Ramona to hold Festival of Lights Saturday evening
By JESSICA GILBERT
Ramona correspondent
(785) 965-2621
It's Christmas, and even faithful newspaper editors and publishers need a holiday. In order to pull that off, the Marion County Record asked those of us who contribute weekly to have our material to them by Friday at noon. Wow — that came so quickly, we had only a day or two to "make some news" to even submit.
So I've lit my Christmas candle to get me in the mood, and set about writing probably the shortest column in the two years I've been writing the Ramona news. Your eyes will get a rest this week, to prepare you for next week's column which promises to be a "doozie" since Ramonites will have an abundance of news to report on memorable Christmas gatherings.
Despite only three days between the submission of last week's column and this one, we did have a couple of "happenings" in Ramona.
First, we had three guests at the Dirt Gambler's Museum. Now the museum isn't looking much like a museum these days — it resembles more of a costume shop since my sister is creating clothing for wisemen, shepherds, the holy family, and making wings for angels. Combine that with wrapping presents for the Angel Tree event on Dec. 21, and the dear old bank building looked like a firecracker explosion with scraps of wrapping paper, ribbons, materials, and other paraphernalia, strewn about.
But our intrepid guests persevered and maneuvered their way about such obstacles to find the display of Ramona high school pictures. "Look, here's dad's picture," said Gene Danitschek to his brother Carl. And as they passed the old Ramona Switchboard Gene exclaimed, "I'm just sure I have a picture of my grandpa Emil Schubert standing in front of the switchboard." Of course we made Gene promise to find that picture and send it for display.
Gene, who resides in Wichita, was on a trek with his brother Carl and Carl's wife LaVonne, who were visiting from Waynesville, N.C. The brothers were in the area visiting their mother Emma Danitschek, who resides in Herington.
On the 19th, the Ramona Senior Center was bustling with guests and there was a fine scent of Christmas lunch. Senior center president Norma Bird had quite a challenge that day. Not only was she and her fellow officers pulling off the yearly Christmas luncheon, but Norma had to take her husband Don to Herington for some emergency medical attention that morning. Between dessert and Bingo, Norma took a moment to make sure Don was resting, then returned to continue her duties as hostess.
Having a birthday at one of the Senior Center events has its "perks." Since Verle Bowman was celebrating her birthday last Thursday she was first in the lunch line. Next in line were the two newest citizens in Ramona, Bob and Rita Brady, who recently purchased the house on the south end of town, known as Rosie Chartier's home.
The Bradys are moving from Peabody to Ramona. They're close friends of Reign and Marlene Anduss, who also recently purchased a home here in Ramona. "They'll be living here full time," said Marlene, "while we'll be here just part-time."
"Oh, come on," we teased Marlene, "before long you'll be living in Ramona full-time." But Marlene said she can't imagine giving up her home in Peabody. "After all, I have a salt and pepper shaker collection that numbers close to 2,000," said Marlene. "Where would I put them in the small house we have here in Ramona?"
Dessert and Bingo make a great combination. As folks nibbled on Reign's Christmas cake and Frances Hanschu's lemon meringue pie, guests got prepared for some fierce Bingo competition. Marge Hanschu, Al Sondergard, Norma Bird, Verle Bowman, and Evelyn Strecker, walked away with prizes. We teased Treva Schneider that she had a "magic card" since she won three times. She was gracious enough to just take one present, though, so we could keep on playing longer. "I'll bring you a pan of my cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve," I told Treva. "That's your reward for being top winner of the day."
"I'll have 13 guests," said Treva with her mischevious grin. So y'all know what I'll be doing on Christmas Eve — can't you just smell the scent of cinnamon?
And that's the news from Ramona, where we count our friends up and down the street and consider it the greatest gift of all this Christmas, and a traffic jam is two parked cars and a dog in the road.
