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| Advertisement in Neosho Daily News on January 21, 1979 |
I am a quotation fanatic. For those of you who have read my columns before – this is no news to you! The other day, I came across a great quotation from James Dean. James was a movie actor, who is best known for his lead role in the 1955 Movie – “Rebel Without a Cause”. He said, “Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today.”
These are wonderful words. I remember being a child and running through the fields behind my parents house, near the area of Bond Street and Neosho Boulevard. These fields led to many dreams and childhood memories. I played all year round in these fields, building tree houses and wooden forts in the summer and igloos in the winter.
I would lie down and watch the clouds soaring over head and dream of flying or being an astronaut. I always wondered how great it must feel to ride a huge rocket into space or how grand it would be to leap across the moon, with no worries.
As I played in the fields, I tried my hand at engineering. I built a huge series of ditches, which I called rivers, and roads – complete with bridges. These ditches seemed huge to me, at the time, but in reality probably ran seventy five to one hundred feet meandering around and crisscrossing the terrain. I connected as many garden hoses as I could lay my hands on to run water from my house and then I would flood these rivers.
I dreamed of being Huckleberry Finn on the great Mississippi or on a really exciting day – General Dwight D. Eisenhower leading the charge on Normandy’s Beaches! There were hundreds of little green plastic army men, whom I would bring to life. They stood guard over my battles and dreams.
One day in the late nineteen seventies, my dreams started to come to life. I was playing in the field along a row of trees. I heard the roar of a helicopter, which was most unusual for Neosho, in this time period. At first I wondered if Patton himself was coming to commandeer my troops.
I watched in amazement as this whirling machine thundered to rest about two hundred feet north of me – landing just off of Neosho Boulevard. Wide eyed and inquisitive, I waved to the men on board. The first man to exit called me over to look in the cockpit. Rushing over I could not believe my luck!
This kind man introduced himself to me. He said his name was Bob Jennings and he went on to say he was going to buy this field. What, buy the field of my dreams! No, this could not be! But, hold on – all was not horrible – Mr. Jennings went on to say he owned the McDonald’s Restaurants, in Joplin, and he wished to bring the Golden Arches to Neosho!
Going to McDonald’s was a treat of unexplainable proportions, when I was a young lad. You see the only national chain to be in Neosho, at the time, was Dairy Queen. I loved (still love) McDonald’s. As the words, “McDonald’s is coming to Neosho” rang through my ears, a flurry of thoughts rushed through my mind.
As Mr. Jennings and I spoke he made an offer on par with my dreams of traveling to the moon or flying. He asked if I would be interested in having the very first hamburger ever sold from the new Neosho Store. Of course, this was an offer any other third grader in Neosho would love to have. Accepting took no thought at all, so it was - my rivers and roads were bull dozed, but a new chapter of my life began.
I would walk through the construction site everyday – even had my own hard hat with the Golden Arches on the side. The contractors were so kind and even bought into my excitement!
After months of planning and hard work, the day finally came when an inquisitive young man got to live out a dream and eat a hamburger! Not everyone’s dream, I know now, but at the time it was a big deal to me. However, I would have missed out on it if not for playing in the field.
Kids today spend so much time on video games, computers, and the like. They need to wake up and explore the real world. Encourage children to do as Mr. Dean said and Dream like they will live forever. Don’t let them miss out on their helicopter landing!
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