Too Long in the Wind

April 2011

Wishin' to go fishin'

The Arkansas River at the Pawnee Rock Bridge, April 28. These four photos were made by Jim Dye.

[April 29]   Jim Dye's photos of carp and bass in the springtime Arkansas River stir my boyhood memories of lazy afternoons and cicada evenings along the sandy banks.

Sometimes it was just me, fishing in one bend and skipping rocks in another, but often Rob Bowman and Todd Bright and Ray Tutak and sometimes Mark Smith were there as well. Rob and I liked to shoot carp with bows and arrows, walking half a mile up and down from the bridge in search of five-pounders.

Other days, as afternoons turned into dusk, we'd set trot lines -- there was always a discussion of whether it should be pronounced "trout," since a trout was a fish and a trot was not -- in hopes of enticing a channel cat to inhale a piece of chicken liver. We bought the livers by the pound in a white plastic tub at Carris' grocery store, then used our pocketknives to cut them into halves and thirds before working the pieces onto treble hooks. We weighted the lines and tied them to roots over promising holes the current had cut under the bank.

Once in a while, we'd come back and find the line vibrating tautly, a catfish of a pound or two at the other end. Everyone wanted the heroic task of pulling it in, but no one volunteered to place his hand around the cat's pectoral spikes and use his other hand to remove the hook from the human-looking mouth. I'm afraid that a lot of catfish were cleaned or thrown back into the river with a hook still jammed into their gullets.

We always wanted to catch fish, but that wasn't the main thing. Speaking for myself, I was just glad to be there. It was a place without adults, which was always good, but it was also a place where we could shed whatever trappings we wore at school or on the football field. At the river, we were equal, each of us Huckleberry Finn.

It didn't last, of course. By our late high school years, we had athletics and girls and jobs. There just wasn't time anymore to skip rocks and wait on fish.

I hope the other guys will see these fish and remember our adventures in the days when we were of the river.

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Fundraiser for the Padens

[April 28]   A fundraiser for Don and Beth Paden is planned for May 15. The purpose is to help with medical expenses.

Don was at one time the pastor at the Christian Church in Pawnee Rock and recently has been a performer at gospel concerts.

The event will be at the Central Baptist Church, 3301 Lakin in Great Bend.

The menu is barbecue, catered by Boor's BBQ -- meat, dressing, beans, cole slaw and a drink. That's for $8. Dessert is extra.

The organizers have only advance tickets, which should be bought by May 1. That's so they know how much food to order.

For tickets, call Edy, (620) 791-7488, or Kim, (620) 791-7893.

Thanks to Mary Chestnut for letting us know about this.

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Baby sister, superstar

Proud brother Leon and brand-new baby sister Cheryl on the brown couch with gold-thread embroidery in our basement home on Santa Fe Avenue, 1959.

[April 27]   There's this woman I've known for a long time, all her life, although she might not really appreciate my calling that "a long time." But what the heck; Cheryl's birthday comes only once a year and here we are.

Back in the days when I was still wearing snap-suspenders on my corduroy pants, our mom let me choose toys for little Cheryl, and I took the job seriously. Among them were plastic blocks. I selected just the right pastel pink and blue blocks from the cardboard tray until she had all the letters. And, as it turned out, letters became an important part of her life.

Later, we played with a set of heavy Lionel windup trains on three-rail tracks on the basement floor. We played with a small basketball out on the small backyard court, and on the swings we competed for longest jump into the yard when the parents weren't looking. She played football and catch with me in the front yard, faithfully running and throwing as I mimicked what I had seen at the school or had read about in my Scholastic books. She drew the line, however, at pole vaulting and fishing.

Over the years, and perhaps especially in childhood, I must have been a bewildering brother. I threw darts at her soft-plastic doll. To see what Right Guard looked like when it was sprayed, I misted it on her bedroom mirror. I told her it wasn't anything against her, just an experiment, but she and Mom didn't believe me and I wouldn't have believed me either had I been on the other side of the looking glass.

We worked side by side at the cemetery, clipping grass around headstones. We played with our cousins on the Unruh grandparents' farm. We stood together in the front yard and watched my car burn in the driveway, and then she rode with me -- and should have laughed but didn't -- as I tried to figure out the stick shift in the car our parents bought to replace the old Dodge.

She showed early aptitude for writing. At Macksville High, she picked up the Tiller and Toiler column I had created and compiled it with grace and imagination for two years after I graduated. She later wrote for the Tiller, and as you all know, she has gone on to greater fame and glory with her Flyover People empire: her blog, her column in the Emporia Gazette, and, finally, her book.

Of we two Unruh kids, Cheryl is the generous and empathetic one. She seems to understand the springs and gears that make people tick, and she's curious. She's willing to share a piece of herself with the goal of revealing a bigger truth.

Cheryl turned out OK. When I consider the adult my little sister has become, I know I'm fortunate to have acquired some understanding of the path she has taken to finding her star.

Cheryl Unruh on the wild fringe of Pawnee Rock, 2010.

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Is that Mike Dougherty?

[April 26]   Dalton Keener writes to suggest that Mike Doughtery is the unidentified player in the photo of the 1968 Pawnee Rock High School football team. It looks plausible to me, too.

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Hello to a river

Savage River, Denali National Park, on April 24.

[April 26]   Last September I wrote about how the Savage River of Denali National Park would soon be nothing more than a frozen stream. On Sunday, seven months later, I went back to the park and found that the river, like all good things in the spring, was coming back to life.

The river itself is running beneath a thick layer of frozen overflow that accumulated last fall and earlier this spring. At this rate, it won't be long until there are catkins on the willows and leaves on the cottonwoods.

But, as the second photo shows, even though the road has been plowed and much of the snow is gone, a lot remains.

Snow remaining at about mile 20 of the park road. My son Sam made this photo of me.

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Photos from the Easter pageant

[April 25]   The biennial Easter pageant, The Way of the Cross, was presented yesterday morning on the sunrise-facing side of Pawnee Rock. A nice -- and warmly dressed crowd -- showed up and made themselves comfortable on the lawn. The temperature was about 40 degrees, and there was a light breeze.

Jim Dye photographed the event and sent quite a few shots. Thanks, Jim.

I'd like to add captions with names if someone will send them. I could put in some, but I'd rather have an authority say who's who.

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The wind and the cedars

The wind snapped off a cedar at the Pawnee Rock historical marker on the southwest corner of town over the weekend. Jim Dye made this photo, as well as a couple on today's homepage.

[April 18]   It's getting so that the infrequent visitor to Pawnee Rock won't recognize the rest area on the southwest corner of town. Another stiff wind blew over -- snapped off -- a stringy, brittle-trunked cedar that has grown there for my entire life and maybe yours as well.

Jim Dye, who photographed this year's natural minidisaster, also was there last May after the wind took this tree's neighbor. There isn't much left -- another brace of cedars and some elms. I wonder whether replacement trees will be planted.

Sunday's winds were 15 mph out of the southwest, but Saturday's winds were out of the northwest with gusts in the upper 20s. The trees have certainly handled that wind before, but for every living thing there comes a season . . .

These trees have been our friends and windbreaks for many years, although I suppose most of us drive past the rest stop without giving it a second glance. Here's a photo the Tiller published in 1974 showing the Lions Club preparing to keep drivers awake on the Labor Day weekend. Behind them are the cedars that have been lost in the past couple of years.

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Tug your cap down

[April 15]   Double-check the trailer tie-downs and make sure the dog's leash is tied firmly to a tree. Much of central Kansas is expected to be in a high-wind warning all day Friday.

I remember those days from my youth. The muggy air from the previous night's thunderstorms sits around waiting for a cold front to push in and cause trouble. The day may have its minutes of sunshine, but there's always that sensation of low pressure leading to high tension.

According to the weather service, Great Bend -- and thus Pawnee Rock -- can expect midday winds in the mid-30s. The temperature also is expected to be in the 30s.

On the bright side, what's bad for drivers and people who desire suntans is almost always good for the wheat and for that kind of yard grass that grows so well after a rain and will provide excellent hiding places for Easter eggs a week from Sunday.

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The sick life

[April 14]   I was under the weather yesterday, so I stayed home. I tried to read "The Maltese Falcon," but it was hard to concentrate when my body had only two desires: to sleep and to cough.

So, I watched television, or at least I lay in bed with the TV on. Here's what I learned:

1. The Food Network has far too many shows about oversize people with oversize personalities eating oversize food in some wacky desire to attract people to watch advertising by making them want to vomit.

2. There apparently will be a Barbie toy with fairy wings. At least, kids will soon be watching a TV showmercial featuring a Barbie-esque fairy, and we all know that means a Barbie-fairy movie and movie-related toys will afflict us by Labor Day weekend, the official start of the Christmas advertising season.

3. I don't feel any less informed for not having watched TV news.

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Monuments to farm life

Rayl Elevator, five miles west of Hutchinson.

[April 13]   There are not all that many structures between Pawnee Rock and Hutchinson, no matter which road one takes between the two towns.

One that I always look forward to is the farm home with a duck pond just north of Fourth Avenue. I know nothing about the place beyond what I have seen from the road, but it is my idea of a perfect little farmstead (except for being so close to the road).

My other favorite building is the 96-year-old Thos. Rayl elevator on the hill five miles west of Hutch. It's a monument -- and there's also a monument to President Harding nearby -- to the staying power of rounded, reinforced concrete and a solid foundation. (More about the elevator)

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Cleanup time in Pawnee Rock

[April 12]   It's time for spring cleanup in Pawnee Rock. The city is offering the carrot of a prettier town, but it's also offering a stick. Just make sure it doesn't get the stick out of your yard.

According to the city-government section of the Pawnee Rock News, the city's ordinance officer is patrolling the streets, giving a warning and a time frame to folks who haven't mowed their yards or picked up their branches.

If the homeowner doesn't keep things clean, the city says it will do the work and charge at least $60 plus a $50 fee. If the city moves branches or vehicles, the charge will be at least $120 plus a $100 fee. The bill, the News said, will be added to the individual's taxes.

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The ghost of Ash Valley

Ash Valley is roughly under the mustard-colored circle in the middle of the Kansas state highway map.

[April 11]   If you were to drive out of Pawnee Rock toward Larned but turn west on the correction line, then drive 12.5 miles west and 3 miles north, you'd be in a ghost town.

Amy Bickel, who has been writing about once-upon-a-time towns in western Kansas, picked that ghost town -- Ash Valley -- for this past Sunday's issue of the Hutchinson News. (Read the story)

Ash Valley, a Pawnee County settlement created in 1917 and the only other settlement along our Ash Creek, once tried hard to be famous for its wheat farming. Still, the railroad it counted on to move the wheat didn't survive, and neither has the town.

As the town dried up, a column about its residents' comings and goings appeared in the Tiller and Toiler. If I remember right, the correspondent was Mrs. Donald Tranbarger.

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The SS Pawnee Rock

[April 8]   A few days ago, Larry Smith sent a prize he found -- a first-day envelope featuring the SS Pawnee Rock, a World War II ship.

The ship was part of a series named for historic spots on the Santa Fe Trail.

The SS Pawnee Rock saw a little bit of the war, having been completed in February 1945, according to an online history. It was built at the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Co. in Mobile.

The ship, a tanker powered by a General Electric turbo electric plant, was 524 feet long. Its breadth was 68 feet, and its depth was 39 feet. Its loaded draft was 30 feet 2 inches.

In 1951, the ship was transferred to Texaco, which renamed it Caltex Dublin and used it to move oil from the Mideast to Ireland, and possibly to other places. It was scrapped in 1965.

Here's a tale of life on the Caltex Dublin.

Here's a page about the Pawnee Rock's type of tanker, the T2.

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Betty (Flick) Mohler dies

[April 6]   Betty Mohler of Larned died Monday. She was born in Pawnee Rock in 1919 to Ellis and Sarah Bowman Flick and was 92 at her death.

She married Maxwell Joseph Mohler in 1938, and he died in 1994. Her survivors include three sisters: Janice Schmidt of Pawnee Rock, Joan Rainbolt of Larned, and Doris Drake of Tulsa. She had 11 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.

Mrs. Mohler's funeral will be at 2 p.m. Friday in the Larned Cemetery. (Full obituary)

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Pawnee Rock keeps mayor in office

A poll sign mounted on a chair directs voters to the poll at the Lions Club depot in Pawnee Rock. Photo by Jim Dye.

[April 6]   Pawnee Rock reelected Timothy Parret mayor yesterday. Two members of the council retained their seats.

The poll was at the Lions Club depot on Centre Street. The vote totals come from the Barton County clerk's office.

Parret collected 24 votes, or 52.17 percent; James Oberle 19 votes, or 41.3 percent; and write-ins together collected 3 votes, or 6.52 percent.

The two council members who retained their seats are Gary Adams, 34 votes, or 41.98 percent, and Joseph Billus, 32 votes, 39.51 percent. Nickolle Parret got 11 votes, or 13.58 percent; write-ins got 4 votes, or 4.94 percent.

In voting for four seats on the USD 495 school board: Sharon Lessard, Kevin Reece, Brenda West Hagerman all were unopposed; and Stephen Schartz (28 votes) beat Marcia Giessel (21), Cory Stetler (9), and a write-in (1) for the remaining seat on the ballot.

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Coffee coming up

[April 5]   The monthly Pawnee Rock community coffee hour is the second Saturday of each month. This time it is on April 9.

Guests are welcome. People bring donuts and sit and chat along the dining tables.

The hours are 8:30 to 10 a.m. at the depot on Centre Street.

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Cross-country hikers visit Pawnee Rock

Jerry Bowerman and Karen Clark, coast-to-coast hikers. Jim Dye made these photos on April 3.

Jerry and Karen explore the monument atop Pawnee Rock State Park.

The California couple carries enough gear to spend the night outdoors and cook their own food.

Karen and Jerry rest in the pavilion before continuing their journey west.

[April 4]   A husband and wife are making their way across the United States step by step, and on Sunday they came to Pawnee Rock. They're traveling on the American Discovery Trails network. (Website)

Jim Dye found Karen Clark and Jerry Bowerman east of Pawnee Rock, and he photographed them there and later atop the Rock.

The couple, from Sebastopol, California, north of San Francisco, are in their early 60s. According to newspaper stories about them published last year, he's a retired landscape contractor and she's a retired nurse.

They began their adventure a year ago on the East Coast and made it 1,795 miles to the Kansas border at Kansas City, according to their website. On days when they walked, they averaged 11 miles. They flew back to Kansas City International in early March and reentered Kansas on March 10, according to their website.

A paragraph in a story from the newspaper in Parkersburg, West Virginia, described their way of life:

"They carry only the bare essentials in their backpacks, including a few clothing items, food and cooking equipment, tents, cell phones, and a laptop computer. The couple camps and stays in motels and bed and breakfasts along the way, but several nights they have stayed with generous strangers who have offered them a room for the night."

Stories were also published last year in Madison, Indiana, and in their almost-hometown newspaper in Santa Rosa, California.

Shocked? A few folks wrote to share a laugh about the photo showing that Wichita State's mascot, WuShock, had been painted on the big white elevator in Pawnee Rock as the town's residents celebrated a basketball tournament victory by their favorite team.

Which, we all know, was an April Fools' joke because Wichita State is rarely mentioned in Pawnee Rock. That's just to set the record straight.

Store photos: Dean Blackwell wrote to ask about the collection of photos showing the historical path taken by the storefront west of the Pawnee Rock post office. It was on the homepage one day and then disappeared the next.

Now it has a permanent home in the new History section.

I'd like to invite anyone who has a different photo of the store -- say, when it was a dress shop -- to scan the photo and send it to me. I'd love to add it to the collection.

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Hello, Eleanor (Sawatzky) Wiebe

[April 1]   I got a nice note yesterday from a daughter of a long-time-ago minister at the Bergthal Mennonite Church.

Here's what she wrote:

I am Eleanor (Sawatzky) Wiebe, a 1956 graduate of Pawnee Rock High School. I was the oldest of 5: (Pauline (deceased in 2007); Phyllis Friesen (living in Bluffton, Ohio); Sheldon (living in Taiwan); and Tim (living in North Newton, KS).

Our parents were Victor and Ruth Sawatzky, and we lived directly across from the original high school in the Mennonite Church parsonage.

Since graduating, my husband Paul and I have lived in Atlanta, GA, Chicago, ILL, Wichita, KS, Seattle, Berkeley, Upland, CA, and now in Fort Collins, CO. I worked mostly in the social services field, including St. Joseph Medical Center in Wichita, adult day health care centers, and with juvenile offenders. My last job in Upland, CA was as a small claims court mediator, and coordinator of senior services for a housing agency.

It would be fun to hear from my classmates. This would be our 55th year since graduating. I recall our 25th reunion with fondness, and I got a red rose for coming from the farthest away, Wichita!

(You can reach her at PR-ellesawatzky@gmail.com. Remember to delete the "PR-" from the address if you click on the link.)

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