When I was growing up in Maries County, at Christmastime we would go out in the woods and cut a cedar tree to bring in. We always had a string of the Christmas tree lights with the big bulbs, more like outdoor lights. We used lots of silver tinsel. Mom always let us kids put the tinsel on (we used the tossing method), so of course it was not too artistic. I don¹t remember us having a lot of ornaments, but we usually had a swag of those construction paper chains the kids always used to make at school. I remember the cedar greenery was really rough on exposed skin. But we thought the tree was beautiful. In the 1960¹s there was a little store on Highway 28 south of E Hwy called Steinkamp¹s. Nowadays it would be called a convenience store. Frances J. (Bade) Steinkamp, a widow lady, operated the store. She was the daughter of Casper William Bade and Frances Josephine Pelikan. Her husband, Harold Steinkamp died in 1952 and Frances in 1967 I think. I believe they are buried at Union MO. Anyway, I remember Mrs. Steinkamp working in the store. She was a friendly nice person, I always recall her smiling and laughing. Later Ed and Ailene (Case) Robertson owned the store and they were good people too. Edward Elsworth Robertson (1924-1999) was the son of John Elsworth Robertson and Nellie Lucretia Minzes. As far as I know Ailene is still living, a lovely lady. I was trying to think, when the Robertson¹s ran the store, I think we just called it Ed¹s. That building is sitting empty now. There is another new little store across the road and down a ways.