Belated Happy Birthday to Kansas

I'm a little late wishing my home state a Happy Birthday.

But my mother was on the phone with her little sister, Nancy, and she happened the mention the time my picture was in the paper after we dressed up at school for Kansas Day.

My great grandparents, George and Sarah Jane, both were born in 1865 and came to Kansas when they were very young.  Unfortunately, I never got to know them.

They were true pioneers.

Here I am pretending to be one.

This was 1979 Kansas Day.   I was in the first grade.  That day they arranged the classrooms like one-room-schoolhouses.....brothers and sisters in the same room, one teacher, little kids (like me) up front and the older ones in back.  So I got to be in class that day with both Amy and John.  She was in 5th grade, and he was in 6th.  That was the only year the three of us were in school together.  (I always wished I could have been in school with my brothers and sisters more.  I enjoyed it!  I loved it when teachers remembered the older ones.  I LIKED having expectations from me...from us.)   I THINK our teacher that day was Mrs. Duffer.  She ordinarily taught the 6th grade kids, and I, of course, did have her later.   She was one of the very few good teachers in St. John's. ........one of the very few good memories.

One day, the first year or two that I was on Facebook, I was surprised to get a "friend request" from Mrs. Duffer.   That was kinda neat.  She was friends with John, too, and he'd play games with her on there.  They were quite close.   And then she died a few years ago.....a brain aneurysm.   When I told John, he was shocked.  "But I was just playing Scrabble with her!" he said.

I love memories...good and bad.  

Thanks for visiting with me.

Come back soon!