In 1972 I was living in Mountain View, California, but came home to visit my mother in Joplin. The house was not far from the original discovery of galena, which resulted in Joplin’s lead and zinc mining boom. There were little pieces of galena in our front yard.

By the 1970s a wash machine had replaced the tub of hot water, but our faithful clothesline still got everything dry. In the winter, wet clothes would freeze then sublimate, leaving them dry and cold.

A tree cholla, Opuntia imbricata, thrived in a sunny, well-drained area of the front yard.

The view from my bedroom window was special! I could watch the ball games in Miners’ Park and see everything going on in our little corner of east Joplin. The chicken lot, just across the street from the left field fence, was a rich harvest of baseballs.

Mid-Western Machinery Company was just down the road on 4th. Street. Their big wheel, brightly painted, made me feel like a Big Wheel.

East 4th. Street didn’t have a viaduct. It crossed Turkey Creek and the Kansas City Southern railroad tracks on its way downtown.