You never know who you will see in the most obscure places. I have been in remote places several states away from here and ran across acquaintances, co-workers, and even close friends who I never expected to be in that same location during my time there. The Neosho Fall Festival held that very surprise for me this year.
James Frances O’Leary Ross was a schoolmate of mine and is a friend to this day. By the way, he had some real fun with that name when we were in school.
The last time I had a fix on his location was a few years ago and placed him and his family in northern California. As a current reference, this is in the area that is most impacted by the wildfires. Jim and his wife Karen had settled in the northern California town of Chula Vista. They finished raising their family in that location. The two youngest boys attended university in California and to the best of my knowledge, found jobs and residence some distance from their parents.
These fine people actually had two families. In the beginning they had two girls and when the girls were near the age of leaving home, they had the two boys. Now they are done.
Last Saturday during the Neosho Fall Festival, I asked a masked man if I could provide some assistance as he was standing at the table in the info booth. It was when he removed the mask that I realized that I knew this face and about that time his wife showed up. It was Jim and Karen Ross.
Last Saturday during the Neosho Fall Festival, I asked a masked man if I could provide some assistance as he was standing at the table in the info booth. It was when he removed the mask that I realized that I knew this face and about that time his wife showed up. It was Jim and Karen Ross.
“What are you doing here? How long have you been in the area?” These were my first two questions as I have old friends that come and go without ever letting anyone know.
It turns out that the wildfires had reached a point where Jim and Karen just stomped on the fire and called the dogs. They packed up everything, left some in storage somewhere, and headed out. I think they said it was in Arizona that they bought a teardrop RV and adopted a rescue dog. They are retired and the writing that Jim does can be performed anywhere. They had been staying down by Branson at Indian Point in the RV and the trip to Neosho was to see Jim’s sister Ann. Tuesday morning they indicated that they were heading to North Carolina to see some additional family. This appears to be just 2-degrees of separation for the early ‘70’s and an old VW van.
We have hosted a get-together with old classmates every year since 1990. This always takes place on a Friday evening during the Christmas Holidays. Jim indicated that their plan was to be back here for the gathering this year.
We seen a lot of people we knew this last Saturday. Many were local Neosho residents. Others were from the surrounding area. But no one other than Jim got the question, “What are you doing here?”
It turns out that the wildfires had reached a point where Jim and Karen just stomped on the fire and called the dogs. They packed up everything, left some in storage somewhere, and headed out. I think they said it was in Arizona that they bought a teardrop RV and adopted a rescue dog. They are retired and the writing that Jim does can be performed anywhere. They had been staying down by Branson at Indian Point in the RV and the trip to Neosho was to see Jim’s sister Ann. Tuesday morning they indicated that they were heading to North Carolina to see some additional family. This appears to be just 2-degrees of separation for the early ‘70’s and an old VW van.
We have hosted a get-together with old classmates every year since 1990. This always takes place on a Friday evening during the Christmas Holidays. Jim indicated that their plan was to be back here for the gathering this year.
We seen a lot of people we knew this last Saturday. Many were local Neosho residents. Others were from the surrounding area. But no one other than Jim got the question, “What are you doing here?”
(Paul Richardson's column, The Horse I Rode In On, is published weekly in the Neosho Daily News, Seneca News-Dispatch, Aurora Advertiser and on the Turner Report.)
No comments:
Post a Comment