Gilbert Pardue, of Fulton plays pool at the Columbia Senior Center twice a week. His now-deceased wife, Wanda, found the senior center for him because she didn’t want him to get bored waiting for her while she underwent chemo at the local hospital. “Even now, when I’m driving home after playing with these guys, I think I’ll get to tell her what John said or what Ja said today,” Gilbert said. “It’s only when I get home that I remember she isn’t here any more.”

Sammie Missouri, 77, left his family’s home in Marston, Mo. when he was 18 years old to work on farms and in canning factories in Florida, Georgia and Wisconsin. “Up there [in Wisconsin], I’d forget I was black if I didn’t look down at myself,” he said. “But when you come back down you got to leave all that behind. If you don’t, people here remind you what your place is. Times was hard for black people back then."

Sammie Missouri, 77, left his family’s home in Marston, Mo. when he was 18 years old to work on farms and in canning factories in Florida, Georgia and Wisconsin. Now, he’s a resident of Paquin Towers who rarely leaves his small, one-room efficiency apartment.

Morgan Probst, 7, waited over two hours to have her face painted by Susie Getzlaff at the Heritage Festival at Nifong Park Saturday, Sept. 15. Getzlaff is a professional clown with over 12 years of experience. "I hate that they have to wait that long, but there are a lot of face painters here," she said. "I like to give them all a little something special."