Ramona
By JESSICA GILBERT
Ramona correspondent
(785) 965-2621
Aug. 15-21
My sister is a hard one to surprise. We joke and say that she can "connect the dots" even when there are none to connect. So when her daughter, Jana, called in May and said she wanted to come visit at Pat's birthday and have it be a surprise, I wasn't sure we could pull that off.
The biggest hurdle was me — I have this "stream-of-consciousness" relationship with my sister, which means that I pretty much say whatever I'm thinking, and I seriously wondered if I could go that long without letting the cat out of the bag.
Like a couple of weeks ago, Pat and I were in Salina and discovered this delightful jewelry store aptly named "Best Kept Secret," and as I was taking in all the delicious jewelry displays I casually said, "Oh, we'll have to bring Jana here," and then I realized what I had said, and so I covered my tracks by adding, "sometime when she's here."
My niece had written a note card to her grandmother (our mom) and casually mentioned that "we'll have fun playing games together when I come visit," and Pat saw the card. "What? Is Jana coming to visit?" she asked Mom. Fortunately I hadn't told Mom about Jana's surprise visit, and Jana even commented later that this vague statement was meant in the most general terms — she knew she'd be out to see us sometime, but wasn't sure when.
So when I reported this to Jana, she included another message to Tooltime Tim when she sent his birthday card in early August: "Maybe I'll be out to see y'all in October." That message worked — it got Pat off the scent of thinking Jana would be arriving any time soon.
I planned a way to get Pat to Wichita Aug. 15 by scheduling my twice-a-year-hair appointment on the day Jana was to arrive. Since this was the day before Pat's birthday, I casually mentioned that we should go and shop, and take ourselves out to dinner, as a little birthday celebration between sisters.
The week before, Jana made no phone calls to her mother. "I'm just going to lay low," said Jana, "and Mom will think I'm just really busy at work. I'm afraid I'll let something slip if I call."
Jana and I had thought of everything, down to a special code for how to keep in touch the day she was flying, and let me know how her flight schedule was going. We agreed she'd call and pretend she was my friend Jill, so if Pat was in my presence she wouldn't think twice about such a phone call. We had a code worked out so Jana could tell me if she was late or on time.
As for how I was getting to the airport, well, I told my sister that on my recent trip to Bali all my frequent flier miles had not been entered into the computer and so the airline was demanding that I had to show my ticket stubs to them before they'd credit my account. This was actually the truth — at least the part about me not getting my frequent flyer miles. As for having to take the stubs into the United counter — well, I could have done it on computer, but Pat didn't need to know that.
The night before our trip to Wichita I was down in the office putting together a kit of wrapping paper, bows, scissors, and tucking it all in my briefcase, so Pat wouldn't wonder why I was carrying it because we had lots of business errands in Wichita. Then I made a sign that Jana would hold at the airport saying "Happy Birthday Mom" and I wrapped it in brown paper and tucked it behind the car seat along with my briefcase. I had even worked out in my mind how I'd get it out of the car when I got to the airport so I could grab my supplies without being noticed.
Pat had no idea Tooltime Tim was in on the surprise. He and I had to be really sneaky to even have a conversation out of Pat's earshot. Whenever she'd go outside to change the water or feed the chickens, Tim and I would quickly confer and go over the plans on how we'd meet up in Wichita for a birthday dinner.
Tuesday arrives and we head for Wichita. While I'm getting my hair done, Pat is at Borders bookstore nearby just having a ball. Jana, who's flying from San Francisco, makes her first phone call to me when she arrives in Denver. "Hi, this is Jill — NOT." And then she laughs. "I'm on time and will see you at 5:25 p.m."
I have two and a half hours to fill after my hair appointment so while I'm driving, I'm doing logistics for how long it takes to get from one end of Wichita to another. We visited our favorite jewelry wholesaler and then to Tuesday Morning where we always find things for our guest houses, and finally I saw the clock say 5:30 and then we headed for the airport.
"Now this may take me a little time," I said to Pat as I pulled up in front of the Wichita airport, "so just cruise around the airport circle a few times." I got out of the car, and she got out of the passenger side and while she moved to the driver's side, I quickly pulled out my briefcase and the brown wrapper package and dashed into the airport.
Pat took off driving slowly around the airport and I took off on a mad dash toward baggage claim, hoping Jana would be there with her luggage. She was hidden in a corner, waiting to see my face. We even dispensed with hugs as I whipped out my wrapping paper (for making Jana into a birthday present) and tied the huge pink bow around her neck and handed her the glittery "Happy Birthday Mom" sign.
We hightailed it back to where I'd gotten out of the car and I shoved Jana out the door while I hovered inside with her luggage and kept a lookout for the car. When I saw Pat (who was driving our mother's car) approaching, I stuck my head out the door and yelled at Jana, "There she is in the blue Chevrolet!"
Jana held up her sign and walked out to the edge of the sidewalk and began waving to her mother. Pat, meanwhile, sees this person wrapped up like a package and waving a sign, and is saying to herself, "Oh, this poor girl thinks I'm her mother."
Jana is very persistent — so persistent that Pat pulls the car up to the curb and when Jana approaches the passenger side, Pat rolls down the window. I can see Pat's face from where I'm standing inside the airport, and it's clear to me that she doesn't recognize Jana.
Or, maybe, Pat's pulling a joke on us — maybe she knew all along that Jana was coming. In a snap I was out on the curb beside Jana, and both of us stick our heads in the car window. I was just beginning to say, "Pat, don't you recognize Jana?" and Pat realized Jana was two feet away.
She threw the car in park, jumped out of the car, and screaming and yelling she hugged her daughter and started crying and laughing.
"I kept thinking, 'Oh, my, this girl thinks I'm her mother'," said Pat with tears of joy streaming down her face, "Or I thought maybe you'd paid somebody to stand here on the curb and wish me happy birthday," she said to Jana, still holding her tight.
Oh YES! We'd done it! We'd surprised Pat!
We all piled into the front seat, laughing and crying as I drove to the restaurant that's near the airport. "We're eating here?" queried Pat as I drove into the crowded parking lot. "This is a Tooltime Tim restaurant." (Pat didn't know this either, but I told Jana that Pat might balk at going to a steakhouse so Jana was to say that she wanted to try it.)
We walked into the crowed restaurant and while our cousins and aunt and mom and Tooltime Tim all yelled, "Surprise, happy birthday" to Pat she couldn't hear it over the din of voices and the mass of people. So Jana just sorta took her mom by the shoulders and pointed her toward the family that was gathered there to join the celebration.
"Oh, I can't believe this!" she said as she hugged Aunt Frieda Struebing, and then cousins Becky and Ken and Sean Peoples. "And Mom!" she exclaimed. "You knew all about this? Tooltime Tim brought you with him?" She could barely take it all in.
"Mom's gift is taking everyone out to dinner tonight," I told Pat. "My gift was flying Jana out here," I continued. And then Tooltime Tim handed his gift to Pat and it was a digital camera! She was almost unable to eat, she was so bowled over by it all.
"Don't ever do something like this to me," said Mom as she watched all the surprises being pulled. "I don't think I could take this much excitement on my birthday." (I think Mom was warning us that when she turns 90 in December, the celebration should probably be more sedate!)
On Aug. 16, which was Pat's actual birthday, Pat, Jana, Mom, and I took off for Burns because Pat had read about the Burns Café and Bakery and wanted to try it. Oh my, what a treat. In the beautifully decorated surroundings we ate omelets and hashbrowns with thick homemade bread all toasted and buttery. The pancakes were as large as a plate and so when the food began to arrive, we all realized that we might have over-ordered.
We were lucky to be able to have breakfast at the café because on the door was a sign saying that on Aug. 22 the restaurant would only be open on weekends and Friday evenings.
"We're just challenged to find enough wait staff at the moment," explained our waiter. "But we hope to be able to go back to our old hours before long."
Next door to the café was the Soda Pop Hair Shop. "Maybe the birthday girl should have a pedicure," I suggested. But the owner, Sherry Vestring, was booked with several haircuts, so pedicures would just have to wait for another celebration. But Sherry's shop is so cute, it's worth the drive to Burns.
We stopped by the bank in Burns so I could say hello to the city clerk, Carol Callahan, since I'm the Ramona city clerk. We didn't know it, but Carol already knew we were in town. Seems that while we were eating breakfast at the Burns Café, our waiter had called Carol to alert her that we might want to see the newly-completed Burns City Building and Library. (That's small-town hospitality for you!)
Just the week before the city of Burns received an award from Rep. Moran for their endeavors at improving the town. Ramona received this award last year, and of all the towns we work with on the economic development council, I've long thought Burns deserved this recognition.
Our week has been filled with shopping, scrapbooking, making earrings, playing cards, going on treks. We'd been so busy that we hadn't even shown Jana our newest guesthouse — Harvest House — or the newly finished upstairs to Jake's Place. So the night before she left we loaded mom in her wheelchair so she could join our walk about town.
On Monday Jana returned home to California. The week just seemed to swirl by. Life will go back to normal — mowing lawns, taking care of guests, handling city affairs — and Tony Meyer won't have to call me and leave a message saying, "Where have you been? Why haven't I seen ya?"
But for months to come, we'll be laughing about, and reliving the moment when Pat saw that poor girl on the airport sidewalk, looking for her mother!
And that's the news from Ramona where a traffic jam is two parked cars and a dog in the road.
