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| Garage & Classroom at Kwibuka, Burundi |
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| Jason & Jonathan picking their way thru the floor at Nueva Rosita |
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| Jugos Resturant was the favorite. Fansticc food & out of this world icy fruit drinks. My favorite was the outside taco [steak] made in a little outside booth, hence the name |
We started going with Bobby DeBusk & the Riverton youth group. Some years Mary went with Jonathan & Paul. One year I went with Jonathan & Paul, we put the roof on the 2nd story of the Nuevo Rosita Church.
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| making drinks in Jugo's, my favorite is Strawberry |
Jonathan & Paul went many years with Riverton & worked in lots of villages. They’d hope to stay with Pepe, when they did I’d tease them about not staying in Mexico but at the Pepe Hilton. I went one winter with an adult group that finished the interior of a 2nd story that had been added to Samuel & Christina Vasquez house, Pastors at the Agujata Church.
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| Jon & Paul putting room on Nueva Rosita Church |
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| Larry [white sunvisor] helped Spring Invasion team build the Parsonage in Siete Ejidos, Sinaloa, Mexico |
I did return with a MAYM Prayer & Encouragement Team after the Church was completed. & an addition had been added to the Parsonage. We did pour a Veranda for the Parsonage. It was an exciting time to go back & see what God had accomplished, to worship with & encourage the believers & pray for Siete Ejidos, the church & neighboring villages. I wanted to see how the fruit trees had grown that we had planted 5 yrs before, trees we should have planted when MAYM bought the property in 1990. I was on the MAYM Cross-Culture Mission Committee when Daniel first came with his vision/dream of having a church & Parsonage in Siete Ejidos, Sinaloa, Mexico. I immediately felt his vision and passion but it was not readily shared by the Committee although they did eventually approve a few projects. To this day the work has a special calling for me.
Another trip where I went solo was to finish the interior of the 2nd floor that had been built onto Samuel and Christina's Pastors house in Agujata. They always hosted girls each year on Spring Invasion & some of their girls had to go stay with some other family in the Church. So it was concluded they needed a 2nd story so the girls could stay home & a be able to stay with the Spring Invasion Girls. Our MAYM Adult team went in December. I thought it would be warm in Mexico, Wrong-Wrong-Wrong!! It was in the mid-30's. I wore the same long sleeve shirt for 2 weeks. Mary had warned me to take some warmer clothes but I brushed it aside. The only space heater was kept in the house when working & the Church where several slept. Larry Sangals & I slept in a house that was almost finished being remolded, but with no heat & we slept with our clothes on to stay warm. We did a lot of sheet wall application, finishing & painting, lots of electrical work, built a stairway to the 2nd floor and enclosed it. We accomplished a lot, but the faster we worked the warmer we stayed.
ARE WE GOING TO KNOW PEOPLE IN HEAVEN----A question I have heard often over the years is, “When we get to Heaven are we going to know people we knew on Earth?” I believe the answer is yes & it stems from a dream I had 15-17 years after Mary & I were married. It stared with questions & thoughts rather than an image. “Why has it been so long since I have seen Her?” “I don’t remember when I last saw Her.” “We didn’t get divorced.” “We never separated.” “I never quit loving her.” “Where is she, why has it been so long since I have seen Her?” Then thoughts & images started coming together. “Maybe she’s at the Dairy Farm looking for me, & I saw myself walking into the empty dairy barn & seeing the phone on the wall. I think, ‘I will call her’, so I call the number she & her mom had in Argonia, no one answers. I think, ‘maybe she will be at 518 S. Main’, where they lived when we dated, an image appears of me going to the house, it is empty. I then think, ‘is she at school’, I go to & I see an empty school parking lot. I wonder, ‘’ Is she at the Mayfield farm?’’ I see myself walking up to the farmhouse but no one is there. I then think, ‘’ Is she in Mayfield?’’ The next picture in my mind is of a large crowd in Mayfield. As I walk towards the crowd I wonder, are they having a parade or picnic. And then I see Mary. Her back is to me, but I know it’s her and she looks like she is 19 or 20, not in her 30's. She is talking to Gene & Maxine Heasty & other people. All thoughts stop & I see myself walking up behind her, to speak to her. As I approach I hear her laughing & talking. Then the dream stops with the image of me standing a couple of steps behind her, waiting for a break in the conversation, waiting for a chance to say her name. All the span of missing time that I had felt at the beginning of the dream was gone. All the questions were gone. It all ended with the thought, “ I’ve found Her!” Am I convinced we are going to know people in Heaven? Yes I am.
FRANKLIN GRAHAM CONCERT-----When I was working at Cessna and Mary was Bookkeeper at the Yearly Meeting office we noticed a piece in the Wichita Eagle newspaper asking people to be part of a city wide choir that would sing as a part of a Revival by Franklin Graham, son of Evangelist Billy Graham, at the Kansas Coliseum. Mary & I called & signed up. We went to practices for several weeks in a row. About the time of the Concert Mary suggested we should take my mom to sing. I made some comment about she hadn’t practiced. Mary said she knows some of the songs & reads music so no biggie! When we mentioned it to Mom she came up with all these reasons not to go, but you could tell she really wanted to. So we convinced her we could get her there in a wheel chair she knew some of the songs already & she could read music, so we took her. We got her seated & were given concert t-shirt which we didn’t know we were getting but slipped over our shirts and blouses. All the way home from Wichita to Argonia all mom could talk about was how amazed she was to have been in a huge choir of hundreds of people for a person who was known all over the world for Mission Work and Revivals.
PRISON MISISTRY—Mary & I was involved in Prison Ministry for a time. Gary and Connie Young, Pastor Mike’s Father & Mother in-law & a few other MAYM couples we know in Wichita were involved in a Prison Ministry. They invited Mike, who invited Mary, I and George Light to start a team. The 4 of us went to Eldorado, Ks, for a period of time, a year or two. We would stop in Eldorado for fast food afterwards so we had a time to visit too. Mike would give a short sermon, the rest of us would read scripture & we would lead singing. In visiting with them it was hard to see them as criminals. Many grew up in similar situation, drove old vehicle you once drove, had similar tastes in music & movies, they’d had jobs similar to you. Most somewhere along the line had just made a foolish decision that got them in trouble with the law. There was a Nation Wide program that invited lots of Ministry Teams to join their program, many of the Wichita people we know were involved and that took us to Winfield, Hutchinson & Wichita. After awhile Mike quit asking us to go & as far as I know he wasn’t going with the Wichita people. I never heard an explanation why we quit and I never ask. I did enjoy going & felt we were doing a worthwhile ministry so I was sorry it ended so soon.
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| Jason, Larry, Patrick-Cripple Creek, Colo. |
Going to the Lake of the Ozarks meant staying at Temple Resort. Renting a ski boat and going out on the lake to go tubing, skiing or just boating. The Clown Restaurant for boats was an unusual place. The dock was always rocking from passing boats as you sat at a table eating Burgers, fries, or onion rings. Sitting on the front row at the Ozark Opry listing to Ozark Music & Comedy is a rare treat. Miniature golf & Fort Osage Amusement Park was always fun. The best catfish dinners are to be found with the fish fresh from the lake.
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| Mini golf at Lake of the Ozarks |
Going to the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore & Yellowstone Park was an interesting vacation. The Pony Express Station in Nebraska was neat. It is the only museum I ever visited that had costumes & artifacts to dress up in & take pictures. I don’t remember where this one campground was, maybe S. Dakota or Wyoming, I only remember it was on top of a hill with no windbreak or trees & cold as the dickens & the tent blew down so that it was more like a cover than a tent. The Flintstones Kids Park was one of a kind. All the things at the Wall Drugstore in Wall, S. Dakota was interesting & covered blocks. Climbing the rocks in the Badlands was fun. Paul climbing the big rock at Devils Tower parking lot and proudly proclaimed, “I climbed the Rock! It was so cute. Having several days to
explore Yellowstone National Park was great. We hiked around the geysers & mud pots which was fun & I led the family in singing old Army Jody songs, modified of course. As a kid I seem to remember we only had time to spend one day in Yellowstone Park. We saw Old Faithful erupt only once. Our family saw it multiple times. On Sunday the Minister timed his sermon around the eruption of Old Faithful.
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Wall, South Dakota |
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| Larry, Paul, Jonathan hiking the trails of of Yellowstone singing Army Jody songs [revised addition of course] |
Mary has been asking if there was going to be a Sequel to this story. I said any sequel is going to come out with the original. So here are some stories I added at the last minute before final printing.
WHEAT HARVEST TIME—Looking over the story I see there wasn’t much mentioned about wheat harvest. So I’m adding a section here. The Dairy Farm wheat harvest has memories of the old combine pulled by a tractor. It had a motor mounted on the combine, it had a push button starter. You started the motor & pushed a lever starting all the parts in motion. The combine wheels were not all large tires so it often bogged down when it rained during harvest and the wheat was dry but the ground still wet. I know, it always seems to rain during harvest! The combine would start to bog down & the tractor would get stuck because it couldn’t pull the combine through the wet spots. We had some log chains, but what I mostly remember was about a 75 foot, 1 1/4 “ cable. We’d hook the cable to the tractor pulling the combine & to another tractor on solid ground, hopefully, We’d try to pull out the combine & tractor. Sometimes it worked, other times
the tires would dig down & you’d have two tractors stuck. We would reposition the pull tractor, unhooked it would drive up out of the holes, & hook a second tractor to the helper tractor, usually with a shorter chain & you had 3 tractors trying to pull the combine out of the mud. All tractors would have to start pulling at the same time or one would get stuck & ruin everything. We’d get all the tractors in gear & at Dad’s shout everyone would engage, or let out, on the clutch at the same time. I probably don’t need to say that didn’t always work, also the throttles all had to be set about the same or one tractor would be pulling harder & bury itself. Sometimes the front tractor would be on really dry ground & instead of the wheels settling down and griping the ground they would spin on the hard dirt & that would create a bouncing affect. You had to hang on for dear life as when things started moving the tractor was need to pull so you let it bounce. At times it bounced so much you were afraid you'd fall & you had to take it out of gear momentarily. When everything was together & the timing was right then the old combine would come dragging out of the mud making big ruts as it came.
the tires would dig down & you’d have two tractors stuck. We would reposition the pull tractor, unhooked it would drive up out of the holes, & hook a second tractor to the helper tractor, usually with a shorter chain & you had 3 tractors trying to pull the combine out of the mud. All tractors would have to start pulling at the same time or one would get stuck & ruin everything. We’d get all the tractors in gear & at Dad’s shout everyone would engage, or let out, on the clutch at the same time. I probably don’t need to say that didn’t always work, also the throttles all had to be set about the same or one tractor would be pulling harder & bury itself. Sometimes the front tractor would be on really dry ground & instead of the wheels settling down and griping the ground they would spin on the hard dirt & that would create a bouncing affect. You had to hang on for dear life as when things started moving the tractor was need to pull so you let it bounce. At times it bounced so much you were afraid you'd fall & you had to take it out of gear momentarily. When everything was together & the timing was right then the old combine would come dragging out of the mud making big ruts as it came.
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| The old 40' boxcars we had to couper to ship wheat. |
Some old wooden grain doors were still in use but not many. With wooden grain doors you nailed two on each side at the door openings an easy task. They were 3 feet wide so nailed up it made a wall 6 feet high. This was pretty quick and easy. By far the most common way, consisted of nailing a board 1 & ½: x 10” by 12 ft. at the top & bottom of the door frame. A heavy cardboard grain door [9’ wide, 6’ high].was added. It had straps through the card board, about 6 inches apart. All straps were nailed to the door posts, a 4x4. There were four straps on each side, [8 per door] that required adding extensions [4 ft. long] that were also nailed to the walls of the boxcar. These straps started about 18 inches from the floor [spaced about 6’’ apart] & stopped a little over 3 feet from the floor. [That area was where the pressure of the grain was the greatest.] Other straps went all the way to the top. This set up was required on both sides of the car as. Two kinds of nails were used. # 16 commons were used to nail the boards. A #8 double headed nail was used to nail all the straps.
The double headed nail was used so it was easy to clean out the car after unloading the wheat at the Mill. A huge fist like ram punched holes in the cardboard doors. The car was on a huge platform that tilted the car slightly sideways and tipped it from end to end a little so the wheat would run out. Someone had to pull out all nails and get rid of the boards, metal straps and cardboard and put in new material to be used at the Elevator. It was not unusual though for cars to arrive at the elevator with all the broken stuff inside. I think when people working at the Mill got tired of cleaning out boxcars or behind schedule they just put in the new material and let the train pick them up anyway.
With the pressure to get the cars completed quickly so you could load wheat I bought a 28 oz. hammer. I got to the point I could drive a #16 nail in 3 blows, 1 to set it and two to finish. I would drive the double headed nails two hits. I DID NOT want to miss on the first hit. I usually didn’t but once in awhile I would. It would take days for the thumb to even think about starting to stop hurting. For days I could only hold a nail with the 2nd and 3rd finger, kinda like holding a cigarette, instead of with the index and thumb. On the first time I’d just switch fingers and go on. That was kinda awkward and scary as you didn’t hold it as securely, sometimes the thumb would get hit again, even just a glancing blow was still enough to set me hopping all over the boxcar. I’d have to stop for a minute or so to regain my composure. If the second miss hit the thumb good it was really terrible.
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| Cheryl, Mary, Matt, Dad, Alan going over combine before harvest. |
One field had light poles going through it. Dad would drill as close to the poles as possible, when harvest came he wanted every stalk of wheat cut. You’d hear about it if not. On one side of the header there were a kind of knuckles that moved the header sickle back & forth. Fully in it was past the header side and protected, out it was a few inches outside the header, fully exposed. Get too close and hit the pole & the knuckles would break which happened all to frequently, no matter how hard you tried to avoid it. If you stayed a safe distance that left wheat stalks uncut. So it was a No Win, No Win, situation. Dad would get antsy if the sickle got broken & antsy if there was wheat left standing. It happened often enough that I started going around the pole only with the side opposite of the knuckles, if you brushed the pole with that side of the header you just lost a little paint, if there was any left, or bend the side of the header a little but it didn’t break anything. At first I would go around the pole on which ever side was the closest but that would mean risking a breakdown. I despised those light poles! I’d get anxious every time I came up to one. Another thing I noticed was they almost never came up on Dad's round, always on mine. I always had a sneaking suspicion that some times he cut his swath narrow by the poles.
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| Arlene, Jonnie, Lloyd, Larry at a Wichita Reunion |
The reunion included Paxson, Bostic, Burden, Bell & Yeager relatives. There would be 100-120 people show up. We would gather for a group photo & you’d have to take 3 pictures to get everyone in. There were always big workup softball games for the kids. There would be someone on all bases, sometimes even a shortstops in the infield. At least 6-7 outfielders & that many batters. The men would either pitch horseshoes or join the ball game. The women would sit around the picnic tables & visit. There were also 2 August Reunions. One was just the Paxson bunch plus Frank & Mary Ginder’s Family. It was held mostly in the parks in Oxford, Ks. Another one that included Paxsons, Bells & Burdens was held at Riverdale & Belle Plaine, Ks. I remember these reunions as having unusual foods made by Great Aunts, or grandmothers. Things like Green Tomato Pie, Rhubarb Pie, and Persimmon Pudding. I suppose the big Wichita Reunion faded away by the time I was in my mid-20’s. The other two lasted until after Mary and I were married & after some or all of the boys were born.
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