Winter Trip to Kansas City

Anola, Mary, Louisa and Bill, Terry Tom in 2016

I grew up in Kansas City and, in many ways, still consider it home even though I haven't lived there since 1973.  No matter where my jobs took me, I always figured out a way to travel through Kansas City so I could visit Mom and Dad, my grandma, aunts and uncles, and my three sisters and their families.  My two brothers and I pursued our professional lives outside Kansas City from the East Coast to the West Coast and points in between.  Mom died in 2014 at 102.  We tried to all get to Kansas City at the same time at least once a year though not always successfully.  When we did, it was a special time for all of us and for Mom.  Since her death, we have all been together twice in KC with the possibility of another grand visit this summer.

Normally I try to visit between Thanksgiving and Christmas so I have a chance to enjoy the Country Club Plaza with its spectacular lighting display.  However, this year life in both Rochester and Kansas City intervened and a visit after the first of the year seemed better.  Unfortunately that timing meant that all six of us could not be together but I couldn't have had a better visit with my three sisters.  I stayed with Anola and her husband, Peter.  In December they had traveled to Singapore to visit their son Gerry and his family.  The visit included a tour of Cambodia.  As usual, Peter's photographs were technically excellent and very informative.  He and I share a love of photography and generally encourage each other to upgrade our hardware and software, often to the surprise of our respective spouses.

Peter, Bill, Mary, Louisa, Anola

My second day in K.C., I visit Louisa in her new apartment and was pleased and happy to see her so happy in her new place.  After retiring from her job with Mid Continent Library System, she went through a wrenching process this fall to relocate from her house, find and move into an apartment and then sell her house.  That is all behind her now as she prepares for dialysis.  That night we gathered at Cacao Restaurante for a delicious Mexican cuisine, not the Tex-Mex that often passes for Mexican.  Since it wasn't Lent quite yet, I did indulge in an unusual sopapilla.

Our waitress was a very engaging young woman named Blythany Locasio, a junior sociology major at Avila University.  She handled our group about the way our grandmother Nancy would have:  imperturbable pleasantness with a dash of assertiveness.  She plans on graduate school to earn a Ph.D. in sociology and then on to an academic degree.  That fact that her boy friend in Southern California was a ball player was her only lapse of judgment as far as I could tell.  By the way, her name is a combination of Blythe and Stephany.  Her mother and father could agree on the name so they compromised.  Also neither name was a family name.  Interesting.

The next day, Peter and I went to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, something we typically find a way of doing during my visits.  This is a remarkable institution which has served the Kansas City community since 1933.  It was established with the estates of William Rockhill Nelson, founder of the Kansas City Star, and Mary McAfee Atkins, a teacher in the Kansas City public schools.  There is no admission charge.  More than 500,000 visitors annually experience the portion of the 35,000 works of art on display.  Given that extensive collection, every visit is a new and rich experience.  There are also special shows such at the Napoleon Exhibit there now.

However, we spent our time with two exhibits, one of photography and the other which is hard to categorize.  The photography exhibit, Structured Vision: The Photographs of Ralston Crawford, featured photos, mostly back and white, and 16 mm film, also in back and white.  Click here to download a PDF of an excellent teaching guide.  You can see more of this exhibit by visiting the Google Photos album of the trip.  I especially liked the one shown on the right.  This is street scene in Mexico City with a movie poster with passersby in the foreground.  The contrast between the horrified poster figures and the almost bored faces of the people is quite compelling and disturbing.

The second exhibit was very different.  Saya Woolfalk:  Expediition to ChimaCloud.  "Contemporary artist Saya Woolfalk’s body of work transports visitors into a fantastical world where they encounter a fictional race of women Woolfalk has created called the Empathics.  Expedition to the ChimaCloud continues Woolfalk’s extensive narrative of the Empathics, who will be introducing their newest groundbreaking technology at the Nelson-Atkins. The exhibition is an immersive, multimedia experience created for the Nelson-Atkins that incorporates themes of cultural hybridization, technology, identity, ceremonial rituals, and science fiction."  (from Museum website)  While I took a few photos, a video is probably the best way to get some idea of the experience.

After two hours of experiencing all that art, Peter and I decided that some barbecue was in order.
So we took ourselves to Gates Bar-B-Q, a Kansas City institution.  We went to the Emanual Cleaver Blvd location and enjoyed pork buns with fries with a Diet Coke to ease my conscience.  We returned to the house to prepare for the artic blast that was on its way with predicted lows of -2 and 50 mph winds.  Yikes, it was colder in KC that it was in Rochester!

Sunday I joined my sister Mary for mass at St. James, the parish where we all grew up.  Despite the awful weather a warm congregation shared its faith and enthusiasm.  After Mass, I got a tour of Troost 39 Thrift Store, adjacent to church property.  it was operated for many years by the St. vincent DePaul Society but is now owned and operated as a not-for-profit by four individuals who all are members of the parish.  After that Mary and I went to the Equal Minded Cafe for lunch where we met two other members of the parish.  I also got to see some of the buildings along Troost, one of which was quite idiosyncratic.  

After sharing lunch with Louisa in her new apartment the next day, I returned to the old neighborhood to help serve dinner at the Bishop Sullivan Center's One City Cafe.  The cafe along with a food pantry is located in the building I knew as the St. James Community Center, the site of scout meetings, numerous parish breakfasts, basketball games, Gold Gloves boxing matches, square dancing and high school mixers.  While the parish still owns the building, it rents it to the Sullivan Center for $1 a year.  It has just undergone a through renovation of the food preparation, serving, and dining areas.  It is a wonderful environment for this ministry.

Finally I drove down Forest avenue to take a look at 3924, the house where I grew up.  It is still there and in good shape at least from the outside.  It shows evident care and concern.  The stone walls of the front porch have been replaced with wooden railings and the color is now gray but it is still the old house.

You can see more photos of my visit by going to the Google Photos album.

I finished my visit with a trip to the Clyde Mother House of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration where I spent time with my friend and spiritual guide, Sister Paula, who in in her 92nd year.  She is a cheerful and insightful as ever.  Always good to be with her and experience her faithfulness.