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Too Long in the WindWarning: The following contains opinions and ideas. Some memories may be accurate. -- Leon Unruh. Send comments to Leon August 2008Mormon Battalion to arrive[August 31] The Mormon Battalion reenactment is scheduled to arrive in Pawnee Rock on Monday -- Labor Day -- after a 15-mile march from Great Bend's Barton County Historical Society Museum. The marchers are expected to spend the night at the base of Pawnee Rock before moving Tuesday to the Santa Fe Trail Center west of Larned. Members of the public, and you don't have to be a Mormon, are invited to walk with them. Here's some historical information from Dan Curtis, forwarded by Linda McCowan of Pawnee Rock: "The Mormon Battalion was formed in the mid-1840s after the President of the United States asked Brigham Young, then the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, to supply 500 volunteers to form a battalion-sized element to protect the country. About 540 fFathers and sons of this forming religion left their families, trained and began the march from Iowa to San Diego, California. "They had recently fled Nauvoo, Illinois, due to religious persecution and moved west to avoid murders and persecution. ... They were the only military unit protecting our West Coast. Several were injured but none died in their service during this war. They were gone for nearly two years before walking back across the Rockies, joining their families, which had traveled to the Salt Lake Valley to find some freedom from religious persecution. "Their pioneer march across the Rockies and back from California helped to solidify what is now known as the Santa Fe Trail. This march is still the longest military march in U.S. history." For more information, visit the Battalion Trek site. Sally Salyer and Cobb Miller[August 31] Leon Miller ties another string between Pawnee Rock and Larned in our discussion of the Fourth Street gas station: "The lady in today's column mentioned Mrs. Salyer running the floral shop. Well, as Paul Harvey would say, 'Now for the rest of the story.' "I mentioned about Pat Salyer running the Mobil Station in Larned, back in the '40s. Both he and my Dad were trying to become jobbers for Mobil but when Pat didn't get that position he left Mobil and with his wife Sally, they opened the floral shop on the Main drag, which I believe is called Broadway. They made a nice living there but unfortunately, Pat, who was a very heavy smoker dropped dead from a heart attack sometime in the 1950s. He and Sally had two children, a girl who was several years older than me and a son named Jimmy, who was about my age. After my Mother died in 1958, my Dad became very popular as the only widower in a town full of widows; about 25 to 1. He had a very engaging personality and was a very talented bass singer, singing in several barbershop quartets. I came home from college in the summer of 1959 and he told me in a very exasperated way, 'Son, These women are KILLING me!' Apparentely, someone was calling him nightly to take them dancing to either the Eagles or Elks or some other club in Larned or Great Bend. "Eventually, he started concentrating on one person, Sally Salyer, and grew quite fond of her. But she really didn't have equal feelings for him. They did see each other a lot and ironically, and sadly, he died in her home of a burst aneurism in July 1967." Larned fire station's ironwork[August 31] Marshall Reece of Larned has been reading PawneeRock.org for several months, he wrote Saturday. He's the public affairs officer of the Larned Fire Department, so he knows about the old fire station: "This past week there has been discussion about the rubble pile of a former building on 4th Street in Larned. That building was, at least at one time, the old Larned Fire Station. "I was present the day the building was demolished and I have numerous photos of the demolition. I don't have them with me now, but I will see if there are a few that might be of interest to you. "I was told at the time of the demolition that some of the rather ornate ironwork on the front of the building came from what was once the old streetcar tracks that went through early Larned. I got this information from a passer-by that was watching the events, and I have not attempted to verify the story." Eldeen Kroeker dies[August 31] Eldeen Kroeker, who was born in 1920 to Warren and Helena Moore in Dundee and married Al Kroeker in 1941 in Pawnee Rock, has died in Great Bend. Her ashes will be placed Tuesday morning in the Pawnee Rock Cemetery. (Obituary) Gas station update[August 30] We've been discussing a torn-down gas station in Larned this week. Here's more information from Susan (Manka) Vondracek: "Update courtesy of my Uncle Ron: Skelley station in the thirties and early forties, changed to Texaco when Dale Howell purchased it. My uncle Ron worked there through high school until 1953, when he left for the service. Shortly after it was sold, and Dale bought a different station in town. Not only was Starr cleaners in the same block but so was the old fire station." And here's further info from my mom, Anita Byers: "Mrs. A.J. Salyer owned the florist shop two or three doors north of the First State Bank. (The one later bought by Martha (Mrs. Donley) Unruh.) The Salyers' daughter, I think she was also called Pat, graduated from Larned High School in 1948, I think." A photo I like: No. 102
Sarah Palin and Sam, June 2008. [August 30] You've seen this photo before, but now Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is important to you too. I have met three politicians who went on to be vice presidential candidates. I told Kansas Senator Bob Dole in 1974 (with Ford, 1976) that Richard Nixon should be impeached. I was goaded by my publisher in Austin to tell Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen in 1982 (with Dukakis, 1988) that our newspaper office needed a bicycle rack (both the senator and the publisher failed to provide one). And now I have told Sarah Palin (with McCain, 2008) thanks for chatting and posing with Sam. This posting is not an endorsement of her candidacy. The photo is just a trophy of Sam's outstanding day. Larned Country Club[August 29] Our dedicated golfer and Texas friend, Leon Miller of Dallas, sent this message yesterday after reading the day's postings: "You hit two zingers with me today, as I believe the Skelly Gas Station may have been operated by a friend of my dad by the name of A.J. 'Pat' Salyer. This goes W-A-A-A-Y back, probably some time in the 1930s. Mr. Salyer left the Skelly franchise and became an agent, like my dad for Socony Vacuum Oil Company, or Mobil as it is known today (more specifically Exxon Mobil). "As for golf, once it gets into your blood you're hooked! It's like an aphrodesiac, a drug, a trap that never lets you get away! The greatest thing about golf is that the most fiercest competitor is yourself. My dad taught me how to play on the Larned Country Club course and at 75, I'm still going out and enjoying a round. "Contrary to what you stated in your column today about the Club being for only the Larned rich folks, the dues when my dad played there in the 1940s and 1950s were $5.00/month. And that included all the golf you wanted to play. "However, it was the only place around where you could get a mixed drink, and alcohol was a major factor in providing income to the club. They did serve terrific meals there as they had a world-class chef who could serve anything your heart desired. "I loved playing that course and have many memories to this day about the layout of most of the holes. If you ever get a chance, read Harvey Penick's, 'Little Red Book' and 'Golf, the Game For a Lifetime.'" Wrong state: Yesterday I alleged that Ralph Gillispie is from Oregon. I meant Idaho, as Ralph was kind enough to gently remind me. (Yesterday's entry about the Skelly station and Captain Midnight has been corrected.) Long-gone Larned gas station[August 28] Ralph Gillispie of Idaho remembers the gas station in Larned that Susan Vondraceck and Mrs. Manka wrote about yesterday: "If memory serves ... the Texaco station mentioned, on 4th Ave, was at some time in the late '30s early '40s a Skelly service station. One reason why I remember it being a Skelly station was that Skelly was a sponsor of the radio show "Captain Midnight." "I listened to that program faithfully and often emulated the Captain ... arms spread, making the sounds of a powerful airplane engine, and flying around Larned downing all the bad guys in a hail of gunfire, while easily dodging their bullets and landing temporarily at Skelly to refuel ... ahhhhh, yes ... hero once again!! "It would be interesting if someone from Larned, perhaps someone who can research the archives of the Tiller and Toiler if they exist, could find some early reports (circa 1937-1942) and maybe even pictures of that station, the owners, etc." The guilty pleasure of golf[August 28] I grew up disliking golf. Maybe it would be more accurate to say I was jealous of golf -- the course in Larned was where the city's rich people played and my family didn't go. I've never played golf or swung a club on a driving range. In college, I made one of my senior-year roommates join in a promise that we'd never play golf -- and he was on his way to med school. As happens with this kind of emotion, my envy has led to guilty pleasures. I love to read novels about golf, and I keep up with the golf tournaments in the newspaper and sometimes on TV. I once borrowed three clubs and whacked innocent balls for a few days in a rough pasture. And I play miniature golf, hoping that my old roommate holds to our promise better than I do. Which brings us to this Mini-Putt golf game that Jim Dye sent. It's fun. History out of the rubble
[August 27] Susan Vondracek, who grew up as Susan Manka, wrote yesterday to pass along a message about the photo of a couple of demolished buildings in Larned. I had heard earlier that one of the buildings might have been Starr Cleaners, and it's great to find out about the other structure. Thanks, Susan and Mrs. Manka. Here's Susan: "My mother Barbara (Arnold) Manka called today and asked for me to e-mail you concerning the photo of the demolished building on Fourth Street in Larned. She has mastered viewing websites but not quite e-mail confident. I not only learned a portion of the history of the building I heard one story she hadn't shared before. "The building was a former Texaco gas station that set beside the dairy. My mom's uncle Dale Howell (married to Vera Arnold, my grandfather's sister) owned it in the forties (possibly as early as the thirties) and sold it in the fifties. He was also known as "Brick" Howell. The brick for his red hair. "When my mom's parents (John F. & Edna Arnold) and siblings (Marie, Jim, Ron, Ruth, Johnny and Larry) would come to town from Sanford on Sundays to visit their grandparents (John T. & Elzena Arnold), she would walk the two blocks from their grandparents' home down to the station with her brothers and sisters to get a pop from the cooler. She can't remember when the building was torn down. "Hope this helps with some of the history." A different token[August 27] Rick Clawson, who wrote yesterday about a D.R. Logan General Merchandise token, said the token he was handed down from his dad isn't the same as the one I put on the posting. "Mine is about the size of a quarter, perhaps a bit smaller as well. Maybe it is a different denomination." Does anybody know more about these tokens from D.R. Logan, maybe from a story handed down from your parents? A bit of city and family history
Front and back of a customer-appreciation token from D.R. Logan's store on Centre Street. This coin belongs to Ralph Gillispie of Idaho, who photographed it for us. [August 26] Rick Clawson, who grew up in Pawnee Rock and now works in Las Vegas, wrote about a coin that was described some time ago in Too Long in the Wind. He was looking for help finding it again in the two and a half years' worth of articles. He wrote: "My dad was a collector of sorts and came across one of those. It was passed on to me as part of his collection when he passed away. My brother, Jeff, and I could not figure out what it was until I found your piece on it. "Without trying to dig through the years and months that you've written, could you possibly tell me what that coin is again? I'd appreciate that, and Jeff would be thrilled to know what that funny coin was/is." The coin is a token from D.R. Logan's store. Here's an article about it. Rick also wrote that he wants to get the Class of '77 together: "We're trying to coordinate a reunion for Cheryl's and my class for next year. After connecting with you two I thought it would be a neat thing to do. The responses I have received have been encouraging. I haven't had a single person say they wouldn't attend out of the 15 I've spoken to. "I still have several I'm having difficulty contacting but that just makes me try even harder. I don't like to accept 'no' for an answer." Fair compensation[August 24] Sometimes life piles up so high that it seems like I'll never catch up. As you know, I've been on a jury for a week, and it'll continue for several more days. I've also been finishing up the editing on two textbooks and juggling all that with the uncertainty that comes with our newspaper staff shrinking by the week, leaving the rest of us with more work and the same pay. But yesterday afternoon was our day at the state fair. The official reason for going was that Nik's beagle, Ingrid, was in a show presented by her school. Unofficially, we went so the boys could drive go-karts. My little NASCAR fans outrace every other kid who dares grab a steering wheel (to be fair, most of the other boys are just puttering around). Occasionally I drive one of the go-karts too, and they are heartless to their old man. We do like the rides, especially the bumper cars and the Ferris wheel, but the price per ride ($5 or so) takes the polish off the fun. So we ask the boys to make good choices. Fair food is another issue. I'm not one for eating fair food. In fact, I usually lose my appetite over the prices and end up splitting an elephant ear with my wife. This year, however, I found myself with a new attitude. Maybe it was eating out in the federal building's cafeteria for five days, or maybe it was a misbegotten sense of entitlement, but I was carried away yesterday by a sense of adventure. I bought a $9 zucchini pizza and ate it while tending the dog in a copse of birches. I bought my wife a $10 tamale-and-black-bean plate. I bought the boys $4 roasted ears of corn and $2 Pepsis. And I thought nothing of it. Even at the Kansas State Fair, which was like a day in Paris for a kid from Pawnee Rock, I never bought anymore more extravagant than a bison burger. I suspect that my adulthood has been tainted by my parsimonious habit, borne of parent-instilled fear that I would be taken by strangers in the city. My boys will one day outgrow little vehicles and roasted corn, and soon they'll insist on not walking down the midway with Mom and Dad. One distant day, they'll be grumpy old men wondering where the years have gone. But I'll guarantee this -- they're going to have sunlit memories of their annual day on the go-kart race track. Secret shame[August 24] All kids -- and Pawnee Rock kids are no different -- have hanged their heads in secret shame. Maybe they were reprimanded by a grownup at church for doing something stupid. Maybe a stranger caught them breaking a glass bottle on the highway. Maybe they gave themselves a hickey on an upper arm after their big-city cousin talked them into it at age 8, and they wore long sleeves for a week in the summer. And I won't even go into the stuff you did. (It's OK. On the Internet, no one can see you blush.) How any of us lived long enough to show our faces in public as adults is a mystery. Well, maybe it's not that much of a mystery. Our secret shame, if we're lucky, remains secret and we learn that as long as we're the only ones who know it we'll be OK. We also learn to compensate. In my case, I try to turn such moments into lessons for the boys. I go from being shamed to shamelessly revealing the errors of my ways. That is the absolutely only reason I showed them the fresh blisters on the tips of the third and fourth fingers of my right hand. My briefly secret shame? I -- Mr. Safety himself -- was barbecuing chicken and corn yesterday and grabbed the aluminum vent atop the grill. I cussed myself, grateful that no one had seen me, and wore out an ice cube trying to keep blisters from forming. That didn't work, and one of the blisters bears the vent's raised design. That fascinated the boys. If I were a good dad, I'd say the pain is worthwhile if it keeps the boys from burning their own fingers. But I'd rather not suffer at all. I'd rather just hope that my sons are smarter than my dad's son is. There's no shame in that. A photo I like: No. 101
[August 23] These hands drove your school bus, put your mail in your rural box, dug graves for your parents and classmates, built your cabinets, twisted your Lions Club tail, and took pretty good care of me. They belong to Elgie Unruh. Ardith Davidson dies[August 22] Ardith Davidson, 69, of Larned and a native of Ness County, died Tuesday in Wichita. She was the mother of Crystal Schmidt of Pawnee Rock, Julie Scott of Pratt, Melinda Hammond of Newton, and Brock Davidson of Pratt. Mrs. Davidson's husband, Keith, died in February. Her memorial service will be Saturday morning in Larned, and her ashes will be placed in the Larned Cemetery. (Obituary) Name that building
[August 21] A couple of years ago I was motoring west on Fourth Street in Larned when I came across the ruins of a brick building. This structure sat north of the old IGA and just east of the one-time dairy building. I was hacked not so much because the building was destroyed -- if it hadn't been knocked down I never would have learned how thick the walls were -- but because I couldn't remember what the building looked like or what it housed when it was standing. Can somebody fill in the blanks? Bing Gilbert was here
[August 20] Leon Miller writes to identify yesterday's homepage sandstone artist. "F. R. Gilbert was Bing Gilbert, the manager of the Gano Elevator and one of the members of the 1915 PR basketball team (photo formerly printed in the column)," Leon wrote. "Who says your memories don't live forever?" Bing was a close friend of Leon's dad, Cobb Miller. They played together on that basketball team. What's nice is that we have a photo of young Mr. Gilbert just a couple of years after he scratched his name into the Rock. 
Bing is seated on the floor on the right. Cobb Miller is on a chair on the left. The gas station: Cheryl Unruh's column in Tuesday's Emporia Gazette was about the beloved Pawnee Service Vickers gas station in Pawnee Rock. There's a very cool photo. Riding the bus with Cheryl[August 19] If you rode a Pawnee Rock school bus back in the day, you might want to listen to Cheryl Unruh talk about her experiences this morning on Kansas Public Radio. If you're out of Kansas at the moment or you didn't happen to be by a radio around 6:30 or 8:30 a.m., you can find a recording of her Riding the Route column on the KPR site. Jury selection: Jury selection in the federal trial I was called for was so thorough yesterday that it'll continue today. No one has been chosen yet, but that's supposed to happen today. If I am chosen, I won't mention the trial again until it's over. Nothing but the truth[August 18] I have fond memories of the Pawnee County Courthouse. It was where, as a grade-schooler, I sat in a pleasant courtoom and spelled my way through three county spelling bees. It was where I learned a little bit about county government by watching grumpy old commissioners decide whether to buy a new road grader or not. (They didn't.) I even watched one of my reporter friends, Bruce Janssen, campaign his way into a county magistrate's position by thinking he could do better than the incumbent -- and then doing it.
I've been summoned a couple of times to be a venireman in state court (murders and such). The first time, the case was dismissed before I had read one chapter of my paperback as we waited to be called. The second time, I waited all day but the jury was filled before my number was called. You know, jury duty is an experience I should have had in Pawnee Rock. I was a resident there as an adult, although not for long. Maybe the problem was that Barton County didn't have so many serious crimes that it had to expand the draft enough to pull in a 19-year-old to sit with right-thinking Americans. But now . . . now is my big day. Today I am part of Panel V, V for Victor, and I have been summoned to jury service in United States District Court, District of Alaska. The last federal jury trial was for a pimp, but this courthouse also has seen a nice parade of state legislators and their purchasers go to trial this year, and it's the building where Exxon began its successful 19-year campaign to avoid being punished for the damage caused by the Exxon Valdez. So, there's a chance that even if I don't get seated on today's jury, I'll be able to say that I was in the same building when some bit of history happened. Sled rides on the Rock
Here's a blast from the distant past, taken from Shiela Shutton Schmidt's "Pawnee Rock: A Brief History of the Rock." Winter Fun at Pawnee Rock"In the early decades of the twentieth century, after winter storms had piled the snow high over the fence on the south side of Pawnee Rock, young people of the community had parties at The Rock. They brought sleds and tobaggans. They built bonfires. Then the fun began, so recalled Virginia Smith Fry. From the very top of The Rock the sleds and tobaggans coasted over the field, almost to the house some distance south of The Rock. Lois Gilbert Becker remembers falling off a toboggan, unhurt in the deep snow. It was worth trudging back up the hill, pulling a sled or toboggan to the top of The Rock, to slide down again." Elsie Hill dies[August 17] Elsie Hill, 105, died Friday in Great Bend. She was the mother of the late Doris Tutak and the grandmother of the four Tutak boys of Pawnee Rock: Allen, Rick, Kent, and Ray. (Obituary) Barton County Cougars in Olympics[August 17] Barton County Community College, always a national powerhouse in track and field, has 11 present and former members of its track team in the Beijing Olympics. The ones you might have heard of are Hyleas Fountain, who won a bronze medal in the heptathlon, and Tyson Gay, one of the fastest guys in the world and a shining hope in the 100-meter sprint until he was defeated in the preliminaries. The nine others are all on Caribbean teams: Jamaica, Trinidad and Tabago, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Barbados. (Full story in the Great Bend Tribune) A photo I like: No. 100
[August 16] When I first made a photo I liked of this mature tree in the sandhills just east of the Pawnee Rock Bridge, it was in the early 1970s and it was springtime. When I photographed it again two years ago, springtime had long passed. I am happy that my old friend is still standing and has kept most of its elegant shape. True, the heat and cattle haven't been kind to it, but the tree has persevered. You and I have done the same. Keith Prescott dies[August 16] Keith Prescott of Larned, the husband of Beverly Prescott, died yesterday in Hays. He was 71. He married Beverly, the daughter of Ella and Harvey Dirks of rural Pawnee Rock, in 1959. Keith was a mechanic at Ark Valley Implement and Chance Cadillac in Larned. (Obituary) Hunting ducks on the river[August 15] Leon Miller of Dallas was thinking back to around 1950 when he responded to yesterday's item about the shady Arkansas River bank: "When I was around 16 or 17, Rod Quincy and I would drive down to the river in his Model A Ford around 5:30 a.m. on a November morning, sit in a duck blind and wait for ducks to come by and hunt them. This looks like the place where we had our blind." Pawnee Rockers, from sea to shining sea
[August 15] Readers of PawneeRock.org may have noticed the map with measles on the bottom of the homepage. I put it there a couple of weeks ago because I was curious about where the site's readers live, and the map tracks that. It shows that Pawnee Rock's offspring and fans are widely dispersed around the country and Europe. Kind of cool, isn't it? This Clustr map provides broad information. For example, we can see that many readers live in Kansas, given the size of the cluster in the middle of the country, but we can't see where in Kansas. The map counts only visits, not the number of pages viewed, but I know from another program that hundreds of pages a day are viewed. My dot -- and I'm fairly certain it's mine alone -- is easy to find, way out west and north. Thank you all for visiting PawneeRock.org and making our world a little more colorful. Where the river is cool
Jim Dye made this photo of the Arkansas River yesterday while he was exercising his dogs. [August 14] This photo of the Arkansas River near the Pawnee Rock bridge shows a placid pool that's not very deep and that's quite warm. You can imagine the bottom being either hard sand or several inches of squishy black mud, and you'll be right somewhere in the pool. But what interests me is the bank on the right, where the branches hang over the water. This is where adventure happens. Birds hop in and out, and lizards rest here. There didn't use to be many beavers along the river, but now there are some and you can find pointy stumps where these willows and other shrubby trees are thick. To a middling child, this is a forest; he can sit there and see out but Mom and Dad can't see in. During the day in August, this shady spot is where you stand in the water when you admit that the Kansas sun is just a little too hot. The gnats may bother you here, but it's not as bad as when you're standing in the sun and sweat pours into your eyes. Channel cats dwell among the roots of those trees, endlessly finning against the current if there is any, and come out at night to eat the liver you've threaded onto a hook and hung from a stout line tied to a flexible branch. Dig down with your hands under the bank, and you'll feel the silky moss that softens the rough calcium of a clamshell. It's easy to think of the Arkansas as nothing more than water on its way to somewhere else, from beyond Garfield and Larned past Pawnee Rock and on to Dundee and Great Bend and Dartmouth and Ellinwood, but it is in fact a hundred thousand of these little neighborhoods where life goes on hour after hour whether we watch it or not. Hello to Pam Schneider: Pam, of Olmitz, sent an e-mail yesterday. She wrote: "My Mom is Kathleen (McCarty) Turner from Larned/Great Bend, and we spent many a good time in Pawnee Rock. She did as a child too. The movies she talked about were a special time for her growing up." News in Pawnee Rock, April 12, 2001[August 13] The Pawnee Rock News, published by the Ministerial Alliance, has been our hometown's recorder and cheerleader for a couple of decades. Here are a few excerpts from No. 192, published April 12, 2001. Muriel Stackley was the editor at the time. Pawnee Rock News
Pawnee Rock women are now including a $5 gift certificate to Dillons in their welcome to newcomers to Pawnee Rock. 4% of these gift certificates goes to "VORP." Victim Offenders Reconciliation Program of Barton County. VORP works with the court system, helping to make things right between victims and offenders. For emergencies the Pawnee Rock Ministerial Alliance provides $10 worth of gasoline, a meal at The Burg in Larned, and information about local food banks. Phone any of the Pawnee Rock churches. This is funded by the annual Community Thanksgiving offering as well as gifts from churches and individuals. Rent of the Depot is $5.00 per hour for individuals and/or any group. Phone Howard Bowman of the Depot Board; or Janice Schmidt, secretary-treasurer of the Lions Club. Community CalendarFriday, April 13: No school. From the City Clerk, by Konnie RitchieCongratulations to Jack Link for becoming the City's newest Mayor and to Eric MacLaren and Bill Derryberry for becoming the new council members. They will officially "take office" at the monthly May meeting. Advertisements & PersonalsPlease save your pop tops from pop cans, beer cans, etc. Place them in the collection can at City Hall or call me at 620-982-4xxx and I will pick them up. This is for Tawna Trimmet, 16-year-old daughter of John and Dianna Trimmet, who is undergoing kidney dialysis while she waits for a kidney transplant. -- Lenora Matney From Pawnee Rock School,
Twenty-one students participated in the LaCrosse Music Festival. Twenty-five students are out for track this year. Daniel Scott won third place overall in wrestling competition. Mrs. Johnson's science class dissected two pig hearts. From the Postmaster, by Doug SmithThis will be my last article for Pawnee Rock News as I will be retiring on May 2. I'd like to thank Muriel Stackley and Pawnee Rock News for allowing me to use the paper for informing you of postal news. I've been fortunate to work with a good rural carrier, PMR, and PCA. I'd like to thank everyone for your support the past 10 years. I have enjoyed serving you as Postmaster. On May 2 at 1:30 I will be serving cake and punch as a thank you to the customers and invite you to join us at the Post Office. Congratulations ...... to Gregg Epperson, M.D., son of Pawnee Rocker Vown Epperson, who received high commendation from his supervisor Michael W. Felz, M.D., at the Medical College of Georgia, for "showing real class, cool composure under fire, and tender concern" in a crisis situation. Pawnee Rock Ministerial Alliance (PRMA) NewsThis year's Easter Sunrise Pageant, "The Way of the Cross," is just around the corner, April 15. Linda Slavik is the director. Elaine Mull is music director. Vivian Bright is the coordinator. Come and worship. After the pageant, Pawnee Rock Lions Club serves rolls and coffee (free will donations) at the Depot. Where are the classmates?
Pawnee Rock Grade School third grade with Mrs. Dunavan (1971-72), fifth grade with Mrs. White (1973-74), and sixth grade with Mrs. Latas (1974-75). The classmates Laramie could remember who were there for all or part of the time are these: David Barrett, Jill Blake, Billy Jean Carmichael, Tommy Claphan, Tonya Crist, Tammy Crone, Mindy Davidson, Julie Hazlett, Sherry Levingston, Jimmy Manka, Kenny Marbut, Bill Mauch, Karen Navarro, Kay Pinkerton, Frank Symack, Donnie Unruh, Laramie Unruh, Tom Unruh, and Kim Welch. [August 12] Laramie Unruh hopes his collection of class photos, featured on the homepage yesterday and now in the gallery, will get his classmates talking. "It is impossible to forget the people we grew up with in Pawnee Rock," he wrote. "After I sent that to you I started thinking about those people and how I haven't seen but one of them in the last 20 years. I know where a few of them are but it would be great to see them all again." So, if you were one of the kids in Laramie's class -- sixth grade in 1974-75 in Pawnee Rock and the senior class of 1981 somewhere else -- or know where they are, drop him or me a note. His contact info is on the Friends of Pawnee Rock page. 100 words: You and I can think of 100 words in the time it takes to read this sentence. Now, can you list the 100 most common words if you had five minutes? I couldn't. The first time I got 37, and the second time I racked up 41. I'm sure you can do better. If you want to test your geographical talents, click on the "More Quizzes" button on the right side of the quiz page and see how many of the world's 50 largest countries and territories you can identify. I got 31 and feel pretty lucky about it. Jeanette's Pawnee Rock reflections[August 11] When a new e-mail from Jeanette (Ater) Corbett started out with a description of a 1970s slumber party she attended at our house, I was hooked. I remember that party of Cheryl's in the basement of our place at 412 Santa Fe Avenue. Jeanette's Saturday e-mail covers a lot of territory, and it's all good stuff. Here's what she wrote: Cheryl and I were close friends. I recently got back in touch with her. Life is good! I remember attending a slumber party at your house. I think you had a darkroom or something that you used to avoid all of us girls! I know Karla Mead, Kim Myers, Marilyn Stimatze and I were all there, among others. We emerged from the basement at some point and raided the refrigerator. Your parents were the most patient people on the planet to put up with all of us giggling girls! Your website has brought back so many memories. I read and re-read the bits about Betty Svoboda [here and here]. I remember growing up and hearing my parents talk about Betty. She was this person that I didn't know but that seemed to be part of our family. One day I went with dad to work. I met Betty that day. I was 9 or 10 and, to put it mildly, I was unprepared for the introduction! She was such a good friend to my dad and mom that the shock of meeting a woman who looked like a man soon disappeared. I had no idea why she dressed like a man. It was years later that I understood. She influenced my liberal views and my enjoyment of the wonderful diversity of people in our world. I remember sitting at the bar and watching her cook hamburger steaks on a flat grill. She had the hamburger, mixed with onions and seasonings, shaped into balls. She placed mine on the grill and let it cook a bit. Then she flattened it with the spatula before she turned it. As I recall, I ate only a bit and my dad finished the rest. I used Betty's technique years later when I found myself in the middle of a career in the restaurant business. What started as a part-time job at Lloyd's Drive In in Larned became 25 years in the restaurant industry. Betty's influence is part of the reason I just kept cooking and serving food! Since the Memorial Day tradition of decorating graves has now fallen to me, I always put flowers on Betty's grave as well as on my grandparents and great grandparents graves when I visit Pawnee Rock cemetery each year. Then you wrote about Lori Myers. As a small child, I used to play with her and her brother, Richard, when we visited my grandmother. She was younger than I, but when you're at grandma's house, you play with any kids in the neighborhood. Their grandma lived across the street from my grandma. I remember the day that she drowned. I believe I was at the lake with my family that day. I remember hearing my parents talk about it. They didn't actually tell us. It was something that we overheard and then asked questions about. I was sad. It was my first experience with death. Thank you for handling the story so well. And thank you as well for the memorial to Colby Callahan. Talk about coincidence . . . my oldest granddaughter, Brianna, was at that family reunion. She is saddened and confused by his death. Although she is a few years older than I was at the time of Lori's death, she reminds me of myself in this situation.
The pictures of the school building are bittersweet. My years at PR school were so much fun! Seeing it just sitting unused makes me sad. My husband grew up here in Ellinwood. He went to school here. Then his kids went to school here. Now two of his grandkids are going to school here. It's so good to be a part of a small Kansas town that supports a school and a tradition. I'm still sad that Pawnee Rock couldn't or wouldn't do that. It seems that politics and economics played a dark role in the demise of that school. I know my mom has a picture of her dad, my grandpa, Frank Wilson, with some of the other bus drivers at the time. It was taken before the accident in which he was caught between two school buses. I know he was in a body cast for months after that. He survived that ordeal only to die of a sudden heart attack when my mom was 17, so I never knew him. I have quite a few pictures from my days at PR school as well. Right now they are in storage as we are in the end stages of repairing the damage to our home from the tornado that hit us in May of 2007. That big storm that demolished Greensburg made its way north and took part of our roof that night. It has been a long way back! Leon, I'm sorry this email is so lengthy. I hope you understand how much your website touches people. My mom doesn't have a computer and doesn't want a computer. Therefore, I'm going to make sure she comes to my house tomorrow (it's her birthday...she'll be 69!). Then I can show her your website. I'll have to do a mini-tutoring session in Computer 101, but that's OK. I know that seeing your website will be a high point on her birthday! Thank you for what you are doing! Hello, Jeanette Corbett[August 10] Jeanette Corbett, who is the daughter of Barbara Wilson Ater and the granddaughter of Frank and Doris Wilson, attended Pawnee Rock schools from sixth through ninth grade; in fact, it was Pawnee Rock's last ninth-grade class. She lives now in Ellinwood and has joined the Friends of Pawnee Rock. Her great-uncle was Willard Wilson, our town's welder, and her uncle Randy Wilson now lives on a farm between Pawnee Rock and Larned. "I'd love to hear from anybody with ties to Pawnee Rock," she wrote. One person she'd especially like to find is Debbie Lynn, one of her junior high pals. Debbie moved to Drumright, Oklahoma, about 1970, and Jeanette's attempts to find her have come up empty. Jeanette married and had a couple of sons and a daughter, got divorced and then remarried. That produced for her and husband Jim Corbett a blended family with daughter Chelsea and four sons -- Jason, Jason, Jerod, and Jared. The treeless Pawnee Rock State Park
[August 10] A few months ago, Larry Smith suggested that Pawnee Rock State Park would be better off in its natural state -- that is, treeless. The trees, after all, had been planted on the Rock to accommodate what people in the early 20th century expected out of a park, which was a pleasant place to picnic and otherwise consort under the branches. The cedars and elms also provided some visual relief from the clean-shaven expanse of acreage stretching out over the hills to Walnut Creek. Now, Larry has a new photo (a bigger view is on today's homepage), and the note he sent with it said, in its entirety: "Leon, This is what Pawnee Rock should look like. Larry Smith" I still agree in general with Larry that if we're going to have a park dedicated to human and natural history, it ought to look like it did when the ruts of the Santa Fe Trail were new. Will it ever happen? I don't know, but it might take only another winter blast or two like last December's limb-breaking ice storm to solve the tree problem. What do you all think? Should the park have trees, or should it be returned as much as possible to its original appearance? Hurrah for typing class[August 10] Yesterday's posting about typewriters made a connection with Pawnee Rock native Leon Miller, the Dallas architect. He wrote: "One of the most memorable courses I took in high school was first-year typing when I was a sophomore. That course probably saved me thousands of dollars in typing fees during my 40 years in business as I did the majority of my typing unless I had a secretary to do it for me. "The great thing about today's keyboard is that you can make a mistake and immediately correct it! "My teacher was the mother of my insurance agent here in Dallas for many years. She was single at the time (late '40s) and her boyfriend/later husband would drive up from Sylvia on a Friday afternoon and pick her up for a date. Their name was Corder and their son, my insurance agent's name was/is Steve Corder. He graduated from KU in the '70s and was a pitcher on the KU baseball team. His parents are both dead now. (Old age/natural causes/etc.)" Kansas newspapers tips[August 10] Larry Mix, who knows the Santa Fe Trail inside and out, also knows where all the facts are stored. When he read a couple of weeks ago about Bobbi (Bair) Bowman's attempt to get copies of the Larned Tiller and Toiler for her son, he sent a tip that might not help her so much (she's in France), but it could be a blessing for anyone closer to a library in Kansas. He wrote: "Just about all Kansas Newspapers are on microfilm and can be had through interlibrary loan." Larry sent this on July 25, and I should have posted it then but I got distracted. Sorry, Larry, and thanks for the tip. About Kris Myers from Pawnee Rock[August 9] Yesterday's e-mail brought word from the wife of Kris Myers, who now lives in the land of the Cornhuskers. Here it is: My name is Kathy Myers. I am married to Kris Myers, the son of Richard (Moby Dick) and Pat Myers and Lori's little brother. I showed Kris the website last night and it brought tears to his eyes. We think this the website is awesome. What a great way to keep these memories alive. Kris has been living in Lincoln, Nebraska, for about 14 years now. We come home to Kansas at least once a year for the holidays and always have to stop at THE ROCK. We have had many great times there, carving our names and chasing lizards (6 lined race runners). One year I remember crashing Teresa Unruh's Thanksgiving dinner (not sure if she is related to you or not but I know she grew up in Pawnee Rock). We showed up at her door just as all of her relatives were arriving and were invited in just like family. We actually ended up eating with them. Another time we came down for hunting season and Rosco (who I think used to be the sheriff of Pawnee Rock) let me take a shower at his house. He had never met me before but welcomed me into his home and even let me watch the Nebraksa football game there. That is so typical of the people from Pawnee Rock. They make you feel just like family. Kris still gets together with his friends from Pawnee Rock once a year for a Chiefs game. (Kris is now listed on the Friends of Pawnee Rock page.) When anyone asks Kris where he is from, he proudly says "Pawnee Rock, Kansas," never just Kansas. More about the Myers family: Leon Miller asked yesterday about Richard Myers, and an answer comes from Susan Unruh Ellis, who grew up on the same block that Richard had before her. She wrote: "Richard (Dickie) was the youngest of Sim and Madge Myers' children. He should have/did graduate from Pawnee Rock High School in 1958. Madge and Sim lived on the west end of Bismark Street, south side, across from Randy Wilson. "Did you know that Sim Myers was a triplet? What an oddity in the days before fertility drugs!" A photo I like: No. 99
[August 9] We all spend a lot of time at computer keyboards, but some of us remember the days when keys weren't stroked as much as pounded. This photo of an old typewriter makes my pinkies ache when I think about how I learned to type on a similar device. It's no wonder that so many people became two-finger typists. Notice that there isn't a row of number keys, like we're used to; the numbers and symbols were packed onto the letter keys and required the typist to depress the FIG key while aiming for the number/symbol key. But for all the sore fingers I got from using our family's heavy Royal typewriter, I loved it. I began typing in second grade and eventually launched my own biweekly and then weekly newspaper, the Pawnee Rock Informer, when I was in fifth grade. Typing made me think in terms of presenting ideas, and it made me more careful because it wasn't fun to go back and xxxx words and retype them. Teaching myself to type was the key to my education and career. Coincidentally to my choosing the typewriter photo, a package arrived yesterday from my wonderful sister, Cheryl, in Emporia. She had been at Staples and thought I would like a set of 30 typewriter-key paperclips. I like 'em a lot, and I'll use them until they wear out or my ribbon needs changing. 
Susan Ellis: House fire and horse ride[August 8] Susan Unruh Ellis, who now lives in Louisiana but grew up at Houck and Santa Fe, remembers the day the home of her classmate Monica Johnson burned, and she recalls an exciting trip on one of the Johnsons' horses. Here's what she wrote: Johnsons' house burned down one morning in late October or November of 1972. I remember the weather being cool, but not cold enough for a heavy coat. I got sick at school that day and Mr. Boyles, the principal, took me home in the school station wagon. We drove past Monica's (Micky) house, and the fire trucks were just getting ready to leave. And yes, it was a magnificent house, quite a beauty in its day. Like you, I too dreamed of riding horses. One day the Johnson girls and Jill Clawson came by with the horses. One horse was a medium sized white one with wild eyes and the other a black pony, named Joker. I ended up on Joker behind Marla Johnson (Twink). Getting on was an ordeal. My horse riding career lasted exactly 1 & 1/2 city LOTS. That would be approximately 75 feet, all the way from our west yard, past the empty lot, and off into the ditch in front of Art Saylers rental house. No, I didn't get back on even though they offered. A year or so later Jill Clawson fell off the white horse and broke her arm. The horse craze was around 1968, 1969. I remember Lori Myers. The school picture didn't do her justice. She was a beautiful little girl, much prettier, so cute and full of life. Leon Miller: Leon, of Dallas and formerly of South Centre Street, wrote Thursday: "I knew a Myers family in Pawnee Rock whose children's names were Simmy, Ruth Ann, Walter and Benny. There was a 5th boy who was a lot younger who they called Dickie. Could this have been the Richard Myers who was Lori Myers' father? I grew up with Benny Myers (we were the same age). Benny was killed in a single car/pickup accident on the curve going into Great Bend in 1950 or '51. I was a pallbearer at his funeral. It was a very sad occasion and the first time I'd had someone who was close to me die." Mormom Battalion Trek coming to PR[August 8] Linda McCowan wrote with the news that Pawnee Rock would host a touring group of historical re-enactors: "Did you know that over Labor Day Weekend, the re-enactment of the Mormon Battalion Trek across the prairies will be in Pawnee Rock? They will be at the Rock on Sunday and Monday." The marchers are retracing the Mormon trek in 1846-47 from Iowa down to the Santa Fe Trail and then on into California. It's expected to take eight months to finish, at 15 or so miles a day. Kids in the Mankas' back yard
I don't know much about the ponies owned by the Mankas and Clawsons, but I do recall the Johnsons' horse. I was jealous when the Johnson girls rode through town, although my only attempt to ride it lasted just seconds before I was taken off. It probably was my choice -- riding a horse is a fine thing to dream about, but in real life it means sitting on a wide living thing with teeth and hooves and hair that smells like a horse. But the Johnsons -- perfect small-town girls every one -- were masters of the horse. It was a pretty sight when they rode, the girls' hair shifting in the breeze and the horse tossing its head. (It was probably the same for the other girls with ponies, and I'm sure the guys with horses looked just as handsome and cowboyesque.) The Johnsons lived in a magnificent two-story green house with a big porch on the southwest corner of Cunnife Avenue and Houck Street. (The house burned down around 1970, I think.) That was a block north of the Manka home, where the photo was made. Another neat thing about the photo is that it captures the clothing of the times. It's also a reminder of the days when making a photograph was such a special event that kids from three families would stand still for it. Susan Vondracek scanned in her keepsake and wondered whether anything could be done to clean up the discolorations. I don't know; the photo probably just has too much milkiness in the emulsion. On the other hand, I told her, the stains and wrinkles say "here's a treasured photo I've kept for decades because it reminds me of my friends and happy times." Callahan memorial: The memorial service for Colby Callahan, the son of TaWanna and Frank Callahan, will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Larned Middle School. His ashes will be placed in the Great Bend Cemetery. Colby, age 20, drowned last weekend at Lake Wilson. (Obituary) Kris Myers: Greg Manka, a major in the Army Reserves, wrote to point out that Lori Myers' younger brother's name is spelled Kris, not Chris as I had it yesterday morning. Thanks, Greg. It's now corrected. Township election results: The vote has been posted (pdf), and Pawnee Rock Township's four unopposed Republican candidates carried the day. Dale Dirks got 40 votes for trustee, Scott Loving got 40 votes for treasurer, Earl Allen Schmidt got 40 votes for committeeman, and Janice Schmidt got 42 votes for committeewoman. No votes were cast for Democrats, not even in secret. "Lori in my heart" Lori finished kindergarten in 1967, shortly before her death. [August 6] I was trading e-mails yesterday afternoon with my sister, Cheryl, about Lori Myers. Cheryl had sent me a page out of the yearbook when Lori was a kindergartner so we could have a more complete view of the little girl's life. "It was weird seeing your mention of Lori this morning -- because just a few days ago I had asked Rick Clawson if he remembered her and the drowning," Cheryl wrote. "He lived just up the block from the Myers'." Lori had a couple of brothers, Richard and Kris. Richard was a year older than Lori, and Kris was three years younger. I wrote yesterday that the family lived south of town, but Cheryl reminded me that when the drowning occurred the family still lived on the western end of Flora Avenue. And then an e-mail arrived from Susan Vondracek, who you may remember as Susan Manka. The Mankas lived at Houck and Flora, across from the Clawsons, Howertons, and Meads and half a block east of the Myerses. Here is Susan's touching message: "I appreciated today's blog on Lori Myers. For me, she has never been forgotten. She lived at the time of her drowning with her parents and two brothers Richard & Kris in the small house next to Bill & Bonnie Levingston. She was my kindergarten classmate and also my friend. I have memories of us playing together. My most vivid is Lori walking to our house on Saturday mornings in her pajamas and watching cartoons with me and my brothers. As I've grown I often wondered what her life might have been and how mine might have been different if she would have lived. I have never forgotten that summer day when I was at my Grandma's house and my mom called to have my Grandma tell me my friend had died. It was hard to understand at six. Forty-one years have passed since that day and I will always carry a little piece of Lori in my heart. "I cannot begin to comprehend a loss of a child. Words escape me to tell parents who have experienced that loss. Today, we can offer prayers of comfort to Frank and TaWanna on the loss of their son, Colby." "I will also take some time today to tell my children how much I love them and let them know they are also always in my heart."  The Myers family lived in this house on the north side of Flora Avenue. Primary Election Day[August 6] Pawnee Rock and township residents voted yesterday in the state primary election. The polling place was the depot. Winning a primary doesn't mean you have to convince a lot of people to vote for you -- 4 out of 5 registered voters didn't make the effort. Of course, it was the primary, and in Barton County that doesn't usually bring forth a lot of exciting races in either party. Donna Zimmerman's crew at the Barton County Clerk's Office ran the early numbers and showed that the people who did vote were 80 percent Republican and 20 percent Democrat. Last night's preliminary results (pdf) posted on the web didn't include the township results, but I figure we'll see them soon. Marty Keenan, a political historian who inspired a posting on Pawnee Rock's U.S. senator (George McGill), will again face incumbent Bill Wolf for the District 112 House seat. Young lives
[August 5] There are many graves in the Pawnee Rock Cemetery, and most of them commemorate a long and reasonably fulfilled life. But one in particular signifies a terrible loss. Lori Anne Myers, whose family lived a mile south of the Pawnee Rock Bridge, was with her family at Lake Wilson in 1967. The details are lost to me now -- and as a fourth-grader I read the newspaper story a dozen times -- but in a moment of inattention she slipped from this world into the next. Lori, born in 1961, was buried in a small casket on the east side of the cemetery, and a few weeks later a small beautiful marker was put above her grave. Her father, Richard, now lies next to her. I don't think she has been forgotten, because she was our first contemporary to leave. We didn't speak of her, however, because her drowning revealed that kids like us could die, and now we could imagine how hope disappeared before death, and our new wisdom brought us both reverence and fear. This past weekend another young life was lost at Wilson. Colby Callahan, the 20-year-old son of Frank and TaWanna Mason Callahan of Larned, drowned while riding the lake on a jet-ski, and his body was found Monday afternoon. TaWanna grew up in Dundee, in the house closest to Pawnee Rock, and went to Pawnee Rock and Macksville high schools; she was a friend and classmate of mine. It takes only an instant for sadness to be visited upon a family; anyone with a son or daughter knows this, and for all the sublime moments of being a parent there remains the dark knowledge that the most awful thing can happen. My heart goes out to TaWanna and Frank and their family. Soon there will be another gravestone for another unfulfilled life, and I don't know that there's anything we can say that will ease the family's grief. But we can remember their son Colby, and Lori Myers, and the other children whose gray stones are set in our soil, and we can hug our own kids and look kindly on the sweetness of youth. Lou Isla Unruh dies: Lou Isla Belle Unruh, the widow of Raymond, died late last week in Hesston at age 85. She was born in Albert and worked for 39 years at the Kansas Power and Light office in Great Bend. She and Raymond lived in rural Larned and attended the Bergthal Mennonite Church. Her funeral is today in Newton. (Obituary) Video of Pawnee Rock State Park[August 4] I was strolling through YouTube this weekend and found that GregHillTopeka had recorded a video from a visit to Pawnee Rock State Park. It's a casual recording -- shaky movements and maybe a little too long -- but it provides a good look at the pavilion and the surrounding scenery we know so well. When our generation was in school, we were lucky to have 35mm cameras, and movie cameras were operated solely by the grownups. Movies -- home movies, football films -- were shot on 8mm and sent off to be processed. Now that the age of the shoulder-tiring camcorder has come and gone and we're safely in the digital age, I've found that making movies -- excuse me, vids -- is a blast. (Some of my simple efforts.) Before we get to the park video, I encourage our readers to make their own videos of Pawnee Rock. Process them into Web-ready videos and send them to me, and I'll post them on PawneeRock.org. (Please don't send enormous files.) Or put them on YouTube and send me the link. Without further ado, here is GregHillTopeka's view of Pawnee Rock: A small act of bravery[August 3] I have never enjoyed drinking milk. I struggled through kindergarten and grade school, every day dreading lunch and the afternoon snack because of the nauseating, often-lukewarm carton milk that came with it. In the early years, I was allowed to keep a metal container of Hershey chocolate powder so I could spoon some into my carton and soften the flavor. In third grade, Mrs. Dunavan told me in the spring that when Easter vacation was over, I would start drinking my milk plain. I spent our family's vacation in the Ozarks fearing the return to school; one night was so awful that my aunt came upstairs to comfort me. Each afternoon of school became horrible. I struggled to keep the milk down and sometimes lost the struggle. My classmates acted as if they saw nothing, but my shame grew under the school's institutional indifference. And yet, one day I decided I would try milk at home. I thought that when I was away from school, I might like milk. No one else was home. I set a glass on the blue countertop next to our refrigerator and poured a small bit. Oh, the disappointment! The milk had gone bad. That evening, Mom gently wondered whether I had tasted some milk. To her everlasting credit, she didn't raise her voice or tell me that I should have put the glass away. She asked only, "You didn't know it was buttermilk, did you?" Her kindness has illuminated a path for me as a parent. My little act of bravery reappears now and then in my sons as they try to conquer their own fears on their own terms. Sam in particular has many of the traits I had as a child, and it is sometimes a challenge even for me to recognize his actions for what they are. But like me, like all of us, the boys are doing the best they can to solve the hardships and indignities life lays in their way. At least, they like milk. A photo I like: No. 98
[August 2] I made this sunset photo late one autumn because my dad had suggested photographing a certain wooden windmill "because it won't last much longer." It was southwest of Pawnee Rock, probably closer to Larned than to our hometown. The following spring, in 1975, I entered the photo of the windmill and tank in a contest run by a photography shop in Hays. It won, and for the cost of a print and the negative I received an Olympus OM-1 35mm camera, which at the time was hot stuff. The camera still works and the print is still one of my favorites. Hunting for the chuckwagon
She wrote: "Being a former member of the Methodist Church, I started asking. Keith Converse does not know, so, if Keith doesn't know, there is no one left to tell us. "We think, however, that Bert Bowman may have had the wagon. Earl and I always helped with the supper, but the wagon was just "always there." "I may still get an answer. I have people working on 'where is the chuck wagon?'" Be there: Tomorrow, Earl Allen Schmidt is celebrating his 80th birthday. |
Sell itAdvertise here to an audience that's already interested in Pawnee Rock: Or tell someone happy birthday. Advertise on PawneeRock.org. |
But only once have I sat in a courtroom for a trial, and that was the only time I have ever been chosen for a jury. It was city traffic court in DeSoto, Texas, where we lived for a couple of years in the late 1990s. The driver thought she'd get a sympathetic jury for her crime of running a yellow-turned-red light in front of a cop. We hanged her; she got the maxiumum fine of $75.
[August 17] Now that it Pawnee Rock is baking merrily in the convection oven known as Kansas, maybe it's time to think cold.
Provided free of charge to the citizens of Pawnee Rock, Kansas. Published monthly on the Thursday before every second Saturday. When the green flag is waving outside the Police Department this newspaper is yours for the taking! Printing is courtesy of City Hall.
[August 1] Janice Schmidt read |
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