Ramona
By JESSICA GILBERT
Ramona correspondent
(785) 965-2621
"What the heck is that clatter?" I muttered to myself this past Friday evening. I was talking on the telephone and I heard what I thought was a fire siren. "It's not storming out — there's no tornado, my house isn't on fire. So what's a fire truck doing in front of my house!"
I swung open the front door to investigate, and whom should I see, but Old Saint Nick, coming up my sidewalk. "Santa!" I exclaimed with delight. "Did you bring me a present?"
"Nope! I heard you haven't been good!" he teased. So I turned the tables, and handed Santa a fist full of peppermint candies. I figured I'd start being good right then and there and reverse my fortune for next year!
For the past couple of years Santa, played by Collin Bailey in a brilliant red Santa outfit, has visited the houses in Ramona. It was instigated by Connie Smith, who loves Christmas and wanted to do something for the kiddies of Ramona. Last year it was stockings filled with fruit, candy, and tiny toys. This year it was even more spectacular because Dan and Connie Smith bought age-appropriate gifts for each of the children in Ramona ages 10 and under. "We bought keyboards for some of the older children," said Connie, "and I told Paul, Collin, and Alan how to load them into the fire vehicle, but they had their own method." Then Connie laughs. "Every time we turned a corner those keyboards would start emitting music — it was rather chaotic until they all got delivered The Smiths, owners of DC Trucking, also gave a ham to each of the six families that have children in Ramona. The fire department decided to add a tin of Christmas cookies to the gifts.
Connie and her granddaughter, Bryanna, along with Paul Jones and fire chief Alan Bentz drove the fire truck for Santa and helped deliver the gifts. What fun it was to see Santa ambling up to my front door — I can just imagine how the little kiddies of Ramona felt to see his bearded face!
"The laughter, smiles, tears — it was all wonderful!" said Connie. "I love the element of surprise."
"That only happens in a small town," said my dancing buddy, Darrel. He was the one I was talking to when Santa arrived. I hadn't really stopped to think of that, but in bigger towns you couldn't stop at every house, or visit every child.
When Santa stopped at the Madron/Staatz home, the elves were certain nobody was home. But Santa insisted on going up to the door anyway. Suddenly from out of nowhere, there was a clatter and a huge semi-truck screeched to a halt next to the Madron household. Piling out of the truck was Vinnie, Jennifer, and the kids, who'd been out on the road together for a short trip (Vinnie is a trucker).
"As we came close to Ramona we saw this fire truck in front of our house with lights whirling," said Jennifer. "We thought either our house or the Harolds' house was on fire so we came whipping into town."
"Their serious faces only became more puzzled when they saw a crazy Santa on their front porch," said Connie. "Then we explained that we were out delivering presents."
For several weeks now Connie has been planning this surprise event for Ramona's children. She's also been talking to her four-year-old granddaughter, Bryanna, who lives with her. She told Bryanna about the "DC Trucking Santa" and told her that if she was really good she'd get to be one of Santa's elves.
"This event was a milestone for me," said Connie, "because not only did we get to make great memories for the kids of Ramona, but my granddaughter got to learn about the ultimate gift of Christmas — which is all about giving."
Christmas often brings out the generosity in us all. Like Connie, I enjoy the fun of giving and my favorite ritual is making breads, cookies, and cakes and delivering them around town. It's a goal that's attainable since we have only 40 inhabited houses in town.
It's even more fun if kids are involved so I called up Cassy Thompson, who's 10, and invited her to come bake with me for an afternoon. I love baking with Cassy — she's proficient in the kitchen. She knows things, like never lift the beaters out of the batter without turning off the mixer, roll cookie dough so that it's even all the way around, and she knows how to read a recipe and measure, without any assistance from me, which came in handy when right in the middle of making cupcakes I got interrupted by a Wichita Eagle reporter who wanted to ask questions about Ramona for an article she was writing.
We made more than a dozen beautiful plates of cupcakes and cookies (all wrapped in cellophane and tied with ribbon), and together we delivered them around town. We even had a couple trays of goodies for city council Monday evening and everybody took home a plate of goodies for their families.
We spent so much time together that around 6 p.m., Cassy's dad, Jim, stopped by my house and knocked on the door. "I just haven't seen my daughter in five hours, so I thought I'd check in," he said as we handed him a plate filled with cake and cookies to take home to the gang.
And it wasn't just the fun of baking that made the afternoon magical. It was all the surprises, too. Mid afternoon, as Cassy and I were enjoying a glass of ginger ale and sherbet while cupcakes baked in the oven, there was a knock at my door and friends from Belleville (we see each other every Wednesday night at the Jolly Mixer Dance in Salina), were standing at my door. "We were on our way back from Texas and thought we'd see where you lived," said Janice with a mischievous grin. "Come on in," I said. "Come have ginger ale and cookies."
Later there was another knock at the door and it was Bill and Rohani Alcorn of Ramona. "We brought you a little something for your new house," said Rohani, as she handed me a bag. Now, my house isn't exactly new — we used it as a guesthouse when we first bought it from Erich Utech's family. But back in September I was telling the Universe that I wanted a home of my own. (After all, when Pat and I moved here, I didn't really ponder what it would be like to live out my life sharing a tiny little house with my sister — we each have enough stuff to fill a couple of houses. )
It was during one of my morning meditations, when I was again visiting the issue of "wanting a house," that I heard the answer. It was as if God was laughing and saying, "Well, you've got three houses — pick one!" So I picked our newest guest house acquisition — Erich's on E Street. It's right behind the house where Pat resides, so we are within a hop, skip, and jump of each other, and Mom as well.
"Come help me decorate my house with lights," I said to Pat last week. I had visions of how lovely lights would look on my roof peak.
Together Pat and I put the extendo-ladder in place, but alas the peak was unreachable. "We could always hang the lights where we always have," consoled my sister. But I had seen in my mind how those icicles would look hanging from that peak, and I didn't want to give up.
"I know!" I said with confidence. "I just need to climb on the roof. I filled my pockets with supplies, draped lights around my neck, confidently climbed the ladder, and scooted onto the roof. As I started to scootch up the roof, my confidence dropped in direct proportion to the steepness of the grade. "This is very stupid to take such a risk," I said aloud as I climbed back down the ladder and stood in front of the house, peering up at the peak.
I paced around for a bit and knew I would be disappointed every time I looked at the "light job" if there were no lights on that peak. So I ascended again. "This is nothing but fear," I said to myself. "I will not stop until lights are on that peak!" I inched my way up, and to keep myself from negative thought I began singing "Climb Every Mountain," — that was my high school graduation class song — and to keep myself laughing I changed the words: Climb every rooftop, hang all the lights, gather all your courage, sparkle-up the night."
I was nearing the peak, when I realized I hadn't brought enough strings of lights up with me. "Throw up a box or two," I said to my sister, standing below. She attempted to throw — the box went straight up and straight down. "Try again," I said. This time the box went up, and hit the edge of the roof, and then back down. "It's clear why the Ehrhardt girls never got chosen first to be on the baseball team!" I said laughing.
"You need to reach out and grab them when I send them up," retorted my sister. "Right — I'm barely keeping my balance on the side of this roof — don't expect me to be reaching out for anything or I might be falling straight down with that box of lights!"
Now, after my light triumph I sure do "oooh and ahhh" at other folks' lights — especially if they've decorated the peak! "I feel like I should send them a thank-you note for their effort," I said to Pat as we viewed lights in Abilene the other night. "I can appreciate what it took to reach those peaks!" (Many much higher than mine.)
Theater productions and going out to dinner is another of our favorite holiday rituals. We did that this past Thursday night. Pat, Tooltime Tim, and my dancing partner, Darrel Wineinger of Belleville, went to see "A Laura Ingals Wilder Christmas" at the Great Plains Theater in Abilene. The highlight of the evening was the dinner we had before the play, at a new restaurant in Enterprise. It's called Michaels and it's on Main Street.
I'd met Michael and his wife, Lynn, a year ago because I stopped to have a gourmet cup of coffee at their L&M Market when I took my mom to church every Saturday. Michael is a warm and outgoing guy and I'm a talker too, so before long we were sharing stories of our dreams and how we landed in Kansas. (Michael is Canadian and met his wife over the Internet — they were card partners for years.)
While I savored great coffee Michael told me of their dream to create a bakery in the building they owned next door. Since I adore pastries, I savored hearing this dream — I could almost taste the croissants and Danish.
A few weeks ago I was startled to see an "open" sign where the restaurant was located. "How did this happen so fast?" I asked Michael. "My wife's family came for three weeks and finished all this," he said, pointing to the painted walls, new bathrooms, and lovely flooring.
Pat and I had Saturday morning breakfast — omelets with indescribable cheeses, Danish that was so flaky it melted in my mouth, and coffee that has texture!
We returned last week for our first dinner experience. It was tremendous — cordon bleu chicken with Michael's own signature sauce, an endless supply of his homemade breads.
Johanna Brunner Kaiser celebrated her 105th birthday Dec. 10. I was there, along with other Ramona residents, like her cousins, Lauren and Orvell Brunner. Johanna has seen some amazing things in her lifetime. When she was 11 the Titanic sank. She was 17 when Prohibition arrived, and 19 when women won the right to vote.
As I savored Johanna's yummy chocolate birthday cake made by Ramona resident, Marissa Makovec, I asked some of the guests sitting near me what they thought had changed the most during their lifetime. "Electricity arrived around 1946 to the Kaiser farm," said Eldon Beneke. "The lines were in place just two miles east of Lincolnville and then WWII erupted and the work stopped. There were no materials to continue the work because everything was used for the war effort."
"Electric blankets are one of the great inventions," chuckled Betty Beneke. "When I was a kid we had bricks warmed on the stove and then wrapped in a towel. But by morning, they weren't so hot anymore! They were downright cold!"
"The arrival of television is what I recall," said the Rev. Gene Hicks of Herington. "We got TV in Ramona around 1952-53. We bought our first television from Jack Anderson who had a small hardware store in the post office building. He also was the postmaster."
Cousin Lauren Brunner said that the biggest changes in his lifetime are around farm machinery. "I went from horses to tractors," said Lauren. "And now the tractors that my sons and grandson use even have computers in them."
My mother, Martha Schubert Ehrhardt, also enjoyed a landmark birthday Dec. 2, when she turned 90. Many of you sent greeting cards and mom was in heaven with all the mail she received. She had two huge tables filled with cards. "Receiving all the cards was wonderful. I've never had that in my whole life!"
Because Mom's birthday was on Saturday, Pat and I went to church with her in Enterprise and sang special music with her. "I love singing with my daughters," said Martha. Afterward a dinner was held in her honor with all the church folks attending. While Martha hasn't lived as long as Johanna Brunner, she's seen lots of changes through the years.
"I learned to bake with a wood stove, and now I have a computer in the oven." She says that every time she bakes bread it's confusing. "Used to be I turned one knob to start my oven, now I push three buttons! Who says that's an improvement?"
And that's the news from Ramona where the Christmas spirit is the same as it was a 100 years ago — and a traffic jam is two parked cars and a dog in the road.
