Wordless Wednesday: Colorado Skiing - 1953

Faces From the Past -- A Picnic in Kiowa County

Once when I was very young, my grandmother, Beatrice Schmidt, and her sisters, Vi Dirks and Edna Schmidt, decided we should all go on a picnic out in the field near where they grew up. The group included those three and my Aunt Judi, my mom, my sister, Nancy, my brother, Arlin and I. We walked in a shallow creek bed for a good while and I think the reason the whole event sticks with me so well, is because we all found ourselves covered in leeches and had to peel them off of ourselves. Anyway, I found a few old slide photos of that day. My guess is it was the very early 1960s.

This one is one of my all-time favorite pictures.

Tuesday's Tip - Small Town Blogs and Websites

Some time ago I found a really interesting blog. I was googling for an obituary when this blog popped up. It is called "Too Long in the Wind"  and it is part of  Pawnee Rock.org. This blog has years of interesting tidbits about the area of Kansas that many of my ancestors lived in. While I never lived in Pawnee Rock, I have visited there on numerous occasions and have visited the cemeteries and taken many photographs. (see Find A Grave for my contributions in Barton County, Kansas).

The Mennonite settlement near Pawnee Rock has long been a part of my research and I've found I have a connection to almost everyone in the Bergthal and the Dundee Cemeteries.

This blog, by the website creator Leon Unruh, is both historical and contemporary and makes the community come alive. He links to other articles and obituaries and adds comments and stories for the people and places he is familiar with.  He includes photos - old and new and often includes letters and emails from other people. He talks about the town and how it has changed over the years. And of course he blogged about the Bergthal Mennonite Church closing.

The whole Pawnee Rock website is interesting and they even have scanned the entire 1950 yearbook from the high school!

Perhaps such a blog exists for your family's town! It is worth searching for. And if not, maybe it would be a great blog to start!

Thanks, Leon, for bring Pawnee Rock, Kansas to life for me.

Those Places Thursday - Kansas MCC Relief Sale, Hutchinson, Kansas - "The Junk Man"

The Mennonite Relief Sale in Hutchinson at the State Fair Grounds has been a part of my family for many, many years. I remember going when the auction was in the old sale barn. My grandparents, Beatrice and Harvey Schmidt, were almost always there. It was a time to see people from all around the state and even outside the state that you hadn't seen in awhile.

The sale is a charity sale - with all proceeds going to MCC - the missions branch of the Mennonite churches. There was always a quilt auction with quilts made and donated by churches and individuals. Plenty of other things get auctioned off as well, but the quilt auction has been a big draw for some time. But maybe even more of a draw than the quilts, is the food. Because, while not everyone can afford to bid on a quilt, everyone can enjoy the food.

We attended and enjoyed the sale during the years my grandparents were alive, but after they died, the sale took on a new meaning. My dad had worked out an agreement with his dad, Harvey, regarding the years and acres of accumulation of stuff. Grandpa Harvey loved auctions and there was more than a little stuff piled up on his farm. Someday I'll write more about that.

One of the first years

But for now, it is enough to say that Dad and Grandpa came to an agreement that what the family did not want, could be sold at auction with the proceeds going to MCC. So after Grandpa died, Dad took on the project of taking several trailer loads of stuff to the MCC sale in Hutchinson every year and selling it. Dad was fondly known as the "junk man" at the sale and people looked for him and his stuff every year.

He sold old tools, wheelbarrows, buckets, wagons, tractor seats, pumps, jacks . . .the list goes on and on. Any number of things in just about any condition. Many people used these rusty items as yard art. Occasionally someone would find something they'd been looking for - a particularly collectible tool or hood ornament.

These pictures were taken in some of the last years and by the looks of it, they were taken at the end of the two-day sale.

One year they made the news in the Hutchinson paper's coverage of the sale.

The sale was always a great place for family from all over the country to meet up and have fun. There are lots more stories and pictures from years of going to sales but I'll save those for another time.

Wordless Wednesday - Kansas Harvest Years Past

BIRTHDAY BIO - Phyllis Egli Schmidt - The Early Years

Last year I wrote about Mom on her birthday and today I am going to write a little more about her early life. I have learned things about my parents since their deaths because I have been going through old pictures and letters and miscellaneous documents. It has been an interesting journey and there are so many things I wish I could ask them.

Mom kept several scrapbooks when she was young that I don't remember ever seeing when she was alive.

Some had lots of photographs and some were pictures that she had cut from magazines.

Fortunately she wrote about the photos and the people in them.

    

Phyllis, Harris, Tom

Many of them were pictures of her with her siblings and her cousins.

Cousin Kathryn, brother Harris, Phyllis

Tom, cousin Richard, Phyllis, Harris

Phyllis lived near many of her cousins and they often talked of all the times they shared as kids. These pictures are a glimpse into that childhood.

Phyllis and her cousins, Sandra and Karol

BIRTHDAY BIO - Ken Schmidt 1932-2011 - The Early Years

Kenneth 1936

I started Dad's bio blog in 2013 on his birthday, and continue here . . . .

Kenneth 1935

Kenneth was the oldest child. His brother was two years younger and the two of them were constant companions as they grew up. They worked together on the farm, they went hunting and fishing and they went to school in a one room schoolhouse up the road from where they lived.

Ken and his brother, Lee, on bicycles

Harvey and Kenneth

Kenneth - first duck

The back of this photo says that Ken skipped school to go quail and duck hunting with his dad south of Coldwater.

 

1932 Chevy, Ken and Fred Smith

Ken liked cars. His early letters often mentioned that he had stopped at a dealership to look at the new cars.

Harvest - the boy in center is Ken

Ken with his sister, Judi and their dog

Kenneth's sister, Judith, was several years younger than her brothers. They thought the world of their adorable little sister, although I know they teased her as well.

One of Ken's school papers tells what he like to do . . .

Ken - school assignment "What I Like To Do"