My earliest memory of bike riding as a child begins with me on the back of my dad’s bike sitting just above the back tire on a block of foam taped to the book carrier with my legs dangling in home made metal baskets. Our family would go on evening bike rides with other families in our neighborhood, specifically the McNowns and Farners. We would ride all over the tiny town of Towanda Kansas. I remember holding on to the back of my dad, whom I thought was the strongest and most kind man ever. Hearing his fun banter with the group and knowing he had a smile on his face just like me. Dad would peak back at me from time to time and say “How you doing squirt?” My pony tails flying behind me at the rate of the speed of his pedaling I would shoot back to him an enthusiastic “Good!”. I was experiencing a perfect place and time of my childhood and the young me seemed to know it. I was in for an adventure, I wasn’t alone on this trip but with some of my favorite people in the small world in which I knew.
The bikes rides always ended at our house, with all the adults chattering and the kids running in the side yard, catching lightening bugs, making bracelets and rings with them (I know bug cruelty but I felt like a princess in the night all lit up and beautiful.) An exciting game of kick the can would always happen. I being one of the smallest would participate and the older kids would be gentle with me. They would let me hid with them even though my lightening bug jewelry might give us away. I remember running as fast as I could to jump over that can before my name was called.
As I sit here and write this I can see, hear and smell those days. Always in my mind and heart
I Believe – My Values
Funny Moments
Testing
My Faith Walk
Mentors on my Walk
Grandma Wagler
SS Teachers
Confirmation Pastor Rev. Reger
Church Camp
Doris Sasse
Sandy Twetten
Wayne Clark
Jerry Brown
Doris Johnson
Walk to Emmaus
Bob VanWyk
my childhood
My Children are very special to me.
Thanksgiving 1968
Thanksgiving was always a glorious time for me. It meant the convergence of my three favorite families in the world, mine, Josephs, and Thorpes.
The Joseph family consisted of Charles, a State Senator and cattle rancher; Jean, the lovely matriarch; Alan, older brother Bill’s fraternity buddy; Fred, a year or so younger and really nice; and Bobby, the youngest, still 7-8 years older than me, and extremely cool. Josephs had a farm house in the county, complete with fishing pond and swimming pool, and a second home in Estes Park, Colorado we would descend upon once a summer or so.
The Thorpe’s were a terrific bunch – Tom, a General Electric appliance dealer (like Dad) in Nevada, Missouri; Marye, Tom’s right hand in the store, and the first female city council member of Nevada; Tommy, Bob’s age and a really good athlete; Townie, their really nice daughter and friend of Kathie’s; and Todd, who although he was probably 5-6 years older than me, got stuck entertaining me a lot, and was extremely cool about it.
My family spent most holidays with the Thorpes. On July 4th, we would meet at their cabin on the Lake of the Ozarks. It was a two bedroom, lake cabin without air conditioning, and no one seemed to mind. We used nearby resort cabins for the overflow. The days consisted of a huge breakfast, (Tom’s eggs benedict were my favorite), and a whole bunch of people swimming and boating on the lake while Mom, Dad, Tom and Marye played bridge all day under a shade tree. The fireworks display was an event in itself. To me, it was the best one of all that we saw reflecting off the water of the lake.
New Year’s Eve was at the Thorpes’ massive house in Nevada. I think I counted seven bathrooms. The attic was a pool room, and on New Year’s Eve the older kids would hang out there along with whoever dropped by from the neighborhood. On New Year’s Day, Dad and Tom bet on every college football game. Dad let Tom pick the teams, and teased Tom because Dad normally won. The Catholic priest was a family friend and I think was there every year.
But my favorite holiday was Thanksgiving, because it was at our house in Potwin, and the Josephs were there as well. Wednesday night all three families would gather. I specifically remember 1968 because Bill and Alan were at KU at the time and Tommy was at Mizzou, and it was the only year in about 50 years that KU made the Orange Bowl. Mizzou had the lowly Gator Bowl, so the trash talking was on between the two families.
Thanksgiving also meant a spectacular meal which resulted from hours of preparation. My favorite part of my favorite holiday occurred next– the annual flag football game. The location of the game would either be in our side yard, or at Joseph’s farm, which had a bigger yard. The oldest ones were in college, the rest in high school, and I was nine. As the sides were picked, I would always be the picked last. The good news for me, is that this would often leave my team with one more player than the other. So, if the quarterback was scrambling and about to get sacked, I would make sure I was open in the flat. A short pass later and I was trying to outrun the college kids as fast as my 9 year-old legs would take me. I completely enjoyed this flag football game – seeing my brothers, my heroes who weren’t around that often, enjoying their friends. And I got to participate. It didn’t get much better than that for me.
June 11, 2018
Jonah is on the cover of the thank you card for the Big Slick celebrity fundraiser for Children’s Mercy! All the celebs like Eric Stonestreet and Paul Rudd will get this. Oh man, this made Aaron and I so happy. Jonah has had a really stable past few days and nights. No big problems at all. It’s been our first run of good days in several weeks. His tummy still has that huge clot of blood in it pushing on his organs, but with time the body will take care of it. His lungs showed improvement yesterday too. His ecmo doctor assured us none of this is insurmountable! Pray his body heals, that it can handle the clot (we don’t need liver problems again), that our good days keep getting better. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! We know all the support from #TeamJonah Is working! #makeJonahglow
June 8, 2015
Jonah had a pretty good night and is having a good day. The question is: can his organs like the kidneys sustain all the pressure from his tummy? His tummy is full of clotted blood because bleeding is common on this machine from the blood thinners that they can’t drain out. So far, they are doing well. Jonah is not a candidate for surgery because of the thinners but they would do it of need be. Aaron and I dont want this! So to get a head of him, we have started waking up his lungs in hopes they can prove he can be weened off ecmo and we can get the goopy stuff out of his tummy. Please pray for Jonah’s organs to stay strong under the pressure of his tummy. That his lungs get better and better. That the docs make smart decisions. That our better days are closer rather than far away. Click like or comment yes! #makeJonahglow
Chapter 2 – My Childhood
I was born in 1957 in New Orleans. I will have to ask my mother what hospital…
1st Chapter – My Parents
Rusty and Addis met in New Orleans in 195___(?)
