Annual Joplin Meet Up

Our annual Joplin meet up is not until October, but I received sad news today from Susie Davidson, the owner of Changing Hands Book Shoppe and wanted to go ahead and post it:

BOOK CUSTOMERS:
We are sorry to announce that our lease has not been renewed and as a result we will have to close. Watch for sales and use up any book credit on file ASAP.
Sometime in September will be our last day to be open.

Thanks for being a part of Changing Hands for 32+ years!!
John & Susie

John and Susie's store was such a huge part of our annual meet up and I cannot imagine it without them. Is it time for us to re-evaluate whether we want to continue to meet every year in Joplin?

How tragic! I'll will definitely miss it!

Catey Doster, Stasia Doster's daughter.

>3 cateyd127: I think that a lot of us will, Catey. It is extremely sad that they just cannot afford the rents to be able to keep the store open given how long it has been there.

A further email from Susie:

"You could come in June and/or July and buy lots of books (SALES are already starting)

It's hard to even talk about it - but the reality is that books are not profitable with today's rents :-(

Susie

I saw that they were closing the bookstore. Sad news. I will try to work with whatever works out for everyone!

I would still like to have a meetup. Are there any other bookstores in Joplin? Springfield? perhaps Tulsa? All would be good places to have a lower mid-western meetup?

I did some checking and there are 4 bookstores in Springfield, MO. Springfield is right on Route 66 and might be a good place to visit. I will keep looking and plan to take a look at other bookstores in Joplin as soon as I can do so. I am hoping that I can find a book/games store somewhere in the same region that we can move the meetup to.

>7 benitastrnad: Thanks, Benita. I was going to point out that we want a city that has an independent bookstore if at all possible, but I just never got to it. At the time we first decided to meet up in Joplin, it had a Barnes & Noble (no idea if it still exists since we never went there), but we were lucky enough to stumble across Changing Hands on the Joplin Chamber of Commerce website. We never regretted it for an instant.

So, thoughts on Springfield MO, anyone??

I am going to look at independent bookstores in Springfield MO, Tulsa OK, Bentonville and Eureka Springs. The last two are in Arkansas. I am hoping that I can find one that has a combination of books and games like the store in Joplin.

The four bookstores in Springfield are all independents and I thought the Route 66 connection might be a good one. The four I looked at earlier this morning were all independent stores. One of them even has a trio of cats as residents! I will post my findings here to this thread.

>9 benitastrnad: Thank you so much for doing the research, Benita! I love the idea of the trio of cats myself!

I am not sure why this group started meeting in Joplin, MO but it appears that there are other bookstores in Joplin, MO besides "Changing Hands." However, it seems that Springfield, MO has plenty of used bookstores. It is 71 miles east of Joplin, MO, but still in that southwest corner of Missouri. Here is the link to several used bookstores in Springfield, MO. All of them look interesting.

Springfield is an interesting little city and will have plenty of places to eat and to stay and things to do. There is a nice looking botanical garden in the city - complete with a Japanese garden. There is the Route 66 car museum and it is the home of the original Bass Pro Shop.

https://www.springfieldmo.org/blog/post/4-local-bookstores-in-springfield-missou...

Bentonville, Arkansas is also in the same region as Joplin, MO. It is 69 miles south of Joplin, MO. It is the home of the Walmart Museum and the Crystal Bridges Art Museum. There are plenty of used bookstores in the town as well.

There are 3 used bookstores listed online in Bentonville, and a couple more in small towns close to Bentonville. The only thing is that Fayetteville is right down the road (26 miles) and honestly, when I have driven it before, I couldn't tell where Bentonville ended and Fayetteville began. We might have to check the University of Arkansas football schedule before we decide on a date because I am sure that both towns would fill up on those weekends.

Tulsa, Oklahoma also has some interesting local bookshops. It would be a bigger place than any of the other three, but it would also offer the Greenwood Historic District.

https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/local-regional/2024-04-09/bookish-tulsa-five-lo...

Just for kicks, and to keep things in a small town I checked out what Claremore, OK has to offer for used bookstores. There are two and both look interesting. Claremore is also home to the Will Rogers Museum. I visited this museum two years ago and found it very interesting and very well done. Claremore is closer to Tulsa than is Springfield, Joplin, or Bentonville and it is certainly a possibility for a meetup site.

There is also Eureka Springs, AR. This is a small historic spa town that is about 30 miles south of Branson, MO. It has lots of things to do and there are used bookshops in the town and close by.

Let me know what interests you and I can start working on posting places.

In the meantime I have the following questions.
1. What are you interested in? Books? Games? puzzles? food? place to sit and talk?
2. What kind of hotels are you wanting to stay at?
3. What do you want to do in the town besides spend time at a bookshop? Or maybe you don't need to do anything else but browse books?

>11 benitastrnad: I am not sure why this group started meeting in Joplin, MO but it appears that there are other bookstores in Joplin, MO besides "Changing Hands."

We started meeting in Joplin because Terri Loeffler and I met in Pennsylvania back in 2009 and immediately hit it off. We wanted to find a location that was midway between the 2 of us and Joplin was it. She lives in St. Charles, MO and I live in Sherman, TX. That is the sole reason for the picking of Joplin. Rather than keep the meet up to just the two of us, we opened it up to the entire 75ers group. Changing Hands was chosen as 'our' bookstore because it was listed on the Joplin Chamber of Commerce website. We never saw any reason to change it and besides, the Red Onion restaurant was within walking distance, lol.

In response to your questions:
1. Books, a place to sit and talk, games
2. As long as there is somewhere reasonably priced that I can lay down, I am good.
3. My time frame is rather narrow if Catey comes with me, so I am primarily looking at time at the bookshop.

1. Books, especially used books. Food, but not at the same time.
2. I usually stay at a Drury Inn wherever I go. We don't necessarily have to all stay at the same place if that doesn't work.
3. When we had more time, we used to look for things to do, but the last few years, we shopped, ate (leisurely), and that was all.

I'll miss the Red Onion if we skip Joplin, but I'm sure that there will be a good restaurant wherever we go!

And actually, Stasia, it was New York where we met. Richard's Birthday Party!

>13 tloeffler: You are correct, Terri, it was NY where we met. I tend to think of it as 'my Pennsylvania' trip since that was where I actually headed and NY was a side trip :)

I like the idea of a place with a number of different indy bookstores that we could proceed to. I'd like a used bookstore with a larger science fiction/fantasy section than Changing Hands had if possible. I'm looking at inexpensive (hah!) motels, locally owned, and a place for us to have a good lunch together.

My preferences would probably be either Springfield or Tulsa, but I am flexible.

Chiming in about the location: Springfield is really out for Catey and me. She usually has to work the day before, which means we cannot get on the road until about 7pm. Last year, we did not get to Joplin until 3:30am and Springfield is further from us than Joplin is.

My preferences would either be Tulsa or Bentonville. Unfortunately I cannot be as flexible as Roni :)

Oklahoma would be the best option for me as well. Bentonville would also work. Time constraints on my part is the biggest concern.

Thank you all for your comments and input. I will do a bit more research since we have narrowed it down to Oklahoma or Arkansas. I am also taking a look at Joplin to see if there is anything there that I have overlooked. Joplin seemed to work for everybody so it might be a good idea to just keep meeting there. I'll take a look and post back here.

One thing to consider is that hotels will be more expensive in the bigger cities, but the scenery in the Ozarks should be beautiful in October. That's a catchy phrase - October in the Ozarks.

Personally, I would love to keep the meet up in Joplin!

Kerry and I are heading to Joplin next week. If there are any updates on the store situation that I can pass along, I will do so.

Now that I am done with the Strnad reunion, and have those bills all paid, I will get back to gathering information about the Joplin meetup. I will try to put links into the posts so that you can see what I find and make a better judgement about the place that we pick.

From looking back at the previous posts I have figured out that you are interested in books and a nice bookshop. Food is also important and doing something outside of those two things is not that important to you. All of this means that I am going to try to find a bookshop that will let us sit and talk while we also cruise the book aisles. A nice restaurant is also important and a reasonably priced hotel.

The biggest thing we need to decide is what weekend in October? Traditionally it has been the third weekend. That would make it October 17 & 18. Does that still work for everyone?

>21 benitastrnad: Just popped on to LT and saw your message, Benita. Thank you so much for continuing in your research for us!

October 17 & 18 works for me. I am pretty sure it will work for Catey as well, but I will ask her to pop in here and post.

October 17th and 18th should work for me as well. I will double check with my work schedule and will update as soon as I find out more.

I'm scheduled to work that weekend, so I'm out...

I'm wide open re: scheduling, so if we want to shift to accommodate Terri, I'm good.

I checked in with Terri to see if there was another weekend in October that would work for her, but no dice. We would have to postpone until November and given concerns about the weather then - the reason that it was switched to October to begin with - I think we are just going to stick with the original dates.

Any thoughts on that?

>26 alcottacre:
I was planning on October and should have some details nailed down for the weekend of October 18th this next week. The alternative date will be October 25th.

I did some research into Joplin and this is what I found out.

There are 2 Used Bookstores in the city. Always Buying Books and Book Guy. Both bookstores would be open on Saturday, October 18, 2025 from 9 AM to 5 PM. Both said that they would happy to have us visit them.

The owner of Book Guy was very informative. He told me that Changing Hands Book Shoppe is NOT closing. They are only closing out the book part of their store. They are going to retain the games and puzzles part of the store and will be in the same location as they have been in. They should be done ridding themselves of all their books by the middle of October. Their address is 538 S. Virginia Ave, Joplin, MO. So, after I called him I called Changing Hands Book Shoppe and sure enough !!!! they are NOT closing. They are only selling all of the books (right now they are 25 cents each). As soon as they get their inventory of books gone they will be moving to a new location which is right next door to The Book Guy. Their new store is about a mile from the old location.

Changing Hands is going to keep selling games. They are going to sell board games, collectible card games, and other hard to find game types. They will NOT be selling any puzzles or books. The new location for the game store is right next door to The Book Guy. The owner of Changing Hands was very excited to hear that we might be coming back again and said that by October they should be in place and would welcome us. They will be out of their current location on August 31 and should be set up for business at the new location in early September.

The Book Guy used bookstore is right across the street and next door to the new Changing Hands. It is books only and right now it is so crammed with books that they are setting up another shop. This one will be located directly across the street from where they are now.

The owner of Changing Hands told us that the Book Guy is a great guy to work with and that those of us more interested in books would enjoy that store while those of us who want games can come over to their store. She reported that the group would now have to drive to the Red Onion instead of walking just down the street, but the Red Onion is still the best restaurant in town; in her opinion. She is going to have her husband check to make sure that there are no events planned for the shop in October. She did say that there was a possibility that they had an event on October 11th. She thought that we could have a really nice meetup in Joplin this year.

Given all of this information, I think we should plan on a meetup in Joplin for the weekend of October 18th or the 25th. The only downside is that neither Changing Hands or The Book Guy have a place for us to gather in-store. We would have to do that at a coffee shop or in the restaurant. Even so, I think that it there are places to eat and bookshops to visit that should keep us busy for one day for sure.

Changing Hands has a new email address: It is chbsjoplin@gmail.com.

I am not sure where all of you have stayed before, but I also checked on some hotels in Joplin. I was a bit surprised that in October the prices for rooms started at around $110.00 per night and some rooms were at the $175.00 per night mark. I did find a charming motel north of Route 66 called the Westport Inn. It is basically cabins and the charge there is $70.00 per night. It is 8 miles from there to the Book Guy and the new location of Changing Hands, but for me the charm and the price makes it attractive.

>28 benitastrnad: I knew that Changing Hands was keeping the game part of the store and changing its location but because the group is about books I never thought to mention it. Thanks, Benita.

We normally meet on the Friday, not the Saturday. Are we going to change that? The weekend of the 18th is when we would normally hold the meet up so if that is changing, Catey will definitely need to know as she has already arranged to have the weekend of the 18th off.

Isn't Susie wonderful? She has been great to work with through the years! I hope we can have as great a relationship with The Book Guy :)

>29 benitastrnad: Thanks for the mention of that! We have been staying at the Drury Inn.

Meeting on Friday will change things for me. I asked for Saturday off, so I will have to go back and amend my time-off request. That isn't a problem, but I just figured it would be on Saturday. Friday isn't a problem.

I suspect that we should just set the date and place and since the books and games are so close both of them will work for all of us.

That sounds good, Benita, with the caveat Stasia mentioned that we usually meet on that Friday. I am usually in Kansas City visiting my friend Vickie at that time, so we come down from Overland Park. We might check out the Westport Inn.

Catey is not going to be able to make the Joplin meet up this year after all. She cannot take the time off work because someone else has requested that time off, so I will be flying solo this year.

I have not made any reservations yet, but have put in my first request for time off for that weekend. If nobody else has requested it, I will be there.

Just a reminder to those interested that our annual Joplin meet up will be on Friday, October 17th, this year. I think we will be meeting up where the Book Guy is at 708 E 15th St, Joplin, MO. The shop opens at 10am on Fridays.

The Book Guy and the new location for Changing Hands Bookstore are in the same strip mall, so there shouldn't be a problem visiting both of them on October 17th. I am in the process of making my hotel reservations for the night of October 16 and am finding the room rates to be reasonable. The new location for the both bookshops seems to be close to the hotels, so that will make it easier for all of us to find the bookshops/gaming stores. I am looking forward to meeting all of you and for finding some books that I have been looking for lately.

I'm planning on being there with my friend Vickie. Although I did get distracted by news of a Cat lounge bookstore over in Pittsburg!

>36 benitastrnad: Great! I am looking forward to seeing John again even if it is without Susie. I am also looking forward to meeting The Book Guy.

>37 ronincats: I think that the Cat lounge bookstore would distract me too, Roni!

OK everyone! We are on for the meetup in Joplin. I have made reservations for a place to stay and Stasia has talked to Susy at the Changing Hands Store.

Things will be a bit different in Joplin this year. We will be meeting as a group at the Book Guy Used Bookstore. Just to confuse us, Changing Hands Game Shop has moved to a location next door to The Book Guy on Friday, October 17, 2025. That will make it easy for us to go to both stores if we desire, but the group will meet at The Book Guy.

Stasia said that you usually meet later in the morning, after 10 or so, so that is the timetable I will be sticking with. We will decide on where we want to eat lunch at that time, but Susy, from Changing Hands, says that the Red Onion is only a few blocks away and will be easy for us to get to.

I am going to be leaving Kansas tomorrow and will be spending the first part of the week in Tuscaloosa, Alabama visiting friends. From there, I will journey to Joplin. I will be rooming with Stasia on Thursday night. If you want to get better details about the meetup, contact Stasia here on LT, because I will be off and on this next week.

I am looking forward to meeting all of you and having a very good book day in Joplin.

Oh, that sounds like so much fun, but unfortunately, I won't be there. I am still in a breast cancer fog mainly due to the hormone blocking drug that is sapping most of my energy. That, combined with an aversion to the traffic on I-44 will keep me at home. You ladies have fun and I'm looking forward to a full report afterward.

>40 Donna828: I am sorry to hear that we will miss you again this year, Donna, but your health is definitely more important!!

I have had a car emergency and had to cancel the first half of my schedualed vacation. My car won't be out of the shop until Friday, October 17, 2025, but ... The dealership gave me a loaner that is a brand new Subaru Outback! They said that I could drive the loaner car to Joplin. I said that it was 600 miles and were they sure I could drive it that far. They said yes, so I plan on being there. I will see all of you there.

The Changing Hands gaming store and the Book Guy are right next door to each other. Changing Hands is letting us reserve one of their gaming rooms and they don't care if we bring drinks into their store. We are going to meet there first thing in the morning of October 17, 2025. This will give Stasia time to look at games and the rest of us can drink coffee and talk awhile. We will then go next door and check out the used books at the Book Guy. Changing Hands moving has been a boon to this meetup. It is making things very handy for us.

Stasia and I will be rooming together at the Days Inn in Joplin on Thursday, October 16, 2025. We will see you on Thursday morning at Changing Hands.

OK folks. I am packing up my laptop and getting things into the car. I will be leaving for Joplin tomorrow and am looking forward to seeing all of you at Changing Hands on Friday morning. {October 17th).

I will be leaving about noon tomorrow! I am very much looking forward to the meet up - and hoping I can stay awake, lol.

We are leaving tomorrow afternoon, not sure where we will spend the night, but will be at the Book Guy by 10 on Friday.

>46 ronincats: Sounds good, Roni! Looking forward to seeing you - but we are meeting at Changing Hands new location, right next to The Book Guy before heading over there.

Okay.

We had a great time in Joplin, MO for the meetup. It was great fun to meet Stasia. I had met Roni at her home in Salina last winter. She (Roni) brought her friend Vickie to the meetup. Turns out that Vickie and I have a mutual acquaintance. He was a high school friend from many years ago and it was good to catch up with all the news about his life and to add a new friend. All of us became acquainted with a new Used bookstore and we spent some time with the owner of the old bookstore which the group shopped in the past. She has turned over a new leaf for her business and is concentrating on the world of gaming. I had a very enlightening conversation with her about the new business, which is called Grey Fox Games. She has a very enthusiastic clientele in Joplin and so far the closure of the book side of the business and the concentration on the gaming side has been a good one for her. I love to see these small businesses succeed. And who would have thought that a place like Joplin would have enough gamers to support 4 gaming outlets!

Joplin was also a bit of a surprise. It has a population of 60,000 and growing. The University of Kansas City has recently opened a branch of their medical school and that has caused a growth spurt in the town. All those high dollar medical types, so things are changing in southern Missouri.

I had a lovely drive from Wichita to Joplin with light traffic and only got turned around once. The southeastern corner of Kansas is not one that I am familiar with, so the trip has been an adventure all the way around. Next year we will have to get more of you to make the drive to the edge of the Missouri Ozarks, and Joplin is right on Route 66!

My haul from Joplin:

Birds of Prey by Wilbur Smith
The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam
The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland
Voyage to Mars by Lawrence Bergreen
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
The Gathering Wind by Gregory A. Freeman
The Second World War, Revised Edition by Martin Gilbert
The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein - the only book that was in the BlackHole that I bought in Joplin; for my Jewish Studies reading
A Lawyer's Journey by Morris Dees with Steve Fiffer - for my Black Studies reading
Animals and Other People and Malabar Farm both by Louis Bromfield - a blast from the past
Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue

As Benita said, we had a great time in Joplin as we always do. It was great to see Roni and Vickie again and to meet Benita for the first time. I just wish that I could have been better company, lol. In addition to the book haul listed above, I also bought 2 more games (because I need more of them just like I need more books). I was beside myself with exhaustion when I got home, but it was so worth the trip!

I will post photos when I get home from KC tomorrow evening!

>52 ronincats: Great! I want to see what everyone bought since I have a memory like a sieve these days.

Here you go. This is my friend Vickie, Benita, me, and Stasia wishing we really wouldn't include her in this.



And then here are Benita's books and my books. Stasia, the photo I took of your books evidently didn't record! Sorry, but glad you already listed your books.

Oops, forgot you had texted me the photo instead of my taking it, Stasia. Here are Stasia's books!



And I really should have taken a photo of the bookshop. There were piles of books EVERYWHERE!!!

Thanks for posting the photos of the books, Roni. I do not want to talk about the other one. . .

I'm glad you all had a good meetup! Thanks for sharing your pictures!

Enjoyed the pictures, thanks for posting them.

It looks like a good time was had by all. So much fun to see the smiling faces and all the pretty books, too. I missed out on a good time but I don't miss having more books. I am trying to thin out my stacks...and stacks.

It looks wonderful!!!!!

Benita, when you have time, please list your titles because I can't read the spines in that little picture!!! (Or I'll check your thread to see whether you put them there.)

>59 Donna828: I'm sorry you had to miss it, Donna, and I know you were missed. Next year! As to thinning out --- not book stacks, not me (although I have lost some fat over the past year).

ETA: Benita, you don't have a thread? I knew that...............

Here is the list of what I bought at The Book Guy in Joplin, MO.
Alexandria: The Last Nights of Cleopatra by Peter Stothard
Fortunate Ones by Catherine Hokin
And A Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails by Wayne Curtis
Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired by Francine Prose
Gourmands' Way: Six Americans in Paris and the Birth of the New Gastronomy by Justin Spring
What is the What by Dave Eggers
Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout
Caesar's Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us by Sam Kean

The real prize, as far as books go, was Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam by Frances FitzGerald

This book was originally published in 1972 and was the first history of Vietnam and what was going on in Vietnamese politics. It was one of the first books to explain why the war was not winnable. But the real story of this book was Frances FitzGerald. She was one of the first women war reporters and was one of the three women who changed the way war reporting was done. FitzGerald first came to my attention when I read You Don't Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War by Elizabeth Becker. I read this book back in 2022 for the Nonfiction Challenge and it was one of my top books for the year. I can't wait to dig my teeth into Fire in the Lake and find out why FitzGerald was so admired and became a historical influence on modern US foreign policy. This book is her magnum opus and even though it is not a biography, I hope to learn a great deal about the Vietnam War from the point-of-view of an underserved segment of history (women and minorities) about a place that was an unknown cipher to most of the American public in 1972.

Becker, the author of You Don't Belong Here was the ONLY American reporter in Cambodia when the American's invaded and she was the only reporter in Cambodia when Pol Pot took the city and became dictator of the country. She barely made it out of Cambodia alive and several of the reporters with her (Cambodian) didn't. That book is well worth reading.

We had a great time in Joplin, MO last week. The weather was perfect for driving, and the city was somewhat of a surprise. Joplin is much bigger than I thought - 53,000. It is on the crossroads of I44 and I49 and is very close to the Missouri Ozark Mountains.

It was a longer drive for me than what Google Maps said it would be. Not in miles but in time because Kansas highway 400 is marked as a 4-lane road in Google Maps. It isn't. However, getting to Joplin, allowed me to drive through a part of Kansas I have not been in very often. Southwest Kansas is very much unknown territory in my personal space. The longer timeline meant that Stasia had to wait for me at the motel, but we spent a very pleasant evening together.

The meetup was on Friday, October 17. We met up with Roni and Vickie at Grey Fox Games. This is the new iteration of the old Changing Hands Books and Games store. The owner of Grey Fox was kind enough to let us use her new facility for a gathering spot. She was a wonderful host and answered many questions about the city and her business. Changing Hands was forced to move due to an exorbitant rise in the rents for the old space they had closer to the downtown Main Street. The new location is in a more out-of-the-way location, but it is a better space for them. Since they had to relocate, the owners also reevaluated the business and along with their stage in life, decided to exit the used books business and concentrate on the game side. She said they are happy with this decision and the business has profited from their decision. They are open Tuesday through Sunday with late nights on Wednesday and Friday. The response of the gaming community in Joplin has been very good and they are pleased with their decision to make these changes in their life and business.

For the group the change was also convenient. Just across the street from Grey Fox is another used bookstore: The Book Guy. The four of us adjourned from Grey Fox and went book shopping at The Book Guy. This store was a treasure trove for those who had lots of time to dig through stacks and boxes of books. It turned out the The Book Guy took all of the used books that Changing Hands had left when they moved. This store now has so many books that it is going to expand into a space next door to Grey Fox Games. But the Book Guy has not done that - yet. He is working on it. In the meantime, the Book Guy is stacked and packed with books. The day we were there he was offering a special deal on books. On some trade and all pocket-sized paperbacks, it was buy-one-get-one. On hardbacks and trade paperbacks it was buy-two-get one free. This was a good deal for us bookies and we made use of that special deal.

At 12:30 we adjourned to the groups favorite place for lunch, the Red Onion, where we had great food that included a very nice slice of cake for dessert, and some great conversation. It turned out that Vickie and I had a mutual acquaintance. One of my high school mates is in the same church choir that she is in. All of this made for a pleasant afternoon. The group adjourned about 2:30 pm and we all dispersed to our respective points on the compass rose.

The group hopes to meetup in 2026 on the third weekend of October in the same city - Joplin, MO.