December 6, 2017 News

Birthdays: December 6, Luke Higgins, Mathew Higgins; December 7, Lance Irvin, Judy Carver, Catherine Showalter; December 8, Rhonda Derr, Sharolyn Legleiter; December 9, Jeremy Higgins, Larry Goddard, John Casey; December 10, Jametta Basgall, Scott Herdman, Leigh Barrett, Theresa Greenway; December 12, Phyllis Higgins, Jessica Stull.

No anniversaries.

Correction on November 26, I had Johnny Mac Showalter instead of Richard Showalter. My apologies.

The Jail/Museum received a donation for Gary Stark. Our thanks.

Rashell McCarty, Warren Richardson and Addie Mills were Saturday evening supper guests of Marty and Tina Mills. They celebrated Rashell's birthday and a pre-Christmas party.

Those helping with setting up the Christmas decorations at St. Mary's on Friday were Phyllis and Roy Conrad, Twila Higgins, Jean Schutte, Carolyn Thompson and Johnny Mac Showalter. The crib scene has been a part of the church celebration since the church was in the country. Also Pam Pavlu was the lector for the Thanksgiving mass. Her name was omitted.

Susan Thompson Keith was honored as the Northwest Kansas Music Educators Association Outstanding Elementary Music Educator for 2017-2018, She received the award at the Northwest District KMEA meeting on Saturday at Fort Hays State University. This is the third recipient of the award by a native McCracken music teacher. The other two are Arlene Wilson Gilbert and Gloria Baus Blackwell. Susan has been teaching at Ellsworth for 27 years

Mike, Susan and Shannon Keith attended a 90th birthday party for Mike's father, Kenneth Keith, at Wellington on Saturday afternoon at the United Methodist Church.

Have you ever been to the town of Mulvane? The wide Main Street reminds us of the old pictures of McCracken where the cars or buggies were parked in a lane in the middle of the street. That practice continues in Mulvane. The town is charming. They also have a Catholic church named St. Michael, the Archangel.

Congratulations to KSU for their bowl game The Cactus Bowl to be held in Phoenix vs. TCU.

On the radio at 5:30 this morning, Monday, December 4, there was a show called John Boy and Billie. They did a segment called Heros and Zeros. Today's hero was the late Shannon McKinney. Someone from Great Bend put Shannon's name on. Hope others got to hear it. It talked about his service to his country.

Those who celebrated Thanksgiving at Arline Rues’ house. Les and Rose Diehl, Topeka, friend Mary Dunn Topeka Lots of fun and food.

An appreciation luncheon was held at Jt. 4 Diner in LaCrosse Monday at noon for those who volunteer at Second Chance thrift store. Those attending were: Marilyn Burrton, Gloria Wilson, Shirley Higgins, Linda Bittel, Julie Huber, Judy Daubert, Phyllis Manhart, Judy Hoffman, Sharon Georg, Naomi Kreutzer, Kathy Holopirek, Joanne Elder, Rita Schneberger, Monie Smith, Genita Hughes, Kim Peach, Suzanne Randa and Kathy Pechnec.

Jerry Higgins spent Wednesday – Saturday with his mom, Shirley Higgins. He refereed at the Gerald Mitchell Hays City shootout. Saturday he joined Chuck and Shirley in LaCrosse for funeral services for “Diz” Washaliski.

There was an article in the Hutchinson News about athletics receiving $$, cars, gifts to play sports with a certain school. It was suggested that coaches could share their share of the wealth with their players. Kansas! Bill Self’s total pay is $4,932,626, Duke’s! Mike Krzyzwski $5,550,475, Kentucky’s! John Calipari $7,435,375. Louisville’s! Rick Pitino made $7,769,200 until he was fired in October. He professed ignorance of goings on upstairs in the bordello: then he was surprised to land a prized recruit whose family allegedly received $100,000 plus monthly payments from Adidas.

History Notes:

McCracken Town Team Baseball. The city of McCracken has a long-standing baseball history. Like many other small towns in Western Kansas, one of the best advertisements a town could have was a good baseball team. Forming a baseball team and creating a ball field in McCracken were probably talked about as soon as establishing the basics like homes or a school. According to the McCracken Enterprise, the earliest organized baseball team in McCracken was formed around 1888. Fairview, Hoisington, Danby Valley, LaCrosse, Bazine, Ellis, Ness City, Hargrave and Brownell were listed on the local competition. McCracken was an upstart team with a passion for winning at any cost...this coincides with more than one fight recorded between the local team and the visiting players. It is unclear whether the brawls were sparked due to the competitive spirit of the locals or the side-betting that occurred prior to the game. The following familiar names were mentioned often in the earliest days of our hometown team. These ball players were the first of many generations to continue the McCracken tradition of a baseball powerhouse. Start, Irvin, Ree, Wharton, Edwards, Lovitt, Metz, Prior, VanWinkle, Thompson, Hawley, Ramsey, Juvenal, Foster and Yawger. (cont’d)


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Patricia Petz:

November is now gone and the month of December started with such beautiful weather and plenty of "to do" lists on my schedule.  I traveled to the "8th Annual Home for the Holidays" Craft Show in Plainville on Monday afternoon.  Besides seeing the many vendors, everyone was able to see Santa as he greeted many of the children.  The Plainville High School provided a soup supper with a nice variety of soups to choose from.  Later that evening the school provided their annual Christmas program for the community.

Wednesday came very early as I prepared to sub at the La Crosse Elementary School.  That evening, mom invited me for supper.  We had her famous hamburgers and milk shakes.  We talked about this meal being the favorite meal for her granddaughters, Jendee and Angie on CCD nights when these girls were in high school.  

I returned to LES on Thursday morning as I enjoyed seeing everyone with their busy schedules.  That evening I was invited to supper at my mother-in-law's home.  Maddy Petz (Gene's wife) from Buhler had come to visit and she brought along her delicious bierocks that she and her brother Jim Rein had made.  After a nice visit, I returned home so that I would be there when my son-in-law, Trent Timson, arrived to spend the night so he could get an early start in finding that perfect deer. 

Friday morning came way too early as I had last minute packing to do, as well as getting myself ready for my last day of the week to sub at LES.  Trent got up before the sun rose to set up for his deer hunting.  He only changed locations a couple of times before he found the ten point buck that he was looking for.  I think the deer are such beautiful animals.  If they would only learn to stay off the roads so that they would not hurt other people, things might be quite different for them!  

After school on Friday, I picked up mom and we headed to Lyons to set up for the Rice County United Way Christmas Bazaar.  It was held at the Celebration Center which is an awesome building that hosts many of the events for the community.  After we were set up we headed for McPherson to spend the night with my daughter, Angie and her family.  

Saturday will be an unforgettable day!  I don't know how mom and I did so many things in one day, but we did.  We were up and out of the Timson home very early Saturday morning.  There were many vendors at the show and I was surprised to see one of Dan's former classmates, Doug Higgins, who actually lives in Lyons.  We had a very nice visit.  At the end of the show, we met up with the Timsons in McPherson for a fund raising event at the First Mennonite Church which is across the street from where they live.  They were having a German meal, but it was totally different from our German meals in Rush county.  We were served many recipes that were used by the Mennonites that were brought over to the United States by German-Bohemean immigrants.  We were definitely intrigued by the names of the food as well as the different tastes.  We were served Verenika with ham gravy, Bohne beroggi, zwiebach rolls, cured Mennonite sausage, green beans, and cherry moos for dessert.  It was very good, but I like our piggies, dumplings, green bean soup, and bierocks ever so much better.  

You would think that the supper would complete our day, however, I had one more event to take care of since it was such a beautiful night.  Mom, Angie, Drake, Grant, and I loaded into the van and headed for Wichita.  I have always wanted to see the beautiful Botanical Garden of Lights and after 21 years that dream came true.  This event encompassed more than 250,000 twinkling lights.  The Garden is absolutely amazing as it features an enchanted icicle forest, glistening flowers, a dazzling 60 foot walk through caterpillar and so much more.  The show is topped off with the areas tallest and brightest shining tree.  It was a a lot of walking, very crowded, but it is amazing.  It will definitely create extraordinary holiday memories for you and your family.  I would highly recommend that you see this display if you have not seen it before. 

Sunday morning, mom and I attended St. Joseph's Church in McPherson and then when we returned to the Timson home, Angie had me help her make another traditional German meal called "Tomato Noodles."  It took me awhile to like these when I was first introduced to them by my mother-in-law Dolores, but now I think they are delicious. 

Mom and I left McPherson mid afternoon and traveled to Great Bend where I needed to drop off some jewelry and then pick up some Christmas gifts at Wal-Mart.  I think the Christmas lights are so beautiful and help put you in the Christmas spirit, so we decided to check out the lights at the Great Bend Trail of Lights at the Brit Spaugh Zoo and the Veteran's Park. These turned out to be beautiful displays as well.  So, if you want to put yourself in the Christmas mood, be sure to take your family to see these awesome lighting displays.