Profiles

A friend in need, so the saying goes, is a friend indeed. And on Saturday night Maryville area residents turned out by the score to honor a man who has always acted as a true friend and neighbor when the need was greatest.

Saturday morning in Maryville was about as perfect as it gets in northwest Missouri. The sky was pale blue and cloudless, the humidity was non-existent, and with the temperature hovering in the mid-50s there was more than a hint of fall in the air.

There is nothing quite like the companionship of a good dog — the kind of smiling, tail-wagging affectionate animal that lifts the spirit and heals the heart just by walking into a room and laying down by your feet.

All the expected sights and sounds of a drag strip were there: the bleachers full of summertime spectators dressed in shorts and sleeveless T-shirts, the red-yellow-green Christmas tree starting light, the razor-straight dirt track, and the roar of finely tuned engines rumbling inside custom-painted sheet metal bodies sporting sugar-candy colors and stylized flames.

The twang of bow strings and the soft zip-thud of arrows knifing through a light drizzle at hundreds of feet per second, then striking a foam target 30 or 40 yards away, filled the air Sunday during the annual Nodaho Bow Hunters club annual Appreciation Shoot.

When it comes to showing draft horses, teamwork is the most important thing — and Gary Loomis and Heidi Carlson are very good at it.