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Ramona

By JESSICA GILBERT

Ramona correspondent

(785) 965-2621

In May there's an abundance of news — with graduations and Memorial Day events, — so I'm not surprised when my column has to wait its turn for newspaper space. Last week April's news reached you and here it is June already and I'm still trying to summarize May — is time moving faster than usual?

June is a perfect time to catch up, though, because the biggest thing happening this time of year is weddings and we don't have many of those in Ramona. We did have a Ramona lass get married (Andrea Kleiber married Dale Klenda) but that was in May too — May 19 and in Pilsen.

I so wanted to attend Andrea's wedding — even though her folks, Lynn and Peggy Kleiber moved to Salina awhile back, they will always be Ramona-ites to me — but that was the day the city council selected for town cleanup and as city clerk, I couldn't be absent because I was on the creek bed team.

But I did get the highlights of Andrea's wedding because the following morning my sister and I were fixing breakfast for our guests at Cousin's Corner and they just happened to be Andrea's aunts, uncles, and cousins. We heard about the gorgeous wedding cake, the bride's dress, and we even got to see pictures of the beautiful couple because Uncle Larry was an amazing photographer.

Tony Meyer got his picture in the McPherson Sentinel when he attended a special Rotary Club event dedicating the Globe Refiner basketball mural at the community building in McPherson. The mural honors the Globe Refiners basketball team of 1936, which received the gold medal at the first-ever inclusion of basketball at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany.

"They played right under Hitler's nose," said Tony Meyer with pride when he told me about the event. Tony was at those Olympic games — one of three Olympics he has witnessed. Tony also was a Globe Refiner team member when he worked at the refinery while attending McPherson College.

Tony was the only surviving basketball team member to be present at the May 11 celebration. Tony's good friend, Jim Socolofsky of Marion, attended this important event with Tony and was his chauffeur.

Usually I get to go with Tony to such affairs, but on that particular Friday I was baking Irish cream cakes and key lime Cheesecakes in preparation for the spring tea party the next day in Ramona.

The Apron Caper Tea was held May 12 at the Lutheran parish hall, with 85 in attendance; two of those were men — that was a first. Usually if there are men at the tea they are serving the guests or helping in the kitchen.

Richard Fenske was the Wichita guest and a few days ago I received a thank you note from him where he comments on the service provided by the young waiters — kids from Ramona, who ranged in age from 7 to 16.

"We so enjoyed Cassy (10 years), our server. After the first course she asked if we wanted anything else. I said 'I'd like a beer.' And she said she didn't know if there was any."

Later after another course, she again asked if there was anything else folks wanted. Being a tease, Richard said again, "I'd like a beer." Cassy placed her hands, palm down, one over the other, on the table, and then moved side to side. Richard said it was "like an umpire signaling 'safe'" and said Cassy said firmly, "There will be no beer!" Richard summed it up by saying "Cassy was a true joy!"

This tea was made much easier than any other because in addition to my sister, me, and Tooltime Tim, we had the help of our cousins Ed Lehman of Lawrence and Becky Peoples of Haysville, and our dear friend Kay Navrat of New Mexico who was visiting her mom in Marion. Kay wanted to attend the tea, but when she heard it was full, she offered to help in the kitchen instead.

John Holecek of McPherson was part of the team, too. John used to bring his aunt to the tea until she died — the last time she attended she was 100. We hadn't seen John in a couple of years, but happened to run into him at a recent WeKan Conference in Salina. It was there that he offered "a deal."

"I'll come serve at your tea if you'll go out on a date with me," proposed John. I accepted that win-win offer, and a couple of weeks after John fulfilled his part of the bargain at the May tea, he whisked me to Wichita for brunch at Yia Yia's, which was fabulous.

On May 18 the annual art show was held at Centre Elementary School. All the third and fourth graders in my sister's art classes had their work exhibited for their parents' enjoyment. Marissa Makovec of Ramona organized the reception which accompanies the art show.

Each year Pat selects a boy and girl from each class who has exhibited the best work for the year. This year, "Artist of the Year" was awarded to third graders Jacob Stoneberger of Tampa and Taylor Peterson of Lincolnville, and fourth graders Justin Bina of Pilsen and Shelby Makovec of Lost Springs.

Tony Meyer wanted to attend the McPherson Role of Honor dinner May 18 and once more I had a conflict. So Tony's great-nephew, Carl Bentz, took him to this annual dinner at McPherson College.

Tony was indecisive about whether he wanted to attend the dinner if I couldn't take him — I was used to the routine, the parking issues, and the endless speeches that occur at such events. For 24 hours he vacillated about whether he'd go. Cyndy Bentz of Tampa, Tony's niece, kept calling Tony, affirming that her son would take Tony to the dinner, but Tony just couldn't decide.

"I called one last time on Friday afternoon — Carl was out swathing — to urge Tony to attend and finally he said 'yes,'" said Cyndy. "I went out to the field to get Carl, traded places with him on the swather, and Carl got cleaned up and went to get Uncle Tony."

"I just didn't want to miss it," said Tony, who turned 95 this year.

On May 19, the city of Ramona held its annual Junk Funeral, which means that a Dumpster was in town for a week so folks could clean up their houses and yards, and a work bee was held May 19 to clean up the town.

Jayme Brunner and Billy Alcorn, with help from teenager Ben Thompson, spent the day trimming trees around town. Art Stroda continued his work building the bathrooms in the park and he had the structure ready for painting, which was undertaken by Stan Wiles and Jim Thompson. Tim Steinborn and David Staatz were helping Art putting the finishing touches on the bathrooms.

Another band of intrepid workers tackled the creek bed and trimming away the brush and small trees. Margaret Harris drove her "gator" while youngsters Cassy Thompson, Dallen Thompson, Terren Thompson, CJ Thompson, Nathen Young, and Dustin Rhodes, cut and loaded branches on the back. There was even help from four-year-old Mathew Madron who helped his grandmother, Marge Stroda, pick up branches and twigs.

"I just love doing projects like this," enthused Cassy Thompson, who was my assistant.

Jeannie Goza and Pat Wick did weed eating and spraying, and Marion County Economic Development director Teresa Huffman even arrived (with tools and equipment) and worked right along side the Ramona residents like Kim Young, Rohani Alcorn, and Donita Ryff.

Around 50 folks attended the evening meal at the park where Jim Thompson barbecued beef provided by Mike Beltz (a Ramona resident from the country). Musical entertainment was provided by Michael Mattson and Theresa Weaver of Salina — two talented musicians who visited Ramona more than a year ago and offered a concert as a gift to the community.

The park did look beautiful the morning of the Memorial Day picnic. I happened to be up early because we had to prepare breakfast for guests at our bed and breakfast. It was then that I saw Billy Alcorn out mowing, early in the morning, trying to get the finishing touches on the park before guests arrived for the noon luncheon.

Ramona's had to rely heavily on the support of volunteers in recent weeks because our dear maintenance man, Don Matkins, had open heart surgery May 15 — a quadruple by-pass. Fortunately all went well and Don is home recuperating. However, he's not able to perform his regular duties for about eight weeks, so folks around town, like Billy Alcorn, Tim Steinborn, David Staatz, and council members Jeannie Goza and Jayme Brunner have been assuming many of the mowing responsibilities. (There might be others that I haven't seen.)

They all volunteered their time. "It will help the city's tight budget," said Councilman Brunner, who spent many hours on the tractor and mower, getting Ramona streets looking spiffy.

Councilman Art Stroda was working every hour he could spare on getting the bathrooms in the park ready for use on Memorial Day weekend. What a victory to have the bathrooms functioning! Kudos to the Ramona Park Improvement Committee for raising the funds and especially Art Stroda and his band of workers who've build the structure.

Special thanks to the family of Jim Brunner, who gave $1,000 to the City of Ramona for the materials that built the walls and roof of the bathroom structure.

Another recent addition in the park was two barbecue grills, which were set in place by Paul Jones recently. He is treasurer of the Ramona Park Improvement Committee. The grills were made by David Franz, who lives outside Ramona, and is manager at Tatge Mfg. in town.

On the heels of our cleanup event was graduation for the Centre High School seniors. Ramona celebrated five graduates: Seth Jirak, Chelsey Tajchman, Jessica Deines, Thieen Antoszyk, and Chelsea Quesenbury.

Chelsea Quesenbury's life-long friend, Alyssa, from Colorado came for her graduation ceremony. "They've known each other since they were infants," said Chelsea's mom, Judy Bickford. Chelsea and Alyssa took off for Colorado after graduation and Chelsea's there now, so I had to talk with her mom to get Chelsea's future plans.

"Chelsea's a good artist and she wants to become a tattoo artist — which will probably take her to Kansas City for training," said Judy. "She already has the tattoo gun which she'll need to begin classes — I got her that for Christmas."

Thieen Antoszyk started his summer job before graduating — he's working at Wal-Mart in Junction City. Thieen plans to continue his education at Manhattan Technical School this fall where he's taking a two-year program to become an automotive technician. Thieen's name has been in the news recently for winning first place in the state powerlifting competition.

Seth Jirak's name also has been in all the area newspapers because of his prowess in track. Seth will attend Benedictine College in Atchison come August, where he received an impressive track scholarship.

Seth is majoring in education. "I'd like to teach high school," said Seth, when I asked his aspirations. When I asked about the gifts he received at graduation he said he got mostly money, and it's going toward a laptop computer. "I definitely need one of those for college," he said.

Seth's cousin, Chelsey Tajchman also graduated this year. Chelsey will move to Manhattan in August to enter the American Academy of Cosmetology, along with Jessica Deines, who also graduated this year. The two also will be roommates since they're "launching" into adulthood with their first apartment in Manhattan.

This summer, both Jessica and Chelsey are working at Herington Inn and Suites. They reported to work for training the morning after graduation.

For Chelsey's mom, Candace, graduation was an emotional event, because Chelsey is Clay and Candace's only child.

"I knew it would be emotional so I told people I'd probably need some champagne at the party!" joked Candace. "It didn't realty hit until the morning of graduation, because before graduation day Clay and I were going non-stop to get everything ready. Clay promised me when we moved into this house two years ago that everything would be 'ready to roll' by Chelsey's graduation. When I talked to Gayla (Deines) I found out the same thing was happening at their house!"

Candace asked Marissa Makovec, caterer, event planner, and co-worker at Centre Elementary, to give advice on the graduation party. "Marissa is something else! I just ask for advice and the woman pulls up in front of my house with a car full of decorations. She transformed the tables with beautiful displays featuring pictures of Chelsey."

Marissa was involved in lots of events that weekend. She made cakes for the Diepenbrock grad party, food for the Deines' party, decorations at the Tajchman house, and she was part of the Kleiber-Klenda wedding that weekend too.

"I told Dale's (Klenda) mother that I'd share my recipes with her. She's a long-time friend. I told her that I've got three kids and someday it will be payback time," laughed Marissa. "I like to build up credits like that with all my friends so that when I need help, I'll just call all my friends," she admits with laughter,

When I spoke with Jessica Deines about her plans to be a cosmetologist I asked, "So when you're licensed, will you move from the area?" Her comforting reply was, "Probably not." Her first customers will undoubtedly be her mom, Gayla, and grandmother, Leona Deines. I wish Ramona had enough population to have a salon!

The highlight of graduation ceremonies for Jessica was seeing the video presentation she created which showcased the graduating class. Most of the graduates have been in school together since kindergarten. As for the best graduation gift, "It was the pink digital camera!" replied Jessica.

For Teresa Tajchman this graduation was a "two for one special!" Two of her grandchildren were graduating — Seth Jirak and Chelsey Tajchman. "It was pretty special," said the proud grandmother.

Teresa recently had three stents put in place around her heart. "I'd been on a heart monitor for about a month and when the doctors looked at the results they called and said I needed to come in," explained Teresa. She entered the hospital for heart catheterisation and emerged with three stents in place.

"I was restricted for about two weeks, but now I'm free!" she says with enthusiasm. She didn't let any heart procedure keep her from yet another graduation on May 23 when grandson Jacob Jirak graduated from eighth grade.

Graduates from Ramona were Cole Svoboda, Tanner Brunner, Jacob Jirak and Emily Staatz. When the diplomas were presented, these young people also received other awards. In fact there were so many awards, they sounded like pedigreed racehorses.

Jacob Jirak received awards in basketball, track, football, band, scholastic achievement, Scholars' Bowl, Presidential Academic Fitness award, and Geography Bee participant.

Cole Svoboda: basketball, football, track, band, Scholars' Bowl, Presidential Academic Fitness award, and a special civilian award for citizenship.

Emily Staatz: Cheerleading, basketball and track

Tanner Brunner: football, basketball, track, Scholastic Achievement, Band, Scholars' Bowl, Presidential Fitness Award.

Coach Stan Wiles, who lives in Ramona, received a special award from the boys' eighth grade basketball team — a signed photograph from the team members when they won the Tri-County Basketball League Championship.

After graduations we looked forward to Memorial Day events.

Several properties in Ramona have marvelous peony patches. The suggestion was made at city council to offer peonies to people who can't get flowers to their loved ones' graves. So we advertised this opportunity in the Ramona News, and told people that for a donation of $10 or more, a lovely bouquet would be put at the cemetery on Memorial Weekend.

What a great success — the peonies raised nearly $200! "Who should be thanked are Anna Kristek and Jake Brunner who long ago planted the peonies that were sold," said Margaret Harris, who came up with the idea.

Steve Eskeldson officiated at the Lewis Cemetery Memorial Day service. Steve Hanschu of Emporia was guest speaker. Steve's parents are Ted and Aileen Hanschu. Aileen was present at the event (her husband Ted is deceased). Special music was presented by Lisa Hanschu, Terry Deines, Nikki Stenzel with accompaniment by Lori Moldenhauer. All either live or have lived in Ramona.

The Lewis Cemetery board (Mark Heiser, Steve Eskeldson and Junior Hanchu) also oversee the picnic in the park following the Memorial Day service. Donita Ryff has been involved in orchestrating the picnic for years, and helping serve fried chicken and iced tea were Barbie Hanschu and Myrna Eskeldson. (My apology if I missed somebody who helped — with so many folks, faces and names can sometimes elude me.)

So now the kids are graduated, the parties are over, the relatives have all gone home. Things are quiet once more on the streets of Ramona, where a traffic jam is two parked cars and a dog in the road.

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