RCNews March 28

LHS seniors Addie Kershner and Brett Herman were chosen to participate in the Central Kansas All-Star basketball game on Sunday at Barton County Community College. Both Addie and Brett’s respective teams were victorious out scoring their opponents by the score of 111-101 in the girl’s game and 134- 105 in the boys contest. Congratulations to these two outstanding athletes!

Babe Gilbert was honored March 15, 2018 with a certificate of continuous membership in the
McCracken American Legion for 60 years.

Jim and Judy Tanck Rhoades stopped by my house for a nice visit last week. We went to the Museum to
look at the scrap book that Susan Davis found when they were residents of the house to see if Judy
recognized anyone, unfortunately she did not.

The McCracken Main Street Literary Society is restarting April 3rd! Love to read? Read all the time? Don't have time to read much? Not really a big reader? Then come! Share your favorite book, one you just finished or one you read ages ago. Readers of all ages and genres welcome! Every Tuesday evening at 7:00 at the library.

Tanner Larsen, son of Milton and Cheryl Foreman Larsen, Lindsborg, is a member of the University of Kansas pep band. Tanner plays the trumpet and is fortunate to be able to travel along with the Jayhawks basketball team. We will be looking for Tanner as the band travels to San Antonio, Texas, next week for the NCAA Final Four.

Terry and Stacy Foreman Spenst were also in Omaha, Nebraska, last week to watch the NCAA Midwest Regional finals. They joined their son, Nathan Spenst. Nathan was a lucky winner of two tickets to the tournament. Tanner, Nathan, Terry and Stacy certainly had much to cheer about! What a tournament!

Phil White, Little River, visited with Jerry Higgins at the NJCAA tournament last week. Phil told Jerry to share with Carolyn Thompson and myself that he is a weekly reader of the Rush County News. Phil's wife is a minister in Great Bend and one of the parishioners shares the paper with her. Phil is a regular at the NJCAA tourney and I always enjoyed visiting with him when I attended the tournament as well. I believe he was a 1972 graduate of Little River high school and we enjoyed talking about the good old days of McCracken High School basketball.

Several local fans celebrated the Kansas Jayhawks overtime victory versus Duke on Sunday afternoon. It has been reported that a group of the Jayhawk faithful will continue to practice their "game day" superstitions next Saturday as the Jayhawks battle the Villanova Wildcats.

Sports History:

12/8/1905 A game of football is scheduled to be played at LaCrosse Monday between the team there and the McCracken team. It’s dimes to pennies that the LaCrosse team will be beautifully beaten. 12/15/1905 A football game is matched to be played at LaCrosse this afternoon between the eleven there and the Mc. Men. It is understood the boys here would not play unless the boys down the road would make it worthwhile and it was finally agreed that the teams would put $100.00 a side and play for money. McCracken’s line up is composed of Ora Ware, Staten and John Lovitt, Frank and B. Irvin, Guy Chase, Dick Carter, Hud Starrett, John Keller, Dan and Ed Hunt.12/22/1905 The football game which was to have been played by the team here and the team of LaCrosse last Friday was started on all right but never finished for the reason that the LaCrosse boys left the grounds and by no sort of coaxing could be induced to continue the game. The Mc team says the decisions of the referee was against them from the start, but with all this they would have won the game had it been played to a finish. The money (200 dollars) is yet in the hands of the stakeholder, and there will probably be another game to decide who gets it. 12/29/1905 The LaCrosse football team was declared the victor in the recent game in LaCrosse before justice of the peace in that place last Saturday, but as yet they have not been able to pry stakeholder John Purcell lose from the money. 5/19/1905 The decision in the football case in the district Court at LaCrosse last week, wherein the club of this city and that of LaCrosse had up a hundred dollars each and went into court to find out who was entitled to the money was decided by LaCrosse getting its money back and McCracken paying the costs. The decision don’t look like a square deal and don’t make any votes with the boys in this end of the woods.

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Patricia Petz:

An American holiday celebrated on the 3rd Monday in February (February 19th) was President's Day.  It was originally established in 1885 in recognition of President George Washington, and it is still called "Washington's Birthday" by the federal government.  George Washington's birthday, however is actually February 22nd.  The holiday became known as President's Day after it was moved as part of the 1971's Uniform Monday Holiday Act. This movement enabled more three-day weekends for the nation's workers.  Today, President's Day is viewed as a day to celebrate all United State presidents past and present.  

Many schools did not have class on Monday and then La Crosse had a two-hour delay on Tuesday due to the icy roads.  I left home fairly early to avoid any accidents. The roads seemed fine until I got to the high school and then the street seemed to have a sheet of ice on it: a time to walk very carefully!  

Wednesday evening I attended a Liturgy meeting at the Parish Center.  We basically reviewed some upcoming events and some possibilities of things to do for Advent. 

Friday was a fun day as I helped the middle school as well as the high school students in the English Department.  The end of the day was exciting for several senior students as it was their "Signing Day." Emma Garcia,  Kaycee Klozenbucher, and Addie Kershner (all former second grade students of mine) were met by their parents, teachers, and friends to cheer them on!  Congratulations, girls!

Saturday was a very busy day as I had to leave my house early and head to the Hays Recreation Center.  Once again the roads were a bit icy, but I had to watch my grandson, Kameron Petz, play on the team for the "Hays Beasts." They played very well, unfortunately, they lost all of their games. Later that afternoon, I headed to Salina, where I met with my daughter, Angie Timson and her children.  We decided to go to the movie "Peter Rabbit" and we enjoyed it very much.  After some shopping, we ate at Red Lobster, and then we headed to McPherson. 

My grandson, Grant, wanted to go to church with me Sunday morning.  Since he is only four years old, I wasn't for sure how the morning would go.  I'm proud to say that he behaved "perfectly."  He was even able to "whisper" when he had questions (which is very hard for a four-year old to do.  
We spent most of the day playing games and reading to each other.  It's always so much fun to be with these boys, and it's always hard to leave, however, I left McPherson mid-afternoon and headed back home.  I stopped in to say hi and see how mom was doing once I reached La Crosse.  She is still feeling quite weak and still has a terrible cough, however, I think she is getting better.  It seems like this coughing spell lasts a very long time this year. 

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Patricia Petz:

This past weekend we were finally blessed with some much needed rain in Rush county and really much of the state of Kansas. We can always use the moisture so keep saying those prayers.  I drove in light rainfall and even some snow on Monday while I was returning from McPherson with my grandson, Grant Timson. We stopped in to see Great Grandma Mary in La Crosse just for a few minutes as Grant was anxious to get to the farm.   Disappointment hit when I was only 4 miles from home!  Although I tried going down my road for an eighth of a mile, I soon discovered that I needed to try to turn around and head back to the highway.  I so wish that something could be done to fix our four mile stretch that was torn up several years ago.  Because of the condition of the road, I had to go an extra 30 miles to get home by traveling back on the Liebenthal road, then to US 183 to Antonino, and finally driving on the Ellis road!  I guess the road commissioners don't realize how much that road means to the people that live on that 4 mile stretch (even though we pay our taxes, too) or to the people that have to travel to Ellis and Hays for work, business, or pleasure. There would be no way an ambulance or emergency personnel could travel down this road during these type of conditions. PLEASE fix the four mile stretch of our non-paved road! 

Tuesday was a very busy day as I had to begin the process of having my taxes looked at for 2017 in La Crosse.  While I was doing that, Grant spend some one on one time with Great-Grandma Mary.  Then we headed to Hays to the Sternberg Museum.  Grant's still a little leery of the growling T-Rex, but thoroughly enjoys playing in the "Dinosaur Dig" area and the "Discovery Room."  The Sternberg is such an enjoyable place to spend time with your grandchildren.  There will be a new exhibit area coming soon! 

We had a fun time on Wednesday making soft play dough, picking up dead branches in the tree rows, and playing with my new puppy, Boomer. It seemed like too short of a time to spend with Grant this time, but we had to meet Angie Wednesday evening for his return trip to McPherson.  We picked up Great-Grandma Mary in La Crosse and then headed to Great Bend to have an enjoyable supper at Applebee's.  It's always a delightful time to have your grandchildren with you.  There's NEVER a dull moment! 

So many of us from Rush county were blessed on Thursday to travel to Dodge City to attend the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral.  The Chrism Mass gathers the diocese around Bishop Brungardt before the beginning of the Triduum, so that Parish Representatives may take home the holy oils and sacred chrism needed for the initiation rites at Easter. Representatives from the Holy Trinity Parish in Timken were: Julie Huber, and Betty & Larry Stejskal, from St. Joseph's Parish in Liebenthal: Barbara Matal, and Ludmilla and Perry Kreutzer, and from the St. Michael's Parish in LaCrosse: Ruth and Bill Baalman, Benny Viegra, Mary Steitz, Patricia Petz, and Father Eric Gyamfi. Although there were many priests in attendance, 3 were recognized for their years of service.  Rev. Jim Dieker celebrated his 25th Anniversary of ordination, Rev. Ultan Murphy celebrated his 65th Anniversary, and Bishop Stanley Schlarman celebrated his 60th Anniversary.  Mom was so delighted to visit with many of the priests that she used to clean for while they were in La Crosse as well as many others that served in La Crosse.  They were:  Father Jim Dieker, Father Ultan Murphy, Father Ted Skalsky, Father Paschal Klein, and Father Terence Klein (a cousin to mom).  

Many of you have probably seen the giant reproduction of Van Gogh's "Three Sunflowers In A Vase" as you traveled by Goodland on I-70. I got a very close view of the 24 by 32 foot painting which weighs 40,000 pounds  and stands on an 80 foot easel on Friday afternoon.  This reproduction was created by Cameron Cross from Altona, Manitoba, Canada and was completed on August 17, 2001. That evening I set up by Magnetic Jewelry display at the Max Jones Activity Center. 

I attended the "Simply Chic Craft Fair" in Goodland on Saturday.  There were over 60 different vendors and it was a very nice show.  Although I gained an extra hour going to Goodland, I had to return to the Central Time Zone on my return trip.  It made for a long day and I was glad to return home safely. 

We had a nice service on Sunday at St. Michael's Church as it was Palm Sunday.  Mom and I went to Tracy's for lunch and afterwards I had a nice visit with my mother-in-law, Dolores Petz at the farm before I returned home.  It's always nice to visit with people and to go places, but there's no place like home! Have an enjoyable week.  




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