A New York Accident- Temple Resort- Down On The Farm- Mayfield Federated Church- 4-H Leaders- Carnival Games/Easter Egg Hunt

      A NEW YORK ACCIDENT---We were going through some city in New York State when we had our first mishap.  We were driving through the town trying to keep track of highway signs.  Mary was watching for signs as was I.  I was looking along the side of the street at an angle, when I saw the highway number we were looking for, I  shifted my sight to the center of the road & noticed a blur coming from the left and knew it was a vehicle.  I tried to make a right turn in hopes  the vehicle would be able to miss me.  It didn't.  What we had not seen was an overhead traffic signal hanging in the middle of the intersection.  The police officer who responded to the accident was a young officer that had just recently been married.  He was very understanding of our situation,  as was the driver of other vehicle driver.  He said he had noticed he had a green light & hadn’t really paid much attention to traffic coming from the other direction.  The police officer had a friend who played piano in a bar next to a motel nearby.  The motel was full but the piano player let us have his room & stayed somewhere else for the night.  There was minimal damage to the left front fender of the pickup & the fender of the car. We spent quite a bit of time at the police station filling out a report, & then went to the motel but the next morning we were on our way again.

    
PHILADELPHIA--We looked at our map & the hiway we were coming into Philadelphia on was the same number as the one we wanted to leave on, so it looked very simple, all we had to do was follow it through town.  Not so, somewhere in the middle of the city the highway made a turn that we did not.  We started getting into some residential & seedy looking areas & there were no highway signs to be seen for a long time.  I was just about to think we were hopelessly lost when down the street about a block  I saw our highway sign.  The looks of the surroundings changed dramatically in that block or block & a half & we breathed a tremendous sigh of relief.  We tried to figure out what had happened by looking at the map but still couldn't figure it out, but we were glad to be headed out of Philadelphia.

   

Honeymoon Cabin at Temple Resort

 TEMPLE RESORT---Apparently there was nothing exciting about W. Va, Ohio, Ind. or Ill. as they all draw blanks now.  Our last stop was at Temple Resort.  Larry had been to the Lake of the Ozarks and Temple Resort a few times so we had made reservations.  We stayed in one of Temple and Eunice's cabins.  The bed seemed magnificent after spending all that time sleeping in the slide in camper that had about the room of a single bed.  Of course we had slept like a couple of spoons so we'd had enough room, but we really enjoyed the cabin & cooking in the kitchenette after all the meals fixed on the camp stove.  It felt almost like a 5 Star motel.  We went to the Ozark Opry, played miniature golf & ate at a restaurant where I pigged out on Catfish, we also rented a ski boat from Temple Resort & spent some time on the lake boating and water skiing.

    
DOWN ON THE FARM----We left Temple Resort & the Lake & headed for the farm at Mayfield where we would start farming the Clark family farm.  Growing up Larry's dad had made his mom & sister, Arlene, help with   farm work around the farm, which they did not enjoy, hated is probably the best description.  Especially driving the tractor.  So I had vowed when I married  I would not ask my wife to do any chores or fieldwork she did not want to do.   Mary loved to be outside working.  I couldn't keep her in the house!  Maybe because she was the youngest & she got to spend time with her Dad as he farmed.  She loved to drive the wheat truck in wheat harvest.  And ride on the combine with me.  I let her drive the tractor & plow or springtooth a lot & she would beg for more.  I would let her not so much because I was tired & could use the rest, which was enjoyable, but because she loved too.  I would find a shade tree, relax & watch her do the field work for awhile, & feel fortunate that I had a wife that wanted to be involved in the work around the farm,  It was also OK, because we were very much in love & didn't want to be away from each other so we enjoyed working together.

    

GETTING STARTED FARMING -- ----“ Well I guess there were some hard times”’--Mary & I attended a lot of farm sales buying machinery and things as we started farming at Mayafield.  We attended a lot of sales conducted by Sanford Hughes an Auctioneer from Wellington.  Sanford started talking to us a lot.  Maybe because we were the only husband & wife at the sales walking around holding hands.  Also a good chance there were not many  other husbands & wives at the sales.  Maybe because we were just friendly.  Often times he would speak to us or make  comments directed at us during the middle of a sale.  I think sometimes he stopped just to kid us because he was tired of crying for bids on something that wasn’t selling very well.   We  went to western Kansas to buy a Case 930 row crop tractor.  I’d heard propane tractors were selling cheap because there had been a shortage of propane & many farmers could not get fuel during the busy season.  We looked at one & I couldn’t believe the price.  I ask the dealer what major mechanical problems it had, he said none, only that farmers had gotten rid of a lot of propane tractors after the fuel shortage.  We bought it, loaded it onto the truck we had bought at Lloyd Martins at Argonia & started home.  It was late Spring & we ran into a few snow flurries.  Dad had a lot of different tractors I'd driven while growing up but I fell in Love with that 930 Row Crop.  The front end made steering so much easier.  The 3-point hookup for the plow was so much easier than the old trip plows or hydraulics I grew up with as well as Mary had.  It was a joy to plow with & was easy for Mary to operate.  I always said it was the sweetest tractor I ever operated.  Eventually things would transpire that led to us giving up the farm at Mayfield but they were good years with lots of good memories.  

 UNCLE WINDY---This involves Mary's family but I must tell the story because we saw the effects of it.  Mary's Dad, Henry, had a friend, Lawrence [Windy] Clark.  They would go to places & sales together & Windy would introduce Henry as his brother.  At first Mary's dad would say that although their last names was Clark, they were not related, but Windy did it so often that Henry just gave up on correcting him. 

     How does it involve Mary & I?  It happened time & time again at a sale or most anywhere. We would meet someone & start visiting with them, I would mention I grew up at Argonia  & Mary would say that she grew up at Mayfield she was Henry Clark's youngest daughter.  It got to the point that I could tell within a seconds time, when they were going to say,  “Oh yeah, you had an uncle named Windy!'' Mary's dad had been gone 2 1/2 years but Windy was still living & would stop by the farm now & then to visit. He took a liking to me but I always suspected it was because he missed Mary’s dad, Henry so much.  His son & wife, Larry & Elaine Clark had a son Troy, born 6 days after Patrick.  We became friends & Patrick & Troy were playmates.  Both our families moved away from Mayfield but we have remained good friends.

   
MAYFIELD FEDERATED CHURCH--We attended the Church in Mayfield that was primarily Methodists & Presbyterians.  At first I was concerned for Mary.  She was like 18-19 years old & all the other women were 20- 30 yrs. older.  Of course she had grown up knowing a lot of them.  I was concerned that there was no ladies her age.  She kept assuring me she loved the company of the older ladies.  Explaining that they had raised all there kids & was at a point that they were enjoying life & having fun.  Mary & I both became active in the church, teaching Sunday School & other church activities.  We became associate members as Mary's membership was in the Argonia Methodist & mine was at Argonia Friends Church.  I have always mused at the fact that I held a higher position in a Church I was never a member of than in Argonia Friends.  For a time I was Chairman of a committee that would be described as a Friends Church Spiritual Life Committee.  At the time we were there the Pastor was Ben Finley.  He was an older Pastor [80's] but he had a lot of energy & aspirations for ministry. He took to Mary & I immediately, probably because of our energy level & let’s do it attitude towards ministry. I suspect he had a lot of influence in my getting the chairman, maybe he was looking for someone young and energetic.

4-H LEADERS----Mary & I had both been involved in 4-H.  It was Red Wing  4-H at Mayfield that Mary & her brother & sisters had been members.  We talked of getting involved with 4-H but agreed we were hardly out of the newlywed stage, & maybe we should wait till we had kids before getting involved.  We had not been there 3 month when Rose Goodrum spoke to us.  The new 4-H year was beginning & no one wanted to be Community Leaders.  She ask if Mary & I would be the Community Leaders of Red Wing 4-H.  She expressed serious concern if they didn't get new Leaders the club would disband.  We didn't want to see that happen so we decided, since we would get involved sometime it might as well be now.  So we became Community & Project Leaders. In a couple of years we were ask to be sponsors of the Sumner County Junior Leaders Organization.

 CARNIVAL GAMES & EASTER EGG HUNTS--Our involvement to this date with these activities has covered  36 plus yrs.  Carnival Games started when we were leaders at Red Wing & the Sumner County 4-H Council had Carnivals for fundraisers. I started making a new game each year & over the years I added new ones frequently. When we moved to Argonia & started the Golden Buffalos 4-H  we had some Carnival fundraisers, after Golden Buffalos folded we got requests to take them to Argonia School Fun Nights, a couple Big Brother & Big Sister events, several churches ask for them as an alternative Halloween activity or Fun Nights. The  Argonia Daze committee has ask for them a few times.  They have been to Argonia, Wellington & Wichita.   Easter Egg Hunts started in Mayfield with Red Wing.  At first we boiled eggs & put prices on them.  After a couple years we started noticing a lot of squashed 25 and 50-cent ages because kids were running around trying to find the 75 cent ones. We  started putting a letter or symbol on them so they didn’t know what price it represented.  We eventually made all eggs the same price. By the time we moved to  Argonia & Golden Buffalos, Mary would do  some quick math just before the hunt started  & each child would get the same number of 50-cent pieces no matter how many eggs they collected. We used plastic egg with jelly beans inside.   After Golden Buffalos 4-H disbanded we just started doing it as a family, no other Argonia organization wanted to take over or help.   Mary collected the money for the eggs, Argonia Lions Club was a contributor on eggs for awhile, & our family conducts the Egg Hunt in Salter Park.  Nowadays Mary still collects money & we buy the eggs & jelly beans.  Julie, Jason's wife has stared helping.  Pastor Mike helped one year & my sister Arlene helped a year or two but it is mostly our immediate family.