There were many stores on Meremac Street. The Dime Store was my favorite. If I had any money I would go there to buy embroidery thread. The price in the days of my young life was 2 for 5¢. Then there was the Drug Store where we bought all our medical supplies. There was a Dry Cleaner where on day the girl next door and I found a bag of money. The driver for the cleaners had dropped the bag. We received 50 cent a piece for turning it in.

Sunday night dessert was vanilla ice cream & chocolate syrup. I would go for it just before mother would serve the dessert. The reason being that the ice box didn't do a good job of keeping ice cream hard. I would get a quart and pint of vanilla ice cream and a can of chocolate syrup. I would tell them to put it on the bill. When the bill was due Mrs. Hornsby would give me a check. I would run up to the drug store with the check knowing that the man behind the soda fountain would give me an ice cream cone.

Another store on Meremac street was Hendricks. This was a grocery store. it carried all the staple foods. Not any meat or vegetables. This store was on the north east corner of Meremac and Louisiana. One of my jobs was to keep the kitchen filled with the necessities to cook a meal. I would take my basket but if I had too much, they would take me and the groceries home. First the groceries would be brought by horse and wagon but later on he got a truck.

One day after lunch all the guests had gathered in the lodge around the fireplace. It was early in the season so there were only 4 couples. We had taken a friend with us. One of the men made the remark that there were only 3 cars. I told him we walked.

There are many places to sit and relax. I love to sit in the Gazebo. It overlooks the Huzzah River. The sundeck is another place to sit. We take our lawn chairs to the sun deck. It also overlooks the Huzzah River. There are gliders outside the lodge and dining room. We usually sit on those while waiting for the dinner bell to ring. This year we did a lot of sitting especially out of the rain. The porch to our cabin is a nice place to sit. Best of all, I like to sit in the river on our lawn chairs or an inner tube.

Eagle Hurst Ranch 1982

Ray and I started spending our summer vacations at the ranch in the year 1976. This was the year of the Bicentennial and I remember one of the first things we saw as we arrived was this big round bed of Red, White and Blue petunias. We took a Greyhound bus as far as Cuba. We made the rest of the way in the station wagon owned by the owners of the Ranch. We checked in on a Sunday morning and stayed until the following Sunday morning. The first and second year we had the cabin named Pine. Ray had asked for a secluded cabin away from any noise. It was all right but in later years we found Fir to be one of the nicest. We stayed on year in Cherry. It had two bedrooms which we didn't need and the hot water tank was too small. We  couldn't get enough for two showers at one time. They later put a bigger tank in the cabin. That was also the year the man cutting the grass broke the pipe and Ray didn't get a shower that day. The plumber came out from Steelville and fixed the pipe.

This ranch is located right off Highway 8 outside of Steelville, Missouri. The Huzzah creek runs past the ranch and a little ways down the road is the old Huzzah post office and general store which has been closed for quite a while.

After you've checked in and unpacked it's about 11:30 a.m. and you'll hear the bell ringing which tells you it's 1/2 hour until lunchtime. On Sunday, lunch is usually fried chicken.

There is a river in Missouri called the Huzzah. There is also a town in Missouri called Huzzah. This town isn't very big. At one time it had a post office. The building is still standing right next to a beautiful white two story house. The post office is no longer used but the white house is being lived in. This family is named McGuinius and they have a collie named Lady. This collie came out to greet me. She acted like she remembered me from last year. You see Ray, Jennie and I spend a week every yea. This year will make 11 years for Ray and I at Eagle Hurst Ranch. This Ranch is just around the bend and up a steep road from the white house. There is a Baptist church just off the road near by . Also you will find a school building on Highway 3. This was built many  years ago by the CCC boys. That stands for Civilian Conservation Corp. I'm told that the Huzzah River had two low water bridges that were built  y the CCC boys. There are bridges there by not the ones built by the CCC Boys. Last year the river rose 5 feet over the bridges. We were there at the time. We have biked all the roads around the ranch. We've seen snakes, turtles, rabbits, cows, turkey buzzards, eagles and one evening just  before dark, a deer came out of the woods.

Monday and Tuesday February 1 and 2 (of 1982) I didn't make it to work. Monday BiState didn't run the buses and Tuesday the Lee and Northside lines didn't run. I could of walked to West Florissant and caught the Florissant bus but I heard later the ones that did catch the bus waited quite a while before th bus came. Monday i stayed around the house and did various things. Tuesday I went up to the Senior Center. Since I didn't get a bus we stayed at the center until around 10 a.m. then went home. Wednesday I headed out again looking for a bus to take me to work. I ended up walking to Riverview and catching a Walnut Park bus. We ended up at 10th and Convention Plaza. I walked from there to the Vip center on Broadway. From there to Famous. All this walking was done in the street for the sidewalks were covered with snow. I called Ray when I got to work. He suggested I stay downtown so I called the Mayfair and reserved a room. Stayed there Wednesday night so of course didn't have trouble getting to work Thursday. Went home Thursday night but the buses weren't going through Walnut Park. They would take Birches to Riverview and Thebla. I'll never forget walking from Riverview and Thebla to home of course tin the morning it was reversed. That lasted for two weeks. Our block was plowed twice and salted once. One morning we came out and the plow had blocked our path. It was so high I couldn't step over so we went o Mr. Windsor's path by their car and got to the middle of the street that way. Didn't get to the grocery stor for about 4 weeks. We were lucky. Had a freezer full and the shelves were full. I bought bread and eggs from Downtown. The walking was hazardous because first we had rain and sleet which froze Saturday night 1/30/82. Then the snow came 1/31/82. The snow was still around the first part of March.