KANSAS CITY: more than PARIS, more than ROME !

"Kansas City, KS...more boulevards than Paris and more fountains than Rome !" says Pete Granat, a retired lawyer who has lived much of his 60+ years in Kansas City. I visited with Pete and his wife, Maralin, two super generous people who love good food, good wine, and good companionship and in doing this visit, I learned a lot about this mid-western city.
   Hot and incredibly humid during the summer. "100/100," says Pete, meaning that the temperature can hit a 100F and the humidity can repeat the century percentage. Incredible! I have been here in more moderate temperatures, lower 90s with humidity about 85% and it is not comfortable at all. I thought NEW ORLEANS and MEMPHIS were uncomfortable, but Kansas, hundreds of mile further north, matches those more southern cities in discomfort.
   Looking at the homes in many parts of this city, I began to believe the city was full of millionaires, philanthropists, many Sam Waltons, of Walmart fame. Well, in some ways, I was not too far of the mark. The previous owner of the Kansas City Royals baseball team, Muriel Kauffman's family owns a palatial estate, gated and elephantine in size in the heart of the city, not in the suburbs. George Brett, retired all star Kansas City Royals shortstop has a Mexican style hacienda, a bit of an exaggeration, but his home is a magnificent residence in which a multiplicity of Mexican families would likely be able to reside in real comfort. Surprisingly, one can drive right around the circular driveway which fronts the house, no gates, no wrought iron barriers, no security guards.
   Many of these huge homes have unbelievably low price tags. The American economy has decimated the value of these homes and what you visually appraise at being in the million dollar range, surprisingly will be valued at about 1/3 that. Simply incredible !
  The city is spread over a wide expanse of area, amazingly so with huge grassy areas all over the city, between neighbourhoods, huge green carpets, multiple car-wide boulevards separating traffic going in opposite directions. But if that were not enough, every one of these neighbourhoods, is densely filled with immensely tall, full foliaged, 60-70 year old trees. Someone long ago, must have demanded that there be no cutting of trees in Kansas City. So, it seems, every house is surrounded by gigantically tall trees, front, side, back and the foliage gives each home wonderful shade, a needed temperature moderator for the unbearably hot summer months.

   Peter and Maralin have a beautiful back yard, pool, gazebo, pergola, deck for out door dining, and trees, trees, trees. What this means is that they have animal life galore in the back yard, something to be enjoyed all day long. Birds, cardinals, robins, sparrows, crows; rodents, chipmunks, grey squirrels, black tailed squirrels and even jack rabbits. "I was making coffee this morning, and two ducks were in the pool," Maralin told me. You can be in an ornithologist's heaven sitting in this back yard, if you can stand the humidity and heat.
   Carol and Richard Powis, business owners in KC, shared some interesting opinions with me one evening as we enjoyed cocktails to cool the evening off and they led me to other observations about this city and its people.The Powis' daughter, had lived in Toronto, Canada for a while but returned to KC, stating that "Torontonians were not very friendly!" Compared to Kansasitians, I can fully appreciate what she had observed. Here, the people are friendlier, more outgoing, more affable. A bartender, serving me soda water with lime, just kept refilling my glass for me never once needing prompting for such nice service, just a simple hospital gesture, without any extra charges either !

   And for more about friendly service, read my blog about ENGLE MOTORS, where I had my motorcycle serviced.

Visit back again !