At Home in Cabool, Missouri

During the 1950’s Cabool celebrated an annual summertime Kid’s Fun Day. The parade down Main Street with animals and bikes was exciting. I always liked to go to “town” and these special occasions were lots of fun 

Photo courtesy of

  
Patty Rader Parker  

Written by 
LeRoy Walls 
CEO 

The Cabool I knew in the 1950’s could have easily been picked by Norman Rockwell to represent small-town America. It was built on the north side of the Big Piney River. Main Street parallels the river and the Frisco railroad tracks. Later US Route 60 came through town a couple of blocks north of Main Street and brought more service stations, motels and other business along its route.

The main school buildings are set on a big Ozark hill overlooking the town. The original buildings and gymnasium are faced with native stone. The school activities and Cabool Bulldog teams still remain a major part of Cabool’s life and activities.

Not too much had changed when I returned in the late 1970’s from when I grew up in the 1950’s. We still have a pool hall, drug store, dime store, clothing store, barber shop, corner cafe and seven churches. Now four or five service stations have been replaced by three convenience stores. We’ve added a nice Mexican restaurant, a couple more bars and a bigger grocery store.

The Farmers Exchange is still serving our cattle and dairy farmers from the west end of Main Street. The shoe factory that brought jobs in the 1950’s closed in 1995. The State Theatre has been closed and replaced by a twin cinema at the edge of town.

Cabool’s population of over 2,100 is up several hundred from the 1950’s when it was about 1,400. Many of our kids still move away after high school to go to college, to the armed services, to find work or to marry. Many never leave Cabool and some return after college or military duty. A few, like my wife Paula and I, take longer to return home to Cabool.

We liked raising our family here in the country close to family. The people here are fine folks with a strong work ethic.

We know that Cabool may not be in your travel plans, but we’d like to invite you to visit us at Woodpro Cabinetry. We enjoy getting to know our customers better and I’d like you to meet the fine folks at Woodpro and see how we build Personalized Bath Cabinetry.

12/31/1999