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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Rural conditions
  • Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2007 10:44:12 -0700

In the fifties there were many abandoned store fronts in the weeds or along
side the road. Even then I had an interest in history and would ask my
father about them. He told of small stores where people on horses could
shop, get mail, use the telephone and later get a few gallons of
gasoline.

In the south-central Missouri Ozarks, that paradigm continues. In the thirty years I have owned my land there, horse-spaced rural stores have died at the same time as their elderly proprietors. Area churches have approximated the same pattern, although, religion being a more emotional purchase than canned goods, one still finds churches with only three or four cars out front on Sunday morning.

My Ozark county has 9,542 people (9,514 in 2003)on a land area of 742 square miles (50 acres per person). Primary income sources are farming, tourism and retirement checks. Average farm size is 343 acres. Many farmers have supplemental jobs. Gainesville, our county seat of a few more than 600 souls, has three large churches, two banks, an investment service, one supermarket, one building supply, one excellent hardware store, a Chevy dealership, a motorcycle and lawn-equipment sales and repair business, two gas stations, two auto parts stores, one tire shop, six "restaurants," one "package store," three insurance stores, five real estate offices, three hair dressers, a pawn shop, a card shop and a lawyer. Ford force-closed the local dealership a few years ago because it didn't sell enough "units."

Here are my favorite Ozark County statistics:
Average value of agricultural products sold per farm: $31,978
Average total farm production expenses per farm: $31,995

We Ozark Countians don't much care to pay taxes.




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