Too Long in the Wind

March 2011

The busiest store in town

View of the Pawnee Rock city library, October 1979. Photo by Barb Schmidt.

[March 31]   Barb Schmidt sent a thought-provoking idea when she sent a photo yesterday of the old Pawnee Avenue shop west of the post office.

Barb wrote:

"Cheryl's current photo of the "garage sale" store reminded me of the attached photo that I took in October 1979 of the same building, when it was the town library. Wasn't it also a dress shop at one time? It would be interesting to figure out what all kinds of businesses have been in this single storefront location over the many years. It's also interesting to spot the many small changes in the appearance of these buildings over the years."

Well, I don't have a complete list of what has been in that place, but through the generosity of Barb, Cheryl, and Don Ross I do have photos of the shop over the decades -- perhaps going back a hundred years. They're on today's homepage.

Western Flyer: Those of you who rode bikes in Pawnee Rock as a kid or had a little dog like our Patches may want to check out Cheryl's column this week in the Emporia Gazette.

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Easter pageant is April 24

[March 30]   "The Way of the Cross" -- Pawnee Rock's long-running Easter pageant -- is scheduled for sunrise on April 24, the last Sunday in April, in Pawnee Rock State Park.

Sunrise that day will be about 6:45 a.m.

A service on the Rock isn't a sure thing. Two years ago, there was no sunrise. The sky at 7 a.m. on April 12, 2009, was a wet blanket, and the pagent was moved to the New Jerusalem Church.

The pageant, which made its debut in 1936, is presented in odd-numbered years. (Read about its history.)

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Spotty snow

[March 29]   Jim Dye sent a nice set of photos from Sunday's snow shower. I used a couple of them yesterday on the home page and had a few left. Here are three:

The curved sidewalk on the south lip of Pawnee Rock State Park.

The monument, viewed through the pavilion.

Snow, held for a moment by a lilac.

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Good losers

[March 28]   This weekend turned out sourly for KU basketball fans, but was any one of us really surprised that the Jayhawks lost to an overachieving opponent?

I know the Hawks can't win every NCAA championship, but it would be nice every once in a while if the loss came to a well-known and highly respected opponent.

Why does KU always have to be the punch line?

On the bright side, Kansans can still cheer for Wichita State, which is in the NIT's final four. The Wheat Shockers of Hillside High play Washington State on Tuesday night in New York.

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School of art

Sign on the former Stanton County high school, Johnson City. Johnson City has 1,500 of the county's 2,400 residents.

[March 25]   Susan Unruh Ellis and I were chatting this past week about schools and architecture, and how perfectly good schools are being wasted by district closures. Pawnee Rock, of course, knows all about that.

I dug up a shot from a school that impressed me on my wanderings through Kansas' high plains last summer. I was in Stanton County and was struck by the joyous artwork on the front of the middle-school building on the north side of Johnson City.

Out there amid the center pivots and feedlots, in a county seat that is a half-mile by a half-mile, the school was an artistic oasis. And that's one of the points Susan was making -- the old schools have a lot of value not found so often anymore in public buildings.

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Point of view

View of the Pawnee Rock pavilion from the northeast, photographed in mid-March by Jim Dye.

[March 24]   We're all familiar with the pavilion in Pawnee Rock State Park, but Jim Dye's photo of it is nice just because it was taken from a view I bet few of us have seen recently -- from the northeast hillside.

This is the forgotten corner of the Rock. Everyone looks south at the town, then southeast to spot Radium and Seward, then southwest to look for Larned, and finally northeast to find Dundee and maybe Great Bend off in the haze. We look northwest at the old salt plant and north-northwest to admire the cemetery.

We might allow the funny new sidewalk to guide our feet around the flat sandstone top, but now it seems even more unlikely that anyone will wander past the barrier represented by the sidewalk and head off into the cedars and elms of the northeast edge.

I walked that area last summer, performing a census of trees because I realized I had never taken time to explore that section. It was peaceful there, just me and the wind and the grasshoppers. This view was one of the treats.

I guess the moral of this story is to stop wherever you live now and look around for places you've overlooked. Set your lawn chair in a part of the yard you rarely visit. Take a different entrance into a park or drive an extra five minutes and approach your office or shop or grocery store from a different direction.

The world is full of new points of view.

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An aroma of warm weather

Pond scum -- look but don't touch.

[March 22]   Fishing in farm ponds is an adventure in aromas.

There is the smell of grass -- wheat, corn, milo, pasture grass. There is the scent of cattle -- their hides, their dust, their pies. There might be the heavy odor of grease and fuel wafting down the hill from the combine barn. And then there's pond scum.

Mud. Algae. Warm water modified with fertilizer and cow-pie runoff. Mix 'em together, and you have a pond in bloom.

I suppose the fish and insects love it. Anyone who has had to step out to unhook a snag or bring in a catfish, however, knows that the gunk never really comes out of your shoes and only after a lot of scrubbing does it come out of your skin.

One of the best things about fishing at Earl Schmidt's sandpit next to the river was that there was no mud, no algae, no warm water. It was sandy bottomed, clear, and cool, and to top it off Earl let us walk out on the dredge's thick planks to drown our minnows in search of crappie.

The smell in summer? Overheated tin, baked rubber, and moss. Man, it smelled good out there.

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Tweet Sixteen

My money's on KU to win.

[March 21]   I am overjoyed that I don't need to write another angry obituary for a first-weekend loss by the Kansas Jayhawks. This year, they've made it to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament.

Yes, yes, last year's second-round loss was only a game, and the bruise my car's dashboard gave my fist is only a memory. Yes, I am just a guy who went to KU and covered the Hawks in the Ted Owens era, and no, I don't know any of the current players personally. But losing last year to Northern Illinois still hacked me off.

I vowed not to get so attached to the Hawks this season. But then last fall I got on the Twitter feed of Josh Selby and that led to the tweets of Thomas Robinson, the Morris twins, Tyrel Reed, and Brady Morningstar, and here I am, again living and dying with the Beloved Jayhawks.

My family is tired of hearing the "Rock Chalk" chant and seeing me wave the wheat while humming the KU songs, and they have told me to stop. My wife went to college in Wichita, and one of my sons favors Texas A&M. I am living with barbarians and philistines.

Realistically, the best thing this winter about being hooked up with KU is that pride in my heritage makes me play harder at the gym. That should be enough, but I'd sure like to show up there in early April with cash in my pocket and a new KU championship shirt on my back.

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Devil's claw

[March 18]   I was tromping down a gully last summer when I came across a nice spread of devil's claw plants. They weren't yet dried and hooked. The seed pods looked like okra. (Devil's claw on Wikipedia)

It occurred to me how often I pay attention only to the final stage of a plant's life cycle. I see the blooming sunflower, but rarely the plant when it's a half-foot high. I think of the garden strawberry, but not too often about the plant as it emerges from the cold ground. I think of the devil's claw wrapped around my ankle, but not when it's in this furry, succulent stage.

Green children.

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Behind the elms

Building just south of the tracks. It once held D&B Truck Bed Co.

[March 17]   The company my dad, Elgie, worked for before he began his own carpentry business was D&B Truck Bed Co., which had its shop in a building on the east side of Centre between the 1908 Lindas building and the depot's current location. They built beds, mostly for farmers who wanted to carry wheat. D&B stood for Darrell Drake and Roy Blackwell. (More about the shop)

Eventually, D&B moved out of its location in the high-rent district and set up shop in a building south of the tracks, 210 Rock Street. Drake lived just north of the highway, and Blackwell lived a block to the east of the new shop.

Now and then in my childhood and early adult years, Dad would point out the Rock Street building as he drove us past in his pickup. I probably said "Oh" and looked out the window at the building with its brown asphalt siding, but I never asked the questions that would have prompted Dad to tell me what it was like to work there. Maybe he wouldn't have told me much anyway; he often didn't have much to say about personal relationships.

As the years have passed, I've been amazed time and again that the old building, with all of its add-ons, has remained on its feet. It was used as a house in the 1960s and '70s, even into the 2000s, and it once had a mowed yard and bushes that were more of a hedge than a forest. Now it seems to be in the process of giving itself gracefully back to the earth.

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Cemetery Jesus disappears

[March 15]   Many of us remember the aged statue standing at the north end of the Pawnee Rock Cemetery, and Candice Conwell of Great Bend is one of them. This e-mail came from her on Monday:

"Hi Leon! This is Candy Unruh here. Did you know that the small white 100-year-old statue of Jesus that you ran a story on a while back at PawneeRock.org has now disappeared from the cemetery?

"Would you let people know? It really makes me mad. I used to stop and say a prayer at the statue after visiting my Mom's gravesite.

"Thanks!"

So, folks, if you know what happened to the statue, please let us know.

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Down the trail

Santa Fe Trail marker at Coolidge.

[March 14]   Amy Bickel's piece on Coolidge -- previously known as Trail City -- is a nice piece of writing about one of Pawnee Rock's sister cities. (See the Hutch News story.)

Coolidge is what Pawnee Rock could have turned into had our hometown been along the Colorado border, on a cattle trail, and empty of Mennonites. Otherwise, the towns have a few things in common, including the Arkansas River, the Santa Fe Trail, sand streets, a closed school, a hill north of town, and a shrinking population that drives somewhere else to work if they don't have a job at the elevator or post office.

I visited Coolidge last summer, out on U.S. 50 before it disappears into Colorado, and wrote about it later on these pages. Here are a few more photos of this high plains village.

A building on a side road in Coolidge. Photo copyright 2011 by Leon Unruh.

The Arkansas River at Coolidge in August.

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Gray day

[March 10]   Springtime showers are good for the flowers and crops, but a rainy day in March is much like a rainy day in October -- sweater weather.

Jim Dye made these soggy photos Tuesday. To illustrate what kind of day it was, I'll use one of Jim's photos of the new elevator bins. The top photo is as Jim sent it -- in glorious Kansas color. The second photo is the same shot as the first, but I used Photoshop to take all the color out.

Color version.

Black-and-white version.

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Shade

[March 8]   This isn't the season of shade; trees may be budding but spring is not quite here and leafy summer is still a couple of months down the calendar.

Shade at this point still comes in long skeletal stripes, pushed away from the trunk by the relatively low sun. But before you know it, green life will burst rashly upon the plains and the leaves will block the sun and you'll avoid the shade because it's just better to stand where the sun can warm you.

We have our ancestors to thank for this. A hundred years ago, there was a big push -- no doubt encouraged by the Zieber nursery -- to plant elms up and down every street in Pawnee Rock. A lot of the trees have gone through their life cycle and have not been replaced; everyone likes the shade but no one wants to rake the leaves when summer has been used up.

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More Scout photos

Scouts savor a snack along the Pawnee River in 1951.

Members of Pawnee Rock's Boy Scout Troop 174 mess around on the bank of the Pawnee River at Camp Pawnee, 1951.

Visitors approach the campsite of Troop 174 at Camp Pawnee, 1951.

Scout leader Jim Wilhite and members of Troop 174 have vistors at their campsite: Phyllis Deckert, Bob Schmidt, and Bernice Schmidt.

[March 7]   Barb Schmidt has sent more photos of Boy Scout Troop 174 of Pawnee Rock. Her dad, Paul, was involved with the troop, and her brother Bob became a member. (Barb's earlier photos and a note from Scout Bob Delaplane)

A couple of photos -- an awards ceremony and a photo of a handsome boy standing outside a tent -- are on today's homepage.

Here, we have four photos of the troop's first campout, in 1951 at Camp Pawnee.

In two photos, the boys are standing on the sandy bank of the Pawnee. In the other photos, relatives visit the campsite.

Of the photo of Jim Wilhite and the boys, Barb wrote:

I recognize Phyllis Deckert (Andy's mom), my brother Bob Schmidt and my mom Bernice Schmidt standing at the right side of the photo. Otherwise, I do not know anyone in any of these photos -- other than to the extent Andy helped provide names in the group photos you posted on the website.

It is also great to know now the "story" behind the photos as it explains why they were taken and why my parents thought the photos were important enough to keep. It also explains why my brother Bob Schmidt (who was also an active Scout all the way through Eagle Scouts in high school) is not in uniform with the troop -- if this was the troop's first outing, he probably wasn't a member yet but I bet he was dreaming of it!

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Phyllis Deckert is turning 90

[March 5]   Phyllis Deckert turns 90 years old on Monday, says son-in-law Larry Smith.

Congratulations and Happy Birthday.

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Lions Club noodle dinner

[March 4]   The Lions Club noodle dinner is Saturday -- tomorrow.

Club members make the noodles. Diners will have the choice of chicken or beef with their noodles. A meal ticket costs $6.

Serving hours are from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the depot.

Building photos: The photos of the city's new building getting its roof on yesterday's homepage should have been credited to Jim Dye, who has kept us up to date on its construction.

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Writing of the past

[March 3]   My sister, Cheryl, remembers what it was like to learn cursive writing in Mrs. Dunavan's class.

"In third grade, cursive writing seemed like a foreign language. Bent over our tablet paper, we 8-year-olds stuck out our tongues in concentration, trying to get our pencils to replicate the teacherÕs perfectly drawn letters."

Read her whole column, which appeared this week in the Emporia Gazette and now is on FlyoverPeople.net.

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Report from a Scout who was there

[March 2]   Bob Delaplane, our Pawnee Rock expatriate (valedictorian of the Class of 1960) living in Sweden, was one of the young Boy Scouts who appeared in the photos Barb Schmidt provided. He says he doesn't know who the photographer was, but he does know that the unidentified men in the cooking photo were leaders from troops from other towns.

Here's what he sent:

The photos regarding the Pawnee Rock Scout troop 174 were very interesting.

(1) This photo was taken at a weekend leader training camp at Camp Pawnee located a few miles West of Larned. The hills in the background are very well known to anyone who has ever been there. The "pots" in the foreground are cast iron Dutch ovens which were used to bake bread. Coals were placed on the lids. In the long shallow pit was the main meal: meat, usually hamburger, with sliced onions and potatoes in aluminium foil which was laid directly on the coals for about 45 min.

(2) and (3) These two photos were taken at the very first camp we attended after our Scout troop was started. It was on the banks of the Pawnee creek somewhere West of Larned. We were in about 3 tents, a rain storm with thunder and lighting kept us awake and at about 4 am we had water rising in the tents so we spent the rest of the night trying to sleep in the cars. We had made the mistake of setting up the tents too close to the creek, which had flooded because of the rain. That is why there were not any smiles on our faces. I still remember the smoky fire.

I certainly would appreciate receiving any other photos from the PR Scout troop.

Best regards,
Bob Delaplane

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Pawnee Rock Scout troop 174

[March 1]   Barb Schmidt has uncovered more super photos from Pawnee Rock of the 1950s. In this case, it's Boy Scout troop 174. Here are the shots and what she wrote about them:

I am sending you four photos from the early 1950s relating to Pawnee Rock Scout Troop 174. The photos are from my parents' collection, but I do not know who took the photos. My brother Larry and I could not identify many people in the photos so I contacted Andy Deckert (PRHS '60), and he kindly helped match some names to faces.

(1) In the photo of the group of men with cooking pots in the foreground: Jim Wilhite is second from the left (looking to the left); Wendell Binder is seated in the middle; my dad, Paul Schmidt, is seated farthest to the right (open crown felt cowboy hat); Leslie Deckert is behind my dad (dark baseball cap). Any idea what they were cooking in the pots or the open pit?

(2) Troop 174 flag. Are there any former PR Scouts out there who know when the troop disbanded?

(3) In the photo with Scouts in uniform, left to right: (standing) Andy Deckert, Bob Delaplane, Larry Schmidt, Larry Robinson, unidentified Scout, Dick Myers, Larry Holmes, Jim Wilhite; (seated) Gary McDowell, unidentified Scout, Delaine (Joe) Levingston. The photo looks a bit faded to the left side, but that is actually smoke. I have other photos from this campout that show a very smoky campfire. I'm not sure, but this campout may have been on the Arkansas River -- Camp Pawnee?

(4) The other photo is the cover of the "Scout Field Book," which should call up (hopefully fond) memories for many former Scouts. As I was writing this email, I glanced through the several Cub and Boy Scout handbooks my parents kept and learned that Scouting was originally modeled on the medieval ideals of knightly chivalry. The old "Boy Scout Handbook" states that "Requirement No. 1(b)" to become a Tenderfoot Scout was to "know the Scout Law," which is actually a list of virtues:

A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent toward God. I sure like this "law" a lot better than most of those passed by Congress or my state legislature. . . .

In the 1950s, my recollection is that Boy Scouts was a strong and well organized group in PR (to my knowledge, PR never had Girl Scouts -- boo hoo!). But by the mid to late 1960s, 4-H seemed the dominant youth organization in town. Is that correct, or is my memory muddled? Were there any other PR youth organizations outside the school and church environments?

If anyone can identify any of the other people in the photos and/or knows when or where they were taken, I'd love to hear. And by the way, where are all the old 4-H photos?

Thanks, Barb

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