Ramona: Snow brings out the kid in everyone
By JESSICA GILBERT
Ramona correspondent
(785) 965-2621
This morning as I walked to my office to write this column I was reminded why I decided to move to Ramona. As snow gently cascades to the ground I am surrounded by silence. At nine in the morning, no other people are out and about, and the only sound I can hear is the grunch, grunch of my boots in the snow.
My sister will undoubtedly want to get out for sledding before Paul Jones clears the streets of snow. Our red plastic two-seater sled is still in our yard from the last sledding expedition two weeks ago.
In my recollection the last snow we had here in Ramona was the first snowstorm that left anything substantial on the ground so we could go sledding. I'm never the one to initiate sledding — Pat is. She'll do it at night even if that's the only hope of snow and if Tooltime Tim is willing to drive around town.
While I'm usually a little less eager to get snow up my jeans — whether it's midnight or broad daylight — once Pat's taken a round or two about town, I've usually gotten in the spirit and joined her. And once I'm having fun, I just naturally wonder if anybody else wants to join the folderol.
"Let's ask the Thompson kids if they want to sled," I said. I banged on the Thompson door a couple of times before Ben opened the door. It was evident that I'd gotten him out of bed. "We were up late last night," said Ben in explanation, and no one else was stirring in the house — until I mentioned the word sledding!
"I want to go!" said Cassy as she raised herself up from her pillow. And within minutes the kids were tumbling out of bed, and getting on long underwear, heavy coats, gloves, and mittens.
There was much whooping and hollering as we slid up and down Ramona streets and alleys. Tim had to be quite creative to find enough snow to keep us sliding. When he took out across a field near his sister Sandra's house, his truck got stuck and he had to get the tractor from A.J.'s house to pull us all out!
This little delay didn't bother the kids. It was just a little intermission for a snowball fight. "Why is it I'm always getting hit but never hitting anybody else?" I lamented to eight-year-old Cassy. "Well you have to put your eye where your arm is aiming," she advised. And when I tried it, it worked — I looked square at Terren and my snowball hit him dead on!
Once Tim and the truck were free from the mud bog we all piled on the sled once more and took a few more rounds around town. "This is the first time we've ever been sledding," said Dallen, when we pulled up in front of our house and put the sled away. "It was awesome!" chimed in Terren.
"It's so much fun to be out sledding and giggling with the kids," said my sister, "hearing them squealing and watching them trying to fall off the sled! I hope I'm still doing this in another 20 years!"
The Thompson kids stayed for breakfast, and even helped cook it. I, who've never had children, got a taste for what it's like to have three kids, ages eight to 10. "I want to make the pancakes," enthused Cassy as she held the mixer over the bowl. "I'll make the orange juice," said Terren. And Dallen amused himself trying to figure out our old antique telephone in the dining room.
"How does this phone ring?" yelled Dallen. "Where's the pitcher for the juice?" queried Terren simultaneously. "How do I turn on this mixer?" asked Cassy over the top of her brothers.
Miraculously breakfast materialized 30 minutes later and when we'd finished eating the kids were in the back yard trying their hand at making snowmen. This was also a first for the Thompson kids, who came to Ramona two years ago from California.
"How do you roll this snow to make it stick together?" asked Cassy. "I want to make a hat for my snowman," said Terren. "What can I use for glasses for mine?" asked Dallen, who wears glasses himself.
Within an hour there were four most creative snow people in our back yard. And then the sun came out, and by morning all that was left on the ground were gloves, scarves, and a heap of twigs that we'd used for arms and hands.
On that snowy weekend we tried to get Cole and Bryanna Svoboda in on our sledding fun — they're Tooltime Tim's nephew and niece. But the Svobodas left early that Saturday morning — as they do most Saturday mornings — for sports events.
This past Saturday the Svobodas were in Marion where the last basketball games of the season were held — tournament games. David Staatz was another Ramona parent on the bench watching, along with Jiraks, and even my sister, Pat, attended the games because she promised our neighbor, Emily Staatz, that she'd watch her play in one of her final events.
"These kids were amazing," reported my sister when she came back home. (I had planned to be a spectator at the games as well, but I got sick.)
"Would you believe there are three third grade girls playing with the fifth graders and they're darn good!" said Pat. Bryanna Svoboda, Makenzie Deines, and Amy Makovec are the third graders who were recruited to play with the older girls to fill out their team.
The fifth grade girls have a Ramona lass on the team — Jess Turley, and her mom, Terri, was the assistant coach. The Turleys live outside Ramona in the farm country and moved here more than a year ago from the Herington area.
Three Ramona boys — Cole Svoboda, Jacob Jirak, Tanner Brunner — came home tournament winners! They play on the sixth grade basketball team and were the first place winners in the tournament.
Cole Svoboda is in another winner's circle in addition to sports — he won second in the Centre spelling bee contest and goes this week to Peabody for the next round of competition. You're a winner in our book, Cole, and we're proud to say you're from Ramona!
I had another one of those "proud you're from Ramona" moments Jan. 29 when we attended Reign and Marlene Andusses' 50th wedding anniversary party in Peabody
As I watched the line of folks stream through the receiving line to congratulate Reign and Marlene I hardly knew anyone, and it reminded me that the Andusses have called Peabody, Walton, and Newton all home at one time or another in their married life.
"We had 125 friends and family sign the guestbook," said Marlene when I asked how many folks attended. Pat, Tooltime Tim, and I were among them, but when it's an open house you never know who came after you.
Other Ramona friends who attended the party were Al and Darlene Sondergard, Warren and Paula Fike, Bob and Carol Makovec. And there were friends from Tampa too, like the Clemmers and Dietrichs, but I'm sure that was reported in the Tampa news.
The guest who came the most distance was Reign's brother, Lynn Anduss and his wife Sally, from Fort Collins, Colo. "And I had a cousin come from Lincoln, Neb.," said Marlene.
Seeing the pictures of the Anduss family from their marriage 50 years until now was one of the delightful parts of the event. The 25th anniversary photo shows Reign with his distinctive beard, but it was mostly brown with two distinctive gray streaks.
"He's had his beard so long that none of his grandchildren, except maybe the oldest (who's 29), would remember him without it," said Marlene.
When I asked Marlene what made this anniversary different from their 25th (other than the years that have flown by) she said that this party was put together entirely by their daughters, Roxan, Marsha, and Connie.
Reign and Marlene's relationship began at an eating establishment — she was a car hop at a hamburger stand in Newton, and he kept asking if he could take her home after work, and she kept saying "no."
But Reign persisted and she finally said "yes" and thus began the 50-year relationship that has spawned three restaurants during their married life, with countless tasty hamburgers and mile-high meringue pies!
And that's the news from Ramona where we're lucky to have the Andusses, and a traffic jam is only on Sundays when the café is open, and because of them there are more than two parked cars and a dog in the road!
