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Courtney Neill
Hatteberg's People
Reporter: Larry Hatteberg
| November 21, 2004--On Hatteberg’s People, it’s called ‘getting a break’. That’s exactly what one small town did to a woman who was down on her luck. Come with me now to Toronto, Kansas to meet Courtney Neill. |
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With red hair flowing, we find a woman whose smile and attitude is now part of Main Street.
“We now have a population of about 297 in town. We are four blocks anyway that you go. I was impressed with how they treated a stranger. It’s a different kind of life than I have ever had. I’ve moved around a lot and some of these people have lived here forever.”
“I asked one woman, ‘Have you lived here all your life?’ And she said, ‘Oh no dear, we moved away for a couple of years’. I said, ‘Oh, where did you move to?’ She said, ‘Eurekee’. That’s 18 miles west of me and to her, that was moving away.” |
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On Toronto’s Main Street there is a new business---Courtney’s Place…and you are listening to Courtney Neill’s experiences in this Woodson County town.
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“It’s a dream come true and it’s also an art project. I had always wanted to and thought it would be really cool to live upstairs. It was practical and it sounded like a fun idea.”
“That’s the day I bought this building.”
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A few years ago Courtney was a stranger here. She came from Florida. She knew she didn’t have enough retirement money, so she was looking for a new start.
“My brother and sister in-law were in Kansas and they kept saying, oh come to Kansas, come to Kansas. So, I started out, the R-V blew up half way, and I’m towing my car and everything I own. I get up here to Kansas and I’m here three days and fall and shatter a knee.”
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But she had a dream. A dream to start her own business. It took her five years…but she did. And she’s now here in Courtney’s Place.
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| “It’s a small little town. I put five businesses in here. Here I have Divine Pizza and ‘Bring Your Own Bowl’ Pasta House. This is the English Muffin where I do baking. This is Tea for Two which is a dessert room or a tearoom. And finally Toronto Trinkets featuring Kansas-made products. Plus the Cone Zone where I have soft-serve ice cream and milk shakes.” |
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“This is my ‘cut’ table and it is the alter out of the local Church. I got it at an auction. I decided not to cut it down. I figure God has a sense of humor. I got the alter and I named it ‘Divine’ Pizza.
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The old town is reflected in the store….a 92 year-old sells quilts here…a bullet hole from an old town street light now adorns her ceiling.
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“And I think man, I’ve really lived a charmed life. I mean it was scary to break a leg and lose everything that you had and be down to being destitute. But you can’t give up, you have to keep trying and plugging away. People like me want to get out of the big city and want a quieter kind of life.
They want to be able to stop and smell the roses, and you can do that in a little town like this. So I encourage everybody to come. Find a little town and make it your own. You have so much to give and so much to give back when you do something like that.”
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Larry’s Note: Courtney’s
Place is located in downtown Toronto, Kansas in Woodson County. |
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