With the advanced technology at The Territory Ballroom, I love reading about how people from different eras and locations used to live, think and go about their daily lives! Digital stories from the past have helped guide my future.

Recently, however, we found a stack of 1923 Kansas City Star and Times Newspapers under the carpet in one of our second story rooms at the Ballroom. Advertisements of girdles for “stout women” and political reports written in a 6 pt. font with 1/4 inch margins crowded the page.

I usually tell people that I homeschool our kids in the middle of nowhere. But to be honest, with the advancement of technology, I actually teach them in the middle of everywhere. With our internet we can literally tour the Eiffel Tower and The Egyptian Pyramids in the same day.

Even so, my favorite place to visit is rural America. On a backroads drive through Morris County I can still see the hopes and dreams of the brave folks who came before me still standing in the pasture.

Stone barns, fences and corals make me think of doing the hard things. Clapboard houses that have lost their windows but still have the baby grand piano rotting away in the parlor make me think of family gatherings.

Regardless of why rural America has largely consolidated, I believe there is revival in the air. With creature comforts and technology at the Territory Ballroom right at our fingertips, we hope to create space for you to truly live and work in the middle of everywhere!

I believe in the preservation of our past for the purpose of guiding us into the future. Which is exactly why I’m going to frame that crazy girdle ad and hang it in the ladies bathroom at the Ballroom! Stout women with girdles helped shape who I am today and they probably shaped you, too!