June 7, 2017 News

Birthdays: June 7, Addie Kershner, Melissa Davis,, Father Pascal Klein; June 8, Catherine Casey, Kathy Whitis, Emily Washaliski, Olivia Washaliski; June 9, Natalie Walker, Travis North; June 10, Bryan Bergquist, Tina Mills; June 12, Rich Higgins, Allen Kober; June 12, Casey Brown, Beverly Buster; June 13, Roger Legleiter.

Anniversaries: June 7, Julius and Lucy Unrein; June 8, Carl and Velma Legleiter, Hung and Tran Pham; June 9, David and Lanette Kaster;

Correction: Robert Wierman graduated from Ness City High School and was Valedictorian of his class. He is the son of Lawrence and Elaine Wierman. My apologies, ct.

At St. Mary's Memorial Weekend Mass, led by Father Matthew Kumi, the following helped with the services: Roy Conrad, server; Michele Moran and Nichole Kirk led the congregational singing; Carolyn Thompson, Lector; Jason Moran and Chuck Higgins took up the collection; Twila Higgins set up prior to mass.

Kevin Anderson mowed the McCracken City Cemetery with the help of his family for Memorial Day. Larry and Joyce Eisenhour are in charge of up-dating the directory on the south side of the building at the cemetery. We thank all these for doing such a fine job.

Susan Keith and Carolyn Thompson attended the dance program, ”Move Beyond” at Hartman Arena on Friday night. Brother and sister team, Derek and Julianna Hough were the featured performers with a troupe of eight other dancers. They are best known for their participation on Dancing with the Stars. They also visited David, Janet and Amanda Dennis on Friday afternoon.

Taylor Biesner, son of Kelly and Sandy Biesner, graduated from Ellis High School. He looks so much like our popular grocer Fred Taylor at that age.

Abigail North, daughter of Travis and Ava North was promoted to high school at Ellis, May 16. Kurt Moeder, LaCrosse, was one who of those attended the promotion services.

An early birthday party for Cassie Karlin was held at grandmother, Addie Mills' home, last Saturday afternoon. Others in attendance were Marty and Tina Mills, Rashell McCarty and Mike Karlin.

Cassie and Mike Karlin and Addie Mills were last Saturday evening guests of Robert and Teresa Karlin at J. D.'s Chicken in Hays. They all visited with Roy and Sandy Amerin, rural Ellis, before returning home. Cassie and Mike were over-night guests of Grandma Addie and helped to decorate graves for their mother, step-father and grandfather.

Floyd Norlin with the band Blues on the Side played the drums at the band shell at the Barton County Courthouse in Great Bend as part of the June Jaunt on Highway 96 on Saturday night.

Pastor Norma McNair wrote in the Pastor's Perspective in the Ness County News in Thursday, June 1, paper. It was entitled “I Will Call You By Name”. It was about she and her sister Ruth Ann who lived in Leadville, Colorado where her father worked for a strip mining company. She, age 5 and Ruth Ann age 10 climbed the mountain behind their home. Their parents were looking for them and they heard their faint voices. It now reminds her of the scripture from John 10:3,27 when God calleth out his sheep by name. Pastor McNair is with the United Methodist Church of Ransom, Arnold and McCracken.

Brady Demel, Danton Riedel, Zach Higgins and Chris Jonas attended the Royals – Tigers game in Kansas City on Wednesday.

Robert Peters and his friend Faith stopped by and visited with Shirley Memorial weekend. Neal and Amy Jacobs were guests of Priscilla Jacobs Memorial weekend. The Kansas Rockets baseball team from Hoisington defeated Salina two games Tuesday evening.

Callie Weber was home in time for book club Tuesday evening, she shared her experiences being back in Denver. Those attending were Anita Butler, Ruth Crawshaw, Carolyn Thompson, Priscilla Jacobs, guest Susan Thompson, Susan Rebel and Shirley Higgins.

Babe and Arlene Gilbert had as their guests Memorial weekend: Lynna Gilbert Lero, Maxine Moses Jellison, Terri Johnson, Rob, Kelly, Ameila, and Clair Van De Creek spent the day with us Sat., May 27th. We had a great lunch in the City Park followed by hours of visiting. Later in the afternoon we went to the City Cemetery where Lynna and Maxine decorated family graves. Following the visit to the Cemetery, we ended up at the farm to see Jeff, Anita, Levi, Mason, and Dakota. We also checked out the South side of the barn and the handy work of Jeff, Levi, Mason, and Dakota. Lookin' good!

Sunday afternoon Larry and Joyce Eisenhour stopped and spent about an hour with us. When they were leaving Babe asked them where they were going. Larry told him they were going to the City Cemetery to update the register. Babe said "I'm coming too". Soooo off to the City Cemetery to watch Larry and Joyce update the register. What a great thing they have done and are doing with the register.

Monday was filled with many "hellos" & " good-byes" with those that we saw at St Mary's and the City Cemeteries. All in all a great weekend. Only disappointment was when several others told us they had stopped by our house to see Babe and we weren't there.

I might add that I was so proud of Mr. Babe when he chose to stand behind the Firing Squad last Monday. Also I could not help but feel such joy and appreciation for all the Veterans, Sons of Veterans, and for the rest of the volunteers that made yet another Ceremony possible at Alexander, St. Mary's , and Mc City Cemeteries possible for another year. Hats off to them. Love living in a Small Town USA!

Cyndi and Ryan Higgins spent the last two weeks in Uniontown, PA, with Cyndi's father Presley and step- mother Charlotte. Joe drives them back east, then flies back home from Pittsburg while Cyndi takes the car on to her dad's home. Then when they are ready to come home Joe flies back to Pittsburg, Cyndi picks him up at the airport and they head on back to Kansas. It works well for them that way. Cyndi was born and raised in Pennsylvania and visits her dad as often as possible. Ryan never liked animals much when he was smaller, but PapPap, as Ryan calls his grandpa, has two small dogs and a cat and Ryan fell in love with the little cat. He may ask his Nana and Papa Higgins for one when he gets back home tomorrow.

We'll be Building a Better World at McCracken City Library during our summer reading program for children. Kicking off the summer will be Rolling Hills Zoo Wednesday, June 14th at 2:00. Summer reading will be on Wednesdays and Fridays through June at 1:00. We'll be building a better world through composting, building, environmentally friendly crafts and snacks.

Mary and Martin Higgins have been here at their "Little House on the Prairie" this past week. They have been enjoying visiting with friends and Martin has been playing golf. Martin helped with the preparations and clean-up at the golf course and cemeteries. He also was part of the honor guard for the veteran's program at the Alexander and McCracken cemeteries. Martin has also been making some repairs to the house and doing a little yard work.

Mary Margaret McCormick prepared a wonderful baked spaghetti supper for Mary and Martin last Friday night when they arrived in town after their trek here from Lenexa. Mary Margaret is a wonderful cook and dinner was great. Also Wendy enjoyed dinner with them.Mary Higgins and Rose Diehl spent Wednesday in Hays. They enjoyed lunch at Pheasant Run, then did some shopping downtown. It is nice to see the downtown area of Hays coming back to life. There are some really nice shops there now. They also did some shopping at Ace Hardware where they purchased some "mosquito" plants for Rose's patio. Those plants really do keep the critters away!

Shirley Higgins accompanied Roy Langdon and Steve McDow to Columbia, Missouri on Tuesday. On their return home Sunday it took over ten hours due to two tire blow-outs on the trailer that Roy was pulling. The first happened about 10 miles from his home; the second just before Junction City. There was also heavy rain around the Kansas City and Topeka area. Glad to be home. Whew!!

History Notes

December 1979:

Michael Jilg has opened an art gallery in the former Masonic Building. He is one of 15 artists who have their artwork selected to be a part of the 1980 Kansas Artists post card series; the MHS Mustangs kept their record unblemished with a 77-51 victory over Quivera Heights; the music department will present ”The Sounds of Christmas” a Christmas concert next Thursday. A two piano duet will be presented by Sandy Taylor and Gloria Blackwell; the kindergarten class sang for the residents of the rest homes in LaCrosse; Norma Elmore was crowned queen and Mitchell Jacobs king at the basketball homecoming game Friday night; the cookbooks sponsored by St. Mary’s Altar Society have arrived and are presently for sale, those on the committee to compile the books were Lucy Unrein, Twila Higgins, Carolyn Thompson and Shirley Higgins.


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Pat Petz - June 5. 2017

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America. Although more than two dozen cities and towns have claimed to be the birthplace of Memorial Day, one thing is clear - Memorial Day was borne out of the Civil War and a desire to honor our dead. It was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. On May 30th 1868, it was designated for the purpose of decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, and churchyard in the land. On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.

Many of us joined together in praying the rosary at the St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery outside of Mc Cracken before completing the ceremonies at the City Cemetery. The West Burch American Legion and the Sons of the Legion conducted the services. It was so nice to see and visit with many former residents of Mc Cracken. Trent, Angie, Drake, and Grant Timson came from McPherson and Nicholas Petz from Hays to pay their respect to Danny, Donald, Gene, Tim, Kirby, and Eric Petz. Afterwards, we went to “Grandma Pat's” farm and enjoyed a nice barbeque with all of the trimmings. Later in the afternoon, we went to the home of Dolores Petz and visited with “Grandma Dolores” and “Aunt Maddy,” who was visiting from Buhler.

The Timson's had to leave mid afternoon on Monday for Drake's ball practice that evening. However, Grant decided that it was his turn to spend some time with Grandma Pat.

After Grant and I spent the afternoon in Hays on Tuesday taking care of a car appointment, we headed to Precision Valley to help celebrate Kameron Petz's eleventh birthday. We had a lot of fun playing miniature golf, although not too many rules seemed to be followed by Grant! Later, Kameron opened his presents and we enjoyed the delicious “Golf” decorated cake and ice-cream.

Although Grant was originally going to stay with me until Thursday, Angie had forgotten that he had his very first dentist appointment scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. So, by 10:00 we were headed to McPherson and by 2:00 we were back on the road to Mt. Hope. Angie, Drake, and Grant all had appointments and they all checked out very well.

Thursday turned out to be a busy, but fun day. After we got Trent and Angie off to work, Drake, Grant and I headed to Hutchinson. Our first stop was at the Hutchinson Zoo. It was a beautiful day, so, we just took our time and had a blast looking at the animals and feeding the “Gigantic” fish in one of their ponds. They loved playing in the “dinosaur dig” area which was filled with lots of sand for them to play in. Before we left, we caught a ride on their train around the outskirts of the zoo. For lunch we ran to McDonalds and picked up some “Happy Meals” and then headed back to the park to have a picnic and play on the equipment. We made it back to McPherson just in time to change clothes, grab a bite to eat and head off to Grant's first T-ball practice. It was a lot of fun to watch a about a dozen four-year olds trying to figure out where first base was and learning that they couldn't just sit down while they were waiting for the ball to come to them! You would think that the boys would be exhausted and ready to go home after the practice, but not these boys!! The next thing on their agenda was to go to the movies to see, “Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie.” After the movies, we headed to the Dairy Queen for a nice ice-cream cone, followed by baths, and then finally bed.

I had mowing to do, so I said my good-byes and left Friday morning. On my way home, I stopped at my mom's and visited with her for awhile.

My granddaughter, Kallynn Petz, plays softball for the “Lady Soxs” team and their first tournament was held in Hays at the FHSU Fields on Saturday. Their team lost their first game but came through and won the second.

I met mom at Church on Sunday in La Crosse and then afterwards mom, Viola Enslinger, and I had lunch at Tracy's. Then I headed back to Hays to watch my granddaughter play softball again. They lost their first game against Dodge City, so they were through for the rest of the day. After getting some gas for the mower, I was headed back to the farm to enjoy a nice evening of movies on T.V. I needed a rest as this week came to an end!