ford Craft, and a descendant of William Clark, Carlota Holton. The contributing writers also include both our state’s US Senators as well as our Governor. And this is to say nothing of special essays by figures such as Missouri writer William Least Heat-Moon or Missouri painter Billyo O’Donnell.

Each essay explores a different aspect of the region. The book begins with history, taking an in-depth look at the American Indians who lived along the river, as well as the changes brought about by Lewis and Clark’s exploration. Readers also get a look at Daniel Boone’s impact on the region, bringing a wave of settlers that dramatically shifted the region’s demographics. This includes German settlers, to whom another chapter of the book is devoted.

The book is not solely concerned with his-

Missouri River Country Daniel A. Burkhardt, 192 pages, hardcover, nonfiction, $39.95 tory, though. It moves on to cover contemporary culture, with specific chapters examining the food, wine, and art of the region. Food grown there is traced from farm to table, often to the tables of some of St. Louis’s finest restaurants. And contemporary art inspired by the region is showcased in detail. In this way, Missouri River Country shows the many reasons why the region has always been a cultural hub in Missouri, and why it still is today.

The book also devotes chapters to preservation, development, flood, drought, and more. All the while, it focuses on one particu-

lar theme: a region defined by a vast, lengthy river. It tells stories of the people who interact with the river and the land surrounding it, and the relationships they build—ranging from harmonic to discordant. The stories in Missouri River Country are told as much through visuals as through words. The presentation is at once easy to read and yet detailed, delving deep into the land and water traversing its pages. The setting of Missouri River Country may look familiar, but the book goes beneath the recognizable surface, illuminating what a casual glance may have missed.

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SHOW-ME

Books

BEST-KEPT SECRETS Richard Burgin explores the sordid and dangerous lives of ordinary people. BY EVAN WOOD

Although this phenomenon isn’t necRICHARD BURGIN writes in essarily something Burgin intended, he the morning. Writers are notoriously says, “People in general aren’t as trusthigh-strung about their working habits, worthy as we’d like them to be.” possessing all manner of rituals. James Although criminal activity perpetratJoyce wrote lying down in bed, and Trued by seemingly normal people is not man Capote never began new work on new ground for Burgin, he says that he Friday. But Richard Burgin writes in the did try some new things in this collecmorning, and he says it’s his only rule. If tion. In “The Memory Center,” a nohis five Pushcart Prizes aren’t proof that vella, Burgin explores a world set in the the rule works for him, his new book, near future. He only writes about places Hide Island, certainly is. This is Burgin’s to which he’s been, and that tends to eighth collection of short fiction, and it affect the time period his stories are contains a novella and nine stories. set in. Burgin says that “The Memory While novels are by far the most popuCenter” was the most difficult piece in lar medium of prolific fiction writers these the collection to write, and that was bedays, Burgin finds his stories are more cause he was writing a story set in an successful in shorter form. Often more unfamiliar time period. It was difficult time passes in his stories than in a typito avoid clichés and make the story cal short story, and there are sometimes convincing without being familiar with more characters. In the collection’s first the time period it’s set in, he says. story “Atlantis,” stark line breaks occur, Ultimately Burgin avoids cliché, and indicating jumps in time and functioning he consistently delivers unique, wellalmost like a blackout between scenes in written tales. The narratives in this a play. On an even more subtle level, charcollection, “Memory Center” and the acters often leave out articles and adverbs others, feel genuine. The characters in their speech, as though accelerating the take readers along with them even to pace of their own conversations. their most shadowy destinations, which In a way, Hide Island almost reads like keeps the book captivating. And a looma book of confessions, with characters Richard Burgin, 236 pages, hardcover and softcover, fiction, ing sense of suspicion hovers over the taking turns fessing up to crimes they’ve $17.80 (hardcover), $13.19 (softcover) pages as they turn, making each story committed or witnessed and did nothing suspenseful. In the end, the stories are about. From one story to the next, the populated with flawed human characters, fleeting from one experience book exposes what otherwise normal people are capable of doing. After to the next in ways both unpredictable and yet familiar. The people reading the unsavory behavior of a few drug addicts and prostitutes, it within these pages may feel like strangers, but they are strangers that comes to a point where any time a new character enters, they immediyou’ve seen around—neighbors you haven’t met. ately seem suspicious.

Hide Island:

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MORE GOOD READS Christmas in St. Louis: Traditions, Displays, and Celebrations

Postcard History Series: St. Charles

John L. Oldani, PhD, 140 pages, hardcover, nonfiction, $32.95 Christmas is a big deal around St. Louis. From light displays on the front lawn to Victorian carolers, the traditions run deep. And they sometimes show up in unexpected ways, such as the photo of a taxidermied bear in a Santa hat.

Filled with images, Christmas in St. Louis has details on area holiday traditions, history, and an in-depth look at what Christmas in the Gateway City is like today.

Trouble Behind Glass Doors Walter Bargen, 101 pages, softcover, poetry, $13.95 Rhythmic, imaginative, and charming, the poems in Trouble Behind Glass Doors explore landscapes and scenes that you’ve probably seen before. What stands out, however, is the unfamiliar and insightful perspective these poems offer.

As Missouri’s first Poet Laureate, Walter Bargen is humorously selfaware at times but deeply pensive at others. The images in his poems often feel familiar, and yet they are relayed with such creative and imaginative wording that by reading them you may gain a new perspective on something you’ve experienced hundreds of times. That feeling is a hallmark of good poetry, and this collection is flush with it.

Valerie Battle Kienzle, 127 pages, softcover, nonfiction, $21.99 Explore St. Charles County throughout the early twentieth century through this 127-page book filled with postcards. The book presents photos of bridges, early motorcars, streetcars, riverboats, and more, allowing readers to get an in-depth sense of life in Missouri at the time.

With extensive photos of both architecture and people, the book offers a detailed look at how much has changed in a hundred years, and— perhaps more interestingly—how much has stayed the same.

Your Money & The Casino: What to Know Before You Go Missouri Rick, 173 pages, softcover, nonfiction, $14.99 Everyone knows the saying: “The house always wins.” But you may not know exactly how the house goes about winning. If you’re planning a trip to Vegas or to one of our state’s riverboats, this book, penned by a University of Missouri alum, might save you some cash.

It explains how the house builds its edge over players and contains chapters on casino etiquette and a glossary of terms. The book also examines the odds of certain games and tells you which ones give you the highest chance of winning. If you’ve never been gambling, or simply want to improve your luck, this book is worth a thorough read.

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MISSOURI

Above The Beyond, 2012, is a 60-by-80-inch acrylic painting on canvas from the collection of Dennis and Shelia Hammond.

REGIONALISM Revival

A RIVERSIDE fiddle jam in Depression-era America. Osage warriors hunting bison through Missouri’s snow-covered forests.

The construction of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in 1960s St. Louis. These scenes inspire Bryan Haynes, and they are the subjects of his paintings, from small canvases to expansive murals.

At its core, Bryan’s artwork is definitely Missourian. His style has been called neoregionalism, which nods to the regionalist painters of the 1930s. This group of painters, which included Missourian Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, John Steuart Curry, and

other Midwesterners, viewed the American heartland through a realist, pastoral lens, in an attempt to boost the morale of the country during one its most trying times—the Great Depression. Bryan’s work, however, is an homage to great American painters.

“I definitely think it’s bold to say that I’m the next in line,” Bryan says. “But I understand why they were called regionalists because the landscape begins to dictate how you portray the land.”

Bryan owns up to the regionalists’ influence, but he’s not trying to copy their style.

Bryan’s Missouri heritage has played a large

role in shaping his paintings, including their subject and aesthetics.

“The land dictates my style, and the style then expresses the landscape and the people,” Bryan says.

Missouri’s landscapes affect his art, though a painting’s aesthetics are not everything to Bryan.

He has always been attracted to art, but he has also been attracted to what art can communicate, rather than just colors, shapes, and textures.

“As an illustrator, I’m really fascinated by telling stories visually,” he says. “I have always wanted to do this since I was a kid. I have to do that because it’s my passion.”

COURTESY OF BRYAN HAYNES

Artist Bryan Haynes’s art mirrors Missouri. BY JONAS WEIR

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COURTESY OF BRYAN HAYNES

Notes On A Staff, 2012, is a 40-by-60-inch acrylic painting on canvas from the collection of Dennis and Shelia Hammond.

Storytelling is an obvious motif in his work.

Many of his paintings reference local legends from around the state; others focus on scenes from the state’s factual history, such as people building the Kauffman Performing Arts Center or a German festival in nineteenth-century Hermann. But Bryan was not always creating art with Missouri in mind.

With encouragement from his parents, Bryan attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, in 1980. There, he explored Western landscapes, but they couldn’t trump those of his home state.

“Having been away from Missouri, it really makes you see it anew when you return, and then you take it less for granted—all the beauty that’s here,” he says.

The return home definitely led to some of

his best work, but the prestigious Art Center College of Design and its rigorous program pushed Bryan to continue as a professional artist. The first path that his artistic career took was commercial artwork. His pieces ranged from a Celestial Seasonings advertisement to Safeway ice cream packaging.

Not all of his art was commercial, but this background led to a fruitful thirty-year career of working for various clients. If anything, art school and time outside of Missouri fostered diversity in his work. Some of his designs have been mass-produced, such as a piece he made for an Agatha Christie book cover. Some have been portraits commissioned by families, and some have been purely personal. With each project, Bryan has developed his skills, gained confidence, and refined his art’s magnetism.

His evolution has never been more apparent than in his new book, New Regionalism: The Art of Bryan Haynes, a Missouri Life Media

publication. And the timing of the book’s release seems spot on.

“It seemed like a place in my life when I had done a breadth of work that could be encompassed in a book,” Bryan says. “It had enough range to be interesting, from illustrations to murals and everything in between. I had so many people asking if they could purchase a portfolio that I thought it’s time for a book.”

Bryan’s work has changed gradually, but comparing paintings makes his newfound confidence obvious. Look at the Nourish mural that was done for Novus International as an example. The mural incorporates Mother Earth imagery, the double helix, and various fauna. It is wildly imaginative and breaks the constraints of his early landscapes. By no means is Nourish better than one of his landscapes or history paintings, but it showcases the confidence and range of Bryan Haynes, an artist as diverse as the state which inspires him.

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PROMOTION ADVERTISEMENT

AWAKEN to Fulton’s rich history with exciting sights and sounds all wrapped up in the warmth of small-town charm, with brick streets, elegant architecture, and 67 buildings on the historic register.

UNWIND at a Missouri top 10 inn, the historic Loganberry Inn where Margaret Thatcher and other famous guests have stayed.

CONNECT to our history at the newly renovated National Churchill Museum.

This $4-million museum inside a priceless piece of architecture offers a look back at living history.

IMMERSE yourself in the arts and music at Kemper Center for the Arts and Westminster Gallery.

MARVEL at the impressive collection of 84 historic automobiles displayed in Hollywood-style sets for their era at the new Backer Auto World Museum.

SAMPLE some distinctive Missouri wines at Canterbury Hill Winery, or bottle your own at Serenity Valley Winery.

SAVOR scrumptious dining at one of our great restaurants, like Beks, for a unique blend of old and new where internet and espresso meet 1902 architecture.

CAPTURE a sense of local history at the Historical Society Museum, or pay your respects at the Missouri Firefighters Memorial.

The National Churchill Museum features interactive displays that engage and educate visitors of all ages.

SMILE at the offbeat collection at Crane’s Museum in Williamsburg, and before you head out, stop by Marlene’s Restaurant. A pulled-pork sandwich and warm slice of pie will leave you grinning.

Mark your calendars for the Holiday Open House, Victorian Christmas, and Historic Home Tour.

REVISIT the 1930s by sharing a shake made with locally made premium ice cream at Sault’s authentic soda fountain.

Backer Auto World Museum displays an impressive collection of 84 historic automobiles in Hollywood-style sets.

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ADVERTISEMENT Wonderful breakfasts and romantic accommodations await you at Loganberry Inn B&B.

Calendar of Events Thursday Nights in December December 5, 12, and 19 Fulton Brick District Fun holiday activities!

See web site for details. www.thebrickdistrict.com 573-642-8010

Christmas House Tour, Saturday, December 7 Fulton Tour 5 - 8:30, followed by music.

573-642-2080

Fulton Jaycees Christmas Parade Saturday, December 7, 1  Downtown Area, Fulton Local bands, floats, and Santa parade through Historic Downtown Fulton 573-220-2613 or 573-220-2752

Crane’s 4,000-square-foot museum is a one-of-akind viewing experience featuring rural Missouri history dating back to the 1800s.

Magical Christmas Miniature Train Exhibit

Shop for unique gift items at the annual Victorian Christmas sale.

December 12 - 28 Thursday - Sunday, 1 to 8  America’s Best Value Inn, Holts Summit Free 573-896-8787

Come tour our seven historic Civil War sites on the Gray Ghosts Trail!

www.callawaycivilwar.org www.mocivilwar.org

Marvel at two rooms of miniature trains and landscapes exhibit Thursday to Sunday, 1 - 8 PM from December 12 - 28.

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For your next getaway or family vacation, visit Fulton and Callaway County. For more information and calendar of events, visit www.visitfulton.com or call 573-642-3055.

11/4/13 8:37 AM

ACR OSS T

BY E VAN

WOO D

HE S

TAT E

THINKSTOCK.COM

SK A TE [30] MissouriLife

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Missouri's fickle winter weather can make it tricky to make outdoor plans.

Everyone loves a good snow day, but it can be hard to tell when those are coming, if they come at all. But for ice skating, cold temperatures are all you need.

Alternatively, if you love to ice skate in winter but could live without the chilly outdoor elements, Missouri has great indoor ice arenas. Whether indoor or outdoor, there’s a certain thrill in skating fast across the ice. This winter, we sought out four of the most unique skating spots in the state. If you're looking to go on a skate date, we know just the place. If you want to find a rink to skate with your family on New Year's Eve, this guide has all the information you'll need. Come with us and skate across the state, and discover the perfect rink.

CROWN CENTER’S ICE TERRACE is perhaps the most glitzy of all the ice skating destinations in Missouri.

Situated near the heart of downtown Kansas City and surrounded by the shimmering lights of Crown Center’s holiday displays, the ice terrace is reminiscent of skating at Rockefeller Center in New York City.

Of all the rinks and arenas in this list, Crown Center stands out as the ice skating date destination, partially because all of the amenities of Crown Center are on-site, including an aquarium, hotels, and dining. This makes it a great place to do a lot without the stress of driving. Crown Center’s location is also amenable to exploring downtown Kansas City or shopping at the plaza.

Amenities aside, the Ice Terrace itself, canopied by an elegant hightopped tent and lit up from within as well as by the nearby holiday trees, makes a beautiful backdrop for a romantic skate around the rink. One of

the trees in particular is a 100-foot tall Christmas tree, dubbed the Mayor’s tree. It is shipped from Oregon, and arrives the same weekend that the Ice Terrace opens. Skaters looking for some holiday atmosphere should plan to be there when the tree is decorated during a special ceremony the day after Thanksgiving—an ideal alternative to Black Friday shopping.

Adding to the terrace’s amorous ambiance, the waters of Crown Center’s fountain are on display within view of the ice terrace year round, and music is always playing through the sound system.

Of course, the ice terrace still has plenty to offer families, groups of friends, and individuals who like to skate. The ice terrace also features specials such as twofor-one Tuesdays, and groups of twenty or more can make a reservation and get a special group rate. Even for skaters who have access to a rink or arena nearby, skating at the ice terrace with all its lights and sounds is a one-of-a-kind experience.

CROWN CENTER

COURTESY OF CROWN CENTER ICE TERRACE

Outdoor, opens November 1 Admission: $6. Free for children under 4 and adults over 60.

Skate Rentals: $3 Contact: 816-274-8411 Address: 2450 Grand Blvd., Kansas City

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STEINBERG ICE RINK

ICE SKATING ON FROZEN PONDS and lakes in big city parks is a classic way to enjoy the pastime, and rural Missourians today may still enjoy the outdoors in winter this way. However, with winter in our state being unpredictable at best, the organic approach to ice skating isn’t always a viable option.

In the pastoral spirit, the Steinberg Ice Rink in St. Louis’s Forest Park retains that classic skating-in-the-park feel that’s hard to come by anywhere else. It’s all the beauty of skating in the frosty winter park, plus the benefit of a modern facility with beautiful lighting and a constantly burning bon fire, and minus the risk of falling through the ice into a freezing lake.

If the picturesque rink is not enough, it also has an indoor space with WiFi

and concessions—such as hot chocolate, beer, pretzels—and a view of the rink.

Overall, the Steinberg rink provides an idyllic location for families looking for a winter destination. In fact, many St. Louis families have made a tradition of skating the rink on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The rink also hosts a few events such as Skate with Santa on Saturday December 7th, which is a great chance for kids to get out on the ice and pass along a few requests for presents. The Steinberg Ice Rink really gets at the heart of what makes outdoor skating so refreshing: it’s in a natural setting. And even Missourians who skate their own ponds, lakes, and creeks every winter will find it hard to beat warming up by the fire with a cup of hot chocolate and a pretzel.

COURTESY OF STEINBERG ICE RINK

Outdoor, opens mid-November Admission: $6 Skate Rentals: $5 Contact: 314-361-0613 Address: 400 Jefferson Dr, St. Louis (In Forest Park)

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WASHINGTON PARK ICE ARENA, JEFFERSON CITY PERHAPS THE BEST FEATURE of the Washington Park Ice Arena in Jefferson City is that it remains open when warm weather arrives. With a season that runs most of the calendar year, Missourians with a flair for skating can still find a home for their hobby in the capital city. In a typical year, Washington Park Ice Arena is open from July until the following April.

The current season ends April 19th, 2014.

Washington Park hosts a variety of sporting events and leagues, such as hockey and figure skating, and also offers skating lessons. The arena is also available for party rentals.

Jefferson City’s central location makes the ice arena available to many Missourians, who would otherwise have to drive a long distance to skate.

All of the sporting events hosted at the ice arena make for great spectator events, but the feature event of the year is the annual ice show, which will run February 28,

and March 1 and 2 of 2014.

On top of traditional ice sports such as hockey and figure skating, the Washington Park Ice Arena also features a lesser-known sport: broomball. Broomball is a game in which players use a stick with a triangular head to hit a ball across the ice and into the opposing team’s net. Broomball may appeal to inexperienced skaters because broomball players wear rubber-soled shoes rather than skates.

League play is available in the spring.

Hockey players, figure skaters, casual skaters, and even broomball players can come to Washington Park Ice Arena to skate this winter, this spring, or next fall.

Indoor Admission: $4.50 adults, $3.50 kids 17 and under, $2.50 weekday matinee Rentals: Available for $2.50 Contact: 573-634-6580 Address: 711 Kansas Street, Jefferson City

LINDEN SQUARE ICE RINK, GLADSTONE ICE SKATING AT LINDEN SQUARE is sure to provide an experience you can’t get anywhere else in Missouri. With the state’s only synthetic ice skating rink, the city of Gladstone is putting technology to work to keep Missourians enjoying the rink.

Where other outdoor rinks are subject to Missouri’s sporadic winter weather patterns, the synthetic rink in Linden Square is a clever way around the meticulous maintenance that outdoor ice requires. Not only can it keep a consistent schedule—as opposed to waiting for the weather to cool down before opening—it also isn’t affected by the random bouts of seventy-degree weather in January that we’ve all experienced once or twice.

Because the new synthetic ice can dull blades quickly, visitors receive a pair of rental skates with admission and are asked not to bring their own. The ice

rink staff works diligently to keep rental skates sharp for enjoyable, easy-gliding skate sessions.

The Linden Square Ice Rink also offers traditional holiday touches that you’d expect with outdoor skating, such as lighting displays and the Mayor’s Christmas Tree, which is lit on the first day the rink opens.

Anyone hoping to try the next big thing in ice skating will find it at the Linden Square Ice Rink, and those simply looking for a good skating experience in a relaxing, small-town holiday environment will also be satisfied with this hightech rink in Gladstone.

Outdoor, opens November 26 Admission: $5 Skate Rentals: Included in admission Contact: 816-423-4091 Address: 70th and North Cherry, Gladstone

MORE MO RINKS Mediacom Ice Park Indoor Admission: $5.50 adults, $4 seniors, students with ID, children 3-12 Skate Rentals: $2.50 Contact: 417-866-7444 Address: 635 East Trafficway, Springfield Lindenwood Ice Arena Indoor Admission: $5 adults, $4 seniors with ID Skate Rentals: $2 Contact: 636-627-6700 Address: 910 Main Plaza Dr., Wentzville Line Creek Community Center Indoor Admission: $6 Skate Rentals: $2 Contact: 816-505-1521 Address: 5940 NW Waukomis Dr., Kansas City Creve Couer Ice Arena Indoor Admission: $3 for residents, $5 non-residents Skate Rentals: $2 Contact: 314-872-2570 Address: 11400 Olde Cabin Rd., Creve Couer Brentwood Ice Arena Indoor Admission: $3 for residents, $4 non-residents Skate Rentals: $1.50 Contact: 314-963-8685 Address: 2505 South Brentwood, Brentwood Bode Ice Arena Indoor Admission: $5 Skate Rentals: $2 Contact: 816-271-5506 Address: 2500 SW Parkway, St. Joseph

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Apple Creek Presbyterian Church

Pocahontas The Apple Creek Presbyterian Church resembled a log cabin more than a traditional church when it was constructed in 1822. By 1831, the primitive structure was replaced by a larger building to accommodate a growing congregation, which continued to expand. In fact, it was perhaps Missouri’s largest Presbyterian church outside of St. Louis in 1834 with more than two hundred members, nearly twice the current population of Pocahontas.

A new structure was built in 1873, and it still stands today. However, the Apple Creek Presbyterian Church’s congregation dissolved in 1962. Luckily, the church and nearby cemetery have been preserved.

<

Christmas

CHURCH TOUR THE GORGEOUS CHURCHES THAT populate the small towns and rural communities of southern Missouri are a sight year-round, so a white Christmas isn’t a requirement for a pretty one. The Christmas Country Church Tour in south Perry, north Cape Girardeau, and east Bollinger counties usually features about two dozen churches, which are spread across a broad area and a diverse sampling of small-town life, each year. But because of the limitations of country highways, the tour could be canceled due to inclement weather, so let’s hope that the white Christmas stays in our dreams or that we all get snow tires from Santa.

The self-guided tour, which only features churches that are at least a hundred years old, is not meant to be completed in one day or even over the full weekend. Take your time. Visit with the congregations. Enjoy the refreshments, whether that means standard hot cocoa or traditional German blitzkuchen. See actors dressed in period costumes. Above all, enjoy yourself and enjoy the tour. That’s the ethos of the Christmas Country Church Tour.

Over the past nine years now, the tour has gained quite a following, but it’s never crowded. People looking to get into the Christmas spirit travel from all over the state for the tour. The original idea behind the tour was to showcase churches in the smallest of communities to a broader audience and to support a good cause; each congregation chooses what they want to support. Tour the churches from 3 to 9 PM on December 19 and 20. For more information and a full list of this year’s churches, visit www.missourilife.com.

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St. Joseph Catholic Church

Apple Creek One of the churches that helped found the Christmas Country Church Tour eight years ago, St. Joseph Catholic Church is much more than a church.

Today, the church serves as a place of worship for an active congregation, who also runs a museum on the church grounds. The St. Joseph Shrine makes the museum a must-see during the tour or any time of year.

Located behind the church, the shrine has a cave and a spring-fed waterfall that a statue of the Virgin Mary sits atop. But the shrine was not a part of the church until it was put up in 1950.

The first and the second churches were built six hundred feet north from where the current church stands and was built in 1881.

Concordia Lutheran Chuch

Frohna Founded by twelve families who immigrated from Saxony, Germany, Concordia Lutheran Church’s services were originally held in the log home of its pastor, Ernst Wilhelm Keyl.

The first official structure for the church was built, using logs, in 1844. However, the congregation became too large for the church, and ten years later, a new building was constructed to house the church’s members and services. This time, it was made of limestone.

Later, the church was rebuilt, and the Concordia Lutheran Church, as it can be seen today, was built in 1874—the third rendition in thirty years. It was remodeled in 2006, though.

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Grace lutheran Church

Uniontown

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Like many of the Lutheran churches in the area, the history of Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown is deeply intertwined with the history of Saxony, now modern-day Germany.

In the 1830s, Saxony and Prussia began forcing government-issued prayer and hymn books onto churches. To escape the persecution, Martin Stephan lead a group of Lutheran emigrants to the United States and purchased property in Perry County. Often called the Stephanite Emigration, this movement led to the formation of Grace Lutheran Church, founded in 1840, a year after the immigrants arrived. In 1879, the current structure was built. The church still has a congregation of about 270 members.

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St. John’s Lutheran Church

Pocahontas On the night of May 4th, 1910, lightning struck the spire of St. John’s Lutheran Church. The congregation was able to save and salvage the furnishings, but the remains of the actual structure were only charred vestiges of the church that was built seven years prior.

The members, however, were able to recuperate, and in October of that same year, they had finished constructing a new house of worship. This time, it included a clock tower.

St. John’s story didn’t end there, though. The church has persevered through the decades, and it still has an active congregation today. But it has changed. In 1958, a new parish hall was built. And in 1973, a monument was dedicated to the founders, who are buried in a cemetery one mile east of Pocahontas.

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Zion Lutheran Church

Pocahontas Creating a Lutheran school in the community was the driving force behind founding Zion Lutheran Church.

In 1889, members of the Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells were peacefully released to create a school and church closer to their homes. Adolph Landgraf and Johnny Kieninger were contracted to build the school, which would also function as a church, for 640 dollars. In September of that same year, the multipurpose building was finished and dedicated.

Brazeau Presbyterian Church

Brazeau Brazeau is a relatively small town, so it comes as no surprise that the active membership at the Brazeau Presbyterian Church is also quite small. But it wasn’t always as small as it is today.

In 1819, Scotch Irish settlers made Brazeau their home and established the Brazeau Presbyterian Church, though the oldest surviving document of the church dates bake to 1830. By 1836, the church had flourished with a sizeable congregation of at least seventy-three members. In 1854, the brick structure that stands today was erected.

Some thirty years later, the church experienced its high point with about two hundred members, but the numbers have since dwindled.

Pleasant Hill Presbyterian

Fruitland

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Christianity has a long history of splintering. In fact, there are about forty-one thousand different Christian organizations. Many are Protestant, which stems from the same word protest does.

The story of the Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church is one of splitting, too, but more for practical reasons than for ideological ones.

In 1838, the Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church was formed when members voted to leave the Apple Creek Church and form a church in their own community.

The parish relocated again in 1980 when the congregation voted to dissolve and move to the Jackson Presbyterian Church. It is now a part of the Pleasant Hill Cemetery Association.

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Trinity Lutheran Church

Friedheim In 1888, the Godspeed Publishing Company, known for its books on regional histories, wrote that Trinity Lutheran Church in Dissen, which Friedheim was called at the time, was one the oldest Evangelical Lutheran churches in Cape Girardeau County.

More than a hundred years after Godspeed’s History of Southeast Missouri was published, Trinity Lutheran Church is still being celebrated for its rich history.

In 1848, the first incarnation of Trinity Lutheran Church was built, but it was only a log cabin. Less then a decade later in 1856, construction on a new church began using huge sandstone rock found about four miles from the church.

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Trinity Lutheran Church

Altenburg For the past twenty-six years, Trinity Lutheran Church has put together a poinsettia tree. The tradition began in 1987 when a wooden “tree” was built to hold twenty to thirty-five poinsettias. Each year it is decorated, and poinsettias can be found throughout the church. The church has a longer history than that, though. The church was founded in 1866, and its first Christmas tree was decorated in 1889.

Plus, Trinity Church is just a piece of the rich Lutheran history in Altenburg. The town is home to an 1845 church and the Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum, which has live music, refreshments, and forty decorated trees during the tour.

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First baptist church

Oak Ridge More than a hundred years ago, supporting a church with a small congregation was still difficult. Back in 1864, the United Missionary Baptist Church of Oak Ridge merged with the Goshen Church, located one and a half miles from Oak Ridge, to form the fiftymember Union Baptist Church of Christ.

Although it has gone through many names and changes, the First Baptist Church of Oak Ridge, as we know it today, dates back to the early twentieth century. In 1906, the current structure was built, and in 1907, the current pews were purchased. Throughout the century, many adjustments were made, but the church is largely the same.

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Peace Lutheran Church

Friedenberg

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This Lutheran church in Friedenberg is a real peace of history. The Church was founded in 1885 by Bavarian immigrants that settled in the area decades earlier.

The Germans who founded Friedenberg obviously valued peace. Friedenberg translates to peace hill, and their church was named Peace Lutheran Church.

Although the congregation disbanded more than thirty years ago, the town still works to keep the history alive, and three services are held each year.

Aside from the Christmas Country Church Tour, a candlelight service is held the second Sunday each December, and the church is decorated in the traditional fashion with a real cedar tree.

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COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL CHURCHILL MUSEUM

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent,” Winston Churchill proclaimed in his signature stentorian voice on a mild Tuesday afternoon in March 1946 in Mid-Missouri. While orating the lengthy “Sinews of Peace” speech to the Fulton audience at Westminster College, Churchill gestured across the stage to signify this “iron curtain.”

Today, a bronze relief statute re-creates this scene and points to the entrance of the National Churchill Museum. Although the speech had prophetic qualities and has gone down in history as an undoubtedly important statement, is it really possible to found an entire museum on the importance of one speech? Westminster College did, and they did it well.

Dedicated on May 13, 2011, this statue is the only sculpture in the world of Winston Churchill giving the “Sinews of Peace” speech in Fulton on March 5, 1946.

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Winston Churchill met Franta Belsky, the Czech sculptor of this monument, in France during World War II.

to be a CHURCHILLIAN “Everyone has his day, and some days last longer than others.”

By Jonas Weir

COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL CHURCHILL MUSEUM

CHURCHILLIAN is defined as relating to the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, but in reality, it means more. Winston Churchill was more than the British prime minister from 1940 to 1945. And Churchillian has become a noun as much as it is an adjective.

“There are Churchillians all over the world,” says Liz Murphy, archivist and curator at Westminster College’s National Churchill Museum, which celebrates Churchill’s 1946 speech in Fulton and publishes a quarterly journal called The Churchillian. She is referring to avid Churchill fans, people who read his books, watch countless World War II movies, and those who collect Churchillinspired memorabilia called Churchilliana.

Collectors have mugs modeled after his face, figurines that sport his iconic top hat and bow tie, and plates that re-create his paintings. The Book of Churchilliana by Douglas Hall focuses solely on these artifacts.

Devoy White was an avid collector of Churchilliana. From ashtrays to mugs to figurines, Devoy wanted to own anything and ev-

erything Churchill. Since his death, the museum has acquired a large portion of his collection that fills glass cases in the Wit and Wisdom room, the exhibit most closely associated with Churchill’s personal life. There are half-smoked cigars preserved in displays. Churchill’s oil paintings adorn the walls and recall the impressionism movement, which defined the 1870s, the decade of his birth. Although the room is dedicated to Churchill the man, rather than the figure, it is more than a collection of personal artifacts. It’s a place to showcase his wit.

CHURCHILL’S WITTICISMS “It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.”

Sometimes short and punchy, sometimes eloquent and lengthy, Churchill’s remarks are memorable and easily relatable, even today, more than forty-five years after his death.

In the Wit and Wisdom room, an audio loop plays sounds you might hear at Churchill’s club. Grand leather chairs fill the

floor. The scene is set, and it feels like you’re discussing politics over drinks after a dinner party with the British Bulldog himself.

In front of each leather arm chair, though, there is a strikingly twenty-first-century touch screen, which visitors can use to scroll through Churchill quotes. They cover a variety of topics including both World Wars, politics, and even self-deprecating humor: “All babies look like me. But then, I look like all babies.”

What could have been a hall of celebrity worship is actually an interactive, engaging, and fun touch to the museum. Interactive multi-media engagement is not relegated to one room, but it wasn’t always that way.

AN INTERACTIVE MUSEUM “To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to change often.”

In 2006, the inside of the museum was completely revamped. In fact, the staff refers to

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anything before 2006 as the old museum.

“There was a museum down here, but it was a very different museum,” says Rob Havers, the museum’s executive director. “There were a lot of glass cases. It was a bit more pedestrian, and there was no sort of interactive technology. It told a far more compressed story.”

A two-foot wheel, when spun by a museumgoer, reveals Churchill’s early conquests from traveling to Cuba, where he acquired his taste for cigars, to seeing the Sudan, which inspired his famous book The River War. Other little bits of interactive displays—a periscope that plays a World War II propaganda film, a machine you can use to decode military communications, a vintage phone that serves as a listening device—have transcended the idea of a stop-andlook, traditional museum.

he is most famous, World War II. “He was born in 1874 and died 1965, so what we endeavored to do with this exhibition is utilize the fact that Churchill lived such a long life, that he engaged and was a part of such big events in human history, and branch out,” Rob says.

“We use Churchill as a unifying thread but look at the origins of the First World War, the Second World War, and the Cold War.” The museum’s topics, in fact, span almost eight hundred years, though it clearly has a focus on the ninety-one years Churchill lived.

Many of Churchill’s actions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries still affect our world, such as his role in the creation of Iraq, his role in dividing Ireland from Britain, and his obvious triumphs in World War II. But the museum goes as far as the fall of the Berlin Wall.

IMPACT ON THE WORLD

A MONUMENT OF RUINS

“The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.”

“It is wonderful what great strides can be made when there is a resolute purpose behind them.”

The museum is not constrained by the direct events of Churchill’s life or the time for which

In 1987, Ronald Reagan addressed the world from a lectern in front of the Brandenburg Gate

in West Berlin. On that day, he uttered six of the most memorable words during the Cold War: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

Three years later, President Reagan would again take the stage to make a speech about the Berlin Wall. This time, however, he wasn’t in Germany; he was dedicating eight sections of the wall that were put up in Fulton.

“Today we rejoice in the demise of the Berlin Wall that was permanently breached just one year ago,” Reagan said. “We remember brave men and women on both sides of the iron curtain who devoted their lives—and sometimes sacrificed them—so that we might inhabit a world without barriers.”

The eight segments of the wall are an art piece entitled Breakthrough, which represents people breaking through barriers, physical and symbolic. Edwina Sandys, granddaughter of Winston Churchill, created the sculpture by cutting out silhouettes of a man and woman in the wall.

She made a symbol of oppression into a monument of freedom and triumph. What could have been rubble is now a permanent,

COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL CHURCHILL MUSEUM

In 1990, four-foot sections of the Berlin Wall were selling for $60,000 to $200,000, but East German officials liked the idea of this monument enough to donate all of the sections.

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As this map shows, Winston Churchill had traveled to Cuba, the Sudan, and India during his time in the military before World War I.

One of the multimedia displays that was incorporated when the museum was revamped in 2006 is a British wartime propaganda film that focuses on the Royal Air Force.

Both Harry S.Truman and Winston Churchill traveled by train from the East Coast to attend the event in Fulton. Churchill flashed the V sign for victory.

aesthetically pleasing fixture on Westminster’s campus. But Breakthrough is not the only piece of beauty at the museum that was once ruins.

THE PHOENIX

COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL CHURCHILL MUSEUM

“If you are going to go through hell, keep going.”

To commemorate Winston Churchill’s famed speech on its campus, Westminster College turned to an artifact of seventeenth century London to start the project.

In 1666, the Great Fire of London ravaged the city and destroyed thousands of buildings throughout the city. Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, originally built in the twelfth century, was among the destroyed buildings, along with St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Luckily for the two aforementioned buildings, one of England’s greatest architects, Christopher Wren, redesigned and rebuilt them.

Less than three hundred years later, St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury became one of the casualties of Germany’s Blitz on London.

The shelled church stood in disrepair for more

than twenty years until it again saw a new life.

This time, however, it was erected in Fulton, more than four thousand miles from its original foundation.

“The Phoenix is sort of the symbol of the church because it has twice risen from the ashes,” Rob says.

Relocating and reconstructing the chapel on Westminster’s campus signaled the establishment of the museum in 1964 when Harry S. Truman attended the groundbreaking and overturned the first shovel of dirt. The structure was completed in 1969.

Today, the church stays true to Wren’s original design for the most part. Ornate woodwork, which replicates the seventeenth-century style, abounds inside. An original Christopher Wren pulpit from another church sits at the front of St. Mary’s, and seventh-century communion sets are displayed. Windows with the clearest opacity possible in 1677 were installed—except for one pane that was broken by a stray golf ball and replaced with modern glass.

Occasionally, the college uses the church as a venue for various lectures. The museum also

holds its annual Enid and R. Crosby Kemper Lecture in the church, and fifteen to twenty couples are married at the house of worship’s altar each year.

NEW MONUMENTS “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”

The ruins of yesteryear are not the only ornaments that decorate the mall surrounding the museum. There are two bronze sculptures of Churchill that the museum commissioned.

The first bronze statue, like the reconstruction of the church, dates back to the museum’s early years, but its story dates back to Churchill finest hour, World War II. Franta Belsky served in the volunteer-based Czech army that formed in France. Five weeks after a bloody battle on the French side of the country’s Belgium border, Winston Churchill inspected the Czech troop that fought in the Battle of Dunkirk. When Belsky saw Churchill, he knew that someday he was going to sculpt the prime minister.

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While working on his sculpture of Winston Churchill, The Iron Curtain, Don Wiegand had input from Edwina Sandys, a fellow artist and the granddaughter of Winston Churchill.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL CHURCHILL MUSEUM AND DON WIEGAND

The idea to make the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury into a Churchill Museum was sparked by a Life magazine story on Christopher Wren churches that were slated for demolition.

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Less than thirty years later, Belsky realized his dream when the National Churchill Museum commissioned him to create a bronze statue. Once it was complete, the statue was flown into Fulton, and it has remained in the same location since 1968.

As grand and awe-inspiring as both the statue and the artist’s story are, another bronze monument more directly relates to the museum’s origins. The Iron Curtain statue was commissioned as one the last components of the museum’s redevelopment— revamping the museum’s entrance, which went untouched while the museum’s main exhibits were overhauled and recast.

“We’d been thinking about a better way to mark the entrance to the museum, and redeveloping this plaza was one of the ideas we considered,” Rob says. “But it took a few years.”

Once the project started, Churchill Fellow and Museum Board of Governor Richard Mahoney suggested that St. Louis artist Don Wiegand create a sculpture for the plaza. Don was a perfect candidate. He had done bronze sculptures of famed historic figures. Additionally, Don is a Missouri native, though he was not a Winston Churchill expert when he secured the commission for the monument.

“I was always intrigued by Churchill, but I’ll confess I never studied him much,” Don says. “I certainly knew about him and admired him and his tenacity.”

The museum board and Richard wanted something that directed visitors to the entrance. Don agreed, and the process began.

The concept showed Churchill raising his arm during the “Sinews of Peace” speech in Fulton in 1946. Over two years, Don would study every detail, from the accuracy of the vines on the lectern to the color of the stone on which it would sit. The final product was a multiple relief, flat carving, bronze sculpture, a design that gave the piece a threedimensional feel on a relatively shallow

plane. Don says he’s proud of the work and the message it represents.

“It’s like a timeless statement,” Don says.

“Watch out, or it will happen again—that curtain separating people from freedom.”

Perhaps its timeless message is why the speech is so memorable, why Westminster has built a museum around that historic moment, and why the museum is much more than a demarcation of where the prime minister spoke, though there are plenty of artifacts from that day. It’s as multifaceted as Winston Churchill.

CHURCHILL’S LEGACY

souri town, you can explore a place visited by some of the most iconic leaders of the past hundred years. All of it relates back to the speech and the invitation to speak from Westminster, but Churchill may not have come if Harry S. Truman had not included a personal note with the invitation, suggesting Churchill should go.

If President Harry S. Truman was not such a proud Missourian, our state would most likely be bereft of such a treasure.

National Churchill Museum

“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”

Open Daily: 10 am—4:30 pm Closed: New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, & Christmas Day

The museum’s most obvious message is that Churchill was much more than a World War II leader. He was a writer, a painter, and politician. He lived for more than ninety years and had already been a prominent figure in England well before the war. At the time, he was already a well-known author of both fiction and nonfiction, and he eventually won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1953.

The striking quality of his paintings makes them some of the most interesting pieces in the museum. More surprising, Churchill had a fine taste in art with a specific interest in Missouri artist Thomas Hart Benton. When he visited Missouri, he said all he wanted was a Thomas Hart Benton piece. He was presented with a small painting titled A New Fence.

The pun was not intended.

In the end, the museum will forever be known as the place Winston Churchill said “… an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.” However, many more prominent leaders have spoken at the museum since then: Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Mikhail Gorbachev.

It is truly amazing that in a small Mis-

Guided tours are available in advance.

501 Westminster Avenue, Fulton 573-592-5369 www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org

2014 Exhibit schedule* Jan 13-March 9: Reagan/Thatcher: Inside Their Relationship March 1-2: Kemper Lecture Weekend March 24-May 25: The 2014 Missouri Watercolor International May 30 - July 20: D-Day Normandy: Operation Overlord August 4 to September 8: World War I Experience Exhibit *This is a tenative schedule. Please check www.nationalchurchillmuseum. org for an updated schedule.

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THINK BAC

K to the last time you go t a really perfect pr Maybe it was som esent. ething you’ve want ed fo r a long time, like a or a nice set of wine book glasses. Then again , maybe it was som didn’t know you wa ething you nted, like a gorgeo us piece of jewelr beer tasting glasse y or a set of s with mustaches on them; you know gift. As good as it , the perfect feels to receive a gr eat present, it feels to give one. But fi ev en better nding these elusiv e items—these pe take a lot of time. rfe ct gif ts—can You may spend ho urs wandering un at the mall or brow inspiring aisles sing online to find what you’re want often the case, wh . But, as is at you’re looking fo r m ay be closer to you think. This Chris than you tmas we’ve put to gether a collection ideas, each of them of pe rfect gift Missouri-made. W e’ve hand-selected and made sure that each one there’s something that will please an holiday shopping yone on your list. Here are a few of our favorite Miss and some of the fi ouri things nest gifts our state has to offer.

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The Kitchen

1. Sunflower wine glasses give summe ry cheer all year long. Crafts

By Jenn, St. Louis . www. etsy.com/shop/slu gger1st 2. Knifemaker Natha niel Hargrove Bonn er uses his experience as a chef to create a vibrant high-quality chefâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s knife, petty knife, and bottle stop. NHB Kn ifeWorks, St Louis . www.nhbknifework s.com 3. Enjoy nibbles fro m Goatsbeard Far m, Harrisburg, available at fine grocers thr oughout the state. www.goa tsbeardfarm.com 4. A fresh baguette shows you care. Up rise Bakery, Columbia. www.uprisebakery.c om 5. Have a white Ch ristmas with white cheddar.

Heartland Creamery , Newark, Missouri. www.heartlandcre amery.com

6. Ozark Summer Sausage nails the perfect balance between beef and pork. Bu rgersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Smokehouse, Califo rnia, Missouri. www.smokehouse. com 7. A handcrafted Mis souri walnut cuttin g and serving block will last a lifetime. Do vetail Artistry, Independe nce. www.facebook.com /dovetailartistry

8. Guests will love the earthy twang of Westphalia Vineya rds Norton Reserve 2010, Westphalia. www.westphaliavin eyards.com 9. Taste the holida y in Stone Hill Wine ry's Chambourcin 2011, with aromas and fl avors of toffee, black cur rant, and cherry com pote set off by toasty oak and a hint of black pepper, Hermann. www.stonehillwine ry.com

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The Vanity

1. Jessica Cantrell makes Buddha and tree pendants and other jewelry from wire, beads, jewels , and other trinket s.

Madicus Twist Cre ations, Kearney. www.etsy.com/ shop/MadicusTwist

2. Melanie Mercer, originally from Sea ttle, features hues of the ocean in minimalist jewelry that she crafts by hand in her north Missouri home studio. Ethel Peabody, Bucklin. www.ethelpeabod y.com 3. Cristy Crites giv es worn jewelry a new life with her futuri stic-meets-1800s steampunk creati ons in Oran. cristys.art@aol.co m

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4. Don Kelley shape s vintage forks aro und stones and jewels to create pendant s, earrings, bracelets , and more. KelArts, St. Louis. www.kela rts.com 5. North Missouri native Robin Tucker makes tables, che ss boards, quilt boxes, and more.

Wood Mosaics, Spickard. www.etsy.com/sho p/woodmosaics 6. Valerie Doran Ba shaw uses the Jap anese Shibori tie-dy e technique to cre ate elegant multicolored silk scarve s and other pieces.

Woven Wind Studio , Grandview. www.w ovenwind.net

7. Lather up luciou sly with Floyd Far ms beeswax lotion bar s, from Humansville . www.floydfarm.c om 8. Donna Fox makes jewelry from metal , clay, wax, and oth er materials. Crow Steals Fire, St. Louis . www.crowstealsfire .com 9. Nick Spaederâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s birch hand mirror is inlaid with African wenge wood. Blue Stem Crafts, Colum bia. www.bluestemcraf ts.com 10. Early American Life magazine has named Michelle Oc honicky top in her field. She hand etc hes scrimshaw tre asure boxes, jewelr y, and more. Eurek a. www.stonehollow studio.com

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The Bar

1. Introduce some Missouri-made be er for the holiday gam es. Nutcracker Ale , Boulevard Brewin g, Kansas City. www.boulevard.co m

2. Plan a beer-tas ting with this beer caddy featuring sam ple-size glassware. The glasses sport festive mustaches! Newberry Farms, St. Louis. www.newberryfurn iture.com 3. Real men and wo men drink corn whiskey. Try Platte Valley Corn Whiskey from McCo rmick Distilling Co., Weston. www.mccormickdis tilling.com

4. The hand-made paring knife comes from NHB KnifeWo rks, St. Louis. www.NHBknifework s.com 5. Toast the New Yea r with gin and vod ka from Pinckney Be nd Distillery, New Haven. pinckneyb end.com 6. Don & Blenda Ma rquardt, Glasgow, create pewter-bas ed utensils such as these cocktail gla sses that are as useful as they are beautiful. www.bluestemcraf ts.com 7. Every New Yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Party needs a little bubbly. Try this bru t from Les Bourgeois, Rocheport. www.missouriwine .com

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PROMOTION

Downtown Columbia

Show- Me SHOPPING Holiday shopping is difficult, especially when you’re trying to find the perfect gift for the choosiest of family members. But don’t make spending your hard-earned money become a second job. Make a trip out of it, and enjoy the places you shop just as much as your loved ones will enjoy the presents you find for them.

Downtown St. Charles St. Charles pulls out all the stops for Christmas. Victorian carolers, parades, and holiday decorations adorn the historic brick streets. From Thanksgiving until Christmas, downtown is in a full celebration mode with late-night shopping on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Plus, there are plenty of options for the hard-to-shop-for family member, from fine art to comic books.

Hermann

Hermann Hermann is a perfect place to spend the day shopping, but the fact that it’s in the heart of Missouri wine country sweetens the deal.

Don’t miss the Kristkindl Mart, a Germanstyle Christmas fair during the first and second weekends of December at Stone Hill Winery and Hermannhof Vineyards.

Downtown Columbia Although Mizzou football made some great television this year, Columbia is more than just Tiger Town. The town has many great retail shops for hip clothing, great kitchenware, vintage records, antiques, Missourimade products, and even quirky Bohemian gifts. Don’t forget about the seemingly endless selection of restaurants, either.

St. Charles

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PROMOTION

Sedalia When you go to the State Fair, you miss all of Sedalia’s great shopping. Downtown offers many great places to shop, whether you’re looking for antiques or a new bike.

Springfield Springfield is a natural source of shopping and gift ideas. There’s the largest BassPro Shop for outdoor-lovers and shopping malls for those who prefer the indoors, but downtown is the best experience. It is a wonderful place to take your time and explore.

Louisiana Located south of Hannibal and on the Mississippi River, Louisiana, Missouri, has a picturesque view of the river and is also one of the Show-Me State’s hidden gems. It makes for a great day trip. Check out the town’s church walk for some holiday fun.

Blackwater Visiting Blackwater is like stepping back in time, so visit this treasure of a town to find unique antiques for vintage enthusiasts.

Old Town Cape Girardeau From furniture shops to model plane stores, Cape Girardeau has a wide variety of shops and boutiques, plus Christmas celebrations during the first two weekends in December.

Make the trip and visit this historic town with its own unique atmosphere.

The Boulevard, St. Louis St. Louis has more shopping options than any other area in Missouri because of its comparatively large population. Among the shoptions, The Boulevard is the go-to for the stylish. Check out adorable boutiques such as Geranium, started by St. Louis native Tina Anthon, for some splendid gifts.

Downtown Warrensburg Each December, Warrensburg hosts the Dickens Christmas Festival with living windows, but don’t worry if you miss the spirited festival. There are plenty of places to get your holiday shopping done while in town.

You can buy clothing, novelty gifts, or have a family picture framed, all downtown.

Downtown Springfield

Kansas City

The Country Club Plaza, Kansas City The Country Club Plaza has been Kansas City’s go-to upscale shopping district since it opened in 1923. The gorgeous architecture, tasty food, and variety of stores make the Plaza great year-round, but the lighting and decorations make it special during the holiday season. Check out Missouri-based shops such as Boulevard Dry Goods Store.

Downtown St. Joseph No more than an hour north of Kansas City, the historic town of St. Joseph has become a flourishing town with a vibrant shopping district. It’s a great day trip any time of the year. Why not venture there with a purpose?

Lousiana, MO

Cape Girardeau St. Joseph

p i r t a e Mak out of it!

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Show- Me Shopping Manitou Studio, llc A gallery of fine crafts in clay and fiber.

12th Annual Holiday Open House Dec 7-8th, 2013, 10am-5pm, 12-4pm

302 Columbia Street, Rocheport, MO 573-698-4011 ∙ www.preusceramics.com

12790 SE Hwy TT, Osceola, MO 64776 eveningshadefarms.com 417.282.6985

3.75” x 2.5” NATURAL ANTLER-HANDLED LETTER OPENER

features original, hand-etched scrimshaw.

Choose a cardinal, hummingbird, dogwood, or rose. $25, plus $3 shipping/handling Check/Money Order/Visa/MasterCard

31 High Trail, Eureka, MO www.stonehollowstudio.com • 636-938-9570

www.thebenttree.com www.stacyleigh.etsy.com

We give workshops! Call for information: 573-242-3200

Bent Tree Gallery The

HISTORIC CLARKSVILLE MISSOURI The perfect place to find one-of-a-kind gifts for the special people on your list.

Rustic Furniture, Handcrafted Handbags, Fiber Art & Baskets 573-242-3200

Elegant Colors Experience the

of Autumn

1902 Corona Road, Suite 102, Columbia, MO | www.KTDiamondJewelers.com | 573-234-277 [56] MissouriLife

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Experience the Difference A welcoming, fun environment offering great wine without intimidation. Come learn more about Missouri wine and find your favorite.

Mon.-Sat. 11AM-6 PM & Sun. 1-6 PM. 27150 Hwy. 24, Waverly, MO www.baltimorebend.com | 660-493-0258

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HOLIDAY A STORE AS UNIQUE AS ITS NAME Natural soaps and lotions, hand woven palm leaf hats, Native American craft supplies, period patterns and clothing, fair trade and Native-American made jewelry and gifts.

Blackwater, MO • 660-846-2224 Please check our web site, www.blackwater-mo.com, for our Old West reenactment schedule.

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Hermann Wurst Haus Located in downtown historic Hermann

46 flavors of award-winning wursts Convenient access to the Katy Trail Great German food A National Historic Landmark

234 East First Street, Hermann, MO 573-486-2266 | www.hermannwursthaus.com

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A HELPING

Hand

BY TINA CASAGRAND

think about this: Missouri has the fastest-growing food insecurity rate in the nation, increasing domestic violence reports, and declining school funding for everything from counselors to art teachers.

Take heart.

People in Missouri don’t just talk about problems. We act on them. That “Show-Me” spirit shines through in these stories of hard-working people who want to improve life for others.

When talking to staff members about their nonprofits’ leadership, the word “visionary” often arises. These are people willing to change when necessary and stay around to see that the job is completed. Rose Brooks’s CEO has served for fifteen years. The founder of Concerns for Police Survivors has served for thirty. The Wyman Center’s CEO started as a camp counselor in 1965 and doesn’t plan to leave anytime soon. But age is certainly not a requirement. At least one nonprofit director—Murielle Gaither, of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri—is fresh out of college. She has a vision for positive change, too.

The smaller groups are just as inspiring, perhaps more, for their singular willpower. The founder of 2000 Feet, for instance, asked simply, “What can I do with the resources I have?” Now she has equipped thousands of children with new shoes. And when the founders of the Missouri River Bird Observatory saw native habitats changing, they started research that nobody else had time to do.

Our most incredible assets are the people who don’t get paid to help.

Joan Dougherty orchestrates up to three thousand volunteers at the Rose Brooks domestic violence shelter in Kansas City. “Our volunteers are our lifeblood,” she says. The same goes for any of these groups. Volunteers keep the United Service Organization running twenty-four hours a day. Volunteers teach art one-on-one to children in alternative schools. They clean stables at a therapeutic riding center in Washington and pick apples in Nodaway County for the hungry. They even coach bocce ball for Special Olympics Missouri.

Every minute helps. So does each dollar. Numerous organizations have had to turn away those in need because of cost, yet instead of getting discouraged, their staffs redouble efforts to make each cent count for the people who need it most.

We culled through the data and used several nonprofit rating resources to select a few across the state who are giving back and doing it well. There are hundreds more that could have been included.

Missouri has a presence in all of these stories, but it’s our giving people who truly drive this narrative, and they make our state stronger each day.

They’ll show you how Missouri makes a difference.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREW BARTON

If you want to talk about social problems,

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How charitable organizations are making a difference in our state.

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St. Louis, www.cid.edu

Jason has been a father for a year, and the learning curve has been steep. Both he and his daughter, Sachi, have hearing impairments. Sachi failed her first two screening tests and another more in-depth test, which confirmed hearing loss similar to Jason’s. The audiologist referred Sachi to Missouri First Steps, which connected her family with Central Institute for the Deaf (CID). “When you first have a baby, you’re very emotional anyway,” Jason says. “I was surprised because we didn’t think my hearing impairment was hereditary, but for me, the seven stages of grief took about seven seconds.”

CID’s professionals explained Sachi’s condition and connected Jason’s wife with another new mother there.

They walked the family through hearing aids, audiology tests, and set them up with Claire Soete, a parent educator who nurtures Sachi’s language development by repeating sounds that Sachi makes to encourage vocalization and using concrete nouns for objects. Claire comes to the house at least once each month and also trains Sachi’s daycare providers in working with hearing aids and hearing development.

CID has served more than 180 students in a given year, up to age twelve. The program also attracts families from around the world, though most are from the surrounding area. “We’re happy that we ended up in

CID pediatric audiologist Mary Rice fits a hearing aid on nine-month-old Sachi as her father, Jason, watches.

St. Louis because there is so much support for hearing impaired children locally,” Jason says.

The science and profession of audiology started in St. Louis, so both researchers and families travel to CID for services. Educational tools and curriculum developed in St. Louis are used worldwide to teach children with hearing loss—even profound deafness—to talk.

“No matter what we think people know about us, it seems they always doubt this possibility,” says Ellie White, curriculum coordinator for CID. The key is early intervention, like Sachi received.

Technology such as cochlear implants, bluetooth streaming, and adaptive noise processing aid in the process. “This allows them to listen to the sounds of the world around them from an early age when their little brains are optimally programmed to listen—most importantly, listen to the talk around them,” Ellie says.

With this in mind, Jason reads to Sachi every morning as she drinks her first bottle. Propped up on his leg, she’ll follow the words with her finger and point to animals’ noses. Jason has a hunch that his mother constantly reading to him helped his development significantly—his impairment wasn’t discovered until age four. “Hopefully she’ll be further along than I was at that age,” Jason says. “And hopefully she will eventually stop trying to pull her hearing aids out all the time.”

CHRIS MALACARNE, COURTESY OF CENTRAL INSTITUTE FOR THE DEAF

CENTRAL INSTITUTE FOR THE DEAF

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2000 FEET

St. Charles, www.2000feet.org As a child, Elinor Nelson never owned more

Award-winners and members of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri (from left): Wendy Cooper, Linda Hutson, Brenda Seyer, Vicki Outman, John "Cowboy" Lynch, Peter Nguyen, Caroline Kahler, Murielle Gaither, and Joyce Miller.

ARTS COUNCIL OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI Cape Girardeau www.capearts.org

TOM NEURMEYER, JERREN MCKENNY

Lori Ann Kinder will tell you that artistic communities come in all shapes and sizes.

“If you look at a community, and it doesn’t have to be big—I mean, some of the most artistic communities are just dots on the map—if there’s some sort of community outposts for the artists, it makes for deeper perspectives on society and culture,” says Lori Ann, chair of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri. She moved from Dallas to Cape Girardeau in 2002 and became involved almost immediately.

The Arts Council’s space in downtown Cape Girardeau branches into three galleries. One features work from local Visual Arts Cooperative members and others from Poplar Bluff, Sikeston, Ste. Genevieve, and other towns. On their First Friday events last year, more than 20,000 visitors explored 15 exhibits.

Executive Director Murielle Gaither makes efforts to connect artists to two local hospitals, the artsy river campus of Southeast Missouri State University, area art teachers, and youth.

A National Arts Foundation grant connected three visiting artists with a hundred students in Cape’s Alternative Education Center. Another called ArtReach connects university art students to an after-school arts educational program. An annual fall craft fair draws twelve thousand visitors and raises more than half the council’s revenue, which enables them to offer free programming and supports area arts initiatives.

Whether they are helping students make their own art or showcasing group shows, juried shows, and special guests in the building’s galleries, the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri is cultivating a positive presence in the cultural tapestry of the Cape Girardeau area.

than one pair of shoes and wore each until the soles gave out. She doesn’t worry about having quality shoes anymore. As founder of 2000 Feet, she’s making sure other children don’t have to worry, either.

Throughout the year, 2000 Feet’s volunteers take kids to shoe stores to try on and purchase a pair on the organization’s dime.

Wearing a poorly fitting shoe can cause discomfort and stress fractures; kids slipping their feet into second-hand shoes might also be slipping their feet into bacteria and fungus.

Elinor says new shoes improve a child’s selfesteem. “You feel so much better when you have a choice to pick out what you like and what you want,” she says.

2000 Feet gives kids the chance to express themselves and gives parents some financial relief when it comes time to shop.

The organization’s sponsorships have recently dwindled. Meanwhile, the cost of clothing is rising. When 2000 Feet started, twenty dollars could buy a decent pair of children’s shoes at stores such as Payless. Now, the organization budgets forty dollars.

A shoe-based nonprofit has a few perks: Shoes don’t require major research or government approval like other health-focused groups. And the results speak volumes. In thirteen years, 2000 Feet has donated more than 6,650 pairs of shoes.

Elinor Nelson helps a child try on a new pair of shoes.

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CONVOY OF HOPE Springfield www.convoyofhope.org

Just minutes after an E-5 tornado tore through the Southwest Missouri town of Joplin on May 22, 2011, Convoy of Hope’s disaster response team sprang into action.

“We were in Joplin literally hours after the tornado hit, and we haven’t left,” says Jeff Roman, the organization’s public relations director.

Convoy of Hope was founded in 1994, and as it grew, Missouri supporters and donors helped the group relocate from Los Angeles to Springfield. “In our mind, this is our community,” says Jeff Nene, Convoy’s national spokesperson. “If we’re going to do things around the world, we better help out people here.”

Being at the center of the country allows the organization to efficiently transport food and supplies to those in need. But not many people understand the breadth of its impact at its headquarters in Springfield.

Many of Convoy’s better-publicized missions take them to eleven countries across the globe. “I think we’re known as a global organization, but we defi-

nitely do have a Missouri footprint,” Jeff Roman says.

Convoy’s construction crews recently completed building its thirteenth home in Joplin and has been involved with flood response in the state in the past two years. The group regularly helps supply several food pantries in southwest Missouri and has held more than twenty community outreach days in towns across Missouri, to name a few of their in-state efforts.

“As we build relationships to communities doing outreach work, if they then get hit with unfortunate disaster,” Jeff Roman says, “we’re on the shortlist of who to call for help.”

Florissant, www.champdogs.org

come to the rescue. Canine Helpers Allow More Possibilities, or CHAMP, trains service dogs to care for humans and humans to care for dogs. It also teaches the community about disabilities, matches dogs with facilities, and runs a program that helps young children build self-confidence by reading to animals. “Our whole philosophy is to celebrate the bond between the human and the canine,” says Pam Bolton, CHAMP executive director. The organization, based in Florissant, serves people within a fifty-mile radius of St. Louis.

One program called CHAMP to the Rescue pairs dogs from animal shelters with prisoners in a women’s correctional facility, where the canines learn basic obedience skills for three months. Healthy dogs that excel move on to a specialized service dog program. Service dogs that graduate can retrieve items, help people get undressed, help people transfer from a bed to a wheelchair, make 911 calls, and more. As they live with the dogs around the clock, the prisoners learn vocational skills and train dogs that will someday help others.

Some former inmates now work for CHAMP full-time.

CHAMP’s therapy dog program also gets results. “I’ll see someone in pain,” Pam says, “and their eyes light up when the dog comes in. That’s why we do it.”

COURTESY OF CONVOY OF HOPE, CHAMPS

CANINE HELPERS ALLOW MORE POSSIBILITIES (CHAMP)

Television isn’t the only place where dogs

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Sharon Story (middle) embraces other survivors at a 2013 C.O.P.S. retreat.

CONCERNS OF POLICE SURVIVORS (C.O.P.S.)

Camdenton, www.nationalcops.org

COURTESY OF C.O.P.S.

Officer Bob Stanze could not stand seeing hair on a dinner plate. Gagging, the officer of the St. Louis Police Department would make a beeline from the table to a bathroom. “Oh my gosh, his face would just drain of color,” says Deb House, his sister.

Ten years ago, Deb could not have told this story.

When her brother was killed on duty in 2000, grief quietly consumed her. People at her workplace didn’t know that she had lost a sibling. She couldn’t say his name. “What if I did, and I started crying?” she says. “It was too hard.”

Her sister-in-law, Michelle, encouraged her to attend a retreat organized by Concerns for Police Survivors. After five years, Deb relented and joined the more than thirty-two thousand police survivors who C.O.P.S. serves nationwide.

“I would not be where I am without them,” Deb says. The organization sponsors individual retreats for spouses, siblings, children, parents, and coworkers of law enforcement officers lost in the line of duty. Attending sessions with mental health counselors and completing physical and emotional challenges at retreats are a part of the healing process.

The C.O.P.S. concept was born when ten police widows discussed how they dealt with the sudden, traumatic grief and the lack of support they received from their husbands’ police agencies. Their issues inspired the foundation for C.O.P.S.

“They were home, by themselves, trying to cope as well as they could,” says Suzie Sawyer, who founded the organization more than thirty years ago after meeting those ten women. “There was nobody calling, nobody doing anything for them.”

Appearing in court on days off work, dealing with media interviews, and attending memorial services are just a few of the extra hardships families must handle in addition to coping with their loss. C.O.P.S. helps guide family members through these trials, but few know about the organization’s headquarters in the Show-Me State. “We’ve been here twenty years, and C.O.P.S. is still one of the best-kept secrets in Missouri,” Suzie says.

Suzie and her husband moved from the Washington, D.C., area to Camdenton in 1993.

“When we moved to Missouri, it allowed us to focus on C.O.P.S. and increase the number of programs C.O.P.S. provided to survivors,” she says.

“And here’s a shocker: there are great, affordable resources here in Missouri where we could hold those programs.”

Places such as Potosi and Bennett Springs provide perfect serenity and remoteness for C.O.P.S. retreats.

Suzie says she loves that every day she can say she has helped someone. “That’s the miracle of C.O.P.S.,” she says, “because it’s one survivor helping another put their lives back together.”

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ROSE BROOKS CENTER One in three women have experienced domestic violence, according to Rose Brooks Center.

“It is across ethnicity, race, and income,” says Sharla Nolte, marketing manager for the center in Kansas City. “For a lot of women, shelters are the only way they can find safety from their abusers. They can finally move past that and start their own life.”

The Rose Brooks Center empowers women in the Kansas City area and is a national leader. Its reach has grown as a result. In 2012, they gave 625 women and children more than 57,600 safe nights.

Recently, the staff helped police officers to better assess domestic violence situations via a set of questions: if officers determine that the risk of murder is high, women are encouraged to leave immediately and go somewhere safe, such as a shelter. Before the assessment was implemented, the center expected six to ten calls a week. Now, they receive six to ten calls each day.

Sharla says that most women who came to the shelter in the past had planned to, but now, more women leave home at a moment’s notice and arrive at Rose Brooks Center with few possessions.

The shelter had to physically expand, and the need for clothing and other supplies increased. “We’re always over capacity,” Sharla says. They coordinate with other shelters in the city and help with safety planning over the phone if space is unavailable.

These families face other obstacles. Michelle Horst, a Rose Brooks Center volunteer, coordinates Rosie’s Closet, where women can pick out new clothes. “For me, it’s kind of evolved into being able to organize the system and know it’s working when you see women come in and they’re finding things that they want,” she says. “It gives them a sense of power and to feel better about themselves when it’s the clothing items that they would want to have—not just need, but want—and had to leave at home.”

Michelle recalls a woman who came in to shop for her sixteen-year-old son. Boys’ clothing donations are notoriously hard to find, but Michelle anticipated the clients and called friends to ask for help. She put the donations out the morning that the woman and her son arrived. “And he was truly excited about it,” Michelle says. “That moment kind of stuck with me because I have a fifteen-year-old son.”

Guests at the shelter are not required to participate in services Rose Brooks Center provides. “The women and children have already experienced so much trauma,” Sharla says. “Other places tell them when to go to bed, when to eat, what programs to attend. We’re making sure they have freedom and power.”

With a list of partners nearing one hundred, the entire Kansas City community is helping Rose Brooks Center give women a refuge.

ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

Kansas City, www.rosebrooks.org

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EXCEPTIONAL EQUESTRIANS OF THE MISSOURI VALLEY Washington, www.eemv.org

Exceptional Equestrians’

STEVE FREDERICK, COURTESY OF DONA REYNOLDS

awardwinning horses live in its stables, premier accreditation certificates hang on its walls, and a staff of six certified instructors lead more than one hundred volunteers (some of them actual cowboys) who donate thousands of hours of their time. The therapeutic horseback riding center serves about a hundred individuals per week.

In 2013, a liver-chestnut Appaloosa named Zaar won the PATH International Horse of the Year award— their second such award in three years. He’s just one of eleven calm, caring creatures dubbed the “four-legged therapists.” From his first day on the job, Zaar seemed determined to help a particular paraplegic rider. “At the end of each session, he would wait patiently until the rider was back in his wheelchair, then he would ‘kiss’ the rider,” an anonymous award nominator wrote.

Riders can develop their communication, physical, and motor skills by working with the horses.

“A lot of program participants don’t do well in traditional settings, and they just excel out here,” says Kyla Somerville, the organization’s administrative manager.

On an especially great day, an eight-year-old girl who struggles with a rare seizure-inducing syndrome gave her first high five after five years in the program. Kyla lives for those moments: “It’s times like that when you see all their hard work take off.”

MARK J. REYNOLDS CHILDREN’S FIRST BICYCLE FUND

St. Joseph, www.markreynoldsfund.org A St. Joseph organization is blazing trails with brand new bicycles. As the hometown of late cycling enthusiast Mark J. Reynolds, the northwest Missouri city is a hub for providing underprivileged children with their very first bike.

The nonprofit is a labor of love for Mark’s mother, Dona, who volunteers her time as the fund’s president. She remembers her son’s first bicycle, a little four-wheeler that sat about eight inches from the floor. “In Mark’s lifetime, he never forgot the thrill of that first bike,” she says.

Later in life, Mark began quietly donating bikes to families who could not afford them for their children.

He’d ask for a few bucks from friends to help with the cause and would often deliver the bikes himself.

In 2004, Mark was tragically killed by a mountain lion while cycling in California. His family continues his work from St. Joseph, while efforts out west are coordinated by a woman who was attacked by that same cougar on the day Mark died.

The volunteer-based group is privately funded. Its signature events involve giveaways of about twenty bicycles, helmets, and one-on-one training. Children are taught road safety and proper biking skills. The fund has donated more than 1,500 bikes since 2004.

The organization’s specially designed bikes help children with disabilities. A girl with spina bifida at Shriners Hospital in St. Louis has a hand-powered bike.

“She can now say, ‘I’m a biker,’ ” Dona says and counts that as a comfort that her son’s memory endures.

Steve Frederick holds Big Mac, a Clydesdale, as his son Jim does a backwards pushup.

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Marshall, www.mrbo.org

Recorded sightings of the Saw-Whet Owl in Missouri topped out at thirty when Observatory director Dana Ripper first learned about the bird, but these were not nearly enough sightings for scientific analysis. So for weeks during two autumn seasons, she set up mist nets at night and prayed for the bad weather these birds preferred. Once captured, the pintsized creatures were complacent, as long as the banders

Veronica Mecko leads a group during a banding demonstration at the Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary.

Hunger looks different today than it did sixty years ago. “And the numbers are higher than what people think,” says Tamara Grubb, Second Harvest’s operations director. Last year, Second Harvest distributed six million pounds of food in its hometown of St. Joseph and to eighteen surrounding counties. Second Harvest runs a delivery program for seniors, a weekend food program for children, cooking demonstrations, and an on-site garden.

About one hundred pantries in local towns and villages help with rural distribution. One such site is the Ministry Center in Maryville. Each weekend during the school year, Second Harvest helps the Ministry Center in Nodaway County distribute 260 packages of food in backpacks to children. Weekends can be a time when food is scarce for children who rely on school lunches during the week. But about four times that many students were identified as needing the service.

The cost for the year—150 dollars per child—prohibits kids above grade six from receiving a backpack.

“One of the things we’re working on in counties such as Nodaway is expanding access to make sure those rural areas have access to nutrition assistance,” Tamara says. “It’s certainly doable, but it’s not easy.”

patted their heads. Within two fall seasons, Dana and her colleagues banded nearly twice the Saw-Whets in Missouri than had ever been documented before.

MRBO studies and counts birds, and while that may seem like a pretty dull or unimportant affair, consider this: the Missouri Department of Conservation spends 1.5 million dollars annually to restore the state’s prairie and wetland habitats. Nongovernmental operations like MRBO provide research to back up those conservation measures. The organization’s operating cost is low and can better focus on these specific efforts. Dana, co-director Ethan Duke, and a handful of assistants net and record birds across the state.

Pick any place near the Missouri River, and you’re likely near wetlands, prairies, and forests—a few of the natural resources that make Missouri beautiful.

“We’re trying to tell a different story for each project,” Ethan says about the habitats they watch. “Or really, the birds are trying to tell us some things. We’re just monitoring them.”

MRBO also educates children in hopes of fostering an appreciation for nature. One event took Kansas City youth to band birds.

With the data they collect, MRBO also helps landowners and organizations improve wildlife habitats.

Ethan values each spark he sees when people learn about ecosystems and their importance.

SECOND HARVEST COMMUNITY FOOD BANK

Northwest Missouri www.ourcommunityfoodbank.org

Donna Kneib volunteers at Share the Harvest’s Fresh Start program twelve hours weekly.

COURTESY OF MISSOURI RIVER BIRD OBSERVATORY, SECOND HARVEST COMMUNITY FOOD BANK

MISSOURI RIVER BIRD OBSERVATORY

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Jamie (left) helps an elementary school student beautify a public space.

WYMAN CENTER Eureka, www.wymancenter.org

COURTESY OF WYMAN CENTER

A visit

to a drug rehabilitation center gave Dave Hillard a wake-up call, but not the kind you might expect. He had come to see a young man he helped during his first job as a Wyman Center summer counselor. But when he arrived, a gaggle of past campers were waiting to say hello. They told Dave that Camp Wyman gave them the best weeks of their life: fresh air, all the food they could eat, a bed to themselves, and a respite from public housing and foster homes. “But for all of that, we didn’t make a meaningful difference,” Dave says.

They also told him how they sang campfire songs while sleeping on the streets of St. Louis.

Dave’s heart sunk. Wyman had to do more.

In about ten years, Wyman evolved from a twoweek camp into a six-year commitment. Dave is now CEO, and Wyman serves tens of thousands of underprivileged teens. Since its inception in 1898, the organization has had fewer leadership turnovers than the Vatican.

The Teen Leadership Program begins with a camp on Wyman’s Eureka facilities, continues onto college campuses, and follows students into postsecondary careers for two years.

“I feel like everything I do is because of Wyman,” says Danielle Washington, the organization’s college programs coordinator. She and her twin sister

started camp in eighth grade, just weeks after her father died.

“Wyman came at the perfect time; it was the perfect distraction and steered our energy in a different way,” she says.

Now, she designs programs and advises students about financial management, healthy relationships, and other college challenges. Danielle is one of thousands of Wyman success stories.

In the coming years, Wyman hopes to integrate into more Missouri education programs, especially in rural communities. Fewer Missourians participate in Wyman programs than they do in other states. Nevertheless, Dave says, “We can point to Missouri with a lot of pride.”

A Missouri teacher developed the Teen Outreach Program, a weekly, one-hour session of learning and community service that Wyman now replicates in thirty-three states. In that program, 98 percent of its students remained in school or graduated on time and 79 percent reported no school suspensions or course failures. In 2012, the organization partnered with more than 55 organizations and reached more than 30,000 teens nationwide. Parents as Teachers, another critical service, also came out of the Missouri organization.

“We are the Show-Me State,” he says, “and we’re showing the other states how to do it.”

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SPECIAL OLYMPICS MISSOURI Jefferson City, www.somo.org

SHARE THE HARVEST

State-wide, mdc.mo.gov/huntingtrapping/deer/share-harvest Travis McLain sits in his office beneath the approving gaze of a massive mounted buck. He’s a programs specialist for the Department of Conservation’s Protection Division and coordinator for Share the Harvest, a program that offers lean, wild-harvested venison to those in need. That was the vision of a group of archers who founded the program in 1992. Since then, the program has grown considerably and is now jointly administrated by the MDC and the Conservation Federation of Missouri. In 2002, nearly two thousand hunters donated deer, and their participation has more than tripled since then.

MDC conservation agents handle local program approval and coordination, press releases, and the distribution of meat packaging supplies needed. The CFM handles a great deal of the fundraising and publicity for the program. The funds reimburse participants for fees associated with processing whole-deer donations.

In many instances, all fees associated with processing are covered at no cost to the hunter.

Share the Harvest partners with sixty processors across the state. These businesses agree to process and package the donated meat, which service organizations transport to food pantries and homeless shelters.

In some communities, it’s the Kiwanis; in others, it’s the Boy Scouts. Many are hunting clubs, such as Safari Club International’s Central Missouri chapter. The statewide total of meat donated in 2012 was 318,000 pounds, according to MDC data. All of it comes from and stays in Missouri.

COURTESY OF SPECIAL OLYMPICS, SHARE THE HARVEST

Jane Highland, a thirty-four-year-old Special Olympics athlete, had been shy all her life. But something clicked after she made the Missouri state team for the USA Games. At a meeting with hundreds of supporters and athletes, Jane approached the stage to address the crowd about her fundraising efforts. She hadn’t spoken to anyone at the organization before.

Jane’s mother says she’s now lost more than twenty pounds and does more on her own. “I’m psyched about it,” Jane says of the 2014 USA games in New Jersey.

The organization has also impacted its volunteers.

“The athletes did more for me than I ever did for them,” says Gary Brimer, director of sports initiatives.

Before his first track practice in Boonville as a Special Olympics coach, he thought that he lacked patience, but the experience was “love at first sight.” The eighteen-year coach emphasizes the athletes’ receptiveness to instructions and their wholehearted enthusiasm at every practice.

Special Olympics athletes not only improve their fitness, but they also benefit from services such as screenings and the social opportunities games provide.

“We’re trying to create a sense of community in a place where people with intellectual disabilities can go and feel at home, while they’re normally shunned at school or their communities,” says Brandon Schatsiek, public relations coordinator for Special Olympics Missouri.

More than 17,600 Missouri athletes train yearround for twenty-one sports.

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Amid the hustle and bustle of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, the James S. McDonnell USO facility is an oasis for military members. A nap room is filled with young soldiers; their Army boots punctuate the foot of each bed. A quiet computer space is aglow with emails and Facebook. Military men and women take a much-needed break on oversized lounge chairs.

The USO of Missouri is an important lift in these soldiers’ days. Active duty military men, women, and their families may visit for refuge, free food, entertainment, and, sometimes, a shoulder to lean on. Volunteers keep it open around the clock.

For one event, Fort Leonard Wood drops off more than five thousand troops for the holidays. At night, a sea of green spills into the baggage claim area, rocking with a DJ, photo booth, and Mr. and Mrs. Claus.

The USO of Missouri can also bring comfort to different parts of Missouri and Illinois at welcome home parties, training exercises, community festivals, and special events. For troops stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, the USO of Missouri operates a USO Club there to add a touch of home to the post. Their facility offers much of what the Lambert site does, as well as family game nights and various programs. Other events build awareness about the services they provide.

UNITED SERVICE ORGANIZATION OF MISSOURI St. Louis, Ft. Leonard Wood www.usomissouri.org

The USO of Missouri is financially independent from the national USO organization, which President Roosevelt founded.

Then, it was best known as a place for coffee, donuts, and dancing, but a few things about military culture have changed.

“We are needed more now for cyber connectivity and a relaxing place versus a dance hall, as was the old days,” says Communications Director Sara Colvin.

With locations in both of Lambert’s terminals, on base at Fort Leonard Wood, and around the state with a mobile unit, the group’s ten-person staff and tireless volunteers help families coming home or tired recruits who just need to put up their feet.

A FEW MORE TOP CHARITABLE NONPROFITS: Beyond Housing Serves the St. Louis area www.beyondhousing.org Beyond Housing provides services for low-income families: affordable housing and homeownership services; services for families, children, and seniors in need; community rebuilding efforts; and more.

COURTESY OF USO MISSOURI

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri Serves counties in eastern Missouri www.bbbsemo.org The organization provides mentors for children ages 5-17 and has branches throughout the state. The Eastern Missouri organization serves St. Louis City and the counties of St. Louis, St. Charles, Jefferson, Cape Girardeau, and Scott.

Community Services League Serves the Kansas City area www.cslcares.org Community Services League provides

sustainable services and more for job-seekers, senior citizens, and those needing financial assistance. The organization helps individuals and communities reach economic stability.

The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri Serves 32 counties in central and northeast Missouri www.sharefoodbringhope.org The organization donates millions of pounds of food annually to soup kitchens, emergency food pantries, rehabilitation centers, shelters for the abused, homeless programs for lowincome children, and senior citizens.

Guardian Angel Settlement Association Serves the St. Louis area www.gasastl.org The organization seeks to help those in poverty with its Utility and Rental Assistance Program, Prescription Aid

and Health Awareness Program, thrift store and clothing bank, self-sufficiency programs and referrals, and Child Development Center.

Greater Kansas City Community Foundation Serves Kansas City and surrounding areas www.givingbetter.org For more than thirty five years, the foundation has worked to improve life in the greater Kansas City region by fostering charitable giving and connecting donors to their philanthropic goals.

Make-a-Wish Missouri Serves the state of Missouri www.mo.wish.org Make-a-Wish grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions. The foundation serves 115 counties in Missouri and has granted more than four thousand wishes since

1983. More than seven hundred people volunteer at the Missouri chapter.

Ozarks Food Harvest Serves 28 counties in the Ozarks www.ozarksfoodharvest.org Ozarks Food Harvest distributes food and supplies to 250 nonprofit hungerrelief organizations, reaching 20,000 people in need every week.

NextStep for Life Serves Jefferson County www.nextstepforlife.org NextStep for Life helps disabled people with educational, employment, housing, and social opportunities.

Rebuild Joplin Serves the Joplin area www.rebuildjoplin.org Rebuild Joplin was formed after an F5 tornado decimated the town and surrounding areas in 2011. The organization rebuilds homes in the area.

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Support Missouri Non-Profit PROMOTION

Organizations

River City Habitat for Humanity Since 1992, River City Habitat for Humanity’s dedicated volunteers have led the fight against indecent, low-income housing in Missouri’s Capital City. In 2013, RCHFH dedicated their 81st local home. RCHFH builds (both new and rehab) five to six per year on average, although the affiliate sold nine in 2012. The “A Brush with Kindness” initiative serves low-income homeowners with critical, exterior home repairs. All RCHFH projects are founded in the model of “a hand up, not a handout.” Families earn between 350-450 hours of sweat equity and purchase their homes with an interestfree mortgage, financed by Habitat. When a house is dedicated in Jefferson City, we allocate $4,500 to build a Habitat home in communities in need across the world. 1420 Creek Trail Drive, Jefferson City, MO, 573-635-8439, www.rivercityhabitat.org Habitat for Humanity of St. Charles County Habitat for Humanity of St. Charles County is committed to creating home ownership opportunities for working families. Since its inception in 1996, Habitat for Humanity of St. Charles County has built and rehabbed 61 homes throughout St. Charles County.

These homes were built in partnership with qualifying St. Charles County families of diverse backgrounds who invested 350 sweat equity hours in building their homes and then purchased them with a 30-year, zero percent mortgage. Our 61 families are all dedicated members of the community and have paid more than $500,000 in property taxes since purchasing their homes.

We depend on our sponsors and volunteers to help us eliminate substandard housing from our community and deliver simple, decent and affordable homes in St. Charles County. 130 Trade Center Drive West, St. Peters, MO, 636-978-5712, www.habitatstcharles. org, www.stcharlesrestore.org Habitat for Humanity of Springfield, MO Habitat for Humanity of Springfield helps those in need in the Springfield and surrounding areas obtain affordable housing. Habitat Springfield builds an average of 10 homes each year. Since 1988, Habitat Springfield has either built or rehabilitated more than 150 homes, providing shelter for more than 600 men, women, and children in Greene County.

Families who partner with Habitat for Humanity go through a rigorous application and selection process and are then expected to perform 350 volunteer hours before closing on their home. Once families complete the program requirements, they are financed for a zero-interest home loan, which is later recycled back into the program through homeowner payments to provide funding for future projects. 2410 S. Scenic Ave., Springfield, 417-829-4001. ww.w.habitatspringfieldmo.org

Literacy Kansas City For some, reading a newspaper, a letter, or even a road sign is a daily struggle. Literacy Kansas City works to improve basic literacy skills. Students are matched with trained volunteer tutors with whom they meet twice a week. The nonprofit organization has seen hundreds of students attain more productive jobs, attend college, or realize their dream of reading to their grandchildren.

Literacy Kansas City has partnered with other organizations and institutions. The GEARS (Guided Educational Access to Reading Skills) program at Penn Valley Community College provides free reading classes and tutors to prepare prospective students for college-level coursework. The Open Doors program gives ex-offenders life skills classes and tutoring in reading, writing, and math.

Literacy Kansas City’s biggest challenges are recruiting enough tutors and covering costs to meet the demand of those who need our services. A donation of $100 would provide supplies for a new student for six months. Prospective volunteer tutors can find orientation information and a schedule of upcoming training sessions, and donations can be made online. www.literacykc.org.

Missouri Humanities Council The Missouri Humanities Council was founded in 1971 to support humanities-based programs throughout Missouri. With a special focus on young mothers, underserved populations, veterans, and economically disadvantaged families, MHC has helped more than 2 million Missouri citizens, including 112,000 in 82 counties this past year. MHC’s outreach includes family reading initiatives, veterans writing workshops, traveling history exhibits, teachereducation workshops, grant-funding, and many partnerships with historical societies, museums, and libraries across the state.

MHC offers its programming free of cost. The organization, privately funded by corporations, foundations, and individuals, recently received an A+ rating from the St. Louis Regional Better Business Bureau and is listed on the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation’s website as an approved nonprofit organization. www.mohumanities.org

“Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”

—Mark Twain Nonprofits rely on donations of time and money to continue helping those in need. Donate and keep the good work going strong in our communities.

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Humanities MISSOURI COUNCIL Our Programs Benefit TEACHERS | STUDENTS | VETERANS COMMUNITIES | FAMILIES | MUSEUMS LIBRARIES | LIFE-LONG LEARNERS in 82 Missouri Counties Learn more at

www.mohumanities.org 314.781.9660 | 1.800.357.0909

Help Build Houses and Hope!

Donate or Volunteer Today

Habitat for Humanity affiliates in Missouri have helped hundreds of hard-working, deserving, and dedicated Missourians find safe, decent, affordable housing. In St. Charles County, the organization has built and rehabbed 61 homes since 1996. In Springfield, the nonprofit averages 10 homes built per year and has constructed or rehabbed more than 250 homes for 600 people.

And in our capital city, Habitat for Humanity dedicated their 81st local home in 2013.

The organizations offer a hand up, not a handout. Families work hundreds of sweat equity hours to purchase their homes with a zero-interest mortgage funded by the organization. Habitat for Humanity also works closely with many volunteers and organizations within each community, ensuring that substandard housing in our communities is eliminated and that families in need can own a quality, affordable home.

River City Habitat for Humanity 1420 Creek Trail Drive Jefferson City, MO 65109 573-635-8439 www.rivercityhabitat.org

Habitat for Humanity of Springfield 2410 S. Scenic Ave. Springfield, MO 65807 417-829-4001 www.habitatspringfieldmo.org

Habitat for Humanity of St. Charles County 130 Trade Center Drive West St. Peters, MO 63376 636-978-5712 www.habitatstcharles.org | www.stcharlesrestore.org

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SHOW-ME

1

A MODERN MASTERPIECE A mid-century modernist home regains its artistic identity.

BY JIM WINNERMAN | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALISE O'BRIEN

PETER SHANK lives in a work of art.

His father, Isadore Shank, was on the forefront of modernist architecture in the late 1930s when he built the family’s home into a hillside that overlooks five acres of woods and two creeks in the St. Louis suburb of Ladue.

“When dad submitted the architectural drawings to the city in 1939, they were rejected as being too modern,” Peter says.

Extraordinarily innovative in 1940, the dining and living rooms in the Shank home flow into one another. Small, rectangular windows, some of them waist-high, frame views of the landscape like paintings. Peter says that when grade school friends visited the home,

they gazed wide-eyed at the open space and exposed brick and beams and asked when the home would be finished. Just outside of the three-sided welcoming area in the living room, the high slanted-ceiling and open space come into view, producing the illusion that the home is much larger than it is.

Peter’s mother, Ilse, was a magazine illustrator for Collier’s, The Saturday Evening Post, and McCall’s. Peter and his brothers, Paul and Stephen, are all artists. As a result of such pedigree in the home, wall decor includes both recent and early paintings by Peter, works by his mother and father, and art by his brothers.

Art by the Shank sons has been purchased for

collections across America and in several European countries.

Isadore and Ilse lived in the residence well into their nineties, but it was not until Isadore died that Peter’s mother mentioned that she hoped one of her three sons would live in the house after her passing. Only then did the thought occur to Peter to purchase it from the estate.

When he bought the home in 1999, maintenance had been neglected. The roof and basement leaked, and a part of the porch had collapsed. But Peter knew he could make it a showplace once more, and he has, fulfilling his mother’s wish and his own desire to see the home return to its original pristine condition.

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2 1. The open design of the adjoining living room and dining room were architectural innovations in 1940. “After the Depression and before World War II, when the home was built, extravagant room sizes were not the norm,” Peter says.

A Dunbar sofa and a view of one of two Barcelona chairs by German architect Mies Van Der Rohe are in the foreground. A contemporary painting by Peter dominates one wall, and an African mask hangs overhead; Peter calls these pieces outsider art, which are created by artists who are not widely known and have not had a formal art education. Such works include small sculptures of carved wooden figures.

The dining room table, designed by Isadore Shank, displays a vase by Finnish artist Alvar Aalto.

2. A sloping ceiling with exposed wood beams and brick walls spans the living room. Peter’s mother painted the white and brown Mayan-inspired painting on brick. A self-portrait by German artist Rainer Fetting is above the left waist-high rectangular window, and a silk screen by Richard Cottingham hangs over the hearth. The glass-top table is by JapaneseAmerican artist Isamu Noguchi, and Eero Saarinen, architect of the Gateway Arch, designed the red chair. The long shelf above the living room holds an ornately decorated building block from an Isadore Shank building and a sculpture Peter made in his youth.

3. The kitchen also contains a collection of coral and mustard yellow Russel Wright American Modern dinnerware on original knotty pine open shelves.

3

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SHOW-ME

4 4. In contrast to the wide-open living and dining room areas, bedrooms in the 1,868-square-foot home are quite small.

Peter believes the purpose of these intimate rooms was to maximize the space where the family would be spending most of their time. The home’s bedrooms are efficient in size and did not add unnecessary cost to building the home. Isadore Shank designed them all with large windows, which create the illusion of more space. Recessed nooks, which could double as bookcases, display small sculptures and do not infringe on the limited floor space.

5. A chair next to Peter’s floor-to-ceiling shelf of art books is by Charles Eames, and enjoys the provenance that Eames actually sat in it. Eames and his wife created some of the most important furniture designs of the twentieth century, toys, and Los Angeles architecture, among other things.

“Eames was from St. Louis and good friends with our neighbors, and he was invited to a party in their home,” Peter says. The neighbor did not have an Eames chair, so he borrowed the Shank’s.

5

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www.missourilife.com | www.travelerslane.com 314-223-1224 | travelerslane@hotmail.com [75] December 2013

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Preserving MISSOURI

THE CRACKER’S CRADLE

The Frank L. Sommer House is a part of St. Joseph and American history. BY WINN DUVALL FEELING UNDER the weather isn’t fun

deal of support from the community. In fact, they were given an invaluable gift for the preservation effort from a St. Joseph resident.

Virginia Galbraith and her husband owned the house fifty years ago. She contacted Jennifer and told her that the original fireplaces and light fixtures were in her current home.

“This never happens,” Jennifer says. “Anyone in preservation will tell you that once these architectural elements are gone, they’re gone.”

Although some original aspects have been returned to the home, Jennifer’s goal for the building, once it has been restored, is more of a support system and resource for historic preservation in the community than a museum.

Of course, those are long-term plans. Today, the focus is on rehabilitating the structure. To that end, the project has made progress. In May, the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation moved the Cracker House from endangered sta-

Frank L. Sommer lived here, just blocks away from his bakery that made the Premium Saltine cracker famous. The bakery has been adapted for reuse; his house has not.

tus to its Watched Properties list.

In another victory for the project, the out-ofstate owner donated the building to the nonprofit, which will help it apply for recognition from the National Register of Historic Places.

All victories aside, the restoration process has many obstacles ahead; replacing the roof will be a big undertaking. Most of the time and money is spent on the physical labor, but Jennifer and team are ready to get crackin’ and go to work.

“You can put all your plans in place,” she says, “but in preservation, it’s about getting into the dirt.”

To help out, find the Cracker House Project on Facebook, or donate to the cause online at www.gofundme.com/3y6pkc.

COURTESY OF THE CRACKER HOUSE PROJECT

for anyone. But American tradition has shown that chicken noodle soup makes things a little better, and no soup is complete without some saltine crackers. The crispy, salty snack that complements soups, salads, and cheeses but tastes great on its own is one of Missouri’s contributions to the world.

The Frank L. Sommer house in St. Joseph, more widely known by its nickname, the Cracker House, was owned by the man that invented the Premium Saltine cracker. It sits two blocks from where his bakery, the Sommer-Richardson Baking Company, once sat. However, unlike the chocolate chip cookie, Jell-O, and SPAM, which all have their own museums, the saltine cracker’s origins have not been preserved.

After decades of disuse and a title tied up with an out-of-state owner, the Cracker House landed on the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation’s Most Endangered Property list in 2012 and again in 2013.

The city of St. Joseph had plans to demolish the old home, but when resident Jennifer BaxterHiggs took an interest in the property, preservation efforts began.

“This is a huge part of American history, not just St. Joseph history,” Jennifer says. “It’s really the best of Americana.”

In 2011 she presented a strategic plan to the city to gain support for preservation and illuminate the house’s historical significance. Since then, The Cracker House Project, a nonprofit, formed with Jennifer at the head.

The Cracker House Project has pursued sponsorships from large companies such as Nabisco and HGTV, but that has proven difficult. Despite this, Jennifer and others have experienced a great

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SHOW-ME

Flavor

CHRISTMAS

Cravings

Webster Groves chef Tim Brennan whips up a Christmas feast.

BY BARBARA GIBBS OSTMANN | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW BARTON

Tim Brennan, owner of Cravings in Webster Groves, was a part of the KMOV-TV series Ask An Expert for six seasons.

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A MIDNIGHT Christmas Eve brunch for seventy-five close friends, followed hours later by a family feast for about sixty relatives.

There’s nothing to it—at least, not for Tim Brennan, baker extraordinaire.

Tim, the mastermind behind Cravings Restaurant and Bakery in Webster Groves, loves the Christmas season. He enjoys the traditions and the food. Maybe, the reason is that Tim has plenty of good friends, close relatives, and great recipes to go around.

Tim comes from a large Irish-Croatian Catholic family; he has five brothers and two sisters. When the family gathers today, there are twenty-four nieces and nephews and ten grand-nieces and -nephews.

“We usually get together at my house,” says Tim. “I’m just a few doors down from the house we grew up in on Russell Boulevard in St. Louis.”

A FAMILY FEAST The family gathers around 4 pm on Christmas Day for a feast of traditional fare with a few surprise twists.

“Ham is always on the menu, but I like to serve multiple meats,” Tim says. “One year, I served lamb chops, another crown roast of pork. There’s always some sort of shellfish: shrimp or crab.”

For his family, the most traditional food item for the family meal is povitica, a Croatian baked good that is sweet but not actually a dessert.

“It’s really more of a breakfast food, but I always serve it for Christmas dinner,” Tim says.

Povitica may not be a dessert, but it is a family custom, which calls for walnuts that are ground to a paste and soaked in milk with honey and cinnamon.

“My grandmother and my mother both made povitica,” Tim says. “My older sister Pat and I worked on the recipe and perfected it. I shape it like an over-sized brioche in a nineinch pan with a topknot.”

Tim bakes about 150 poviticas every season

for his younger brother, Michael, who handdelivers or ships the pastries to the lucky people on his list. They are the third generation to carry out this annual practice.

Somehow, amid running his restaurant and bakery and catering dozens of holiday events, Tim finds time to bake about a hundred different types of cookies.

“I thought it was a ludicrous proposition to go into baking professionally because I wasn’t formally trained, but that didn’t stop me from baking.”

MIDNIGHT CELEBRATION In French reveillon style, Tim celebrates with friends at midnight on Christmas Eve. He goes to mass at 10:30 pm and then rushes home to welcome guests.

USA Today named Cravings as one of the top ten places to eat dessert. The bakery and restaurant has also been recognized by People magazine and CitySearch.com.

This party “is more breakfast-focused because it is so late at night,” says Tim, who prepares everything from quiche to bacon.

“I set up different bars in different locations in the house,” Tim says. “I always serve champagne. One bar might have mimosas or bloody marys. I always serve a special fruit juice, such as blood orange or white peach.”

The party winds down around 4 am on Christmas morning, and twelve hours later, his family begins to arrive.

It might sound daunting to some home cooks, but for Tim, who juggles the demands of a busy catering company, wedding cake business, bakery, and restaurant, it is exhilarating. After twenty-nine years in the foodservice industry, he still has a love affair with cooking and baking.

THE ROAD TO CRAVINGS Tim returned to the St. Louis area in 1979 after finishing his bachelor’s degrees in English literature and marketing at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, and earning a master’s degree in Anglo-Irish literature at University College Dublin in Ireland.

“I never stopped baking from then on, even

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when I taught at community colleges and Washington University,” he says. “I thought it was a ludicrous proposition to go into baking professionally because I wasn’t formally trained, but that didn’t stop me from baking. I used to go ice skating every week with a group of friends. I would prepare four to eight desserts each time, and they would critique them.

And of course, I baked for all family functions.”

The seeds were planted for Tim’s future baking career when he started working at Zimfel’s, a coffee shop in the Central West End of St. Louis. He shared items that he baked at home with the staff, and as a result, they convinced him to make tarts and scones for the store. By baking these treats for the coffee shop, he met Pat Millstone, a successful caterer in the area.

“She called me for desserts five or six times a week, and I went on location to events to make sure the items were served properly,” Tim says. “I learned a lot this way.”

Tim finally rolled the dice in January 1984 and opened Cravings as a wholesale bakery in the basement of his church, St. Joseph’s Croatian Church. Soon, his wedding cake business started booming. But individuals couldn’t buy the cakes at the church because it was whole-

sale only, so they came to his home, or he personally delivered the cakes. After nine years at the church, it was time to make a move, so Tim opened Cravings Restaurant and Bakery in 1993 on Big Bend Road in Webster Groves.

At first Cravings was a bakery. Then, it expanded by adding a lunch menu and, later, a dinner menu. “Catering became a big part of the business,” Tim says. “I love it. It’s a good vehicle for trying new things; you get good feedback. Catering is always different. It’s a great test market.”

BAKED GOODS AND BEYOND Once Cravings got settled in its stand-alone location, the restaurant started receiving regional attention and winning him awards.

The hazelnut zuccotto, lime blueberry bombe, and apple galette are award winners, but other goodies are also staples on his menu, such as the chocolate cranberry torte, lemon bars, and the cappuccino dream tart.

Although his desserts have won him accolades, Tim can concoct more than just sweets.

Both the lunch and dinner menus at Cravings feature seasonal soups, a variety of salads and sandwiches, and entrees. Sandwiches are made with your choice of homemade bread—French, sweet Portuguese, or wheat berry—and include curried chicken salad,

In 1993, Tim Brennan won his first of two James Beard Foundation awards for best Midwest dessert. He has also won awards from Sauce and St. Louis magazines.

Cravings is the only Martha Stewart-approved caterer in the St. Louis area, and the restaurant and bakery offers catering for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

tuna tapenade, and other options. Entrees vary from wild mushroom tart to chicken and roasted vegetable risotto.

BRANCHING OUT Although Tim has firmly planted his roots in the Show-Me State, he still loves traveling and draws culinary inspiration from his journeys.

“I love Paris, New York City, Vienna—really, anywhere I go,” he says. “There are few places that aren’t on the map with good food these days.”

He thinks Vienna has the best ice cream. On a bike tour along the Danube River in Austria’s Wachau Valley, he first tasted Grüner Veltliner wine, which is now on the Cravings wine list.

He also loves the cuisine of Thailand for its complexity of flavors.

A fitting cuisine for the Show-Me State has grown out of his global gallivanting.

Missouri, an inherently eclectic state, has long been called the southern-most Northern state, the eastern-most Western state, and vice versa. Tim Brennan, with a history of travel, cooking, and baking, has developed a broad palate and created a cuisine with the one thing that matters most to Missourians: flavor.

Cravings Restaurant and Bakery • 8149 Big Bend Boulevard, Webster Groves • 314-961-3534 www.cravingsonline.com

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Missouri Life tastes menus worth the drive.

Pocahontas

Baking at the Bank THE PIE SAFE Bakery & Café is

experience the slower pace of the country.

immediately alluring. The mural on the side

The blueberry cartoon pie on the side of

of the historic building screams for atten-

the building is plenty mouth-watering, and

tion. And when in a small town like Poca-

the pies inside don’t disappoint. Sharon has

hontas, it’s hard to miss.

a history of making sweets.

The shop, owned and operated by Sha-

Before opening The Pie Safe, Sharon

ron Penrod, is housed in the original Bank

gained a solid following and reputation by

of Pocahontas building, which was con-

preparing baked goods and jellies for vari-

structed in 1910. The cozy, nostalgic atmo-

ous farmers’ markets. She and her husband

sphere attracts locals who meet there reg-

converted the bank building, complete

ularly as well as out-of-towners wanting to

with a walk-in vault, and opened the doors on June 12, 2012. The Pie Safe Bakery & Café now serves breakfast, lunch, and the homemade baked goods and jellies that gave Sharon her good name.

If you long for a slower pace and the nostalgia offered by small town Americana, where

Cottleville

The Chocolate Bar

the food is homemade and the

A YEAR after opening, Van Buskirk’s Chocolate Bar has grown

atmosphere is homespun, the Pie

through word of mouth from Cottleville residents and shop owners, and it

Safe Bakery & Café is your place.

has blossomed into a community gathering place.

—Jim Diaz

“Everyone comes to VanBuskirk’s,” says owner Connor VanBuskirk.

146 Pocahontas Main Street

“The atmosphere is inviting, like your home. It’s not just a place to ap-

573-833-6743

preciate finer things; it’s a place to share. Customers even bring in their

JIM DIAZ, SHEREE K. NIELSEN, COURTESY OF DOWD'S

produce and home brew for the employees.”

On any given, day you’ll see sixteen-year-old hipsters with Chemex

Lebanon

coffee, college kids with European-style drinking chocolates, and thirty-

Any Night Fish Fry

somethings sipping robust cappuccinos. The artisanal café appeals to

CATFISH ISN’T easy to cook.

ness. After reading candy-making books, Conor became absorbed in cre-

Too many spices in the batter or a little

ating truffles and caramels.

young and old alike, with hand-painted truffles, homemade ice cream, specialty sodas, and a full bar menu.

After owning Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate franchises for many years, Conor and his wife, Stacey, wanted to open an independent busi-

too much time in the fryer can make this

Everything is made from scratch, and a creation can originate from the

juicy, rich meat lose its flair. Dowd’s Catfish

simplest of ideas. When neighbor Cheryl Guffey, a pear orchard owner,

House, on the other hand, knows catfish.

brought Conor an abundance of pears, he thought up the pear cider sor-

But it’s not the only thing on the menu; the

bet and the pear and goat cheese truffle, some of his best sellers.

restaurant offers combos, plus a wealth of

one bite of Dowd’s spicy fish sandwich or

options for those who can’t stomach fish,

fried catfish salad will put any worries to

Every day is something new for Conor.

“VanBuskirk’s is a challenge and adventure wrapped into one,” Conor

including barbecue, sandwiches, and a

rest. At Dowd’s, you can get catfish just

says. “The employees, all locals, are passionate about what they are do-

kid’s menu. For catering, Dowd’s can bring

about any way you want it, and people

ing, whether it’s creating marshmallows or a single-origin coffee.”

its mobile fish fry trailer to your event.

can’t get enough of it. —Evan Wood

Some restaurants that offer a lot of bells

www.dowdscatfishandbbq.com

—Sheree K. Nielsen

and whistles lose focus on the food, but

1760 West Elm St. • 417-532-1777

www.vbchocolatebar.com • 5326 Highway N • 636-352-1139

With each new creation, VanBuskirk’s keeps its standards high.

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—MissouriLife —

CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH A HINT OF ORANGE Cravings Restaurant & Bakery, Ltd.

Ingredients >

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces 6 ounces (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter 2 large eggs 2 cups granulated sugar 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract ¼ teaspoon orange extract Zest of one deep-hued large orange 2 cups boiling water, divided

2 2⁄3 cups unbleached flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon kosher salt Butter, for greasing pans Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting pans Ganache (see recipe; optional) Sweetened whipped cream flavored with orange zest (optional)

Directions >

ANDREW BARTON

1. Melt the chocolate and butter in top of a double boiler over simmering water. Meanwhile, bring a kettle of water to boil.

Preheat oven to 350º F. 2. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, vanilla, orange extract, and orange zest until blended. Stir in the melted chocolate-butter mixture; stir, scraping the bowl, until well mixed.

3. Add 1 cup boiling water and stir until blended, scraping the bowl thoroughly. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together twice. Add sifted flour mixture to egg-chocolate mixture. Mix by hand until the dry ingredients are incorporated into the wet ingredients. Let batter rest for one minute, and then gently stir again. Stir in the remaining 1 cup boiling water.

4. Divide batter evenly among three 9-inch cake pans that have been buttered and dusted with cocoa powder.

5. Bake in a preheated 350º F oven for 18 to 22 minutes, or until the centers of each cake layer spring back when lightly touched. Remove from oven and let cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.

Invert pans onto racks and remove pans. Let cake layers cool completely before frosting as desired. Yield: 3 (9-inch) cake layers.

Tip: Wrap and freeze extra layers for use later. For Ganache frosting, see recipe. Or, frost with sweetened whipped cream flavored with orange zest.

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—MissouriLife —

COCONUT HAYSTACKS Cravings Restaurant and Bakery, Ltd.

Ingredients >

Zest of two limes 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice 1 pound flaked coconut 4 tablespoons cornstarch 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract Optional coating: 12 ounces good-quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate.

(Tim prefers 72% cocoa.)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

For the Candied Orange Peel recipe and more from Cravings Restaurant and Bakery, Ltd., visit www.MissouriLife.com

Directions >

1. Zest the limes into the coconut. Squeeze the limes to make 2 teaspoons juice.

2. Toss the coconut with the cornstarch and salt.

Mix the sweetened condensed milk with the lime juice and vanilla; stir into the coconut.

3. Preheat oven to 350º F. Line cookie sheets with parchment and butter lightly. Drop generous tablespoons of coconut mixture onto parchment, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake in preheated 350º F oven 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden.

Let cool completely. Cookies can be served as is, or can be dipped into chocolate for a more festive presentation.

4. For chocolate coating, place the chocolate and oil in a microwave-safe container. Microwave on high power for 1 minute; stir, and return to microwave for 30 seconds (or more) or until the chocolate is completely melted; stir.

5. Dip bottoms of cooled cookies in melted chocolate.

Place cookies in refrigerator until chocolate is firm.

Keep refrigerated or frozen for later use.

Yield: 30 to 40 cookies.

—MissouriLife — —MissouriLife —

CRISPY ALMOND MERINGUE “BARK”

Cravings Restaurant and Bakery, Ltd. Ingredients >

1/2 cup egg whites 1/2 teaspoon almond (about 4 large eggs) extract 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla 1/3 cup confectioners’ extract sugar 1 1/2 cups toasted sliced 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt almonds

ANDREW BARTON

Directions >

1. Line an 18 x 12-inch jelly-roll pan (baking sheet with sides) with a Silpat liner (non-stick silicone baking liner). Preheat oven to 300º F. 2. Whip egg whites in clean bowl until frothy.

Sift together granulated sugar, confectioners’ sugar, and salt. Gradually add sifted sugar mixture to egg whites and increase speed of mixer. When all sugar is mixed in, increase speed to high and add almond extract and vanilla. Whip until thick and shiny, about 10 minutes. Remove beater. Gently fold in toasted almonds (which should be cool).

3. Spread mixture into prepared baking sheet.

Mixture should be about 1/4 inch thick. Bake in preheated 300º F oven for 30 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking cycle. When done, the meringue should be fragrant and dry and crunchy all the way through. (Test by breaking off a corner, placing it on the counter and letting it cool about 10 seconds.) If necessary, continue baking for 5 to 8 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack.

4. When cool, break into pieces. Can be stored up to 10 days in an airtight tin. (Do not use Tupperware or plastic, as these will make it soft.)

Yield: 8 to 10 servings.

GANACHE

Cravings Restaurant and Bakery, Ltd. Ingredients >

4 cups heavy cream 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 pound of your favorite dark chocolate, such as Valrhona or

Scharffenberger, chopped into pieces 1/4 inch or less 1 (9-inch) layer chocolate cake (see recipe), cooled completely

Directions >

1. Place cream, butter, and sugar in pot and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. When it reaches a boil, turn off heat; add chocolate and shake pot so that the chocolate is completely submerged. Let stand for 5 to 8 minutes. Mix until smooth.

2. Pour mixture into a food processor; cover and blend for 1 minute. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and let cool for 15 to 25 minutes.

3. Use a single layer of chocolate cake (see recipe) that has cooled completely. (Tip: You can place the baked cake in the freezer for two hours.)

Place the cake on a wire rack set on a cookie sheet to catch excess ganache. Pour ganache over cake. Tilt rack so that ganache runs down the sides of the cake. Use a metal spatula if necessary to spread ganache.

4. Transfer the cake and rack to another cookie sheet. Scrape the excess ganache off the first cookie sheet into a separate bowl to avoid getting crumbs in the original ganache. (See note.)

5. Chill the cake in the freezer for 30 to 45 minutes.

Pour ganache over top again as described above.

Chill until firm.

6. Transfer cake to a serving plate or platter. Bring to room temperature before serving. Yield: 12 to 16 slices.

Note: Excess ganache can be thoroughly chilled, scooped into balls with a melon baller, and rolled in toasted nuts or coconut to make delicious truffles.

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PROMOTION

Holiday Food Guide Everyone thinks about food during the holidays. With big family meals, New Year’s parties, and dinners out, the holiday season is full of food. This year, we’ve put together a culinary inspiration board, with food and drink that you can serve, or give as gifts. We’ve also included restaurants you can give gift certificates from or go to for dinner.

Impress your guests this holiday season with award-winning smoked meats from Swiss Meats.

800-793-SWISS, www.swissmeats.com

St. Charles County is where internationally acclaimed wine, living history, and magnificent rolling hills all come together to create a treasured destination. 800-3662427, www.historicstcharles.com Need a hostess gift? Give Stone Hill wines—Missouri’s most award-winning winery.

800-909-WINE www.stonehillwinery.com

Visit Railyard Steakhouse in Brunswick for a steak or sandwich. 660-548-3300, www.railyardsteakhouse.com

Edg-Clif Farms & Vineyard’s Hollyberry Red Chambourcin is perfect for creating warm spiced mulled wine for holiday entertaining. 573-4384741, www.edg-clif.com Indulge in a Hot Apple Pie Wine drink with Augusta Winery’s River Valley White. Add apple juice, brown sugar, and mulling spices to create an adult slice of warm apple pie in a glass! 888667-9463, www.augustawinery.com

7C’s Winery offers varietal honey used in their mead in 4-ounce jars and honey sticks. 417-788-2263 www.7cswinery.com The JC Wyatt House in St. Joseph is a unique 1891 historic home offering fine cuisine and service in authentic Victorian ambiance. 816-676-1004, www.jcwyatt.net

Steepleview, from Noboleis Vineyards, is a light-bodied Chambourcin blend that pairs well with the prosciutto, artichokes and mozzorella on their Tuscan Pizza. 636482-4500, www.noboleisvineyards.com

Burgers’ Smokehouse Holiday Feast Combo—City Ham and Hickory Smoked Turkey—is both great for your own table or as a gift.

573-796-3134 www.smokehouse.com

Bring Santa home for the holidays with Montelle Winery’s St. Wenceslaus. Just heat and serve.

888-595-946 www.montelle.com

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Holiday Food Guide This Christmas THE BERRY NUTTY FARM will be at Independence Center spreading Christmas cheer: November 29th thru December 24th 2013

LIFE IS BETTER WITH BETTER BACON. Gourmet, dry-cured, all natural bacon, the way bacon tasted 150 years ago. Original, Jalapeño, and Sugar-Free flavors!

Order early for the holidays at nakedbaconco.com or find a retailer near you.

Location: Independence Center Sears Wing, Lower Level near the Carousel

There will be: Gift Baskets, Variety Packs, The Berry Nutty Farm Legendary Jams and Apple Butter, Hippie Chow Natural Granola , and Alewel’s Summer Sausage (Beef, Beef with Cheese & Pepper, Buffalo, and Venison).

You will have to come see(taste) for yourself the Contact: sales@theberrynuttyfarm.com wonderful Christmas presents that could be under

your friends and families Christmas tree. (p) 662-368-8892 www.TheBerryNuttyFarm.com

Spend $50 at The Berry Nutty Farm receive a FREE GIFT (11/29/13-12/24/13)

FRESH CUT STEAKS, BBQ, AND A LOT MORE!

“Spice up your holidays with a little taste of summer!”

Open 11 a.m. 7 days a week

Sweet & Spicy Pickles & Jalapeños Sweet & Spicy Pickle & Jalapeño Relish Sweet & Spicy Jalapeños

www.tsrednecksteakhouse.com | 417-532-3519 221 Evergreen Parkway, Lebanon, MO

417-823-3074 | www.floattrippickles.com | Springfield, MO

Taste the Tradition!

©

SAGE CO. M EAT & SAU SINCE 1969

Producing Quality, Award Winning Smoked Hams, Turkeys, Bacon, Bratwurst and Sausage for nearly 50 Years!

2056 S. Hwy 19, Hermann, MO 65041 • 800-793-SWISS • swissmeats.com

The Official BraTwursT Of MizzOu® aThleTics [85] December 2013

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Holiday Food Guide

CONTACT US FOR YOUR FREE VISITORS GUIDE

1-866-385-0519 WWW.HISTORICSTCHARLES.COM

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ARTISAN CHOCOLATES AND CONFECTIONS HANDMADE IN ST. LOUIS FROM ALL-NATURAL INGREDIENTS

S I N C E 19 3 0

Visit the Historic Westphalia Inn

www.kakaochocolate.com ST. LOUIS: 2301 S. Jefferson • 314.771.2310 MAPLEWOOD: 7272 Manchester • 314.645.4446

Serving our famous pan-fried chicken, country ham and German pot roast family-style since 1930 106 East Main Street Westphalia, Missouri

Reservations Accepted Walk-Ins Welcome

573-455-2000

Marina’s italian Style Meatballs Sample our wines in the

Norton Room

A delicious, all natural, easy holiday meal for your family!

on the top floor of the Westphalia Inn www.westphaliavineyards.com AMERICA’S PREMIER SULFITE-FREE WINERY

Open Fri. at 5pm, Sat. at 4:30pm, and Sunday at 11:30am

Seymour, MO 417-683-0271 www.circlebranchpork.com

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PROMOTION

ANDREW BARTON

French Dip + Norton

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PROMOTION

BY DOUG FROST

CHOOSING WINES TO ACCOMPANY GREAT BEEF DISHES doesn’t present any challenge if you remember the most important rule: drink what you like. The artful skill of any great wine steward is the ability to find a wine that people will like; that is far more important than selecting the perfect wine for a specific dish, if such a thing even exists.

Roughly speaking, we want our wines not to overwhelm our food—a wee bit unlikely with beef’s inherent power and richness—and we want the food not to overpower our wine, or at least that seems to be the strategy that pleases the greatest number of people. And here too, personal preference is the rule of the day: if you like big, intense wines, well, then go for that.

But if you like soft, mild, or even sweet wines, some of the matches here can be bypassed.

I’ve tried to offer enough variety to pair our favorite beef dishes, so everybody who wants a tasty glass of Missouri wine with a beef dinner will feel emboldened to try something new.

But choose an old favorite if that’s what you would rather have. We call it taste, befitting its subjective nature; it’s not a set of rule books, but simply an anecdotal collection of cultural practices, none of which are truly rules. Consider them tendencies instead.

People tend to drink red wine with beef, but as you’ll see here, there are lots of other ways Doug Frost is one of to think about drinking wine with classic dishes. In the nineteenth century, sweet white four people in the wines with roast beef were all the rage. I’ve got such a match here, as well. You needn’t world who is both a drink that wine with roast beef; it’s merely here as a suggestion of Master Sommelier and the possibilities. a Master of Wine. He French Dip and Norton So drink whatever you like, and ideally, with people you like. lives in Kansas City.

The St. James style of Norton wine has some elbows and earth to it. It’s Enter to win $500 of not shy, but it is very true to Norton’s personality. You can trust that it has the sense of purpose to marry with foods of and a case of weight and body. So picture a perfect French Dip sandwich with a big bowl of au jus to dip into, just like the sandSponsored by the Missouri Beef Indust ry Council wich’s name instructs you to do. There and the Missouri Grape and Wine Board aren’t that many wines that can easily Simply visit www.MissouriLife.com/win beef, stand up to it, but St. James’s Norton or scan the code, tell us your own favo rite decidedly has that can-do spirit. beef and Missouri wine pair

1

ANDREW BARTON

ing, and you’ll be entered into a drawing to win.

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PROMOTION

2 Beef Rib and Stone Hill Cross J Norton

Stone Hill Winery 1110 Stone Hill Highway Hermann, MO 573-486-2221

It seems unfair to one of America’s pioneer wineries to have to pick only one wine and ignore their innumerable delightful offerings. When this winery rose up out of the ashes of Prohibition and its lingering antialcohol mood, they made many fruit and sweet wines, but they have been leaders in the dry-wine movement for decades. Although there are many other excellent Missouri Nortons, Stone Hill’s Cross J is just plain remarkable. Think Norton and rich, even gooey, beef rib. That is perfection.

Broil and Norton 3 London The London Broil has unknown origins. It’s certainly not from London, though it may be from Canada (maybe London, Ontario?) but no matter. It’s one of those flavorful cuts of beef with lots of marinade adding juiciness and a great sear on the outside to keep the juices inside. You need a wine with fruit and intensity; a brace of earthy spice won’t hurt either. Cooper’s Oak Winery loves their oak barrels, and they’re among the most sought-after barrel makers in the country—that’s a pretty cool thing. Their Norton fills the bill.

Shoulder and Mole 4 Beef with a Norton Port Mole is not one thing; it is as varied as the landscape and history of Mexico’s diverse regions. Sure, chicken or pork are traditional but the complexity of mole (spice meets earthiness meets smoke meets citrus) requires a protein with richness to match.

You don’t want to use a marbled cut of beef because something leaner like shoulder is even better; that citrus and earthiness is the point of mole. Mole is not a heavy dish, though it looks and smells like one.

But conversely, Adam Puchta’s Norton Port is intense, powerful, sweet, and incredibly rich. Drinking it alongside mole is like dipping your mole in crazy sauce, and then they meet up, as the earthy character meets a tart finish. Amazing.

Corned Beef Reuben Sandwich with a Cabernet Blend When you create a blend comprised of equal parts of Cabernet Franc, an elegant, herbal, floral wine, and Petit Verdot, a tannic and dense wine, you may get something that represents the best of both, as you do with Amigoni Urban Drover. Now combine this with a corned beef sandwich containing a slathering of Thousand Island dressing and a bit of cabbage on toasted rye, and you have one of life’s great comfort meals.

5

Burgers and Edg-Cliff Chambourcin Reserve

6

Virtually any of the wines profiled here could be quite content with a hamburger grilled and topped with bleu cheese, just as my family is delighted when I announce that burgers are what’s for dinner. Hamburgers are equally flexible with their toppings and the wine you choose to accompany them, but I like the generous fruit of this lovely Chambourcin.

Edg-Cliff Farms and Vineyard 10035 Edg-Clif Drive Potosi, MO 573-438-4741

7

Beef Tartare and Brut Beef Tartare used to be a staple of America’s greatest restaurants but, like many classic dishes, it was swept aside in a flood of the new and novel. A few hardy traditionalists held the flame aloft, though I probably should use a different metaphor to describe something that hasn’t been cooked. Some smart chefs are resurrecting the old classics, and Beef Tartare looks poised to Thin Crust Beef and Red Pepper make a comeback.

Pizza with Chambourcin Try the traditional The Chambourcin grape is a new star version with some amongst red wines in Missouri. Its egg blended in, a raspberry and red currant flavors are bit of salty cheese, capable of matching up with just about plenty of black anything. But a thin crust pizza with pepper, and some crackers with a lots of cheese, red peppers, and hambottle of bubbly burger meat? You should give it a try. next to it. I’ll go Even in Naples, the birthplace of the with Les Bourpizza, they enjoy their pizza with wine geois’ Brut, clean, that’s fruity, medium-bodied and even a virtually dry with bit tangy, like Cave Vineyard Strussione pear, peach, and Chambourcin. apple notes.

8

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PROMOTION

ANDREW BARTON

Thin Curst Beef and Red Pepper Pizza + Chambourcin

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PROMOTION

ANDREW BARTON

Spicy carne asada + Sweet Red

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PROMOTION

9

Carpaccio and Dry Rosé So there’s probably several moms tsktsk’ing right now, but did you know that beef Carpaccio, the Italian raw meat dish, especially when lubricated with a really good peppery Tuscan olive oil and some coarse sea salt, is delicious? You didn’t know that? That’s because you haven’t tried it. But you have to slice it so thin that it’s almost translucent. And then you enjoy it with some toast points and wash it down with a rosé wine with some weight to it, like Chaumette’s dry Rosé.

and Chambourcin 10 Bratwurst With the vibrant raspberry and strawberry notes of the Chambourcin grape as a foil, it pairs well with grilled sausages, especially Bratwurst with deep sear marks on each side, alongside some German potato salad and beets … well, maybe I’m being too specific. But you can see that I’ve tested this, and I’m sure you will very much enjoy it with Jowler Creek’s Chambourcin. of Beef Roast and 11 Baron Vidal Blanc The grand richness of a great roast like Baron of Beef is supposed to be accompanied by a wine of commensurate richness; isn’t it? Probably. But there is a school of thought that says a great wine should be paired up Spicy carne asada with Sweet Red with a simple dish to Not all wines need to be Serious with a allow the wine to shine. capital S. And some red wines want to Some of us imagine the be chilled down and consumed with opposite to be true as abandon, especially a fruity wine like well: fantastic food Baltimore Bend’s Arrowhead Red: It’s doesn’t need a comas if somebody turned a layered and plicated wine, just a full-bodied red wine into Kool-Aid. tasty one. During the Oh, you say you don’t like wines with Gilded Age and even some sweetness? Well, sweetness has a before, the great sweet great purpose when you serve it with white wines were spicy foods. The fruitiness will cool the more expensive than fire of hot peppers, especially when the top Bordeaux, and you try it with some spicy carne asathey were considered da, a specialty of some of the Mexican ideal companions to joints on Kansas City’s West Side. This rich roasts. So for aromatic, tasty Concord wine isn’t a the Baron of Beef, throwback to the 1960s; it’s a modern I can happily sugversion of this difficult grape, sweet as gest Hermannhof hell and tart as heck. It smells like my Vidal Blanc, one of childhood, but then most Americans the lushest in the have the smell of the Concord grape state, albeit balanced written into their childhood DNA. by some tangy apple tartness.

ANDREW BARTON

12

Filet with Mushroom Sauce and 7C’s Cattle Drive Red This semi-sweet red wine, which is made primarily with Chambourcin grapes, tastes great with most cuts of beef, but it was truly made for a medium-rare filet. Topping the steak with a mushroom sauce brings out the flavor that much more.

Pasta Bolognese and Norton Heinrichshaus make a most remarkably consistent version of Norton. It’s never big and syrupy or port-like; there are winemakers who do that and bully for them. But Heinrichshaus is after something subtler, so imagine Pasta Bolognese with this wine, and you will taste a pretty lovely interplay of the relentless deliciousness of beef, pasta (I recommend tagliatelle), and ragu. But is this elegant Norton up to the task? Hey, let’s face it: lighter-styled Norton is a relative term.

Nortons are always heavyweights. It’s like Mike Tyson in ballet shoes and a tutu; it’s still Mike Tyson. Okay, I’m sorry I left you with that image.

Roast Beef and Swiss Cheese Sliced-Beef and Swiss Cheese Sandwich with Augusta Chambourcin One of the finest examples of this elegant grape, Augusta’s Chambourcin, offers the grape’s complex set of fruits: black and red raspberries, fresh and dried strawberries, some cherries and red currants. Well, it’s fruity, get it? But it’s also dry—a friendly wine with just enough backbone and tanginess to require your attention. I love it with sandwiches like beef sliced just thick enough for texture on a toasted bun with some horseradish sauce (I know that I’m supposed to prefer straight horseradish, but I don’t care). Throw a little pile of arugula or spinach leaves on top of the beef, and you may have just discovered one of the great food and wine combos in the universe.

Heck, top it with a fat slice of Swiss cheese too: this wine can take it. Drink it at a certain velocity, and you will be very happy.

13 7C’s Winery 502 E. 560th Rd Walnut Grove MO 417-788-2263

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15 Augusta Winery 5601 High St Augusta, MO 888-667-9463

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PROMOTION

Let’s face it, as foundational as Kansas City barbecue is, it has no claim to brisket supremacy. Texas can easily demand its due, but regardless, there is plenty of room for argument about the proper treatment of brisket. Reasonable people will demand a certain width to the slices, but the real conflagration begins when you bring up the subject of sauces. Spicy? Sweet? Tomatobased? Vinegar-based? What flavor should it have? Smoke, brown sugar, or even meat drippings? Well, here’s a guarantee: most brisket sandwiches will have a sweet BBQ sauce on them. Chill Pirtle Winery’s sweet Mellow Red down, and serve it with brisket sandwich. Anyone who says they don’t like wine will slurp this down like soda pop. But here’s the fun part: a lot of your wine snotty friends will like it, too. They will never admit it, but check out their glasses … empty.

17 Montelle Winery 201 Montelle Dr. Augusta, MO 888-595-9463

Cowboy Steak and Montelle Winery Peach Brandy Though Montelle is one of the top wine labels in Middle America, I am compelled to write about their Peach Brandy. They call it Aged Peach Eau de Vie but same difference. Aged in Hungarian barrels, aromas of cinnamon, clove, and pie spices deepen the nose of this world-class spirit, which already has enough weight and power. My new favorite drink is a sort of Manhattan: a bit of rye whiskey, a dash each of sweet vermouth, and orange bitters and Montelle’s Aged Peach Eau de Vie. Combine that with a cowboy steak, big, juicy, and hot off the grill. Make a batch of these Montellehattans—you’ll need several of them.

Beef and Lettuce Wraps 18 Asian and Vignoles

Visit www.mobeef.org for more information on Missouri beef, nutrition, recipes, and health,

Stonehaus Farms Strother Ridge has proven it has the ability to make lovely Vignoles, a wine with layers of fruit from pears to apricots to pineapples. A white wine like Vignoles doesn’t remind you of being beeffriendly wine? Hmm, spicy Mexican food would be fun with this; the sweetness cools the spice. But I like Asian lettuce wraps: chunks of beef, vegetables, and even more heat than Mexican food. Sweating at the thought of it? The delicious fruity sweetness of Vignoles whisks that fire away.

Beef Franks and Cynthiana Blumenhof, the state’s top maker of Valvin Muscat, one of the most interesting new white grapes in Missouri, deserves praise for some of their other wines as well. Their Norton goes by the name of Original Cyn, short for Cynthiana. Cynthiana seems an oddly feminine name for such a rowdy, robust grape, but Blumenhof’s version has the deft balance to it that separates the new and modern versions of the Norton wine from the old school of earthy and funky. Someone is going to think I’m committing some sort of culinary sin, but I like Original Cyn with beef franks and mustard on a cold day, preferably with my favorite football team running up the score on the other team.

Fried Beef Spring Rolls and Noboleis Noblevescent

19

20

Describing this sparkler as slightly sweet gives the wrong impression; it’s not like some sparkling Moscato. It has plenty of fruit, but it’s not fruity. And it has some Noboleis Vineyards weight, but it’s light. And, well, I’m not do- 100 Hemsath Rd. ing a very good job of explaining this wine. Augusta, MO That’s why I like this wine; it doesn’t fit cat- 636-482-4500 egories. Still, it needs a lighter dish. If you can manage to roll up some spring rolls with thin slices of carrots and beef in them, along with citrus, cilantro and bean sprouts (you can throw in other things, too), and then pan fry them, Sweet Beef Chinese you will like it. The and Peach Wine amazing thing about The world of fruit wines is quite sparkling wines is different than it was a few years ago, how perfect they and a world away from what our are with fried foods. ancestors drank. But make no mistake: Consider this: Any they drank fruit wines. Fruit didn’t last chef knows that the long in the barn or in the cellar, but trick to good fried ferment it in wine, and it would last food is getting the oil as long as you needed it to (or at least really hot, so hot that until next summer). Ladoga’s Peach is the food doesn’t have fresh, clean, and ultra-modern, bright a chance to absorb fruit expression and never cloying. the oil. That way, it There are many Chinese-American tastes less fried and variants on sweet beef dishes; but less fatty. Sparkling wine has the same if you see Hoisin Sauce and Beef in effect; those bubbles the same recipe, you will know two make the food seem things: it’s Chinese-American, and it’s lighter and less oily. sweet and tasty with a wine like this.

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ANDREW BARTON

BBQ Brisket 16 Sweet and Sweet Red

PROMOTION

ANDREW BARTON

Sweet Beef Chinese + Peach Wine

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Remarkable MISSOURIANS

THE

3,700-Mile

JOURNEY

Janet is paddling, not only for a record, but also to raise awareness about Missouri River Relief’s efforts to preserve a historic and important river.

A love of the river inspires Janet Moreland’s voyage on the world’s fourth-longest river system.

IN HER fifteen-foot-long kayak, Janet Moreland traveled across thousands of miles of rivers and lakes. Never mind the holes in her boat, torrential rains, flooding, electrical storms, rocks, torrents, and threatening waves that passing barges created as they chugged along the river.

And it’s not only the allure of the record or her thirst for adventure that drives her—it’s the river’s well-being and the communities that call it home.

“The river is the blood that we share,” she says.

Her river-conditioned frame and sun-ripened hair and skin affirm that she is a part of the currents. The Columbia resident is also a part of Missouri River Relief that has worked to clean up its waters. Janet, 57, hopes her 3,700-mile, 12-state journey from the river’s source in Montana to its end at the Gulf of Mexico will help the cause.

Only two other people, Australian expedition kayaker Mark Kalch and Canadian adventurer Rod Wellington, have paddled that route.

In April, Janet set out to become the first woman and the first American to paddle the continent’s longest river system.

Janet grew up on a river in Northern California and lived in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for eleven years. She called Yosemite home for a time, too. She moved to Columbia in 1996, but it took a few years before she kayaked the Big Muddy.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God. The river is right in my backyard,’ ” she says. This epiphany inspired her to buy a kayak, which she could more easily maneuver. In the nimble craft, she could glide low in the water as the blades of her paddle kissed the surface, and the vessel flirted with the currents.

On a whim, she could explore the river.

Janet continued her love affair with the Missouri when she opened her own breakfast nook on Saturday mornings at Cooper’s Landing in Columbia, a common stop for expeditioners. At the time, she had a full-time job at MU during

the week. During one of those weekends in 2003, paddler Dave Miller came through Cooper’s.

Dave told Janet how the Missouri winds through the heart of the country, through lakes, around mountains, and across valleys. The seed for her own journey was planted. But she found inspiration elsewhere, too.

A few years ago, Janet returned to the Sierra Nevada Mountains for a camping trip. On mornings, Janet would sip her coffee around the fire and read paddler and author Victoria Jason’s Kabloona in a Yellow Kayak about her solo voyage from the Canadian Northwest Territories to the Arctic Circle. If Victoria, a grandmother in her fifties, could paddle frigid northern waters, Janet knew the Big Muddy was a feat she could tackle.

Janet’s final push came during the summer of 2012 when she joined a private Facebook page called Missouri River Paddlers, run by kayaker Norm Miller. Janet told Norm about her goal to

COURTESY OF JANET MORELAND

BY DAVID CAWTHON

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COURTESY OF JANET MORELAND, ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE WATSON

Janet’s kayak is an Eddyline Shasta model, a roomy sea kayak designed for two people. She says she named it Blue Moon because that’s how often she’ll have an opportunity like this.

someday paddle the length of the Missouri. Norm knew the river, and his Livingston, Montana, home was a prime outpost for expeditioners.

To prepare for the voyage, Janet ran, strengthened her upper body on rowing machines, and paddled the river, a motion that would become part of her daily routine for months. What she didn’t prepare for was the cost. “I stepped out doing this trip with no money,” Janet says.

But her river angels, as she calls them, were watching over her. She received donations every so often that helped her purchase supplies.

The start of her journey affirmed that it wouldn’t be easy. Janet skied with Norm to the source of the Missouri at Montana’s Bowers Spring in April. Janet’s daughter and friend waited Sometimes, it was just she and the river and Via cell phone powered by a portable solar for the two voyagers at the bottom of Hell Roarsilence. Other times, fellow paddlers would lend panel, Janet has chronicled her journey on her ing Canyon for two days, much longer than the their supplies and their company. Hearing of JaFacebook page: fresh bear tracks in the Montana planned seven-hours. Delayed by obstacles, Janet’s journey, her river angels would offer food, mountains; Missouri fisherman who sang happy net and Norm were forced to sleep in the snowy drink, warm showers, and shelter. birthday to her; and the Boonville Bridge. She mountains without sleeping bags or fire. They About halfway through, Janet rested for captured serene river mornings when swathes of shared one granola bar and a beer, until they a week at her Columbia home, near her old fog trapped the early sunlight near her makeshift reached Janet’s family van. stomping grounds at Cooper’s Landing. One camps along the shore. She passed mountains, To follow the river’s modest beginnings, Janet afternoon, she sat down at a bench overlookhills, wildlife, and the silhouettes of iconic Ameribiked the first hundred miles on a dirt road that ing the river for a chat. As she reminisced can cities on the horizon—Great Falls, Bismark, traced the river, avoiding the tangle of wire fencabout the majestic sights that dotted her Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis. es and other obstacles impassable by boat. Her memories and thought about the kayak, Blue Moon, was fastened to the bittersweet feeling of reaching the top of the van that followed her until Janet’s journey follows the Missouri-Mississippi Rivers from the source at Bower’s Spring, Montana, Gulf in Louisiana, it seemed that she entered the water at Clark Canyon to the Gulf of Mexico. The route spans 3,700 miles, through wilderness and major cities. she had uncovered something speReservoir and Dam on May 1. Her cial on the river, long before her journey in the water had begun. journey would end.

This summer, she planned to stop From her stories, you could glean at the river’s confluence with the Misthat the voyage was more than a solo sissippi and continue later, but that trek through the wild. Janet discovchanged on August 21 on South Daered a new family who shares a love kota’s Lake Francis Case. The recent that spans 3,700 miles through the MU education grad didn’t have a job heart of America. They have common and didn’t expect an interview, so she blood. River blood. chose instead to complete the entire And that’s a discovery you won’t trip in one shot. An hour after she read about in the record books. made the announcement to continue, Editor’s note: At the time of publiColumbia Public Schools called for an cation, Janet Moreland was just south interview, but by then, she had already of Memphis on the Mississippi River. committed to finish.

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Remarkable MISSOURIANS

CRAZY FOR CHRISTMAS How one man is spreading holiday cheer throughout Jefferson City. BY KATHY GANGWISCH

CASEY BUCKMAN, KATHY GANGSWISCH

ONE OF JACK STEPPELMAN’S favorite memories is the night a police officer rang his doorbell at 2 AM and told him, “You need to get your cow out of the middle of the street.”

Pranksters had moved the bogus bovine Christmas decoration from the yard to the road.

“The officer thought it was funny,” Jack says.

“He took one end of her, I took the other, and we moved it back to where it was supposed to be.

Now, I make sure there are spotlights and ground stakes all over when my Christmas things are up.”

In Jefferson City, Jack has earned a slew of prizes for his elaborate Christmas décor, including the first Spirit of Christmas Award given jointly by city government and the News Tribune. No one else has ever received that distinction.

Jack has decorated for Christmas for seventy years. He started at age fourteen when he used plywood and paint to create a Santa figure, sleigh, and reindeer. “Christmas at my house when I was growing up was a big, big deal,” he says. “I guess that’s why I started doing this.”

He’s never missed a year since.

Jack and his wife decorated their trailer and lot on the Ft. Leonard Wood military base when they lived there. After he was discharged from the service, Jack and his family moved back to Jefferson

Jack Steppelman has hundreds of Christmas pieces, including a six-foot illuminated angel that he made about fifty years ago.

Starting in August, high school students help him decorate.

City, where he created the idea of Christmas Card Lane, which extended the decorations down Dixon Drive. Jack moved, but to this day, every house there is decked out for the holidays.

While operating his successful Jacques shops (ladies’ and children’s wear, formal attire) in downtown Jefferson City for forty years, Jack was busy each fall readying the ever-growing Christmas displays in his front, side, and backyards.

Jack’s decorations mix religious figures with other items like a large snow village that has two hundred miniature trees, a train, Santa Claus, a ski lift, ice skaters, and Christmas music. Some of the figures, like Joseph at the manger, were originally female mannequins from his stores. “I had a donkey as part of the Christmas decorations at Jacques, but I needed a sheep, so I turned him into one,” Jack says.

Every year, people flock to Jack’s home on 1122 Leslie Boulevard from Thanksgiving night through New Year’s. Decorations are lit from 5 PM to 9:30 PM. Buses drop off visitors, and parents lead curious children onto the lawn. Traffic jams can happen. “I go outside now and then to hand out candy canes to the kids,” Jack says. “Sometimes, people leave plates of Christmas cookies and a note thanking me. That’s really something.”

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Musings ON MISSOURI

THE GREAT ESCAPE

BY RON MARR

ANDREW BARTON

I’VE NEVER understood people who view their car or truck as a status symbol. I’ve never understood those who name their ride, spend hours polishing it to a mirror-like shine, and obsessively vacuum microscopic crumbs from every crevice. To my mind, a vehicle is simply a device that enables transport from Point A to Point B, hopefully without blowing up, breaking down, or otherwise forcing me to walk long distances.

Maybe this attitude stems from a couple of decades spent so far beyond the sticks that the sticks seemed urban. Vehicles are strictly utilitarian in such locales. The interior and exterior appearance of my internal-combustion chariot never enters my mind. I just want the thing to run.

It should be noted, for reference purposes only, that I drive an elderly Ford Escape. Let’s just say it’s over ten years old and surpassed the one-hundred-thousand-mile mark many moons ago. It was originally a metallic silver. It’s now a nauseous brown. This might have something to do with the fact that I last washed it in 2006.

No one, aside from my dogs and me, ever rides in this buggy. No one wants to. The backseat is folded down, and the cargo area is impeccably furnished with blankets, giant dogpillows, half-gnawed rawhide bones, and a fair amount of fur (“fair amount” being defined as a few inches). Lest you scoff, be advised that dog hair is an excellent insulator. This proves I’m environmentally enlightened and totally devoted to saving the planet.

The current state of the Escape’s cargo area is actually an upgrade, as when I lived deep in the Ozarks it was frequently used to haul wood. You’d be amazed at how many chain-sawed logs fit in the back of a RON MARR small SUV. You’d be further

amazed at how a small SUV can traverse the woods without getting stuck and becoming a permanent home for furry woodland creatures.

This aesthetic of my mobile doghouse/log hauler is complemented by the passenger seat’s well-appointed décor. Car commercials rave about spacious legroom, and being the curious sort, I measured mine. The distance from the top edge of the seat to the stack of papers, tools, old blankets, fishing junk, petrified chicken bones (I’m not sure how those got there), Coke cans, and potato-chip bags was 4.4 inches.

That was measuring in an upward direction, by the way.

This is all well and good. As mentioned earlier, I consider motorized transport a tool that prevents me from walking or pushing a wheelbarrow. I give great credit to the manufacturers, as my Escape has endured punishment that never entered the minds of the most sadistic of testtrack experts and Consumer Reports analysts.

The problem is that, after exceeding its useful lifespan by leaps and bounds, my buggy is on its last legs. I suppose I could have it repaired, but a bit of research revealed that fixing the thing costs

roughly twice what it’s worth. This forced me to begin the search for the Escape’s hapless and unfortunate successor. This, in turn, led to a state of sticker-shock and awe.

Are you kidding me? Do people actually pay over $50,000 for a new vehicle? My house and five acres didn’t cost that much. Used cars, with more miles than mine, were upward of $10,000 or more. I suppose I’m out of the loop, but even if I could afford such a jalopy (which I can’t), I’d refuse on principle alone.

Thus, I suppose I’ll endeavor to keep the Escape going for a few more years. So what if it dies when I take my foot off the accelerator? I’ve excellent technique: popping the stick-shift into neutral while riding the brake and pressing the gas pedal. I’m accomplished at quickly shutting off the air when I encounter a hill with more than a three-percent grade. I’m an automotive genius in terms of quickly restarting my beater when it shudders to a halt at stoplights.

I may even excavate the passenger-side trash midden and clean the gunk off the seats.

That’s not for appearances. I’m thinking I might need someone to help push.

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ALL AROUND

Missouri D E C E M B E R /JA N UA RY 2 0 1 4

featured event >

CENTRAL

EVEFEST

Dec. 31, Columbia > Multicultural, alcohol-free celebration held at multiple locations with music, magicians, art, entertainment, and interactive children’s activities. 5K run/walk at 4 PM. The District in

downtown. 7 PM-midnight. $6-$8. 573-874-7460, www.columbiaevefest.com

CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE Nov. 29-30 and Dec. 6-8, Rocheport > Visit decorated shops, enjoy refreshments, and see the lights on the town tree. Throughout town. 10 AM-5 PM. Free. 573-698-4011, www.rocheport-mo.com

CHRISTMAS ON THE SQUARE Dec. 1, Crocker > Old-fashioned holiday festival with free refreshments, vendors, hayrides, carriage rides, holiday storytelling, pictures with Santa and the Grinch. Downtown Square. 6-9 PM. Free. 573774-3001, www.waynesvillemo.org

HOLIDAY IN THE PARK Dec. 1, St. Robert > Free refreshments, craft vendors, carriage rides, and pictures with Santa. Community Center. 3-6 PM. Free. 573-451-2625, www. saintrobert.com

HOLIDAY HONOR TREE Dec. 1-Jan. 2, Fulton > Celebrate the lives of our veterans with the honor tree. National Churchill Museum. 10 AM-4:30 PM. Free. 573-592-6242, www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org

MAYOR’S TREE LIGHTING Dec. 5, Jefferson City > Tree lighting, music refreshments, and Santa. Rotary Park. 6 PM. Free.

573-632-2820, www.visitjeffersoncity.com

HOLIDAY GIFTS AND ALPACAS

COURTESY OF NOTLEY HAWKINS

Dec. 5-21, Lebanon > Shop for handmade scarves, hats, and more, and visit the alpacas. Whirlwind Ranch. 10 AM-4 PM Thurs.-Sat. Free. 417-533-5280, www.whirlwindranch.com

LIVING WINDOWS Dec. 6, Jefferson City > More than fifty groups bring windows alive with dancers, singers, and holiday themes. Santa makes an appearance, and carolers perform holiday songs. Downtown. 6-9 PM. Free.

573-291-3524, www.visitjeffersoncity.com These listings are chosen by our editors and are not paid for by sponsors.

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CHRISTMAS IN THE PARK

CIVIL WAR TEA

Dec. 6, Lebanon > Santa, hayrides, storytelling, horse-drawn carriage rides, and Christmas lights and displays. Atchley Park. 5:30-7:30 PM. Free. 417991-2222, www.lebanonmissouri.org

Dec. 7, Sedalia > Civil War exhibit, lunch, and a Civil War doll fashion show. Katy Depot. 11:30 AM. $15.

660-826-2932, www.katydepotsedalia.com

DICKENS’ LIVING WINDOWS

Dec. 6-7, Jefferson City > Tour the decorated mansion, and meet the Governor and his wife. Governor’s Mansion. 6:30-9 PM Fri.; 2-4 PM Sat. Free.

573-751-0528, www.visitjeffersoncity.com

Dec. 7, Warrensburg > Carolers, musicians, artist demonstrations, Father Christmas, hot cider, kettle corn, actors in period clothing, and horse and wagon rides. Downtown. 10 AM-5 PM. Free. 660-4293988, www.warrensburgmainstreet.com

INSPECTING CAROL

HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE

Dec. 6-8 and 11-12, Columbia > Hilarious behindthe-scenes look at a community theater’s holiday production gone awry. Macklanburg Playhouse at Stephens College. 7:30 PM (Sun. 2 PM). $7-$14. 573876-7199, www.stephens.edu

Dec. 7-8, Osceola > Handmade soaps and oil, refreshments, and a free gift. Evening Shade Farms.

10 AM-5 PM Sat.; noon-5 PM Sun. Free. 417-2826985, www.eveningshadefarms.com

CHRISTMAS CALIFORNIA STYLE

SUGAR PLUM TEA

Dec. 7, California > Lighted parade, open house, and house decorating contest. Throughout town.

5-9 PM. Free. 573-796-3040, www.calmo.com

Dec. 7-8 and 14-15, Boonville > Tea party and tour of a decorated home with a Ladies Tea on Dec. 14th at 6:30 PM. High Street Victorian. 2 PM. $18. 660882-7107, www.goboonville.com

HOLIDAY BALL

CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE

Dec. 7, Linn Creek > Dance to the big band sounds of the Lake Jazz Band, and enjoy refreshments.

Camden County Museum. 7-10 PM. $6. 573-3467191, www.camdencountymuseum.com

Dec. 7-14, Boonville > Tour the decorated DAR house, and enjoy a soup and holiday cookie luncheon. Roslyn Heights. 10 AM-3 PM. $5 tour; $5 lunch. 660-882-5320, www.goboonville.com

swinging sounds JAZZ CONCERT Jan. 24, Columbia > Performance by Arthuro O’Farrill, pianist and composer, and his Quintet. Lela Raney Wood Hall Kimball Ballroom at Stephens College. 7 PM. $18-$36.

573-449-3009, www.wealwaysswing.org

COURTESY OF JOHN ABBOT

CANDLELIGHT TOURS

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WANT TO LEARN MORE? Contact Linda Gipson at lgipson@mochamber.com, or by phone at 573-634-3511.

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CAPITOL CAROLING

CHRISTMAS PARADE

Dec. 10, Jefferson City > Performance of holiday songs. Missouri State Capitol Rotunda. 7-10 PM. Free. 573-632-2820, www.visitjeffersoncity.com

Dec. 14, Lake Ozark > Parade features Marine Corps League Honor Guard and Santa’s sleigh pulled

by Casper, a semi truck decorated with more than 2,000 lights. Bagnell Dam Strip. 1 PM. Free. 573365-2460, www.lakechristmasparade.com

THE NUTCRACKER Dec. 13-14, Versailles > A performance of the magical holiday classic. Royal Theatre. 7 PM. $5-$10.

573-378-6226, www.theroyaltheatre.com

CHRISTMAS ON BROADWAY Dec. 14, Brunswick > Craft fair, Santa, and lighted parade. Downtown. 8 AM-4 PM. Free. 660-5843022, www.brunswickmo.com

CELEBRATION AND PARADE Dec. 14, Fayette > Farmer’s Market, kids crafts, Santa, and lighted parade. Downtown. Noon-7 PM. Free. 660-888-0735, www.fayettemochamber.org

CANTORUM CHRISTMAS

POLAR EXPRESS STORYTIME Dec. 14, Sedalia > Hear the story Polar Express, make a craft, enjoy hot chocolate, and meet Santa.

Katy Depot. 10 AM and 1 PM. Reservations. Free.

660-826-2932, www.katydepotsedalia.com

and Pub. 6-9 PM. Make a reservation and receive your secret password to enter. $25-$40. 660-4293988, www.warrensburgmainstreet.com

IRISH ARTS DANCE TROUPE Jan. 25, Versailles > St. Louis competition Irish dancers perform. Royal Theatre. 7 PM. $5-$10. 573378-6226, www.theroyaltheatre.com

SOUTHWEST

BRIDAL SPECTACULAR

CANDY CANE LANE

Jan. 5, Jefferson City > More than 90 vendors and a runway fashion show. Firley Center at YMCA. Noon-4 PM. $5. 573-636-4094, www.centralmissouribridalassociation.com

Nov. 29-Dec. 21 (Fri.-Sat.), Springfield > Drivethrough lights display. Rutledge-Wilson Farm Park.

5-7 PM. Free. 417-874-2176, www.parkboard.org

HOLIDAY TRAIN EXHIBIT

CHOCOLATE GALA

Dec. 14, Jefferson City > Holiday songs. Miller Performing Arts Center. 7-9 PM. $5-$25. 573-230-2715, www.jeffersoncitycantorum.com

Jan. 19, Cole Camp > Wine tasting, chocolate fountain, chocolate treats, appetizers, and live music. American Legion Hall. 2-4:30 PM. $15. 660668-3675, www.colecampmo.com

RAGTIME CONCERTS

MA BROWN’S SPEAKEASY

Dec. 14-15, Blackwater > Pianist and composer Bob Milne performs. West End Theatre. 2:30 PM. $13. 660-888-2300, www.blackwater-mo.com

Jan 24, Warrensburg > Wear your 1920s-inspired costumes and enjoy casino-style games, dancing, live music, prizes, and dinner. Fitter’s Restaurant

Dec. 1-Jan. 3, Springfield > Miniature landscape, village, and trains on display. Botanical Center atrium. 8 AM-5 PM. Free. 417-891-1515, www.parkboard.org/botanical/index.html

WOODRUFF’S DREAM Dec. 3-Feb. 2, Springfield > Route 66 exhibit that tells the story behind the highway. History Museum. 10:30 AM-4:30 PM Tues.-Sat. $3-$5. 417-8641976, www.historymuseumonthesquare.org

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ART WALK Dec. 6, Springfield > Art, live music, demonstrations, and food at more that 27 venues throughout the area. Downtown. 6-10 PM. Free. 417-862-2787, www.ffaw.org

COURTESY OF THE BRANSON/LAKES AREA CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU

THE CHRISTMAS SHOW Dec. 5-6, Cassville > Traditional and contemporary holiday tunes performed by Home Town Sound and the Red Hots. FEMA Building and Event Center.

7:30 PM. $6-$8. 417-847-2814, www.cassville.com

CHRISTMAS TOUR OF HOMES Dec. 6-7, Kimberling City > Tour five decorated homes, and visit the Gifts and Glitz Galleria. Throughout town and Kimberling Area Library. 10 AM-4 PM. $15. 417-779-2090, www.hometour.nftrl.org

WINTERFEST Dec. 6-8, Springfield > Visual arts festival with an array of artwork and holiday music performances.

Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts. 5-10 PM Fri.; 10 AM-10 PM Sat.; noon-5 PM Sun. Free. 417-8366776, www.hammonshall.com

CHRISTMAS PARADE Dec. 7, Cassville > Lighted floats, marching bands, antique vehicles, and Santa. Main Street. 6-7 PM. Free. 417-847-2814, www.cassville.com

o come, all ye faithful ADORATION PARADE AND NATIVITY SCENE Dec. 8-Jan. 1 > Lighting of the nativity scene on top of Mt. Branson and parade that celebrates the Christmas season with a wide variety of floats and bands. Downtown and Branson Landing.

Parade begins at dusk. Free. 877-272-6700, www.expolorebranson.com

Amish-Made

Storage Sheds and Gazebos • Made in Central Missouri • Built to order and shipped to your location or built on-site • Kits available

• Siding choices: metal, wood, or vinyl • Any color!

Finished buildings start at just $1,200.

Quality construction by Amish craftsmen 800-492-2593 ext. 101 | amishmade@missourilife.com [107] December 2013

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Trees & Trains November 25 - December 24 Open Monday through Friday 9am to 5pm www.oncrc.org

re small-town Salem, Missouri whe life is at its best!

ristrience a delightful Ch We invite you to expe ers art of the Ozarks off mas this year. The he . lax fish, hunt or just re “cool” places to hike,

For more information go to www.salemmo.com

This magical exhibit is an experience in celebrating the joy of Christmas. It features trees decorated by individuals, businesses and organizations. The trees are creative works of art in a beautiful array of color and lights. Model railroad settings are included to demonstrate the magic created in 1901 when Joshua Lionel Cowen placed a moving model train in the window of J. L. Hudson department store in New York City.

Christmas Parade of Lights “The Music & Magic of Christmas” December 7, 5:30 pm www.salemmo.com 573-729-6900 Join the community for an evening of brilliant lights, music and good cheer. Parade entries sparkle with numerous lights that promote the holiday spirit. Parade ends at the Courthouse square.

All you need to do is complete a Parade Entry Form that is due no later than November 26.

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TREE OF SHINING MEMORIES

EAGLE WATCH

Dec. 7, Nevada > Parade, lighting ceremony, and Miss Merry Christmas pageant. Downtown Square.

10 AM pageant; 5:30 PM parade. Free. 417-6675300, www.nevada-mo.com

Dec. 21, Cassville > Watch a video about bald eagles, and go outside to watch bald eagles fly in to roost for the night. Roaring River State Park. 3-4:30 PM. Free. 417-847-3742, www.mostateparks.com/ park/roaring-river-state-park

THE NUTCRACKER Dec. 12-15, Springfield > Performance of holiday classic filled with magic and wonder by the Springfield Ballet. Lander Theatre. 7:30 PM Thurs.-Sat.; 2 PM Sat.-Sun.; 6 PM Sun. $16-$24. 417-862-1343, www.springfieldballet.org

DICKENSFEST Dec. 13-15, Joplin > Winter lights, costumed Dickens-era performers, Father Christmas, horsedrawn carriage rides, non-motorized train rides, live nativity, performance of The Night Before Christmas Carol, and indoor and outdoor craft and food fair. First United Methodist Church and 3rd St. and Moffet Ave. 6-8:30 PM. Free (except rides). 417483-3116, www.joplindickensfest.com

LUMINARY DRIVING TOUR Dec. 14, Republic > Drive through more than 2,539 luminaria representing those killed, wounded, or missing at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield. 5:30-9:30 PM. Free. 417732-2662, www.nps.gov/wicr

CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT Dec. 21, Joplin > Join experienced birders to count birds for the longest running Citizen Science survey in the world. Wildcat Glades Conservation and Audubon Center. 8 AM-1 PM. Free. 417-782-6287, www.wildcatglades.audubon.org

Performing Arts. 8 PM, Fri.; 2 and 8 PM Sat. $20-$55.

417-836-7678, www.hammonshall.com

BUSINESS EXPO Jan. 25, Mt. Vernon > Local businesses showcase their products and services. The MARC. 9 AM-3 PM. Donations of canned good accepted. 417-4667654, www.mtvernonchamber.com

MUSIC MAN JR. Dec. 31-Feb. 9, Springfield > American musical classic. The Landers Theatre. 7:30 PM Thurs.-Sat.; 2:30 PM Sat.-Sun; 10:30 AM Sat. $12-$15. 417-8691334, www.springfiedllittletheatre.org

FIRST NIGHT SPRINGFIELD Dec. 31, Springfield > Family-friendly celebration with 20 performances of music, theater, dance, comedy, magic, and a grand finale firework display Downtown. 5:30 PM-midnight. $8-$35. 417-8622787, www.springfieldarts.org

NIGHTTIME GHOST TOURS Jan. 10, Springfield > Guided tour of a haunted castle and ghostly tales. Pythian Castle. 8-9:30 PM. $15. 417-865-1464, www.pythiancastle.com

HELLO, DOLLY! Jan. 17-18, Springfield > Award-winning musical starring Sally Struthers. Hammons Hall for the

8 DAY ITALIAN VACATION A u g u st 2014!

Prices begin at $2549, including air fare!

Prices are per person for double occupancy (two to a room).

Hurry, offer ends Dec. 31, 2013.

• Rome: Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s, the Colosseum, and more.

• Orvieto: Perched high atop a volcanic rock, visit the cathedral and taste local pastries in a traditional pasticceria.

• Assisi: St. Clare’s Church and St. Francis’ Basilica.

• Florence: Michelangelo’s David and sculpture-studded Signoria Square.

• Padua: St. Anthony of Padua.

• Venice: Ride a private boat. Visit St. Mark’s Square and Basilica, Doges’ Palace, the Bridge of Sighs, and a glassblower demonstration.

• Verona: See Juliet’s balcony and the Arena.

• Milan: Time to explore Milan’s dynamic center, join a wonderful excursion to Lake Como, where a boat ride brings you to picturesque Bellagio.

• All dates subject to availability.

NORTHEAST ST. LOUIS CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS Nov. 29-Dec. 24, St. Charles > Celebrate Christmas traditions from around the world with photos, parades, train display, concerts, Santas from around the world, and decorations. Main Street and Historic District. Noon-5 pm Sun.; 6:30-9 pm Wed. and Thurs.; 11 am-9 pm Sat.; 11 am-2 pm Christmas Eve. Free (except special events). 800-366-2427, www.stcharleschristmas.com

Nestled in the mountains of the Ozark’s wilderness is a bed and breakfast and cabin rental with a rustic charm and natural atmosphere that is unmatched.

The property features cozy cabins and suites, along with wooded trails, water gardens, a Missouri wine cellar, a chapel in the woods, a charming reception and special events conservatory and lots of back-country appeal.

For reservations call 417-443-0036 or visit us on the web at www.bearcreekbedandbreakfast.com

Where will your Travelers Lane take YOU? travelerslane@hotmail.com | 314-223-1224 | www.travelerslane.com [109] December 2013

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HOLIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS Nov. 29-Dec. 30, Wentzville > One-mile drive through holiday lights display. Rotary Park. Times vary. Walk through night Dec. 9th 6-8 PM. $3-$11.

636-332-9236, www.wentzvillmo.org

NORTHERN LIGHTS CELEBRATION Dec. 1, Ferguson > Outdoor Christmas market, live holiday music, lighted parade, Santa, tree lighting, cookies, and hot chocolate. Downtown. 2-7 PM. Free. 314-332-5546, www.fergusoncitywalk.com

CHRISTMAS IN THE PARK Dec. 1-23, Moberly > Drive through holiday lights display. Rothwell Park. 6-9 PM. Donations accepted.

660-263-6070, www.moberlychamber.com

Dec. 1-Jan. 5, St. Louis > Six tracks of animated model trains and hundreds of holiday plants. Missouri Botanical Garden. 9 AM-4 PM. $4-$15. 800642-8842, www.mobot.org

GLASS ORNAMENT DISPLAY Dec. 3-Jan. 1, St. Louis > Display and sale of glass ornaments handcrafted by local and national artists. Craft Alliance Delmar Gallery. 10 AM-5 PM Tues.Thurs., 10 AM-6 PM Fri.-Sat.; 11 AM-5 PM Sun. Free.

314-725-1177, www.craftalliance.org

jingle bells CHRISTMAS PARADE Dec. 7, Moberly > Lighted parade with horse-drawn carriages, floats, Grand Marshall, bands and Santa and Mrs. Claus. Downtown. 5 pm. Free. 660-263-6070, www.moberlychamber.com

COURTESY OF JENNIFER SCHULTE

HOLIDAY FLOWERS AND TRAINS

Holiday Shopping, Community Events, & More

in

Hit the state’s only Ale Trail today.

Pick up a passport with trail map to guide you to the Ozarks’ finest local breweries.

Start your journey at the Fayetteville Visitors Center located on the Downtown Square. For just $10, be sure to grab a commemorative pint glass.

Altrusa Holiday Home Tour Sunday, December 8th, 1-4 pm Tour five homes decorated for the season.

Living Windows Thursday, December 5th, 5-7:30 pm Windows come to life in the Historic Downtown District. Live music, food & more.

Moberly Christmas Parade Saturday, December 7th, 5 pm Join us as we gather along Reed Street in Downtown Moberly and be filled with the spirit of the season for this annual parade.

Frosty 5K Run Saturday, December 13th, 6 pm Annual Frosty 5K through Rothwell Park Christmas in the Park December 1st–23rd, Dark to 9 pm Drive through Rothwell Park to see beautiful lighted Holiday displays.

fayettevillealetrail.com

A Holiday Evening with Sylvia McNair Saturday, December 14th, 7 pm Moberly High School Auditorium The annual cocoa and cookies event with Award winner Sylvia McNair.

For more information on these and other events, visit MoberlyChamber.com [110] MissouriLife

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More Diverse

ENTERTAINMENT

THIS WINTER YOU HAVE THE

Holiday /Winter 2013-14 Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker Tues. 12/3 7 PM Jesse Auditorium

IN THE HOUSE

St. Louis Symphony Sun. 12/8 7 PM Missouri Theatre

Nebraska Theatre Caravan: A Christmas Carol

VISIT KCPT.ORG TO FIND OUT WHEN TO WATCH AND HOW TO SECURE YOUR TICKETS.

Wed. 12/11 7 PM Jesse Auditorium

Green Day’s American Idiot

PAUL BYROM

Thurs. 1/23 7 PM Jesse Auditorium

Mamma Mia

Thurs. 2/6 7 PM Jesse Auditorium NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LIVE

Get your

University Concert Series tickets at

www.concertseries.org

and at the Missouri Theatre Box Office 203 South 9th Street, Downtown Columbia (573) 882-3781

kcpt.org

[111] December 2013

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THE MOUSETRAP Dec. 4-29, St. Louis > Agatha Christie’s clever mystery keeps you guessing until the very end. LorettoHilton Center for the Performing Arts. Times vary. $16.50-$76. 314-968-4925, www.repstl.org

OLIVER! Dec. 5-8, Mexico > The classic musical. Presser Performing Arts Center. 7 pm Thurs.-Sat.; 2 pm Sun. $5$10. 573-581-5592, www.presserpac.com

HOLIDAY LIGHTING AND PARADE Dec. 6, Macon > Themed parade, decorated shops, and Santa. Downtown. 5:30-7:30 pm. Free. 660385-2811, www.maconmochamber.com

CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL Dec. 6-8, Kimmswick > Cookie Walk, children’s workshop, decorated buildings, tours, luminaria, carolers, carriage rides, and Santa. Throughout town. 10 am-9 pm Fri.-Sat.; 11 am-5 pm Sun. Free (except special events) 636-464-6464, www.gokimmswick.com

CHRISTMAS WALK Dec. 6 and 13, Augusta > Luminaria line the streets; caroling and shops decorated for the holidays.

Throughout town. 5-10 pm. Free. 636-228-4005, www.augusta-chamber.org

RAG DOLLS, ROBOTS, AND ROCKETSHIPS Dec. 6-Jan. 17, St. Charles > Toy-themed exhibit brings back memories of our childhood. Foundry Arts Centre. 10 am-8 pm Tues.-Thurs., 10 am-5 pm Fri.-Sat.; noon-4 pm Sun. Free. 636-255-0270, www.foundryartcentre.org

SANTA LAND Dec. 7-Jan. 4, Clarksville > Displays of Santas, snowmen, trees, and a variety of animated characters and toys. Santa visits on most weekends. City Hall. 10 am-4 pm Mon.-Fri.; 10 am-6 pm Sat.-Sun. Free. 573-242-3336, www.clarksville.mo.us

CHURCH WALK

CANDY CANE HUNT Dec. 7, Chesterfield > Children can hunt for candy canes with special prizes attached. St. Louis Carousel at Faust Park. 10 am (advanced registration). $6.

314-615-8383, www.stlouisco.com/parks

TROUT FISHING AND CHILI FEED Dec. 7, St. Louis > Fish for rainbow trout (fishing license required), and enjoy an all-you-can-eat chili feed. Suson Park. 5-9 pm. $5. 314-615-8472, www.stlouisco.com/parks

WEIHNACHTSFEST Dec. 7-8 and 14-15, Hermann > Celebrate traditional 19th-century German Christmas with decorated trees, cookies, a tour of the PommerGentner House decorated with greenery and lit by lamps, and visit the gift shop for a traditional Christmas gift. Deutschheim State Historic Site. 10 am4 pm. Free. 573-486-2200, www.mostateparks. com/park/deutschheim-state-historic-site

Dec. 8, Louisiana > Explore the beauty of six churches, and enjoy a presentation at each stop.

Throughout town. 3-5 pm. Donations accepted.

573-754-5550, www.louisiana-mo.com

HOLIDAY HOME TOUR Dec. 8, Moberly > Tour five decorated homes.

Throughout town. 1-4 pm. $15. 660-263-6070, www.moberlychamber.com

FROSTY 5K RUN Dec. 13, Moberly > 5K run through the lighted park. Rothwell Park. 6 pm. $15. 660-269-8705, www.moberlychamber.com

CAPITOL BY CANDLELIGHT Dec. 13, St. Charles > Period-dressed guides take you on a candlelight tour. First Missouri State Capitol State Historic Site. 6-9 pm. $2.50-$4 (reservations). 636-940-3322, www.mostateparks.com/ park/first-missouri-state-capitol-state-historic-site

! y a w a t e G r u o Y Pl a n o in L e ba n on!

So m u ch to se e a n d d

Lebanon is known by its motto,

“Frien dly people.

Frien dly pla ce.”

These events are only part of the fun we have to offer.

Bull Riding

January 4 Cowan Civic Center 870-224-5774

Mad Dog Figure 8 Racing (10th) Mad Dog Demolition Derby Tour (11th) January 10-11 Cowan Civic Center www.motorheadevents.com

American Arenacross and Freestyle Show www.lebanonmo.org | 1-866-LEBANON

January 24-25 Cowan Civic Center www.motorheadevents.com

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Magical Experience, Hometown Traditions We are Clinton, Missouri, where small-town life is still alive and well. We invite you to cruise the shoreline of Truman Lake or pedal your way down the Katy Trail. This Golden Valley in which we live offers a multitude of opportunities to shop, bike, hunt, ďŹ sh or just relax.

We invite you to come share all the things we love: our events, our square, our nature, and our people. We are Clinton, and we are great people, by nature.

Lighted Christmas Parade: November 29, 6 PM Historic Downtown Christmas Lighting: November 29 - December 31

For more information, visit www.clintonmo.com.

Seasons Three and Four Sundays at 8 p.m.

Watch for the premiere of Season Four on January 5!

More information at kmos.org/downton

Courtesy of (C) Carnival Film & Television Limited 2012 for MASTERPIECE

DOWNTON ABBEY

KMOS-TV broadcasts in HD on channel 6.1, and is carried in many communities on channel 6.

You can also see broadcasts of lifestyle/how-to shows on 6.2 and international programs on 6.3.

[113] December 2013

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SANTA’S NORTH POLE DASH

RYAN AND RYAN

Dec. 14, St. Charles > Join more than 3,000 Santas for a 5K run and one-mile fun walk. Main Street.

Starts at 9 AM. Free for spectators. 636-946-0633, www.santasnorthpoledash.com

Jan. 12, Florissant > A father-son piano duo perform. Civic Center Theatre. 2 PM. $26-$28. 314-9215678, www.florissant.com

Dec. 14, Hannibal > Living windows, art walk, Honor Tree, children’s activities, and Santa. Historic downtown. 10 AM-8 PM. Free. 573-221-2477, www.visithannibal.com

SAY CHEESE WINE TRAIL Dec. 14-15, Hermann > Take a tour to explore the marriage of wine and cheese with food and wine pairings. Seven area wineries. 10 AM-5 PM Sat.; 11 AM-5 PM Sun. $30 (advanced tickets). 800-9328687, www.hermannwinetrail.com

ice, ice baby

STRAIGHT NO CHASER

FETE DE GLACE Jan. 25, St. Charles > Ice carving competition.

North Main Street. 9:30 AM-3:30 PM. Free. 800366-2427, www.historicstcharles.com

.com

Dec. 15, St. Louis > Captivating a cappella group performs holiday and other favorites. The fabulous Fox Theatre. 7 PM. $29.50-$49.50. 314-534-1111, www.fabulousfox.com

73RD CHRISTMAS EVENSONG Dec. 19, Mexico > Performance by the Missouri Military Choir. Memorial Chapel. 7 PM. Free. 573581-1776, www.missourimilitaryacademy.org

SINGLES ICE SKATING Jan. 18, St. Louis > Join singles for an evening of ice skating. Greensfelder Recreation Complex. 7-9 PM. $10. 314-615-8482, www.stlouisco.com/parks

FOOD AND WINE EXPERIENCE Jan. 24-26, St. Louis > More than 90 exhibitors feature food and wine samples with special offerings in the VIP reserve Room. Chase Park Plaza Hotel. Premier Tasting Fri. 7-10 PM. noon-5 pm Sat.Sun. Prices vary. 314-968-4925, www.repstl.org

EAGLE WATCH AND WALK Jan. 25, St. Louis > Live eagles and other birds of prey on site, two guided hikes on three-mile trail, and refreshments. Fort Belle Fontaine Park. 11 AM-2 PM. Free. 314-544-5714, www.stlouisco.com/parks

EAGLE DAYS Jan. 25-26, Clarksville > Programs held every hour and spotting scopes set up for viewing live eagles on the river banks. Appleshed and Riverfront Park.

9 AM-4 PM Sat.; 10 AM-3 PM Sun. Free. 573-2423771, www.clarksvillemo.us

COURTESY OF GREATER SAINT CHARLES CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU

HOMETOWN CHRISTMAS

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NORTHWEST KANSAS CITY CHRISTMAS HOMES TOUR Nov. 29-30, Blue Springs > Tour five homes decorated for the holidays with one of the homes filled with hundreds of Santas. Throughout town. 5-9 PM Fri.; 10 AM-5 PM Sat. $13-$15. 816-229-8293, www.bluespringshistory.org

CRAYOLA CHRISTMAS LAND Nov. 29-Dec. 31, Kansas City > Children can play on super-sized Crayola products and tell Santa their holiday wishes. Crown Center. 10 AM-9 PM Mon.-Sat.; 11 AM-6 PM. Sun. Free. 816-274-8444, www.crowncenter.com

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE Nov. 29-Dec. 13, St. Joseph > American holiday classic performed as a live 1940s radio broadcast.

Robidoux Landing Playhouse. 7:30 PM Fri.-Sat.; 2 PM Sun. $15-$34. 816-232-1778, www.rrtstjoe.org

IT’S A NUTCRACKER CHRISTMAS Nov. 29-Dec. 22 (Sat.-Sun.), Independence > Tour the depot and see the collection of nutcrack-

ers. Chicago Alton 1879 Depot. 9:30 AM-4:30 PM Fri.-Sat.; 12:30-4:30 PM Sun. Donations accepted.

816-325-7955, www.chicagoalton1879depot.org

HOLLY AND MISTLETOE TOUR Dec. 5, Independence > Tour four decorated homes, and stop by the Sweet Shop. Throughout town. 10 AM-8 PM. $12-$15. 816-289-4988, www.independenceyoungmatrons.org

CHRISTMAS ON THE RIVER Dec. 6, Parkville > Live entertainment, children’s activities, Santa, and fireworks display.

Historic Downtown. 6-10 PM. Free. 816-505-2227, www.parkvillemo.org

DOWNTOWN CHRISTMAS Dec. 6, Trenton > Lighting of the Mayor’s tree, arrival of Santa in a horse-drawn carriage, live window scenes, singing, dancing, and hot chocolate. Downtown. 5-7 PM. Free. 660-359-4324, www.trentonchamber.com

CANDLELIGHT HOMES TOUR Dec. 6-8, Weston > Tour four homes and one loft decorated for the holidays, and visit the Christmas Gift Shoppe. Throughout town. 5-8:30 PM Fri.; noon-8 PM Sat.; noon-5 PM Sun. $13-$30. 816640-2909, www.westonmo.com

DICKENS CHRISTMAS DINNER Dec. 7, Arrow Rock > Enjoy an 1870s English Christmas dinner and a reading from A Christmas Carol; sing carols, play games, and don period attire if you wish. J. Huston Tavern. 6 PM. $60 (reservations).

660-837-3200, www.jhustontavern.com

MAYOR’S CHRISTMAS CARNIVAL Dec. 7, Independence > Meet the mayor and Santa Claus; activities, balloon creations, carnival games, and face painting. Roger T. Sermon Community Center. 9 AM-noon. Free. 816-325-7370, www.visitindependence.com

A VISIT FROM ST. NICOHOLAS Dec. 7, Kansas City > Experience a 19th-century Christmas during a walking tour with costumed interpreters through the decorated homes and log cabins of the 1800s. Shoal Creek Living History Museum. 10 AM-4 PM. $5. 816-792-2655, www.shoalcreeklivinghistorymuseum.com

CHRISTMAS ON THE FARM Dec. 7, Lawson > Caroling, samples of traditional treats, flaming plum pudding demonstrations, children’s crafts, Father Christmas, and live traditional holiday music. Watkins Woolen Mill State Historic Site. 2-7 PM. Free. 816-580-3387, www.mostateparks.com/park/watkins-mill-state-park

Antiques and Vintage Items Handmade Artisan Pieces Old-Fashioned Candy and Soda

December 4 - 14, 2013 Visit the museum and enjoy historic holiday decorations and gifts from the past!

February 14, 2014 Bring your sweetheart and join us for our Victorian Love Token exhibit opening February 14.

16 North Main Street In Historic Downtown Liberty, MO 816-781-6839 Find us on Facebook

Trailside Café and Bike Shop on the Katy Trail for 23 years!

6607 NE Antioch Road, Gladstone, MO For more information call 816-423-4107.

Scan our QR Code for a complete listing of all attractions and events in Gladstone!

573-698-2702 | www.trailsidecafebike.com 700 First St., Rocheport, MO

[115] December 2013

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Explore the Old Trails Region

Family

shoe

Explore 100 miles of unique rural charm.

Just Designated by USDA as Missouri’s Great Region!

Store

Rugged Tan Gaucho Leather

Food · drinks · Fun

Award Winning Dessert Wine 660-548-1221 Find us on Facebook Tuesday - Thursday 4pm - 9pm Friday 4pm - 11pm | Saturday 4pm - 1am

8-inch boot

Chococherry Kiss Wine Tastes like a melted cherry cordial!

100 E Pope Lane, Smithville, MO 816-866-4077 · www.ladogaridgewinery.com

Visit Historic Glasgow!

Historic past

exciting present

660-882-2390 www.familyshoestore.biz 407 Main St. | Boonville, MO

Glasgow, MO www.glasgowmo.com

BUSHWHACKER BEND WINERY

BECKETT’S

THE CORNER STORE

MARKET STREET FLORAL

HILL TOP BED & BREAKFAST

RIVERPORT MARKET

With our unique local venue you can enjoy our handcrafted wines while you relax on the deck overlooking the Missouri River!

515 First St. | 660-338-2100 www.bushwhackerbend.com

Where you‘ll find the finest floral arrangements and gifts, backed by friendly and prompt service that always goes the extra mile!

111 Market Street, Glasgow | 660- 338-2300 107 N Main St., Fayette | 660-248-2141 www.marketstreetfloral.com

A beautiful place for good food, wonderful people, and lots of laughter!

Where there is something for everyone.

510 First St. | 660-338-9978 www.beckettsrestaurant.com

A turn-of-the-century bed and breakfast on 24 quiet acres overlooking the Missouri River. Enjoy a delicious breakfast, and take in the view!

907 Union | 660-338-2362 www.hilltopbandb.com

6-inch boot

Super Sole®

Step back in time to your favorite Corner Store where everything you need for the home and family is right here. Also available, vintage furniture and quality antiques.

101 Market Street | 660-338-5869

19th century Italianate charm showcasing one-of-a-kind gifts mostly created

by Missouri artists. Choose from artworks of pottery, jewelry, wood carvings, Christmas ornaments and more!

106 Market St. | 660-338-9989 www.riverportmarket.com

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TRIP THE LIGHTS FANTASTIC Dec. 7. Lee’s Summit > Four-mile magical midnight bike ride through hundreds of lighted, animated displays in the Park, best-decorated bike and bestdressed rider contests, and free T-shirts for participants. Longview Lake Park. 11 PM registration; 12:15 AM ride starts. Donations accepted. 816-503-4800, www.jacksongov.org

THE NUTCRACKER Dec. 7-24, Kansas City > Dazzling scenery and stunning dancers perform holiday classic with music by the Kansas City Symphony. Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Times vary. $29-$119. 816931-2232, www.kcballet.org

COURTESY OF INDEPENDENCE TOURISM

GENE WATSON CONCERT Dec. 8, Chillicothe > Legendary country music singer and his Farewell Party Band perform numbers from their 23 top-ten albums. Gary Dickinson Performing Arts Center. 2:30 PM. 660-646-1173, www.chillicothearts.com

WINTER SOLSTICE HIKE Dec. 10, Independence > Hike the torch-lit path, see ice sculptures, view the night sky through telescopes, and see a live bald eagle. George Owens Nature Park. 5-6:30 PM. Free. 816-325-7115, www.independencemo.org/parksandrec

o, Christmas tree VICTORIAN WONDERLAND Nov. 29-Dec. 30, Independence > See 75 decorated trees, twinkling lights, wreaths, angels, and Dec 2012 gilded ornaments while touring the Victorian mansion. Vaile Mansion. 10 AM-4 PM Mon.-Sat.; 1-4 PM Sun. (closed Dec. 23-25). $3-$6. 816-229-8293, www.vailemansion.org

• Majestic Eagle Viewing • Turn-of-the-Century Homes • Restaurants, Winery & Lodging • Historic Mississippi Riverfront • Antiques & Artists • Located in the heart of the Scenic Byway between Hannibal & St. Louis - Route 79

Old Fashioned Christmas Festival & Cookie Walk!

December 6, 7, & 8 Dec. 6 - 7: 10 am – 9 pm Dec. 8: 11 am – 5 pm Carolers, Entertainment, and Santa Claus. Shops & Restaurants OPEN LATE!

www.louisiana-mo.com • 888.642.3800

Kimmswick Cookie Walk Tickets: $20.00 Includes: Holiday Cookbook filled with our shop owners’ favorite sweet recipes, Gift Bag, and Map.

www.gokimmswick.com • 636-464-6464

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Cooper‘s Oak Winery Join one of our three wine clubs and get exclusive private barrel tastings and receive a 15% discount on wine cases!

All I Want For Christmas...

Wine Club Options: Michelle’s Sweet: $128/yr Toasted Oak (dry): $192/yr Sugar Oak (dry & sweet): $160/yr

A rca di a� Va l ley� R e gion�And� Black�R iv er� R e c r e ation� Area

www.coopersoakwinery.com 323 Main St., Boonville, MO • 660-882-0111 96-A W. Jones St. Higbee, MO • 660-456-7507

Gunflint Woodshop Custom Made Furniture Shipped To Your Door.

Welcome to the peaceful side of the Ozarks, where you’ll find Missouri’s premier parks and the outdoor recreation capital of Missouri!

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5%th prom IFE wi

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WWW.MISSOURI-VACATIONS.COM www.gunflintwoodshop.com | 573-552-8321

How Sherlock Changed the World

Courtesy of ©Brendan Easton/Love Productions

Forensic scientists, crime historians and Sherlockian experts examine how this fictional detective influenced modern criminal investigation.

December 17

Learn about this and other fascinating programs at kmos.org

KMOS-TV broadcasts in HD on channel 6.1, and is carried in many communities on channel 6.

You can also see broadcasts of lifestyle/how-to shows on 6.2 and international programs on 6.3.

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HOLIDAY TRUNK EXHIBIT

STORYBOOK CHRISTMAS

Dec. 13-14, Excelsior Springs > Silversmith Suzette Walker shows her custom jewelry. Willow Springs Mercantile. 10 AM-5 PM Sat.; noon-5 PM Sun. Free.

816-630-7467, www.shopthemercantile.com

Dec. 14, 21-22, Independence > Talented puppeteers perform a holiday show for children and holiday music. The Puppetry Arts Institute. 11 AM and 2 PM. $5. 816-833-9777, www.hazell.org

A CHRISTMAS STORY

WINTER WONDERLAND HIKE

Dec. 13-15, St. Jospeh > Screening of the classic comedy. Missouri Theatre. 7:30 PM Fri.-Sat.; 2 PM Sun. $10-$25. 816-232-1778, www.rrtstjoe.org

Dec. 21, Trenton > Join park staff for a hike on the first day of winter, listen to Christmas and nature stories, enjoy hot chocolate, and make a craft to take home. Crowder State Park. 10 AM-noon. Free. 660-359-6473, www.mostateparks.com/park/crowder-state-park

ARTIST’S TALK AND EXHIBIT Dec. 13-Jan. 18, Kansas City > Diverse exhibits by artists Christopher Troutman, Michael Lasater, Sarah Krawcheck, and Cynthia Bjorn. Kansas City Artist’s Coalition. Artist’s talk 6 PM. Dec. 13 Exhibit 11 AM-5 PM Wed.-Sat. Free. 816-421-5222, www.kansascityartistscoalition. org

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION Dec. 14, Lee’s Summit > Unique holiday customs of English, German, and French settlers are brought to life. Missouri Town 1855. 9 AM-5 PM. $3-$5. 816-5034860, www.jacksongov.org

2ND SATURDAY Dec. 14, Weston > Visit galleries, enjoy local wine, beer, and food, and listen to music. Main Street. 4-7 PM. Free. 816-640-2909, www.weston.com.com

SOUTHEAST PARADE OF LIGHTS

FARM TOY SHOW Jan. 12, Marshall > All brands of scale farm toys, custom-made replicas, and parts suppliers. Saline County Fairgrounds. 9 AM-3 PM. $2. 660-886-9908, www.marshallmochamber.com

BOAT AND SPORTSHOW Jan. 23-26, Kansas City > Hundreds of boats, educational seminars, hands-on activities, 5,000 gallon Texas Bass Tank, Gypsy Rose III pirate ship, dock dogs performance, Willow Creek Trout Pond, and children’s games and activities. Bartle Hall. 2-9 PM Thurs.; noon-9 PM Fri.; 10 AM-9 PM Sat.; 10 AM-5 PM Sun. $10 (15 and under free). 314-821-5400 www.kansascitysportshow.com

Dec. 1, Cape Girardeau > Parade features floats lit up with festive lights and holiday music. From Capaha Park to Main Street. Begins at dusk. Free.

573-334-8085, www.oldtowncape.org

CHRISTMAS AT GLENN HOUSE Dec. 1-29 (Saturdays), Cape Girardeau > Tour the decorated Victorian home and Carriage House, and enjoy refreshments. Glenn House. 1-4 PM. $2-$5.

573-335-1631, www.glennhouse.org

THE SOUND OF CHRISTMAS Dec. 5, Cape Girardeau > The Carolina Brass joins Elisabeth von Trapp (from the Sound of Music Von Trapp family) for a performance of holiday favorites. Bedell Performance Hall. 7:30 PM. $33-$39. 573651-2265, www.rivercampusevents.com

LIGHTED PARADE AND SANTA Dec. 6. Ellington > Lighted parade brings Santa to town, pictures with Santa, music, tree lighting, cookies, and hot chocolate. Main Street. 6-9 PM. Free. 573-663-7997, www.ellingtonmo.com

Back our campaign to publish the New Revised Edition of

Exploring Missouri’s State Parks and Historic Sites It’s been 20 years since the first edition was published, and much has changed in almost every state park and historic site–not to mention we now have an additional 11 state parks!

This book will be more than 400 pages and presented in a coffee-table quality, hardcover, large format edition with hundreds of updated photos.

ed Offer!

LimitYou can even receive an Alps

RVE RESE YOUR Y! TODA COPY

Mountaineering sleeping bag or backpack at the $200 level!

Just go to Facebook.com/ missourilife or MissouriLife.com and click on the Kickstarter link or call 800-492-2593, ext. 101

Kickstarter campaign ends on December 15!

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Directory of our Advertisers Connect with us online! www.MissouriLife.com www.facebook.com/MissouriLife • Twitter: @MissouriLife

Adam Puchta Winery, p. 57 Alenco, p. 108 Amish Made, p. 107 Arrow Rock, p. 57 Baltimore Bend Vineyard, p. 57 Bear Creek Lodge, p. 109 Bent Tree Gallery, p. 56 Benton County Tourism, p. 16 The Berry Nutty Farm, p. 85 Big Cedar Lodge, p. 11 Bodyworks Day Spa, p. 57 Boonville Tourism, p. 15 Branson Visitor TV, p. 21 Bucksnort Trading Company, p. 57 Burger’s Smokehouse, p. 87 Callaway County Tourism, pgs. 28-29 Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau, p. 106 Chillicothe, p. 106

Circle B Ranch, p. 87 Clinton, p. 113 Columbia Eve Fest, p. 107 Columbia Orthopaedic Group, p. 13 Cooper’s Oak Winery, p. 118 Dr. Scott Darling, DO PC, p. 7 Eagle’s Nest Winery, B&B Inn, Bakery, p. 57 Evening Shade Farms, p. 56 Family Shoe Store, p. 116 Fayetteville, AR, p. 110 Float Trip Pickles, p. 85 Gladstone, p. 115 Glasgow, p. 116 Gunflint Wood Shop, p. 118 Habitat for Humanity. p. 71 Harding University, p. 123 Hermann Wurst Haus, p. 57 Hotel Frederick, p. 117 Isle of Capri Casino Hotel, p. 3

James Country Mercantile, p. 100 Jefferson City Convention and Visitors Bureau, p. 98 John Knox Village East, p. 8 Kakao Chocolate, p. 87 KCPT, pgs. 100 & 111 Kimmswick Merchant’s Association, p. 117 KMOS-TV, pgs. 113 & 118 KT Diamond Jewelers, p. 56 Ladoga Ridge Winery, p. 116 Lebanon Tourism, p. 112 Literacy KC, p. 71 Lodge of Four Seasons, p. 2 Louisiana Visitors and Convention Bureau, p. 117 Lutheran Senior Services, p. 13 Madison Street Lounge, p. 116 Main Street Goods and Goodies, p. 115 Manitou Studio, p. 56 Marshall Tourism, p. 4 Mexico Tourism, p. 9 Missouri Beef Council, pgs. 88-95 Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, p. 105 Missouri Humanities Council, p. 71 Missouri Life Gifts, pgs. 24-25 Missouri Life Travel, p. 75 Missouri Pork Association, p. 124 Missouri State Parks Kickstarter Campaign, p. 119 Moberly Area Chamber of Commerce, p. 110

Naked Bacon Co., p. 85 Old Trails Region, p. 116 The Pitch, p. 114 Presley’s Country Jubliee, p. 18 Railyard Steakhouse, p. 86 River Valley Region Association, p. 118 Rolla Area Chamber of Commerce, p. 8 Salem Area Chamber of Commerce, p. 108 Samuel’s Tuxedos and Gifts, p. 98 Sand Creek Post & Beam, p. 100 Socket, p. 102 St. Charles Convention and Visitors Bureau, p. 86 St. James Winery, p. 108 St. Joseph, MO, p. 86 Ste. Genevieve Tourism, p. 108 Stone Hill Winery, pgs. 57 & 104 Stone Hollow Scrimshaw Studio, p. 56 Swiss Meats and Sausage Co., p. 85 Trailside Cafe and Bike Shop, p. 115 Travelers Lane Travel Agency, p. 109 The Trolley Company, p. 98 True/False Film Fest, p. 77 T’s Redneck Steakhouse, p. 85 University Concert Series, p. 111 Westphalia Inn, p. 87

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HOLIDAY LIGHTING Dec. 6, Perryville > Elementary School Choir performs Christmas carols, lighted parade, and pictures with Santa. Downtown Square. 5:30-8 PM. Free. 573-547-6062, www.perryvillemo.com

CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS Dec. 7, Caruthersville > Holiday parade with floats and Santa. Ward Ave. 2 PM. Free. 573-333-1222, www.caruthersvillecity.com

CHRISTMAS PARADE Dec. 7, Cassville > Lighted floats, marching bands, antique vehicles, and Santa. Main Street 6 PM. Free.

417-874-2814, www.cassville.com

CHRISTMAS PARADE Dec. 7, Jackson > Holiday parade features floats and Santa. Main Street. 3 PM. Free. 573-243-8131, www.jacksonmochamber.org

BREAKFAST WITH SANTA Dec. 7, Malden > Eat a light breakfast, and get a photo taken with Santa. Bootheel Youth Museum. 8-10 AM. $1.50-$3.50. 573-276-3600, www.bootheelyouthmuseum.org

CHRISTMAS PARADE Dec. 7, Rolla > Christmas at the beach-themed parade with floats and Santa. Downtown. 10 AM. Free.

573-364-3577, www.visitrolla.com

PARADE OF LIGHTS Dec. 7, Salem > The Music and Magic of Christmas is the theme of the parade. Downtown. 5:30 PM. Free.

573-729-6900, www.salemmo.com

ARTS AND CRAFTS SHOW Dec. 7-8, West Plains > More than 100 exhibitors with handmade arts and crafts perfect for the holidays. Civic Center. 8:30 AM-5 PM Sat.; 10 AM-3 PM Sun. $2. 417-256-1587. www.wpoptimist.org

CURRENTS FROM THE RIVER

COURTESY OF SALEM AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Dec. 7-Jan. 26, Poplar Bluff > Exhibit of photographs portraying scenes from the river by Dr. Gary Tuttle. Margaret Harwell Art Museum. Noon-4 PM Tues.-Fri.; 1-4 PM Sat.-Sun. Free. 573-686-8002, www.mham.org

FLASHLIGHT CANDY CANE HUNT Dec. 13, Cape Girardeau > Bring your flashlight to hunt for the candy canes, enjoy refreshments, and make a list for Santa. The Osage Centre. 6:30-7:30 PM. $3-$5. 573-339-6342, www.cityofcapegirardeau.org

A FOLK CHRISTMAS Dec. 13, Rolla > Holiday show with the season’s traditions, music, and magic all wrapped up in a unique folk setting. Leach Theatre. 7:30 PM. $20$25. 573-341-4219, www.leachtheatre.mst.edu

have a holly jolly ...

TREES AND TRAINS Nov. 29-Dec. 24, Salem > Trees are creative works of art that twinkle with lights and color.

The model railroad re-creates the magic that was made in 1901 when a model train was set in the window at the J.L. Hudson Department Store. Ozark Natural and Cultural Resource Center.

9 am-5 pm Mon.-Fri. 573-729-0029, www.oncrc.org

CANDLELIGHT TOURS

EAGLE PROGRAM

Dec. 13-14, New Madrid > Visit these historic sites decorated with greenery, oil lamps, and candles.

Refreshments are served. Hunter-Dawson State Historic site, Historical Museum, Higgerson School, and Hart-Stepp House Gallery. 6-8:30 PM. Free.

877-748-5300, www.new-madrid.mo.us

Jan. 10, Winona > Meet Phoenix and Aquilla the golden and bald eagles, and learn about their habitat and what they eat. Twin Pines Conservation Education Center. 6 PM. Registration. Free. 573-3251381, www.mdc.mo.gov/regions/ozark/twin-pinesconservation-education-center

PARADE OF MAGIC LIGHTS

THE WHITE CITY

Dec. 14, Cuba > Lighted floats, marching band with lighted effects on their uniforms, and horses pulling lighted wagons. Old Route 66. 5:30 PM. Free. 877212-8429, www.cubamochamber.com

Jan. 25, Rolla > Thodos Dance Chicago brings to life the characters and headlines of the legendary 1893 World’s Fair. Leach Theatre. 7:30 PM. $25-$5. 573341-4219, www.leachtheatre.mst.edu

CHRISTMAS PARADE Dec. 14, New Madrid > Christmas Melodiesthemed parade with bands, floats, and Santa and Mrs. Claus. Main Street. 10 AM. Free. 877-748-5300, www.new-madrid.mo.us

VICTORIAN MUSICAL CHRISTMAS Dec. 14, Salem > Seasonal music by the High School Chamber Choir in a Victorian atmosphere with refreshments. Bonebrake Center. 7 PM. $5. 573-7293400, www.bonebrake.org

CHRISTMAS PARADE Dec. 14, West Plains > Lighted holiday parade features veterans, bands, floats, Mr. and Miss Merry Christmas contestants, classic cars, and equestrian riders. Downtown. 5-7 PM. Free. 417-256-4433, www.wpchamber.org

FREE LISTING & MORE EVENTS At www.MissouriLife.com PLEASE NOTE: Call or visit website before traveling as event plans sometimes change.

TO SUBMIT AN EVENT: All events are posted on our web calendar at www.MissouriLife. com. Submit events well in advance and include a contact phone number. Visit www.

MissouriLife.com to fill out a form, email info@MissouriLife.com, fax 660-882-9899, or send to Missouri Life, 501 High Street, Ste. A, Boonville, MO 65233.

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Missouriana Upgrade your soup to restaurant quality by calling saltines 'Premium Soda Crackers'.

Win a trivia contest!

Old St. Ferdinand SHRINE in Florissant is the OLDEST standing Catholic church in the state.

Frank L. Sommers DEBUTED the saltine at the Buchannan County Fair.

The saltine was ORIGINALLY named “The Premium SODA Cracker” because it was made with baking soda.

Target Churchill by Warren Adler is an ESPIONAGE novel that focuses on Churchill’s TIME in Fulton.

BOTH MARGARET THATCHER AND WINSTON CHURCHILL ATE COUNTRY HAM AND FRIED CHICKEN WHILE THEY WERE IN FULTON.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANDREW BARTON

During the winter of 1805, William Clark complained in his journal of blisters from walking on ice over the Missouri River. Too bad he didnt have a pair of skates!

Show off your knowledge of useless facts!

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Australia Chile England France Greece Italy Zambia

Spanning the globe At Harding University we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just talk about global experiences, we provide them. At seven international campuses spanning five continents, Harding students spend a semester studying outside the realm of a traditional classroom encountering different cultures, historic sites, foreign languages and amazing architecture. Nearly 50 percent of students in each graduating class have attended one or more of the international programs.

Faith, Learning and Living Harding.edu | 800-477-4407 Searcy, Arkansas [123] December 2013

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Simply Saucy Bacon-Wrapped Pork Loin

Everything’s better with bacon, and this Bacon-Wrapped Pork Loin is no exception.

Topped with one of four flavorful sauces, it’s simple to make and sure to impress.

For more inspired entertaining ideas, visit PorkBeInspired.com

©2012 National Pork Board, Des Moines, IA USA. This message funded by America’s Pork Producers and the Pork Checkoff.

PorkBeInspired.com [124] MissouriLife

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