Too Long in the Wind

December 2010

Twenty-eleven. How about that.

Light a new candle for 2011.

[December 31, 2010]   Here we are at the end of 2010, having survived a year of natural calamities, elections, and KU basketball as far as the second round of the NCAA tournament.

I offer a toast to all who read this!

I'm digging my toes in, preparing to make the big jump into the new year. To be honest, I never expected to make it this far. I thought civilization as we knew it would collapse in 1984 and possibly again in 2000.

I'm not an end-of-the-worlder, but I didn't have much faith in those who were. I suspected that they would deliver an Armageddon-level disaster just to prove some misbegotten point.

As it turns out, however, the threats of 1984 have generally come true -- Big Brother is everywhere, except he's dressed not just as the expected Government bogeyman but also as Google and Facebook.

We appear to have one more year of grace, in the no-one-bothers-with-it year of 2011, before the politicians and other doomsayers bring us the national election and the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012.

Twenty-eleven gives us a fresh start. Let's each try something different for ourselves this year, and we'll meet back year in a year to talk about it.

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Robert Brock, famous native

[December 30]   A newspaper clipping that my mom trimmed out of the Tribune stuck with me for a long time, and now I've found another copy of it. It's about Robert Brock, a Pawnee Rock native who became rich and important.

The strange thing was that I never heard another mention of Robert Brock having to do with Pawnee Rock. Does anyone remember him? He died in 1998.

The headline over the press release was "Robert Brock Is Kansan of Year." The item was published on Kansas Day 1973.

"A native of Pawnee Rock, Robert L. Brock, now a Topeka businessman and attorney, was named 'Kansan of the Year' at the annual banquet of the Native Sons and Daughters in Topeka Sunday.

"Brock received the award for having distinguished himself in his line of endeavor 'in such a way as to have added to the glory, wealth and welfare of Kansas.'

"He is presidnt of Inn Operations, In and of Topeka Inn Management, In., companies which operate 70 Holiday Inns in 21 states. He serves as Kansas Defense Resources Liaison Officer, was vice chairman of the Kansas Commission on Executive Re-Organization. He is chairman of the 2nd Congressional District Democrats."

• More about Brock is available on a web page posted by Sterling High School, from which he graduated in 1942. Sterling High School honors
• The "legendary" and "flamboyant" Brock owned a ranch near Maple Hill, west of Topeka, that was turned into a lodge. Maple Hill resort. Someone else bought the place later and turned it into the Prairie Fire Lodge. The price of a room isn't listed; because I wondered how much it costs, I'm apparently not the kind of customer the Prairie Fire Lodge wants.
• A story about his death appeared in June 1998 in the Topeka Capital Journal.

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Grocery store robbed, 1977

[December 29]   A story on an inside page of the March 23, 1977, Great Bend Tribune details the robbery of Dee's Market, a grocery store in Pawnee Rock that had been open for only four months.

The story, which had no byline and no mention of the robbers actually appearing in other towns, began this way under the headline "Gypsies raid Pawnee Rock grocery store":

"There were no signs on the caravan of plush new cars to designate them as 'Gypsies.' But the roving band that in every way fit that description payed a surprise visit to Dee's Market here last week. And proved to be 'customers' she will not soon forget.

"'It all happened so quickly,' explains Mrs. Dee Jost, who owns the grocery store. 'It wasn't until I got ready to close that I discovered $600 in bills missing from the cash box in my office.'

"She was busy waiting on customers about 3:30 p.m., when suddenly eight or 10 of the women rushed into the store. Jost describes them as dark complexioned, and dressed in bright colors. Their jet black hair was tied back with bandanas and large aprons were tied over their ankle-length skirts. Their language was foreign to her."

Mrs. Yost said the women got into conversations with all the other customers and one woman bought three tomatoes and some pop. On a signal, they all left. "Observers" said the women got into cars and "zoomed out of town before the car doors could close."

"Looking back on her experiece, Jost wonders why the city was not warned of the approaching caravan as they also called on neighboring towns. However, it would need to be done by phone for this modern day roving band travels first class. Their luxury automobiles are equipped with CB radios."

The story added that Mrs. Jost and her husband, Gary, opened the story in November 1976 after remodeling it. He helped with the meat department.

In addition, she regularly sold gift items she made, including macrame she knotted while waiting for customers. She was thinking of also selling plants.

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Irene Blackwell nears 100 years old

Roy and Irene Blackwell, formerly of Pawnee Rock.

[December 28]   Irene Blackwell, a longtime resident of Pawnee Rock and Larned, is nearly 100 years old.

Her son Dean would like folks who remember her to send a card.

Here's a note he sent with the photo of Roy and Irene.

100th Birthday Alert! Irene Blackwell, longtime resident of Pawnee Rock/Larned, will turn 100 on January 18, 2011.

A Birthday Celebration will be held on Sunday, January 9, from 2 to 5 p.m. at Resurrection Fellowship, 6502 E. Crossroads Blvd., Loveland, CO 80538.

A special thanks to all of Mom's many awesome friends over the years! You are encouraged to send your congratulations to:

Irene Blackwell
c/o Karen Johnson
5325 Cherrywood Lane
Johnstown, CO 80534

Or email congratulations to karen@jphealthfoods.com.

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Perfect winter scenes

Frost and the red sandstone of Pawnee Rock State Park. Photos made December 26 by Jim Dye.

[December 27]   Jim Dye wrote that it was around 15 degrees yesterday morning when he took his camera for a drive up around the Rock and the township cemetery. The scenery he found put Kansas' regular subtle beauty to shame.

Long frost crystals grow during freezing fog because of the still air and the easy supply of moisture. You know this because you've scraped such crystals off your car's windows and fretted about them as you drove on icy roads. On the good side, however, crystals growing on plants turn regular scenery into something spectacular.

Many stunning photos have been submitted to PawneeRock.org since the site was launched in late December 2005, but I can't remember any that I liked more than the pair of Jim's that are on today's homepage (update: now in the Gallery).

Jim sent a wide selection of shots, and I've included three more of them here.

Crystals soften the appearance of yucca on the Rock.

Anyone going to the top of the pavilion would have been met with icy stairs.

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Merry Christmas

[December 24]   There's a town out in western Alaska with about the population of Pawnee Rock when it had a school. The town, Quinhagak, sits on the open tundra, which in that part of the state is much like the plains of Kansas but a lot soggier in the summer. It sits on the shore of the Bering Sea and at the mouth of a river, and the wind is a constant companion. (Map)

Quinhagak has an inspired teacher with a nice touch for making movies.

Teachers can make such a large contribution to a child's life -- the kind that sticks with the kid through adulthood -- that it's a shame we don't treat them with more respect. For the rest of their lives, the kids and adults of Quinhagak will be able to point to this YouTube movie, and their minds will be open to the possibilities of technology, music, and teamwork.

All that aside, however, I offer this video as a Christmas card to everyone who has -- or remembers -- outrageous fun in a school in the open spaces:

Cheryl Unruh, my sister, published a touching Pawnee Rock Christmas column this week in the Emporia Gazette. Find it here.

Merry Christmas to you all.

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Kansas, our Kansas

[December 23]   The forecast for the rest of the week in Pawnee Rock includes the chance of snow, but the temperature will be so close to freezing that it might be rain instead. If all goes well, there's a possibility Pawnee Rock will have a white Christmas, or at least remnants of snow on the ground. It'll make tracking reindeer a lot easier.

In the meantime, I'd like to present one final (for 2010) green-grass view of Barton County. This shot is was made in August on the section east of the former Elrick Smith farm. The view is generally toward the north.

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11 candidates for 5 seats in 1971

[December 22]   In the spring of 1971, the election filing deadline brought the news that in Barton County only Pawnee Rock would require a primary election.

The filings were covered in a newspaper story, published February 16 in the Great Bend Tribune.

The city had 11 candidates for five positions on the city council. The primary would be held to eliminate one of them.

The candidates included Kenneth Ingram and Lamont Smith, who were already on the council. The remaining candidates were Glen Carris, Adam Chlumsky, Mary Flick, Don Lee, Ora Ritchie, James Unruh, Bill Unruh, Lynn Welch, and Elmer Vratil.

Two other candidates filed for the mayor's race: incumbent Bob Mead and former mayor Dorothy Bowman.

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Maybe it's an omen of a short winter

[December 21]   I hope you all got to see the lunar eclipse last night -- first one on the solstice for 372 years. I hardly remember the last one.

We dragged the boys out in the cold and made them watch the moon get eaten. Sam told me to stop joking when I shouted out to the neighborhood to repent their sins or I wouldn't bring the moon back. In his innocence, he just doesn't understand the powers of Dad-ness.

I was thinking how much fun it would have been to be standing the pavilion on Pawnee Rock to watch the eclipse. I'm sure that stargazing wasn't why the upper deck was built, but it's hard to imagine a better place.

Unless it was windy -- and the late-night weather report suggests that the temperature was just above freezing and the wind was 10 mph out of the north.

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Another Bataan survivor

[December 21]   My mom, Anita Byers, read Rick Clawson's note about the Bataan Death March yesterday and wanted to be sure we remembered someone else:

"Thanks for printing the horrible Bataan Death March info and history of Dr. Brenner. Another Larned man, Clyde Simmons, was also in the Bataan Death March. In the l950s he was a city mail carrier, and he raised horses. He is buried in the Larned Cemetery."

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A Marine's brush with Bataan

[December 20]   Rick Clawson, who attended Pawnee Rock schools in the 1960s and '70s, thought of his own military life when he read the item about the book about Dr. Brenner, "I'm Praying Hard for You: Love Letters to a Death Camp: The World War II Ordeal of Bill and Jo Brenner."

Here is what Rick wrote:

As a young Marine in 1978 I was stationed in the Philippine Islands and many times was assigned as a one man foot patrol near a Bataan Death March memorial. It was a white cross with a white chain link fence around it which glowed ominously in the dark. Nothing like being a young kid out in the middle of nowhere in total darkness for four hours, and having to walk by this memorial honoring those who suffered this horrible event. In retrospect, I guess it was similar to being in a cemetery at night, only in this case being armed to the teeth, since it was quite normal to hear the Philippine army battling it out with insurgents.

Rick

(History: The Bataan death march)

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Above and below me

[December 17]   Sometimes what is visible leads me to wonder what is going on above and below my station on the earth.

For example, in this photo taken northwest from the Pawnee Rock Cemetery, how tall is the cumulonimbus cloud that must be rising over the blue section where it's raining? What keeps the adjacent white-gray clouds from turning into rain as well? How turbulent are the heavens?

And I wonder, how deep into the parched topsoil of early August did the water soak? Did the grass hold the water for the cedars and the billions of insects that live in the grass, or did most of the water run into the pond between the cemetery and the salt plant?

Nature on this Sunday in August pulled the ceiling down close to the floor, focusing my attention on what I needed to pay attention to -- lightning, for example -- but giving me lots of invisible space where my imagination could run free.

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News from 1972

[December 16]   Pawnee Rock was in the news in 1972, as recorded in these clippings from the Great Bend Tribune.

April 17 -- Cleaning up the city by getting rid of old junk cards and car bodies is one of the projects of outlined by the PRIDE Commnity Developement Program here.

Keith Kasselman, who volunteered to head this committee, has procured the services of Everitt Rust, a salvage dealer, who will dispose of junk cars here. This is a great opportunity to rid the city of junk cars as the disposal of these has presented a problem for quite some time.

June 16 -- Brent Bowman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Alan Bowman of Pawnee Rock, an honor graduate of Kansas State University school of architecture in May, is now employed with the architectural firm of Haver, Nunn and Nelson in Phoenix Ariz. Brent and his wife, Judy, now make their home at 5145 North Seventh St. (Apt. 237) in Phoenix.

April 28 -- The Pawnee Rock High School music department participated in the State Music Festival at Dodge City Friday and Saturday. Jim Quinn is the director.

Ratings received were: Band II, Sight reading III, Boys Glee Club III; Girls Glee Club I. Vocal solos: Andrea Stimatze I, Ida Deckert I, Crystal Davidson II, Kala Reimer II, Andrew Stimatze II, Alan Mead II, Carl Epperson II, Doug Carmichael III. Trumpet solos: Andrew Stimatze II, Leon Unruh III, Kenneth Henderson III.

A chill in the air: You probably remember from your studies of classic Greek that Homer's Odyssey included a mention of "rosy-fingered Dawn." We've all seen that kind of sunrise.

I had that kind of sunrise yesterday, but Dawn was wearing fur-lined mittens on her lovely fingers -- although her nose, like mine, was as rosy as Rudolph's.

I wrote to my sister, Cheryl, who had mentioned on Facebook that it was misting and just-below-freezing in Emporia. She declared that she'd rather have the nasty weather than freezer burn.

Kansans! So full of common sense that you can't do anything with them.

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Fight at Pawnee Rock

[December 15]   A man named James Fugate signed up for a job as a teamster on a wagon train from Missouri to Santa Fe. He eventually settled in Barton County and at some point wrote the following tale, which was published in the "Biographical History of Barton County, Kansas," in 1912.

I've included a few paragraphs to set the stage, followed by a section describing a battle at Pawnee Rock.

Scouting Adventures in 1853

By James M. Fugate of Barton County

In April, 1853, young, vigorous, and never having seen as much of the world as generally fills the ambition of fellows in their early days of manhood, I engaged as teamster to drive through with a train of ox-wagons loaded with merchandise for the Santa Fe trade. We left La Fayette County, Missouri, the 24th day of April; our company comprised 45 men, armed with the old-fashioned long-range rifles, each, a Colt's navy revolver and bowie knife. Our teams numbered 210 head of cattle in all.

Kansas was then one vast wild plain, over which roving bands of hostile Indians were constantly cutting off emigrant and freight trains on their way to New Mexico and the Californias.

After leaving the settlement some distance, we overtook twelve men with three wagons, who had discovered there was danger ahead and were awaiting reinforcements before venturing farther. This increased our fighting force to 57 robust, well-armed men. . . .

FIGHT AT THE ROCK

We camped about 200 yards to the south of the rock. Nothing unusual transpired during the night. About 8 o'clock next morning, just as we had brought our cattle up to the corral, and were yoking them up, a band of Cheyennes, to the number of about 300, suddenly made a dash from the north, part of the Indians coming in on each side of the Rock, and immediately surrounded our corral of wagons, with a terrible war-whoop.

The usual manner of making such a corral was to form a circle with the wagons, running them as close behind each other as possible, with the left-hand or driver's side innermost. When the circle was complete, an opening the size of a wagon was left for a gate, which was closed by a single wagon just inside the circle, so placed that it could be run aside or back into the gap, or "gate," during the night, and times of danger, the cattle are kept within this enclosure or "corral," as it is called; at other times they were turned out to graze, in charge of several men. On the left-hand side of the wagon bed, above the wheels, there was a small box about five feet long, prepared with a hinged cover that pitched so as to shed rain. This box contained, in a convenient position, the arms, ammunition, lunch, trinkets, etc., of the driver.

Leaving our cattle as they were, some yoked, some partly yoked, we instantly seized our weapons and pitched in vigorously to repulse the assault.

The Indians opened a heavy fire from the start. They made strainers of our wagon boxes by perforating them with bullets and arrow heads. The Indians who were mounted fired high, and may possibly sometimes have hit some of their own men on the opposite side of the corral.

After firing in this way for a while, and finding they could gain nothing, they beat a hasty retreat to the south, taking with them their dead and wounded, who were in nearly all cases tied to their ponies, as was shown by the thongs that lay by some of the dead ponies, where the riders had cut loose and got away.

In this fight we had one man wounded, and several cattle killed.

From here on we had to fight the Indians every few days. We had engagements at Pawnee Fork, again near Dodge, again at Cimarron, here by the Apaches and Arapahoes, again at Mount Aubrey, Kearney County.

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Mrs. Romeiser wins award

[December 14]   Janice Romeiser, who once lived in Pawnee Rock, has been named the 2011 Emporia National Education Association master teacher.

Mrs. Romeiser is married to Gary Romeiser, who taught health and driver's ed and coached the high school's boys athletic teams. She grew up near Otis and Bison and went to college at Fort Hays. Story and photo in the Emporia Gazette)

(Thank you to Cheryl Unruh for pointing out Mrs. Romeiser's award.)

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Former English teacher Verner dies

[December 14]   Thomas Verner, who was a Pawnee Rock High School English teacher and basketball coach in the 1967-68 and 1968-69 school years, died over the weekend. He was 65 years old and had suffered from Alzheimer's.

Mr. Verner and his wife, Terri, lived in a rental house in the middle of the block west of the Christian Church. I think teaching at Pawnee Rock may have been his first job after college. He later taught in Wichita and then became a guidance counselor and coach, also in Wichita.

His survivors include his wife, Terri, and daughters Regan and Robyn.

When they were in Pawnee Rock, it was just Tom and Terri, and they lived across the street from our house. They were very pleasant neighbors.

Mr. Verner's funeral will be this afternoon in Parsons, the town where he was born. (Full obituary)

(Thank you to Stan Finger for mentioning Mr. Verner's passing to us.)

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Names of the 1953 homecoming boys

Pawnee Rock High School basketball homecoming, 1953: Queen Nita Geil, King Dean Blackwell, flower girl Deana Hixon, crown bearer Mike Durall. The other players are Roger Seibert, Don Schultz, Larry Kopke, JimBob Svatos, Darry Drake, Bill Wilson, Bennie Baldwin, and Ed Durall.

[December 13]   As crown bearer Mike Durall suggested might happen, his big brother Ed has come through with names of the 1952-53 basketball players who formed an honor guard for homecoming Dean Blackwell and queen Nita Geil.

Here is Ed's message:

Yes, I do know the names of the other guys. On the left side are Roger Seibert, Don Schultz, Larry Kopke, and JimBob Svatos. On the right side are Darry Drake, Bill Wilson, Bennie Baldwin, and me.

I was also interested in the pictures of the 1951 train wreck, particularly the one that showed the torn-up railroad ties scattered around. My dad and I hauled a big bunch of those ties home and burned them in our furnace. Those things were heavy! [Photos by Paul Schmidt, now in the Gallery.]

Ed

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What The Real West looks like

[December 10]   I never put much thought into the idea that Pawnee Rock was part of the old west. Anybody who grew up in Pawnee Rock knew that The Real West was way out beyond Fort Larned and probably started in the mountains.

So it came as a surprise a few years ago, when I was driving from Pawnee Rock through Oklahoma south of Enid toward Texas, to realize that real western scenery was all around me.

There were mesas and mesquite, and a Santa Fe freight chugging through desolate country bursting with prickly pears. In fact, the whole landscape could have been the star of a hand-tinted photograph found on a pre-war Super Chief wall calendar.

I walked up on an old farmhouse, deserted for a dozen or more years, and behind it was a bluff that marked the edge of a creek's valley. The time of year was November, so the cottonwoods were brazenly yellow and one of them happened to be on the edge of the sunlight against the valley wall.

Now this, I thought, was desperado country, busted-broke farmer country, The Real West.

I wonder how many of these hidden spots the not-so-far-west holds. I can think of a few -- Monument Rock in Scott County, the hills around Kanopolis Reservoir, the Gyp Hills. Even Pawnee Rock, when the winter light comes in across the fence top and illuminates the sandstone flank, is a western landscape treasure. I'm as guilty as anyone of thinking that "it's not scenery if it doesn't have mountains," and that is what makes it so easy to overlook all of these places of subtle beauty.

Once in a while, we may drive past a pasture of unbroken native grass, and it reminds us that our countryside once was wild. It reminds us that Pawnee Rock was The Real West, where settlers arrived by steam locomotive and covered wagon as recently as a hundred years ago. The Real West lives in the Santa Fe route at the base of the Rock, in the arrowheads under the fields, in the gray-wood granaries in the back 40, and in the rattlers and prairie dogs and yuccas of our own back yard.

On a grand or lesser scale, dramatic scenery is all around us. When we open our minds, it appears.

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Arlene Avery dies

[December 9]   Arlene Velma Avery, who lived in River Township of Pawnee County and was the mother of daughters who attended Pawnee Rock schools, died Tuesday in Great Bend. She was 91 years old, having been born in 1919 in Rush County.

She and her husband, Orville, were the parents of Cathy (Class of 1965), Anita (1968), and Janell (1970).

Mrs. Avery's funeral will be Saturday morning in Larned, and she will be buried in the Pawnee Rock Cemetery. (Full obituary)

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About Don Shorock

[December 8]   As it turns out, Lynn Darcey, Pawnee Rock High Class of 1962, taught in Cunningham at the same time as Don Shorock, who was discussed yesterday.

Lynn not only identified Don as a calligraphist (and thus likely my certificate signer), but also as a guy who must have been a fascinating teacher to be around. (Don built a series of websites, linked to from Shorock.com. Also, his obituary.)

Here's what Lynn wrote:

In response to your article about Don Schorock. I was a teacher at Cunningham High School, and Don was a history, and social studies teacher, as well as director of the Jr. and Sr. plays. Don was a real character, he had a very unique way of teaching history for that time. He was, I think years ahead of his time in the way he presented his subject. I was a typing and business teacher, and had a classroom of typewriters, and we shared a regular classroom in which he taught his history, and government classes and I taught economics and bookeeping. I can still remember, that he would play the Nixon, Watergate hearings to his class, he was a radio buff and was into shortwave radio as well as regular a.m. radio. The shortwave radio programs was many times from the point of view of foreign countries. He subscribed to the New York Times for his class of current events. He consumed many publications of current events.

He also knew how to get things done. I can remember one year at the beginning of school, there was an odor of gas in a room where the teachers were to meet for pre-school teachers meeting. The Principle, called the local service man to check-out the gas leak for repair. The serviceman kept putting off his service call. The principle as well as the teachers were concerned about the delay. Don Schorock then asked then principle if he really wanted to get it fixed, he said it had to be done. Don Schorock called a federal office in Wichita, concerning labor, and within an hour there was people from Wichita in Cunningham checking out the building, and within hours the problem was fixed.

I worked with him for several years, and have a lot of memories and stories about him, I can say he was unique. Also, when he moved to Great Bend, he met my Dad, thru the Lions Club, and my Dad kept me informed about him to a degree, and agreed that he was unique.

Lynn Darcey
class of 1962

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Boy with crown, girl with flowers

Pawnee Rock High School basketball homecoming, 1953: Queen Nita Geil, King Dean Blackwell, flower girl Deana Hixon, crown bearer Mike Durall.

[December 7]   Mike Durall has come forward to identify himself as the young man leading the homecoming procession that appeared on yesterday's homepage.

Here's what he wrote:

I'm the little boy in the 1953 reunion photo. . . . The little girl is Deana Hixon. Her dad used to run a small grocery store just across the street, south, from the post office. I think it was called Hixon's Corner Grocery. You could charge groceries there, and get a statement at the end of the month.

My brother Ed Durall was in the class of 1954. He would know all the guys in that photo. I remember going to games in that gym. The gym floor was barely bigger than the room itself, and there was a balcony that's visible in the photo. Going to a game there was great. The roar of the crowd was deafening.

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A special type of reward

[December 7]   Don Shorock died last week in Great Bend. I didn't know him, but he was a man who had his fingers in a lot of pies in Barton and Pawnee counties.

I bring him up because he shared a last name with someone who, in five minutes, made a lasting impression on me in 1974.

I was at a district speech and drama festival put on by the Kansas State High School Activities Association at Barton County Community Junior College, as it was known at the time. I was a junior at Macksville High.

I went against my nature and stood before the judges and small audiences in both Original Oration and Contemporaneous Speech. My oration had to do with freedom of speech, a timely subject as the Nixon years came to a close. My made-up-at-the moment contemporaneous presentation was on a subject I drew from a box: Why the United States needs to celebrate its bicentennial.

My opening line is seared into my memory: "Everybody needs to celebrate a birthday!" I'm sure the speech got better after that, because I received a II rating instead of a III.

The oration did even better, which probably qualifies as a minor miracle because -- for all the research I did and considering my heartfelt enthusiasm for the subject -- I didn't learn to properly pronounce the key word "clandestine" (-tin, not -tine) until the day before the festival.

The point of all this was that that day in the spring of 1974 meant a great deal to me. My mom was there to see me, and the festival was on my "home court," so to speak.

In the hallway outside the auditorium was an older man -- perhaps Walter Shorock, Don's father -- from Cunningham, I think; it was some town near Pratt. He was asking kids like me whether we'd like the name and date on our certificates written out in calligraphy.

There was no charge. He was doing it for the love of his art and, I suppose, because he felt good about us kids walking around with a fancy certificate and quiet pride. He was showing us that our participation had value.

I was grateful for the gold lettering, but as the years have gathered I more deeply appreciate the elegance of Mr. Shorock's small gesture.

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We call the sheriff

Neighborhood Watch sign in Pawnee Rock, photographed this past summer.

[December 6]   This Neighborhood Watch sign, affixed to a pole near the fire station, reminds evil doers that Pawnee Rockers are watching from the kitchen and living room windows, so don't try anything.

Still, the sign is something of a toothless watchdog. It looks more like a relic than a warning.

On the bright side, this sign is perhaps evidence that the crime rate is so low in Pawnee Rock that scaring bad guys away with Neighborhood Watch no longer needs to be high on the town's list of priorities.

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F.H. Ewing, stock breeder

[December 3]   Early in the 20th century, F.H. Ewing and his family lived two miles north and a mile east of the present Mennonite Church. This profile of Mr. Ewing appeared in the "Biographical History of Barton County, Kansas," published in 1912.

F.H. Ewing

THE "F. H. Ewing Pedigreed Stock Farm," located eleven and one-half miles west of Great Bend, is owned and managed by F. H. Ewing & Co., a firm composed of the father and sons. They breed and sell thoroughbred Black Percheron horses, Shetland ponies of the Scotch type, pure blooded Shorthorn cattle, Poland China hogs and White Wyandotte chickens. This farm covers three hundred and twenty acres, and Mr. Ewing owns another farm of four hundred and eighty acres in Pawnee County. Both are well improved, well cultivated, and are valuable bodies of land.

"King wheat" seeds most of the acres, but corn, oats, Kaffir corn, alfalfa and native grass all are grown, and the meadows are dotted with thoroughbred stock, whose ancestry came from across the ocean.

This branch of the farm's business has been of slow growth, but Mr. Ewing has gradually collected his herds and will eventually make it his leading business, although his stock has been shipped to many counties in the state since he has been a breeder.

He has been an exhibitor and has many prizes to show that prove his animals to be the very best of their type in the state.

The improvements on this farm are a two story white frame house of eleven rooms; a barn 48x80; an elevator, garage, poultry house and numerous other small buildings. The premises are well fenced and well cared for and many trees and plants add beauty.

Fred H. Ewing was born April 7th, 1873, near Lehigh, Webster County, Iowa, and is the second son of John R. and Hannah Elizabeth Ewing. He came to Barton County in 1885 with his parents and grew to manhood here. He was educated in the public schools of his district and at the Central Normal College of Great Bend, and was trained as a farmer and breeder by his father.

On June 8th, 1898, he married Miss Lucy Gilmore, of Great Bend, and they have been blessed with four children: Lionel Frederick, 12; James Lowell, 6; Cleva Iolene, 3; and Olita Margaret, 1.

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Quivira windmill

[December 2]   I was at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge and found a windmill. I couldn't have missed it; it was right by the road and fed a round tank with a slow but steady flow.

I made a movie because, well, what else can you do with a windmill during the middle of the day?

(If you'd rather watch a wider version of the movie, go here.)

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Dr. Brenner's story is told

[December 1]   He was a Bataan Death March survivor and later a nice man in Larned. He was my doctor and maybe yours, too.

I see that a book describing his World War II years and those of his wife has been published. The title says it all: "I'm Praying Hard for You: Love Letters to a Death Camp: The World War II Ordeal of Bill and Jo Brenner."

Linda McCaffery, a history instructor at Barton Community College, wrote the book.

If you remember Dr. Brenner and live in the area, you might want to buy a copy of the book and get him and the author to sign it next Sunday at the Shafer Gallery.

Extension agent Bill VanSkike dies: If you farmed or were in 4-H in the late 1950s through the 1980s, you may remember Bill VanSkike, who was the Barton County extension agent. His cheerful face and crew-cut hair were everywhere. He died Monday at age 87.

He had been in the army during World War II, and like Dr. Brenner had been in the Pacific theater. (Full obituary)

64 degrees latitude, not Fahrenheit: It was chilly on my way to work yesterday morning. I hope it's warmer where you live.

I know a lot of people think it's always dark in Alaska in the winter. The photo below is proof that it's not all dark, even this close to the Arctic Circle. This is the sun at 1:15 p.m., a solid three or four feet above the southern horizon.

Sunrise and sunset yesterday: 10:17 a.m. and 3:02 p.m. That's 4 hours and 44 minutes of the sun above the horizon. Tomorrow will be 5 minutes 16 seconds shorter.

In contrast, here are the figures for Pawnee Rock:

Sunrise and sunset today: 7:33 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. That's 9 hours 41 minutes of the sun above the horizon. Tomorrow will be 1 minute 7 seconds shorter.

Have a nice day.

Midday sun behind the UAF power and heating plant.

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