You can't go home again... much

Yesterday I had Cliff go past some areas of Blue springs that I mentioned in my last blog entry.  All this may be boring to most of my readers, but it helps me remember how and where things used to be.  

As I mentioned, Adams Dairy has been out of business for a long time, but the name can be found all over Blue Springs.  The building you see was the milk processing plant:  same building, but much remodeled, and it's occupied by a title company now.  Milk from various dairies was processed there up until the seventies, I believe.    

Although the Adams Dairy farm, across the road from this, was standing back in the sixties, there were no cows there in my memory; that part of the Adams operation had ceased at some time in the fifties.  However, Mr. Adams pastured some Hackney show ponies there.  Cliff and I saw him several times at the Missouri State Fair, riding in the little cart behind his ponies.  He must have been at least ninety years old the last time we saw him.  

 If you drive past the place where the Adams Dairy home was located, you'll see the back of this Walmart.  Yes, it was raining.  

This is where my dad went to work when my parents moved to Blue Springs.  The building has been added onto, and much remodeled.  Oh, and the Alton name hasn't been on the sign for many, many years.  


We drove by what used to be the Gilkey place, the property my parents rented and where they milked cows and raised gardens.  It's still vacant, although a lot of dirt has been moved around on it.  Across the road where my parents first moved when they relocated to Blue Springs, you can see the back of a shopping center which includes the Target store where my oldest granddaughter works.   
We went home by way of Bates City, since there are bridges being replaced on our normal route.  We hadn't had any Bates City Barbecue for a long time, so we went in and got ourselves a sandwich.  It isn't the best barbecue you'll ever eat, but it's good enough.  

Whenever we're in Bates City, Cliff drives very slowly past this house.  See that 1650 Oliver tractor?  Cliff bought it from a friend of his brother's, played with it awhile, and then sold it on Craigslist.  He always laughs when he looks at the tractor because that old man lives in town; the tractor appears never to have been moved.  The guy used to farm, and he told Cliff he just missed having a tractor around.  So there it sits, a big (rather expensive) yard ornament.