Ramona
By JESSICA GILBERT
Ramona correspondent
(785) 965-2621
Last Week's News
Everyone but the Lion and Tin Man were at Dorothy's surprise 80th birthday party in Ramona this past weekend. Red glittering shoes were plentiful as Dorothy (Dillon Schubert) Riffel celebrated with family and friends in the city park.
"I thought I was going to Colorado for the weekend," said Dorothy when I asked if she was surprised. "But instead I ended up in Ramona with all my family here to celebrate."
Dorothy's birthday is technically in November, but getting everyone together at Thanksgiving (when they'll celebrate again) wasn't going to be possible. October was a time when most of the kids and grandkids could be here. So "the girls" — Dorothy's daughters, Kris, Mary, and Jeanie — set to work planning the party and keeping loads of secrets.
When Jeanie went to get Dorothy Friday, Dorothy had packed her suitcase thinking she was heading to her son Fred's place in Colorado. (As it turned out, the packing wasn't in vain since Dorothy went home with Fred after the celebration.)
Dorothy's daughters had quite a twisted and convoluted story cooked up as to why Dorothy had to go through Ramona before heading on to Colorado. After all, Salina, which is where Dorothy lives, is right on I-70 going west! But Dorothy accepted their reasoning and arrived in Ramona around 6 p.m. Friday.
When Jeanie and Dorothy rolled up in front of Cousin's Corner B&B, sitting on the porch were all her children: Kris Clayton from Fayettville, N.C., Mary Franz from Olathe, Frank from Scottsdale, Ariz., and Fred from Evergreen, Colo. Jeannie, who was with Dorothy, is from Overland Park.
But the real surprise came minutes later when a pickup stopped in front of the house and Dorothy's grandchildren and great-grandkids all rolled out of the truck. "All but one of her grandchildren were here," said Mary Franz. "She was definitely surprised!"
"When we asked Mom last year what she wanted for her 80th birthday, she said, 'I just want my family around me,' so that's what we decided to do," said Kris.
After the initial shock of seeing everyone, Dorothy and her family followed the yellow brick road to the Ramona Café, where the Andusses prepared a special pork chop dinner. "It was really delicious — they went all out," said Mary.
Ramona was a proper location for Dorothy's party, since a good deal of Dorothy's life was spent in and around here. The birthday party invitation created by Kris, was covered by a gigantic sunflower and in the center was a picture of Dorothy, perched on a swing at the Ramona grade school where she, Orvell Brunner, and Gertie Schubert all taught school.
Orvell and her family were at Saturday's birthday party in the park, but the third "teacher-musketeer," Gertie, wasn't up to the long trip from Colorado. I often heard my aunt Gertie tell the story about when these three lovely single ladies arrived in Ramona to teach.
"They used to say that we walked into town and took all the most handsome bachelors," giggled Gertie with satisfaction. Dorothy married Martin Schubert, Gertie tied the knot with Martin's cousin, Hank, and Orvell captured Lauren Brunner's heart.
Another of Dorothy's dear friends, Naomi Fike, attended the party with her daughter, Virginia. Naomi, Dorothy, Gertie, Orvell, and Paula Fike were the "Faithful Five" and such fast friends they had a standing appointment to celebrate birthdays together. Even when Dorothy lived in Salina, the group would gather for lunch at a restaurant to celebrate each other's special day — a ritual that has ended as health issues impinge.
The fried chicken luncheon, served by Dorothy's daughters who all wore blue pinafores and red glittering shoes, was spiced with great conversation and stories as friends and family shared memories. "I told Dorothy that it seemed like they'd have a baby, and then we would. And we both ended up with six, although Kenneth and I lost one early on," said Naomi Fike.
There were even some "revelations" over lunch. "Oh, I had the biggest crush on Ann Brunner," admits Frank Schubert with a smile. "And she didn't even know it until today!"
Adding to Dorothy's birthday delight was the presence of her siblings: sisters Lois Schoemann and Jane Schwinn, both from Topeka, and their brother, Ralph Dillon, lives in Hope. You know the town of Dillon west of Ramona, on the way to Salina? Well, that town was named after Dorothy's grandfather.
Dorothy's birthday cake was decorated with a gigantic sunflower with red glittering shoes perched on top. The red shoes were a definite theme and lots of fun. "We went and got shoes at thrift stores and covered them with red glitter," said Kris. "We even found little tiny red shoes and bought all the little nieces a pair."
One of the gifts Dorothy received from her family, was a very thick photo album — her daughters spent hours "scrapbooking" Dorothy's life from birth through grandkids. There'll be a few more pages added, I'm sure, to commemorate this remarkable 80th event.
Ramona felt like "Oz" for a few hours on Saturday. Scarecrows were plentiful around town, since residents have been creating them to celebrate fall. And Dorothy's daughters clicked their red glittering heels and created a little magic in the park. There was even a Toto mascot — Mary's dog, Otis. There were no witches hiding behind trees on this sunny Saturday — just a park full of friends and family, celebrating an amazing, loved-filled life. (The Lion and Tin Man just must have gotten lost on a country road somewhere.)
There was one other person visibly missing from Dorothy's party and that was Paula Fike — one of the "Faithful Five" who celebrated birthdays together. But Paula had a celebration of her own to attend with Warren — the Fike Cousin reunion held in Phoenix, Ariz.
"It was a great event," said Naomi Fike's son, Joe, who attended the reunion with his wife, Janet. "I hadn't seen many of these cousins since I was a teenager and still living at home." Naomi's other son, Steve and wife, Maureen, also attended the Arizona reunion.
Joe said the event was planned by Duane Fike (Floyd's son), and Linda Perry (Ida's daughter). "The reunion was held at Linda's home," explained Joe, "and reservations were made at a nearby hotel so we could all stay near each other.
"Saturday evening we talked about our families and how we met our spouses — that was one of my favorite memories," said Joe. There is quite a span of age between all the cousins — three age groups, according to Joe. "My dad's the youngest son (Kenneth) and Warren's dad, Floyd, was the oldest child and there were 21 years between them," explained Joe.
On Sunday kids were seen scampering around the Lutheran parish hall and even from a distance I could recognize Jacob Jirak playing with his cousins. The event was a baptism celebration for the latest Jirak child — Ivan Valerian — born to Greg and Jackie (Tajchman) Jirak of Oakley, on the last Wednesday in September.
Ivan's middle name — Valerian — was his grandfather's name. Ivan's godparents are Seth Jirak and Chelsey Tajchman. Their role in little Ivan's life is to help him along in his spiritual journey.
The baptism service was held in Herington, followed by dinner at the parish hall. "Since most of the family lives around here, they brought the baptism to us," said Vickie Jirak, Jackie's twin sister.
I happened to see Vickie, Jackie, their mom, Theresa, and Vickie's daughter, Raschelle out "cruising" the streets on Sunday afternoon, checking out all the scarecrows. Raschelle was holding little Ivan, cuddling the next generation of Jiraks. I teased Jackie that after naming one of her sons, Pius, that Ivan was pretty tame!
By the way, last week I made a mistake that didn't dawn on me until after the newspaper went to press. Raschelle Jirak is attending Emporia State University, not K-State.
Tampa's mayor, Jim Clemmer, and his wife, Mary, were in town Sunday, and just leaving the Ramona Café, when they saw something quite shocking — Collin Bailey was down by the city shop with a spade in his hand. "What shocked them was that I was USING the spade!" laughed Collin.
Collin, along with Paul Jones, Ramona's maintenance man, was leading a troop of intrepid youngsters as they planted little sapling trees by the city shop and the city park. The work started with just Collin, Paul, and teenager Ben Thompson. But by the time they reached the park they were joined by Ben's siblings (Terren, Dallen, Cassie, and C.J.), Emily Staatz, and Molly Mercer.
"All went well and the young trees were soon planted," said Collin, "even after three-year-old C.J. Thompson bopped Paul on the head with a shovel handle and watered his brother, Ben, instead of the tree."
The dozen or so silver maple trees planted on Sunday were given to the Ramona Park Improvement Committee by Nate Bailey and Judy Gratz of Ramona. Nate, Collin, and Paul are all members of that committee, chaired by Jeannie Weber.
"The old-timers learned patience," said Collin. I guess Collin and Paul are now "old-timers" since they were the oldest in the planting crew. "And we also had the pleasure of passing on some knowledge to the young ones about the ways of nature."
Collin and Paul helped each child plant a tree in hopes that they'll watch out for it, take a little ownership of it, and protect it so it doesn't get pulled out.
And that's the news from Ramona where, as Collin says, "We're growing and working together," and a traffic jam is two parked cars and a dog in the road.
