On weekends, Richard Stout likes to don a 19th-century top hat and coat while working at his jewelry shop in Weston, Mo. That’s not as strange as it sounds, since the whole town looks similar to the days Weston was a significant river-port community in the mid-1800s, with many of the buildings dating to pre-Civil War days. Inside his store, R. L. Macy’s, you’ll find antique rings that were made during that period. There’s a ring made with tiny, natural pearls dating back to the 1830s. (They started to be cultured in the 1920s.) And you’ll see rose gold filigree rings made during the late 1800s to early 1900s, with delicate, intricate craftsmanship — something like great-grandma would have worn.
But he also has reproductions and new jewelry, such as a set of three rings he made for a customer.
“A customer had inherited great-grandma’s ring but had three granddaughters,” he says. “And they all wanted the ring.”
Then there are new art deco rings, a popular style during the last five years, designed to look just like the designs from 1900 to 1930. Both versions are beautiful. But how do you know what you’ve got? Old or new?
That’s one of the questions he will help visitors answer the first weekend in August at the Weston Ten Mile Trail Antique and Garden Show. Vendors specializing in high-quality antiques and everything to do with gardens will be set up at four locations in a 10-mile area for the event, with experts on hand to give appraisals, answer questions and speak on specific topics.

About 12 miles west of Interstate 29 in Northwest Missouri, the road makes a downward slope towards what looks like a riverbend. It becomes the town of Forest City, a once prosperous community in the late 1800s, until the Missouri River changed course. Now quiet railroad tracks run alongside farmland and a scattering of buildings, with little to remember the town’s heyday — until now. This year, 149 years after it was built, and several years after it was closed and left for dead, the Forest City drug store is making a comeback. A new lock on the door was just the beginning.

Old Bay Seasoning has come out with a new way to spice up shrimp. It’s called Old Bay Seafood Steamers, which is essentially a package of seasonings and a special steaming bag to cook shrimp in the microwave. If you aren’t familiar with Old Bay Seasoning, it’s been the standard for flavoring seafood for years.

Terry Oldham hopes he doesn’t see his daughter cry on Sunday, but there’s a chance he will.

When visiting the International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe, N.M., art educator Mary Helen Stuber was amazed at the ornamental tin work children were creating in a class there. It’s a craft the people of Santa Fe developed during the mid-1800s using tin cans brought in by the military.

You’ll want to get going early and loosen your belt buckle a notch when heading over to Cook’s Corner Café in Dearborn, Mo. Although sisters Charlene Cook and Darla Dubois just opened the 120-seat former pizza shop in Nov. 2007, it gets busy soon after they open at 5:30 a.m. (7 a.m. on Sundays) and stays that way until they close at 2:30 p.m.

In Maryville, Mo., where burgers and fries usually rule for lunch, guests sat elbow to elbow enjoying steak and ale pie, colcannon and treacle.
This feast might be a common occurrence in England, but not here. We like the variety of international cuisines, but for whatever reason, British fare has not caught on like Mexican, Italian or Oriental. Most people don’t even know what British food is, let alone like it. This lunch proved to be an exception.

Local farmers' markets for the week of July 16, 2008

If you haven’t been to Plattsburg, Mo., for awhile, you’re in for a surprise. The downtown has had makeover over the past four years and now looks like an aspiring Parkville, Weston or Westport. Mayor of Plattsburg James Kennedy says one of the forces behind the change has been the owners of JJ’s Restaurant.

During the worst point of the Great Depression, historians report one in four Americans were unable to find a job.
Money was so tight that Jeannetta Danford of St. Joseph remembers hearing how her mother-in-law would buy 10 cents worth of bologna at the grocery store so her small son could have meat to eat.
“As children, we just accepted things the way they were,” she says, “but managing was very much a struggle for adults.”
The economy today may not have you making underwear out of flour sacks (as some people did then), but it should be getting your attention.