Ramona news
By JESSICA GILBERT
Ramona correspondent
(785) 965-2621
Last Week's News
Folks in Ramona see Labor Day as a fine opportunity to do some work. As we were laboring to finish the porch on our mom's new house, a stranger drove up, obviously lost, and wanted directions to Herington Lake. They were pulling a trailer behind them. "We're supposed to meet some friends at the reservoir," they said.
"Now why couldn't we be like that?" I thought to myself as I drilled another hole in the porch floorboards. Some people actually vacation on Labor Day. We weren't the only ones working in Ramona, by any means. The Utech family was across the street with mowers, saws, and trimmers, spiffing up Erich's house.
Utech sisters Edna Mueller of Tampa and Dolores Siggs of Goddard, were joined by Ernie Siggs and Ernie III and his wife, Vicki, and Junior Hanschu, who just worked wonders as they trimmed trees, took out bushes in and around Erich's house, and made the place look like a million bucks.
Dolores, of course, cleared all these projects with her brother, Erich, who now resides in the Lutheran Home in Herington. "Yep, I had all those projects on my list," affirmed Erich, who was grateful to have the help.
After they finished the work at Erich's house, Dolores and family took off for Salina to visit her other brother, Fred, who had recently undergone open heart surgery — a triple by-pass, a new valve and a pacemaker.
"I had surgery on Aug. 30 and came home one week later on Labor Day," said Fred. He reported that he didn't have a lot of pain, except in his leg where they took out the vein. His only complaint: nothing tastes good, not even water! "I eat good, but don't taste much," said Fred, "maybe it's the medication."
Now here's a fun way to spend Labor Day — celebrating that you don't have to labor anymore! Mike and Karen (Brunner) Mowat of Marion had a weekend wing-ding retirement party that began at the Spot in Herington and progressed to several other locations as the weekend wore on. "They even gave us T-shirts that said, 'I survived Karen and Mike's retirement party!'" said Karen's sister, Joan Gillett who came from Wyoming for the celebration.
Karen and her son, Ryan from Maryland, stayed at Cousin's Corner B&B during the Labor Day weekend. It was handy because Joan's brother, Jim Brunner, lives just across the street. "I should just sign in as a guest, too," laughed Neva Applegate of Marion, "because I've been here every day. I remember this house from my childhood," she said. "Rev. Bickels had catechism in the dining room there — he used that room as his office."
When Joan was a youngster the Brunner family lived in the gigantic house southeast of the railroad tracks — where Frances Buxman and Tim Steinborn live. "We had great Halloween parties in the big attic of that house," said Joan. "Oh, and I remember when Neva and Jack got married we had the reception at the house. We kids were so enthralled with all the candles at the wedding and reception and we kept walking all around the house with those candles. They dripped wax everywhere!"
The next day Joan was the one stuck with scraping up the candle wax off the stairs and the floor. "Why just you?" I asked. "Because all the cousins found some cigars at the reception and went out behind the barn to try'em. Were they ever sick the next day — especially the boys!"
The big white house southwest of the railroad tracks, known affectionately as the Klover House, has new owners at last! After sitting empty for a couple of years, Billy and Honey Alcorn of Florence bought it and are in the process of moving to Ramona. Their daughter, Ida, is already attending Centre High school.
"I've had my eye on that place," said Billy Alcorn, who grew up in Herington. "I'm a friend of Larry Miller's and when I'd come over here to his building (which sets where Strickler's store used to be on our main street) I'd see that empty house."
Wanting to be near their business in Herington — they have a surplus business in the former John Deere building on Trapp Street — the Alcorns considered buying a home in Herington, but when that didn't work out, they remembered that house in Ramona and asked their realtor to help them get information about the price. While many of us in town were daunted by the damage which had been done to the house by the previous owners, the Alcorns said "It's not that bad." They've begun the repair process and plan to be moving here soon. "We'll just live here and work on the house as we can," said Honey as we surveyed the newly-painted living room.
"They came by to eat at the restaurant," says Reign Anduss, owner of the Ramona Cafe "and we were so busy there was no place to sit. Would you believe they went back into the kitchen and started washing dishes?" Marlene chimed in, "And when they finally got to eat, the cabbage rolls were all gone — and that's what Honey had come in for, in the first place!"
Billy and Honey have a great romance story. "It's a Cinderella romance," declared Honey's daughter, Ida. "We met over the Internet," explained Honey. "I was living in Singapore and a single parent. I really wanted my daughter to have a father, and a friend of mine suggested the Internet." Honey wasn't so sure about trying it but her friends urged her on.
"When Bill and I started communicating by e-mail we fought like cats and dogs," Honey says laughing. "We just had different ways of communicating. So I decided, enough of this e-mailing, I'll call him." She laughs again, "And when we spoke in person we still fought like cats and dogs. I figured anybody who'd keep trying and not hang up was a pretty good guy."
Eventually Billy and Honey decided to meet face to face and she bought plane tickets for America. "When I told my travel agent I wanted to go to Kansas they said, 'KANSAS? We don't know how to get you there. Just go to San Francisco or New York and ask him to meet you there'."
So that's what she did. Billy flew from Kansas to California and waited three hours while she tried to get through customs. "I finally said to the customs agent, 'You ask so many questions — it's like you don't want people to visit.' Why they even asked how much money and how many credit cards I had. They wanted to know if I knew how expensive it was to vacation in the U.S."
Honey wondered if Bill would still be there after a three-hour wait. When she finally emerged from customs there he was with a rose in his hand. "That was our signal so I'd know who he was," said Honey.
By the time Honey's month-and-a-half visit to Kansas ended, she and Billy had set a wedding date. And now Ramona gets to be blessed with this delightful family.
Trinity Lutheran Church in Ramona got a new pair of shoes. What? I can hear you saying! Well, I see it this way. If it got a new roof it would be a hat, new siding would be a suit, and new sidewalks would be shoes!
A couple of weeks ago there was much clattering and banging as Steve Eskeldson and his sons, Bart and Tom, along with Kent Brunner, Merv Deines, Rick Hanschu, and Max Morgan worked to remove the old sidewalk around the church and parish hall to prepare the way for the new walkways.
"There were spots in the sidewalk that were a half-inch higher than others and for safety reasons we decided to do the work," said Rick. "It also improves the handicap accessibility of the church, too."
Doesn't seem that long ago that their project was new siding on the parish hall. We're so grateful to all the members of Trinity Lutheran for investing in keeping the church and parish looking spiffy. It's a cornerstone in the community.
I was mowing the lawn at Jake's Place when I noticed a pretty young lady walking down the streets of Ramona with a beautiful little girl beside her. I waved, because that's what we do in friendly Ramona, but I wasn't sure who it was.
Suddenly the young lady turned around and stopped and as I walked closer I realized the pretty young lady was one of Ramona's own — Chrissy Cheever Smith with her daughter, Alexia Dawn. Chrissy lives in Virginia with her husband Scottie, who's stationed there in the Navy. She came out to surprise her dad. It was lovely to see her on the streets of Ramona again for a couple of weeks.
The Ramona seniors took an excursion Sept. 8 to Concordia. "What did you like best?" I quizzed. "Oh, I loved the museum (Cloud County Museum), such a variety of exhibits," said Darlene Sondergard. Indeed, while the ladies toured the fashion section, the men headed for the tools and implements. There was something for everyone.
I got a kick out of the exhibit of household appliances — especially the old washer that had an attachment inside the wash tub so you could make ice cream and churn butter!
"I was interested in the exhibit about the prisoner of war camp outside Concordia during the war," said Steve Eskeldson. "I didn't realize there were so many people encamped there." Our tour guide said there were round 4,000.
"The Motherhouse was my favorite," said Trevia Schneider, who suggested the group tour the historic site where Sisters of St. Joseph of Nazarene now reside. It was an amazing place filled with history and art. I was astounded by the outstanding religious portraits that were painted by the Sisters.
"The Brown Grand Theatre was my favorite stop," said Marlene Anduss, vice president of the Ramona seniors, and organizer of the trip. The Grand was built as an opera house by a wealthy banker named Brown who saw Concordia as a cultural stopping point between Denver and Chicago, in the days when five railroads crisscrossed the city.
"I enjoyed the driving," said Bob Brady, who chauffeured the group of 10 to Concordia: the Eskeldsons, Sondergards, Bradys, Marlene Anduss, Trevia Schneider, Martha Ehrhardt and daughter, (that's me).
And that's the news from Ramona where it's fun to hit the road occasionally, but always good to come home, where a traffic jam is two parked cars and a dog in the road.
