I have been a visitor, aka a citizen, of Nevada for just a tad over a year and am heading back to my old stomping grounds, Branson. I have made many friends and a handful of close friends while I ventured the alleys, streets and byways of your fair city. I have attended your churches, eaten at your restaurants, shopped your stores and attended your celebrations. For my social life, I cruised the streets of Wal-Mart and did garage sales to meet and greet my friends and along the way, made new friends. Also, along that same lesser traveled pasture under a multi-colored sky, I met some of the most interesting people on Earth. Just plain common folks with interesting lives. Every life is a story, some just more interesting than others and Nevada has more than its fair share of those stories.

I have traveled quite extensively throughout this shop-worn and war-torn old world of ours and have found people the common denominator that makes any community what it is. During my tenure here, I met one grouch. I doubt if that person lived in Nevada because usually when you meet one grouch, that grouch has to have similar company. You know, a person who can tolerate his or her grouchiness. I never ran across the other grouch, so I will assume that particular grouch was visiting from another community.

I found Nevada to be a tight community with nearly everyone being related to nearly everyone else. Even though I started here more than 60 years ago, (another story for another time), this was the first time I ever actually visited Nevada. I came, I sat a spell and I listened to, met and interacted with the community.

The people I listened and talked with in Nevada were very nice to me and mostly Christian in their attitude. I had many a visit while here and found they all had one thing in common, they aspired to be and do better. The most common question I asked was; if you could do anything in this world with nothing being a barrier to attaining it, what would you do? What amazed me was I had not just a few tell me they were doing exactly what they wanted to do and they were doing it right here in Nevada, where they wanted to be.

Most people in other communities I have visited would tell me they wanted to live somewhere else, like a loft in New York or a grass hut in some tropical paradise and do something completely different that what they were doing. I met a gold runner once, many years ago, in the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho, who was running gold from Mexico. He loved what he was doing but he did lament to me concerning the retirement system of federal prisons, (he had already spent one stint for making funny money). I suppose sometimes you have to really love what you love doing to actually do it.

When I first arrived in Nevada, on a hot, sultry and muggy June day as the town was stirring to life, I noticed something quite unusual. You had a downtown that was actually in good working order, despite the fact you also had a super Wal-Mart sitting on the outskirts of town. Most small Missouri communities I have visited that sported a super Wal-Mart, had a downtown in major ruin with boarded up and closed stores. You should be proud of your local merchants. They have survived in the face of economic adversity. They have not only survived but have prospered by giving you something you want and deserve, personal service. In the 21st century, that is nearly a lost art.

I was also surprised and thrilled to see the amount of talented people in your community. I have attended a few plays and musicals put on by local people and found the professionalism displayed was nothing short of what one would expect from an off-Broadway production. Once again, you should be proud. Another amazing Nevada fact: The people putting on these productions do so at pretty much their own expense with others donating props and such. That is the only thing separating a Nevada production from an off-Broadway production. If you haven't taken one in, by all means do so.

I am retiring to a most colorful and kaleidoscopic world of which I am very familiar. One that is filled with excitement, dreams and dream-makers. A place that sports entertainment of all genres for all to enjoy. That is where I will be for the next chapter in the Life and Times of Kurt L. Moore. I know this coming chapter will be the most exciting yet. As they say, the best is yet to come.

The fallacy of moving is, one cannot take one's friends with them. I do wish it didn't work that way, but it does. However, I have promised many people I would make return visits whenever possible. Then we will have that extended cup of Joe and do some serious catch-up.

I will be taking time to introduce myself once again to my kids and grandkids so they will know who I am. Now, I am mostly a photo on the wall to them, someone they are told to call grandpa when I visit. I need for them to get to know me and the fun part, me getting to know them.

There is strength in family and if you have never been without yours, you may not have a clue what I mean because you take family for granted -- they are always there. They are always around you. When you are without family, separated by distance, opportunity, or whatever other reason, you never take them for granted. You live to see them again. That is exactly what I intent to do.

I will also be freelancing my writing and doing a good bit of serious photography. I am a photojournalist by trade and am anxious to get back to it. Then I will be doing exactly what I want to do, exactly where I want to do it. Life just gets sweeter all the time.

Till we meet again.

Happy Trails

Kurt L. Moore

klmoore@earthlink.net