Thanks for the Kelso memories

To the editor:

I too read the delightful story of the Leroy Reinagel family, and it brought back fond memories of my hometown of Kelso, Mo. In fact, the Andrew J. Westrich who wrote a letter is undoubtedly the A.J. I played with as a kid.

Kelso was surely the Mayberry of middle America. It was one of the best, if not the best, places to grow up. A lot of problems of our country could be solved if everyone could be fortunate enough to have had that kind of upbringing.

Kelso went on to produce some fine citizens and leaders. Some of the names that A.J. mentioned in his letter had slipped my mind, but a few that he failed to mention went on to do Kelso proud. Leroy's younger brother, Jim, became a bank vice president at the former Farmers & Merchants Bank, and a young man who lived at the end of the street was John Keusenkothen, who for some time was administrator of Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau.

And it goes without saying to those who know their origin that the Drury brothers went to school, played softball (the town sport) and started their industries with a plastering business from the outskirts of Kelso. My father's gas station, when gasoline was 20 cents a gallon, serviced the Drury trucks until the business grew and moved to Cape Girardeau, where their motel business started.

Thank you for featuring the story of the Reinagels and renewing such fond memories.

NANCY CALDWELL, Scott City