Ramona: Schubert family circus comes to town
By JESSICA GILBERT
Ramona correspondent
(785) 965-2621
It's typical at reunions to do a lot of hugging, but at the Schubert family reunion this last Sunday, some folks had an uncertain look in their eye as they tried to figure out who, exactly, was planting this kiss on their cheek or twining their arms around them.
The cat giggled as she hugged the clowns stirring the gravy. The Queen of Hearts watched the Queen of Greens slice and dice as she created the luncheon salad. The two clowns peeling the potatoes had glasses on that were so big, they must have thought the potatoes were boulders.
As folks walked into the parish hall (which Pat, Tooltime Tim, and our cousin Becky and her sons, transformed into "The Big Top"), they were invited to do a little transforming themselves.
Right by the door were boxes of costumes, hats, masks, beards, and wigs. And if those weren't enough, we had a face painting team, led by my sister, Pat, who is responsible for most of the falderal at our family reunions, with help from her daughter Jana from California, and our cousin Kyle Peoples of Wichita.
The least folks were invited to wear was a red clown nose — there was one at each table placesetting. My cousin Gary (who we say has our Grandpa Schubert's temperament) staunchly refused to even wear the nose. "No way!" he was heard to mutter.
But even "not joining in" became funny — to watch what folks would do just to avoid being silly. "I've got to go walk my dog," said our cousins Jason and Crystal Lorei from Kansas City. And, we'd all laugh at how long it took them to do it!
But my sister is a determined one when it comes to playing and having fun. By the time everybody lined up for the family photo, she was heard to say, "All of you who look normal — if y'all think you're getting away without something on your face or head, you've got a surprise."
And while she had them "trapped" and in a line for the picture, Pat pulled out hats and beards and wigs and masks and eventually there wasn't a normal face among us! Even cousin Gary joined in!
This branch of the Schubert family springs from A.G. and Auguste Schubert, and of the nine children they had. Four are still living and all four attended the reunion on Sunday. They are Anna Schubert Schimming of Herington, who will celebrate her 97th birthday this September, Henry Schubert (89) and Martha Schubert Ehrhardt (86), both of Ramona, and Frieda Schubert Struebing (83) of Wichita.
Representing the youngest Schubert child Arthur was his wife Anne of Hutchinson. And Gertie Schubert was sitting with her husband Hank at the "ancestor table." Gertie and Hank are our reigning couple in the family — all the other siblings have lost their spouses.
With ancestors, offspring, and some friends of the family, we had 40 people for the home-cooked dinner. When we stood for the blessing, the ancestors said the prayer in German and we followed in English. I can never help but shed a tear or two as I hear them speak their native tongue. We so cherish hearing their voices — we who follow, do not speak German, and they are the reminder of our roots and our heritage.
While the meal was scrumptious, reunions are not just about eating. It's about the memories and the laughter. There was so much laughter in the parish hall that I had a hard time staying in the kitchen to cook. I'd be making iced tea and hear peals of laughter coming from the other end of the building and I wanted to see what was happening.
But the kitchen crew had enough laughter of their own as we tried to navigate around the kitchen in our costumes. I had to give up my inflated clown shoes early into the meal preparation. Having large bulbous shoes on didn't facilitate the quick movements in the kitchen as we checked on chicken, creamed the peas, and made iced tea. Besides, I was worried somebody might trip over me!
Our buddy Tooltime Tim and Gertie Schubert's grandson Adam nearly brought cooking to a halt when they arrived in the kitchen to help, dressed as "The Bearded Ladies." I'll just leave it to your imagination!
For several hours we all forgot our age — even our 96-year-old aunt agreed to have her face painted and wear a beanie hat with a propeller on top. Only the ancestors got to wear the beanies. The ladies were terrific sports and wore them, even though they'd just had their hair done for the occasion.
My mom Martha was very concerned about getting her hair mussed up with that crazy beanie hat, but I assured her that in years to come, nobody was going to think about her hair, but they would have an amazing time reliving the memories of the kitchen clowns making gravy and breading chicken.
The Schubert reunion is more than an afternoon event — Sunday dinner is just the finale. Our reunion this year began on Thursday as folks began to arrive at Cousin's Corner. It's so exciting when they start to roll into town and take up residence in the house that is named after them. Before we turned Cousin's Corner into a bed and breakfast, the house was used once a year in the summer when everybody returned home for reunion.
On Friday and Saturday, part of the family took off to experience the Smokey Hill River Festival in Salina. The contingent that stayed in Ramona, continued the rousing games of Bocce Ball.
The Bocce Ball was such a hit that we decided to center next year's reunion around it — we're going Italian, and have already proclaimed Uncle Hank as our godfather figure. Different families already are thinking about their costumes and identities. "Maybe we'll make our famous brew," proclaimed Pat, who is a "wild chemist" when it comes to making root beer.
Guests who came the most distance to attend the reunion were Tim and Mary Lou Schubert (Art and Anne Schubert's children) from Florida and John and Kathy Lorei (John and Clara Schubert's children) and Jana Wick and her husband Richard Chang (Pat's children), all of California.
In the midst of serving reunion lunch, my cell phone rang. "Who could be calling now?" I wondered as I raced to fill somebody's iced tea. When I answered there was a dainty, familiar voice. "Is dad there?" asked Tara Schubert, who just graduated from high school and couldn't come to reunion because she had her first big post-graduation job. "I want to wish him happy Father's Day." I delivered the phone and Gary Schubert talked to his oldest daughter while munching on chicken.
Father's Day had some stiff competition Sunday in our family, but elsewhere in the community, folks were gathered for barbecues and family gatherings to honor the dads in our lives.
"We went to Lawrence to Steve and Sandra's (Deines)," said Warren Fike. Joining the tribute to dad were Warren's son Dennis Fike and family from Westmoreland, Sara Eells and her family from Topeka, and Carla Collett's daughter, Samantha and boyfriend Mike.
The Sondergards went to Burdick for a barbecue at the home of their daughter and husband, Marilyn and Jim Peterson. "About 25 of us were there and it was so much fun," said Darlene.
The Steve Jirak family had a full day of celebrating. "First we went to church, then had lunch at the Ramona Cafe," said Steve's wife, Vickie. "Then we came home, took our naps, went swimming at the Marion pool, and went to the Marion Lake and had a picnic. It was a great day!"
"Thank goodness we have Elias for Father's Day," the kids were heard to say to Steve. "I reminded the kids that Steve was a Dad long before Elias came along in December," said Vickie with her characteristic chuckle.
We always have to find out what the patriarchs in the community did for Father's Day, so I called the Lauren Brunner home. "Anne and Bernie came and went to church with us and brought an ice cream cake along," said Orvell. "And the kids came by the house throughout the day."
On Saturday night, Lauren and Orvell went to Kent and Jean's for a Brunner family barbecue. "The Schubert family were there," said Orvell, "Gertie and Hank and their sons and families. Phil Brockmeier and his wife were there too."
"Right now we're putting a new roof on our house," said Orvell, "and it's so noisy." So I cut the conversation short.
Other construction news around town — Tooltime Tim is building a hay shed just east of his house, Don Bird is building a shed to cover his trailer so he's prepared if there's ever another hailstorm in Ramona. And even though it was dark, work continued over at Nick Elmore's shop this weekend, as he's putting the roof and metal siding on his repair shop. Tooltime Tim also is working on the barbershop to have it ready by the Fourth of July, and we're starting some renovation at our Green Acres house over on "F" street. We've hired a newcomer to the community — Troy Frye — to rip off the back porch where the roof was leaking and repair the roof. Pat and I have been over cleaning up the place and it feels good to be doing construction again!
Naomi Fike spent Sunday with her kids Steve and Maureen Fike, who came and scooped her up and took her to Kingfisher's Inn in Marion for dinner. "We saw a lot of people we knew and then we came back and the kids helped fix things — like the AC that got damaged in the last hail storm." The next day, Steve and Maureen with family and friends headed out for Canada on their motorcycles for a vacation.
On June 5, the Ramona Rowdies (Ramona's senior group) took another expedition to the Rolling Hills Zoo in Salina and God's Garden, which is five miles south of Solomon.
"God's Garden is a well-organized garden of flowers that covers the equivalent of a couple city blocks," explained Darlene. Hundreds of beautiful roses. It's something you should make a point to go see," said Darlene. The gardens are so pretty they even have weddings there. My mom can attest to that since her friends, Elmer and Ann Bartell of Durham, took her to the gardens this past Saturday and there was a wedding taking place.
June 8 was Game Night at the Ramona Senior Center. "We had a big crowd that night," says Darlene. Kids of all ages were there. The Game Night is not just for seniors — it's for everybody who loves to play games.
Next game night will be July 13, starting at 5 p.m. In addition to Card Bingo and Sequence, they'll be playing Mexican Train Dominos. Some friends from Tampa asked me to teach them how to play and I thought, "why not do it on Game Night and get other folks to join the fun, too."
Don't forget the Fourth of July — celebrate independence and freedom in Ramona!
And that's the news from Ramona where a traffic jam is two parked cars and a dog in the road.
