I woke up at 2:30 this morning thinking about my classmates in Plevna, Kansas. It was my Freshman year and I was living with Grandma Haas and Great Grandma Hatfield. The high school was on one end of Main Street and Grandma's house was on the other end. Main Street was 2 blocks long. The High School, the bank and the filling station was on one side. On the other side was Hinshaw's Mercantile, the phone company and Grandma Hatfield's house. The next house was Grandma Haas's house and then then church. Great Grandma Hatfield's house was empty since she had moved next door to take care of Grandma Haas.
Great Grandma was a legend in her time. She was born Helen Gagnebein. She had married Frank Miller and had 3 children, Lou, Mable, and Grandma Josie. When he passed she married a man named Hatfield who had a son named Steven. I always liked Uncle Steven because he had a very round face and always seemed to be happy. Rumor had it that she was headed to the alter with #3 when he suddenly died. She declared that she had buried 2 husband and the love of her life and was now done. So she moved across the street to take care of her daughter, my grandmother. All this has absolutely nothing to do with my Freshman year!
The point is that Grandma had suffered a stroke and could no longer live alone and take care of herself. Great Grandma needed help and I was the chosen one. Thus when I left Nickerson Grade School, I was thrown into High School at Plevna, Kansas. As I recall there were 30 kids in the whole high school. The Freshman class had like 8 or 9 kids. When I was laying in bed before I started this missive I could remember 6 of them and clearly see their faces, but as soon as my fingers hit the keys, my brain went south. I remember Norma Daily, Janet Pastier, the twins Dean and Dale Hinshaw and that is all. Seems like there were 8 or 9. I do remember the principal was named Mr. Miller.
They did have a girls basketball team, but I was not allowed to do that because it entailed wearing pants and neither of the grandma's approved of that! So while the basketball season was on I played ping pong in a room above the stage in the auditorium. I was not very good at that either. Everyone brought their lunch except me and I had to run home and check to see if the grandma's needed anything. Great Grandma would have an orange peeled for me. When I left the school I could hear Great Grandma's old stand up radio blaring the noon market report. While we had not farmed for years there were relation who did and the market report kept Great Grandma apprised of the price of wheat, cattle, corn and pork bellies. I never really gave a shit, but it was important to them! I would then dash back to school before the bell rang.
Now the most thriving business was the Hinshaw Mercantile. Dean and Dale would some day fall heir to that! They were twins, but you would never have guessed it. Dale was the one who must have gotten to the table first because he was a pudgy, red hair and freckles, pale skinned, mean spirited creature (for want of a better description) fellow. He never had a nice thing to say to anyone and I sincerely hope he grew out of that! Dean was a skinny, tanned, dark haired little fellow with a very beautiful smile. They were as different as night and day. Needless to say, I thought often about how maybe someday, Dean might hold my hand. (It never happened.)
The grandma's were united in their way of raising me. The only reading material allowed in the house was the Holy Bible. No newspaper, no magazine except for the Workbasket which was a crochet magazine that was treasured beyond all else. I was taught to crochet and that was my past time. My Grandma Haas and her sister Mabel married brothers. Aunt Mable would come for a visit from Coldwater, Kansas with her husband Uncle Goll. Once she brought her textile paints with the intent of teaching me how to do something besides crochet. We went to the Hinshaw store and she bought me a white bath towel to paint a design on. Sadly it was shop worn and the brown outline of where it had lain never faded, but I did paint a water lily on it and she made me feel like I was 10 feet tall. Damn! How I miss those days! I gave the towel to my mother and you would have thought I had handed her the moon! Things like that used to matter.
If I live to be 200 years old, I will always cherish the memories that were made in that little house there on the end of main street in Plevna, Kansas. I will always remember the round oak table with the crocheted table cloth and the two grandma's I lived with for a time. I learned to crochet by the light of a kerosene lamp because, though they had electricity, they did not use it very often because they did not want to wear it out!
I can still see the 2 little white heads bent over their needlework and how occasionally one would look up and smile at me. They both had the most beautiful blue eyes in the world. I have often wondered if I really was any help to them or if they were helping me. I do know, if I were able to go back in time that I would not change one minute of my time spent in that house. Well, maybe I would. I would listen next time. And when we read the Bible (which we did every night) I would read an extra chapter. Living with those two women was the best part of my whole entire life. I just pray that they know what an impact they made on my life all those years ago.
Thank you God for the gift of Grandmothers.
Great Grandma was a legend in her time. She was born Helen Gagnebein. She had married Frank Miller and had 3 children, Lou, Mable, and Grandma Josie. When he passed she married a man named Hatfield who had a son named Steven. I always liked Uncle Steven because he had a very round face and always seemed to be happy. Rumor had it that she was headed to the alter with #3 when he suddenly died. She declared that she had buried 2 husband and the love of her life and was now done. So she moved across the street to take care of her daughter, my grandmother. All this has absolutely nothing to do with my Freshman year!
The point is that Grandma had suffered a stroke and could no longer live alone and take care of herself. Great Grandma needed help and I was the chosen one. Thus when I left Nickerson Grade School, I was thrown into High School at Plevna, Kansas. As I recall there were 30 kids in the whole high school. The Freshman class had like 8 or 9 kids. When I was laying in bed before I started this missive I could remember 6 of them and clearly see their faces, but as soon as my fingers hit the keys, my brain went south. I remember Norma Daily, Janet Pastier, the twins Dean and Dale Hinshaw and that is all. Seems like there were 8 or 9. I do remember the principal was named Mr. Miller.
They did have a girls basketball team, but I was not allowed to do that because it entailed wearing pants and neither of the grandma's approved of that! So while the basketball season was on I played ping pong in a room above the stage in the auditorium. I was not very good at that either. Everyone brought their lunch except me and I had to run home and check to see if the grandma's needed anything. Great Grandma would have an orange peeled for me. When I left the school I could hear Great Grandma's old stand up radio blaring the noon market report. While we had not farmed for years there were relation who did and the market report kept Great Grandma apprised of the price of wheat, cattle, corn and pork bellies. I never really gave a shit, but it was important to them! I would then dash back to school before the bell rang.
Now the most thriving business was the Hinshaw Mercantile. Dean and Dale would some day fall heir to that! They were twins, but you would never have guessed it. Dale was the one who must have gotten to the table first because he was a pudgy, red hair and freckles, pale skinned, mean spirited creature (for want of a better description) fellow. He never had a nice thing to say to anyone and I sincerely hope he grew out of that! Dean was a skinny, tanned, dark haired little fellow with a very beautiful smile. They were as different as night and day. Needless to say, I thought often about how maybe someday, Dean might hold my hand. (It never happened.)
The grandma's were united in their way of raising me. The only reading material allowed in the house was the Holy Bible. No newspaper, no magazine except for the Workbasket which was a crochet magazine that was treasured beyond all else. I was taught to crochet and that was my past time. My Grandma Haas and her sister Mabel married brothers. Aunt Mable would come for a visit from Coldwater, Kansas with her husband Uncle Goll. Once she brought her textile paints with the intent of teaching me how to do something besides crochet. We went to the Hinshaw store and she bought me a white bath towel to paint a design on. Sadly it was shop worn and the brown outline of where it had lain never faded, but I did paint a water lily on it and she made me feel like I was 10 feet tall. Damn! How I miss those days! I gave the towel to my mother and you would have thought I had handed her the moon! Things like that used to matter.
If I live to be 200 years old, I will always cherish the memories that were made in that little house there on the end of main street in Plevna, Kansas. I will always remember the round oak table with the crocheted table cloth and the two grandma's I lived with for a time. I learned to crochet by the light of a kerosene lamp because, though they had electricity, they did not use it very often because they did not want to wear it out!
I can still see the 2 little white heads bent over their needlework and how occasionally one would look up and smile at me. They both had the most beautiful blue eyes in the world. I have often wondered if I really was any help to them or if they were helping me. I do know, if I were able to go back in time that I would not change one minute of my time spent in that house. Well, maybe I would. I would listen next time. And when we read the Bible (which we did every night) I would read an extra chapter. Living with those two women was the best part of my whole entire life. I just pray that they know what an impact they made on my life all those years ago.
Thank you God for the gift of Grandmothers.
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