Hearne: Farewell Salute to the Kansas City Board of Trade

When a man makes an “Oklahoma Guarantee” it behooves him to live up to it…

To that end, help yourself to this collection of letters from a group of school kids that I conducted a tour of the Kansas City Board of Trade for in 1981 while a member.

Today’s the last day of trading for the KCBOT. May the Kansas City Wheat contract as we know it rest in peace:

“Dear Mr. Christopher,

Thank you very much for taking time off work to show us around. My favorite part of the Board of Trade was when we saw the pit. I thought it was sort of funny when all the men would hassle one man and that man would try frantically to write everything down.

Sincerely,

Beth Dolan.”

*******

“Dear Mr. Christopher,

I enjoyed going to the Board of Trade. It was very interesting. I have a really good idea now what stock is. I thought looking in the pit was the best thing I saw. The computers were neat to look at. Hope you get your clocks working.

Sincerely,

Cindy Twyman”

*******

“Dear Mr. Christopher,

Thank you for showing us around. I liked the auction place the best. You would think the way they were yelling around their throats would be sore. I don’t know how the people at the chalkboard can go so fast.

Sincerely,

Lisa Armitage”

*******

“Dear Mr. Christopher,

I liked the Board of Trade a lot! I had already seen it from when my dad worked at B.C. Christopher. But that was when I was little; so this refreshed my memory. Please say hello to your father for me. I told my dad we went to B.C. Christopher and we saw the market close and he asked how you and your father were doing?

He was also surprised that you were working full time there, because when he worked there you only worked in the summer for extra money. He said, ‘Hell, we are all older now!’ I had an excellent time and learned a lot, especially in stocks and bonds.

Sincerely,

Lisa Kiene”

*******

“Dear Mr. Christopher,

Thank you for showing us around the Board of Trade. It was very interesting. I liked it a lot and you did a good job explaining everything. The building really looked nice. The Board of Trade seems like an exciting place to wrok.

Sincerely,

Brooke Harper”

*******

“Dear Mr. Christopher,

I had a wonderful time and learned a whole lot. I think the job would be really confusing but if we knew how to do the job I think it would be hard but fun. I learned a lot about the grain company. The pit was very loud and sounded very confusing, but I’d love to work in it. And thank you very much, I had a great time.

Love,

Wynne Madden”

*******

“Dear Mr. Christopher,

Thank you so much for explaining the Board of Trade to us. I liked it when we went into the pit where they were trading for the future.

Sincerely,

Frances Crouch.”

*******

They won’t be trading for the future at 4800 Main Street in Kansas City after today. Not in the “pit” anyway. I remember early on in my career as a stock and commodity futures broker going to our office in Omaha and going out on the trading floor there.

Oh my god, it was so slow. Nobody was doing anything yet some of the old traders went up there and hung out during market hours nonetheless.

Who knows what will become of the KCBOT other than its likely sale and the exodus of the many small firms that dotted the building. The chalkboards and the fancy, circa 1981 computers will be long gone along with the ghosts of the men and women who wore the colorful trading jackets, drank tons of coffee and engaged in a high stakes game of poker where fortunes were won and lost in the blink of an eye.

All of which went away at 1:15 p.m. today.