After I retired…..I more or less lost interest in hosting foreign students. While I was still working for USD 338, it worked out well. At least, most of the time. After some convincing, I agreed to accept my first foreign exchange student in 1993. Yeah…. It was a good experience. However, I also found that high school students can be jerks. Of course, I already knew that…. just like adults! I got rid of the jerks. Why not? It was my house….and why should I be miserable living in my own home for a full school year? If I acted like a jerk, I wouldn’t realistically expect somebody to let me stay in their home for ten months. OK… If I were a teenager, maybe I would. But, I am pretty sure they would have gotten rid of me…..just like I got rid of two of the jerks who were sent to live in my home!

It all worked well back in those days when I was still employed by the school district. I had to get up and get to work every day. Taking the exchange students to school with me was no problem…..no big deal. This was also true of taking them back home. They would come to my office after school and hang out until I was ready to go back home. With one lone exception, none of them was interested in participating in high school sports. The main reason was that they had no background or experience in American football or basketball or baseball. Actually, high school sports was an entirely alien concept to them. Competitive high school athletics appears to be a wholly an American concept. Sometimes it seems that many schools in the USA exist primarily for sports….in most of the rest of the world, the main purpose of schools or public education is…. Education!

After I retired in 2003, the habit of getting out of bed at 5:30 in the morning rapidly dissipated. Yes….. It look a while, but not very long, for me to realize that getting up before the sun rose simply did not make a lot of sense. The first few morning I proceeded to wake up at 5:30 or so…..take a shower….eat a bowl of raisin bran and drink a cup of coffee….Then what was I supposed to do? Living in a rural area eight and half miles from nowhere didn’t offer a lot of opportunities or alternatives. Go drink coffee and gossip with my neighbors? Hardly. I didn’t even know the people who lived in the nearest house east of me. My neighbors to the west were at work. What else was there to do? Let’s review the options: Sit and watch TV for the entire morning….or even the day? Even today, after having been retired for almost twenty years, I rarely turn on the TV until 10:00 P.M., except to watch the news. Clean the house? Come on now…..I lived there by myself. How was the house to get dirty enough to need cleaning every day? I could read. And, I did. But, reading is not an all-day activity, at least not for me.

The point is….. There was no reason to wake up at 5:30 A, M. any longer….not even to drive an exchange student into town so he could go to school. And, even if I did, that would mean that I would also have to be at home in order to drive back into town to pick him up at 3:00. Not a good plan, to say the least. So…. It was not very difficult to make the decision not to have any more foreign exchange students. They were great while I was working at the school…..and I thoroughly enjoy sharing my home and life with them….. Well, except for the two that I got rid of….and the one they sent back home. I was not going to lock myself into a pattern just so I would be able to accommodate them. No….. Not selfish. Just that I wanted to live my own life, free of any unnecessary restraints.

I never regretted not hosting exchange students after I retired. But, I had to admit that it was lonely at times…..and the exchange students did offer companionship so I would not have to live an entirely solitary life. This is when the thought of having short term guests began to form in my mind.

There are several short-term international hospitality organizations which have been set up to accommodate both domestic and international travelers. The idea is similar to that of an exchange student: To offer your home and hospitality to travelers in need of a place to spend a night or maybe even a few days. The idea is that I will furnish a temporary home……a place for travelers to sleep and to call “home”….usually for free…..to people who are passing through the area. On the other hand, in the event that I happen to be traveling through their home territory, they will, in turn, provide a place for me to spend a night or perhaps a few nights. Not only is this a huge benefit to the traveler, but it is also an excellent opportunity to meet a large variety of people from different parts of the world, from different cultures, from different religions and customs. It is an excellent way to broaden a person’s understanding of people who come from different countries and backgrounds.

On two or three separate occasions while traveling in Germany….specifically in Berlin…. I have taken advantage of this service. I never stayed somebody’s home, but I have asked them to serve as a guide or native-speaking companion. A couple times, they took on the role of sort of a personal guide, even when one of my German exchange students was present. They, being native Berliners, were much more familiar Berlin, and they had a more intimate acquaintance with the city than any guide book could offer. They knew places that only “locals” know. They showed me attractions the guide books left out. They took me to sites that only Berliners knew. They had the time…..and they took the time…..to answer questions and give some meaning, some background, some context to our new experiences and to our surroundings.

One of our guides was a retired teacher, a member of an all-cello orchestra, who had lived in Berlin all his life. He was a history teacher….and knew more about Berlin than even we wanted to know. He was accompanied by a friend….a survivor of the Holocaust….and a bitter one, at that. Another our guides was formerly the Director of Youth Services for the former East German secret police…..the STASI. In fact, he was our guide as we toured the former headquarters of that dreaded organization. He even showed us his former office. He did it all very objectively and unemotionally…..and, I might add, un-apologetically. The other guide was a professional photographer. He showed me many of the amazing attractions of Potsdam….a suburb of Berlin….which was formerly the home of a series of German rulers from the Holy Roman Empire. His daughter also accompanied me around Berlin, pushing her infant son in a baby stroller….. Even I got into the act and took over and pushed him for a while. Yeah…. Me, pushing a baby carriage. People probably thought I was his grandfather! One night she and her husband, a PhD physicist, invited us to their apartment for dinner. All of them were gracious, intelligent and welcoming people. For some years, I kept in touch with them, especially at Christmas, but as happens all too often, we gradually lost contact with each other…..although I still remember them gratefully and fondly.

This is what makes hosting international travelers rewarding and special…..the lasting friendships and relationships that are formed. Let me hasten to say….. This has not been the case with domestic guests….those from the USA. Actually, I must say, most of them have been rather strange and creepy people….enough so that I am very hesitant and reluctant to accept domestic guests.

In the past twenty years or so, I have had guests from a variety of counties: Germany, Israel, South Korea, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, China, Italy, Poland, Ukraine…..and France.

Now…. This brings me to my latest guest. His name is Francois, and he is from France. Francois is going to learn something for the first time right now: I almost did not accept his request to be my guest. How can I put this diplomatically….politely….. but, more or less honestly? I will start by saying that like too many other people….and it not just the uneducated masses (although maybe they are more prone to do so)…. I am one of those who tend to stereotype people…. Yeah…. Sometimes some we really sophisticated and educated people……In case you are wondering…. That’s me!….. actually tend to do this! Yes…. I am building this up so I can let Francois down easy!

It is said…..although I have not found it to be particularly true…..that most of the world looks upon us citizens of the U.S.A. as “Ugly Americans”. Well… Maybe it is also true that we Americans sometimes tend to regard the French as slightly jealous of the USA and maybe just a little bit insecure or envious….

Now, I am not going to admit that I also had these stereotypical attitudes…..but I was just a shade hesitant about hosting somebody from France…..and hosting them for ten days! And…. Heaven forbid, a PhD student? And, somebody coming to a rural state like Kansas. And, somebody who would probably be snobbish and demanding about the food I eat and the wine I drink. And, somebody who might find my lifestyle somewhat…..shall we say…. eccentric. I have never been in the home of anybody who lives in France…..but I going to make what I think is a fairly correct assumption: Francois had never been in a house like mine before. But, on the other hand…..neither have an overwhelming majority of Americans! But…. That really doesn’t bother me very much. I figure that the front door serves two purposes: To walk in…..and to walk out!

However….and this is the truth…..from the moment Francois walked in my front door, I knew that he was none of these things. I immediately knew that I was going to like him. And….. I did…..I still do.

To begin with….. Unlike a lot of potential guests who would send a cryptic text at 10:00 at night saying, “I want to stay at your house tomorrow.” (And, I can assure you that all such requests were either ignored or rejected.) Francois contacted me at least two weeks in advance…..told me the exact dates he wanted to stay at my house and explained why he was coming to Kansas. I mean…. How many people from France….or anywhere….come to Kansas for the scenery….or the excitement? He was coming to do some research for his PhD dissertation. At the time, I didn’t know the subject of his PhD dissertation, but at least, I some assurance that he wasn’t a fugitive from justice…..trying to stay one step ahead of Interpol, or whatever the French national police is called.

The fact that he was a PhD student bothered me a little bit…. I know lots of PhD’s. Some of them are “normal”, and some of them are pompous stuffed-shirts. I don’t have a PhD, but I do have two….almost three…..Master’s Degrees….and I do not consider myself as anything but normal. Then I thought….Two of my former German students have PhD’s….. Two of my Arab students have doctorates… My Chinese student is a PhD….. They are all semi-normal people. So…. OK, all of them turned out to be tolerable. They never wanted to sit around and talk about Terra-hertz radiation…..or cures for Alzheimer disease….or robotic hip surgery…..or information systems controls. And, I, sure as heck, didn’t bore them with theories of testing or innovative theories of school administration, or experimental approaches to teaching special ed students….or how to organize and carry out professional development programs.

So….. I ignored the PhD stuff. Instead, I was impressed by Francois’s consideration and kindness….even in his messages. His English was outstanding. He wrote simply, but intelligently and effectively……not trying to use words that he had no idea of the meaning, like some of my foreign contacts have. He asked relevant questions. And, not even once did he ask me if I was a “Rural Kansas Right Wing Reactionary Republican Trump-Loving Hick”! I was impressed! (That may have been the first thing I would have asked, if I had been a foreigner!)

The only unusual request that he made was to ask if it was possible for us to visit the Dalton Brothers’ Museum in Coffeyville. I had heard of the Dalton Gang. At least, I knew they were a bunch of outlaws….bank robbers. I had no idea they were important enough to rate a museum, however. I looked them up on the Internet….and sure enough, there really is a Dalton Gang Museum…..in Coffeyville.,,,,a town where I had never been…..or even thought of going. But… Sure. Why not? Of course, we can go take a look at the Dalton Gang Museum. Even I am never too old to learn something new.

Francois arrived on Friday, October 14. I met him at the Kansas City International Airport. That, in itself, was an an adventure. I had not been to KCI for quite a while…..since I flew to Philadelphia in August of 2021. I had no inkling of what was in store for me. Kansas City started building a new airport some years ago. I was aware that Terminal A was closed and no longer in operation. It was cordoned off like most vacant buildings. Throughout the decades that I have been going to KCI, I never had the occasion to use Terminal A, so it never disrupted or interfered any of my trips there. Mostly I used Terminal C, for some reason or other. One reason, I suppose, was that this was the terminal for international flights. And, except for the flight to Philadelphia and a flight to Portland long ago, the only reason that I went to the airport was for the flights that I took to Germany…..and to pick up and return my international guests.

As a matter of fact, I had pretty much mastered Kansas City International Airport. Going there became a fairly routine trip over the years. KCI is not a big airport, especially when compared to airports such as Chicgo O’Hare, or Newark or even Minneapolis. It is not a small hometown airport, either…..like, maybe, Topeka or even Wichita. Let’s call it a mid-size airport. Whatever we call it, it was laid out in a plan that was fairly compact and fairly easy to understand and handle. The three terminals were well marked, as were the parking areas associated with each terminal. Depending on the time of day, the parking lots were never completely full. I always managed to find a parking spot fairly close to the terminal building.

I was not prepared for what I encountered this particular Friday. The situation had changed dramatically since I was there the last time. Instead of driving straight into the parking lot of the appropriate terminal, I was faced with a confusing maze of narrow one-way streets and a bewildering array of signs, arrows and symbols. I almost panicked. They were about as decipherable as hieroglyphics. At least twice, I had to turn around and retrace my path…..and hope that at least through a process of trial and error I would end up at the terminal. Through some stoke of good luck or clean living……and following other cars…..I eventually found myself back in semi-familiar territory.

Once inside the parking area, it became rather chaotic again. The parking lot of packed….literally. I can imagine they were packing twice as many vehicles into a space that was designed for half the cars! I told myself, “Just be patient. Pretend you are Walmart!” I slowly drove around and around. I finally found a vacant parking space. I took it…..without caring a lot where it was located. Actually, I was afraid that if I didn’t take it, I might be driving around for another day before I found one. When I got out of the car, I carefully noted some important landmarks…..or at least, I thought that I did.

Meeting Francois was the easy part! He had access to hundreds of pictures of me, if he looked at my web page. I could have shown up appearing to be anywhere from five years to eighty-five years old…..and he should have been able to identify me! He had sent me a couple pictures….both taken at a Renaissance Festival. I did not expect him to appear wearing a cape or a pointed hat or a feather in his hair. But, I knew that he had red hair. I figured that would be enough for a fairly accurate identification. How many red hair people could possibly be on that airplane? We recognized each other almost immediately. A good sign, I suppose.

What followed that was not such a good sign. At least, that is probably what Francois was thinking. We proceeded to walk across the street to the parking area. I had memorized the necessary landmarks for locating my car. However, when we arrived at the parking lot, none of them seemed to be there. It was almost like a bad dream….or a bad science fiction movie!

We walked to approximately where I remembered parking my car. However, I didn’t see it. I checked to see if the “landmarks” were still there. They seemed to be. Oh…. Maybe the car is in the next lane over. It wasn’t there, either. Oh, come on! I parked in here less than an hour ago! It has to be here. We walked up and down a couple other lanes…..like two lost sheep. Nothing! Where is my car? I can imagine that Francois may have been getting just a little nervous….maybe wondering about my mental stability! Wondering what kind of person he would be staying with. Being the nice guy that he is, is told me to just wait, and he would go look for it. I gave him a description of the car…..most notably that it has a Vietnam Veterans license plate. He was no more successful than I.

We continued to walk…..and look…. Finally, and I am not at all sure how much later, I spotted my car. It was on the opposite side of the lane than I remembered. What?! I checked the surroundings again. Apparently, in all the driving up and down the lanes looking for a parking space, I had become confused….not a difficult task for me…..and had gotten my directions mixed up. And I mean 180 degrees mixed up! I was in no mood to stop and analyze the situation. And, Francois didn’t immediately buy a ticket back to France.

The sun was hanging low in the sky as we finally departed the airport. Francois, I found, had a very good knowledge of English. It was easy to carry on a good conversation as we traveled I-70 back to Topeka. The sun had already set when we pulled into my parking space in front of my townhouse.

I showed Francois his room….where he would be sleeping for the next week and a half. After we went back downstairs, we were faced with a decision. It was still early…..maybe not even 8:00. What should be do? Sit in the front room and wait until we ran out of things to talk about…..or go to a bar…..and talk until we ran out of things to talk about…..or until the bar closed, which, in Kansas these days, is fairly early. We opted for the latter choice…..go somewhere and talk. The obvious choice was “The Shack”.

Since moving to Topeka, “The Shack” has been my bar of choice. It replaced Terry’s Bar and Grill, which for reasons I do not recall, had always been my first choice when I lived in Ozawkie. The Shack is located on 29th Street about two miles from my house. It is easy to get to; it is safe; it is a neighborhood bar; it has plentiful TV screens for watching ball games; it does not cater to the young loud, obnoxious punk, hip-hop clientele; its atmosphere is informal and non-threatening; it has a limited, but adequate…and delicious….assortment of food and drink; and it is affordable.

We sat and talked….started getting acquainted….. and drank beer and ate something until around 10:00. As the patrons started to pay their bills and drift away, we, too, called it a night and returned home to the townhouse. My fears of having accepted an arrogant French snob as a guest for the next ten days had been completely alleviated.

I figured that Francois might want some time to acclimate to his new surroundings. I am not at all sure this was necessary. I mean… There isn’t very much to acclimate to in Kansas. Nevertheless, I decided to spend Saturday showing him some of more notable sights around the area.

As fortune would have it, I had to drive to Holton to pick up my computer which I had taken there to be repaired. This wasn’t really part of the “tour”, but it worked in quite well since Holton is a typical Kansas town of about 4000 people with its downtown build around in a “square” with the country court house in the center, and also contains the traditional water tower with the town’s name emblazoned on it.

Our next stop was my home for almost….but short one year….fifty years…..Valley Falls. I figure Valley Falls is one of those mandatory destinations for anybody who really wants to “know” me. I was not born there…. Thank heavens! And, I did not grow up there…. Thank heavens! But, I did spend well over half of my life there working in the public school system…..and that is just a little bit too long to be ignored, no matter what.

If you are asking, “What is there to see in Valley Falls?” Well, don’t feel like the Lone Ranger. I also ask myself that. For all practical purposes, the short answer is, “Nothing.” But, I suppose one could say that about a lot of little towns. In Valley Falls, there is only one retail business left on Broadway, the “downtown” street where all the business are……or were. That business is an auto parts store….not a store the average person would find useful on a day to day basis. There is a Western Auto Store a block off Broadway…..and a grocery store on highway K-16, which bisects Valley Falls on the south side. On highway K-4 which by-passes the town on its southern perimeter, there is a convenience store, a liquor store, perhaps a real estate office and a used car dealership on the north side. On the south side of the highway one will find a ubiquitous Dollar General Store and some sort of farm supply store. That is essentially it insofar as “stores” are concerned.

So…. What is there to see in Valley Falls? Like most small towns, about the only things the town has going for it is its schools. For all practical purposes, the school is the town…..The Only Show in Town.

When we arrived in Valley Falls, about thirty minutes later, I proceeded to give Francois a tour of the highlights of the town. Of course, the first things I showed him was the school…..now one large, self-contained building, unlike it was when I worked there. During the thirty-eight years I was associated with the school system, there were two buildings: a grade school/junior high school building and a high school building. However, much of the facilities were shared: the gym, the library, the music and band rooms, the lunch room, the weight room…. The final year that I was associated with the school district, the board adopted a resolution to combine the two buildings, add a new gym and commons area, plus some other feathers. As a member of the school board, I was the only member to vote against it.

 

 

 

This was Saturday, and obviously, the school was closed. However, I showed him the exterior of the building…..and I pointed out my former office….. The window of my former office, at least.

After leaving the school, we were off to see the other important sights of the town. After my rather dismal appraisal of the town, you might be asking, “What sights?” Well…. There is the football field. That probably ranks second after the gym in overall importance. The football field has undergone several improvements and reincarnations since I first arrived in Valley Falls. When I arrived, it was a rather dilapidated place with a gravel track, that was virtually unusable….and on which, no other school would agree to come for a track meet. It has since been reconstructed a couple times, each time trying to get it closer to what one might call a regulation track. Additional bleacher space has been added. It doesn’t quite measure up to Texas standards…..and it is not overly impressive….. but, at least, it is the Valley Falls version of “Friday Night Lights.”

Having seen the two gyms (from the outside)….the most important attraction in Valley Falls…..and having seen the football field, it was almost mandatory to take a look at the third “Wonder” of Valley Falls: The two baseball diamonds. Like the football field, the baseball diamonds are also not located adjacent to the school. The two diamonds are located on on each side of the main street leading into downtown Valley Falls. Of course, on game days….and nights….traffic….and there have never been any traffic jams in Valley Falls….is routed around the baseball diamonds. For a person like me, who has no special interest in the games, it was an annoyance. But, “The show must go on!” And, in the spring and summer, it is definitely the only show in town. Just like football and basketball are in the fall and winter, respectively.

After these three attractions, the possibilities diminish rapidly. We took a brief look at the city park….mostly to see if the restroom was unlocked. It wasn’t. No surprise there. I am not sure when…..if at all…..it is open. I know that I have never…..not even once….found it to be unlocked. It must be a fairly exclusive place…..or maybe open by appointment only. I didn’t think to make an appointment! Nearby was an old surplus tank from Operation Rolling Thunder. That is probably the highlight or the focal point of the park. There was nobody else in the park, so we were never disturbed.

 

After taking a couple pictures, we moved on downtown to see what was going on. Nothing! As the famous line of the poem goes: “……Nothing was stirring, not even a mouse.” Downtown was dead, as you can see in the pictures. Fortunately, we did not have to make any decisions about what to do…..because there was nothing to do! Left with few, is any, alternatives for additional sightseeing, we said good-bye to Valley Falls and headed out of town.

After leaving Valley Falls, we headed out to my old house…. Well, former house, may be a better way of phrasing it. But, then again, I did live there for almost fifty years! I don’t drive up to look at my former house very often. When I do, however, it is always a rather depressing experience. To me the most depressing thing is the fact that somebody made the decision to cut down almost all of the trees that I spent so much time planting, watering, fertilizing…..just urging to grow. Some of the trees were literally as old as the house. One of my friends and myself went out into the back pasture and dug up several evergreen trees and planted them along the front of the property and along the east side of the property. Not only did they improve the appearance of the property, but they also provided a degree of privacy…..and, very important, they acted as a shield from the billowing clouds of dust stirred up by cars as they went speeding down the gravel road toward the river. Also, shortly after I moved into the house…..December 30, two days before the beginning of 1974…..Mother planted several catalpa trees. They flourished. Over the years the trunks became large and sturdy, the branches provided shade…..and for a brief period of time each spring, white blossoms proliferated those branches. The summer after I retired…..2003….I bought a dozen (probably genetically engineered) fast-growing trees to provide some beauty and privacy to the west side of my property. They flourished beyond my wildest expectations. I had a mini-forest growing in my yard, all of which grew into healthy, mature trees.

All of this was to no avail. Probably within a week or two after I moved to Topeka, the new owners inexplicably proceeded to simply cut down all the trees. I drove past one day…. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Almost all of the trees were gone…. Cut down. The house looked lonely and almost deserted. And, not only the trees were gone. They had torn down the deck which I had built across the entire front of the house. The deck where I often sat and read. The deck where I entertained guests in the summer months. Along with the deck, the shutters that I had built had also been torn down, making the house look even more plain, lonely and uncared for. The day that Francois and I drove past, we discovered that the entire yard had been covered with gravel. There was not a blade of grass to be seen. The house looks sad….certainly not like a house that had been care for…..that had been somebody’s home…..a house that had been the object of attention, hard work and pride. The front of the house, tree-less, the lawn covered with gravel….a great big parking lot…..and not a car in sight.

We proceeded on down the road toward the Delaware River. The road is a “dead end road” which ends at the river. At one time, before I lived there, a bridge spanned the river. When Perry Reservoir was opened…..a year or two before I moved to Valley Falls….apparently the decision was made to close the bridge which connected the Ferguson Road to K-4 highway. Who knows why such decisions are made? Nevertheless, the road on which I lived…..now 130th Street….ends at the Delaware River, no matter which way it is approached.

The Delaware River brings back fond memories. It was the launching point for my boat. Back in the early 1970’s, I bought a boat for $75.00….along with its trailer. Wow! I was a boat owner! I was proud of that boat. Yeah…. It was just a little twelve feet aluminum boat, but it was MY boat. My neighbors and my friends used to take that boat out every day. We would go up and down the river, usually with a cooler of beer (or pop). We would stop at regular intervals, tie the boat to a log, get out and go skinny dipping in the cool river. I had long since forgotten how to swim. And, Yes…. I did know how to swim when I was a kid…..although a lot of people solemnly swear that swimming is like riding a bicycle: Once you learn, you can ever forget! But, I will swear just as solemnly that is not true. I took swimming lessons with my younger brother when I was in grade school at the public swimming pool in Lyons. We used to go to the pool almost every day. But, in these days…..my Delaware River days…..I always had a life jacket. I would strap on my good old life jacket…..and I had no fear of the water.

There was no swimming the day that Francois and I were there. We had neither a boat nor life jackets. Just a quick, nostalgic look, a couple pictures…..and we were on our way again. Our next stop was Lawrence….the home of the University of Kansas and, of course, the Kansas Jayhawks.

 

 

 

Any trip to the campus of Kansas University must include three mandatory stops. Our first stop was probably the most important. We pulled into the parking lot diagonally from Allen Field House…..the home of the storied Kansas Jayhawks, the NCAA basketball team that has won more college basketball games than any other university since the inception of basketball. And… Why not? The first basketball coach at the University of Kansas was James Naismith, the guy who invented basketball.

Basketball wasn’t invented…..or whatever the correct word is for thinking up a new game….at K. U. It is a game made up by Dr. James Naismith back in 1891 in Springfield, MA. Naismith was a physical education instructor at a YMCA in Springfield. He needed….or at least, wanted….to develop some sort of game or physical activity that would help keep the young men in shape during the winter months when it was too cold for them to exercise outside. He hung up a peach basket and had the guys try to throw a ball into it while moving around…. Well, that is what it more or less boils down to, at least. Thus, from this came the name “basketball”. Obviously the game and the rules have changed just a little bit over the years. Of course, there was no such thing as a 3-point shot back then. And, I doubt if there were tall Black kids dunking the ball, either.

 

 

 

Naismith was the first basketball coach at K. U. from 1898 – 1907, when he was replaced by Dr. Forrest Allen…..commonly known….in fact, by most people…as “Phog” Allen. Ironically, James Naismith was the only K. U. basketball coach with a losing record! Oh well… You can’t expect him to do everything. He invented the game…. Let somebody else win games.

Before actually entering “Allen Field House” from the front, at least, one must go through the Booth Family Museum…..a monument or museum….or shrine….devoted to all the different sports played by K. U. athletes down through the years. To somebody who doesn’t know….or doesn’t care…..about K. U. athletics, it can be a little boring or tedious. There are several thousand square feet of memorabilia, exhibits, trophies, old uniforms, photographs and other minutia relating to various sports….men and women.

 

 

 

For me, personally, it is always exciting to see the national championship basketball trophies…..1952, 1998, 2008 & 2022. I was only in the 8th grade when K. U. won their first national championship. However, I do vaguely remember it, believe it or not. This was long before the days of TV, so if anything, I only listened to it on the radio. The other three championships? I remember them vividly! In fact, I still had season tickets during the 1997-1998 season. I think I even bled crimson and blue blood back in those days! However, for anybody who is not a K. U. fan…..or, like Francois….who had probably never even heard of them until his visit to Kansas….they are probably just another pretty object made of plastic and metal.

 

 

 

 

Francois and I spent maybe thirty minutes wandering about the museum, looking at the exhibits. Of course, when K. U. is mentioned, a sports fan probably automatically thinks of basketball and its legendary players….. Wilt Chamberlain, who stayed with K. U. for only two seasons because he perceived a high degree of racism toward him, even though he was the over-shadowing giant of the basketball team. He went on to become a giant in professional basketball…..and to, allegedly, by his own count…..to have sex with a few thousand women. But, on the other hand, there was Danny Manning, one of the “good guys”……and the player who probably set K. U. on its permanent course as a basketball power house.

In football? Well, homage is paid to the Great Gale Sayers…..a great athlete and a great humanitarian. And, on the flip side of the coin is John Riggins, a great football players, but more or less a jerk in real life. And, of course, Jim Ryan, who broke the college one mile record. He went on to become a right-wing, ultra-conservative
Congressman for northeast Kansas until he was defeated by Nancy Boyda….with a one-vote assist from me!

So…. For Francois this was a brief introduction to Kansas University athletics…. K. U. Athletics 101, so to speak. And, like most introductory survey courses, it may have been more confusing that instructive. However, I am going to give him an “A” for at least being attentive and pretending that he was interested!

Having crossed Allen Field House off our list, we moved on to take a cursory look at some more of the K. U. campus. We took a drive through “downtown” K. U….. that is, Jayhawk Blvd, on our way to the second….at least, co-equal….site on the campus: Memorial Stadium, home of Jayhawk football, such as it is. Usually, this stadium is only minimally occupied on a typical game Saturday. The K. U. football team has not been very successful in recent years. The 2022 season was an exception….and hopefully the beginning of a new and improved football program and tradition.

During the 2022 season, the season Francois was here, the Kansas Jayhawks won 6 games (and lost 7). They lost several games by one touchdown or less. For K. U. this was a joyous season…..a promise of great things to come. No longer were they a joke. No longer were they playing to a nearly empty stadium, sometimes with more of the opponent’s fans on the visitors’ side than people in the K. U. section. After a succession of coaches….a sort of of “musical chairs” sort of game…..maybe they finally found the right coach to lead and inspire the team. For one brief week, the Jayhawks were ranked Number 19 in the nation…..the first time they had been nationally ranked since 2009.

In any event, Memorial Stadium is a picturesque…..if not imposing…..site. The stadium seats 50,000 people…..with parking lots that have space for maybe a tenth that many people. Despite K. U.’s long established losing record, rich people continue to pour money into the program to build a series of posh facilities for the players. Parking lots have been converted into practice fields and commercial spaces. It is always about money…..and vanity….a rich person getting his name on something…..instead of the fan. “Put my name on it….and I will give.” Only time will tell if they the K. U. football team can build on the success of the 2022 season that will result in a winning….and lasting…..football tradition.

However, on this Saturday afternoon, neither Francois nor I was concerned with such thoughts. We took some pictures…..and moved on. Before leaving, we took a brief look at the K. U. Memorial Bell Tower…..the Campanile. The bell tower is a memorial to the K. U. students who died in World War 2, and it towers over Memorial Stadium….and Potter Lake, located down the hill and to the left. The bell tower chimes rings out the time each quarter hour, imitating the chimes of Big Ben….and serves as sort of the campus clock. On special occasions and at irregular intervals, special recitals are presented for the public to enjoy.

 

 

 

The afternoon was slipping by. We had already skipped lunch. It was time to head back to Topeka to satisfy our ever growing hunger. We settled on the China Pavilion for our evening meal…..the only meal of the day, in fact. The China Pavilion is a locally owned and operated buffet…..always a good choice as a place to eat. And….although this has nothing to do with the quality of food served there….. The restaurant to located adjacent to the Shawnee County Democratic Headquarters….my political party. Maybe good things tend to attract each other.

Before Francois arrived, he had asked about the possibility of visiting a place in Coffeyville called the Dalton Gang Museum. Really? There is a place in Coffeyville called the Dalton Gang Museum? I had heard of the world’s largest ball of twine….and the world’s deepest hand dug well……and the Evil Knieval Museum. But, in all my years living in Kansas….and that has been all my life…..I had never heard of any place called the Dalton Gang Museum. I had heard of the Dalton Gang. I was never sure if they were real….or if they were a fictitious figment of somebody’s imagination…..or maybe the subject of an old western movie.

The first thing I did was to check to see if there was, indeed, a place in Coffeyville by this name. There was! One point for Francois. The next step was to find out if this so-called “gang” had really existed. They had. Another point for Francois! In fact, Wikipedia had far more information about them than I was interested is reading. You can check it out sometime, if you want to.

For now, suffice it to say that they were a gang of four brothers whose notoriety was derived from the fact they were outlaws, bandits…..robbers of banks and trains….back in the very late part of the 19th century, let’s say, from 1890-1892. Why is there a museum in their “honor” in Coffeyville? One afternoon, apparently with nothing better do to, they attempted to rob a bank….or maybe it was two banks…..in Coffeyville. Two of the brother and two additional gang members were killed in the attempt. Another brother was captured and subsequently pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Later on he claimed that he never fire a shot, however. Too late!

So, being assured that there was indeed a Dalton Gang Museum, I said, “Sure. Why not?”. This would also afford me an opportunity to expand my educational horizons….just in case anybody asked me about the Dalton Gang. In the intervening days before Francois’s actual arrival, I took an informal sample poll among some of my friends and acquaintance. I was actually surprised that of the seven or eight people I asked, three people had actually heard of them. One of them even knew there was a museum in Coffeyville. They apparently read more….or get around more…..than I do.

It I takes about three hours and forty minutes to drive from Topeka to Coffeyville, driving down US 75. Since the museum does not open until 1:00 P. M. on Sunday, there was no desperate rush to wake up early in the pre-dawn hours in order to drive there. However, to insure that we would arrive at approximately the opening time, we were in the car and on the road by 9:30. The trip to Coffeyville was uneventful. There is not much to see along the way. There is no such thing as “the scenic route”. Or, who knows? Maybe were actually taking “the scenic route”. We will never know. We drove through a series no small, forgettable towns on a 2 lane highway. The trip wasn’t bad. Francois and I spent the time talking about…..things….this and that. Fortunately, he turned out to be a very easy person to talk to. I have no recollection of what we talked about, but it must have been at least semi-interesting. The time passed by more quickly than I had expected.

 

 

 

I have been referring to the museum as the Dalton Gang Museum. Actually, its real name is “Dalton Defenders & Coffeyville History Museum”. That is a fair description of the place. Let’s face it: There was only one bank….two at the most….for the Dalton Gang to rob. I personally have never robbed a bank…..but I suspect that it is a fairly quick process. They were not crooks like….well, let’s say, Donald Trump. Now that could have filled ten such museums.

The actual space that was devoted to the Dalton Gang was significant, of course. There are relics and personal items associated with various members of the gang….guns, a saddle, bullets and shell casings, local newspaper stories…..and, of course, a lot of photographs and pictures. Probably back when the Dalton Gang was on their rampage of robbery and murder, they didn’t stop and think of what would look good in a museum a hundred years later.

Most of the museum was devoted to the history of the city of Coffeyville and the immediate surrounding area. Actually, I like to visit this type of museum. Maybe, for one thing, it makes me nostalgic. Increasingly often the items I see on display in museums are the same….or very similar…..to things that were being used in my childhood. They often make me feel that maybe I maybe that is where I belong…..in a museum! Of course, Francois is much younger than I, so he no doubt he actually thought all of the artifacts were “Old”…..that he was indeed in a museum. Someday, when he is in a museum somewhere with his children or grandchildren, he will be saying to them, “Oh, Wow. I remember that. We had one of those when I was a kid.”

 

 

 

We spent maybe an hour in the museum….and that was more that a sufficient time to look at all the exhibits. We exchanged some friendly words with the two women who were volunteering on that particular Sunday, and then left. The bank that the Dalton Gang robbed is located immediately across the street from the museum. It did not appear to be open. Even it had been open, we were feeling a little pressed for time. However, before leaving Coffeyville, we paid a quick visit to the cemetery where the two Dalton Brother who were killed in the shootout were buried, along with a third member of the gang who was not a member of the Dalton family. Actually, I was a bit surprised to find a gang of outlaws….part of them at least….buried in a public, municipal cemetery. On the other hand, it is another “tourist attraction”…..if they were thinking of such things back in those days.

Having satisfied our curiosity about the Daltons….even if not becoming experts (and I am speaking for myself)….we left the town and headed for our next destination…..Hutchinson. As I was planning this trip, Hutchinson was to be the major destination…..the highlight….of the trip. When planning a vacation, Hutchinson is certainly not one of the major “destination cities”, but it has a sentimental place in my life. It was my “big city” while I was growing up in Lyons and Sterling. And, there are enough noteworthy attractions to make it at least semi-noteworthy. Among other things, there is the Stratica, another name for the Salt Museum; there is the Cosmosphere, also known as the space museum; there is the Hutchinson Art Guild, a small, but interesting, art gallery; there is the Reno County Historical Museum, a self-explanatory name, I suppose…. And there is…. Well, I guess that is about all there is. That is enough for one day. That would keep us busy and occupy our time in a worthwhile manner.

So, we headed for Hutchinson where we planned to eat supper…..and both of us were getting hungry….. and spend the night. The sun was hanging low in the sky when we arrived in Hutchinson and checked into The Comfort Suites Hotel. Our our immediate concern was finding a place to eat. I left this up to Francois. Food is not that important to me. Just set it front of me….and I will eat it. What or where we are going to eat is never an issue with me. Francois chose a Mexican restaurant called Potrillo’s on North Main Street. It was a fully satisfactory place to eat. It is my theory that back in the kitchen of a Mexican restaurant there are maybe four or five large pans: one pan each for beans, rice, ground beef, ground chicken and some tortillas. Oh…..maybe two or three smaller pans for same sauces. No matter what a person orders, all the food is just a different variation of those foods. The food is all basically the same….. It just looks different when place on the plate in different combinations. Nevertheless, the food was good. It satisfied our hunger. And, that is main purpose of food…. Right?

Of course, the sun had already gone down…..and darkness enveloped the city. I am not good at driving in the dark, so we returned directly to the hotel.

After we had gotten back to the hotel, I decided that I had better start making a plan for the next day…..a Monday…..so we would be able to include everything on my agenda. I had already told Francois the places that we were going to visit, and he was, I think, looking forward to seeing all of them. So, I fired up the trusty old laptop to arrange the schedule.

OK…. Stop and think about the places I mentioned earlier…..and they included the entirety of what Hutchinson had to offer insofar as “tourist attractions” are concerned. First: The Stratica….Salt Mine Museum: Wow! It was closed on Monday! Really!? OK…. No really big deal. We won’t have to rush around so much. We will go to the Cosmosphere and then on to the Hutchinson Art Guild. Not a bad day….

Let me see what time the Cosmosphere is open. What? This can’t be! The Cosmosphere is also closed on Monday? Wow! Well…. That leaves the Art Guild. For what reason could it possibly be closed on Monday? I don’t know the reason…..but, it, too, was closed. With a rather defeated feeling, I next checked with the Reno County Historical Museum. OK…. I sure that you have already guessed. It was also closed on Monday.

What’s going on down there in Hutchinson? What do they have against Monday? The rest of the world has to get up and go to work. Why shouldn’t they? At that point, I was surprised that Walmart was open! Or even the hotel where we were staying. I don’t know, but I suspect that all of these places are open during the weekend…..and Monday is their day off. What else could it be? At any rate, here we were…..in Hutchinson, Kansas. Everything was closed…. That is when I started thinking about Plan B. Of course, I had no Plan B. But, we had to do something. I concluded that the best plan would be to check out the Rice County Historical Museum. It’s not a huge place, but it would be somewhere to go. No….. I am not even going to tell you. Surely, by now, you have already guessed that the Rice County Historical Museum was also closed. So…. It was a unanimous decision! Everything was closed.

If I did not have a Plan B, I certainly did not have a Plan C. I mean….. What are the odds? Everything I had planned to do was closed on Monday. This was a real education for me….. A real eye-opener. Now I know: Don’t plan to do anything in Hutchinson….or Lyons….on a Monday. It was a lesson learned the hard way.
Let’s face it. There is always something to do. It may not be what had been planned….or even what one wants to do. But, at this point in the game, as the old saying goes, “Beggars can’t be choosers.” That was our situation that Sunday evening. We could have simply moved on to Salina or Abilene… However, I had already paid for two nights at the Comfort Inn in Hutchinson. I did not want to go through the hassle of getting a refund. So….. I decided to do the only other thing I could think of: I would give Francois what I like to term as an autobiographical tour….a tour of Lyons and Sterling….and show him all of the exciting sites of my youth. Sort of a nostalgic trip down Memory Lane….for me, at least. Francois, being the super nice guy that he is, readily accepted this plan….like we had a lot of alternative options!

Monday morning we ate breakfast in hotel. As we were wrapping up breakfast and getting ready to leave, we were approached by a man and wife. “Are you Mr. Darrah?” the guy asked.

Well…. “Yes, I am,” I replied.

“Do you remember me?” he asked.

He and his wife had been sitting at a nearby table, but if he hadn’t introduced himself, I would certainly never have recognized him. In situations like this, I am rather oblivious to the people who are sitting nearby. They are all travelers….nobody I would know.

Fortunately, on this Monday morning, I looked at him closely. And, also fortunately, he is a friend of mine on Facebook. And, even more fortunately, I recognized him as being one of my former students and runners from long ago….back in his grade school days.

“Yes… Of course, you are Chad Brading!”

His daughter was in Hutchinson participating in some sort of athletic competition, and he and his wife were there to watch her. Chad was one of my favorite students, and also one of my favorite runners. By the way, I also taught his mother! If it had not been that we had been friends on Facebook and had seen present-day pictures of each other, I doubt if either of us would have ever been aware that we were in the same room. Chad must be in his mid-40’s now. That is a long stretch from being eleven or twelve years old. And, me? Oh yes…. Of course, I haven’t aged a day in the past 40 years! Lucky coincidence….. Perfect way to start the day…..

After eating breakfast, we got into the car and headed for Sterling, where I lived from eighth grade, 1951, I think, until I joined the Army in 1962….minus a few months during which I lived in Hutchinson. That’s only about ten years. However, when a person is young, ten years is a long time…..and it seemed like a long time. When somebody asks me that my “hometown” is….. I usually say Sterling. I lived in Lyons for the thirteen years prior to moving to Sterling. But, these were truly my childhood years, and my memories and recollections are much more sparse….and indistinct than the years I lived in Sterling.

Assuming you have even a cursory knowledge of geography, you still may not even heard of Sterling. And, there is no reason why you should have. It is a small Kansas town of maybe 2200 people….a population that has not changed significantly in the past seventy years. Sterling has two “major” claims to fame. Sterling College is located there. Sterling College is my alma mater, although I am not at all nostalgic about it…..nor do I have a lot, if any, fond memories of the place. (This is probably covered in another, separate blog.) The only other noteworthy attraction is Sterling Lake. The lake serves a number of purposes. It is the Sterling city park; it is the municipal “swimming pool”; it is the city’s picnic area; it is the city’s major “walking area”.

Both of these “landmarks” have changed a great deal since I last lived there back in the early 1960’s. Sterling college has increased in size somewhat, although it is still a rather small college with an enrollment of less than 700 students. But, that is a probably at least twice as many students as they they had when I graduated from there in 1960. The campus has expanded greatly, too, with probably twice as many buildings. When I graduated there were six buildings that I can recall. I haven’t actually counted the number of buildings the campus contains today…..but I am rather confident there must be twelve buildings of some sort…..including the dormitories. Thinking back, I think all of my classes were in one building….. Cooper Hall…..during the years as enrolled there. So there was never any mad rush between buildings to get to class on time! The only major walk was to Spencer Hall for the daily mandatory “chapel”, in which we had assigned seats……and attendance was taken each session…..and there were consequences for missing a session. That, I am pretty sure, has changed today. If not, I doubt if there would be very many students enrolled there! No…. We showed up….under duress….to listen to a boring speakers, mostly the dean, who deliver dull, uninspired, monotonous monologues…..and to catch on a few minutes of extra sleep. However, in the intervening years, several wealthy alumni have left money to the college, and thus the additional buildings were added.

Sterling Lake has also been improved and transformed. When I lived in Sterling, Sterling Lake was just a “lake”. The main activity centered around the swimming area…..and the occasional person fishing. I am not sure if there were….or are…. even any fish in Sterling Lake. That, of course, certainly does not mean that a person cannot go fishing there, however! Today playground apparatus has been added, along with a tennis court and a camping area. A concrete walking path now extends around the complete perimeter of the lake. I have seldom, if ever, visited Sterling Lake without seeing somebody walking on the path.

Probably the most important claim to fame for Sterling Lake is the fact that several scenes from the movie “Picnic” were filmed there back in 1955. This event probably brought more excitement to Sterling that any other single event…..before or since. Wow! William Holden, Rosalind Russell, (a young) Kim Novak, Susan Strausberg, Cliff Robertson….. The town could hardly contain its excitement. The movie stars came….and they went……but the movie and its glamorous stars were the topic of conversation for years to come.

These two venues were obviously on our agenda the day we visited Sterling. Of course, we could hardly avoid driving through downtown. The downtown area of many small towns the size of Sterling have taken a significant hit in the past few decades as Interstate highways or other major highways have been rerouted to avoid them. Although Sterling has very recently experienced this very thing, it still maintains a vibrant business district for a town its size. At least, there are stores that are still open for business, in contrast with other little towns…..Valley Falls comes to mind when I write this. And, there has been recent downtown construction. There are still cars parked on the street in front of businesses, again in contrast with a town like Valley Falls.

At the present time….2022 when we were there…..Sterling has a population of 2248 people. When I first lived there in 1952, the population was 2243. Well, if you want to add on the five members our family…. it was 2248. So, I suppose we can say that we kept the population of Sterling from decreasing! Nevertheless, I pointed out the location of the old Dillon’s store where I worked for eight years during my high school and college years. It is said to be the first Dillon’s supermarket. If this is true, it is a shame that Dillon’s did not preserve the building as a sort of monument to the organization. But, like most other profit making organizations, Dillon’s was more interested in making money than in preserving history.

Francois also knows where I graduated from high school. In fact, I was in the first class to graduate from the present day building. Back in 1956, when I graduated, it was literally only a fraction of the size it is today…..although the front facade or entrance remains basically the same. Because of today’s security precautions, we didn’t dare try to enter the building…..although if he had, I would hope that my senior picture will still be hanging somewhere in one of the hallways….with the rest of the class, of course!

We drove past the site where our house once stood. Mother owned about half of a square block where our house was located. It seems that about half of this was devoted to the always huge garden….and the remainder was grass that my younger brother and I were responsible for mowing. Today there is some sort of commercial building on the approximate spot where our house sat. The rest of it has been divided into lots and houses have been built on them. There is little or no resemblance between the past and the present. Time moves on, I suppose.

We took pictures of the two symbols of almost every small Kansas town…..and even the large ones: the local grain elevator and the water tower. Both of these structures have the name of the town written on them. Back in “those days” that was one of the main ways to identify the name of the town for people traveling through.

Yeah….. Nothing very earth-shaking; no destination sites; nothing one would find in a history book. But, Francois got to see a little of my life when I was growing up in Sterling.

We had about milked Sterling dry, so to speak, so we moved on to Lyons….my first, chronologically speaking, at least….. home town. I was born in Lyons, and lived there until moving to Sterling in 1951 when I was 13 years old. So, I think it is fair to say that Lyons was my early childhood home. I never formed the same attachment with Lyons that I had with Sterling. Why? Well… Because, as a child, unless I was at school, at church, or in town for some special reason, I was confined to mostly to home and the immediate surroundings.

For some reason, Mother had no objection to my younger brother and I exploring a wide range of rural area extending out from our home…..but, if we wanted to go into town…. Well, that was another matter entirely. Back in “those days”, kids just didn’t hang out in town the way they do today. Unless there was a reason….a good reason….to be in town, we were rarely allowed to go into town and just “hang out”.

So…. School, church, Saturday afternoon movies, maybe a visit to the home of an aunt and uncle…. On the other hand, as I said, we were only kids…..little kids. But, still I knew Lyons pretty well. We were in town enough to feel and be a part of it. We knew where everything was. We knew where all our friends lived. I mean…. Lyons wasn’t like a “forbidden city”. It’s just like we were kids. A bicycle was our major form of transportation…..or walking…. And, our mother, like all the mothers, wanted to know where we were…..generally speaking…..and what we were doing. How much trouble could we get into playing baseball or touch football, or pretending to be Gene Autry or Roy Rogers, or playing hide and seek, or tag, or “Kill the Nazis (or the Japs)”…..or even riding our bikes to a wooded area maybe a mile from our house and playing “Tarzan”?

Back in those days…..the 1940’s and early 1950’s….Lyons was a thriving little town. It was the country seat of Rice County, and the oil business was booming…..not to mention that it was still a largely agricultural community. When I lived there the population held steady around 4500 people. As the oil industry started to decline and as farms began to consolidate into large corporations and the small farms began to disappear, the population also began to decline. Today the population is somewhere around 3600 residents…..almost a thousand fewer people. Aside from being the county seat, maybe the only large industry left is the salt plant. And, even here, Lyons used to have two major salt plants….now there is only one. Probably the reason Sterling’s population has not experienced such a drastic reduction is the fact that it has Sterling College. Sterling College is Sterling’s major “industry”.

Nevertheless, Now Francois knows a little about Lyons. Again, just like Sterling, the house where I used to live is long gone. In fact, all the land we owned is now part of Lyons…..a residential area. They didn’t even put up a sign saying, “Beryl lived here”! The grade school I attended was torn down and replaced many years ago. The junior high school building burned down (!). The old movie theater is history. But, the courthouse square is still there. The Nazarene Church that we attended is still there, and looks pretty much like it did back in the day. But, Lyons just isn’t the same. It is a rather sad town…sort of left in the dust by progress. And, all of this in spite of the fact that both highway K-96 still runs north-south through the town and US 56 still runs east-west. And, even though the town last lost two of its grocery stores…. It still has a Dairy Queen!

Francois and I drove past most of the important places that were part of my childhood in Lyons: where I used to live (although the house has long since disappeared, my old schools (or a reasonable facsimile thereof), my old church, downtown….. After completing this tour, we drove few miles west of Lyons to a large granite cross that marks the spot that a Spanish Catholic priest has once visited. That cross has been there ever since I can remember…..and I am still not really sure what happened there. Probably nothing. But, it makes a good picture. Before closing out our exploration of Lyons, we drove a couple miles south of the cross to a place where Buffalo Bill once set up camp…..or supposedly set up camp. Insofar as I can remember, it has always been called Buffalo Bill’s Well. Old Buffalo Bill got around, apparently. “Buffalo Bill” landmarks are almost everywhere you go. He must have had a good public relations agent! People have told me that Buffalo Bill actually once visited (?), lived in (?), passed through (?) Valley Falls. The sad thing is…. Valley Falls doesn’t have a marker or a monument. Maybe they should erect one. Maybe that will keep them from evaporating into oblivion.

A few hundred feet from the Buffalo Bill’s Well, is an active oil well. This was a fortuitous event. This may have been the first active oil well Francois had seen….and probably even more likely the first one he had his picture taken with. Active oil wells…..mostly with the tall derricks ….were  common in Rice County back when I was a kid. They were a major source of jobs….and wealth. In recent years, the oil industry has experienced a severe decline, and the design of pumping devices has changed from the tall, impressive derricks to the low, rotary pump….which are just as effective, but less impressive.

It was approaching mid-afternoon. I had probably bored Francois enough with the tour of my childhood memories….although he is much too polite and considerate to ever admit anything like this! Nonetheless, we left Lyons and drove back to Hutchinson to finish up our nostalgic tour.

After we reached Hutchinson we more or less drove around at random. I suddenly discovered a site that I was totally unaware even existed. I had to look twice….rub my eyes….to make sure that I was not dreaming or seeing a mirage that did not exist. I have lived in Kansas all my life. I have been in Hutchinson probably thousands of times….I even worked there….. but I was not prepared for the site that appeared outside my car windshield as we drove along K-61 on the south side of Hutchinson.

There was blanket of white. At first, I thought it was snow. But it was a warm October day. We were wearing short sleeve shirts. I turned left at the next corner and slowed down to confirm my eyesight! Yes… It was a field of cotton. “Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton……” Maybe it had been there for a long time…..and I just did not know it. Whatever….. The fact is: I saw something that I had never seen before…..anywhere. Certainly not in Kansas. One of the pictures on my photography “bucket list” was a picture of a cotton field with the cotton blooming. I was planning to take a trip to a southern state for just this single purpose. Guess What? The picture was right there in Hutchinson, Kansas, just waiting to be taken.

 

 

 

After the discovery of the cotton field, it was time to slow down the pace to something more traditional and conservative. We drove a few miles east of Hutchinson to Yoder. Yoder is basically an Amish community….made up predominately of traditional Amish residents. I was hoping that maybe we would see an Amish farmer or even a family in a horse drawn buggy. But, it was not to be. In fact, I have never really seen a horse and buggy in Yoder. I know they exist….and I know they are common. Reliable people have told me that a person is most likely to see farmers riding in their horse and buggy in the morning. For me…. Going “Amish Hunting” in the morning in Yoder has never been on my famous bucket list.

We did, however, drive past the Carriage Crossing Restaurant. It it famous…if even on just a local level…..for its superior food. Everybody raves about it. “It is soooooo delicious!” “It is the best food I have ever tasted.” Statements like that. A few years ago when Fayez and I went to the State Fair in Hutchinson, we decided to drive over to Yoder to sample this out-of-the-world food. There was a long line in front of us….if was State Fair time, remember…..so they gave us one of those buzzer devices to signal when there was a table available. Some forty or fifty minutes later, we found an empty table. Girls….young women…..in dark Amish attire, complete with the little bonnet on their head….were waitresses.

We ordered something that looked like might be typically Amish….and then sat and waited for another 30 minutes for the food to arrive. The waitress with the little white bonnet finally set our food in front of us. I don’t know…. It looked pretty much like food I would order in any run-of-the-mill restaurant. And…. It also tasted like food we could have ordered from any ordinary eating establishment. We kept wondering when the Amish magic was going to kick in…..and our taste buds and our digestive system would start turning cartwheels of delight. They never did! It was just another meal…..in just another restaurant. But, I am quite sure that other people were singing superlative praises about the food. It is all in the perception, I guess. (And, I strongly suspect that the girls with long Amish dresses and the little white bonnets were high school girls from Hutchinson and were probably United Methodist or Presbyterian, just like I am!)

No doubt we drove around aimlessly while I pointed out some of Hutchinson’s other “attractions”…..the school where I once taught, Hutchinson Community College, the State Fair grounds, the Sports Arena, Carey Park…..and also probably the Cosmosphere and the Salt Museum which were supposed to be the major attractions of the day.

There was only one attraction left to show Francois. It may not be on the list of major highlights for Hutchinson, but, nevertheless, is a “one and only”….something that only Hutchinson can claim. Hutchinson is the site of the world’s longest grain elevator. As is probably the case in all superlatives, there are other cities…all in Kansas….who from time to time also claim this distinction. However, I have heard this….and believed it…..from….well, since I can remember that Hutch has the longest grain elevator in the world.

This “longest grain elevator” measures one-half mile long. Actually, it is a little longer, measuring 2573 feet long. At various times through the past decades, I, myself, have measured the length of the elevator…..in my car, of course. And, yes…. The odometer always registered the same distance…..just over one-half mile. It never got any shorter or any longer!

In any event, we stopped to take some pictures, just in case Francois wanted to brag about having seen the world’s longest grain elevator. In this unlikely event…..but, who knows?….he now has solid evidence to back up his claim.

 

 

 

This was the end of our day…. It was not the agenda I had planned….or had even wanted. Like they say, “When you are given lemons…..make lemonade.” I hope that is what we did.

Tuesday Morning: Now it was time to say good-bye to the Comfort Inn and to Hutchinson and to head back home. But, first, we stopped in Abilene for a brief sojourn. The only stop we had planned in Abilene was a visit to the Eisenhower Museum. This museum, of course, houses the memorabilia of Dwight D. Eisenhower, a transplanted Kansan who served in various capacities throughout his career. His most notable jobs were as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in World War II, President of the United States, a brief tenure as commander of NATO forces and an even shorter term as president of Columbia University.

There a variety of opinions of Eisenhower that range from brilliant strategist and leader down to that of a rather dull intellect who was supremely ambitious and ended up in his many exalted positions, not because of his brilliance, but because he was a good “politician” who was very adept at knowing the right people and keeping the right company. I do not want to get into that discussion at this point. Let’s just say that if he were running for president in the coming election, there is no way I would vote for him….unless he was running against Trump, that is.

Over the years, I have been to the Eisenhower Museum several times….enough times that this time I was going only so Francois could see it…..not because I had any expectation of seeing or learning anything new or different. The museum had been closed for about two years as it underwent a complete renovation. This would be the first time since it re-opened that I had seen it.

As I said, the museum was constructed in Abilene because this became Eisenhower’s hometown when his family moved from Texas to Kansas. Much is made of Eisenhower’s “humble” beginnings. And, it is probably true. However, it sometimes seems (to me, at least) that he quickly forgot about these fabled humble beginnings once he left Abilene. There is no doubt that he was supremely ambitious, perhaps beyond his true capabilities. He ranked 64th in a class of 164.

 

 

 

That is all beside the point now. We know that he served in the highest capacities in the military and was elected as the 34th president of the United States. Much was made of the fact that Eisenhower surrounded himself with a “millionaire” cabinet, and seemed largely unconcerned with the “common man”. Despite his trademark smile, he was widely know by his associates and subordinates as a man with a quick and vicious temper when things did not go his way. It was not until after his death and books began to be written about him by his military and political associates that the myth behind the smile began to be made known.

Eisenhower never did own property in Kansas, and insofar as I can find, never lived in Kansas once he left to attend West Point. He certainly never returned to Kansas to live after he retired. Francois and I made at least a cursory inspection of the museum, checking out various exhibits which paid homage to the various phases of his life.

After leaving the museum, we walked to the Place of Meditation where he and his wife, Mamie, and their young son, are buried. Also located on the museum grounds are a large statue of Eisenhower, a library which houses his presidential and military papers and documents and his boyhood home. Inside the little chapel, called The Place of Meditation, the burial places are located behind a metal railing. Behind these there is a small room with stained glass windows in which are located a few rows of seating, for meditating, I suppose.

 

 

 

Eisenhower’s boyhood home is also located on the same premises. When Francois and I were there, it was closed for renovation.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were the days of the most intense activity. We returned to Topeka when we were finished looking at the Eisenhower Museum, and the pace of life slowed down a degree of two. The main purpose of Francois’s visit was to do some research for his PhD dissertation in the Kansas State Historical Library. Before coming to Kansas, he had previously reserved some time for research on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

We arrived back home from Abilene in the mid-afternoon on Wednesday. After arriving home, my major desire….or interest…..was to take a nap! I was feeling beat! I am fairly certain that Francois also found something useful to do, although I was not awake long enough to determine that that might be! My naps are always accompanied by music playing in the background. Being the considerate host that I invariably am, I put on my headset, selected an eighty-minute CD…..and zonked out!

When I awoke about an hour and a half later, I had regained at least a portion of my strength and mental clarity…..and to be sure…..there wasn’t much to regain. It was dinner time, and not wanting to subject Francois to my usual…..but delicious and nutritious….diet, I had already decided that we would eat out. My friends and I have made an unbreakable rule regarding eating out: We will only eat in cafes and restaurants that are locally owned and operated. We made this decision back at the beginning of the COVID crisis when businesses were failing due to lack of customers or patrons……especially those businesses that were locally owned and did not have the vast support of national organization. In the past three years, we have faithfully stuck with our decision. However…… On this particular night, I broke the rule. Actually, I justified breaking it by rationalizing that Francois was not a party to the agreement! Yeah…. I know. That is a little lame! Anyway, we ate at the Golden Corral, which, back in the “old days” was one of our steady eating places. And, I figured that it is probably the best example of an all-you-can-eat restaurant in Topeka, something that I think is rather rare in France.

Wednesday morning, I took Francois to the Kansas State Historical Library so he could work on his research. I picked him up in time so we could eat lunch with my friend, Jason, at the Airport Cafe. The Tammy’s Airport Cafe has long been one of our “go to” eating places. When Jason and I eat, we take turns paying…..alternating every second week. When it is my turn to choose….and pay….it is simply understood that we will eat at the airport. I really do not recall exactly how we chose that place….or when we chose it. It as become an ingrained part of our routine that we simply do it without thinking. Actually, we were eating there on a regular basis long before COVID hit. The buffet is always delicious….prepared from scratch in their kitchen….and plentiful…..and predictable. There is a sufficient, but limited, rotating choice of entrees each day. The choice is not overwhelming…..like the Golden Corral, for example. But, there are enough choices to….well, give you a choice.

Tammy’s Airport Cafe can accurately be described as “neighborhood cafe”. We have been eating there long enough to certainly know the owners…..and they also know us…..and, also to recognize many, of not most, of the people who eat there on a regular basis. The restaurant, which also has a menu as well as the all-you-can-eat buffet, is an interesting place to eat. We can watch privately owned aircraft land and take off while dining. And, I must add…. The place is loud! Many of the people, as I said, know each other. They tend to be rather uninhibited in their their conversations…..and in the volume of their conversations. This is true of both the patrons….and the owners! But, that is what adds to the “charm” of the place. It may not be “fine dining”, but it is certainly comfortable and familiar dining.

Another memorable and noteworthy culinary event took place the following night…..Thursday. I had to attend a board meeting of the townhouse association that evening. While I was gone, Francois began preparation of our dinner. I really have no idea what the food he prepared is called. I am sure he told me, but remembering the name of various food is not one of my strong points. It was strictly his creation. Cooking is not one of my strong points. In fact, it is not even a point at all! When I returned from the board meeting, he was well into the process of preparing the food. I helped him the best way I know how: I stayed out of his way! The end product was delicious. I am going to unscientifically describe the food as some sort of pizza. It looked sort of like pizza. It even tasted somewhat like pizza. However, I am pretty sure it was not pizza…..but it was somewhere in that general family. Maybe a cousin of pizza? As usual, I didn’t ask a lot of questions about the food. When somebody sits food in front of me…..and especially when it looks tempting and delicious….I simply eat it. And…. I was right: It was delicious.

Francois was about to complete his research at the Kansas Historical Library. After working only in the morning on Friday, he was satisfied that he was successful in finding all the information that he was seeking. He had nothing but praise for the staff of the library. Apparently he had previously sent them an outline of the research he was doing to ascertain if the data was available. Upon his arrival, he was pleasantly surprised to find that they had already assembled a great deal of the information for which he was searching. This act of thoughtfulness and consideration left Francois with a very favorable impression of the Kansas Historical Library…..not to mention that it greatly facilitated the speed with which he could accomplish his research. Actually, it is probably not often that any governmental unit makes a good impression on anybody in Kansas.

One of the positive results of finishing early was the fact that we were left with more time to explore other activities. However, before satisfying our desire to explore, there was the matter of satisfying our hunger. Since Francois had arrived, we had already eaten Chinese food, Mexican food, American food. I had considered going to our one and only French restaurant. But, he eats that kind of food every day back home. So, I decided to take Francois to one of my regular eating establishments on my Friday rotation. We ended up at the Globe Restaurant on Tenth Street just off Kansas Avenue. I really don’t remember how this became part of our regular lunchtime agenda. I do know that it has gone through two or three reincarnations that the year, however.

When I first started eating there it was a more or less a full service all-you-can-eat buffet of delicious, albeit rather spicy, food. This format continued for several years until the COVID epidemic hit. As was the case in so many things, COVID hit restaurants rather hard. The Globe was forced to discontinue its buffet for a period of time because of health restrictions. Its regular diners more or less evaporated. It changed ownership about this time, and after closing temporarily, reopened as a modified buffet…..a one-time only buffet, only this time a server placed the food on the plates. On most Friday when we ate there, there were only a handful of people there…..and a small handful, at that. It took a while for people to start coming back again. However, today it has returned to its all-you-can-eat format…..but with a much more limited selection of food. Nevertheless, we both enjoyed the meal, which, of course, is all that counts, I suppose.

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood, as Mr. Rogers would say. Too nice to simply go back home…. One of the few nice, quiet and scenic places to go in Topeka…..in fact, maybe the only place…… is Lake Shawnee. Lake Shawnee is located in southeast Topeka, and it covers a little more than 400 acres. There is almost literally something to do for everybody…..unless that person literally doesn’t like anything!

Personally, I go there because it is a pleasant place to walk. There is a wide, paved trail that completely encircles the lake….. a distance of some seven miles, to be specific. I have been going there to walk for around twenty years….ever since I retired. Even when I was living near Ozawkie, I would often drive down to Topeka for the sole purpose of walking at Lake Shawnee. A lot of the trail is too hilly for me, but both Sultan and Fayez have jogged there on numerous occasions, while I found a flat stretch of land suitable for my pace of walking.

The trail is shared with other walker, of course, but also with families pushing baby stroller or people walking their dog. It is also popular with bicyclists and skateboarders. It is always a good idea to keep to the right while walking…..just for safety’s sake.

For those who looking for other forms of entertainment or amusement, never fear. It is also a popular place to go fishing and for picnicking. There are several playground for children and both a baseball complex and a softball complex, which are used extensively in the summer by dozens of city league teams. Also popular in the summer is the designated swimming beach. There is also a year-round camping area for people who own camping vehicles. 

Throughout the year, it serves as the venue for several special events. One popular annual event is a two-miles drive around the lake featuring elaborate Christmas lights. It is one of the main fund raisers for a local charity organization. It is the site for the 4^th of July celebration, which attracts thousands of spectators. Other popular events are the Annual Duck Race, a fishing derby, the Polar Plunge, not to mention the dozens of weddings and social events that take place in its enclosed clubhouses.

Starting in April and continuing through the autumn months thousands of people are attracted to the Ted Ensley Gardens, an array of flower gardens named after the long-time retired Director of Shawnee County Parks and Recreation.

In fact, more than a million people visit Lake Shawnee every year to take advantage of one of these activities or attractions. Francois and I added to that number after we finished eating at the Globe Restaurant. Our visit was merely as “tourists”…..just so I could give Francois an idea of what the park looks like and observe some of the features I pointed out above. It was well into November, and most of the flowers had long since made their appearance and had disappeared for the winter. However, the trees were still green and the water was still blue. It was a Friday afternoon, and for the most part, we had the lake to ourselves….. No ball games, no picnickers, nobody swimming. There were only a few people fishing…a few people walking and jogging….and, like us, a few people relaxing and hanging out and enjoying the pleasant scenery.

At 3:00 we had arranged to meet Jason at the Blind Tiger, so our time was limited. One of Francois’s favorite rock groups is the band, “Kansas”…..a group that was popular in the 1970’s. Maybe you got a clue from their name that they got their start here in Kansas….. Topeka, to be exact. One of the places they played on a regular basis, apparently, was the Blind Tiger. I don’t think it was called the Blind Tiger back in those days, but whatever the name, it is essentially the same place…same location.

In fact, after Francois left my house, he and his parents attended a concert given by the band “Kansas”….with maybe one or two new members due to death or retirement….in Des Moines. These guys are not young any longer! I saw them in concert back in the mid-1970’s at Allen Field House in Lawrence. They were probably at the peak of their fame at that time. I am going to guess they were all in their twenties or early thirties at the time…..and that was at least forty-five years ago. Yeah…. Times goes fast when you are having fun. Other than the vaguely recalling that the packed audience went wild when they sang their signature song, “Dust in the Wind”, the only other fact that I can remember is that when the concert was over, and I was walking to my car, I was sure that I would be at least partially deaf for the remainder of my life. The volume…..or noise level…..inside Allen Field House was deafening. Surely, they must wear some sort of ear plugs when they perform….. Or, maybe they really are deaf! Anyway, Francois said that even after all those years, they still sound like “Kansas”…..still have that distinctive “Kansas” sound.

Saturday was a semi-lazy day, with little sense of urgency. Francois has completed his research, so that was no longer a concern….no need to meet any predetermined schedules or anything like that. The major item on the agenda was to tour the Kansas State Capitol Building. The Capitol is probably Topeka’s major tourist destination. And, why wouldn’t it be? Topeka is the capital of Kansas…..and that is there our governor’s office is located…..and that is where the Kansas Legislature passes all of its right-wing, conservative laws.

I have been in several state capitol buildings around the U.S.A., and. Putting aside all my prejudices and biases, I can say that Kansas has one of the most impressive capitol buildings in the nation. Of course, some of this is due to the fact that it recently underwent a $332 million renovation….all at tax payers’ expense, of course. The measure to spend that amount of money was not an entirely popular decision with taxpayers. And, please include me in that number! That is a lot of money to spend on refurbishing….well, anything.

Many people felt that spending a third of a billion dollars to remodel the Capitol Building was excessive. The renovation went far beyond merely giving the building a facelift. A new parking garage was constructed…..underground. This, as can imagine, involved extensive excavation…..not only costly, but time-consuming. A entry-level, basement visitor’s center was constructed. Much like the parking garage, this was created out of space that did not previously exist! In other words, it, too, had to be excavated. Literally, a new basement was created.

A new copper dome was also fabricated and installed to replace the old, original dome, which had long-since started to leak when it rained. A sculpture of an Indian holding a bow and pointing to the North Star was created to top off the dome. There were other improvements which are probably not so high profile: Things like new electrical and mechanical systems, additional office space and restrooms, additional (new) elevators…..and a general cleaning.

The renovation of the Capitol Building started in the year 2000 after a struggle in the legislature to get the money appropriated. It is somewhat amazing that the money was actually approved considering the fact that many more necessary and immediately important bills supporting education, mental health, and unemployment relief either failed or were severely curtailed. Well… Maybe in Kansas that is really not so amazing.

The renovation process began in 2000 and continued for what seemed to be an interminable length of time…..thirteen years, to be exact. For this thirteen year period, the building was covered with scaffolding and many parts of it were closed to the public. It was an ugly affair, with the Capitol grounds stacked with building material, blockades erected, parking curtailed….and of course, the ever-present scaffolds. Although it did not make it any more palatable, after a few years, the clutter surrounding the Capitol simply became “normal”. A lot of people…..me included….began to suspect that this “is just way it is always going to be” and suspected that the work would go on forever.

After twelve years, the building…..the entire block….all twenty acres….slowly, almost imperceptibly….began to morph back to what we all remembered so many years ago. Among the last of the final touches was the adding of the Indian sculpture on top of the Capitol. A big deal was made of the sculpture….although I think most people could not have cared less. All they wanted was to have the Capitol back….to put the ordeal in the past.

One of the major changes affecting the public is that visitors can no longer enter the Capitol Building from any door. For years….decades….I was accustomed to entering from the south entrance, after walking up a small mountain of steps. After the renovation was completed and the building was reopened, the one and only way to enter was through an entrance which has been installed on the ground level on the north side of the Capitol Building. Somehow, I suspect that this was a result of the 9/11 attacks of 2001. If gave the Capitol Police more control of who entered the building. A metal detector was also installed. To me, this seemed a little ironic, considering the fact that the Kansas Legislature passed a law that removed all restrictions on carrying a weapon…..both concealed and openly carried. The only place where the legislature prohibited the possession of a gun illegal was in a medical facility. This also was slightly ironic because a medical facility was no doubt the quickest and most competent place to treat gunshot wounds.

The single entrance for visitors on the ground floor opened into the new visitors’ center that has been carved out of the ground beneath the Capitol Building. I can only speak for myself, but the visitors’ center is only mildly interesting, at best. Mostly it contains some historical artifacts, but mostly it is only a collection of old photographs and pictures from Kansas history. Expect to find many pictures and information about notable Kansans from the past, along with a sizable pictorial history of the construction of the of the building. I suppose that it is quite interesting and informative for those people who are interested enough in Kansas history to take the time and effort to actually take the time to read and examine it.

The grandeur of the building lies on the upper floors. Take any one of the several elevators up to the main floor….and step out into a beautifully conceived and constructed great hall of gleaming Kansas limestone. Your eyes will be pulled in many directions in an attempt to absorb and assimilate the many visual wonders. For me, and no doubt countless other visitors, perhaps the most compelling attraction is the dome that towers over the building, giving an unobstructed view upward to the peak of the building.

Each of the five floors of the Capitol Building is built around the dome…..with the rotunda at the center. It is almost…..but not quite…..as spectacular to stand on one of the upper floors and look down on the rotunda below. The main floor is stunning with its gleaming limestone columns and wrap-around murals.

Francois and I spent some time looking at the exhibits in the visitor’s center on the lower level. Since Francois was doing research on a phase of Kansas history, it is possible that he found the various exhibits to be more interesting that I. One reason could have been that I have seen the exhibits numerous times. They were no longer new to me. Second…. Dwight Eisenhower, William Allen White, John Brown, Charles Curtis, Arthur Capper, Amelia Earhart…. Well, these are names that I have know all my life. At some point, they cease to be fascinating, especially when the information….and the exhibits…..never change. Of course, we are proud of all our famous sons and daughters. But, let’s face it……they can only be fascinating and intriguing for so long…..and then they are simply part of the landscape. I think that I have reached that point in the road. Nevertheless, it was all new and fresh to Francois, and I was content to stay in the background….to lean on a wall….or sit on a bench….while he looked at the displays.

The exhibits documenting the construction and subsequent renovation of the Capitol Building were not very interesting to me when I first saw them……and they are even less interesting now. They rated only a cursory walk-by before we ended our tour of the visitor’s center and began to look for an elevator to take us to the second floor rotunda of the Capitol Building.

Aside from the gleaming marble and granite columns and the sparkling mosaic floors, by the far the most eye-catching and spectacular features on the second floor rotunda are the larger than life murals. Undoubtedly the most famous of the murals is John Stuart Curry’s “Tragic Prelude”….commonly called The John Brown mural. It depicts John Brown in a defiant pose with a rifle in his right hand and a Bible in his left hand. He is standing in the midst of dead soldiers….or who will soon die. In the background are a tornado and a prairie fire. The mural was not greeted kindly. In fact, many people held it in contempt.

Another of Curry’s murals is called “Kansas Pastoral”, depicting a bucolic, rather idyllic farm scene. Seemingly an innocent representation of a Kansas farm, it too was the subject of criticism by some people who complained that the bull was the wrong color…..that it was too long…..

In another mural, one showing the Kansas prairie at night, critics said that the painting looked more like an ocean, that the woman’s dress was too short, that the oil derricks in the background looked like ships, even that the pigs’ tails were curling in the wrong direction. Curry had intended to add some pictures of Kansas industry, but instead he pained a family of skunks, his opinion of his critics…..and left the mural unsigned.

 

 

 

If I had not read about such criticisms of these murals in textbooks and other media, such nonsense would have never occurred to me……or, I can very well imagine, to almost anybody else who looks at them. I have been looking at these murals for a few decades now…..and if I hadn’t read about these unkind remarks…..I would be completely oblivious to them. Quite the opposite. I find myself saying things like, “Cool!” and “Wow…. I wonder how long it took them to paint that?” Maybe that is one disadvantage….or symptom…. of having taught Kansas history for a couple years! I think it also demonstrates that no matter when a person has lived….people basically do not change. Instead of being appreciative of the grandeur and sheer scope of the art, people choose to complain. And, I can imagine they complain and gripe and find fault….however imaginary…..for the same reason: To bring attention to themselves. For publicity. To get their name in the newspaper. To try to gain some sort of political advantage. Because they, themselves, have a poor self- concept….or because the are jealous that somebody else is getting some recognition or praise.

 

 

 

As Francois and I walked around the rotunda, neither of us expressed any negative thoughts or displeasure. The murals are truly awe-inspiring, even for those not well acquainted with Kansas and its history.

Also located on the second floor is the office of the Governor of Kansas. In 2023 when Francois and I visited the Capitol Building, the governor was Laura Kelly, a Democrat who was in the midst of her second term. Right outside the office of the governor’s office is the mural of John Brown, “The Tragic Prelude”. The office of the Lieutenant Governor is also located on the second level nearer to the “Kansas Pastoral” mural.

The third level of the rotunda is mostly occupied by the chambers of the two houses of the Kansas legislature. The House of Representative chamber is located in the western wing and the Senate is located in the chamber on the east side of the building. The door of both chambers were locked the day we were there, which I found to be rather unusual. This is the first time I remember that the doors have been not only closed, but locked. On all the other occasions that I have visited the Capitol Building…..and it has been many….visitor and tourists were free to enter each chamber. I even have pictures of several of my former exchange students and other guests standing behind the podium where individual senators or members of the house of representative stand while they address the chamber. But, not this time. We had to content ourselves by merely looking at the door and imagining what was behind it.

Before leaving the Capitol grounds, we looked briefly at some of the statues that are placed around the 40 acre complex…..statues such as Abraham Lincoln, and the “Pioneer Woman”, a replica of the Statue of Liberty, among others. There are other monuments commemorating veterans of various wars. On the sidewalks, special plaques have been implanted honoring well-known Kansans who have made important contributions to world industry, politics, arts, culture. On the northeast quarter of the Capitol grounds one will find an impressive tribute to Kansas law officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty throughout the history of the state.

It was time to move on…..and we were getting hungry. I don’t recall the process we used in deciding where we would eat lunch. Probably there was no process. More than likely it was a spur of the moment decision. We ended up at a place that I most likely would have never considered under normal circumstances. We ate our lunch in a downtown bar and grill called ‘The Iron Rail Brewing. It is a pleasant place to eat. The food was good. The décor was….well, fake rustic. They brew their own beer, which, of course, is available for sale in the restaurant…..although neither of us ordered it with our meal. I can imagine that the name was derived from the fact that Topeka was once an important railroad center. In fact, there is a railroad mural on the wall. The place was OK….the food was OK….the beer was OK…. It is not a place that I have placed on my list of favorite hangouts…..and probably will not in the future, either.

It was getting late in the afternoon. I was getting tired. We headed back to the townhouse. It was nap time for me…. We ended the day back at “The Shack”….my regular neighborhood, locally owned, familiar, comfortable all-purpose go-to evening eating (and drinking) establishment. Back at home again, Francois made a valiant effort at entertainment by playing an old guitar that has been sitting idly in my basement (and in multiple different place in the old Ozawkie place) for several years since Fayez gave it to me shortly after he arrived in the USA. The guitar is seriously….and probably permanently…..out of tune. However, Francois managed to perform a creditable, if only a little off-key, version of “Dust in the Wind”…..by “Kansas”, of course. The fact that we were drinking a bottle of native Kansas wine probably helped with situation a little. At least, it didn’t hinder it!

Sunday we journeyed back to Lawrence for lunch. We were looking forward to enjoying the Sunday buffet of Middle Eastern food at the Aladdin Restaurant on Mass Street. For the past ten years…..since Fayez first arrived in 2012…..that has been a favorite Sunday dining treat. On week days, it is “menu” only. Since I do not know the names of the foods, I seldom go there. On Sunday, however, it turns into a highly delicious selection of Middle Eastern cuisine. There was little doubt that Francois would find it to be equally tempting and appetizing.

Because of COVID, it had been a couple years since I had been there. Needless to say, I was highly anticipating the opportunity to eat there again. COVID did so many bad things to our society…..and this was one of them: Aladdin had ceased serving their Sunday buffet. It could have been because of the strict healthy regulations that were put into place…..or it could have been that the decrease in diners brought it about. Faced with the choice of leaving and finding another place to eat or stay and order from the menu, we chose to stay. I am not going to deny it….. The food was good, but it in no way compared to their (former) buffet.

Francois was doing research on some phase of Kansas history. And, it is a happy coincidence that we have an important historical site in the little village of Lecompton. Lecompton is a village….a very small town….with a population of 588 people a few miles north of Topeka. When a person has a historical landmark in his backyard, it is fairly easy to forget about it…..to take it for granted. This, I think, is the predicament that Lecompton faces to us people who live so close to it. As for me….. I drove past it for almost fifty years…..attending classes at the University of Kansas, going to K. U. basketball games or just going to Lawrence for business of pleasure. While I was on the board of directors of the Northeast Kansas Educational Service Center, I parked within only a few yards from it for four years. I really never gave it much, if any, thought. Over the years, I took a few of my guests there, mostly because of the lack of something else to do.

In the state of Kansas, Lecompton truly did play an important role in its history. The town served as the capitol of Kansas from 1855-1861. It was in a building called Constitution Hall that the fist constitution for Kansas was drafted. This constitution would have admitted Kansas to the Union as a slave state. However, the constitution failed to pass. Anti-slavery legislators won control of the Kansas Legislature, and Kansas was admitted as a free state. This legislature also chose to moved the capital to Topeka in 1862, where it has remained since.

The museum itself is located in the Lane University building. Lane University was opened in 1865 and apparently functioned until 1902 when it merged with Campbell University. At it zenith, the university had eleven faculty members and a student body totaling 178 students. It was operated by the Church of the Brethren.

The exhibits on display are moderately interesting. The Sunday afternoon that Francois and I were there, conditions were just a little chaotic. Some of the volunteer staff were preparing for their annual Christmas tree extravaganza. The friendly attendants apologized profusely for the inconvenience of the Christmas trees strewn liberally through the already small space of the museum. It was OK, though. We were still able to walk up and down the aisles and look at the artifacts that were on display. If anything, it sort of punctuated their pride in the museum and their desire to keep it as vital and inviting as possible.

On display in the museum are a rather eclectic display of memorabilia ranging from Civil War artifacts to children’s toys to period clothing to farm implements to household items to patriotic items to numerous photographs and pictures to newspapers and books of the period.

One of the major displays, of course, centers around the fact that the parents of Dwight Eisenhower were married in Lecompton while attending Lane University. In reality, the display dwells much less on Eisenhower’s parents than it does on Dwight Eisenhower and his wife Mamie…..neither of which every lived in Lecompton and probably never visited the town. In fact, neither were alive during the period that Lecompton served as the temporary capital of Kansas. But….. That is OK. “Guild by association”…..or, in this case, “Fame by association” is harmless, and serves as one of the museum’s major exhibitions.

Since the museum has no elevator, I hung out downstairs….took a few pictures and talked to one of the volunteers while Francois took a look at whatever the second floor contained.

From the museum we stopped briefly at the actual Constitution Hall, located perhaps a block, maybe two blocks, away. Constitution Hall is a much more austere building. The building is a very basic wooden building with no exterior adornments. If there were not a sign to indicate that is was once the Capitol Building, probably, without exception, people would drive past it, never for one second suspecting it was once an important building. Certainly it lacks the grandeur of the present day Capitol Building in Topeka.

 

 

 

The building still contains the original floors and a few other original artifacts of the original building. Mostly, however, the items on display are reproductions or copies of the real thing. So…. What can one expect to see inside the old Territorial Capitol Building? Really…. Not much. On the walls are a variety of pictures, graphs, charts, and maps which explain the origins of the attempt to establish Kansas as a slave state. In essence, this was one of the major factors that precipitated the beginning of the Civil War. They also document the era known as “Bleeding Kansas”….the violent struggle between the pro-slavery forces and the anti-slavery forces that resulted in many lives in the events leading up to the Civil War. Although there are not a lot of original or primary source material on display, a lot can be learned about the events of that period.

After a refreshing nap, we finished the day with another delicious meal at where else? ….. The Shack.

Monday, October 24….. This was Francois’s last day at my house. His research was complete; our excursions taken; the sightseeing concluded. We stuck around Topeka the entire day. Francois met Jason at lunch at the Airport Cafe on Wednesday, and we had made plans for Francois to meet him at his bank today. We arrived at the bank around 1:00. Jason gave Francois a brief tour of the bank. I waited in Jason’s office. You can ask Francois….. But, I think perhaps the highlight of the tour was the vault, which I have never seen since it is down a rather long set of stairs. Jason also introduced him to members of the staff who where there at the time. The interior of the bank is no doubt one of the grandest sights in downtown Topeka. The building was built almost one-hundred years ago in the grand manner one would expect of a bank built in that era. It exudes character….strength….stability…..permanence. The building has eluded major change….and the wrecking ball…..for almost a century, and has been placed on the national register of historic places.

It was well into the afternoon by the time we left the bank. Francois had not eaten breakfast, and his thoughts were turning to food…..to eating lunch. In maybe what was a sudden inspiration, it occurred to me that Hu Hot, a Mongolian restaurant, might be an interesting and unique culinary experience for his last lunch in Topeka, at least for this visit. For those of you who have not eaten in a Mongolian restaurant, it is an experience worth trying…..at least once. If you like it….you are probably hooked. If you don’t like it….you don’t have to do it again. The idea is, in general: Take a couple bowls. One for the raw vegetables, condiments and sauce. The second for the raw meat. Then take both bowls to the cook who is standing behind a super hot grill…..and wait until he grills (or fries or whatever) the ingredients to perfection. If you choose the right sauce….and the right combination of veggies and meat, you will end up with a delicious, savory, low calorie meal.

The meal at Hu Hot was the last official item on our agenda for the afternoon. We stopped by our office briefly so I could introduce Francois to our manager, Kelly. Then it was back to the townhouse to wait for Francois’s parents to arrive. They were picking him up and then had planned to do some sightseeing around the Midwest in the days before they had to leave to go back home.

His parents arrived later than evening. They are personable, outgoing, friendly, easy-to-know people. We sat and visited for a couple hours before Francois suggested that we go somewhere for a drink. On a week night in Topeka, that is somewhat easier said than done. The obvious choice was The Shack, of course. We arrived at 9:00, just as they were preparing to close. Our next choice was The Blind Tiger, which would have been great since they, too, are fans of the band “Kansas”. Sadly, but not surprising, it also closed at 9:00. Not to be deterred, we drove to our third choice, “Abigail’s”. Fortunately, it was open until midnight…..plenty of time to get a drink and something to eat. Francois’s parents were understandably tired after their long airline trip from France to Kansas City. They dropped me off at my townhouse. After saying good-bye, Francois was suddenly gone. It had been a great ten days. We had an interesting and fun time. I authentically made my first French friend…..and it was good. It changed my pre-conceived attitude toward the French….at least, one person from France. And, I learned that the terms French and doctoral student actually do form a good combination.

There is a short postscript to the story. I met up with Francois and his parents in Lawrence the following week on a chilly, rainy Monday for lunch. They had finished their road trip through some of the Midwestern states, and they were headed back to France. We met at the Aladdin Restaurant again for a pleasant meal before they departed for Kansas City International Airport…..and home again. It was sort of the “dessert” of Francois’s trip…..a good and pleasant….and making me look forward to the next time.

To accentuate and reinforce all the unique and special events that I not only enjoyed and found fascinating, but also added to my “filing cabinet” of new experiences, Francois sent me a couple of very thoughtful gifts after he returned to France:  a couple  Dalton Gang comic books, a jar of snails, and a book.  Who knows?  I may be the only person in the  USA with Dalton Gang comic books.  I have never seen them….or heard of them prior to his visit.  I will keep them among my prized collection of memorabilia and as a remembrance that it was from Francois that I first learned of the Dalton Gang.  The snails?  Well….  They are gone now!  A delicious culinary treat….much more delicious and tasty than I had ever expected them to be.  The book, “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”  Well…..  That is a story for later on.  In the meantime: This is my French Connection.