Swear Words in the KC Star

When the K C Star went on to computers they had a tough job for someone. They needed to have a talented person make sure that swear words did not get into the paper. Ray and Bill Vaughn were chosen. Ray was very proud of that and together they made sure that the Star computers would not let swear words go through if the editors were not up to date on what were swear words.

After the wedding

I don't know if they still do it in Topeka, but when Ray and I were married after the reception the bride and groom and their friends drove down the main street of town (Kansas Ave.) honking their horns. The second place we lived after we were married was on 6th Street next to the Methodist church. They did things like have a wagon and put the bride and groom in it and go down the Avenue. We would sit on our porch and watch. Once, right after the bride and groom were on board, the horse ran away. The bride was screaming and her veil blowing out behind. Once the horse left before the bride got in the wagon. I think she was kind of glad. When we did it, my brother was driving the last car and was stopped by the police. One time the bride refused. Once they had fancy carriages and had a parade but generally when there was a horse involved there was just the bride and groom. They usually ended up at the Topeka Country Club for their reception. We had our reception at the church. I understand now they have individual cakes so what do the bride and groom cut?

Blue pears

When Ray and I were first married the war had not ended and apartments were hard to find. We found a duplex that had been divided into 3 apartments on each floor. We had the living room which had a fireplace and a front porch. It had a hallway through the center and a room on each side. The south side had our bed and the north side a kitchen which had a table, two chairs, and a two burner stove plate. We shared the bathroom with the two other apartments. I scrubbed the bathroom a lot. We had an icebox on the porch. I had never had an icebox since my father had invented a refrigerator so I had to learn how to get ice and such. It did not take me long to get morning chores done so I read magazines. One magazine had an article about how to spruce up your marriage. It recommended you add food coloring to fruit. I tried adding coloring to pears. Ray did not acknowledge my blue pears. I did not find out until later that he was color blind and they looked the same to him as the usual ones I served.

Camping with the Buffalo in Oklahoma

I'm using Scott's version of this occasion with a few of my comments thrown in. He wrote it better but I am just remembering it. So this is really my version so don't blame Scott. After our exchange student from Norway had been here a year we took her camping to show her the USA. She had camped in Europe so knew how. We went south through Oklahoma. Ray had been there in the Field Artillery. We were in a campground with a Buffalo herd. We woke up one morning to the rather odd sound of several large animals walking through our campsite, rubbing themselves against the tents and generally having a pleasant stroll down the hill towards the lake. The herd passed and we emerged. However the rangers did not want them down by the lake and a helicopter was trying to turn them around toward their grazing area where tourists were stopping along the highway to take pictures. To do this the Rangers used a helicopter to scare the herd around and back. The herd reacted rather strongly to the dive-bombing helicopter. We all got in the car and watched from there. The animals did not knock down the tent but the clothesline was not so lucky. They are very big close up. We kidded Ingrid about how Norwegians had explored the world, but she answered, "They never sent women."

Ray and the Detective Magazine

When Ray worked for the Topeka Daily Capital, when he was not covering legislature, he had the police beat. One night they had a shooting outside the Grand Tmagazine was a picture of Ray with another man looking at the blood. I can't remember whether the crime was solved but I kept the magazine and now a little mouse has chewed a hole in it so the magazine does not look good. However the mouse missed the page with Ray's picture.

Third Graders and Communion

Many years ago I taught Sunday School. We were given lots of helpful advice but were really on our own. One year I was teaching third graders along with another teacher named Doris. We were to teach the third graders about communion. We explained what it was and showed them the bread and the grape juice and then Doris noticed they were going to have communion in church. She asked the minister if we could attend, sitting in the back of the church and the minister said, NO. Doris was not one to take No for an answer. Come Sunday after the sermon, we marched in with our third graders and did not sit in the back as those pews are always full but marched up the aisle to the front seats. Our third graders were perfect and well behaved. They ate the bread immediately and waited to drink the grape juice and drank it together. They had learned well. We were proud of them.

Cindy and the swim team

When Cindy was starting to high school our older son, Steve, told her to go out for everything. She took his advice and even signed up for the swim team. The high schools had been adding swimming pools and Northwest had a nice one. I went to the swim meet. Cindy was in the one that you have to do all the different kinds of strokes. The girls dove in and started swimming. They had so many laps for each different stroke. The group swam very fast. Cindy swam very slowly. One by one the swimmers got out. Cindy was still swimming. Everyone was out of the pool but Cindy. She finally finished and they announced that she had won the race. The rest of the swimmers had made mistakes but Cindy had not. I was not sure if she was excited or not because she went in the dressing room and threw up. She won the race.