January 10, 2018 News

Birthdays: January 10, Rachel Grumbein, Linda North, Terry Showalter, Angie Tomlinson, Eugene Brown, Brad Pfannenstiel; January 11, Hailey Clancy, Joyce Eisenhour, Amber Litttler, Cody Pfeifer; January 12, Tony Harp, Terry Don Doerr; January 14, Maggie Elias; January 15, Lucas McCormick, Cameri Mills, Quinn Anderson, Shawn Baus, Scott Rome, Rose Jones, LeAnn Weatherby, Audra Allen; January 16, Bryce Conner, Kaden Foust.

Anniversaries: January 12, Roger and Brenda Legleiter, Travis and Ava North; January 14, Kellye and Sandy Irvin, Brett and Holly Gilbert

A Fund Raiser will be held on Saturday, January 20, for Bob and Charmaine Wolfe. A Chicken and Noodle Dinner will be held at the McCracken Community Building from 5:00 P.M. to 8:00 P. M. A Free Will Donation is suggested. The proceeds will be given to the Wolfes to help with expenses of re-furbishing a house on West Locust Avenue in McCracken.. Their house on Highway 4 was completely destroyed on New Year's Day by fire. If you cannot attend the fundraiser there is an account set up at Farmer's Bank and Trust or a donation bucket at Dollar General both in LaCrosse.

Several items have been donated to the McCracken Jail/Museum. Joseph (Joe) Higgins, Martin and Mary Higgins' son found a postcard on E-Bay - It was written on October 9, 1907 and sent from Ransom from Sylvia. It reads, “Dear Girls: I was indeed glad to know you were still alive, if ever I get to McCracken I will surely come and see Annie, why don't you ever come to Ransom? With Love, Sylvia” It was mailed to Mrs. Anna Wilson. It was stamped received in McCracken on October 10 at 6 a.m. Good service. (The picture was from Germany of a house and colorful trees); The second item is a yearbook from McCracken Middle School Memories 1987-88, a gift of Hoop and Twila Higgins; It was dedicated to Charles Bankston, science teacher. He was employed at USD 395 for 25 years. Principal was Melvin Barnett, teachers, Benny Viagra, Glenn Conner, John Rose, Janice Stull, Linda Lawson,, Terry Musil, Shonda Nicholson, Arlene Gilbert, Elizabeth Conner, Eleanor Wells, Susan Urban, Rick Schmidt, Jody Wittman, Bill Losey and student teacher Tim Fairchild. Staff, Pat Derr, Elizabeth Barnett, Corinne Baldwin, Elaine Hicks, Twila Higgins, Priscella Jacobs and Vernie Wittman. The third packet was from Twila Gross, Ness City, Roy Conrad's sister-in-law. They contain old newspaper clippings of early McCracken and some articles about Paper Moon.

Late Christmas news item. Dominic and Kayla Weskamp met Chris and Thayne Jones in the Ozarks just before Christmas when the Jones’ were at the Casey family cemetery where Machree is buried. Chris and Dominic were roommates when they were students at Ft. Hays State.

Arlene Gilbert has sent an apology to Ursula, Nate, Anita and Jeff for not spelling Nate’s name correctly last week in the RCNews. She had written Nat!.

I visited with Allan Miller this past week and he told me there are several books of “Yankee on the Prairie” left. He is going to deliver them to McCracken and LaCrosse this spring. If you did not receive one at the time of publication, please do so this spring, if you like history you will enjoy this book.

I’m guessing it was too cold last week for people to ‘get out and about’ as I do not have any news.

History Note September 16, 1893:

Cherokee Strip Run Howard Barnard was approached by his friend, Frank Start, about joining him and his brother Al, John and Joe Wharton, Chris Derr and Tom Hall in a trip to stake out claims, but Barnard said he had no interest in the venture. So without him, the men from McCracken headed south in their wagons. The first night they camped just south of Bazine, Kansas (about 20 miles from McCracken). Around two in the morning they heard someone calling their names. When they answered, Howard Barnard walked into camp, lucky to be alive because of the commotion he had caused. He had walked to join them because he had decided that “someone had to stay in the tent and take care of the money and I was the only one who didn’t drink.” Frank Start agreed to let him ride in the wagon along with the Wharton boys.


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Patricia Petz:

I'm hoping that all of you had an exciting beginning into the New Year.  As I was receiving many blessings from family and friends, I found one that I thought was quite worthy of sharing.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! 

"I'd like to welcome you to Flight 2018.  We are prepared to take off into the New Year.  Please make sure your Positive Attitude and Gratitude are secured and locked in the upright position.  All self-destruct devices; pity, anger, selfishness and resentment should be turned off at this time.  All negativity, hurt and discouragement should be put away.  Should you lose your positive Attitude under pressure during this flight, reach up and pull down a prayer.  Prayers will automatically be activated by Faith.  Once your Faith is activated, you can assist other passengers who are of little faith.  There will BE NO BAGGAGE allowed on this flight.  God, our Captain has cleared us for take-off.  Destination - GREATNESS!  Wishing you a New Year filled with new HOPE, new JOY, and new BEGINNINGS!" (UNKNOWN)

It doesn't seem possible that the second semester of the New Year has begun during this past week.I wish all of the students and teachers a successful journey as they prepare for the many successes that they will achieve during this time.  I was called in to sub at the Elementary School on Friday, so it was fun to see all of the cheery faces that day.  After running many errands after school, I stopped in to see mom and we had a delicious pancake, egg, and bacon supper.  I hadn't had one of those for a long time! You know, your mom's cooking is ALWAYS the best!  

Since it was so very cold last week, mom and I didn't get in on the after Christmas sales, so we decided that we would see what was left at the stores in Hays on Saturday. To our surprise,  we felt that we got several nice things that were still available.  Our biggest goal for the afternoon was to meet up with my daughter, Angie, and two of her sons, Drake and Grant.  We met at McDonald's (boys' choice) and then Angie was off to celebrate her birthday at Rock Haven with her friend Christi Schneider and mom and I took the boys to see the movie: "Jumanji."  Because they had already seen a couple of the other movies, this one was their next pick.  We had fun and I was surprised, but mom even enjoyed it.  After the movie we had some things to pick up at Wal-Mart.  We had to hurry, (which is usually very rare for us) because mom and I had decided to go to church Saturday evening.  We attended the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church and could not believe how beautifully decorated it was with all of the Christmas decorations.  After mass, we met up with Angie and Christi at Guiterrez's, which is our favorite place to eat in Hays.  It was rather late when we arrived home, but we were able to spend some visiting time together.

Sunday became a laid back day visiting, playing games, watching a movie, and repotting some plants. Later in the afternoon,  Angie took mom back to La Crosse  and then they returned to McPherson.  We had such a fun weekend!  I'd like to wish all of you a wonderful flight in 2018!