TLC - The Lexington Connection

HELLO AGAIN!

And Happy Memorial Day to you all. Since I have received a good many responses to TLC #12 you get a quick turnaround with notes from old friends.

But first, as they say on TV news, a couple of quick Lexington items. The renovation/restoration movement is continuing apace, or possibly even picking up speed. Visitors to Lexington over the weekend said they were amazed at the difference in the last 3 to 5 years.

So, if you are tempted to come see for yourselves: June 9&10 is the Heritage Days Festival (closest, I suppose, to the old Fall Festival). We always have a nice 4th of July event: picnic at the lake with music (live and canned) with parachutists (weather permitting) and a fireworks display. This year the added incentive is the Chautauqua.

Oct. 13th & 14th is the annual Apple, Arts & Antiques Festival. It's just what it sounds like, and is growing every year.

End of commercials, and on with the show!

From Janice Jiovenale Tubiolo:

Good grief! Had forgotten that so MANY people worked at Odessa over the years. I remember the Gueguens' tenure. My own duty there was during my sophomore summer when my Aunt Nancy Sartain (from Henrietta), managed the ice cream parlor where I learned to make (and love) marshmallow shakes. Never was able to get them anyplace else. I also remember putting a quarter - quite a big part of my wages - into the table jukeboxes for five songs, when I couldn't get patrons (usually classmates or cadets) to do it. Susan, you may remember that I was particularly nutty over 'Sh-boom' and '26 Miles' about then. Now that I think of it, I got quite a bit of experience in the malt-making business since I also worked for a time at the tiny Ice Cream Shop sandwiched between Sheiky's and the Main Street Theater. Mary Ann (Holman '58) Florence's mom managed it then. As the memories come flooding in, do others remember the cherry, lime or other-flavored phosphates at Walker's Drug? What a nickel treat that was! One that I barely remember is the Palace of Sweets on North side of Main between 9th & 10th.

Thanks so much Susan, for providing the doorway into our shared pasts. The names of fellow writers bring instant and welcome visual memories.

Love 'n laughter, Jan

Kathi (Mrs. John Boone) Skelton:

Susan-I was unaware of TLC until recently when Mary Kay (Skelton) and David Smith were visiting us in Florida. John now alerts me when it comes and I was reading over his shoulder when the name Bruna McGuire jumped out at me.

I missed the original input from this-but I have my own Bruna story even though I'm not an original Lexingtonian. Bruna's column also ran in the Carrollton paper and I had a sorority sister from Carrollton at Mizzou. She received the paper and we would all anxiously await the column each week and laugh until our sides hurt, usually at breakfast, and that would give us our lift for the week. I only wished I had saved some of the columns to pass on to our children, so they to would see small town life through the eyes of Bruna. I am planning to E-Mail Suzanne-my friend from college-to let her know Bruna still lives.

Kathi Skelton
P.S. John wanted me to add that we were in Arizona recently and he visited over the phone with Liz Anne. We tried to get together, but schedules didn't permit it this time.

From Liz Anne (White) herself:

Love the TLC as usual. Don't know how you find time to be so creative and keep up with everything else. Did think of something-do you remember when we would go to the drugstore and have a cherry coke and drop peanuts in them-supposed to give you a "buzz"!

Scribe: Well, now our reputations are shot. Everyone will know how wild we were! The "drugstore" was, of course, Ford & Rush. What I remember best: the hot fudge. Never found any to equal that, even my homemade.

From Old Fogey Dunford

Susan,

I am going to call Bob Swafford at Richmond and ask him if it is possible for him to enter Bruna McGuire's Model A in the upcoming Heritage Day Parade. Bruna used to write about driving across the bridge very slowly. I once was in Hardin and her car was parked in the middle of the street with the motor running and no Bruna to be seen.

Minerva did have a Jeep and I believe later a Pontiac but it was Bruna who had the Model A. The website I mentioned was www.lafayettecountymo.com. You should be able to pull it up from here.

Old Fogey Harry

From Loretta Gueguen:

Dear Susan,
Sorry it's taken me longer than my siblings to respond to your wonderful idea for a Lexington Newsletter. I think our memories of the old town are so much better than returning for a first-hand look.

My husband Mike who was a teacher at good ole LHS when I met him (thanks to dear Ms. Mautino) and I live on a 106 acre farm 17 miles SW of Jefferson City, MO. We rent out the farmland but enjoy the wide open spaces, hunting deer and turkey and fishing in the ponds. We have raised 7 children who are all off on their own, with one son, his wife and 2 children living in the same community. It's strange going to Grandparents' Day in the same school our children attended. Our oldest of 5 sons bought the adjoining 35 acres with a 3-bedroom earth contact home on it, which is the "guest house" when everybody comes home--and that's a crowd with 6 of them married, 9 grandchildren and 4 step-grandchildren. Needless to say, I was a professional mother until the youngest were in school when I took part-time work in Governor John Ashcroft's office. (Yes, he is now the U.S. Attorney General.) That was quite an experience, but at age 50 I decided to work with "real" people and began a new career and am still there--Certified Activity Director at Villa Marie Skilled Nursing Facility. Our mother was a resident there for 2 1/2 years before she died. It is a privilege to minister to the elderly and provide them with a quality of life which I do 4 days a week.

My husband, due to numerous by-pass surgeries, angioplasties and stents, is retired and on disability, but enjoys his garden, fishing and hunting. I enjoy traveling to visit our children, and have been fortunate to have spent time in Spain, Italy (where siblings Jack, Mary Pat and her husband and a cousin made our 2000 Jubilee Pilgrimage) and next week Mexico City for another pilgrimage with the Catholic H.S. choir.

I'd say this should fill-in Duncan Lee. It's nice to re-visit former
classmates.

Loretta (Gueguen) Broker

Scribe: I believe Joyce Gueguen Ramsey by-passed TLC and sent you her news directly. If I am wrong (oh, surely not!), someone will let me know I trust.

And so we come to the end of another stroll down Memory Lane. I'm sure Bruna's columns are on microfilm in the library, so we may have to resurrect a few. If the incoming letters slow down I may have to include a couple of old ones (Jerry Mischon, take note). Till then I remain,

Your devoted scribe,

Susan