FREE Discovering lost talents
TRACKS, TRAPS AND FURS PAGE 13
PAGE 6
Trapper follows family tradition in the fur trade
The extraordinary transformation of Rae PAGE 24
Winter birdwatching PAGE 40
JANUARY 2014
JANUARY 2014
CONNECTION MAGAZINE | 1
Start off on the right foot at the right place. Come see our 2014 specials!
EDITOR’S NOTE THROUGH THE YEARS, I HAVE HEARD, FROM TIME TO time, “It’s bad luck to put away the Christmas tree until after New Year’s Day.” I always end up waiting till after the first of the year, just because from Christmas to New Year’s is festive, and once the tree is down, the party is over. While putting away the ornaments, and looking through the Christmas cards, which get less and less every year because of electronic communication and the cost of stamps, it’s easy to get hung up reminiscing about how the years have passed. Pictures of friends and families inserted in the cards are a telling reminder of how quickly the years slide by. This process helps to mark the start of the new year, and knowing that the previous year is gone and will never return. Now it is 2014. Time is a funny thing. It moves at exactly the same pace all the time. More than any other law of nature that we live by, time passes silently, but with consistent momentum that no earthly power can stop. In my day-to-day living, I catch myself wishing that time would slow down. I guess it’s because of being “busy.” I often wish, “If the day was 36 hours long, I could get it all done.” But, what on earth would that do, but just give me more time to fill with even more “busy-ness.” I guess what it comes around to, is that when the new year is here, it’s a fresh start. I try to think of what’s important in life, and what needs to change to make life more enjoyable for me and everyone around me. Obviously, this then becomes a chore of prioritizing. Yuck, who wants to think about prioritizing, that sounds like doing taxes or going to the dentist. So, I guess I will just keep plugging away and plowing through. Life goes on...seconds pass, days end. Though it sounds fatalistic, aren’t we so blessed? Every day that passes provides us with a different and uniquely beautiful sunrise and sunset. Every day is an opportunity to love and laugh, and work and play. This January, whether you do take time to prioritize, decide to change a habit, or just commit yourself to living life to the fullest, I wish you the best of luck.
Sherry Tucker Take care now,
JANUARY 2014
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COME ENCOUNTER A PROPHETIC AWAKENING! CONNECTION MAGAZINE | 5
DIRT ROADS AND RAILROADS STORY BY SHERRY TUCKER
I SAW PRETTY BOY
O 50 | CONNECTION MAGAZINE
OUR MODERN TIMES AND TECHNOLOGY have created a society that functions very differently than the previous generations. To step back in history, even just 80 years, it takes understanding not only the historical events of the time, but an appreciation for the mindset of people who lived in that era. Even beyond that, imagining what the life and times were like to different ages of people, or folks with varying lifestyles. Can you imagine life in the time of gangsters? What life was like before instant information, when information was passed only through by newspaper, radio and word of mouth? In our recent times, we can relate to what fear and shock in society feels like because of our experience with 9/11. Similarly, living during the 1930s was a treacherous time, filled with unknowns and complicated by financial hardships trickled down by the depression and the dust bowl. These hard times led some folks, primarily young men, to turn to a life of crime. Pretty Boy Floyd was just a farmer’s son who was raised in Oklahoma. In tough times, he resorted to petty crimes that, after jail-time and more robberies, turned him into a hardened criminal. After the capture of John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd became Public Enemy No. 1, as listed by the FBI. He was charged with robberies from Colorado, Oklahoma, Missouri though Ohio, as well as murder. But, life as a gangster, is not without its glamour. Citizens in Oklahoma considered him a “Robin Hood” of sorts, because when robbing banks, Floyd would destroy mortgage
documents. In a time of original documents and no digital copies, this meant release from debt. Citizens would offer Pretty Boy Floyd refuge. With a picture of a gangster’s life, can it be imagined what it was like living here locally, in the Ozarks? Imagine yourself as a young boy in 1933, riding your bike through Monett. A strange car eases down the street with two or three men that look unfamiliar, look tough. You had read about the gangsters in Chicago and Kansas City, and heard the old men talk about the bank robberies and seen the wanted posters hanging in the Post Office. Maybe your school teacher and your mother had recently lectured you about not talking to strangers, and you also noticed that businesses in town were installing new locks on their doors. Could that man driving be Pretty Boy Floyd? You feel a little scared, but it’s a little exciting, too. The Monett Times ran articles about the string of crimes and robberies that were prevalent during these uneasy times. Included were frequent articles about, the sometimes very amusing, alleged sitings of Pretty Boy Floyd. Floyd was suspect in a bank robbery in Ash Grove on January 12, 1933. The headline and article of The Monett Times reads:
Thought Dash of Pretty Boy and Pals Might Be Through Monett Local Officers Watch Highway Intersection For Two Hours Following An Alarm Spread From Ash Grove JANUARY 2014
FLOYD STARTED THIS WAY
Report That The Oklahoma Bandit Was in Springfield Wednesday Lends Credence to Story He Aided in Ash Grove Robbery “Pretty Boy” Floyd may have been within a few miles of Monett yesterday afternoon. The robbery of the Ash Grove Bank in which the notorious Oklahoma bandit is thought to be implicated was brought close to home about 4:15 o’clock when police received a telephone call from a state patrolman at Mount Vernon asking them to guard the junctions of Highways 37 and 60 here. The robbery of the Ash Grove bank was at noon Thursday. A man entered and asked J. H. Perryman, cashier, to change a five dollar bill. When the cashier turned to get the change the man drew a revolver and halted him. Then a second man entered and assumed the job of guarding the cashier while the first man ran behind the counter and pulled out a cloth bag and began scooping cash into it. It was then the man who is believed to be Pretty Boy entered. A heavy-set, dark man, wearing a fleece-lined coat, he stepped up to Mr. Perryman and said, “I’m Pretty Boy Floyd.” The only other person in the bank at the time the robbery started was Mrs. Nora Anglum, Perryman’s sister. A customer entered while the robbery was in progress, and was forced to join Mr. Perryman and Mrs. Anglum when they were commanded to lie on the floor. JANUARY 2014
January 14, 1933, the front page headline of The Monett Times read:
Rumors Insist That Pretty Boy Floyd Has Been Stopping Here Buys Meals, Shaves, Shines, Gasoline and Other Things in Monett - And He Wears His Bullet Proof Vest
KEEPS MOTOR RUNNING But Police Officers Won’t Take Stories Seriously – Next Time You See Him Make Him Show You His Tattooed Arm – If The Arm Isn’t Tattooed It Won’t Be Floyd – So There’s No Need To Be Afraid Rumors concerning Pretty Boy Floyd were flying thick and fast in Monett Saturday. According to the stories the notorious bandit CONNECTION MAGAZINE | 51
must be addicted with an enormous appetite for he is credited with having eaten supper in no less than a dozen places here last night. The reports vary. Proprietors of one restaurant where he was said to have had supper stated they did not believe any of their customers had been Floyd, but it was told excitedly he went into a lunch-room farther up
bullet-proof vest, prominently displayed. It is said Floyd drew up to the barber shop in a high-priced car, and accompanied by a woman Floyd kept the engine running, the woman alighted and went into the barber shop for a shoe shine. She returned to the car, Floyd came into the shop and had his shoes shined. Then he returned to the car, the woman re-
hair, blue eyes and is fair complexioned. His eyebrows meet and he has a scar on the left side of his forehead. So, unless the nocturnal visitor at Monett Cafes, filling stations, garages and barber shops has all these marks and characteristics, police say they’re not going to arrest Pretty Boy Floyd. But the rumors keep going on, just as thick and fast. Through the months, the headlines continued through the Spring and Summer of 1933:
IT WAS FLOYD, BUT DIDN’T NOTICE THE COLOR OF HIS HAIR So “Pretty Boy” Isn’t Playing Fair with Us At All
CRIME, CRIME, CRIME the street several nights ago. At that place the owners told of a visitor who came into the lunch-room about 7:30 O’clock one evening. They described him as being heavy set, fair complexioned, with a full face and wearing a white hat and a gray raincoat. The cafe was deserted at the time. The man asked for a plate lunch and on being served ate so slowly and with no attempts at conversation that the owners began to get nervous, they said. Finally, two customers entered and the man eft at once, possibly 45 minutes after coming in. And the proprietors said that immediately on leaving they turned to one another and declared simultaneously, “That was Pretty Boy Floyd.” They said they were struck with the resemblance of their customer to the picture of Floyd contained in a recent issue of Capper’s Weekly. It was about this same time, too, the rumors go, that a barber in a Monett shop drew for his customer a man answering Floyd’s description. Furthermore, the man wore a 52 | CONNECTION MAGAZINE
entered the shop for a haircut and returned to the car while Floyd went in for a haircut. One cafe proprietor believes one of his after-midnight visitors was Pretty Boy. He says several days ago a car drove up to the curb. There were two passengers; one came into the cafe and ordered sandwiches while the other remained outside, supposedly on guard as he kept the motor running. A customer in the cafe at the time is said to insist that the man was the bank bandit. And, so the stories go – still others relating that Floyd with three bodyguards and a regular aresenal in the rear of their car stopped long enough to have the tank filled with gasoline and then shot out of town. Police are placing no credence in the reports. And they say that if anyone wants to attempt a positive identification of the Oklahoma bank robber and murderer they can snatch back the sleeve from his right forearm and discover a picture of a Red Cross girl tattooed there. Also, they say, he weighs 180 pounds, is 5 feet 9 inches tall, has black
Verona Arms to Teeth to Greet Bank Bandits That Didn’t Come
Underworld’s Dares Arouse The Nation To A War On Crime Amidst the glamour and amplification of the events caused by gangster activity and robberies, there was real fear. Isolated rural towns had to question if they were equipped to handle an abrupt gangster hold-up. This uneasy time grew to an end as gangsters were caught, and economic times got better. So, did you see Pretty Boy Floyd? JANUARY 2014