My Old Missouri Home

There are few people who don’t know about Stephen Foster’s “My Old Kentucky Home.” But there are not many who do know about my old Missouri home to which I moved 75 years ago this month, so let me tell you a bit about it.

Becoming a Farmboy

I was born 82 years ago today (on August 15, 1938) in the little town of Grant City, the county seat of Worth County, Missouri. My father was born on a farm in the southeast part of that county and my mother moved to Grant City with her birth family when she was a young teen. My parents graduated in the same high school class in 1933 and married two years later.

During World War II, my father and then my mother also worked in the Sunflower Ordnance Plant in western Johnson County, Kansas. In 1945 as the war was winding down, they went in with my mother’s parents to buy a 480-acre farm (for $16,000!) about six miles northeast of Grant City.

My grandparents moved into the old farmhouse, which did not have electricity or indoor plumbing, and not long after my seventh birthday I went to live with them in order to start the school year in Grant City.

Later that year, my parents moved from Kansas to the farmhouse and my grandparents moved back to their farm on the other side of town.

The next spring, we were able to have the house wired for electricity, and maybe the next year we installed indoor plumbing. It was great to no longer have to use the outdoor toilet! Year by year we improved the house, first inside and then the outside.

So, even though it was 75 years ago this month that I began living in my old Missouri home and became a farmboy, I have deep appreciation for the many blessings of having had such a childhood.

My old Missouri home in 1950; improvements were made inside first.

The Benefits of Being a Farmboy

1947 school picture
of farmboy Leroy

In the briefest fashion, these are some of the main boons I experienced from being a farmboy. 

1) I was part of a close-knit unit that worked together for the wellbeing of the whole family.

2) I learned how to work and to work hard.

3) I was able to raise my own livestock and was thereby able to become relatively independent financially at an early age.

Even though it was 65 years ago that I left my old Missouri home/farm to start to college, I still have great memories and deep appreciation for the ten years that I lived there.

The New Book of a Farmboy

Yesterday I basically finished writing my newest book. There will be some more editing, proofreading, and technical work before it is published, but I have completed the writing of it.

The title of this new book is A Wonderful Life: The Story of My Life from Birth until my 82^nd Birthday (1938~2020). I have long said that I would never write an autobiography—but a couple of years ago I decided that I should write my life story for my children and especially for my grandchildren.

(I do not plan to do any marketing of this book when it is published later this year—not that I have done very well marketing the books that I did hope to sell!—but it will be available for purchase for the few people who might like to get a copy.)

As I explain on the first page, the title “A Wonderful Life” is not an evaluation I have heard from others. In fact, some may well think my life has not been particularly wonderful—and that’s all right.

The point is that I believe that I’ve had a wonderful life from the beginning up until today—and that includes, of course, the ten highly significant years I spent as a farmboy.

Naturally, not everything during the past 82 years has been wonderful. But yes, overall, I believe it’s been a wonderful life, and I am profoundly grateful.