Tag Archives: Rural America

Tightwad/ Thursday Doors

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Tightwad, Missouri is a ‘don’t blink or you’ll miss it’ town along scenic highway 7; population 64 according to 2010 census. It’s an hour drive from my home depending on the time of year. ‘Lake traffic’ is all I gotta say about that.

The attraction for me was to present to you the Bank of Tightwad. In its prime it was boasting clients from all over the world. What better way to pay off a debt than with a check from Tightwad Bank? But in actuality there were a lot more novelty accounts than big $$ accounts so it closed its doors in 2006.

The Bank Time
The Bank Time
Tightwad Bank
Tightwad Bank

If you drive past the bank you can imagine how easy it was for the success of numerous robberies that occurred here. It’s a fairly remote location, on a major highway, with acres and acres of lake, access to boating ramps and docks and other side roads that lead to God’s country. Wouldn’t take a genius to figure this out. Not to mention a lack of law enforcement to deter these incidents. I mean, if I can imagine it, I’m pretty sure Anyone can.

Back Door of Tightwad Bank
Back Door of Tightwad Bank
Incinerating instead of shredding documents seems pretty good to me!
Incinerating instead of shredding documents seems pretty good to me!
Fire Department across the street
Fire Department across the street

  The town of Tightwad reportedly received its name from a tale of a postman that, on his route, asked a farmer to save him a watermelon that he’d pick up when he was finished delivering the day’s mail.

When he returned to collect his melon, he learned that the farmer had sold it to someone else for 50 cents more than their agreed price. Enraged, the postal carrier loudly called the farmer a “tightwad” and continued to do so every day after that.

Fire danger is rated "moderate" at the time I snapped this picture across the street from the bank.
Fire danger is rated “moderate” at the time I snapped this picture across the street from the bank.

Thursday Doors comes to you through Norm 2.0 every Thursday. We join his company by adding our own set of doors each week. Please take a couple minutes to visit him and a few of the other participants for some wonderful door views from around the world.

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More Paris, Not France/ThursdayDoors

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Paris Public Library
Paris Public Library

Continuing my drive through Paris, Missouri from last week’s Thursday Doors. The engraving on the library above reads “In Memory of Wm H & Susan Van Zandt Dulaney. Interesting fact: Norman Rockwell made a Paris, Missouri native the main subject of one of his paintings. Had I known this, I would have found the county courthouse to see a copy on display.

Corner Doors Plus One Bonus
Corner Doors Plus one bonus

Tucked down town on a side street was this little corner door set. Lots of personality with the lampost, bonus door down the side and matching awnings. What’s not to love?

An old hardware store circa 1881
An old hardware store circa 1881
Zoomed In for the details
Zoomed In for the details

According to my research this door was once a fishing and hunting surplus store. That is so typical of Missouri!

You can almost hear the screen door slam
You can almost hear the screen door slam.

Too bad about that broken window. I don’t know what it is, but once there’s one window broken, the rest soon follow I’ve noticed in old buildings. Irritates me to no end! I really liked the screen door and the 3 windows above balancing it all.

Lemonade sippin' porch
Lemonade sippin’ porch

I hope you enjoyed this Thursday Doors post and are able to drop in over at Norm 2.0 for many more doors posts. You’ll see doors from all over the world.

Paris, But Not France/Thursday Doors

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First Baptist Church, Paris, Missouri
First Baptist Church, Paris, Missouri

What more could you ask for? A Mustang convertible, sunny day, and front door parking at church?! This is how we roll in Rural Missouri! Don’t get too worked up, it was on a Saturday. 😉 Now, if only I could revisit and see the inside of the door trio. Maybe next time we’re in Paris, Missouri, population 1,220. It’s located north of Mexico, Missouri, in the Northeastern part of the state and was settled in 1831. More photos from this sleepy town next week.

For more Thursday Door pics, please head over to Norm 2.0 and he’ll direct you to all the doors from around the world.

Jayhawk Road/ Thursday Doors

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Hopefully you enjoy the perspectives I’ve tried to display here. Doors are not always the easiest things to capture and here are some examples.

  • Barn Doors and Cattle Gates

It’s not uncommon to see an old farm split by a road. In this case you add a pretty good curve where they’ve clearly painted double yellow lines to remind you it’s not a good idea ever to pass, much less stop and take a door photo.

White Barn with assorted cattle gates.

Here’s the closest you’ll get without the steering wheel or hubby’s head in the way. Not to mention the tinted side windows aren’t very conducive to picture-taking.

Barn, Garage, and Farmhouse Doors
Barn, Garage, and Farmhouse Doors

As you can see, Houston,we have a problem. The hood is factor #1. And there’s the issue of the cracked windshield #2. The space between that home and myself is #3. Around here, you just don’t go driving up a private drive even when most folks are pretty neighborly. There are factors like Meth manufacturer’s who try finding hiding places off the beaten path to make said meth, dogs who may or may not be friendly, and shotguns owned by the farmers trying to protect themselves. So…….

Filtered and Cropped
Filtered and Cropped

I’ll be using the cropping (no pun intended, dear farmers) and filtering available. You see, once a few years ago before I had shared in Thursday Doors, the hubby and I were driving down a road back home and were literally chased down by a farmer who didn’t recognize us. We pulled over, showed him my camera, the child in the back seat and did some name-dropping of “my people”. Once I explained who I was related to the area we were in, and then told him I was writing a blog post about barns in the county, he simmered down…. kind of. He clearly was a bit on the mistrustful and hostile side of the spectrum.

Another farm in the creek bottoms.
Another farm in the creek bottoms

And you can’t tell from here, but it’s split by the road as well.

Clapboard sided farm house
Clapboard sided farm house

It’s sometimes a choice of which side of the road you photograph. We were between destinations with not a lot of sunlight left to play with so turning around was not in the cards that day. Guess we’ll have to take another drive sometime.

If you have some door photos you’d like to share, try checking out Norm 2.0 and he’ll direct your path.

Southwestern Pettis County/Thursday Doors

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The Saturday after Thanksgiving was our final craft show for 2018. I neglected to photograph our booth for the first time in I can’t remember how long. But I definitely have a series of photos from afterwards. I’m sharing these this Thursday Doors. I hope you enjoy the simple beauty of this Missouri landscape of late November. And when you’re finished, I hope you’ll traipse on over to Norm 2.0, read his post where he’ll direct you to the rest of us door-seekers from around the globe. 

  • That deer stood only a moment.
  • Big Sky
  • Open fields and prairie
  • Love this color of gold against blue skies
  • Door in view
  • Trees can make the barn, or vice versa.
  • Front view with 2 doors at least
  • Another newer barn
  • Not too new
  • Sweeping grasses
  • Cut wheat field
  • No farm in the hills here. That’s another time.

Rural Chariton County/Thursday Doors

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Thursday Doors

This week for my Thursday Doors post, I have a piece of yesteryear in CharitonCounty Missouri to share.

Tucked at the junction of Highways 5 and WW, there stands this abandoned building that I believe was once a school house. But I can’t quite be sure. There is not a signpost or placard visible and I didn’t want to trespass. Not that I’m afraid of being confronted….

more that I’m not a huge fan of ticks.

Salisbury4 (2)

The schoolhouse theory could be wrong as I’m not sure there’d be attic windows like these used during this era. So for me, it’s a mystery.

Salisbury5

I’d like to state that I think this would make a pretty fine farmhouse too just for the record. And yes, that is a tv antenna on the roof.

OriginalHowardCounty1816A (2)

I love old maps!

Historically, Chariton County was originally part of Howard County (outlined in bold above). In 1816, its current name and boundaries were given.Icouldn’t find any information on the building above, but I found a little excerpt from a Dept. of Natural Resources document describing the desirability of the area during this time frame.

In one 1819 account from Old Chariton David Manchester wrote to his sister in New York about the new land and how several young bachelors had fared during the 1818-19 winter. Manchester related the federal government land price of $1.50 per acre, but he said that most nearby land sold from $2-6, and the majority aroundChariton was $4 and up. complained of Looking into the future young Manchester the damned contracted New England men are our greatest opponents. They are jealous of us and envy us because they think that we will be admitted into the union on equal footing with the other states and become a large and powerful state. Poor insignificant Devils, who care for you? We will have our right in spite of you. But now [they] want to make slaves of us, no the people of Louisiana never will submit. • The boys are employed in building some houses in Chariton for themselves. . Our employment last winter was carrying on the distillery business. (David Manchester letter, 19 April 1819 #2064 Joint Collection, UMC) This one anecdote accurately described the relatively high value of Chariton district land and the desire of immigrants to make a new home in the Far West.

I wonder if Manchester was also on the search for a beau for his sister??  And a future lil’ homestead in Missouri?

For other Thursday Doors entries, I hope you’ll check the Blue Frog link at the bottom of Norm’s blog.