Home Sweet Hometown Day 2 (Thursday)

One of the "damn rabbits" that keeps eating my mom's plants and flowers in the backyard.

"Jessie's Painting" My grandparents bought this painting after building a wonderful house on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River. It was the only piece of artwork they could agree on. I admired that painting every time I went to their house so my grandma started calling it "Jessie's Painting" (She and much of my family call me Jessie and/or Jess). Since I was a child she told me it would be mine. After she passed my parents moved it into "my room" at their house since I don't feel comfortable putting such a large (I can't remember it's like 6'x5' or 5'x4') and meaningful painting into an apartment. Hopefully one day I will be settled enough and we'll move it.

A closer look at "Jessie's Painting." As you can see it's made up entirely of little triangles.

This is one of two chairs that belonged to my grandparents at their bluff house in the 70's...along with the amazing lamp that luckily I've already moved down to Texas. These chairs are begging to move to Texas but I haven't found a way to get them here yet. As you can see, my taste takes after Nanny's in the 70's. Mid-century modern, I love you.

So Thursday in Columbia...My mom's feijoada (Brazilian black bean stew) for lunch-my favorite, and then I went downtown and shopped around while my parents both worked. I went into a couple of places that I used to visit a lot when I was in high school and really hadn't been in years...

One was The Blue Note, Columbia's best and well-known music venue. If you read anything about Wilco you read about Uncle Tupelo and how The Blue Note and owner Richard King was integral in making them so popular in the Midwest. I can't tell you how many bands I saw at the Blue Note...Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt's first Columbia show, Wilco's first Columbia show-it was practically empty, The Old 97's and the site of numerous hang out times with the band, Neko Case, The Foo Fighters, They Might Be Giants, Run DMC, Wyclef Jean, Whiskeytown, The Bottle Rockets, and so much more.

The other place I hadn't been back to in years was Leo's, a vintage clothing store located almost above the Blue Note. I felt like I was in a time warp. I used to shop there in high school. Bought my favorite pair of vintage Levi's there (don't fit now of course). Nothing had changed in that store. I'm sure they have a lot of the same items for sale that they had when I was in high school.

Thursday night my parents and I went to my favorite pizza place, Shakespeare's. The manager yelled out my dad's name as soon as he saw him. I love this place. When I still lived in Columbia my grandma and I met for lunch there every Friday.

I like downtown Columbia despite how small it is. There's so much family history there...my great grandparents ran a fountain shop in the bottom of the Tiger Hotel, my family owned a travel agency there forever, and I have endless memories from childhood to college that happened downtown. I hope our little downtown survives.