Ramona: Haunted house a spooktacular success
By JESSICA GILBERT
Ramona correspondent
(785) 965-2621
Four Ramona city council members — Jeannie Weber, Art Stroda, Angel Harold, and Jayme Brunner — and Ramona Volunteer Fire Chief Alan Bentz, and assistant chief Tonya Stroda, have been the team leading the effort to create the haunted house experience in Ramona. Even folks outside of Ramona were involved in the creation.
"Tonya and Fred Lewis of Herington — they're my husband's cousins — were very involved in creating the displays," said Angel Harold, who was in charge of getting people to play the scary inhabitants of the haunted house. "I pulled in lots of our friends to help — most of them live in other towns." This core group of dedicated folks has been working diligently for more than a month and their efforts were rewarded this past Friday and Saturday nights as folks lined up to have the "ghostly" experience.
The haunted house and hayrack ride were a joint effort between the Ramona Park Improvement committee (which is raising funds to build bathrooms in the city park) and Ramona Volunteer Fire Department.
It's exciting to see Ramona's Main Street congested with cars — parked here, there, and everywhere — to come and have this Halloween experience.
The week before the haunted house opened, Jeannie, Tonya, and Art headed down one evening to put the finishing touches on the house when they had a spooky experience of their own — somebody had draped a very large dead critter, a gigantic beaver, over the barricade in front of the haunted house. I was immediately summoned to take a picture.
"Well it seems slightly appropriate since y'all have been working like busy beavers to get the haunted house ready," I joked as I lined them up for a portrait with the stately animal. The camera had barely clicked and Tonya was on the phone trying to solve the mystery of who'd left this most unusual "calling card."
The scarecrows still were providing fun and entertainment for folks through Halloween weekend. Tony Meyer and I were in Hillsboro Thursday where I spoke with residents of Hillsboro hospital's long-term care about how the Scarecrows on Parade event was started. After my presentation some of the group went on a tour through Scarecrow Country — Ramona, Tampa, Lost Springs, Lincolnville, and Burdick. Tony Meyer was along for the ride — I'd driven him to get his toenails trimmed at Marion Senior Center — and I figured his presence at the long-term care facility would make it more interesting for folks since later in the afternoon they'd see a scarecrow likeness of Tony on Ramona's Main Street. They could judge just how accurate Pat and I were when we created "Tony with his walker" — which is a little joke, because Tony never uses his walker — it's just a "prop" once a year when we put up his scarecrow.
I was getting oil put in my car at Cardie Oil in Tampa and while I stood watching I happened to look up. "Another scarecrow!" I exclaimed. There, high in the air, dangling over the sign announcing the price of gasoline was a scarecrow — a darn clever one — and I doubt the judges saw it either. I think that's what has been so much fun about Scarecrows on Parade — there are surprises at every turn!
Ramona's had some interesting guests this past week. Sharon Cooper and her son, Kurt Sauer, both of Denver, stayed at our Jake's Place guest house while visiting Sharon's brother, Mike Beltz, who's one of Ramona's farming families. "I came to see family, and I also want to do a little work out at the home place," said Sharon.
"We want to fix the homestead house so it's livable again," said Mike when I spoke to him about his sister's stay. "We want family to be able to enjoy the place again."
Sharon's son, Kurt has fond memories of summers in Ramona. "I was out here helping with harvest every summer until I was 20 or so," said Kurt. "I was even invited to join a partnership in running the farm, but I wanted to be a teacher so I left for college." Then he smiles that wry smile that appears as we get older and look back on our dreams and plans. Kurt laughed slightly and added, "and then I ended up in the retail business!"
Two nephews of Thural Brehm stopped Oct. 23 by the little museum we have at our office at 301 D in Ramona. Over the year we've heard Thural's name mentioned so many times as folks tell stories of the past. So to meet some of his family — two nephews, Bob and Royce — was great fun for us.
Bob and Phyllis Carlson from Overland Park, were the tour guides for cousins Royce and Phyllis Saltzman of Eugene, Ore. As an aside, I found it curious that cousins Bob and Royce both married women named Phyllis. "That's not all," said one of them. "We're all cousins!" Bob and Royce are cousins and Phyllis and Phyllis are cousins.
Bob's mother was Faith Brehm, who died in 2002. We'd been inquiring about Faith earlier this year because on the Ramona High School alumni records, she would have been the oldest living alumnus.
"Here's Mom's picture!" exclaimed Royce as he looked through the photographs of graduates from Ramona High School. Royce's mother, Erma Brehm graduated in the class of 1918.
Bob and Royce produced pictures of their great-grandparents' home — Samuel Haldeman family — and when we saw the photographs my sister, Pat, exclaimed, "It's the Gables," which is what we used to call the house on 5th and B when our Lorei cousins owned it. The house has changed since this photograph was taken in 1904, but the telltale gabled windows on the second floor still are there.
The Thompson children now look out the gable windows in this stately home at 501 B, where Jim Thompson and his family reside.
The Saltzmans and Carlsons also had visited Abilene earlier Sunday. "I was born there," said Royce, "and haven't been back for many years. We also went to the Eisenhower Museum. We have connections to the Eisenhower family, too."
If I understood it correctly, Sam Haldeman married Catherine Eisenhower, who was a sister to David Eisenhower, who was Ike's father. They had 11 children, one of whom was Lily Haldeman, who married Sam Brehm. One of their daughters was Faith (Bob's mother) and another was Erma (Royce's mother).
There are things that happen in the country that just don't happen anywhere else. This might seem like a trite statement, but this thought is one of the very reasons I moved from Sacramento, Calif., to Ramona. The country life offers moments that remind us of a more simple and gentle era.
Some "city kids" from Herington recently had such an experience when they experienced a hayrack ride with Belgian horses pulling the load. It all began when Barbara Stokes, office manager at Tatge Mfg. in Ramona, and also youth director of First Christian Church in Herington, planned an outing for the church kids and Ramona was part of the plan.
"The shelter house at the lake was booked and the kids were so disappointed that we were canceling our outing, so I decided to bring them to Ramona's park instead for hot dogs and 'smores," said Barbara. There were 35 kids and about 11 adults at the event.
"Barbara wanted a hayride and I thought of my brother, Jonas, who has a new team of Belgians that he wanted to try out," said David Frantz, plant manager at Tatge's in Ramona. "Those horses are huge — 18 hands high."
Jonas Frantz lives in rural Tampa, so after eating, the group caravanned from Ramona to Jonas's farm and loaded on the hayrack. "The ride was awesome!" said Ramona resident Angel Harold, who also works at Tatge's and came to join the fun. "It was a bit chilly — especially when Jonas got the horses to trot, but those horses are beautiful!" enthused Angel.
When I suggested we create an event where Jonas's horses could be featured, Angel chimed right in. "I was just talking to Dave about that — I want to find an old-fashioned sled that the horses could pull — wouldn't it be fun at Christmas to have a sleigh ride and hot cocoa?" And I could imagine it all. "Now we just need to order some snow for Christmas!" I replied.
And that's the news from Ramona were we're dreaming of snow (but only if we can have an old-fashioned sleigh ride) and a traffic jam is two parked cars and a dog in the road!
