From Staff Reports
Preparations for the 71st Annual V.F.W. Homecoming Tuesday - Saturday, Aug. 8-12, began immediately after last year's event. The V.F.W. already has purchased hundreds of pounds of goat meat and are completing final touches for this year's event.
Puxico Mayor Rick McLean, who also is the VFW quartermaster, said, "We started last year immediately after Homecoming planning for this year. It is great to be a part of it. "
McLean predicts, the "goat meat will all be gone."
Final touches are being made to the eat shack and a couple of new sections are being constructed for the dance floor.
The goat meat will come from a different processor this year, McLean said. All the goat meat will be provided and slaughtered by a processor in Dexter.
"We have it de-boned when it is slaughtered," McLean said. "They freeze it. When the meat comes to us, the three cooks come in to pressure cook the goat and to take the fat out. They get it all cooked up, put it in containers and in coolers. The week of Homecoming the cooks slice onions and make slaw for the pork and goat.
While McLean and the VFW members work all year, Puxico City Collector Patty Cooper doesn't mind answering questions about Homecoming when people call city hall.
Cooper says, answering their questions is "just part of the city job" she's done for 24 years.
"Usually around May people start calling when they are setting their vacation around that week," Cooper said. "People come from all over the country."Many people from Puxico have moved and they return from almost every state,
"One couple moved to Alaska," Cooper said. "They probably travel the farthest to Homecoming. It is a good time to catch up with people you may not have seen for years and years. You may see people you haven't seen for 30 years."
Homecoming has been a part of her life longer than she's worked for the city. Sharing one of her fondest memories, Cooper recalls, "when I was a kid grandpa Clifford Mitchell pulled me aside and gave me money" to spend on the rides. She also recalls enjoying "watching the queens in the pretty dresses."
Cooper remembers her grandmother Katie Mitchell loved the Ferris wheel and still was riding it until she was at least 90 years old, maybe even longer since she was 93 when she died.
Another of Cooper's favorite events is the Wednesday church service, where the community showcases the newest pastor and the community gets to hear him speak.
While Cooper recalls personal Homecoming events, McLean remembers years back when old timers would work in an eat shack made in 2x4-feet sections held together with door hinges.
There would be a window where people would place orders. "It took quite a few more people to keep it going," he said. The workers would use two blue galvanized pans; one of goat meat and one for pork. The hamburgers were grilled on top of a four burner stove.
Today, the modernized eat shack has come on a long way, he said. The grill for the hamburgers will hold 30 and the workers are able to rotate them on the warmers. The eat shack today is designed to sell out of four windows.
According to McLean, "Back in the olden days when the veterans were coming home from Vietnam we just had seven or eight goats and today we have close to 75 to 100. It is still an expensive deal. We make very little money once we buy the goats and have them processed. Any money made at Homecoming is used to donate to organizations, burnout victims and scholarships."
The surviving charter VFW member is George W. Sifford and the surviving Auxiliary charter member is Vadola Martin.