Date with Imogene

Imogene Thiessen is my buddy for working in the childcare at church. We've been paired up for a few years now and I really like Imo. Our family visits her often, she shares her recipes with me, and knows so much about Kansas City. This past fall/winter she turned me onto the history of Nelly Don, a dress maker and entrepreneur in Kansas City. Her story has it all, fame, affair with a senator, secret baby that she had to pretend she "adopted while abroad", gangsters, and a kidnapping.

There's a PBS special called "A Stitch In Time" that details the story, and currently there is a play about Nelly Don's life playing at a theatre downtown.

Imogene asked if I wanted to go to Toy and Miniature Museum with her to see the exhibits and to visit the building itself because it used to be Nelly Don's old mansion.

The toy museum was small but there a lot to see. I think it would be torture to bring a small child here because none of the toys can be played with. About 80% of the toys were miniatures for doll houses. It was arranged very neatly and there were several rooms to explore how carefully each item was made.

My favorite miniatures were the craft items. Dresses, rugs, quilts, crocheted blankets, all with the tiniest of of stitches.

 

 

 

 One house had tiny newspapers lining the attic walls. When I pointed it out to Imo, she told me a story that when she was a kid and would ride her bike to school, it would be cold in the morning (but hot in the afternoon) so she and her siblings would line their shirts with newspapers because it kept the cold out so well, then just throw out the paper when they got to school. Imo loves to share stories. She's been working on writing down stories from her childhood and her time at Wornall.

I loved seeing the toys from the 1980s! They had my Rainbow Brite doll!

 

 

 

This ferris wheel toy was featured by toy collector Jerry Smith on the Johnny Carson Show.

After we left the museum we decided to walk around the block, one to enjoy the nice weather, and two, to see the house of James A. Reed, the senator who's house backed onto Nelly's (and who was the father of her baby).

We continued on our walk to the Crestwood Shops at 55th and Brookside. We did some window shopping, then stepped into Cafe Europa to split a lemon lavender mini bundt cake.

We walked back to the car and I told Imo about my KC bucket list and how I wanted to see the carving of the Last Supper at the Country Club Church. She said that she's seen it and insisted we make that our next stop.

 

The church was beautiful, we were able to see the sanctuary and the stained glass windows, and while we were there, the organist was practicing so it was very moving.

The wooden scultpure is in the entry way of the church (behind glass) and was done by artist Domenic Zappia. It's been on loan to various churches for the last 30 years. It took 4 years to complete and Zappia was paid $30,000. There was a short audio description of the piece and one part that I particularly enjoyed was Zappia's quotes about why he though da Vinci's last supper was incorrect. "I read  as much as I could about these men and Christ. It helped me a great deal. One example, I believe I understood that Peter did not seem an old man, as he had been pictured by da Vinci. He reminded me of a young friend I knew many years ago in Buffalo, so I modeled Peter after him."

The work was beautiful but the scale was very different for the men. Some were life sized, some were about 80%, so were 70%. I think after spending the morning at the miniature museum, I was just looking for scale. It was a beautiful work, and I'm glad to have crossed an item off my must see KC list.