Cover Image: Photo of May Kennedy McCord courtesy of Heer Stores Co., Springfield, Missouri Cover Design: April Leidig

The distinctive culture of the Ozarks has been preserved through those who lived it and shared by those who love it. May Kennedy McCord did both of these things: her words, based on pure devotion to the region and its people, not only benefited her contemporaries but will also inspire new readers who can now see the Ozarks through her eyes.

Remembering my grandmother on her birthday.
She was 70 the year I was born. I have lots of wonderful memories but a favorite "game" we played constantly was Store: how to write tickets and make change from the purchase price back to my customer (her). Thanks to her, it was a game I mastered before ever attending kindergarten, and a career choice I announced at the same age.
{heart emoji}I think of you at least once a day while I'm working and in the last 27 years I have had many instances of giddy enthusiasm that takes me right back to our days of playing Store. It's still fun 50+ years later!
It's no wonder I #lovewhatido

They tore the house down, but my dad, George Turner, was born just across the tracks over here. That's where he was born and raised. When they changed the road, they tore the house down. It just broke my heart, because it was such a pretty home.
A great big sack of cookies, it was 25 or 30 cents. My mother used to give my sisters and me a dozen eggs, and we'd bring it down here and get a whole big sack of candy with that dozen eggs. She'd put then in a little basket, and we'd bring them down here and trade them for candy. I didn't know what soda pop was when I lived down here. I don't remember soda pop when I was little. I guess they had it, but we didn't get any of it.
We used to come down here every Friday night. We'd play croquet and get haircuts. On a Friday night, the store would be full. Joe Gault and my dad were first cousins. We used to have ice cream suppers, and pies, yeah.

Joe D. and Olive E. (Pursley) Gault both the store at Turners in 1918. He was raised at the corner of Division Street and Gault Road. She was raised at the corner of Sunshine Street and Gault Road. Joe's parents had been in a country store on Division Street, so he came with a background in merchandising. He was appointed postmaster in 1918.
The building was a wooden structure at that time with living quarters above the store. A fire destroyed the entire building in 1923, but neighbors came to them and offered to donate field stones to rebuild. Joe and Olive agreed to this and accepted the services of Tom Studley to be the builder. He took out is fee in groceries and supplies.

Mushroom Swiss Burger with Jalapeno Aioli Recipe

The church was organized at the log cabin schoolhouse of Rock Bridge Road by Rev. Frye in 1878. At the time it was Presbyterian. 
Uncle Andy Delzell and A. C. McGinty were pastors. The schoolhouse burned in 1888, and a new school building was built in 1890 and named Crescent Chapel. Church was held in the new school building.
In 1891, prayer meetings and Sunday School were organized by Rev. W. M. Wilkerson.
In 1902, Jones Ellis from Marionville, Missouri, organized the M. P. Church, and a new building was erected in 1906.  T. A. Turner was foreman of the building.
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The church has been active since it was organized, and the average attendance is good. Donnie and Bobby Daniels sitting in the yard of the Parsonage. Crescent Chapel Church and School are in the background.
These buildings are no longer standing.