Just out the door of our children’s junior high school was a field with a herd of cattle and a number of horses. On the corner of 83rd and Mission Road was a life size sculpture of a pioneer family in a covered wagon. We were in the outer edges of the ‘burbs—finding a good restaurant or bank took some effort.

We were used to restaurants and banks in every block in Los Angeles. There, banks were usually a branch of a statewide banking company. In Kansas, unit banking was still the law, so there were many small banks sprinkled
throughout the community. The larger banks were located in downtown Kansas City, Mo. We learned that risk lending
was defined differently—more narrowly —by bankers here. On the plus side, we learned that as a banking relationship
and trust was established a long term relationship grew.

While Kansas City circa mid-1970s was somewhat of a culture shock for these transplanted Angelenos, there was plenty to like and celebrate, and more than a few pleasant surprises. By 1975, Kansas City was enjoying the fruits
of a massive building boom—Truman Sports Complex, Bartle Hall, Kemper Arena and Kansas City International airport had all recently opened and were all sources of civic pride and national attention–the city had just played host to the Major League Baseball All-Star game, and would welcome the Republican National Convention in 1976.

For two brief years, those stadiums and that arena were occupied by teams from all four major league sports—
unheard of in a small-market city like KC. For two years we had the NFL Chiefs, MLB’s Royals, the NBA Kings and the NHL Scouts. Granted, only the Royals were consistently good, and we shared our pro basketball team with Omaha [for awhile they were actually known as the Kansas City-Omaha Kings] but the presence of all four major sports leagues in Kansas City confirmed our status as a big-league city.

Kansas Citians were proud of their new, futuristic airport with its drive-toyour-gate convenience. Built on the far northern edge of the metro, it was a long haul for almost anyone to get there, but once they did, they were able to park a
short walk from their gate. “Hometown airline” TWA was a driving force in getting the airport built, and they dictated
the design–then changed their mind. When Kansas City wouldn’t give TWA yet another new terminal, the airline
packed up and moved its headquarters to St. Louis, taking with it its hub and a host of international flights with it.

Still, Kansas Citians had plenty of airline choices, including Braniff and Eastern [both of which had mini-hubs here], Frontier, Allegheny, Ozark, and Texas International–see a trend here?

My family and I were pleasantly surprised to find a vibrant retail community in Kansas City, with a strong commitment
to service. Local retailers such as Tivol, Harzfelds, Swanson’s, Halls, Woolf Brothers and Jack Henry provided quality
shopping with first-rate customer service.

Downtown Kansas City was busy with professional offices, but was in decline for shoppers. Longtime mainstay
Emery Bird and Thayer had closed up shop in the late 1960s. Macy’s would be the next to go, then, finally, the Jones
store made way for the Power & Light District, leaving downtown with no department stores and very little retail
in general. Shopping survived in the central city thanks to the Country Club Plaza and Crown Center.

By the time we moved here, the region was beginning its love affair with suburban malls. Metcalf South, Blue Ridge
Mall and Ward Parkway Center were joined by Indian Springs. Independence Center, Oak Park Mall and Metro North.
Other than a very few larger law and accounting firms, most law was practiced by solo practitioners or in very
small groups. Starting in the late ’70’s local, regional and national mergers became a way of life for the professional
firms across the country. Kansas City finally succumbed to merger mania.

It didn’t take long for us to discover a few of the unique challenges associated with living and working in a city carved
up by several boundaries. Troost Ave. was one boundary on the east separating the city by race. State Line Road
separated the two states based on affluence, laws and customs.

For instance, you didn’t want to buy an alcoholic beverage in one state and carry it across the state line. And buying
an alcoholic beverage in a restaurant in Kansas took some effort—diners had to have a club membership in order to
purchase a beer, wine or cocktail. And it was virtually impossible to buy packaged liquor on Sunday in either state.

There were dozens of real-world, everyday matters that were different for us than they were for our neighbors
living on the east side of State Line Road–the tax structure, school quality, state services and real estate values. Even issues of professional reciprocity and in cross state college attendance had only been recently settled.

Roughly 85 percent of the businesses were family owned, often second- and third-generation. Those business owners understood service and knew their customers’ wants and needs. Selling out to larger, publicly owned companies and replacing the family with professional managers was a phenomenon that hadn’t yet taken hold. The two local daily papers [The Times in the morning and The Star in the afternoon] and four local commercial broadcast TV stations were primarily focused on supporting our local businesses. Kansas City was too small to attract major advertising dollars and
support from national companies. AM radio was still dominant [and actually played music], but that would soon
change—thanks to KY-102 and Super Q 104, the migration of popular music to the FM dial was just starting to take hold.

The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation was formed in 1978. It was to grow to be one of the largest in the
country under the leadership of Charles Curran, Homer Wadsworth, and in later years, Jan Kreamer and Laura McKnight.
Its largest donation was the receipt of the ownership of the Kansas City Royals which was subsequently sold with the
profits going to the Foundation.