WHERE WE LIVE; COMMERCE: A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT

Tomya Meuir planted a smooch on her daughter Kaitlyn Meuir, who, at 7 1/2 months, is Commerce's youngest resident.

Dixie High rested on the doorway of Wright's Auto Repair while Alan Wright, the mayor of Commerce, worked on her truck Thursday, July 13. Ask anyone in Commerce who in town you should talk to, and you can bet Dixie will be high up on the list. She has bought a lot of property in the town and is diving in to numerous business ventures, including the already-established High's Gift Shop. Local residents say she's one of the reasons Commerce is still alive.

Jerry Smith and Dottie Long joked with customers at the wine tasting bar at River Ridge Winery two miles north of Commerce, Mo. After over a decade of planting grapes, Smith and his wife, Joannie Smith, opened River Ridge's doors to the public in Sept., 1994. The couple lives in Commerce at the foot of the hill upon which the vineyard sits.

Tracy Jackson, left, and Jerry Hayes shared a quiet moment next to the pool table at KD's, Commerce's local bar. Although they are both from Benton, they frequently drive the six miles to Commerce to relax at KD's. "I'd rather come here than go out in Benton," Jackson said.

Mark Hanners, left, challenged Derek Burleson, right, to a water gun fight at a barbecue in Hanners' backyard Friday, July 14. The event was a family affair, with Burleson's brother, Doug Burleson, seated, and Hanners' father, Buck Hanners, watching the pair go at it.

Buddy Vedder took a break from mowing the field across from the Mississippi River Thursday, July 13. The field was bought by the Federal Emergency Management Association after the 1995 flood. Local residents have volunteered to mow the lot to keep Commerce looking nice and maintain access to the river. Dixie High, a Commerce resident and businesswoman, provides gasoline for the lawnmowers.

Lois Lee Ramsey left St. Paul Methodist Church after the Sunday service July 23. The church has been located near the center of Commerce for 111 years.

COMMERCE, Mo. -- On a triangle of land between wooded hills and the Mississippi River is Commerce, Mo. But for a long time you couldn't see the river.

The banks had been kept mowed for years, but then fell into disrepair until you could see the river only in one spot.

Now the banks have been cleared, kept as crisply mowed as the rest of the town, which has hardly an unkempt yard, except for the occasional ditch that is too steep for a riding mower.

"Commerce doesn't have any slouchy citizens," said Joyce Sanders, the town's postmaster.

Even longtime resident Woodrow Pearson, his left arm rather limp from a stroke, works at it.

"I try to do a little something like mow my yard," he said. "I hate to sit down, mm-hm."

A few abandoned houses are walled in weeds, even if the yards are trim, and a few yards harbor cars and trucks that obviously won't run. But these are the exception.

The exceptions don't dim residents' loyalty to Commerce.

"I love my peaceful little town," Sanders said. "It's just like you like your family. You're an infidel if you don't love your family."

Commerce "is nice and quiet. No distractions. It's good for anybody to live in," said resident Isabelle Knight when she came into the post office, a building not much bigger than a postage stamp.

Then she was asked how her first name is spelled.

Flustered, she said, "I don't know."

That small-town duality between speaking plainly and preferring not to stand out.

Others, though, are not so shy.

George Ann Huck spends most of her time as a professor of Spanish in Mexico, but returns every summer.

"I've never detached myself from the town," she said. "I vote here."

Small towns provide "a very realistic view of life," she said. "We know each other's faults. We know each other well. We've learned to tolerate each other."

Before the days of television and air conditioning, people used to spend evenings on the porch. People visited not other people's houses so much as their porches, she said.

And, as in many small towns, you heard a lot of gossip there. That was OK, though.

"One expected that everyone wasn't perfect," Huck said.

Huck's mother, Ann, said Commerce has always been a forgiving community.

"If you did wrong, straightened up and flew right, they never thought any more about it," the elder Huck said.

Both Hucks could think of ready examples, but were hesitant to say more.

That small-town reticence about naming names if it would embarrass someone.

For a small town (the sign boasts 173 people), Commerce has a lot of well, commerce. It has a bed & breakfast, an auto shop, a tavern.

Two miles north of town is the River Ridge Winery, which produces 15,000 bottles a year made mostly from the grapes of its 2,000 vines, the rest coming from other area vineyards. Every bottle is sold from the winery, which means thousands pass through Commerce each year.

"Hi, Jerry Smith, world-famous winemaker," says the owner.

Inside, with a stereo playing Frank Sinatra, he answers the phone with the same demeanor.

"Goooooood afternoon, River Ridge. ... Well, top of the afternoon to you."

Smith is originally from Arkansas, his wife from Ohio. They moved to Southeast Missouri in 1977 and then scouted out suitable places for a winery.

He produces a bottle from under the counter. The label says "chardonnais." The only chardonnais made in Missouri, Smith says. But it's not for sale -- yet. It needs another month to age, and customers are already on a waiting list.

Another entrepreneur is Dixie High, who moved here in 1995.

Last October, she opened a gift shop, packed with items from angels to nautically themed chess boards.

Her gift shop is partly painted yellow. The painting is a work in progress, which is emblematic of her efforts in Commerce.

High has been working three years on a lighthouse/restaurant/dance floor on the banks of the river. She has an OK from the Corps of Engineers but is still working on other details.

She has also been talking with riverboat companies about what is needed so casinos can dock at Commerce. The companies have been actively interested in the town, she said, because "New Madrid, Cape Girardeau, they're about the same."

Her town, however, without a retaining wall, would let people see what the Mississippi used to look like all along its length.

And there is more in the works, she said.

"You like to try to help those that you can, give them a job," High said.

The town has been shaped by the floods of 1993 and 1995. Commerce was hardest hit by the latter.

Many buildings in Commerce's downtown were torn down after FEMA bought the owners out. That was not all bad, according to most residents. Many of those buildings had been abandoned.

One that wasn't torn down was that of Woodrow Pearson, who was going north from Alabama in the 1940s when his uncle begged him to stay in Commerce.

"Bought this old place, been here ever since, mm-hm," he said on his screen-enclosed porch.

The inside porch door has a watermark on it thigh-high.

"They tried to get me to sell out," Pearson said. "I said no. I just stay here as long as I kin."