Chapter Nine – Seymour Signs and Wonders
Kitty:
You will remember that I came up on the west coast all my early life. My parents had raised us six kids, mostly in California, but one day they wanted to see one of my sisters who married a guy she met Germany named Bill Hubbard who lived in Marshfield, MO. Mom and Dad said that we were going on vacation to see where Kris, my sister, was living out on this farm in rural Missouri. Now, my dad was born in Hurley, Missouri, so visiting back in the Midwest was a real homecoming for him. When he came back to California, we could see he fell in love with his roots all over and again. Shortly after he announced to the family, he was leaving California for Missouri because, “I need to be there,” he said, because it felt right to him, so he made a move to a little town called Seymour, Missouri.
In this little town where mom and dad settled, there was a restaurant called “Miss Kitty’s.” We laughed when dad told us about the restaurant that he was going down to “Miss Kitty’s” to have some biscuits and gravy.” It was a restaurant that was sitting there on the corner of this little tiny town with only three entrances into it. Dad would tell us all about it and say, “when you get a chance you guys come out here for a vacation, you see how pretty it is.” At first, I was unconvinced. I said, “Dad, where is Missouri? I don’t even know where Missouri is!”
I kid you not I was a “valley girl” from California before they had valley girls. I had to get out a map and look it up because I didn’t know where it was. Eventually, we drove out from the west coast for a visit, and arriving in Seymour, dad just told me to take this the middle entrance into town when we came for a summer vacation. The day came, and we piled the kids in the car and went on vacation to see why my mom and dad were so happy in a place called Missouri. In the meantime, my eldest sister and my youngest sister moved to Seymour to be near my parent. (Seymour, by the way, is spelled the same as “William Seymour,” the founder of the Azuza street revival.)
So, we’re pulling into town, and dad had said to “turn onto Division Street” and there off of Highway 60 up on a hill, on the corner, there was Miss Kitty’s Restaurant with a 12 x 12 “For Sale” sign on the side of it. Instantly my spirit leapt within me, and the Father said, “You’re going to buy that restaurant,” and I said “what?” The Father’s voice I knew so well repeated, “You’re going to buy that restaurant; it’s what you been asking me for.” What an amazing thing, and it already had my name on it “Miss Kitty’s Family Restaurant.” Shortly after that, we bought the restaurant that had been on the market 2 ½ years just waiting for us to come along and fulfill God’s plan for that season by making it our own.
So one day, we’re hanging around doing the family thing, and it’s such a small town that they have something called “the square,” and for those of you who don’t know or have never been on a square it’s just that, it’s only a little central area in many small towns that had a square in its layout. Most often the courthouse is in the middle. On Friday and Saturday nights the kids would cruise the square (as they called it). It was the happening place to be so one afternoon we decided to walk up to the square and see who we might meet. We went to the little grocery store in town to buy some snacks and a cold drink.
When I went to check out and got up to the clerk (whose name is Judy.) Judy then says to me, “Hi! Who are you? Who is your mama? Who is your daddy?” and when she said that I got this big lump in my throat and tears in my eyes because in California you could go through the grocery line and they would say “how you doing?” and one might answer “Well I’m dying of cancer thank you very much…” And then they would say “have a great day” because they didn’t hear you because they didn’t want to listen to you, they were too busy. Here in Seymour, I had this hunger and heart for people to connect, and Judy didn’t know it, but she was pulling on my heartstrings. In answer to her question, I told her who my Father was (named Vern), and she said, “Oh, yes, and Karen is your sister, Shirley’s her daughter…” I just was beside myself with joy, knowing what I heard coming into town.
It was about three days into the visit with my folks, and I told them that I believed we’re supposed to buy Miss Kitty’s and they were all happy. Even though I didn’t have any restaurant experience, I did have people in my home very often, and they would end up around our dinner table. Now on a side note, be aware that I don’t love to cook, but I was willing to do so to have a chance to tell others about Jesus. Without any experience, I made an offer on the restaurant they accepted it! I then said, “Well, we need to find a house – let’s go look for a house.” There were many available, but we wanted something close to the main road. We were not familiar with driving in snow and ice, so we looked for a place with easy in and out and access to that highway. As we were driving down the road, I saw a beautiful ranch style for sale by the owner. As I observed the house from the highway, I said, “turn in here, I like that house.” The home was beautiful! The house was recently built and owned by a man named Mr. Pool who at that moment we saw putting his lawnmower in the garage as we pulled into the driveway.
