About Town
By Doris Lessenden
“And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? Matthew 6:27 So why worry?
During the past Holy Week, we had warm and lovely days for people to take walks or go to baseball games and track meets or just drive around town to see the pretty blooming trees and bushes. It is so fragrant about town. At the end of the week people gathered at the First Christian Church for the community Good Friday service. Scripture readers were Pastors Russell Parker, Christine Richardson, Galen Burnett, and Mark Imel and Lay Leader Michelle Wyckoff. Musicians Dawn James, Sylvia Weeks, Jessica James, and Alicia James added to the sacredness of the hour. The four churches in town hosted early morning breakfasts and worship services on Resurrection Sunday.
Many hours of planning and organization meetings led by Jan Richards of the KCEDF and the staffs of 10 schools who will bring their students to the “Dream Big Exposition” next week will come to fruition on Thursday, April 27th. On that day besides the students, there will be many scientists, educators distinguished speakers, and groups such as Wings over the Rockies, National Guard, Lockheed, Space, several colleges, a SWAT team, and businesses will converge on the Eads School campuses to educate the youth. Most people know and some people need to accept that advanced technology will be very vital in future occupations and life. Thus, these presentations and displays will give and opportunity for students to actually see and hear some amazing facts about tools and careers for their futures.
Some local children and teens have practiced for about nine months or more to perform square dances and folk dances in recitals of the Dude and Dames or the Denim and Lace dance group in the Lamar Community Building. It is a really big show of dancing youth in beautiful colorful matching attire. Local youth dancers that I know of are: Emily, Alexi, and Clayton Nelson. Bradley and Aaron Musgrave of Haswell, Christopher and Megan Scranton, and Brianna Wilson, Brinden and Garrett Williams of Wiley-Eads.
Last week the Kit Carson students enjoyed their Prom on the tropical island theme and this week the Eads students will have their prom on the 22nd. The community can see how the junior students have decorated their Prom at 8:00 p.m. for about 45 minutes.
From Revelation 21:4 “And God will wipe away all their tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow, nor crying neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away” That scripture is so comforting to me so I look forward even more to heaven. My friend, Jenness Klieboeker Richardson passed there last week. Jenness was a graduate of Kit Carson high School. Jenness spent her career in different countries and Washington D.C. working in and for the Embassy Department.
Children had fun hunting “Easter Eggs” in the parks and lawns last week. Mrs. Charlene Gifford’s Third Grade students had extra fun by having a hunt at the Weisbrod patio and dining rooms with their Adopted Grandparents watching. Then on Thursday they hunted with the other children. When we were in grade school, my class was looking forward to having the honor to hide the eggs for the other children in the pasture at the northeast end of the school. Unfortunately, a few days before the egg hunt, a bunch of rattle snakes were found in the cattle guard near where the Sam and Arlene Rehm home is now. All the homes now on that side of town are built on what was the Livetstock Ranch pasture. Since then the teachers have had to have the eggs hidden on the football field and in different park areas for different age groups of children.
A drive by the constructions site on Wanstead–Hwy 287 is worth the sight to see the huge metal building beams being erected for the repair of diesel trucks. It dwarfs the office building of the former Artist of the Plains building.
Mike Crane and Dominic Hernandez have been repairing and painting the maintenance house on the courthouse lawn in rich mahogany brown and white colors. I certainly makes our part of the neighborhood look more attractive.
I rolled around the west side of the court house park to read the writing on the horse trailer that I thought read “Hope” but it was “Rope the Rockies Champion.” When I asked the owner Jeramy McNeely about it, he said “Oh, that was 20 years ago when Jared Stoker and I won those two trailers for being steer roping champions. Jared is the son of Duane and Brenda Stoker of Eads. His folks go to near Amarillo, Texas, to visit Jared and his family often.
I miss the vanished Rialto Hotel. Jeanne Sorensen published a history in the Kiowa County Press last week that was mostly written by a former owner of the hotel, Ethel Johnson. This is the same Ethel Johnson for whom the Eads School awards a $500.00 Scholarship to an Eads girl graduate each year in the name of this admirable woman. Ethel Johnson could recite long “readings.” She was a marvel to me. Oh, and I always remember the glowing political nomination speech she gave for Rick Arth.
This is spring severe weather awareness week. Don’t forget to register for one of the weather radios that the Kiowa County Press and Plains Network Services are giving away. It is the time of year for severe storms, so having a way to learn about bad weather before it hits is important.
