OTHER PLACES I WORKED----I failed to mention several places I worked before starting at Cessna. The first ones were winter jobs in Wellington while we were farming at Mayfield. The first was Sunflower Motor Homes & Campers in Wellington. My job was putting together & finishing the cabinets that went into trailers & campers of all sizes. The wood was precut & stored in bins. I'd get the type of wood & length from a work order, nail it together, stain or varnish it.
I worked at 3 places that made airplane parts for Cessna, Boeing, & Beech: those were Clark. Mfg [router operator, sheer, heat treat], Midwest [hand router, table router, broken arm router] & Oxwell [drop hammer, roll press, punch press]. Oxwell was the best to work for & the place I made the best friends.
Clark Mfg. was the worst. There were lots of old Cessna tools but they would not make parts. One particular part had 6 tools & none were any good. I made most parts by using a sample part & scribing the out line on the material, then cutting it out on a bansaw. Sometimes I used a table router and would have to draw my own material, Cut in on the sheer, clamp it on the router tool and then route it.
I also worked a winter at Bill’s Apco Gas Station south of A&W. I was working at Oxwell too. I'd work 8 hrs at Oxwell grab a hamburger at A&W & work at the gas station till 1O p.m. He’d had lots of help but told me one time I was the only one he ever had he trusted to leave the Station with and go on vacation. He'd leave on Friday about 5 when I would get there. I run the station Friday night & Saturday, it was closed Sunday and he'd be back to work Monday morning.
He loved to go to Brownsville Texas. At the station he'd be in old work clothes, have grease all over him & under his fingernails, but when he’d come in to get money out of the cash register to go to Brownsville on a Friday he would be wearing the brightest, wildest clothes. One I remember was white shoes, white pants and the brightest yellow shirt. I mostly fixed tired, did oil changes & grease jobs & pumped gas. I could never judge the right time to sweep & mop the floor. It seemed every time I tried there was a rush of customers. If for weeks I'd had been cleaning at 9:30 there’d be a rush, then a lull at 9:45. The day I’d decide to clean at 9:45 there’d be a lull at 9:30 & a rush at 9:45. I’d switch back & forth to different times, but it seemed like I'd always pick the wrong time.
I worked at 3 places that made airplane parts for Cessna, Boeing, & Beech: those were Clark. Mfg [router operator, sheer, heat treat], Midwest [hand router, table router, broken arm router] & Oxwell [drop hammer, roll press, punch press]. Oxwell was the best to work for & the place I made the best friends.
Clark Mfg. was the worst. There were lots of old Cessna tools but they would not make parts. One particular part had 6 tools & none were any good. I made most parts by using a sample part & scribing the out line on the material, then cutting it out on a bansaw. Sometimes I used a table router and would have to draw my own material, Cut in on the sheer, clamp it on the router tool and then route it.
I also worked a winter at Bill’s Apco Gas Station south of A&W. I was working at Oxwell too. I'd work 8 hrs at Oxwell grab a hamburger at A&W & work at the gas station till 1O p.m. He’d had lots of help but told me one time I was the only one he ever had he trusted to leave the Station with and go on vacation. He'd leave on Friday about 5 when I would get there. I run the station Friday night & Saturday, it was closed Sunday and he'd be back to work Monday morning.
He loved to go to Brownsville Texas. At the station he'd be in old work clothes, have grease all over him & under his fingernails, but when he’d come in to get money out of the cash register to go to Brownsville on a Friday he would be wearing the brightest, wildest clothes. One I remember was white shoes, white pants and the brightest yellow shirt. I mostly fixed tired, did oil changes & grease jobs & pumped gas. I could never judge the right time to sweep & mop the floor. It seemed every time I tried there was a rush of customers. If for weeks I'd had been cleaning at 9:30 there’d be a rush, then a lull at 9:45. The day I’d decide to clean at 9:45 there’d be a lull at 9:30 & a rush at 9:45. I’d switch back & forth to different times, but it seemed like I'd always pick the wrong time.
THE BOAR & THE BOARD---I think the scariest thing that happened was on the Dairy Farm. Once in awhile when the hog market was good dad would get a few sows & a boar and we’d raise and sell pigs for a few years. Right now the details escape me. We kept the hogs in pens around the old wooden barn downhill west of the house. I think we already had some sows, & had bought a boar, unloaded him in the barn where we kids had milked cows by hand. It seems we were trying to drive him out to the pig pens north of the barn. He wasn’t wanting to go & started this low WOOF’ing sound boars make. It’s really kinda scary. Anyway, he charged dad, knocked him down & bit him on the inside of the right leg about 6 inches above the knee & kept on biting him. At first I just yelled at the hog and tried to push him away, that didn’t work, so I found a short 1 by board & whacked him on the head a few times. He kept attacking dad, so I looked for a bigger board. After grabbing a few & throwing them down I found a 2x4 about as long as a bat. So I started whacking him on the ears, pigs ears are really tender, & on the head, still no affect. So I started hitting him with all my strength. At first really hard, then I started getting tired & weak & at one point I thought. “ I got just enough strength for 2 more hits & if those don’t work he’s liable to chew dads leg off.” I think I had been doing a lot of praying too. I made those couple hits and the boar backed off & dad and I both scrambled out of the barn. I remember the inside of dad’s leg looking like so much hamburger & thinking I didn’t know how it would ever heal but it did.
CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY—I thought I’d see what I remember about Christmas as a Kid. If you read the story my Mom wrote she said on Christmas Eve when she was a kid they would take off the socks they had been wearing that day and hang them up and Grandma Stitt would put apples, oranges & bananas in them. Personally I think this is a War Story or faulty memory, but, I do know the socks kid's put up were clean & dad’s work socks if we could find enough, since they were bigger. But apple, oranges, bananas & chewing gum made up the bulk of it’s contents. Maybe, if we were lucky there was a candy bar. I believe when I was maybe 8-9 years old I got a Red Ryder B.B. Gun, but I must have worn it out quickly. I don’t remember any toys. I do remember lots of overalls, jeans, shirts, sock, coats, gloves, winter hats & underwear. The only tree decoration I really remember was each year we’d color each line of several sheets of notebook paper. Cut out the strips and glue them together making a paper chain. I think maybe we had a few ornaments we’d been given & one maybe two strings of lights. They sure weren’t covered with lights like they are today. For a tree we usually went out in the pasture and cut down a cedar tree. I’m not sure how it started but every year we would spend either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day at Grandpa & Grandma Paxson and the other at Grandpa & Grandma Stitt, then the following year we would switch days. It didn’t sink in till I was older how much that must have taken. As all the Paxson & Stitt’s would be there including those who had married into the family. I never knew when Aunts & Uncles who weren’t directly related had Christmas with their side of the family.
BOX SUPPERS---were a big fund raiser when I was a 4-H member. The most successful ones were ones on a county level. Girls & women would fix a box or basket of food & decorate it. The main meat item was usually fried chicken or meatloaf. There was cookies, cake or pie. Maybe potato salad, baked beans or fruit.
It was kind of a social dance. Usually girls would try to hide their box bringing it in unless they wanted a certain boy to buy it, then they'd let a glimpse show. Or while the boxes were on the table they might fuss with the wrapping. If they'd heard a certain boy was wanting to buy their box but wasn't interested, she would make herself seen around another girls box. The boys might buy it & find in belonged to different girl. From the boys side there were a few approaches. Be very really observant when the girl brought in her box & put in on the table. The boxes sat on the table awhile before the auction started & guys could go up & test the weight, how much food was inside or get a whiff to detect the kind of food. Another option, get a younger boy from the girls Club to find out which box he wanted. The boxes would be Auctioned off to the highest bidder. After all were sold the two would sit down together, eat the meal inside and talk. It seems there was a little entertainment also. Someone might sing, play the piano, play the guitar & sing.
I’m not sure the system, but, the husbands always seemed to buy their wives boxes. Other men might bid early on just to run the price up a little, in the end it was almost always the husband who bought it.
CHIVIREED—Mary & I were Chivireed a few weeks after we returned from our Honeymoon. I think we were the first Paxson couple in 30+ years, it was a popular event in the Folk, Aunts & Uncles generation. Relative show up at the newly weds home & pull all the pranks they can think of. On the night it happened at the Mayfield farm I had returned to the fields after 10 p.m. or so to plow a wheat field. The Paxson cousins of our generation must have arrived around 10:30, Mary was at the house alone. I wasn’t aware anything had happened till I came in from the field about 2 a.m. & went to the Fridge to get some ice to fix a cold drink. When I opened the Freezer door I was greeted with the site of all my underwear, obviously soaked in water, completely frozen solid to everything in the freezer, ice trays included! So I woke Mary with one question on my mind, ‘’Why is my wet underwear completely frozen to the freezer?’’ She explained that the cousins had came, waited a while to see if I would come in from the field, then went ahead with their pranks. The next question was, ‘’Why didn’t you take it out before it was frozen solid. Her reply, ‘’They said if I changed anything they would come back & do it again,’’ To which I replied, ‘’I wouldn’t have told anybody if you wouldn’t have.’’ I remember a few things besides the underwear like, taking all the labels off the canned goods. Putting rice between all the bed sheets in clothes in the closet & on all the sofas & Chairs, other place too maybe. They pulled out all the dresser draws, this would have taken several people, holding the clothes in they put the drawers in upside down so all the clothes fell out when opened. After the first one Mary & I tried to open them as a team but clothes still fell out. There were a few other of our Paxson generation that had weddings after us. Mary & I suggested Chivrees for them but we couldn’t get any helpers. I never did quite figure out why we were the only ones singled out in our generation.
OLD ARGONIA---I mentioned some of the Businesses I remembered before & during elementary age. Now I’m going to touch on some back then & during & right after high school years. Every now & then you hear the comment, ‘’Small town never change!’’ But, basically that’s not true. They do and even the atmosphere & attitude of it’s residents. I’m going to give business & location of present business or ones maybe my kids & grand kids will know.
There were five gas station in Argonia on Main St. at one time. Starting a block N. of the R.R. tracks & ending one block S. of Hiway 160 there was a gas station at each intersection. Sinclar run by Dale Pearce/ Bob Ellis [Carwash] : Mobile [N. fitness center] run by Gary Sevier, Bob Merideth- Lagrant Watts=bulk fuel; Standard Oil [Dance Studio] run by Alfred Johnson, Wayne Johnson, Carl McKee. Champlain [Dentist] run by Leo Koehler=Bulk Fuel-Clayton Showlater; Texaco [corner S. blue Bldg- Main ST.-Hwy 16O E. side.] Run by J.B. Coffman, Gilven Walker.
There was a brick Movie Theater [EMT/ Fire Station]. Lions Club met in basement at one time. There was a Mortuary catty/corner west across the intersection from the EMT/Fire Station. Two Wooden Grains sat south of the R.R. tracks, one on the east side one on the West side. I remember riding in truck loads of wheat to both of them. One was Wolcott & Lincoln the other Hamilton Grain. On the west side just across the street from the tracks one of them had a grain mill. I remember getting cattle feed ground there.
There were 3 Grocery stores; Haworths [empty spot S.of R.S. Furniture] ran by Milford Haworth. Ingrim Locker & Grocery Store { butchered hogs, Beef, had lockers to rent to store meat} [N. modern Post office]. Grocery Store [S. part of Bank} ran by Mel Pohlenz, Lena Bringer, Glen Rakestraw. The vacant Lumber Yard [S. Post Office]. was First the Badger Lumber Company then McWelling Lumber Co. ran by Al Broseck.
Leon Amman had a Machine shop in 2 big roundtops [Across for Library] People would come from all over the U.S. to get him to make parts for machines. Design & build a new machines. He milled, taperd, etc all kinds of metals. He would mend or make broken machinery parts for farmers. He was amazing when it came to metals.
In the building in the vacant lot {N. of Bank} were Blgs. ,some still standing. There was Dr. Craig Office, Valentine’s Café, CTS Machine Shop ran an By Duewe Snyder.
Over the years there were several cafés. Quick Café,[lot N. Bank] Gingham Girl [N. Beauty Shop], Valentine Café, [N. across EMT] Chuck Wagon,[Texaco Station] Four Seasons [dance Studio] Raiders Inn [fitness Center]. Usually just 2 open at one time, maybe 3. Grace Wulf owned some & was waitress in all, I imagine. Winifred Haskns cooked in many.
The Quick Café sat right on the corner [N. across street Bank] The door was in the corner so parts of the Café went West & North There was a 2 story wooden Building Area going west toward Community Center , seemed to be 3 offices. Paul Rust & later his wife Margaret ran an Insurance agency in the middle one. Rufas Garst had a kinda music store/piano tuning business, the Argonia Argosy was there & later moved north of the Cafe along Main St. The Lions Club, & Oddfellows met in the Upstairs Rooms. Noth of the café [where mural is] was one time a Laundry Mat & Soft Ice cream place,
in 40's was a Baldwin Combine dealership. Across the street north of EMT Bldg. [Brown Bldg] was once several Business. Jr. Tatons Auto Repair. Crouse Jewlery, & the Café that was later moved to the Texaco Gas Station the ‘Chuck Wagon’. Deke Rhodes had a small tractor lot north of it.
in 40's was a Baldwin Combine dealership. Across the street north of EMT Bldg. [Brown Bldg] was once several Business. Jr. Tatons Auto Repair. Crouse Jewlery, & the Café that was later moved to the Texaco Gas Station the ‘Chuck Wagon’. Deke Rhodes had a small tractor lot north of it.
There were 3 Tractor dealerships in Argonia. Deke Rhoades had & M & M place S. of Hardware bldg. Chuck Renouh had a Internationals where the City Bldg is & N. to corner. It was a large red brick Bldg. He had a 'M' Farmall & Cub tractor on a display floor. The John Deere dealer ship ran by Richard Forrest [S. of Pool Hall]. West of the bank was a Telephone Office The Barber Shop [now S. Hair Saloon, S of Bank], ran by Firman Pohlenz & Kenny Reynolds. Andy Lehman had a Black Smith Shop {N. R.R track, E. City Sheds] I Remember dad taking thinks there. Blacksmith shops had such interesting smells. The fire, hot metal, burning coal.
Where R.& S. Furnitre now is there were several businesses. The part with the white trim was once the Post Office. Wayne Johnson was the Post Master for 30 years. Under the Awning was a Drug Store ran by Thompsons' & Rea Stephans. At one time it had a Pharmacy, Soda Fountain, & variety area, Birthday, Anniversary, Christmas present type goods. The Pharmacy was the first to go. Later Hortons Furniture had all but old P.O & a huge storage Bldg behind acroos the alley. Ralp/Shiley Stansbury purchased all of Hortons buildings and the Post Office later. & it became R & S Furniture. The Hardware Store E. across from Bank was run by Alvia Raines, Reidnours' & Bernie Phillipi [affectionately called ‘Bernie the Bandit’]. Dry Cleaner [S. Carwash] run by Adams.
THE DOYLE FAMILY—There is someone I forgot when I was writing about my kid years. Mom & Dad had two very good friends, Bob & Jane Doyle. They were friends before Mom and Dad were married & the friendship lasted their lifetimes. They had two children, Harold & Theda both a few years older than I. Mom had lots of pictures of us when I was maybe 1-2 yrs old up to 9-10 yrs. old. Most were on the farm 2 miles N., ½ E. of Argonia or someplace fishing. Often we would picnic. We fished a lot on a creek at the corner east of the farm. The creek was small by the road but down it the pasture there was a pond or a larger body of water there. We didn’t have much, if any fishing gear but Bob always had a trunk or pickup full so he would fix us all up with fishing poles & everything needed. I remember going though 6-7 fishing poles picking out the one I thought looked the best. They lived in the Plain View addition up in Wichita. Houses in Plain View were built during WW II for Aircraft worker. Boeing was making the big Bombers. We would go up there and I seem to remember a huge open grassy area, maybe part of a school playground that we would play on.
CANCER & KIDNEYS------In the Spring of 2007 Mary insisted I go get some blood work done. So I went to see our family doctor, Dr. Baker. When I went for the results he said he wanted me to go see a Blood Dr. in Wichita to do a little more detailed test. I didn't think to much about it but when we drove into the parking lot the sign on the building said 'Cancer Center of Kansas'. I said to Mary, ''I think their is one word Dr. Baker forgot to mention. I saw Dr. Dennis Moore Sr., he informed me I had Multiple Myeloma, Bone Marrow Cancer. He ask if I had seen a kidney Doctor. I said Wellington Clinic was supposed to make me an appointment a month ago but hadn't. He stopped asking questions and picked up the phone and called a Kidneys Doctors office & said he wanted to talk to a Dr. Weber. When he got off the phone he said I had a 2 p.m. appointment the next day with Dr. Lisa Weber and then began to describe the Cancer medication he was going to put me on, one was a new drug that could only be gotten from the manufacturer in Georgia that's supposed to cost $7,000 a month.
When I saw Dr. Lisa the next day she said I was 1% away from when she put patients on Dialysis and wanted me to put in a stint/shunt immediately so it would be healed by Thanksgiving because she thought I would need to be on dialysis by then. She said the cancer produced a 'protein' the kidneys could not remove. She put me on some meds. Three days later I had the device installed & we went to an orientation on the different possible types of Dailysis methods available. Mary and I didn't really know how to feel, it all happened so suddenly and seemed so mind boggling. However there was no fear of the 'Big C word'. I'm not big on jewelry but I found a necklace with a saying 'What Cancer can not do''.
It says ''Cancer is so limited" It can not; Cripple LOVE. Shatter HOPE,
Corrode FAITH, Destroy PEACE, Kill FRIENDSHIP, suppress MEMORIES,
silence COURAGE, invade the SOUL, Conquer the SPIRIT, Steal ETERNAL LIFE.
I try to remember to wear it all the time! And live with those things in mind staying positive about life.
When Mary and I learned I had Bone Marrow Cancer we just kinda said, ''OK, God has seen us through a lot of things, he'll see us through this.'' Every two weeks I was getting blood tests done & getting shots because of low: red blood cell count, white blood cell count, blood platelets & other things I probably can't remember. This went on for 3-4 months. I was seeing Dr. More & Dr Lisa once a month.
I will always member Fathers Day 2007, we had spent the night at Alan & Cheryl's on the way to Patrick & Hannah's. I had gotten up before everyone else & was sitting in the recliner and it was the first time I was really feeling the wight of it all, I'd felt anxious before but not overwhelmed, that morning I prayed, "Lord I know you can perform a miracle healing of the body if you desire, but if you don't I'm going to trust you to get me through this, your my ultimate hope."
Things began to improve The blood tests got better and I stopped needing shot. by late summer Dr. Moore said the Cancer was in remission and at each appointment began to say he couldn't believe how strongly I was in remission. Later on he said they were getting results on the drug that when starting it in the early stages like mine it was actually killing cancer cells.
At each visit to Dr. Lisa may kidney function was a few percentage higher by mid summer 2007 she was sure I would not be going on dialysas. She kept saying she could not believe what was happening, that when people loose any amount of kidney function it stays that way, it does not recover. Today in 2011, when I go to Dr. Moore or Dr Lisa they go over my numbers, say everything looks great and we visit and joke around. Both say they have never seen patients recover like I have. Dr Lisa has said more than once in her 20 plus years of doctoring she has seen only 1 other patient make a similar recovery as myself, I'm within 2 percentage of what is normal for a person my age. I've told both of them more than once I don't mean to take anything away from their medical skills but a lot of prayer goes up on my behalf from family and friends and MAYM church friends from Kansas, Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma & Texas. There was no Miracle Healing of the body but there has been a Miracelious healing process that I'm quick to testify to in and out of church.
.
CANCER & KIDNEYS------In the Spring of 2007 Mary insisted I go get some blood work done. So I went to see our family doctor, Dr. Baker. When I went for the results he said he wanted me to go see a Blood Dr. in Wichita to do a little more detailed test. I didn't think to much about it but when we drove into the parking lot the sign on the building said 'Cancer Center of Kansas'. I said to Mary, ''I think their is one word Dr. Baker forgot to mention. I saw Dr. Dennis Moore Sr., he informed me I had Multiple Myeloma, Bone Marrow Cancer. He ask if I had seen a kidney Doctor. I said Wellington Clinic was supposed to make me an appointment a month ago but hadn't. He stopped asking questions and picked up the phone and called a Kidneys Doctors office & said he wanted to talk to a Dr. Weber. When he got off the phone he said I had a 2 p.m. appointment the next day with Dr. Lisa Weber and then began to describe the Cancer medication he was going to put me on, one was a new drug that could only be gotten from the manufacturer in Georgia that's supposed to cost $7,000 a month.
When I saw Dr. Lisa the next day she said I was 1% away from when she put patients on Dialysis and wanted me to put in a stint/shunt immediately so it would be healed by Thanksgiving because she thought I would need to be on dialysis by then. She said the cancer produced a 'protein' the kidneys could not remove. She put me on some meds. Three days later I had the device installed & we went to an orientation on the different possible types of Dailysis methods available. Mary and I didn't really know how to feel, it all happened so suddenly and seemed so mind boggling. However there was no fear of the 'Big C word'. I'm not big on jewelry but I found a necklace with a saying 'What Cancer can not do''.
It says ''Cancer is so limited" It can not; Cripple LOVE. Shatter HOPE,
Corrode FAITH, Destroy PEACE, Kill FRIENDSHIP, suppress MEMORIES,
silence COURAGE, invade the SOUL, Conquer the SPIRIT, Steal ETERNAL LIFE.
I try to remember to wear it all the time! And live with those things in mind staying positive about life.
When Mary and I learned I had Bone Marrow Cancer we just kinda said, ''OK, God has seen us through a lot of things, he'll see us through this.'' Every two weeks I was getting blood tests done & getting shots because of low: red blood cell count, white blood cell count, blood platelets & other things I probably can't remember. This went on for 3-4 months. I was seeing Dr. More & Dr Lisa once a month.
I will always member Fathers Day 2007, we had spent the night at Alan & Cheryl's on the way to Patrick & Hannah's. I had gotten up before everyone else & was sitting in the recliner and it was the first time I was really feeling the wight of it all, I'd felt anxious before but not overwhelmed, that morning I prayed, "Lord I know you can perform a miracle healing of the body if you desire, but if you don't I'm going to trust you to get me through this, your my ultimate hope."
Things began to improve The blood tests got better and I stopped needing shot. by late summer Dr. Moore said the Cancer was in remission and at each appointment began to say he couldn't believe how strongly I was in remission. Later on he said they were getting results on the drug that when starting it in the early stages like mine it was actually killing cancer cells.
At each visit to Dr. Lisa may kidney function was a few percentage higher by mid summer 2007 she was sure I would not be going on dialysas. She kept saying she could not believe what was happening, that when people loose any amount of kidney function it stays that way, it does not recover. Today in 2011, when I go to Dr. Moore or Dr Lisa they go over my numbers, say everything looks great and we visit and joke around. Both say they have never seen patients recover like I have. Dr Lisa has said more than once in her 20 plus years of doctoring she has seen only 1 other patient make a similar recovery as myself, I'm within 2 percentage of what is normal for a person my age. I've told both of them more than once I don't mean to take anything away from their medical skills but a lot of prayer goes up on my behalf from family and friends and MAYM church friends from Kansas, Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma & Texas. There was no Miracle Healing of the body but there has been a Miracelious healing process that I'm quick to testify to in and out of church.
.
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