This weekend is my 40th reunion and I am excited more than ever before because I am now an MD'er of recent and will hopefully have an opportunity 
some great history if not rejected by present ownership. I graduated from Jame Cash (J.C.) Penney High School in 1966 at the age of 17. I haven't missed a reunion even though no more than 5 or 6 have attended each one of them.
Retail genius, philanthropist, "the man with a thousand partners,: gentleman farmer, author, lecturer, world traveler, and the founder of the J.C. Penney Company are the words and phrases used to describe Penney, but for me it was more like great granddad during the late 50's and early 60's.
I worked on his farm throughout my junior high and high school years. He visited the hometown often, although it wasn't his home residence any longer it was still his farm and I spent plenty of time with him in the sleepy eyed little town and on his farm; he was in his 80's when I knew him and he loved telling stories about his experiences. I hope the people who presently own the Homeplace will allow the memories a privilege of poking around the magnificent homestead.
In the years after he achieved success as a great American retailer, Penney devoted much of his time to farming, and like the Company, which bears his name, the farms he established were conceived on a grand scale.
In 1922, he began the original Emmadine Farm at Hopewell Junction, N.Y.. His Missouri farm operations began when he gradually bought parcels of land outside his homtown of Hamilton until they excompassed the original farm of his parents and the house where he was born. He named this farm "Homeplace Farms." He also owned Hereford farms near Breckenridge and Gallatin, Mo., and another near Trenton, Mo. Breckenridge and Gallatin are only a distance of 13 miles or so from Hamilton so I will be visiting those places as well on this trip.
Leading livestock producers from all over the United States traveled to Hamilton for the annual sales and expected to pay top prices for his cattle, he also loved horses and his horse barns were outragiously unbelievable.
I was eleven when I first met JC Penney.
In the picture JC was 13 and in the center, it was taken in Hamilton, circa 1888.
Maybe synchronicity will rule,
, it isn't much of a community, but I have a ton of wonderful memories from that sleepy little place, bucking hay for the Penney and him telling me stories are only two. Another one was gettng to knock Roger Wehrli, retired from the Saint Louis Cardinals, a football and track star at King High School in King City, Mo., a town of about 1000 citizens in northwest Missouri, on his butt many times. He was an offensive back and I was a defensive linebacker over center, in a wide-tackle-six formation. Mostly, I am known in the town for my baseball pitching records, which haven't been overcome to this day and get mentioned in the local, remember when articles, of the small paper. It will be fun going down that memory lane at least one more time. Hope all of you will or have enjoyed your reunions as much as I plan on doing once again!
some great history if not rejected by present ownership. I graduated from Jame Cash (J.C.) Penney High School in 1966 at the age of 17. I haven't missed a reunion even though no more than 5 or 6 have attended each one of them.Retail genius, philanthropist, "the man with a thousand partners,: gentleman farmer, author, lecturer, world traveler, and the founder of the J.C. Penney Company are the words and phrases used to describe Penney, but for me it was more like great granddad during the late 50's and early 60's.
I worked on his farm throughout my junior high and high school years. He visited the hometown often, although it wasn't his home residence any longer it was still his farm and I spent plenty of time with him in the sleepy eyed little town and on his farm; he was in his 80's when I knew him and he loved telling stories about his experiences. I hope the people who presently own the Homeplace will allow the memories a privilege of poking around the magnificent homestead.
In the years after he achieved success as a great American retailer, Penney devoted much of his time to farming, and like the Company, which bears his name, the farms he established were conceived on a grand scale.
In 1922, he began the original Emmadine Farm at Hopewell Junction, N.Y.. His Missouri farm operations began when he gradually bought parcels of land outside his homtown of Hamilton until they excompassed the original farm of his parents and the house where he was born. He named this farm "Homeplace Farms." He also owned Hereford farms near Breckenridge and Gallatin, Mo., and another near Trenton, Mo. Breckenridge and Gallatin are only a distance of 13 miles or so from Hamilton so I will be visiting those places as well on this trip.
Leading livestock producers from all over the United States traveled to Hamilton for the annual sales and expected to pay top prices for his cattle, he also loved horses and his horse barns were outragiously unbelievable.
I was eleven when I first met JC Penney.
In the picture JC was 13 and in the center, it was taken in Hamilton, circa 1888.
Maybe synchronicity will rule,
, it isn't much of a community, but I have a ton of wonderful memories from that sleepy little place, bucking hay for the Penney and him telling me stories are only two. Another one was gettng to knock Roger Wehrli, retired from the Saint Louis Cardinals, a football and track star at King High School in King City, Mo., a town of about 1000 citizens in northwest Missouri, on his butt many times. He was an offensive back and I was a defensive linebacker over center, in a wide-tackle-six formation. Mostly, I am known in the town for my baseball pitching records, which haven't been overcome to this day and get mentioned in the local, remember when articles, of the small paper. It will be fun going down that memory lane at least one more time. Hope all of you will or have enjoyed your reunions as much as I plan on doing once again!
) My Dad always said "I'd rather be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond". It never dawned on me what that meant until later in life. Have fun 
. Attending, my first, the 10 year reunion, an undergrad at the Alumni Reception approached her, mind you, she was in late term with our second daughter (read her name tag) and said "I remember you when you were a guy", 
. He was the younger brother of a Judge that was a fellow classmate and had been my parents paper boy in the early 60's; not sure if he was ever promoted, 