Grew Up on a Dirt Road – Remembering West Ely, Missouri

I don't normally share memories as personal as this, but have decided to do so because I bet there are others like me that grew up in rural Missouri. For me, much of my childhood was spent on my grandma's farm and today was one of those days when memories come rushing back of what life was like then in West Ely, Missouri.

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I tend to not be the sentimental type. Blame it on my ancestry. (Looking at you, John Henry "Doc" Holliday) But, I do get a little misty-eyed when I think back to my childhood. I was an only child and my parents and I lived in Hannibal, Missouri. But, we spent almost every weekend in West Ely on my grandma Frankenbach's farm. This was the turn off of 36 that took us to her farm.

Wikipedia says that West Ely was established back in 1836 and had a post office even until around 1908. That's long gone now. I had a reader named Thomas reach out and bring up the fact that "Ely, MO is West of West Ely, MO" which means West Ely could easily have been named East Ely. An interesting perspective.

My mom's side of the family worked a farm a couple miles down that road. This was them when my grandpa was alive.

What was a happy life for my mother and her siblings got really tough when her dad had a sudden heart attack and died at age 56. That left her mom (my grandma) to work the dairy farm with just her and her kids.

My cousins and I would go play by this creek even when we were given direct orders not to.

My family went to the Immanuel Lutheran Church in West Ely. The old building we went to is now gone, but there's a fancy new one that replaced it.

They say as you get older, the older memories become more vivid. I guess that's what's happening for me now as I can recall the weekends of playing on my grandma's farm like they were yesterday.

Life sure was simpler then. Just attend to the horses and a few cows and then go play by the creek.

I showed my kids some of these pictures once and they asked me innocently "what was it like growing up when the world was black and white"? I laughed, but they really said something profound when I thought about it. The world back then for me was simple - black and white if you will. Now, as an adult, it's all complicated with important decisions and responsibilities.

I guess it's thoughts like this that make me want to go back to life on that dirt road of West Ely, Missouri. A simpler time for a simple family like mine. Perhaps you have Missouri memories like this, too.