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From the Editor

By R.D. Hohenfeldt

Managing Editor

Land is still relatively cheap here in the Ozarks, so we see some new folks moving in here steadily. We need new people, new ideas and new money in our region, but I've got some mixed feelings about the newcomers.
The other day I dropped in a local store to make a new sales call. The manager was talking to a customer, a woman who was having a house built; she was picking out some things to put into that new house. I stood back, waiting my turn, and while the manager went to the back of the store to get some new samples or brochures or something, she talked to me. I learned she had moved here from a place far to the east and north of here. Her husband apparently had taken a job requiring the move. She said she looked forward to making a home in our part of the country, but she noted this was the smallest town she had ever lived in. Then, she asked both me and the manager, who had returned to the showroom by now, "Are there any plans for a mall? I'm really going to miss my mall. Rolla really needs a mall."
The manager and I both said that we had heard no plans for a mall, and that Rolla is probably too small and too far away from other population centers to handle a mall. She was chagrined as she went back to picking out items for her new house. I waited, for it appeared when I came in that they were wrapping up, and sure enough, they were. As they finished their conference, I said to her, "Ma'am, we don't have a mall, but we have a lot of unique places to shop, but you'll have to take some time to hunt them out. For instance, we don't have a pottery store like they have in the malls, but we have some potters in the area who sell beautiful items out of their workshops. I'm a magazine writer, and I wrote a story about a pottery studio that's over near Dixon . I also wrote a story about some alpaca raisers over by Lebanon who  shear their animals and have the wool dyed and spun into clothing, so you can buy clothing made from alpaca wool raised right here. I've done stories on painters and one sculptor, all of whom do beautiful work that would enhance the decor of your home."
The store manager chimed in that there are woodworkers in the area who handcraft fine furniture, and he mentioned a place up in Maries County .
"Plus, this is a great part of country to find antiques," I told her. "We've got a lot of stuff in the Ozarks, but it isn't all in a mall; you've got to take weekend daytrips to seek the stuff out. Once you find it, it beats any of the stuff you will find in a mall."
"I'll have to try that," she said, as she left, and I hope she meant it.
That lady, a newcomer, bless her heart, is like a lot of the post-World War II generation natives of the Ozarks. It's unfortunate that the preponderance of Ozarkers have forgotten about the homegrown, homemade, handcrafted way of life of their grandparents and great-grandparents, and they look instead to cities, malls and corporate chain stores for their goods.
What's really discouraging is to hear chambers of commerce in small Ozarks towns talking about the need to attract chain stores and restaurants to their retail and dining sectors. Ask just about any Rolla resident what kind of restaurant we need and that person will say "An Olive Garden," yet a few years ago when a local resident, the son of Italian immigrants, opened an authentic Italian restaurant in Rolla, he eventually had to close his doors due to lack of local support.
A few years ago, Rolla city leaders wanted to sell a park to  a national chain restaurant that is known for its country-style cooking. We've already got local restaurants that offer Southern and Ozarks cuisine; we've even got a place in Doolittle that prepares country-fried steaks from scratch, meaning they take the round steak and bread it right there in the kitchen instead of pulling frozen, pre-breaded steaks from a box like most restaurants do. You can't beat that.
Well, now, I'm starting to rant. All I'm trying to say is that we need to quit driving our money up to the city or wishing for a mall here. We need to realize we've got something better than a mall. We've got local people--the potters, the farmers, the gardeners, the cooks, the artists and musicians--and we need to support them.

We got some rain the last of May at our place, and my tomatoes were grateful for it; so was I. I hope you got some rain at your place, too, and let’s hope the good Lord causes it to rain on the just and the unjust some more this growing season.

Read your Bible and The Ozarks Chronicle, pray for our nation, keep the garden weeded and come back here and see me next month.--RDH