TOADS over 70: an interview with may
Each issue, we consider it important to feature a longtime Joplin resident and hear their story. Celebration of heritage is just as important as celebration of the new and now. So we built the Toad with this section being one of our cornerstone features.
If I had to pick one person that I felt embodied the heart of Joplin, I think of my grandma May Cottrell. Not only was she born and raised in Joplin and has a deep love and admiration for the city and its people, but she is humble, kind, gentle and loving. She has always been there for me through the good, the bad and the boring. And to me, she is home. That is why I chose to interview her; I wanted to capture some of her stories of what it was like to grow up here in this small city.
-Austin
interview conducted by Austin Spencer, with his grandmother May. Transcribed by Theresa Schorr. Current photographs by John Laude, historic photos of May and her family obtained with permission.
How long have you lived in Joplin?
May “Since 1942, I was born here in Joplin out on 1906 West 4th street.”
So you were born there and you grew up over there for the most part, when did you move away from Joplin and then move back?
May “When I got married in October of 1964, my husband Grant and I moved to Topeka in 1965. After the tornado in Topeka we went to Manhattan and lived there for a little while and then we went to Omaha. And then we moved back to Joplin in 1971.”
Before moving to Topeka, the other day you were telling me about how every other day you would come into town, what day was that?
May “Every saturday. That was the day we got to come to town and daddy would give us a nickel or a dime and we’d come to the dime stores and look around and when we got older we’d go to the new dixie shop or the clothes shop. Momma would buy some of our clothes there, Pennies was down on 5th and main and that one side where the church is now. And we would buy a lot of our material to make clothes there because mom made all of our clothes when we were young. Then she would take us over to the dime store and she’d buy us our favorite candy of whatever we wanted with our nickel or dime. There was a fountain where you could buy drinks and you could get a coke for a nickel and she would buy us one of those. Then we would get on the bus and go home.”
How old were you then?
May “It was probably in the 50’s. I don’t really remember how old we were, I remember more after I was nine or ten. The only time I remember when I was young was when I was about five or six I guess cause I didn’t go to school till I was six, but I remember getting new shoes and walking around cause I was really proud of them. The biggest thing I remember was just playing around the house, we didn’t do a lot of stuff, we went on Saturday to town and I used to walk and just play around all down by our house out on West 4th street.”
How different was it then compared to how it is now?
May “I just think of 4th to 7th street was our territory where we shopped, I don’t remember a whole lot more than that. I don’t even remember when the Frisco building was a train station.
Even though I was around when It was that. I remember when we had to come here for doctor and dentist visits. I didn’t go to the dentist until I was in like Highschool. Well, I did go to a dentist but that was back when I was in school. They would take a group of kids from the school to the dentist to have their teeth checked and you had to have your parents signature to say that you could go so we did. And they pulled my two front teeth, I guess the dentist just wanted to do something to say that he did something so that they would pay him.”