Women, are you ready?
A few weeks ago I spied a small article in the Wichita Eagle telling of two young high school students at Leon High School who had written a history of Leon as a school project. It was so good it was being published in book form.
I quickly telephoned the school and told them I wanted a copy. The lady who answered said that they were being overwhelmed with calls and were not ready, but would take my name and address.
The other day I had a call saying they were now ready to mail a book to me. My check is in the mail and I'm waiting for the book.
On April 10, 1904, little Norma McCullough (I) was born in Leon. So you see why I'm interested.
In the 1800s my grandparents, Gilbert and Matilda McCullough, with their 10 children, traveled from Morroco, Ind., to Leon in a covered wagon. They settled on a ranch east of town. In their later years they moved to town.
When we visited there, it was a great occasion because we children were turned loose to walk to "downtown." There we would visit the lone drugstore and trade our nickels for sodas or ice cream cones.
Grandmother lived into her 90s. She loved her garden of vegetables and flowers. She canned and made jellies and jams. On her kitchen table you always could find pie and cake. She had a pie cupboard with tin sides. It smelled so good because of the spices she stored there.
Once my sister, Faith, a girl cousin, and I were staying there overnight. It was a hot summer night. We were in a dormer-type upstairs room with a window opening out on a porch roof. We crawled through the window to the roof, hoping to find a cooler place to sleep. How did Grandma know that? We got orders from that tiny, sweet lady to move in, and we did!
— NORMA HANNAFORD
