Small cars

in 1947 my car was getting old that I drove to my teaching job and Ray had given his 1928 car to his parents. We saw an ad and bought a Crosley for I think $900.00. It was small, took little gas and it was like sitting in a cage with the sewing machine running. At the Topeka Daily Capital where Ray worked the printers loved to hide it from Ray or just move it. Four of them would pick it up. Sometimes he would find it on the walk in front of the paper. There was a theater just east of the paper and they loved to put it in the lobby. My mother was sure we would hit a dog and have a wreck. We We put in an ad and sold it after having it a month and got the full price for the car.

Boston Creme Pie

I love Boston Creme Pie. Betty Crocker came out with a mix in 1958 which was pretty good but my own version that I do is better. Actually now I buy the frozen version. Back in 1958 I used the mix and it was not cooling very fast. I put it out in the garage to cool. My in-laws were here. We had our lunch and then Cindy and Sally went to the garage to get the dessert. I had split the one layer with a thread and had the two layers on which I spread the filling and set it on the car in the garage to cool. Cindy came in first and had one comment. "It isn't exactly like when you left it." Sally had dared Cindy to tell us. Sally in coming in had dumped the cake at the door. It had chipped the Melmac plate it was on and picked up a little sand. We worried about eating the chips from the plate. We laughed so hard that it was all worth it. I found the chips on the ground the next day so no one ate any chips, a little sand maybe but no chips. Now you can buy the pie frozen and it is quite good. Just remember to take it out of the freezer the day before and get it thawed.

What is my name?

Three times that I can remember I have forgotten my name. That is not a good thing. Maybe there have been more times but I would forget that also wouldn't I? The first time I was in a receiving line at my sorority and my mind went blank. The second time I was in Philadelphia attending an activity to entertain wives at a Junior Chamber of Commerce convention. I was at a radio show I think and the master of ceremonies came down the aisle and said "What is your name? and I went blank. He felt sorry for me and gave me a prize. The last time I had been in a car wreck in Kansas City when I was delivering one of our exchange students from Norway (over the years we had four). I had to go to court. Ray went with me and when I got on the witness stand, they asked me my name. I said "I don't know but I know where I live. Will that do?" I guess the judge felt sorry for me as I got the smallest fine he handed out that day. I do not like forgetting who I am. Maybe I should wear a name badge all the time.

School Carnivals

Our school was new when our oldest son started there in the second grade. We started a Cub Scout group when he became eight and as usual you need to have a fund raiser. I know the first carnival we had lots of people give prizes for our games. One gift was guppies and we won some. The woman who gave them to us told us there would soon be more guppies. Right after that our son, Steve, went on his first overnight. And in the middle of getting ready we had more guppies. It added to the excitement. The PTA of the school soon took over the Carnival and they were our sponsors so we had to let them have it. I was a PTA officer and was put in charge of prizes. I collected them in a room behind the kitchen at the school. The night of the Carnival I found the janitor had locked the room and left for the night. He had to come back and give us our prizes. The Carnival was very successful and we decided one year to have it outdoors and in the daytime. We made lots of money for a school carnival. We found our PTA president had taken all the cash money for herself. Now our 2nd vice president was the wife of the Police Chief of Shawnee, but our principal stepped in and we asked her to give us the money back. She did not have it as she had used it already so we threatened her with arrest. Her mother paid the money. We found she had stolen money from where she worked at Montgomery Wards also. I should have known about her as I had her daughter in Campfire and she gave me a bad check for the boxes of candy her daughter had sold--12. She left town after that and for years sent me Christmas cards from New Mexico, but not from jail. After this event the women of the PTA were unhappy and none would take the presidency of the Nieman PTA so two of the men took over--one was my husband. No more fancy PTA meetings with lace cloths on the table and tea cookies. One man was President to finish out the year and then Ray was president the next year.

Apple tree

We have trouble with the trees in our backyard. We tried two cherry trees and they were blown flat. This is our second apple tree as the first one was blown flat. We have a nice apple tree. We planted the core of an apple we liked, I think. Anyway it has grown. It has lovely blooms on it in the spring and wonderful apples in the fall. Maybe it is August. I'll watch this year. Right now it is loaded and once in awhile I see an apple on the patio that some animal has brought. After they get ripe, I have a recipe for applesauce. This is what I have done in past years. I gather apples off the ground with a bucket. It does not matter if there are imperfections but no rotten ones. I bring the apples in and wash them. I cut into quarters, removing stems. I put them in a large pan with a lid and add a cup of water. I bring it to a boil and then put on low heat for 30 minutes--maybe less if they are soft. I remove the apples from the heat and run apples through a food press. I put the pulp in quart freezer holders and freeze. One bucket generally means you put in half the apples in your pan at a time and makes three quarts of applesauce.

Autographs

Ray would not allow any of us to ask for autographs when we were with him. Before I was married I had attended a premiere in Lawrence, Ks, for a movie and my mother was with me and did not have that rule. I was able to get John Wayne's, Roy Rogers, Walter Pidgeon, Gabby Haye's autograph. Later I attended a political meeting in Kansas City, Kansas, and Shirley Temple Black was there and they handed out her autograph as you left. I met her a couple of times in Washington, D.C. but never asked for it again. I think I have Walt Disney's on a photograph but I'm not sure and President Eisenhower on a picture he gave Ray. Sometimes when Ray covered a story The Star gave him a picture that was signed. I think The "Cisco Kid" is signed. I believe Richard Nixon in a picture with Ray is signed.

When my children met Eisenhower

During Ray's writing career he went to Abilene a great deal to cover Eisenhower. Thanks to Harry Darby I went often also. One summer day The Star was sending Ray to Abilene because the General wanted to pick where he would be buried. School was out and Ray decided that our five children should see him. We loaded the station wagon with kids, sleeping bags and food and were off to Abilene. We checked into the White House Motel and Ray left to cover his story. They visited the cemetery where Eisenhower's parents were buried. Eisenhower was afraid the first year after he died people would ruin the cemetery and he did not want that for his parents. He decided to have a chapel built on the land of his museum. While Ray was away covering the story the children and I amused ourselves. We rolled up the sleeping bags and Steve went next door and picked up food for us at a drive-in. Eisenhower heard we were with Ray and told him he wanted to meet the children. Eisenhower had come to Abilene by train and was staying there and not in a hotel. He was traveling with a General and the radio actor who used to play Amos on "Amos and Andy". Ray came back and picked us up and took us to the train siding. Ray drove close and we piled out and Scott who was our youngest fell and skinned his knee on the gravel by the tracks so started crying. The officer with Eisenhower thought he was crying because he was going to meet the general but Scott did not even know what a general was. He just wanted a band aid. The officer told him the General was just a regular man and put his pants on one leg at a time. Scott did not care. The General was very nice to the children. Later when he did die, he was buried in the chapel. The infant son they had that had died was moved there also.

Sailfish

In our basement, called the recreation room, is a large sailfish on the west wall. I want to tell you how it got there. When Bill Avery was governor, he and about six other governors were invited to Mexico. My husband was going along to cover it for the Kansas City Star. They generally left from Topeka but the Governor made arrangements for Ray to be picked up in Olathe so I could have a car while he was gone. Our youngest son, Scott, went with us to Olathe Air base. He was not in school yet. We waved goodbye to him and then I drove home from Olathe. A few weeks later they were coming back. They were landing in Kansas City so we went to meet the plane. As they got off the plane the other reporters said "You have got to let him keep it." I did not know what. About three weeks later we had a large box delivered to our door. It looked like a coffin but contained a stuffed 5 foot sailfish. With help from people we got it on the west wall of the recreation room.
I was a Boy Scout den mother and my den met in the recreation room. We passed a new rule. If you hit the sailfish you were out. Ray said they got to Acapulco and had a day off so went fishing. Two sailfish were caught. His was one of them. A photographer got the other but did not have it stuffed. It is in excellent condition as a nice cool basement is a good place to live for a dead sailfish. Ray was very proud of it. I was never sure whether I was grateful to the Governor or not.

Where have the Hollyhocks gone?

I keep looking for the Hollyhocks. I used to see a bunch on Shawnee Mission Parkway just east of Mission and there was one group that was along the fence on 71st Street but I do not see them this year. A few years back I lost the four-o-clocks and I adjusted but it is hard to give up hollyhocks. My sister, Helen, and I used to use them to look like dolls. I don't think I know how now but maybe she remembers how. She said we use to line the hollyhock dolls up on the railing of our porch. Sort of looked like bridesmaids in a wedding. I'll keep looking but think they are through for the year anyway. Now the four-o-clocks should go on for awhile. There was a piece of dirt between the driveway and the house where I grew up. I'd say about two feet and that is where the four-o-clocks were but hollyhocks need a place for height as they are over four feet tall (I think).

Dinners when Ray was the Speaker

In writing politics you did not always make friends so when Ray attended meetings if he was allowed he took me along. That way he had a least one person who liked him. Since he never charged for speaking he would often ask if I could attend. One of the dinners we attended the mayor of Kansas City, Kansas was the speaker and while he was speaking his wife, who was seated at the headtable fell asleep in the dessert. After that Ray kept an eye on me and if I looked sleepy he quit. One speech I always enjoyed was his "It's Fourth of July and everything is okay." One time he was speaking at one of the hotels and they forgot I had been invited and there was no room so they put me at the end of the head table which was on a platform and I worried about falling off backwards. I did not. Most of the time I got to sit with him but sometimes he was at the head table and I was just off at another table. Sometimes the other people would scare me. I was easily scared when it was the mafia. I attended a dinner with Ray when Goldwalter was running for president and I was placed at a table with Joyce Hall. For some reason when they went to serve our table they gave me his special ordered plate which made him very angry. They brought him the another one. I met him many times afterwards and was grateful that he didn't remember me.

Children's conversations

Our church has a part of its Sunday morning service just before the Bible readings and the sermon called "children's conversation". My husband loved those and our church was kind and let him do them when he wanted to. He liked to wear costumes. On St Patrick's day he was dressed like a Leprecaun. His reasoning on that was his mother was Irish with a name like McClenny. One Fourth of July he had been George Washington at a celebration at Liberty Mall for the Rotary Club and had a George Washington's costume so he wore that. We always sat in the third row so he could sit with us but he liked to hide in the room off the altar where grooms stand before weddings. I think he liked to surprise us also. We were never really surprised as we knew it would be something different. You can hardly be suprised by someone who was always doing something different.

Costumes - Second Chapter - Clown outfits

The second part of my story is clown outfits. I had a portable sewing machine which made things very easy. Our oldest son Steve has a birthday near Halloween. When he was either one or two on Halloween I made him a clown outfit. I gave him a small plastic pumpkin, put a candle in it and put him in front of his grandparent's door. As they opened the door the candle flared up and set his ruff on fire. No harm done but not recommended. As the years went by I made clown outfits for our children who passed them down. After our children were grown and married, our grandchildren appeared and had birthday parties. We got to put on our clown suits and run the games. One year we branched out to the Wichita grandchildren. I know when we appeared at the door for Drew's fourth birthday his younger brother, Chris, met us and said "Clowns go home." We did not go. Ray had a red and white outfit and I wore a two piece number. As the years went on, Ringling Brother's offered Ray a chance to be in their circus. He took his clown suit to the circus. We did not see him but we did see the "Bum" clown hanging around. Hayden and I did not like him. He never said anything he just stood and looked at us. It turned out it was Ray. They had not liked the clown suit he brought. The clown suits hang in the closet now along with other halloween costumes.

Costumes - First Chapter - Santa suits

My husband, Ray, loved costumes. Probably one reason he loved circuses. So I will go into how I made them. After World War II the country had lots of things available. Across the street from where my parents lived was the school I went to kindergarten and junior high. It had a sewing room. One of my friend's mother was teaching a class. First I made a little coat for my son, Steve. Then Ray suggested I make a Santa Claus suit for him. I made one. I had to make him another later as he wore it out. He loved playing Santa Claus at Christmas. He did not like to do it for our own children but he did it for others. He did not want out kids to recognize him. Of course our kids were not stupid but it was something they did not want to know. When we moved to Kansas City he branched out. The area we lived in at Christmas had Santa drive through in a convertible throwing candy at the children. I think Sally was the first to catch on as one year the weather was very bad so they moved the occasion to a theater. When the kids got back in the car after the movie Sally noticed the sack in the back seat but she kept quiet. I don't think she wanted to know. Then later when we had grandchildren the Laffertys would have a kid party and he got to wear it. By now we were on the second outfit. When he got home he always like to go over and bug the neighbnors with a visit.

Neighbors

When we moved to Kansas City you could burn your trash but there was still a trash pickup twice a week. Sometimes we burned our trash when there was going to be time to have it cool before pick up time. When we moved here all the rooms were the same color walls. In Topeka we had dark green walls in the front room and liked that. We had lots of green paint and decided to paint the front room in our new house as in the afternoon with bright sun and no trees it was bright. We did not have a TV yet. We finished up the paint and put the cans in the trash. Later we burned the trash forgetting about the paint cans which we knew were empty. Our neighbor to the north was in the backyard with his small son, Ronnie, when the trash blew up and sprayed paint all over he and his son. It was washable paint.

Then to the East we had new neighbors which we really did not know yet very well. One day Ray decided to give a safety talk to our children and any neighbor kid who was in the backyard and getting out his bow and arrow shot a hole through the sheet of the new neighbor who had hung out her laundry. I expect it was an accident as Ray seldom hit what he aimed for. He had to go up and apologize and offer to buy a new sheet.

My career in Football

My parents attended Washburn College in Topeka. So did my two sisters and my brother. When my father was in Washburn he was Captain of the football team. While he was captain was the last time Washburn beat KU. When my brother was in school he was the waterboy. We were glued to our radio when they broadcast the game waiting for them to say,"The waterboy just came on the field." He carried a bucket and one dipper and they all drank out of the same dipper. While I was in Washburn, the Girl's Pep Club decided to put on a game as halftime entertainment. I was the center. My girl friend Margaret's sister was the quarterback. We picked her because she weighed the least. Over the loudspeaker they said "Burkhardt is covering the ball." My father finally got his last name on the loud speaker system. I threw the ball to Marian and she ran for a touchdown and then we boosted her on our shoulders and carried her back. I think my father was grateful.

Topeka library

In the summer time there were not a great many things for entertainment. You could sit in a car parked on Kansas Avenue and watch the window shoppers, you could swim all day at Gage or Garfield Park for ten cents, on Saturday you could see a movie at the Jayhawk which included a feature movie, a serial and generally a western with Gene Autry or Roy Rodgers. OR there was the library. My mother took Helen and I often or at least once a week. The Library was on the State House grounds on the corner of 8th and Jackson across the street from The Capper Publishing building. When you entered you were in the adult books so you went through to the west end for the children. Helen liked the Bobbsey twins. I liked Louisa May Alcott with "Little Women" and The Baroness Orzy's Scarlet Pimpernel series. On the second floor was a study room with stained class windows. The library was very centrally located but they must have decided they wanted it off the Capitol grounds and moved it west. It is now at Tenth and College. They moved the stained glass windows and lighted them. There is now lots of parking. In the summer Helen and I would put chocolate milk in green coke bottles and go to the basement and lay on Army cots and read. We were cool there

Business endeavor

My mother belonged to organizations that had lots of "teas" that required little cookies. A grocery store down town on Kansas Avenue called "Green's" was the only source of these tea cookies. I think they got too expensive or maybe they stopped baking them but my mother decided I should make "tea cookies." She bought a cookie press. I think she was going to try it herself but my mother was not a great cook. So I ended up making cookies. She would buy the ingredients and using my cookie press I made them by the dozen. Some teas I had to wear a formal and serve as my mother was great at volunteering her daughters. When I served it was generally at the high school in the art gallery. Now that I'm old (I like to think "mature") I don't make them anymore but still have my cookie press and the recipe. Green's grocery is not in existence now but know there are probably many caterers who also have my recipe. They really were quite tasty. I know as I ate all the broken ones.

Actress?

My mother had a good friend named Kunish that was a writer. She wrote commercials for the local radio station and plays for our church. I remember one that included a lot of hot dogs. I know we ate a lot during the production and I still like to eat cold ones, Then I helped with the little children in the cradle roll and one Sunday we put on a play during church. I was Mother Nature. Since the kids knew me we got along fine and they were great. Then one Sunday we put on a play and I was a daughter who had died and Jesus brought me back to life four days later. At Christmas time I stood on a board and was one of the angels that helped with the Christ Child. The church was always cold and we wore flimsy dresses and stood on boards. Then when I got to high school there were the plays. Since my aunt was on the school board I always got to be an extra. Once I had 19 lines put had to have someone push me on the stage at the correct time. In my Junior year I had the lead in the play we put on before the Junior Senior Prom. I was Mother Goose - that was the lead. All the other people were characters in nursery rhymes. When I got to college my husband to be was always in plays and signed me up. Once I know I only had a few lines and discovered the body of the murder victim which was my husband. He was a mailman stuffed in a closet by the murderer. I have now given up my acting career for the good of the world so it is safe to go to the theater.

Westward Ho

When I was three we went on the great camping trip East. Then my father decided he wanted to go West. We had learned more now as we had taken some short trips. We loaded up the car again and headed North first. We were aiming toward Mt. Rushmore that we heard they were carving faces out of stone. Arriving in South Dakota and going over and under pig tail bridges we arrived. The designer was standing on the ground at the foot of the mountain and using a miciphone was telling them when to chisel. I think they were working on Thomas Jefferson. From there we headed west for Yellowstone Park. Arriving there we rented a cabin--we were not in a tent this time. We drove around and took in the sights like Old Faithful and geysers. At night we sat on bleachers and looked through a fence while the bears ate garbage. We admired everything and took time to drive North in to Montana so we could say we had been in Montana. My brother, Allan, missed his future wife and wrote her everyday and tore off a corner of the map and mailed them to her. We went west again to San Francisco. The Golden Gate Bridge was not built yet but the Oakland Bay Bridge was and we went across that and once took a ferry across. We saw China Town and viewed San Francisco. My brother was missing his girl friend so we went home. In Reno when we stopped they had chocolate covered frozen bananas on a stick which I thought were great. I have not had them since. They must have lost the recipe. We arrived back in Topeka and my father was very happy as he had gone both directions now in the United States and I think we had been in most of the 48 states. Come to think of it there were not 48 states then.

Embarassing Moments

I have had many of these moments but these two stand out. Our high school was going to play Emporia and they decided we could go by train. We went to the Santa Fe railroad station in Topeka and loaded up. I think there were six cars of us. Everything went fine. I'm not sure about who won the game but everything was fun. On the way back I had a problem. Elastic had gone with the war effort. I'm not sure what they used elastic for but you could not buy it. My underwear had buttons on them. It was a hot day and my button came off but it was so hot my underwear stuck to me and I made it home. The other time was when my mother and I went to San Diego for the birth of my sister's second child. I had to go back without my mother as I was starting to teach school and she had to wait for the birth. I had a Pullman bed and as we approached a station in Texas I decided to go to bed. We were out in the country so I did not pull down my blind. I was well into my undressing when I heard a cough. I looked out the window and a troop train was beside me with many eyes watching my undressing. I got the curtain down and was grateful for the kind soldier that coughed.

Our visitors to Topeka

We had lots of relatives and when they visited us my mother had a tour in mind to entertain them. We visited Washburn Campus, we climbed the State House dome and we went to visit a plant where they made ice. I remember I was not fond of the climb to the dome but went. When we went to Washburn College I think we must have visited the art gallery. There were nude statues there with fig leaves over certain parts of their anatomy. I know one time my cousin, Harry Simons from White City lifted up one for us all to see. I think climbing to the dome was the scariest for the steps were narrow and there were lots of them. Then you walked on a narrow little balcony thing to look at Topeka. I think after the 1966 tornado Topeka had they closed it for awhile. I don't know if it is open anymore. Our guests always loved it. At one time we visited Jordan's bakery but it burned down one night. Sometimes we visited Topeka's two train stations--Union Pacific in North Topeka and the Santa Fe in East Topeka. Then there was the Governor's Mansion on Buchanan. The Dockings were the last to live there. The Andersons moved out to the new one. It had been the home of the publisher of the Topeka State Journal. Capper, who owned the Topeka Daily Capital, had a small home on Topeka Blvd across the street from the WIBW radio station. It was not open for tours. Later I used to do commercials for WIBW for Coleman Lanterns. My mother had a friend who worked there and when she needed a kid, that was me. I had to stand on a coke box to be tall enough. Now they can probably lower microphones.

Social Graces or when I learned the "Big Apple"

When I arrived at Junior High age my parents thought it was time to learn some "Social Graces." My brother and sisters learned on their own. There was a Topeka couple named Matthews who ran a ballroom dancing class for people like me. They ran a laundry in Estes Park in the summer. In the winter they came back to Topeka. The group was made up of equal amounts of girls and boys so you never sat any dance out. I generally danced with John Hessup. We met in the parents' houses. At our house we rolled the rugs in the living room and the dining room. We had a record player and we learned how to hold each other and take one step one way, two steps the other. At the end of the year we were eligible for the next year's class which was held at the Hotel Jayhawk in the Florentine Room with other groups. I learned the Big Apple. I still danced with John--two steps one way, one step the other.

Early camping trip

My parents found out my brother, Allan, thought the states were colored like they are on the map so my father loaded up the Packard with assorted camping stuff. He probably bought it at Thompson Hardware wholesale. We had a rollout cot I can not describe very well but held all three daughters with me in the middle. We had a great cooking kit with two large kettles, 6 plates, 6 silverware. It had a huge teaspoon, a stove you pumped up, a folding table which had fold out seats for four, two folding stools. My mother added some blankets which were put on the car seat and we sat on. It made us taller. We tied the left rear door shut so no one would fall into the road. We had a movie camera my father had won as part of a Willard Battery competition. We were off headed East. We had picnic lunches at noon in city parks and cemeteries. My father liked the cemeteries best. He was crazy about history. At night we camped in city parks along with the homeless. The bed we three girls slept in was sort of chain mattress thing and they put me in the middle between my sisters, so I would not fall out. We went to Washington D C first and camped on the Potomac River where Jefferson memorial now stands. I remember bumping my nose on a slippery slide. While camped we visited Mount Vernon. Later when I showed the movies to my children they thought Washington was still there. After we left Washington, we went to New York City, We climbed the Statue of Liberty which was scary for a three year old. We visited Ellis Island and then went on up the coast to Boston to see Old Ironsides. After Boston we went to Niagara Falls. I understand that we stood closer to the falls than you do now as the ledge keeps wearing off. We made a short drive in to Canada so Allan would know there was another country. At night they had colored lights on the falls. Then we headed home. As we neared Kansas City, Fairyland Park, an amusement park, was on fire so we had to go around another way to get to Kansas. My brother now knew that the states were all green

Fourth of July as I remember them

My earliest Fourths were remembering how my mother loved breakfast picnics at the Park. We would go out and my parents would build a fire and get out the skillet and scramble eggs. As I got older I remember having lady fingers in a can. My uncle always bought our fire crackers. Since he was a druggist that is confusing. I remember one evening my older relatives were doing Roman candles and one that my sister, Ethel, was holding broke in half. That stopped night works for a few years. When I visited China I would watch the children fixing lady fingers and took movies that I thought I could run backwards after I got home so I would be able to see how to get the ladyfingers apart easier. After I was married and had five children, Ray would get the fireworks from Wald's wholesale and the children each had a can with firecrackers in them. One year we had a fancy thing that you put a cap in and it was a bird and it flew. Sally was playing with hers in the backyard and it sailed up onto the roof. Ray got the ladder out and did not check where he put it so it slid and he fell and broke his leg. Our family doctor was out of town so we called his fill-in. The ambulance took him to St Mary's Hospital where they sat his leg and kept him for awhile. That year we fired the night works a week later. That got the police involved and we found out about permits. From then on we always had a permit. One year Ray was in the hospital with a bad asthma attack. We shot the fireworks anyway but had the police to inspect our permit twice. The kids thought their dad was turning us in. After Ray died I tried to get a permit but they would not let me have one so we were back to sparklers.

Picnics at the Waterworks Park in Topeka

When I was growing up my mother loved picnics. My father did not. It was an interesting fact that their rehearsal meal before their wedding was a picnic. On the nights my dad had a meeting and did not come home to dinner my mother took the four of us kids on a picnic. She gathered everything into a paper sack, took a can opener and canned beans, macaroni in a double boiler and we were off to the Waterworks Park, which was on the banks of the Kaw River. In the pictures I have of the picnics is a swingset and all the pools of the water department behind me. That is when little girl's pants always were about six inches showing under their dresses. My mother would open the canned beans. I still like beans straight from the can--unheated. My cousins went with us sometimes. They did not like cold beans. Out of the sack my mother had was an assortment of things. The macaroni stayed nice and hot in the double boiler. If I remember more I will add to this but that is my memory--fun, swings, canned beans and macaroni.

Ray's haircut

When I was in college and World War II was on, we had lots of service men on the campus. Our football team was made up of service men and was not very good. Ray was editor of the school paper, "The Washburn Review." Because the team was not great, he wrote an editorial about enjoying homecoming anyway. After one of the football team's practice sessions, the team met Ray and shaved off his hair. They also shaved the President of the Student Council and had two more on their list. Ray was able to warn the other two and they hid. He would not tell the authorities who they were. His picture was on the front page of the local paper. He told me I did not have to go to the homecoming dance with him but I ignored that. He wrote a column for the college paper, "Haircuts are Free at Washburn." Ray was called up for service a short time later and the army shaved what had grown in again only did a better job. Many years later some of those involved apologized to him but I think he enjoyed the event.