Baseball comes to Shawnee

When our oldest son was on a baseball team the whole family was excited. The Shawnee Police Chief--Charlie Stump-- decided to coach a team. The team was made up of most of my Cub Scout den and a few other boys who attended Nieman School. The police chief lived on 66th Terrace and had five children of his own. None were the right age or sex for the team. The team practiced on the area behind Hocker Grove Junior High. They wore T-shirts. They were called "The Bullets" and had a glove. That was their equipment. When Steve played his first real game we did not want to miss it. Scott was just born so we took his car bed out of the car and put it on the ground. Then I put an umbrella over him to protect him from baseballs. They did not hit the ball often so it was adequate at the time. I shudder a little now as I think about it. One boy never caught a ball but he always waved at it as it went over. Steve's sisters were very attentive. We went to a great many games over the years and the ball field moved west. There is a ball park named in honor of the Police Chief called Stump Field in western Shawnee. By the time Scott played ball his older brother was his first coach. Girls play ball now which they did not then but they seem to lean towards soccer,

11th wedding anniversary

I've had many happy anniversarys but this one was a little different. We had just celebrated the birth of our fifth child and we had some other new things. We had a new station wagon, a new dog--Pogo -- and Scott, our second son. We decided to make an evening of it. First we went to Hank Bauer's Drive-in where our children liked to eat and then we were going to "Kiddieland". We had a fun dinner and then left for our next event. When we got to the car Sally dropped Scott's bottle on the concrete and it broke--shorter evening. She handed her father some change that she told him he had left on the table. At this point we decided to go on to "Kiddieland" but would have a shorter evening if Scott got hungry.

Jim Ryun and the four minute mile

When our oldest child went off to college in Lawrence, Kansas, we shifted our interest in colleges to K U. He was living in a dorm--Pearson Hall -- and became interested in the track team, helping not taking part. He changed dormitories to be with the track team. We went to Lawrence to see the annual track meet. We ate a picnic lunch and went to sit in the stands at KU's football field. We watched all the pole vaulting and activities of a track meet and then came the foot races. There was a freshman named Jim Ryun who was from the Topeka area and we saw him run the four minute mile. The records say it was on June 23, 1967 but I thought it was in May, It was very impressive and we were lucky to see it. When Steve switched to the Journalism School, I'm not sure he stayed with the track team but did work on the sport's staff and ended up being a lawyer in sports. I remember that Jim had a hole in his pants. Maybe that is why he ran so fast.

The other famous funeral I know about

When I was growing up in Topeka, we were honored by having the vice president of the United States from Topeka. It was Charles Curtis. He was a Kaw Indian. They wrote a play about him on Broadway and mentioned he only got in the White House with tours. We in Topeka were proud of him. He was born in 1860 and died in 1933. At this time my father had bought a Packard from a friend who was having a divorce battle with her husband who would not give her any money to live on. When Curtis died, the funeral home wanted to borrow the car. It had jump seats. They wanted it for the pallbearers to ride in. Curtis laid in state in the Capitol building. Our car was in the newsreels and we wanted to see it so we all went to the Jayhawk Theater so we could see the newsreel and see our car. It looked great. We were very proud of our car. I wonder what the movie was?

Funerals

Watching the TV news these days I seem to see them bury someone every week. They always show me more than I want to see. I remember a funeral Ray was going to cover in Wichita. Our Kansas Senator Andrew Schoeppel had died. He laid in state in the statehouse and then was going to Wichita for burial. Ray went with the press group to Wichita in highway patrol cars. They were going to fly but the weather was bad so they drove. The funeral went off well in the church. Then they left for the cemetery. The Senators who had flown in for the service were going back to Hutchinson to fly back to Washington. When they had to make a stop on the way there, they found the hearse was following them and not going to the cemetery. They sent the hearse to the cemetery and the Senators went on to Hutchinson. The group were waiting at the cemetery. The graveside service was a little late but they all had waited for the guest of honor.

Going to Kansas City

When my husband and I were dating we liked to go to Kansas City. One of Ray's best friends really loved theater. We would go with him and his wife to the Music Hall to see plays. We took the train as gas was still a little scarce. The trouble with that is we had no way to get home from the depot so my mother always had to get up and come after us at two in the morning. Topeka was not loaded with taxis. The first time we went we ate at the Muehlebach Hotel. I did not think Ray was very rich so I ordered the cheapest thing on the menu which was chicken. When I tried to eat it, it slid off the plate and landed in his lap. One place I liked to go was the Folly Theater. It was a little spicy for a Topeka girl but they sold chocolate. That was difficult to buy in Topeka. We saw great plays like "State of the Union." We thought the Music Hall was beautiful. I still do.

Flying to Denver

My granddaughter, Morgan, lives in Denver which seems far away. When Ray and I were married we flew to Denver for our honeymoon. It takes Morgan an hour non-stop. We took four hours and stopped very often. They served us a meal and we had wooden silverware. I guess you should say wooden dinnerware. It was the first time I had ever flown although Ray had--I think. I don't remember a lot except I was really scared. I have landed at Denver many times since and flown around the world but there is nothing that matches that scary flight.

Victory

World War II ended. The USA went wild. I only know Topeka. In Topeka we drove down the main street--Kansas Avenue--honking our horns. I drove Ray's 1928 car with his mother and his Aunt Helen Harford in the back seat. We were honking happily. The curbs were lined with people all waving at us. I expect the rest of the country was doing the same. You got on at 10th and Kansas and then I don't know how far north we went. I doubt if we went to the river because it would be hard to turn around and come back honking, It was a great day.

Magazine rack or bookcase

I had a father who could build anything. He made a refrigerator, put a motor on my mother's sewing machine, fixed a furnace you only had to put coal in once a day, made picnic tables for my kids, invented a marble games, made toy storage boxes that looked like an engine or a doll cradle. After me moved here to Shawnee from Topeka he decided we needed a magazine rack by the front door so built one. Later when we enlarged the house we moved it into the den. Now it has treasures. It has art objects that Cindy made like a mouse mask and a giraffe. She had a very talented teacher in Middle School in the art department. There is an hub cap that has a cub scout group's names etched on it by some cub scouts I had when their den mother was ill. There is the bread plate the church gave us for doing things. I always wondered why you got an award for doing what you are suppose to. I accepted it anyway. There is some leftover Beta tapes. There is even some thin books to make it look like a magazine rack. There is some tapes I taped of shows I liked. I think they are Beta also. There are some large books -- Dr. Seuss I think at the bottom. There are a few things on the top shelf I wish I remembered for they are very pretty sort of plates. I generally remember things in the middle of the night. Maybe I'll remember this.

My mother

My mother was a twin. Her twin sister only lived a short time but my mother was almost 99. My oldest sister was named after mother's twin sister so was named Ethel Bessie. She never liked her name and went by Bess. My mother was very active, She ran the church kitchen. She had one of the first dishwashers at church. She along with others in her family were college graduates. She lived thru two world wars. The scond one she drove a station wagon for the Red Cross and drove people around in Topeka. She liked to try things. When I was in high school she got me excused and took me to Lawrence to attend a premire where with her help I got autogaphs for Walter Pidgeon, John Wayne, Roy Rodger and Gabby Hayes. We saw the burning of Lawrence.

She always gave me encouragement. When I was in high school she told my sister and I she did not want to be called mother anymore. She wanted to be called Gussie. She said when we called her mother we always wanted something but when we called her Gussie we just talked to her. Before trash was picked up by the city there was someone who drove a wagon down our alley and use to say "Giddy up, Gussie" to his white mule. I guess that is where she got the name. She was very active until she was bedfast. My sister, Helen, was especially good to her. Since I lived in Kansas City it was hard to visit as often has Helen did.

She used to drive to see us every Sunday. Ray would be at work on Sundays at the "Star" and my children loved it as she always bought ice cream bars from the truck that drove by. When we moved here we had a lovely table but it was too small. On Sunday she turned up with a new table in her back seat that had leaves--three. It was great we finally did not have to put a cardtable at the end. I'm still using it.

During her life time she taught many women how to drive as they had no way to learn. I remember one woman who used flags--red and green-- that she wanted to put out the window of the car to tell other drivers what way she was turning--red for right and green for left. My mother said she could not do that. I was not a very smart child like my sisters. I was more like my brother. My mother treated us all the same. I was lucky to have a mother like her.

Topeka and a blackout

In December of 1941, Topeka decided to have a trial run of a Blackout. Why they thought Topeka would be targeted by the Japanese was unclear. Ray and I went with another couple to the corner of 8th and Kansas Ave. I think it was in front of The Topeka Journal. We stood on the corner and at a special time the streetlights and everything else were to go dark. The next morning our pictures were on the front page and the other couple was kissing. I think it was the only time it was held and most of the lights did not darken so it was not considered a success. It was only tried the once. The Japanese did not attack.

Church music in Junior High

When I was growing up in Topeka at Central Church we were divided by age. When I was in Junior High we had a good teacher, Mr. Ewing. He ran an interesting department. When it came time to sing a hymn, his daughter Martha would play the piano. However she only knew one song so we sang "I will be true" every Sunday. We got very good at it. I could play "The parade of the Wooden Soldiers" at that time but it did not really fit.

Meeting a possum

When I was teaching in a one room school--Pleasant Valley #4--I had a class of 14 pupils. One day we were discussing animals and the kids talked about possums. Now where I grew up we only had dogs and cats. I made the statement I had never seen one. Firman, one of my sixth graders, decided to fix that. The next morning I arrived at school and there was a possum in front of the schoolhouse door. When Firman arrived at school I asked him to put it out by the fence. Not knowing much about possums I thought it was dead. However it got up and walked away. In Shawnee I live near a creek and I have deer and have even had a possum on the fence outside my bedroom window.

Washing Dishes

When I was growing up the girls in the family were supposed to do the dishes. I don't remember my brother, Allan, ever doing the dishes. My mother liked to make tasks pleasant so she would buy a carton of "Three Musketeers Bars" from my Uncle Percy. He could get them as he had a Drug Store. When we finished our task we got to have the candy bar. It was made up of three separate little bars. There was a vanilla, strawberry and chocolate small bar in the wrapper. You could not tell from the outside what flavor was there. I always hoped for the chocolate and still don't mind dishes but think my dishwasher is an asset.

Second Grandchild

The same year Leon was born so was Allan and Helen Martha's daughter, Martha Jean. This time it was greeting cards that made it different. My sister and sister-in-law had the first same name so until my sister was married we had two Helen Burkhardts. My sister was dating a young man at college who lived in Centralia, Kansas. One weekend in October they decided to go to Centralia to see a baseball game. It was dark and when they were going north a car had had trouble and was stopped on the highway. Bill was driving and did not see it in time so he hit it. They went down in a ditch. Helen was hurt. I don't remember if anyone else was. They brought her back to Topeka to Stormont Hospital. At that time the other Helen was in the other Topeka hospital to have her first child. When the mail was delivered full of cards Helen, my sister-in-law, received several of my sister's cards. Saying "Sorry to hear about your accident". My sister-in-law did not think her new daughter was an accident. I don't remember if Helen, my sister, received birth congratulations or not. My parents had 15 grandchildren and I do not remember anything different about the rest of them.

My parent's first grandchild

My sister married an only child. I did also but my in-laws were friendly. While Ethel and Harold lived in Topeka we all seemed to get along fine. He came from a small town outside of Topeka called Dover where his parents pretty well ran the town as his father was the only grocer, the postmaster and just ran things. We liked them and shared many holiday meals together. My brother-in-law and my brother Allan, did not get along too well and both were employed by my father. Ethel's husband decided to move to San Diego and work in a war plant. He went ahead and then sent for Ethel. After they had been there awhile they were going to have their first child and my parent's first grandchild. My mother went out to be there. In July a son was born. After his birth my dad thought we should go and admire this wonderful child. Helen and I went with him in the car and we arrived in San Diego. Later my sister moved into one of the outlaying towns, El Cajon, but then they were actually in East San Diego. Harold's parents were already there. We went in to see the people but could not find Harold's parents. It turned out they went out through the bedroom window when we arrived. I guess they really did not like us. They later moved to El Cajon and lived next door.

Sign language

I can not do sign language but have seen people who are able. When Scott was in high school at Shawnee Mission Northwest he helped with a group of special education students. One summer they were having summer camp at Northwest and Scott was very involved. He was not old enough to drive so I took him and picked him up. One day when I was waiting for him I saw a discussion between a couple. I'm not sure what the student had done but the person in charge was very angry. Did you ever see someone cussed out in sign language? I could tell they were getting the point across but there was no sound just flying fingers. During the same summer they also had a car wash. Watching our Bible School children this summer running a car wash to make money for Crossline's school supplies looked kind of like it except it was noisy as three year olds chatter when they get wet washing tires. Scott's group were npisy also as most of them could speak.

Halloween #1

I have many Halloween stories and I like to share them. Before we were married Ray found they were going to have a big Halloween party at the Municipal Auditorium in Topeka with prizes. He decided we should attend. He rented two costumes. We were going to be cowboys. We went to the party and were judged for our costumes. He got first prize and a $2.00 prize. I got fifth prize and twenty five cents. When they asked us our names I was embarrassed and told them my girl friend's name--Margaret Pratt. After she found out about it she made me give her 13 cents. So I only made 12 cents. Ray used his own name so did not have to share.

My mother's new washer--A Bendix

When Helen and were still living at home but graduated from college our parents would not let us pay rent so we tried to figure out a way to do it. From my office window on the 6th floor of the Mills Building I could see a store across the street. It was Karlan's Furniture Store. It had an automatic washer in the display window. Now the war was just over and it was hard to buy some things. You had to sign up for everything and get on a waiting list. I signed up one day and Helen and I started paying installment payments. My mother found out about it. Somehow she got us moved up the list. I expect the owner was a Rotarian with my dad. The washer my mother had at home was the old fashion wooden tub sort of a thing. My dad had put a motor on it so you did not have to hand turn the wringers but it was not an automatic washer like a Bendix. She may have even finished our payments as she soon had the washer in our basement. We gave up on giving her rent money and just got married and moved out.

Cure for an itchy back

When I worked for the telephone company before I was married. I drew blueprints for the engineers telling them where to put telephone poles. The engineers would draw small drawings with instructions and I made them big and blueprints. Some of my fellow workers had good advice. One winter I was having trouble with an itchy back. Very uncomfortable and un lady like. One of my fellow workers told me there was a doctor in the building that could tell me what to do. I made an appointment. He took one look at it and said I had a dirty back that is why it itched, I needed to buy a back brush. At our house you took showers in the summer but in the winter you were back to the tub. I brought a backbrush and was cured.

Steve as a model

When Steve was about nine months old Ray was writing a story about a Topeka woman that did not like the boys shorts they had at the store and designed some of her own. Ray wrote the story and they took her son's picture but it did not meet with the City editor's approval as he thought her son was too old. Six is not too old. Anyway she made Steve a pair and they took his picture in them along with her son. It ran in the paper with the story. He got a letter from the Topeka Mayor:
Dear Steve,
We want to congratulate you on the interesting picture which we have taken from the Wednesday morning Topeka Daily Capital. It looks like you are on guard pretty low for an adversary the size of Ronnie. Perhaps your daddy taught you to carry your dukes low since you may process a speed sufficient to counter the advantage in height and reach shown by Ronnie in the picture,
We invite you to bring your Mother and Daddy to this office some day for a little visit, perhaps you can demonstrate some of your best in the field fisticuffs as well as some of the new models in sportswear, etc.
Very truly yours Frank Warren, Mayor, and Ray D. Hodgell, Secretary

Steve's first news story

When Steve was about a month old we were living on 6th Street in Topeka about two blocks from Kansas Avenue, Topeka's main street. Steve was sleeping in his buggy as that was his crib. Ray called to tell me that Walgreen's was on fire and did I want to come see it. I put a blanket on Steve and went out the door and went East to Kansas Avenue. No one was out at two in the morning so it was kind of lonesome. When we got to 8th & Kansas we went to the northeast corner across the street from Walgreen's and watched the fire. Ray said one of the firemen said to him. "Look at that crazy woman with a buggy?" He admitted he knew me and told me to come. Walgreen's Christmas decorations had caught on fire. Next door south was a men's clothing store with a model in the door and the firemen kept apologizing to the model as they went through. They got the fire out and Ray walked home with me. Steve never woke up. Later in journalism school I doubt if he shared his first news story or maybe that is why he went on to be a lawyer.

Our cat and Frank Buck

The first December we were married we went to Omaha to visit our friends Gabe Parks and his wife. We had a room at the Hotel Paxton which cost us $10.42. On the way back home to Topeka we saw a kitten in the middle of the road and we brought it home with us. We named it Bobby. We did not have him long but he made the paper twice. Frank Buck, the animal trainer and hunter, was in town. He had come to present his motion picture. The Capital photographer took him with our cat and are cat scratched him. Ray and the photographer had taken him to Frank Bucks' hotel room. Buck had picked the cat up by the scuff of his neck. The cat did not know how famous the man was so turned and scratched him. The picture was picked up and run in many other papers. I think Bobby did not speak to other cats for weeks. Somehow after that Bobby hurt his leg and we had to take him to the vet. When we called to see how he was doing. They told us his doctor was out right now so they would not tell us how the cat was. Soon after that Bobby ran away. To you who were not privileged to know about Frank Buck. He was known as an animal trainer "who brought them back alive".

refrigerator doors

I always like to look at the doors of refrigerators when I go places as they are generally bulletin boards. Take my own for instance. One of my favorites is "It is nice to be important, but it is more important to be nice." "We the willing led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible, for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing." I have a couple of pictures of Garfield: "We all get heavier as we get older because, there's more information in our heads. So I'm not fat. I'm just really intelligent and my head could not hold anymore so it started filling out the rest of me. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it." A quote from Erma Brombeck, "A dog will do what children won't even consider. He'll sit through the worst TV show in video history and never try to change the channels to get something better. He can keep a secret. He never entertains friends. You tell a dog you don't know what you will do if you can't come up with the interest payments before the 15th and he'll keep it to himself." I have a picture of the dog called Wishbone looking for Publishers Clearing House to bring him a prize.

I have magnets from all over. One telling you "Make Yourself at home, clean my kitchen." I have magnets from where people have gone on their vacations. I even have one postcard that is a magnet and came through the mail. Ray and I brought some home from our trips so I have them from countries we have visited. I have a long one that says "Perry School Drivers ED" that one of the kids brought home. I have business magnets with numbers to call for service. I have lots of pictures fastened with magnets. I have one new recipe for Peanut butter, bananas and soft tacos.

A funeral

When we were first married Ray would take me along on news stories if it was okay. In the Topeka State House there are a couple of murals done by John Stuart Curry. My granddaughter, Holly, was just in Topeka at the statehouse and said they are redoing the statehouse so things are sort of a mess. At the time he was doing the two paintings he got mad at the legislature so he painted all the pigs tails straight. We saw a copy of the picture when we were in Russia 1979 as part of a traveling USA exhibit. Curry's service was held in Topeka but he was buried in a little town just east of Valley Falls, Kansas. I know his body was in the church. He was buried in the small church's cemetery. A great many of his paintings are in Kansas State and once when we were in Milwaukee and went to their art gallery they were having a John Curry art show. His sister was married to Missouri Senator Stuart Symington.

Centerpieces

Two Christmas parties centerpieces were unusual. Both were at parties given by governors for the press at Christmas. The first one was when John Anderson was governor. Both were held in Topeka at the Shawnee Country Club. Alcohol was not allowed at the governor's mansion. Most of the press like to drink. The first one was a poinsettia in a flower pot. It had a plastic flower in a flower pot that had ice cream. I wanted to show it to our kids so we did not eat them. They must have been our dessert. We had to drive back to Kansas City so we put it in the backseat and rolled the window down so it would stay cold. I drove as Ray liked a drink and I did not. It was snowing a bit as we started home. We made it home with the flower and showed it to the kids the next morning. They were impressed I think. More because we had not eaten it. The second one was also a governor's Christmas Party. There was a beautiful centerpiece on the table made up of real fruit. We were telling Meredith Docking, Gov. Bob Docking's wife, how beautiful it was and she looked sad and said "they are suppose to be eating it. It is the dessert and I spent hours making it." I was standing with Polly Torrence, another wife, and we told Meredith we would take care of that. We told the group and they ate it up in nothing flat. It was good.

Streetcar ride

Ray liked to do unusual things for his birthday. On June 27th, 1992 It was Sunday. He had just had his 70th birthday and Holly was going to be christened at church. Holly's other grandparents were in town from Pennsylvania for her christening. We had just had flag day and some flags were still flying and Ray hired a streetcar to pick us all up at our homes and go to church. Afterward we went to the Lafferty's country club for lunch. We arrived at the church in our streetcar with everyone aboard. Holly was very well behaved during her christening and looked adorable. Then afterward we all went back out in front for our ride. The church people enjoyed seeing us load up. I expect we went down Gregory, past Swope Park and then a right to the Country Club. Afterward we posed for a picture on the steps of the Country Club. It was fun to see the expressions on people's faces as we drove by.

Alf Landon turns 100

Alfred Landon was the governor of Kansas but was not born in Kansas. He was born in West Middlesex, Pa. He ran against Truman for President but Truman won. His youngest daughter, Nancy Kassebaum was a Kansas Senator and a good friend of Lee and Susan. When her father was about to turn 100 she decided to have a birthday celebration. He was not well but was living at home in his house across from Gage Park on 6th Street in Topeka. It was a lovely home sort of like Mount Vernon. It was a party by invitation only and Ray and I were lucky enough to get one. There was no parking so my sister Helen and her husband Roy took us out and we were cleared and walked up the driveway to the house. President Reagan was there. One of the interesting group was the KU band. I'm not sure if Landon's son, Jack, and daughter Peggy were there but Nancy was along with her children. Her sons were involved in taking movies so they were set up on the lawn. I think we got cake but am not sure. Reagan gave his famous wave to us all and we did a lot of applauding. We had a great time. I'm not sure about Landon because I doubt if he felt that good as he died about two months later right after his regular birthday September, 9.

Water bottles

Back in 1947 I sometimes was quoted in the Society column, not because I was a social butterfly but one of the women writers had a column called "Peggy of the Flint Hills" and she liked one of my ideas. I told her I did not like the sweet sickly stuff they peddled in stands and wished they just sold bottled water. I did not patent the idea and am not sure it is yet. But at fairs and parades it was hard to get a drink. Obviously others thought the same thing but did something about it.

Blue pears

When Ray and I were first married we had a small apartment and I was hard up for entertainment when he was at work. I read a magazine article on"How to make your meals exciting". It suggested you add blue coloring to canned pears. I tried it and Ray did not think much of it. Later when I found he was color blind I wondered why he did not like them. We only had it once.