Growing Up In A Small Town
Teacher Talks About His Roots
Growing up in the small town of Unionville, Missouri, with a population less than the school where he teaches, teacher David Fowler said word spread quickly.
“Being from a small town, everybody knows everyone, and everyone’s families know everybody,” Fowler said. “It was kind of a struggle because of the expectations, and if you did something wrong or didn’t perform exactly, then everybody knew what was going on.”
Fowler and his siblings helped his dad on their farm, and his mother taught at the school. Fowler’s father and grandfather would raise red angus cattle. He played many sports over the years such as, baseball and basketball — basketball being his favorite. He got into teaching from an A plus tutoring class where he helped kindergarteners.
“I come from a long line of teachers. My mom was a teacher and my grandma was a teacher. It did inspire me to want to teach,” Fowler said.
Every year for the past 100 years, Fowler said the town has hosted a big county fair with rides, games and shows. It’s the biggest and best event they have all year, so much so that kids would skip school to go to it so often, they made that day a half day for students.
“Community wise, it is the biggest event of the year that happens after Labor Day weekend,” Fowler said. “It was your average carnival rides, games, concerts, demolition derbies.”
People from the county also showed off their skills and livestock, and their cattle would be judged to see who had the best.
“My dad would show off his cow at the fair for it to be judged,” Fowler said. “One year, we even won with our red angus cattle.”
Fowler helped his dad on their farm and took more responsibilities as he got older. Fowler and his siblings helped his father raise about 250 cattle.
“My dad and grandpa owned a business together where they raised red angus cows,” Fowler said. “When me and my siblings were younger, we would go play on the farm, but as we grew older we would take more responsibility on the farm like helping with the cattle and doing chores around the house and the farm.”
Fowler moved from his town to Kansas City because of an opportunity he was told about from his high school coach.