
Warrensburg Star-Journal
OPINION
A4
|
Friday, June 28, 2024
In 1977, when I was about 5
years old, my father bought a
new Ford dump truck for his
one-man landscaping busi-
ness. It was big, green and
loud. My 11-year-old brother Greg
and I thought this was the greatest
thing that could have ever happened
to us.
We were young and easily im-
pressed with large machinery. Our
dad buying a dump truck meant we
were a sure bet to win the neighbor-
hood “My dad is better than your
dad” contest. After all, we were the
only kids we knew whose dad got
paid to play in the dirt.
On the Fourth of July, just days
after the dump truck came to live at
our house, we had a backyard cook-
out. Mom and Dad invited some of
their friends over, and Greg and I
invited every kid on our block with
instructions to wear swimsuits.
While the parents grilled hot dogs,
the kids fought over who was next in
line to run through the water sprin-
kler. Suddenly, Dad disappeared,
and minutes later, we heard the roar
of the dump truck’s engine starting
up in the lot beside our house. The
sound grew louder and soon we saw
the truck rounding the corner, head-
ing right for us. Everyone cleared
the path as Dad backed the new
truck into the center of the yard.
He got out and didn’t say anything
but grabbed the water hose and
tossed it over the side of the truck’s
bed. Then he went about crafting a
makeshift water seal out of an old
rubber inner tube from a tractor tire,
and he shoved it in the crack of the
tailgate so the water wouldn’t leak
out. My mother thought he was nuts,
of course, but it wasn’t the strangest
thing she’d ever known him to do, so
she resumed cooking hot dogs while
her friends stood around murmur-
ing, “What in the world…”
Soon, the dump truck’s bed began
to ll with cool water, and Dad gave
us the go-ahead. We climbed onto the
top of the truck’s cab and jumped in.
I was little enough so that the water
at the deepest end was over my head.
Soon, about 10 kids were swimming
in that truck bed, splashing, diving
for pennies, and thoroughly happy to
have gone from sharing one wimpy
water sprinkler to doing the back-
stroke in a dump truck.
The parents took pictures, know-
ing it was perhaps the only time
they’d see their kid jumping into a
dump truck swimming pool. After
that day, the truck went on work
duty, hauling topsoil, tree limbs, and
pea gravel from job to job.
Sometimes, Dad would bring home
some “extra dirt.” He’d let my broth-
er pull the levers that made the hy-
draulic steel cylinders tilt the truck
bed to a high angle until the dirt cas-
caded into a heap in our yard. This
kind of dramatic event attracted
every kid within a two-mile radius
of our house. We all played “King of
the Mountain” and other games on
this dirt pile until it was trampled
down, almost even with the yard, or
until the next load of “extra dirt” got
brought home.
The dump truck put in years of
service in our family landscaping
business, suffering through cracked
windshields, dented sides, worn-
out engine parts, and well over a
hundred thousand miles. The green
interior turned dark gray from years
of accumulated dirt and oil, and the
black rubber oor mats grew large
holes.
And to this day, so many years af-
ter that Fourth of July “pool party,” I
still have a soft spot for dump trucks.
And I can’t help but smile when I see
them chugging toward construction
sites around town. They remind
me of home and of dad, and of good
times.
And they always make me want to
go for a swim.
Gwen Rockwood is a syndicated
freelance columnist. Email her a
gwenrockwood5@gmail.com. Her book is
available on Amazon.
THE ROCKWOOD FILES
The Dump Truck Daddy
It is nally here. We have wait-
ed months for it, hoping that it
would come earlier, but Moth-
er Nature has her own timeta-
ble and there is no rushing her.
At last, it’s summer.
With summer comes the most
pleasant of outdoor activities, mow-
ing the lawn or, for the brave of
heart, clearing the winter junk that
has built up in the car and the ga-
rage. Once those problems have been
solved, the time has come to relax
– not in front of the television as you
did all winter, but on the front porch
or on a lawn.
Nothing goes better while relaxing
in a lawn chair than a cool glass of
wine. There is a problem, however;
we know what wine goes with the
foods we enjoyed all winter, but what
wine is the best wine for loang?
To ll that void, I have recently
sampled some wines that should
make for an enjoyable and refresh-
ing summer.
Crocus L’Atelier 2021 Malbec de
Cahors ($24)
I start with this wine because it
has made a liar out of me. I have
often made reference to the French
Malbec wines of the Cahors district
of France as a super tannic wine that
can take forever to become drink-
able, as my past experience had
taught me. The Crocus L’Atelier 2021
Malbec de Cahors not only proved
me wrong, but it also opened a new
vista for me and refreshed the ex-
pression “things change.”
To go back to another ancient ex-
pression of quality, this wine should
be approached “with the head bare
and on one’s knees;” it is that impres-
sive.
The dark, almost black color of
the wine may give the impression of
erceness, but the exact opposite is
true. This wine presents the aroma
of violets and an obvious mineral ele-
ment along with those of coffee, lico-
rice and tobacco and a softness rare-
ly found in French wines. I realize
that I may have gone overboard with
my praise of this wine, but it proves
beyond any doubt that there are still
great buys in the marketplace.
To aid the reader, this wine, as
well as all the wines that I write
about, is available on the internet and
often at exceptional prices that will
easily cover the cost of shipping.
Sonoma-Cutrer 2022 Rosé of Pinot
Noir ($20)
An excellent California rosé made
from pinot noir grapes that sells for
an affordable price is either a mar-
keting mistake or a real bargain. I
will tell the reader that this wine is
a real bargain.
This wine opens up to aromas of
tangerine, wild strawberry, rasp-
berry, a suggestion of watermelon
and rose petals. The avor mirrors
the aroma and will remain on the
palate and in the memory for a very
long time.
This is not only a wine that can
accompany almost any meal except
for the spiciest, but it is also a ne
choice as a sipping wine, indoors or
out.
Albert Bichot 2022 Petit-Chablis
($16)
This wine is indeed a rarity, an
excellent French wine selling for a
very affordable price and readily
available on the internet.
The Albert Bichot Petit-Chablis
is a white wine that displays a
pale-yellow color and a citrus aroma
with notes of apple, lemon and a no-
ticeable minerality, all of which are
reprised in the avor and end in a
very enjoyable nish.
This wine is a perfect choice as
a summer sipping wine or as an ac-
companiment to poultry or seafood
dishes, spicy or not.
If I may, I would like to suggest
a book to read over the summer:
“Wine and War” by Donald and Pe-
tie Kladstrup. It is the story of how
the French saved their wine from
conscation by Reichsmarschall
Hermann Goring and other Nazis
and what they did to the wines
they did let them have. It is an easy
reading and enjoyable book that is
available at a minimal cost from
Amazon or free of charge at your
local library through the Mobius In-
ter-library Loan System.
Bennet Bodenstein is a wine enthusiast
and book author whose column appears
in publications throughout the country.
BENNET BODENSTEIN
COLUMNIST
BEN ON WINE
CONTRIBUTING
COLUMNIST
Wines perfect for an enjoyable, refreshing summer
Looking forward
to the next chapter
NICOLE COOKE
STAR-JOURNAL EDITOR
It’s been two years since the Sedalia Dem-
ocrat moved into its current ofce on West
Fourth Street. I think we still catch our-
selves saying it’s our “new ofce” from time
to time, even though we’ve more than made
ourselves at home.
My desk has Post-It notes, papers and reporter’s
notebooks scattered across it, much like my old
desk on South
Massachusetts
Avenue. I never
got around to
hanging much
up on my ofce
walls, but I do
have a bulletin
board full of
cards from
readers and
community
partners and a
frame lled with
every Missouri
State Fair press pass I’ve managed to keep. Some
days, I spend more time here than at home, and I
have a drawer full of snacks for such an occasion.
When I wrote my last column from our old
building back in May 2022, I noted that I was the
ninth and nal editor to lead a Democrat news-
room at 700 S. Massachusetts Ave. and the rst at
111 W. Fourth St. It was a privilege and an honor
that I didn’t, and still don’t, take lightly.
It’s hard to imagine all of the conversations that
took place in that old ofce between editors and
reporters. All the decisions that were made, all the
history that was documented. While local journal-
ism looks a little different these days, I’ve tried my
best to start the Democrat’s latest chapter on the
right foot, knowing a future editor decades from
now will be trying to imagine all the conversations
and decisions I made within these four walls.
I’ve decided it’s time for the second editor to sit
in this ofce on West Fourth Street.
It’s a decision that didn’t come lightly, but after a
lot of thought and a lot of conversations with fam-
ily and friends, it feels like the right decision. By
the time I leave this ofce one last time on Friday,
June 28, I’ll be one month shy of 11 years with the
Democrat. As many people have told me recently,
sometimes you just know when it’s time to move
on, and I feel like it’s time for the next step in my
career.
While I’ve been with the Democrat for almost
11 years, my job title has changed several times.
I started as a copy editor and education reporter
the last week of July 2013, just a couple of months
after I graduated from the University of Central
Missouri. My page design duties quickly vanished
when our former parent company moved us to a
remote pagination hub around Thanksgiving. In
May 2014, I took on the city beat and continued my
education reporting. In July 2017, I moved into the
editor’s ofce and in October 2020, I added “War-
rensburg Star-Journal Editor” to my resume when
we bought our neighboring paper.
I still remember trying to navigate Sedalia for
the rst time just weeks before the Missouri State
Fair during my rst days as a reporter. My rst
day on the city beat proved to be even more chal-
lenging, as a murder victim was discovered in a
Sedalia trailer park. When I became editor, the
Democrat had been purchased by Phillips Media
Group the month prior. I was tasked with leading
the newsroom through that major transition, all
while hiring my replacement and guring out how
the heck to be an editor. I repeated that process all
over again when we bought the Star-Journal.
Apparently, I like jumping into the deep end and
guring out if I can swim later.
Sometimes, I still question whether it was a
smart choice to promote a 26-year-old reporter
to editor, but I trusted the judgment of those who
trusted me with the more than 150-year legacy
of the Democrat. I know I’ve made more than my
fair share of missteps and mistakes over the last
decade, and I also know at least a handful of locals
will be thrilled to see my name removed from the
masthead. But I also know I’ve done everything I
can to keep the Democrat and Star-Journal run-
ning alongside the best team in community jour-
nalism, despite every hurdle thrown our way. I’ve
received plenty of hateful emails and phone calls,
but I’ve also received more emails, handwritten
cards and handshakes from appreciative readers
than I could possibly count.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me as
a local journalist along the way, whether you gave
me a story idea, were a willing interview subject,
or just read some of my stories. You are the ones
who help keep local newspapers going.
Over the last 11 years, I’ve contributed to
roughly 3,300 print editions of the Democrat and
Star-Journal. In my days as a reporter, I wrote
more than 1,000 stories, and who knows how many
I’ve written since then as editor, not to mention my
column.
I’ve written everything from election coverage
to school board and city council meetings to break-
ing news to heartfelt features, and I’ve covered the
state fair 11 times. Whenever someone asks about
my favorite article, it feels impossible to pick one.
I’ve loved getting to know my community in such
a hands-on way. I’ve interviewed local, state and
national politicians, celebrities, teachers, rst re-
sponders, veterans, business CEOs and everyday
workers, kids and adults. I’ve talked with grieving
families who trusted me to tell their stories, and
I’ve spoken with people elated to be interviewed
after a signicant accomplishment.
I’ve felt privileged to tell every single one of
those stories. I’m a rm believer that everyone has
a story to tell, even if they don’t realize it. It’s been
my job for 11 years to nd and share those stories,
whether good, bad or in between. Now, it’s time for
me to start a new chapter in my own story.
GWEN ROCKWOOD
COLUMNIST