5 years ago
• This month’s cover subject, Al Agnew, one of the country’s most respected fish and wildlife artists, has supplied many cover illustrations for the Traveler over the past 30 years.
Agnew is a man who is blessed to be able to earn a living doing what he loves to do. Agnew, who was born in Desloge and now lives near Ste. Genevieve, has been interested in the outdoors and art his entire life. He has successfully combined the two in his art career.
• Every aspect of our society has become so pigeonholed, we all have become victims of the cookie-cutter syndrome. If we see it on TV, or in a slick magazine, we copy it. It is called mass merchandising. And it prevails on the masses to relieve us of our hard-earned money. (Bill Cooper)
10 years ago
• Around the age of six I was confronted with my first formal exposure to the three R’s — readin, ritin’, and ‘rithmetic.
The theme was August 1929 at the beginning of what became known as The Great Depression. The place was a one-room county school in the Current River Hills of the Ozarks in Ripley County, Mo.
Our Belleview district was the poorest of the poor. The taxpayers in our district wore themselves out trying to wrest a living by farming the poor clay soil, shot though with rocks from the size of marbles to hefty boulders.
Their only fertilizer was the manure from the chickens, cows and horses, scattered scantily on the thin topsoil (Jim and Donna Featherston)
• The Big River Watershed Group is a group of local citizens, with the cooperation of government agencies, formed to address the pollution in the Big River and its watershed, which spans Washington, St.Francois and Jefferson counties.
Formed in January 2007, the group’s goals are to educate the people about the health hazards of living in a lead mining area, inform the public about what is happening with the tailing piles, provide a venue for locals to comment on the alternative solutions, coordinate public opinion and interest in seeking funding, and taking action on clean-up of the river. (Steve Roetto)