Jet Airplanes & Milk Barn- Kentucky Derby- 4-H Swim Parties- 4-H Christmas Caroling- Stand In The Gap, Washington D.C.

        JET AIRPLANES & THE MILK  BARN--- I don’t really remember when this started but it continued up until the time the Guard unit was activated.  During milking time every few days, & sometimes a few days in a row, huge airplanes, looking like  bombers or passenger liner would fly over the dairy barn just above the tree tops.  I often thought, ‘’If you threw a rock at it you could almost hit it.’’  The unusual thing about them was that all the windows were painted over with gray paint.   I don’t know if this was the time auto-pilots came out & the window were painted over so they would have to depend on the instruments or what. They would come over with a low roar & if you didn’t remember they were coming it could startle you.  Later fighter jets started coming over & they would really scare the pwaddin out of you.  It was a fast loud roar & sometimes they would make a sonic boom.  There were times I remember dropping the milkers it scared me so much, &  dropping the milkers might startle a cow & she would kick, sometimes I’d get nailed.  Both planes seemed to follow the same pattern.  If you happened to be a little late starting milking & were outside you could see them coming from the northeast.  They would be visible for a kind of half circle, coming over the milkbarn & house & then swing back toward Wichita.  Sometimes I suspected there were some pilots who deliberately broke the sound  barrier just as they were approaching the barn because they knew someone was in there milking.  They started banking as they approached the barn so I could never see why the sudden burst of speed was necessary.

Cleo Burden his ponies & wagon

OTHER RELATIVES----There are a few other  Paxson side relatives that we saw but not as much as Buck & Florence and Alice & Clifford.  Clyde and Janie Griffith lived in Wichita.  Clyde was an avid fisherman.  He fished a lot of places but once in a while he would come down to the folks and we would go fishing different places.  I’m not sure but he may have done some fishing down on the Chicaskia River.  We would sometimes have a picnic when they were down.        
        Frank & Mary Ginder living at a couple places west of Oxford, Ks.   There was one place a few miles west & a couple north that I remember in particular.  They had an old Gander Goose at that place.  I don’t know what age I was, lower grade school, but I remember the Gander would chase me.  When we went over there I was always on the lookout for him when we got out of the car.    Actually I would sit in the car after mom and dad had gotten out & scan the place looking for the Gander.  If I went outside to play I'd keep a stick handy.    He’d start for me with his wing flapping & honking.  I would run, as I remember he got ahold of my pants leg a couple of times.   Don’t remember that he ever got skin but I sure didn’t like him.
         Charley & Jenny Bell lived a few places around Belle Plaine but the one I remember the most was west of town where the ponds are by the blacktop & a couple miles north.  I  remember that many times when we visited them Jud & Shirley Mattingly and their kids were there too.  Some of the  girls were more my age than the boys, who were several years younger.  I can picture a swing on the front porch, a red barn & a creek/draw to the north of the house.  Maybe we spent time visiting on the porch & playing in the draw & barn. There were 9 kids in Jud & Shirley’s family: Cheryl, Beth, Yvonne, Roberta, Paul, Bill, Crystal, Pricilla & Pam.  They lived in South Haven so for years there were always 2nd cousins to talk to at Argonia/South Haven ballgames.  Since I was farming with dad after I graduated from High School  I was around Argonia attending games while all the Mattingly kids went through school. 
         Cleo Burden of the Burden, Bostic, Bell, Yeager, etc. relatives  was closet to the Paxson family.  At family reunions he would quite often  sit with and visit with a Paxson.  I seem to remember him visiting the folks a few times when they lived 3 N, 1W & 1/2 N. of Argonia. For as long as I can remember he had a team of ponies & a  wagon.  He would bring them  to Reunions and  take people for rides. At least one time he came to Argonia for the Argonia Daze parade.  Several of the Argonia Paxsons rode in the wagon.

     I didn’t see much of the Stitt side of the family.  We had a picnic once in a while up at Uncle Kenny's & Aunt Jenella's out by the old milk barn.  We'd get together for Thanksgiving & Christmas each year.   We went down to Delaware, Okla. a few times to visit Abe [Bill] & Marie Stitt.  They were Francis Stitt’s folks, the one who helped mom a lot during the summer.  I have a lot of old slides of Grandpa Stitt and his 3 brothers, 3 is what comes to mind right now, usually all dressed up in suits or nice clothes, so it may have been for funerals or wedding.  I seem to remember a few dinners at the farmhouse where a lot of the Stitt’s were present.  We’d see the Burford’s now & then that lived around Milton at card parties.  Don’t remember there being any Haven family around when I was a kid.

  

KENTUCKY DERBY----Our IFYE group had a weeks debriefing in Washington D.C. after returning to the U.S.  At the end someone suggested having a reunion in a few years.  Jane Ann, from Kentucky said, ‘’Why don’t you all come to the Kentucky Derby next year’’.  We talked it over & it sounded like a great idea.  So the following year we all met at Louisville for the Kentucky Derby.  Some girls stayed with Jane at her apartment, the other girls plus Bill & I got motel rooms.  We headed for the racetrack the next day. It was the largest crowd I’d ever been in, in the U.S.  I remember thinking it was bigger that any crowd I experienced in India.  We all placed bets on the horses.  I bet on ‘Hold Your Peace’ to win.  We compared our bets.  Someone said if you bet to ‘Show’ you had a better chance of winning.  I ask, ‘’What’s ‘Show?’’  They informed me that if the horse placed 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd  you got winnings.  I said, ‘’What the heck, if your going to bet on a horse, why not go for all or nothing.’’ Actually I kinda wished someone had told me that before I bet.
      We were down by the rails about 4 rows back.  I thought OK we’ll get a glimpse of part of the race. Just before the race  started gals starting sitting on top of guys  shoulders. We couldn’t see anything! When I heard hoof beats I held my camera up high & took several pictures.  It turned out I got a picture of one horse  The horse I picked did finish 3^rd.  One of the girls did bet on it to show and won a little over $2 on a $5 bet.  Several of us did have some small winnings.  The line for Collecting was Loooooooong, some weren’t going to collect but a couple wanted to collect their winnings & put it in a jar or box & keep it, they figured it would be the only time they’d ever be to a Kentucky Derby.  At some point in time I went to the MEN’s room.  I walked in & there was liquid on the floor that was over the soles of my shoes. It Wasn’t Water!  They weren’t just using the urinals, they were using the walls! I had seen men and women relieving themselves in the gutters along the streets in India.  You just pretended they were squatting down taking a break or stopping to rest & you just didn’t look.  But that Derby restroom really grossed me out, more than anything in India.  I’m sure if those people saw a picture of what I saw in India they would be all freaked out, but they were doing something similar and thinking nothing of it.  People do that, see something, think it gross, then do something almost like it & think nothing of it.

MOWING WATER----This is Mary’s favorite story of the Hideout Days.  Mary, Patrick & I were camping with Maurice & Juanita’s and some other Paxsons.  It had rained the night before & we were loading up to go home, there was a large water puddle in the camp area.  Mary & I were packing the camper.  Patrick was pushing a little toy mower that was making a RRRrrr, RRRrrr sound so we were using it to keep track of his location.  Then suddenly it was quiet.  ‘’Where is Patrick ?’’,  we wondered.  We looked out & he was pushing the mower through the water which had silenced the mower.  We went back to packing the camper, when ever the RRRrrr, RRRrr, stopped, we would stop & listen, usually in a short time, he would get back on dry ground and the mower sound would start again.

4-H SWIM PARTIES----  Were a big thing back in the 50 & 60’s, several each summer.  The two primary spots were Wellington & Caldwell.  A couple were held at a pond near Belle Plaine.  They had struck an artesian spring while drilling an oil well, no oil.  It was very Saline, more than an ocean, you could lay back & you would float high in the water.  It was really nasty to taste & would burn eyes and the littlest cuts. The Swim Parties were usually in July & August after  harvest & field work were done & before wheat planting. These were the time of socializing & having fun as at 4-H FAIR with livestock showing, clothes modeling, crops, garden, 4-H DAY had Demonstrations, talks, Square Dance, Model Meetings, clothing   & SPRING SHOW which had Poultry, Flowers. Rabbits, chickens, we were all too busy.  The clubs back then were: Rome Rockets [Rome]  Skylarks, Sunflower, [both Caldwell], Perth  [Perth]. Milan Rustlers [Milan], 20^th Malaby Pushers [Argonia/Conway] Red Wing [Mayfield], Paradise Valley [Belle Plaine], Happy Hustlers [South Haven], Drury Millers [Drury] Jolly Workers [Dalton], Clipper [Riverdale] There was a group of  boys in Malaby, before & a group after, but neither palled around together like, Mike Crews, Jim Shetler, Leon Meyers & I.  We went to movies, went bowling, played pool & snooker &  went to the  swimming parties.  The jock games at swim parties were Basket Ball & Rooster Fighting, one guy sitting on another guys shoulders tries to dump the other top guys in the water and stay on his partners shoulders.  I was the stockiest so I was always the bottom man.  Mike was better than Leon at  wrestling or knocking the top guy off balance and into the water.  With Jim the best strategy was to have him get a good grip and then move sideways or pull back & pull both guys under water.  I think Jim was the lightest.   Many a night I would come home with the sorest neck because pushing back on Jim’s stomach with my head was the only thing that kept him from going into the water too. I always attributed my nack for staying on my feet for riding the sled behind the hay baler.  It took a lot of fancy footwork to stay upright.  If boys and girls wanted to mingle & get in a little body contact, Water Polo & Keep Away were the two popular ones. There were a few roller skating parties 
1-2 a winter, usually at Wellington & later Winfield.

CHRISTMAS CAROLING---20^th Malaby must have went Christmas Caroling every year it existed. I went the 10 yrs. I was a member and l0-11 years I was a leader. We’d load up at the Malaby Schoolhouse & later [after Malaby was torn down] Silverbrook schoolhouse in cars, pickups & stock trailers, wheat trucks with stock racks & tarps around the sides, then go to farms between Argonia & Conway Spgs. and sing Carols.  We’d sing 3-4 Christmas Carols at each place.  Two places we always stopped  were Bob & Rila Jodon, old Community & project leaders that had a beautiful farmstead,  I always wondered if they were of European decent.  Their Farm had a beautiful white 2-story house & huge white Barn & a few other buildings, all white. There were white wooden fences all around the lots & pastures next to the house. I think it had to be the most beautiful farm around Argonia & Conway.  Every year it looked like everything had just been repainted.  The ground sloped to the west and there was a neat little creek about 75 yards from the house There was a sidewalk leading to the house, at the end of there was a Rose Trellis.  On one side  of the trellis was a school bell atop a short utility pole.  When we went caroling I think ever 4-Her rang the bell------- coming and going.  The other was Grandma McGregor, Grandmother of the McGregor family  & long time project leader.  Her name was Martha  but I think every Malaby 4-Her over the years called her ‘Grandma McGregor’.  We’d stop at other couples in their middle 60’s-early 70’s and some of the older 4-H parents who didn’t go caroling.  At some of the regulars they would have homemade cookies for us & hot chocolate in foam cups.  Especially Grandma McGregor, I don’t think she missed a year as long as she could bake.   After the Caroling was over we would go back to the schoolhouse where more Cookies and Hot Chocolate were waiting.  Sometimes we’d go with a little snow on the ground, other times is was just down right cold.  When I was older I remember more than once getting back to the schoolhouse with a crust of ice on my mousthe & eyebrows.

QUAKER CRITTERS---Was the name we gave a set of Puppets that we used when Mary and I were teaching the 4^th- -5^th grade Sunday School Class at Argonia Friends and were taking the S.S. class to Conway Springs Rest Home to put on Puppet Skits.  Actually we started using them earlier.  Our family had been going there to play the guitar & sing for the residents for a few years &  I got the idea to build a Red Barn & buy animal puppets.  We used it as a family, the boys would do puppet skits & then when we started teaching that particular S.S. Class It was real easy to start them going.

The D.C. Mall during STIG
Promise Keepers wouldn't give numbers
Mall personell kept saying 3 1/2
Million

STAND IN THE GAP---In 1997,  Patrick, Jason & I went to a Promise Keepers Event called ‘Stand in the Gap’ that was held on the Mall in Washington D.C.  It was a 24 hour drive so we must have left on a Friday morning.  We drove non-stop arriving at a Metro station outside Washing D.C. at 2 a.m. in the morning.  We picked up a football at a gas station somewhere  that had the Oil Company name on it.  So every time we stopped for gas or rest stop we’d throw the football around for a little exercise.  We went through Ks., Mo., Ill., Ky., W. Va.  Patrick and Jason had put some signs on the Van windows with white shoe polish.  One was on the back window, ‘Honk if you Love Jesus”, that kept us awake most of the night there were a lot of vans full of men headed for D.C.  
      Before we got on the Metro and headed for the Mall.  There was a very helpful, friendly Metro employee that gave us advice and helped us get the right Metro ticket for the best price.  We headed for the Mall and took a place near a large Megatron Speaker.  Later a group from Chicago took up a space beside us.  They had at least one guitar in the group so we sang Christian songs while waiting for the event to start.  There were so many great speakers from all Culture & Ethnic groups.  The Native American delegation & speaker were in native dress so it was impressive.  We had a variety of Music groups lead singing throughout the day. 

  

Our little spot on the Mall

  Promise Keepers Staff wouldn't give numbers although guy's were always asking, they kept saying it wasn't about numbers but about the event, messages & music.  We heard from many of those who had worked at the Mall for 10 years and more that it was the largest, best behaved and easiest to work crowd they had seen on the Mall.  They put the figure at 3 -1/2  million when guys  said P. K. wouldn't tell but they were curious.  People sat on steps of buildings & going back to the Metro  we found them on side street we had no idea they were there.  
       I had always had trouble envisioning the part in the Bible where it talks of singing continually in front  of the Throne.  After Stand In the Gap, I decided, ‘I could do that’.  The Preachers, Speakers were all impressive & inspirational.  The event lasted about 12 hours. After it was over we headed back to the Metro and to our parking lot.  We arrived about sundown.  The same Metro helper was there that had been there at least 12 hours earlier.  Still chipper and friendly.  
       When we got home were heard lots of comments on the news.  One was that commuters on the by-passes 5 miles from the Mall could hear the singing if they rolled down their windows.  It was a very inspirational day. 
       We left D.C. in the evening hours of Saturday.  To me the only down side of the event was going home.  We were on the Interstate headed home going the speed limit.  We were being passed by these Vans with Church names on the side going 10 to 20 mph above the speed limit, which I didn’t think was to good a testimony. The thought occurred it looked like they were all trying to outrun the Devil.

     Going to D.C.  we had been passed by lots of vans going a little faster than we were, they would honk and all wave.  One the way home,  I think it was Patrick,  noticed there was no honking, and all the people in the Van were asleep except the driver.  It was a most Inspirational day in the heart of our Nation, Washington D.C. our National Capital one worth the 48 hours of non-stop driving.