“God speaks to me through Creation.” Psalm 19:1 NIV

The second of five Friday Night Bashes happened last Friday evening. Although it was windy and dusty at 5:30 p.m., it was less breezy by six in the evening before the concert featuring Breanna Rose Echols. Breanna traveled for 12 years with her gospel singing family, before she married and moved go Wild Horse. She is very talented and gifted in singing and speaking. Breanna also shared interesting stories about her three lovely children and loving husband. I liked to watch her pretty long hair flying in the wind, but that doesn’t stop her from belting out all sorts of popular songs that are sung by pop artists, and western and gospel singers. People sat on the grass, in chairs they brought, on the wall, or stood around in groups visiting. There was steady stream of folks buying ice cream desserts, and some people visiting the beer garden. I liked to shop at the vendor’s tables. The next Bash is this weekend, July 4, with a concert in the park just block north of the railroad tracks on the west side of the street. Just south of the building with the mural painted by Billy Brandt. It is so fun to see the different vendors who come to sell entertaining toys and hand-made items. The next dates of Friday Night Bashes are July 18 and August 1 from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. This is an evening of outdoor sun, or people can go to the movie that is playing in the historic, restored Plains Theatre in the Crow-Luther Cultural Events Center.

It is always such a pleasure to visit with the local pastors who come to visit with us on Sundays at 1:30 or 2:00 p.m. This month, we have had Lane and Deborah Gooden, Gail Voss, and Mark Imel. Last Sunday, it was Ron Manning of Lamar, who came to share the God’s Word with us at the Extended Care Unit (nursing home) at Weisbrod Hospital. Most of the pastors also go over to Prairie Pines Assisted Living Community, too, for a church service.

We were pleased Monday evening to have Pamela (PJ) Lessenden’ s father, Rick, and his wife, Joyce, come by Weisbrod and sang some songs to us around the dinner tables. The Waggoner’s are from Las Animas.

Ty Winter, our State Representative in the House of Representatives, met with folks from this area at the Eads Senior Citizens Center Monday afternoon to talk about happenings at the state capitol. He is one of the very few Representatives in the House who is truly from a rural area who is working for the rural people.

There are many baseball games this summer. For some reason, most of them seem to be in Lamar. I always enjoyed watching the children play in Eads, and we do have such fine ball fields. It must really add to the expense for all the families, with all the gasoline to travel, and food for hungry families.

I thought in the past that I heard of cattle branding being done mostly on the weekends, but this summer it seems that I hear of brandings going on nearly every day. Maybe the ranchers also bought more cattle because we have such lush green pastures this summer. God has really blessed the ranchers and farmers with more rain than usual this year. “There is always hope,” is one of my favorite sayings.

The funeral of Jack Parker was held Saturday at the Eads Cemetery. He had lived in Wichita, Kansas, near his son, Steve, who is a pharmacist. His first wife, Edith, was a dear friend of mine, as well as his present wife, Bonnie. Jack was a classmate of ours in 1955.

Teresa (Phillips) Witte’s funeral was also Saturday. It was held in the Praise Community Church, where Teresa and her family had attended most of their lives. Her daughters, Stormy and Eboni, their husbands and little children, will miss their mother and grandmother very much. Many of us used to like to buy fresh flowers from her flower shop. We have appreciated Teresa as an employee of Weisbrod Health, and her work in the county courthouse.

Liz Hulteen’s family and friends are glad that she returned from a long visit to her friends in Missouri. We have missed her as our shopper, driver, and hairdresser.

Many Kit Carson School alumni had two or more days of great visiting, eating, and dancing last weekend from what I heard and have seen in photos of the festivities. The activities started Friday night with a big hamburger fry/barbeque in the Kit Carson fire station. Saturday morning, they could visit and attend lunch. Then during the afternoon, they had a tea. Saturday evening, many long tables were set up for the banquet, and they cleared out a parking lot for a dance. I know they surely like to dance up north. It was nice how they took group photos of graduates from some of the “country schools” that were closed years ago, and those students continued on to graduate from the Kit Carson School.

I was thrilled to see the former Carol Durrett, her two daughters, husband, and two grandchildren, pull up to Weisbrod Health Wednesday morning. They were coming from Iowa, and on the way over to the hilltop Arlington Cemetery for the burial of her sister, Beverly Durrett’s, son who died in California.