June 27, 2018 News

Birthdays: June 27, Dana Mintner, Mark Rubin; June 28, Danny McFarren; June 30, Ted McCormick, Amanda Lamer, Debra Luft; July 1, Shirley Bundy, Lindsey Tacha, Clay Faiman, Maura Albers; July 2, Mitchell Conner, Emily Tomlinson; July 3, Sharon Irvin, Sheryl Rogers, Kristina Simmerman, Richard Baldwin, Dave Davenport, Arline Rues, Gary Barnes.

Anniversaries: June 27, Jeff and Kristian Gambala, June 30, Paul and Cindy Cannatella; July 2, Dennis and Susan Walker; July 3, Danny and Marilyn Mills.

Little Mister Cal made his first visit to Grandpa and Grandma Gilbert’s home with his parents Brandt and Haily Rogers on Sunday afternoon and stayed for an hour.

Students in the News:
Mason Weber, Ness City, was named to the university honor roll and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences dean's list at Emporia State for the spring 2018 semester. To qualify puts her in the top 10 percent of all students enrolled full-time and have a cumulative GPA of 3.5. She is the daughter of Mike and Kelly Weber and granddaughter of Judy Helget, Bob and Shirley Weber and Bob and Marlene Funk.

Elizabeth “Libby” Van Houten, daughter of Gary and Lori Van Houten of Abilene, Texas and granddaughter of Alber and Doris Oller of Holyrood, recently graduated magna cum laude from Texas A & M with a BSN. During the traditional nurse's pinning ceremony Van Housten was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau, an honor society for nurses. She has accepted a position as a critical care nurse at Parkland Hspital in Dallas, Texas.

Shannon Keith, Kansas State University, earned honors for academic performance for the spring 2018 semester.

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Brian Fear and his friend, Kandie donated items to the Jail/Museum. Some of the items were given away by local businesses. They include a wallet from Basil Ryan Grain,Meyer Hardware, Farmers Coop, Citizens State Bank, Davis Café, Ben Jacobs gas station, Charlies. There is also a slatted bonnet.

McCracken Historical Museum (Jail/Museum) have received the following in the last few weeks:

Dues: Tammy Horesky, Kellye and Sandy Irvin, Dennis Schell, Harold Herdman, Jean Schutte, Mary Ann Tanking, Dwight Eisenhour, Bob and Marlene Funk, Fred and Mary Ann Taylor, Galen Oelkers, Jan and Arlyn North, Fran Work, Roberta Wierman, Larry and Joyce Eisenhour, Annette and Tom Chestnut, Diana Hart, Gerald Walker, Kristoffer Holm, Thayne Jones, Furlen Irvin, Dale Elias, Jay and Maureen Georg, Les Rogers, Chris and Ali Ault, Deb Gaunt, Jeanette McCormick, John Hanson, Dorothy Graham, LeRoy Schuckman, Mike Pivonka, Tom, Maddie and Lilly Rues, Myron and Debra Schuckman, Gloria Blackwell, Michael Harp. Sent earlier, Babe and Arlene Gilbert, Jeff and Anita Butler, Chuck and Shari Pollard, Randy and Janell Ryan.

Memorials: George and Joyce Hunter, Dan Petz by Pat Petz; Augie Schutte, Alvina Foster and Bob Foster by Jean Schutte, Ramsey cemetery mowing by Mary Ann Tanking; Sharilyn Eisenhour by Dwight Eisenhour; Donna Schuckman, Erman Oelkers, John and Ethel Oelkers, Frank and Merle Hardwick by Galen Oelkers; Thomas R. Neal (1858-1940) and Sarah A. Hays Neal (1854-1939) My great grandfather's brother and wife by Fran Work) Francis Wierman by Roberta Wierman; Don Daivs, Carrie Davis House and Donna Schuckman by Tom and Annette Chestnut; Anna Bergquist by the Bergquist Family; Charles T. Walker and Wanda Carmen Walker by Diana K. Hart; Al Rues by Les and Rose Diehl; Machree Jones by Kris Holm; Jack Wilson and Anna Bergquist by Verlene Wilson; Bet McCormick by Jeanette McCormick; Gail Conner Keady and Bill Lovitt by Dorothy Graham, John B. Ryan (1838-1929) by Chuck Pollard's great- grandfather; Thomas and Charlotte Ryan by Randy and Janell Ryan.

Donations: Gerald Walker, Thayne Jones, Ted and Julie Nuttle, Furlen C. Irvin, Dale Elias, Bruce and Ellen Kershner, Les Rogers, Roy and Phyllis Conrad, Dennis Schell, Chris and Ali Ault, Deb Gaunt and Eric Scriven.

Blue and Gold Members, Tammy Irvin Horesky, Kellye and Sandy Irvin, Galen Oelkers, Annette and Tom Chestnut, Flame Engineering Inc, Mike Pivonka; Tim Rues, Maddie and Lilly, Gloria Blackwell, Michael Harp (My Cause), Myron and Debra Schuckman.

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The McCracken Public Library is thrilled to announce the addition of a new sink. It is located by the restroom and will make filling a coffee pot and washing craft paint brushes so much easier! A HUGE thank you to the Julia Zeller Memorial fund and Kevin Anderson for donating his time.

Galen Oelkers, Atlanta, was a guest of his mother Jean Oelkers for a few days last week. He attended the Relay for Life event, The Dueling Pianos and was treated to a Father’s Day dinner in Hays.

Jodi and Jerry Higgins motored to Kansas City this past weekend where they visited Tanner Higgins and ‘sorta, kinda’ helped celebrate his birthday. Tanner has a job working as a civil engineer for Hamm Construction. They also visited with Jenna Higgins who has a job in Lawrence this summer.

Our sympathy to the family of Chuck Seaman who died Tuesday, June 19, 2018 in LaCrosse. I was acquainted with Chuck through Jerry & Chuck with baseball and soft ball. I know he will be missed.

Mary Lovitt and Kelsey McCafferty were Saturday overnight guests of Shirley Higgins. Mary is a 1st cousin and Kelsey is Mary’s daughter. Kelsey is busy scanning my genealogy!!!!!

Our sympathy to the family of Larry Weeks, Brownell, who lost his wife Shirley, June 19, 2018 from complications of a vehicle accident while helping her husband and son with farming.

A belated 80th birthday celebration for Sharon Lovitt was held at the home of ‘Babe’ & Arlene Gilbert Sunday afternoon. Guests present were the honored guests, Sharon, Teresa Lovitt, Shirley Higgins, Carolyn Thompson, Anita Butler, Mary Lovitt and Kelsey McCafferty. Lemonade and delicious cherry cobbler were served.

Doug Higgins is doing well and is home following a double by-pass surgery recently. Jerry visited often as he had his surgery in Hutchinson.

Tammy Horesky was here this past week working on the Jail/Museum. She still has about 3 days left to ‘finalize’, so please bring your ‘stuff’ to be displayed.

Cathie, Helena, John, Melanie & Shirley enjoyed the afternoon gossiping, visiting, & laughing in front of Cathie’s house Monday afternoon!!

Aaron, Leslie, Lillian and Jackson McGaughey motored to Joplin, Missouri where Lillian was in a track meet. We will have more info next week.

History Notes:

January 1930: Both McCracken teams were far superior to the Bazine basketball squads here Tuesday night, the girls winning by an overwhelming score of 50 to 16 and the boys finished with a count of 25 to 15. This was the first appearance of the girls’ team on the home court and they looked good, very good. Every girl on the team played a nice game with Marjorie Nowles and Marie Wierman having an outstanding start.Feb 1930: The Bison boys’ team carried off the honors at the LaCrosse invitational tournament last week end, going through undefeated. The Ness City girls easily outclassed the other girls’ teams and won without much trouble. Mc boys won their first game with Hoisington but were simply outclassed in their next game with Bison losing 17 to 3. Our boys were so badly beaten that they did not score until the last quarter when Bison slowed up and put in substitutes... The Mc boys looked good on the floor at time but according to visiting players and fans did not use the right kind of play. A conservative style of play was used and in watching them one would think they were out in the lead and stalling for the whistle. A few times they tried to break through and then the boys really looked good. Just why they wanted to dribble around in the back court was a mystery to the many fans who watched them.

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Patricia Petz:

Monday started a week-long journey of keeping a new five-year-old engaged and motivated to enjoy his time at the farm with Grandma Pat.  Grant and I left McPherson with Great-Grandma Mary after saying good-bye to his mom and dad and his brother Drake.  Our first stop was at McDonald's in Great Bend to have some breakfast and then we decided to go to the Brit Spaugh Zoo.  It was a beautiful morning to enjoy the animals.  When we reached La Crosse, we stopped at the Barnard Library and picked out several good books to read and lots of movies to watch throughout the week!  Then we dropped off Grandma Mary and we finally made it to the farm.  Boomer, my new puppy, was way too excited to see us and after he was fed, we stayed in the house so he wouldn't jump on us. 

We had fun playing games, watching movies, reading books, making brownies, and playing in the hot tub on Tuesday. Grandma Pat had to keep her eyes wide open so that Boomer didn't decide to take a bath with us! 

We were up early on Wednesday, as we had decided to head to Hays to see the Lego Batman movie that the theater had scheduled for the younger people.  I bet you didn't know that popcorn and a bag of gummies were good at 10:00 in the morning!  After, the movies, we did a little shopping in the mall and stopped by to say "Hi" to Howard Yost.  He says that he loves my brownies, so I usually try to take some for him to sample whenever I go to the mall.  I just love his smile!  Then we were off to the Sternberg Museum.  Grant had such a good time with their new exhibit of insects.  He even got close to the gigantic mammoth for the first time!  Grant said, "I'm not scared of him anymore, Grandma!"  Of course, the dinosaur dig and the Discovery room will always be his favorite places to spend some time.  Spending three hours in the museum was quite an adventure, but we were really just out to spend the day anyway.  Lunch was on our menu next and I'm sure you guessed the location: 
Mc Donald's.  He discovered that they had a playground, so for the next hour he played with all of the new kids that visited the area.  That evening, Grandma Pat was tired, so we watched some more movies that we had gotten at the Library. 

My little guy must have been worn out as he slept until 11:00 on Thursday.  After we had brunch, we put together a rock crystal kit that I had purchased for him at the Museum.  He had fun watching it grow.

Friday morning, I was busy washing clothes and getting ready for our trip back to McPherson.  We stopped by Great-Grandma Mary's, but she decided to stay home this weekend. Before we left 
La Crosse, I stopped for the visitation of Chuck Seeman.  Chuck had worked for Dan when he had owned the Green Light Store in McCracken. I sure was saddened to hear of his passing.   Our next stop was in Great Bend to fill the van with gas. I had a definite surprise when I tried to start my car back up.  There was absolutely no power.  A man came to my rescue and cleaned up my battery and jiggled some wires and we were set to go.  I'm sure glad he helped me out as we had to be in McPherson by 6:45.  Although we were a little late, Grant and I met up with Angie and Drake and watched the new movie of the Incredibles. 

Saturday morning, Angie and I took Grant and Drake to Goddard to visit the Tanganika Zoo. The weather was nice and we had a fantastic time.  They have so many hands-on activities for the kids to enjoy.  They fed lettuce to the giraffes, tortoises, bunnies, and gerbils, and fed craisins to the lemurs. They rode a camel, petted an albino corn snake and a pygmy hedge hog, and even spotted a few turtles in the ponds to pick up and play with.  Drake has a special love for turtles as he and Grandpa Dan had caught two of them and played with them for several days when he had stayed with us when Drake was around three years old. They made memories for a lifetime! After we left the zoo, we went to the Texas Roadhouse for lunch.  The meal was absolutely amazing.  We had a salad, delicious rolls with a special butter, a nice filet, and an amazing sweet potato with a caramelized sauce and marshmallows. We did some shopping in Wichita and then headed back to McPherson.  We were so tired that we decided to get our showers, put on our pajamas, and watch our last video for the week.  "Ferdinand" was such a cute movie to watch as we brought our weeklong adventure to an end. 

Sunday morning, everyone was still sleeping as I snuck out of the house to go to church.  St. Joseph's Church was welcoming their new priest, Father Ben Shockey who had previously served in Kingman the last seven years.  I sure will miss their former pastor. After mass, I went to Wal-Mart to have them check my battery and during the check in process, someone overheard me giving them my zip code.  This man told me that he used to be from Mc Cracken and that his folks still lived there.  After questioning him more, I discovered that he was Chad Herdman, the son of Harold and Janet Herdman.  It's definitely a small world! When I returned to Angie's house, they helped me load up my tables and containers that I had used for the garage sale.  Then we had lunch at the new restaurant in McPherson, the La Fiesta.  I was really hungry for some Mexican food and it was very good.  After lunch, I headed back to La Crosse to visit with mom and then I returned home just before the storm hit.  Awe, it's always great to be back home!




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