All Roads Lead Home by Kim McCully-Mobley

Send us Fan Mail We are down to one dog at the Mobley Chicken Ranch & Cowgirl Emporium. We lost Polly in October of last year. We said goodbye to Otis on Wednesday.  We don't have any chickens. We are down to one wayward cowgirl who doesn't seem to want to play by the rules. She has a good heart, though. We have one hard-headed hillbilly/biker/cowboy. It is awfully quiet. It seems th...

Send us Fan Mail This week is Homecoming Week at Aurora High School--my alma mater. We are also hosting a Valentine's Day Blood Drive, a Black Light Dance and Houn' Dawg Hall of Fame Induction for two local hometown heroes----Brian Fogle and Walt Pettit.  I can't remember a time in my 61+ years when the Fogle and Pettit names weren't uttered in my household. Both men have made...

Send us Fan Mail Here is a podcast/newspaper column I put together last month in tribute to Franklin David McCully, the father of my son and an individual I am still grieving. I hesitated to post it here.  It's personal and it's still a little too raw. But I want the words, his story and the message preserved and protected somehow. I spent a year as a girlfriend, 10 years as his wife and...

Send us Fan Mail Here in the Ozarks, we have a sense of gratitude and grace on a daily basis.  Celebrating nature's bounty and the richness we share with relationships and opportunity are second nature to us. I hope you don't mind humoring me a little as I reminisce about some favorite Thanksgiving memories and a little history lesson, to boot.

Send us Fan Mail Our media writing students created this script after decorating a special tree for our Community Christmas event in downtown Aurora. Each student focused on a character from the movie Up, which focuses on a character named Carl, who is old and cranky and in dire need of a friend. Through this tale, we learn about wisdom, sacrifice, friendship and love, as well as the significance...

Send us Fan Mail Our Leadership Class for the 2022-2023 school year helped decorate a wooden Christmas tree for the downtown square this holiday season. They are resilient students--who have been through a pandemic and some other challenges during their high school careers. Above all, they are strong, creative, fun and determined. I learn as much from them as they do from me. Each of them selected...

Send us Fan Mail "Touch down. Every morning. 10 times. Not just now and then." If you attended Aurora Schools between 1962 and 1986, you were probably exposed to exercising you tail off to the 45 record of CHICKEN FAT as Coach Poss Jackson led the charge. At 98 years of age, he is showing up to help with the coin toss at Kelley Field at the Bell Bowl. His legacy continues. We are all jus...

Send us Fan Mail The Houn' Dawg mascot has a long and colorful history. When you see the slogan: Don't Kick Our Dog, just know that it is paying homage to the story's military roots--that predate World War I. If you see Once A Houn' Dawg--Always A Houn' Dawg, it is picking up on the school's passion for its spotted Houn' Dawg mascot that dates back to about 1925....

Send us Fan Mail I get asked a lot about the history of Kelley Field. People want to know who the football field is named after. They ask about the spelling of it. They sometimes inadvertently suggest a name change, right before my head starts spinning and I do a little stomping. The stories about our past are important. They help us know who we are, where we've been and where we are headed....

Send us Fan Mail I first wrote this as a Facebook post in the spring--when the shutdowns of the virus first started. Now...some eight months later, things still seem to be up in the air. We have hostile discussions on the news regarding politics, we have growing numbers of Corona cases in Missouri.  We have folks who have suffered. We have others who have plunged forward. Regardless of what we are...

Send us Fan Mail Aurora has been selected as a partner site for a traveling Smithsonian Exhibit called Water/Ways. It is available for viewing now through October 12, 2020, with the price of admission at the Discovery Center in Springfield. Water is an essential part of our lives for hydration, cooking, gardening, recreation, hygiene and splashing around in the rain. Think about it and take a list...

Send us Fan Mail In the midst of a worldwide pandemic, I drove to town on this sunny April afternoon to tie up some loose ends on a grant and put together some food baskets for Aurora citizens. I was rested, happy and feeling rather productive when all hell broke loose in the cab of my truck. Here's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Send us Fan Mail This is an episode I worked on to help promote local legends, lore and history with my students at Aurora High School.

Send us Fan Mail I interviewed some former Houn' Dawgs on December 15th as we kicked off our Hometown Teams Exhibit in Aurora. On hand were: Michele Parbury, Randy Lechner, Stan Lechner, Jack Muench, Pete Young and Kenny Downing, our Parade Grand Marshal. This is unedited and unabridged. All in all, the interview helps capture something special about growing up in Aurora...living life as Houn...