March 6, 2019 News

Birthdays: March 6, Tom Chestnut, Sarena Higgins, Michael Greenway, Grayson Hampton; March 7, Ron Rein, Shirley Higgins; March 8, Stacy Scheetz; March 9, Kelly Pfannenstiel, Jan Showalter; March 10, Kyle Schwindt, Quintin Elias, Janett Rogers; March 11, Joy Petz, Melanie Albright, Pat Showalter; March 12, Taylor Yohe, Dolores Petz, Mathew Wetzel, Sierra Shelit.

Anniversaries: March 10, Ted and Shawna North; March 12, Rich and Rosemarie Schwindt, Stuart and Brenda Clancy.

From the Book Early Days of Kansas published from 1927 to 1959 by Kansas State Teachers Association and compiled by Bliss Isely, there is a chapter called Golden Hair and the Farm. Buffalo Bill Mathewson's wife had golden curls. The Indians named her Golden Hair. After the Treaty of Medicine Lodge, the Indians moved to Oklahoma and the land was available for free. Near the Little Arkansas which flows into the Big Arkansas (now the site of the Keeper of the Plains), was good level land. He took a farm there, built a log house and planted crops. Each year as he had promised, he would go to Oklahoma to live with the Indians, Bess stayed behind at the farm. He left his horse Bess for her to ride. He planted cottonwood twigs which took root and established their trees for shade. Their farm was near a little village called Wichita. It grew to be a city and after many years covered his farm. A school named Washington was built there and the children played in the shade of his trees.

We enjoyed the hamburger feed put on by the Sons of the Legion on Saturday night. Always a good time to see friends from the community. We especially appreciate this organization to help keep our Legion active.

Another big snow covered the old snow on Saturday night into Sunday morning, then the bitter cold added to the lack of melting. We are so grateful for our warm homes.

St. Patrick's Day is coming up with activities at Rush Center. Please support this wonderful day of the year.

The Readers of the Winter 2018 Issue of The KANSAS magazine chose the state’s six favorite destinations for a week-end get-away: Abilene, Atchison, Council Grove, Lawrence, Lindsborg and Norton. Congratulations!

We received more snow, wind and bitter cold temperatures Saturday night, Sunday and Monday. A winter week-end has not gone by without a storm for several weeks. I’m ready for spring, anyone else?

Brady Douglas Whitis, 43, died February 22, 2019 in Los Angeles, CA. He was born October 26, 1975 in Ransom, Kansas to Richard Douglas and Kathy Legleiter Whitis. Brady is survived by his three daughters, Autumn, Olivia and Paige of Utah. A memorial service will be held March 7, 2019 at Ryan Mortuary in Salina, Kansas. Inurnment will be held at a later date in LaCrosse, Kansas. Our sympathy to the family.

We thank Mike Conner for grading our streets in McCracken and everyone who shoveled walks, drive ways etc.

Biodiversity in The Art of Carel Pieter Brest van Kempen will be at the Shafer Art Gallery March 8 – April 18. March 8 is opening reception @ 6:30; March 10; 2 pm Biodiversity Talk; April 6, 10 am to 1 pm Family Day.

We offer our condolences to Roy and Kathleen Langdon, he lost his father, John Langdon, January 27 and his mother Merle Langdon, February 23.

History Notes:

1948 LaCrosse high defeated Mc 34-17 in a REN league game at Mc. Jerry Sell, Guy Conner and Jack Denison tied for honors, other players for LaX were Yost, and Rand. Mc players, John Elmore, Willard Thompson, Wayne Irvin, William Spomer, Julius Unrein, Robert Thompson, Floyd Thompson, Jimmy, Higgins, Tony Schlitter; Clarence Deutscher, Ellis, a war veteran, is 7th and 8th grade teacher; zero weather, accompanied by strong north winds, complicated heating problems of this entire area again this week and resulted in the closing of most of the schools which use natural gas for heating. This is the 2nd time in the last two weeks that intense cold throughout this part of the state has forced gas companies to request the closing of school in order that sufficient pressure in gas lines may be sustained for the heating of homes and business houses; arrangements for the Class B basketball teams in district tournaments have been announced by the KSHSAA. This includes more than 505 teams and there will be 58 district tournaments. Teams from this area include Dorrance, Bison, Bunkerhill, Dorrance, Gorham, Holyrood, Otis, Victoria, Schoenchen, Wilson, Ness City, Alexandeer, Arnold, Bazine, Beeler, Brownell, McCracken, Ness City, Ransom and Utica. LaX will play in the class A tournament with teams Hays, Ellis, Hill City, Phillipsburg, Russell, Stockton, Wakeeney and Hays; an all-time cold record for the month of March was set when the thermometer dipped to 23 degrees below zero; the St. Mary’s school at Loretto burned to the ground by fire which was reported to have started from a defective floor furnace. The building was constructed in 1912, the first church built at Loretto.


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Patricia Petz:

Once again, I started out the week with nothing scheduled on my calendar, however it turned out to be a very busy week for me.  I subbed Monday through Thursday at both of the La Crosse School buildings.  This was especially nice because after school was over, I could check on mom and see how she was doing.  She's beginning to feel like herself again which is great!  It's never good to have a loved one so sick that they can't get out of their own house.  

Although I knew that bad weather for the weekend was in the forecast, I had a Jewelry Show scheduled for Liberal and decided to proceed to the event.  Mom usually goes with me but this was not going to happen this time.  I left Friday afternoon and had an enjoyable ride to the Seward County Activity Center.  I was able to set up my booth and then find my Motel and began to settle in for a nice evening.  

Saturday was a long day as the KSCB Spring Fest Home Show was scheduled for 8:00 am to 6:00.  The show wasn't as full as normal since the weather was so cold that day. After the show, I was able to attend mass at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church.  To my surprise Father James Philip Dieker was the pastor.  Mom had cleaned for Father when he was a priest in our parish.  It was so nice to see him.  

I woke up Sunday morning with blowing snow and very cold windy weather and I wondered if I'd make it back home that same day.  Despite the weather, we had a nice attendance at the show on Sunday. The highway patrol had told us that it would be better to go through Garden City than to take the Dodge City route home.  I had basically a clear route until I was near Ness City and then it began to snow again.  It was kind of scary in spots but the snow didn't last long and I was able to make it home safely.  I sure did miss having my mom sit beside me on the way back home.  But, I was able to somewhat fix that problem by visiting with her on the phone for many miles down the road.  Sometimes, technology is great!