Ramona
By JESSICA GILBERT
Ramona correspondent
(785) 965-2621
All it takes is a little sunshine and Ramona folks are out in the yard. Frances Buxman and her daughter, Linda from Abilene, were driving by our house on Main Street where Pat still has part of her October scarecrow display in the front yard. Linda and Frances thought they saw another scarecrow, but then it stood up and had a paintbrush in its hand. That was me — dressed much worse than the scarecrow nearby — painting the picket fence in front of The Ramona House where Pat and I lived until recently. (The house is being renovated to become our third guest house.)
Across the street David Staatz was tinkering in his yard, too. "This scene just doesn't seem right," I teased David. "Usually when the warm weather arrives and you're outside working, you're also broadcasting." It wasn't 60 seconds and David had his favorite music piped outside, and he was singing along.
In the park, David's brother-in-law, Art Stroda, was picking up twigs and limbs. "You getting an early start on the town cleanup day?" I asked Art, who was getting some assistance from two seven-year-olds — Nathan Young and C.J. Thompson.
"Well, we'll have to mow the lawn at the park before the town cleanup in May, so I figured we'd better get this picked up." Art is one of Ramona's council members.
As I painted through the afternoon my project was interrupted by the sound of a motorcycle. You know how the mind works — suddenly I was thinking of all the folks I know who ride motorcycles and wondering if it was them. Indeed it was one of the people I knew — Lyal Sader of Salina. I knew this because he drove north on Main Street and pulled into the property just south of the former high school, which is where his parents lived for many years.
I watched as he slowly walked around the property — there are no buildings there anymore — and I imagined the memories that the soil conjured. When he finally got back on his motorcycle to leave I waved and motioned him to stop. "It's so comforting to see you here," I said. "There's just something about this place," he replied wistfully. "I'd so like to live here someday."
Oh, how we'd love that, too. It's so comforting when the offspring of longtime Ramona residents return home.
That very thing happened a month or so ago when Trevia Schneider's daughter, Theresa Gehrke and her husband, Carl, moved from Herington into Trevia's home in Ramona. I stopped yesterday and chatted with Theresa when I dropped off the Ramona News.
"When the weather gets warm, you'll see a lot of us outdoors," she said smiling. "We love working in the yard — we plan to build a pond there," she said pointing.
We stood in the yard in silence for a moment. The only sound that could be heard was birds chirping. That sound reminded me of my summer visits to Ramona when I took the time to hear the birds and chat with neighbors. "I need to do this more often, " I said to myself as I walked toward my car. Then I turned and asked, "Do the trains sound like they're coming through the house?" since the house is near the tracks. Her smile was filled with warmth and nostalgia when she replied, "Oh, no. It's all just a part of coming home."
Betty Ohm was excited when her daughter Joey said they'd be coming home for Easter. "I called to give them the news that Harold and I are going to be great-grandparents and then she announced they'd be coming for Easter — lots of good news!" smiled Betty.
Betty was in Blair, Neb., this past weekend, visiting her grandkids, Craig and Kandi Heuton. Also there were Craig's parents, Brenda and Steve Heuton of Platte City. The reason for the gathering was to celebrate birthdays — Betty's was March 16, Steve's is March 23, and Craig's was Feb. 28 and nobody could celebrate with him because snowstorms kept family from traveling. It was during the birthday celebration that Craig and Kandi announced that there would be another birthday to celebrate — their first child is expected in October.
On Monday mornings the women of Ramona gather at the Ramona Café for coffee, danish, and chatting. On the 19th Betty told everybody the treats were "on her" in honor of her birthday. She couldn't be there because she needed to be with Harold, but her friends enjoyed the danish in her honor. Attending the morning coffee were Francis Buxman, Paula Fike, Orvell Brunner and her daughter Anne Koch of Wichita, Margaret Harris, Iona Dietrich, and Marlene Anduss, with Reign in the background warming danish and making coffee.
"Stay and have coffee with us," coaxed Marlene as she recited the list of danishes available — blueberry, apple, cherry. "I've got a column to write," I replied, resisting temptation. "I just came to get the news." I ran into Norma Bird as I walked past the post office. "Got any news Norma?" Norma always has news — she's a busy lady. "I was in Herington on Sunday to celebrate my granddaughter, Katrina's, birthday. She had a sleep-over with her friends — kids everywhere!" she laughed.
At the March 12 city council meeting, it was decided to hold another "Junk Funeral" (the fun name we've given the town cleanup event) again this year. A Dumpster will arrive May 14 for town residents to use in cleaning up their property. "We want Ramona living up to its old-time reputation of being 'a jewel-of-a-town' when Memorial Day rolls around," said Mayor Pat Wick. Residents are urged to clean up their property and then assist May 19 in doing cleanup and fix-up for the town. At the end of the day there'll be a picnic for everybody with a Ramona address. If the weather's great we'll party in the park. (It's the "wake" part of the Junk Funeral where we all celebrate the departure of junk!
The Ramona News, the quarterly newsletter for the town, just arrived from the printer. My sister pretty much writes this quarterly publication single-handedly. I add a page or two, but she can whip out 14 pages faster than I can create two! The featured family in this issue is the Wingerds. An anonymous donor from California sent the $100 that qualifies one as a sponsor, and they asked us to interview Dale Wingerd, who's a Ramona country-dweller, and living right next door to his son, Luke and family.
Interviewing the old-time families of Ramona is like digging for buried treasure. There's always such historical gold to be found. When we interviewed Dale and his wife, Barb, we learned that they live in the house that Dale has lived in since he was about five years old. "The old house was moved to a different spot on the property," said Dale. "The contractor soaped the boards and slid the house over onto a new foundation." They changed the pitch of the roof on the old farmhouse, of course, to match the new addition, but when you drive by this lovely home on Pawnee you'd never guess it was such an old structure.
The Ramona Café is back open again after a four-week closure because chef Reign was recovering from minor surgery. The world seems right again! We had quite a few guests at our guest houses who were eager to eat at the café during this four-week period. One group of four came from Missouri and distant places in Kansas, and stayed at Jake's Place.
"We get together with our friends every year over the Presidents weekend in February," said one of the guests. "We take Marci Penner's Kansas Guidebook and visit as many small-town restaurants we can — we eat each meal at a different place." The Ramona Café was, of course, on their list, but this time around they had to imagine what Marlene's cherry pie tastes like.
Firefighters Jeannie Goza and Paul Jones, spent Saturday taking their Firefighter I final exams. They've been taking classes since October. "We've passed the physical part of the test and will know by the end of the month the results of the written exam," said Jeannie.
On Sunday they were in Lincolnville with the burn trailer. "The burn trailer simulates different kinds of fires," explained Jeannie, "and everyone in the class had to take their turn at going into the burn trailer and putting out the fires. It gives us experience so we know better how to handle a real house fire."
Upcoming events in Ramona are the Bunny Hop egg hunt at 2 p.m. April 7 in the city park, for kids connected to Ramona.
The event is being led by Jeannie Goza, and Tooltime Tim plays the Easter Bunny.
The Ladies Tea in Ramona is happening May 12, Mother's Day weekend. The theme is "The Apron Caper." Pat and I have begun reviewing our large recipe book collection to decide what we cook this year — will it be the nutty scone or the chocolate one? Will it be marbled cheesecake or New York with strawberries on top? Decisions! Decisions! How delicious!
And that's the news from Ramona where a traffic jam is two parked cars and a dog in the road.
