I began the day with the Brett Family show. The show is basically 60s, 70s, and 80s music performances by a family of five. It's done at the Dick Clark American Bandstand Theatre. The performance is so heartwarming. The father was once a chiropractor. He had a dream to go to Branson and be a performer, along with his family. They have been active in their church, gone on missions, are close to God, and the rest is history. One of their sons is on a mission in South America. It was so very inspiring and energetic.
During the intermission, I made arrangements to meet with the president of the Harrison area chamber of commerce.
After the show, I checked also with an apartment rental company. Apartments are available for as low as $265/mo in Harrison. I wanted to see what that amount of money could buy.
My first stop was the Harrison Chamber of Commerce. While the Branson Chamber tried to direct me over to Fayetteville, the Harrison Chamber tried to encourage me to move in there and even buy a house. The president was warm and friendly. She said they are working to tap Branson's tourism and make Harrison into a destination for recreation. She told me about the spectacular scenery along the Buffalo River. Harrison is the gateway to this river and the biggest city near it. I spent about an hour there. The president said that as an outsider, I would be expected to volunteer for a number of groups. Of course, she encouraged me to make one of those groups the Chamber of Commerce. Obviously, this is a way to get business. She suggested that if I am willing to travel for a one hour radius, I could likely pick up all the business I would ever need. Local politics is a big deal there and early voting was already beginning. As Boone County is a dry county, the question of wet/dry was on the ballot. People are allowed to drink in their own homes, but there are no liquor stores allowed and restaurants that went to sell alcoholic beverages must operate as a club with a membership fee. This complication prevents a lot of restaurants from coming to Harrison. The strongest groups behing keeping Boone County dry are the next county over and vendors in Missouri that want to keep business coming their way. It was a delightful conversation and I'm excited about moving to Harrison.
When I went to check out the apartment, I was not as excited. This was in a fairly vacant part of town. There were a few duplexes and they looked very seedy. In fact, the window of the vacant apartment was broken. A nice dog just came up to me. The people around looked angry, and I felt a little nervous with an out of state car. I was told the apartment was unlocked, but it was locked. I couldn't get inside but from what I could see I was not terribly thrilled.
When I called the rental company, I just said I wanted something closer to town. The real reason was that I did not like the condition of the property or the neighborhood. Anyway, I was directed to another apartment closer to town, which amounted to the basement of a house. When I got there, the a dog was tied up who was barking fiercely. He was too far away to get me. The apartment seemed to have a lot of room, but the electricty was turned off and there was no light. The kitchen looked seedy. I could not see what the apartment looked like and I was not thrilled at all. Finally, I called back and asked if there was anything higher in price. She had one more for $425/mo but was kind of rude about it. I asked if I could see the place.
The neighborhood in this case was okay, but there were not numbers on the houses. I had to judge based on what the GPS told me. What looked like the house that was for rent was ugly. But I really had no idea if this was the right house. There was no "for rent" sign, and people seem to just leave doors unlocked here. I was not about to go enter a house that may not be the right one.
I gave up and determined that this was likely an irresponsible landlord, likely a slum landlord. If I had a problem, they likely would not fix anything.
I then plugged in an address from a different ad that I saw in the paper. This was a house for rent for $350/mo. When I got there, I was not pleased with the outside. The porch was crumbling. But, I was there so I thought I'd take a look around. I called the number and asked if I could go inside. The gentleman told me he was in the house next door and I was free to go in and look around all I wanted. The house was not great, but I felt it had possibilities. It was clearly older and would need some major cleaning. The floors were uneven. But there was enough room for my stuff. It had three small bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a bathroom, plus an enclosed back porch. The basement was a crawl space.
I went to the house next door. The man invited me to look at that one as he was fixing it up and getting it ready for rent. It was a little bigger, a little nicer, and he had fixed it up more. He said he'd want $375/mo for that one as he had done more with it. It too had uneven floors and would need some cleaning, but it had newer appliances and rugs.
The man invited me to sit down on the porch and chat with him for a while if I didn't have anything to do. I recognized that this is something people do in the South and it's called "jackjawing" by some southerners. It was a fun conversation. The man told me about how he got involved in fixing up old houses. He was 81 years old. He also told me he couldn't understand much of what I was saying because I spoke quietly, but I sounded nice so that's all that mattered. A tenant from another house came along and asked him if he could borrow money. The landlord handed him $100 and asked him to go to a bank and bring him change. The tenant had no car. He walked two miles to the bank and got back rather quickly. He was not very young. The landlord and I chatted a while longer. It was fun to hear ideas and perspective from someone from the region. As time moved along, I wanted to get going as I wanted to see another Branson show that evening.
I had asked the man about electricity and wiring. Having computers, there is no way I want to risk them. When I asked, the man indicated that the house had electricity and he didn't know a lot about electricity. Okay, that's not really what I wanted to know. Besides, since I wanted to relocate later in the year, listening to the number of calls he was getting about these houses, there is no chance they would be available later in the year. And I can't see houses he might have available in the future since I live so far away. But I was not comfortable with his lack of knowledge about electricity in the houses he owns.
The show I wanted to see that evening was a special appearance by Roy Clark at the Tri-Lakes Center. Roy Clark co-hosted Hee Haw with the late Buck Owens. The show started a little late. Suddenly, the curtain rose and Roy Clark announced "Caught ya by surprise there." It was a great show. There was no intermission.
Roy Clark has a young country singer with him who came in as a finalist in a country music television talent show. He's bringing him along as they travel and teaching him the ways of the business. The young singer is very talented, though I forgot his name.
I of course remember a much younger Roy Clark from Hee Haw. There were numerous jokes throughout the show about him getting older. He also pointed out that he needs to make sure his stool is around. Once he thought it was there....and crashed, breaking his hip. But despite Roy Clark's age, he can really the play the fiddle fast.
There was no intermission for this show. But there was the standard part about everyone having CDs to sell. Roy Clark joked that he had 8-tracks. And, if people bought two, he'd throw in a player. As everyone laughed, he said "I'll bet you people all have your 8-track too." He then said there is nothing good on television anymore EXCEPT Hee Haw reruns. Watching them, he gets younger every time.
It was a great time, though of course it was sad to see someone who I saw on television in my childhood looking so old and frail.
After this, I stopped at Andy's Frozen Custard. I've never had frozen custard before, but it was absolutely delicious. It was called a concrete. They ground up cookies or M&Ms or other things, and mixed it with fresh frozen custard (nothing is more than an hour old). It was one of the best desserts I've ever had.
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