Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:
Butler County Courthouse, El Dorado.
SOUTHBOUND
When gas prices dropped below $3.50 a gallon, Dave and I celebrated with a road trip.
On a Saturday morning we picked a town off the map.
“How about Winfield?” I suggested.
Dave and I like to be surprised, so our [...]
Filed under: columns, courthouses, small towns, traveling on August 26th, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:
VICKERS
Gas prices are lower this month and that’s a blessed relief.
Nevertheless, it’s still rather painful to pull up to the pumps.
Going to filling stations used to be a whole lot more fun, like in the ‘60s, when (leaded) gasoline sold for 32 29, 28, [...]
Filed under: columns, gas stations, small towns on August 19th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:
THE END OF THE TRAIL
A person can’t travel too far in Kansas without running across a sign or some mention of the Santa Fe Trail.
For instance, Council Grove is full of reminders. It was a major stop along this route which bisected [...]
Filed under: columns, out of state on August 12th, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Today’s Flyover People column as published in The Emporia Gazette:
A DAY IN THE HILLS
We bounced over a cattle guard. The landscape looked as rumpled as an unmade bed.
Grass was still June-green. Western ironweed bloomed like nobody’s business, tall stalks of purple bundles.
Where else on earth is the landscape this simple and this peaceful?
On [...]
Filed under: columns, landscape on August 5th, 2008 | 9 Comments »
Today’s Flyover People column:
SHEPHERD’S VALLEY
Yellow, purple, and red green beans. Red and white okra. Purple sweet potatoes.
Vegetables are taking a spin on the color wheel these days.
Two weeks ago, I rode along with my friend, Tracy Simmons, and two of her children to Shepherd’s Valley, an organic farm northwest of Americus.
Tracy’s [...]
Filed under: columns, other people's stuff on July 29th, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:
ROCK CITY, USA
Years ago, when I moved to Emporia, one friend would ask me from time to time, “Aren’t you from Rock City?”
“No,” I’d say, “Pawnee Rock. I’m from Pawnee Rock.”
After hearing the place mentioned so often, I decided that one day [...]
Filed under: columns, nature on July 22nd, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Today’s Flyover People column:
WHAT WE DON’T PHOTOGRAPH
Bunny ears – most family albums have them, a picture with a boy raising two fingers behind a sister’s head.
If you open a photo album of a typical Kansas family, you’re likely to see birthday cakes ablaze, ornament-laden Christmas trees, views from the top of Pike’s Peak.
You’ll probably [...]
Filed under: columns, life on the ground on July 15th, 2008 | 16 Comments »
Today’s Flyover People column is a repeat - from June, 2003.
VANISHING POINTS
The other day as I drove toward Olpe, it occurred to me that here in Eastern Kansas, we’re a little short on vanishing points.
Highways and dirt roads disappear behind a slight rise or a hill, occasionally a curve, before they have [...]
Filed under: columns, landscape on July 8th, 2008 | 10 Comments »
Today’s Flyover People column:
STORM SEASON
Outsiders sometimes ask me, “What’s there to do in Kansas?
Considering the recent springtime weather, I think I could honestly respond: “Well, we Kansans spend a lot of our time dodging hailstones.”
As of this writing, Emporia has avoided the large hail, but many parts of the state have [...]
Filed under: columns, weather on July 1st, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Today’s Flyover People column:
A recreation of an Osage orange made by Jancy Morgan and Tom Dunn.
AT TOWN CRIER
Books appear to be such simple, ordinary things.
But you have to watch out - a book can be nimble and sneaky.
You might be reading purely for entertainment but later realize that the book has slipped [...]
Filed under: columns, other people's stuff on June 24th, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Well, I took pictures at Camp Wood in 2004, but cannot find those old photo files. So - use your imagination.
Today’s Flyover People column:
CAMP WOOD
“If you’d have told me in college that I’d be living at a youth camp at the age of 30, I’d have laughed at you,” Anne Snyder said.
But that’s [...]
Filed under: columns on June 17th, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:
This was my dad’s shop. He had the right side of the building. Here the plate glass windows are boarded up, but they looked out to toward the north and west. (The building faces west.)
A Father’s Day column:
THE CARPENTER
The saw’s teeth kept getting caught in [...]
Filed under: Kansans, columns, life on the ground on June 10th, 2008 | 8 Comments »
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette.
ALONG THE TRAIL
Recently, I met my friend Amy for lunch in Wellsville.
With gas selling at unspeakable prices, I took full advantage of the trip and visited as many towns as I could on the way home.
First though: Wellsville (pop. 1,631). Located in Franklin County, [...]
Filed under: columns, gas stations, small towns on June 3rd, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:
MY SISTER AMY
Weather-wise, that Saturday could not have been better.
Happy sunshine landed on the 78-degree Kansas prairie and there was barely a lick of wind in the air.
It was gorgeous out, but what made the day perfect for me was hearing my friend, [...]
Filed under: Kansans, columns, life on the ground, small towns on May 27th, 2008 | 10 Comments »
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:
Nina West
IN THE HOLLOW
“The main thing I tried to teach those kids was to love nature,” Nina West said.
Once a biology teacher, Nina still promotes the love of nature and hopes that visitors to her garden appreciate plants and creatures as much [...]
Filed under: Kansans, columns, events on May 20th, 2008 | 4 Comments »
