The United States offers a plethora of breathtaking vistas, from burning deserts to mountains. While we enjoy the “Local flavor” of each region, we always return to Missouri, perhaps the best kept secret in America. From searing heat to bone chilling cold, from gently rolling farmland to the rugged Ozarks, there is a certain honesty about her. Missouri is at its best in the Autumn.
To be sure, we have big cities and industry, brought about by the big rivers that knife through her and define her eastern border. Autumn is in the air, but best seen from our farmland and Ozark mountains. You see, concrete, unlike a cornfield, or clear stream, doesn’t reflect the beauty of fall, when the countryside prepares for the winter wind and smattering of snow. It is a multi-sensory experience, the scent that lingers over a freshly cut corn or milo field, this sounds of geese sailing south or the gentile sound of a riffle with a wood fire cutting the chill on a southern Missouri creek bank. We are primarily an agricultural state with row crops, vineyards, pastures and vast hardwood forests, where the scent of charcoal kilns challenge our nose and vision.
City kids on a school bus are busy with their cellphones and tablets while kids in the country are scanning hayfields and edges for deer or the occasional bear. When these kids look out there is something to see besides concrete and traffic punctuated by honking horns and screaming sirens at every turn.
Rural Missourians are masters of what I refer to as “high speed sauntering”. We are able to hurry without hurrying. It is an art perfected by years of vigilance and observation. Being a cattleman or farmer requires patience. Every day is a slow walk to fall when the crops are in and the festivals begin and where denim rather than worsted wool is the uniform of the day. Mighty oak trees have been reduced to cants and are awaiting the sawyers touch, and the sounds of a chainsaw replaces the sounds of industry. Metropolitan dwellers are welcome to join us and share in our great fortune. This is the Missouri that folks around the country don’t see and that is okay. We may not be destination state like Florida or Arizona but we are proud and secure in our heritage.
Enjoy the end of summer heat and welcome the feel of an old jacket over worn denim. These things define us and we would not change a thing.
SR
