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| Wheat Harvest with pull Combine Dad, myself, Alan, Arlene |
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| Paxson coat of arms |
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| The English who went up a Hill but came down a Mountain |
That Went Up a Hill, But Came Down a Mountain.”
It's a cute movie about 2 Englishmen who went to
Wales during W.W.II to measure Welsh Mountains
for English Maps. The younger Englishman falls in
love with & marries a young, pretty Welsh lady.
It probably didn't happen that way in my family but it's
cute to think it could have.
MEMORIES OF MY GRANDPARENTS---’’Back when I was just a lad’’-- Ask me about a memory of my Grandfather, J.W. Paxson & it would be how he sat in front of their house 1 & 1/2 blocks south of the R.R. tracks in Argonia, Ks on the west side of the street [where the A-frame house is now]. He would wave at everyone going up & down the street in a vehicle. Grandpa Paxson worked on a track crew for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, I only have memories of him after he retired. He & Grandma had a huge flower and vegetable garden behind the house they both worked. Fishermen would stop with fish they had caught in the Chicaskia River, Catfish & Carp mostly. There was a stink line in the Carp that had to be carefully removed or it would spoil the meat & most fishermen didn’t want to mess with it. So they brought Grandpa Paxson a lot of Carp, on a very rare occasion he would nick the ‘stink line’ and have to throw one away. I remember seeing him clean huge fish in the kitchen sink or so it seemed to a small boy. Or maybe it was a small sink with regular size fish! Whatever the fish seemed to hang over the sink. I remember Grandma Maude Crocheting delicate doilies & working the huge flower and vegetable garden.
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| Stitt Coat of Arms |
Of my grandfather Ami [Gene], Stitt. He farmed and milked cows, every tractor and piece of machinery he owned was John Deere, well except for the International Farmall & Allis Chalmers he used in putting up hay. I remember he had a few horses. I don't remember seeing him ride anything but a Palomino. At milking time when grandkids were there he delighted in squirting milk into the open mouth of a bunch of meowing cats sitting behind the cows. Of grandma Fern I remember her knitting & playing the Piano. Thanksgivings & Christmas holidays were spent at each grandparents every year. Pitch parties were played during the winter months with farm families that were relatives and friends on the Stitt side, playing pitch at family gatherings was more frequent on the Paxson side. There were so many Paxsons they didn’t need to invite anyone to make up several table of card players.
Huge yearly reunions, a 100-120 people, were held in the summer & fall for many years on the Paxson side with Bell, Burden, Yeager, Bostic, Ginder relatives and some I’ve probably forgotten. The favorite game was workup softball. These would be huge, with shortstops between 1st & 2nd base & 2nd & 3rd base & half dozen outfielders & 4-5 batters. On bases you would move toward the batter position with each out. The rules on fly balls were if you caught one you switched places with the batter immediately, so some prefered to play out field in hopes of snagging a flyball. We also came up with the rule that if you made it safely around the bases 3 times you automatically had to go to the outfield & the infielders moved up. This wasn't popular with the older guys who just wanted to be batters all afternoon but they were greatly outnumbered! Sometime the older men would join but it was almost always kids.These took place at the Riverside Park in Wichita and at the Oxford, Ks. City Park. A few were held at Belle Plane & Riverdale, Ks.
For the Beryl and Marcella Paxson family, summer picnics, freezing homemade ice cream, pitching horse shoes & softball games were a summertime event. When we moved to the Dairy Farm we’d go fishing down in McDaniel’s pasture. The little creek we fished emptied into the Chicaskia River. We’d fish & have bon-fires, roast hot dogs and make samores. J.W & Maude's children’s [my aunts & Uncles] families were often invited. There were a few picnics on the Stitt’s side but they were rare. I only remember fishing in the pond a few times. As years went by I learned that the fish started biting McDaniels real good about 30 minutes before sundown & until about 30 minutes after. The fishing really got good when beavers built a dam on the creek. You could go down for that hour around sunset & catch enough fish for everyone in the family to have one or two.
There are a few stories I remember being told about them when they were young. One is that they loved to play cards. I remember them loving to play 10 point pitch. As boys when their mom, Grandma Maude, found playing cards she would throw them away. My aunts said they would then make playing cards out of writing paper, try to keep them hidden from their mom and play with them in secret. Another story told about was how they would play 'War' with rubberband guns hiding behind things & shooting rubberbands at each other. That was how Virgil lost the sight in one eye. Dad lost part of the middle finger on his right hand when they were playing with a push lawn mower. If you turned the
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| Bk-L-R=Beryl {Dad}, Melvin, Flossie, Loren, Melvin Frt- L-R=Lema, Gma Maude, Gpa J.W., Juanita |
As adults there love of playing 10 point pitch was matched by a love for pitching horseshoes. When I was young the nephews just watched, as we got older we joined. What I remember as a youngster was that when they started pitching shoes Uncle Virgil would ask one of his nephews [Lloyd, Alan, Steve or myself] to get a plastic cup and put it on the stake he was throwing horseshoes at. Of course his brothers would tell us not to get one or tell Virgil he didn't need one, but eventually we would go get one. When we did, you better be Virgil's partner because the score was about to change! With the cup on the top of the stake he could judge the distance better with his one good eye, he was going to start throwing RINGER after RINGER! Without the cup they were about the same. With the cup Virgil was by far the best horseshoe pitcher. My Dad- Beryl, and Loren would have HOT days when they were best but over a long haul I think Uncle Melvin was a little better than them, but it was hard to tell.
I had seen pictures of Uncles, Melvin & Loren, together in Army Uniforms at what I thought an Army base somewhere overseas during WWII. I learned from Jonnie recently it was in Miss. before they were shipped overseas. There was a certificate in a picture frame in Grandpa & Grandma Paxson bathroom with Melvin's name on it. I had looked at it many times but was never able to figure out what it was about & I never ask. One day when I was a Senior in High School in Mr. Lowe's Biology Class we got off on the subject of men from Argonia who had been POW's in WWII. Mr. Lowe said that our H.S. Custodian, Melvin Paxson, had been a POW in WWII. I of course argued that he had not been, that he was my uncle & I would know if he had been. I was sure he was wrong and told him so. That night I ask dad. He told me that Melvin had been. I don't remember how long, but I remember dad saying he weighed 98 lbs when he was freed. When he came home after the war, he told the family about it and then it was never spoken of again. Uncle Melvin had been part of a tank crew, it's tracks had been shot & was disabled so the crew abandoned it & tried to catch up with another tank. Dad said a bullet had grazed his chest enough to make him pass out, when Melvin came too he was with a group of American Soldiers that had been captured and were being taken to a POW Camp. Uncle Melvin was the High School Custodian for as long as I can remember. He worked for the Harsh Family as farm help when he was young. Loren & Dad worked on the Missouri Pacific railroad for a time. Uncle Loren’s farm wasn’t large so he worked as the Grade School Custodian & at one time managed the Argonia CO-OP. Uncle Loren was Argonia’s Town Cop for awhile early on. Uncle Virgil lived on a few acres just north of Conway Springs on Hiway 49. In later years I remember he worked at the Conway Springs CO-OP in the Feed Mill. It was there that he had a heart attack, which caused him to lose sight in his good eye leaving him blind.
When we nephews got older we would join our Uncles in pitching horseshoe but none of us got very good at it. Of course if we were Uncle Virgil's partner the first thing we did was get a cup for the stake & you were sure to win. We didn't have to be asked. We started playing pitch earlier than horseshoes. We played pitch at home as a family too & dad must have said a million times, " If you have an Ace-Duce in the same suite, you bid six." It was an unproven theory though, you seldom got the bid for 6. My Uncles loved "Shooting the Moon". If you took all 10 points you added 20 points to your score instead of 10. They made it a lot, but they went 'set' too. The score always remained close because everyone was stretching their hands. Their sisters, my aunts, were never wild bidders. Of the two generations of girls that married into the family your Mom-Grandmother, [Mary], was the only one to pick up the-- stretch your hand, go for broke, bid with the idea of "Hitting your partners hand", attitude that the Paxson men played with.
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| 1st generation of 4 Paxson Brothers Dad-Beryl, Melivn, Loren, Virgil [Red] |
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| 2nd generation of Paxson Brothers [left-right] Jason, Patrick, Jonathan, Paul Lined up according to matching personalities of the older generation |
I only had uncle Kenny on the Stitt side. I worked fields for him some in the summer after wheat harvest. Dad wanted to make sure all ground was covered so he wanted overlap. Uncle Kenny wanted to get over ground quickly so he didn’t mind a skip, the ground was worked more than once anyway. Dad's tractors seldom broke down, Uncle Kenny's often did. If the tractor was rated for a 3-16 plow, Kenny would pull a 4-14. Which meant turning over another 8'' of dirt. That wasn't bad if the ground was good, but Uncle Kenny had some ground he unaffectionately called ''Tiger...uh...Poop'' which really made the tractor pull hard. If the tractor was rated for a 14’
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| Bck-L-R- Anita, Kenny Frt-L-R--Lorraine, Gma Fern, Gpa Gene, Marcella[Mom] |
He had horses & a Palomino, as Grandpa Gene had before him. Uncle Kenny continued the Dairy operation that Grandpa Stitt had started. When the Milk Produces Assn. started the old dairy barn got Grandfathered in. It was such a neat old wood barn with wooden stanchions for a dozen cows or so. Eventually Uncle Kenny built a new concrete milk parlor.
younger sister that dad really liked & she liked him. So he always ask the older sister for a date. The parents who thought they were keeping the two out on a date separated, were only paring up the two who wanted to be together. I ask him if the older sister didn't object. He said no as she probably wouldn't have had many dates so at least she got to go to movies. Uncle Loren -While Loren was the town cop in Argonia he was having a hard time keeping up with the high school boys and their mischief one Halloween night. They were tippin over outhouses [outside wooden toilets, for those who are unfamiliar with the term] Toilet papering housese & trees, and the like. At one point he was driving down Main St. & he saw a bunch of Jr. Hi. age boys walking, obviously looking for something to do. Uncle Loren pulled over and ask; ''You boys want to have some fun?'' Naturally there response was enthuastic. He said, ''See all those High School boys cars sitting along the street, why don't you let the air out of all their tires.'' Which they did! He may not have been able to keep up with the High School boys pranks but he was going to have the satisfaction that they were going to all come back to 4 flat tires.
MY AUNTS--- The aunt I liked best was Aunt Anita on the Stitt side. She was younger than Aunt Lorraine & seemed to dote on me. I remember her playing Boogie-Woogie on Grandmas Stitt’s piano on the farm at Milton. I could sit and listen to her for hours. After she & uncle Bo moved to Miami, Okla. I would go down with whatever Stitt relative was going to visit, often Uncle Alfred & Aunt Lorraine. Of the Paxson Aunts, Aunt Juanita was the most fun. There was also Flossie, & Lela. Aunt Flossie lived in Wellington and worked at the Montgomery Wards store for years. Aunt Lela lived in WIchita and was a Cafe Waitress all her life, it seemed like she was always working. She had several husbands, my favorite was Quinton Todd & was probably the best husband she had but he passed away after they had been married a few years. Aunts that married into the family were Jennella Stitt, Ruth [Virgil’s wife], Delma [Melvin’s wife], Albertine or Tennie [Loren’s wife]. Aunt Ruth or Ruthy was the most fun of that group.
Aunt Juanita & Uncle Maurice lived in Wichita. It was always said that Uncle Maurice was part Hawaiian. They loved to come down to the farm and uncle Maurice would walk for hours over the pastures. He loved being in the country. They would picnic with us a lot and went fishing down on McDaniel’s. Mary and I camped out with them often at the Hideout over at Oxford after we were married. Aunt Juanita loved to sing to nieces and nephews when they were babies. "Oh, I wish I was a little piece of soap, I’d slippy, slippy slide…..” in which you ticked the baby as you sang. It was her favorite & she sang it repeatedly. When it came to camp cooking she was an expert & her best was fried potatoes and onions. Nobody ever came close that I encountered. We would visit them at 1330 S. Emporia every time our family went to Wichita. I'm not sure how it started but the strongest family bond with our family was with Maurice, Juanita, Steve and Sandy. We visited them the most and they visited us more than any other family relatives.
Clicking on the photos in the stories will enlarge them so that they are easier to see.
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