Ozarkian Rearview

You can’t stop progress: Ozarkian Rearview

By K. H. Ackroyd

Lake of the Ozarks in Midwest Missouri is changed. One way roads of Highways 54 East and 54 West dizzies me. Backtracks and left turns brakes the 65 mph speed limit. Exits and merge redefine the trek with names of;

“Passover,” “Parkway” and “New.”

The old stillrunner’s directions preambles and prompts some not so distant Ozarkian memories.

“Just go down the road a piece, past the widder’s (widow’s) place and hang a right at the “T.” The big ol’ elm will point the way.”

Directed down meandering gravel roads, no map nor GPS, the destination; a given.

Now, the “big ol’ elm” has fallen. The “widder’s place,” a paint-peeling, tin-roofed, wood-slat home, has in its stead, a modular prefab of cookie cutter ilk. Lost is the craftsmanship enabled by pride in gentle non clear-cutting harvest. Select wood, once home and shelter to generations of an Ozarkian family, becomes crumbled kindle.

The blackberry patch, with supportive weathered, lean-to fencing;  dual sacrifices to a perfectly manicured, invisible fenced lawn. Small saplings punctuate a groomed landscape. Evidence magnificent is this homage to a commercialized channel of  Gardening Nouveau.

The Barn Owl calls tree his new home; he is a reluctant hunter. No field, hence, no field mice. And the rat eating black snake is banished and garners no eco-understanding.

The bend of tree still points to water. Her purpose expires. She sloughs her bark in obsolescent surrender.

Honeysuckle, fresh mown hay and rain before the rumble, blows trace faint. Wafting Whisper newly names usurped abundance. Fading is the odoriferous reminder.

Faster now. Highway 54 tracks faster. All is small in rear viewed Ozarkian memory.


Image Credits:

Lake of the Ozarks - Missouri's Premier Lake Destination
Flickr Creative Commons - Jo Naylor
Flickr Creative Commons - derekGavey