About Town

By Ida Lessenden

September 12, 2003

This is the week that many people have been waiting for and working for, the Kiowa County Fair. The theme this year is "Pages from the Past". 4-H members, FFA members, and adults were out at the fairgrounds Sunday afternoon to clean up the barns and the grounds of trash and weeds. It will be gratifying to see the exhibits later in the week as well as the rodeos, parade on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. and to enjoy seeing friends and neighbors.

It is nice to see all the weed bales about a mile west of town. Those bales will help feed cattle this fall and winter because the pastures have been so dry the last three months. My daughter said that it rained six inches in Manhattan, Kansas last Friday, but it was so dry that it didn’t make any problems there. We are still waiting for that big one.

Pam Addington has moved to her new home in Farmington, New Mexico, where she lives near her daughter, Terri Pettijohn, and family. We always enjoyed having Pam as one of the cheerful volunteers who brought our "Meals on Wheels" to us.

Kari Brown, daughter of Rod and Dana Brown, of Eads was married to Brad Harr of Alamosa in an evening ceremony Saturday. A large crowd of well wishers came from several states and many places in Colorado. Since they are both University students and he was the State FFA President, there were many young adults who enjoyed renewing acquaintances over the hospitality of the reception meal prepared by Joe and Janie Bush and son, Joe Andrew. Friends from the Assembly of God church helped serve the meals and beverages Friday and Saturday evenings. Friends are our treasurers.

Treva Richardson 2003 Eads Grad is a student at Community College of Denver where she is studying to be a dental hygienist.

The Junior High volleyball program has enough girls to put three teams on the floor. The matches brought out a big crowd of family and fans Thursday afternoon for their first appearance in Eads that was followed by the Middle School football game with Holly.

Pete Stoker’s grandson, Cade Stoker, formerly of Kit Carson and now of La Junta will be married to Somer Saddoris in Kim on September 20th. The young couple has been feted with bridal showers in their home towns.

Vernie Keyser’s graveside services were held at Kit Carson Wednesday September 3rd. His mother, Dorothy Kasza Keyser, formerly of Eads, passed away last month. Our sympathy is extended to his brother, Darryl and Nancy, who live in Michigan.

Lill Penn of Eads was so delighted to have her four of her five daughters here for five days. She and daughters, Sandra Jones and Debra Immer of Eads entertained Linda from Golden and Lisa from California and her daughter, Heather from Lamar. Lill said they had many late nights of visiting and fun.

Several 4-H members have been here talking about their parade floats, and Sis Howard was telling me that some folks are building a float representing our County Museum.

Speaking of the Museum, we need to remember to thank all those local citizens who have responded to the plea from Ruthanna Jacobs and other volunteers who have kept the Museum open for public viewing all summer.

The local Artists of the Plains Gallery is hosting an outstanding Art Show September 7 to September 20th. The exhibit of art pieces of artists from several counties is free to the public.

Justin Ellicott , former Kiowa County 4-H member, has continued to give back to the 4-H program in Chase County, Nebraska. This year he is the coach of two Livestock Judging Teams who have won the Nebraska State Judging contest. Now they are on their way to the National North American International Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky to compete there. The local communities have earned enough money to send the youth to the November competition. The Imperial Farm Credit Services of America has presented the eight team members with jackets. Justin and Ivy’s children, Allison and Tanner, are on the Intermediate age team. Justin is the son of George and Dorothy Ellicott of Eads and was a star livestock judger during his college years.

The Kit Carson "Good Scout" award was given to Marilyn Gibbs Bullock this year. Her sister is Lucy Snyder Barnett of Eads. They joined their other sisters the last two weeks for their annual sister’s reunion at the family home in Kit Carson which they maintain through the year.

Anna Gunderson has written a book, "Anna’s 2 Cents Worth" about the Kit Carson State Bank history, the robberies, town and family photos complement the historical accounts.

Ed and Charlotte Seamann of Burwell, Nebraska visited us Friday afternoon. As a child, Ed was our neighbor in Cheyenne County and his family was wonderful friends of ours back in the late ‘30’s. After they moved back to Nebraska, we had some fun family vacations to visit their family. He is related to the Oswald families.

Celena Lessenden and friend, Eli Clark, stopped by Friday to visit us. We don’t get to see her as much as we would like, so this was a real treat. Another bright spot in my day was when Dwight and Bonnie brought me a pink rose arrangement for my birthday. We are amazed at the large size of the beautiful roses.

Friday evening was a lovely warm evening with a half moon out while Eads played football with Holly. It was even better when our boys won and the band sounded really good from our sideline spot on Maine Street. The eight cheerleaders are doing a good job also: Rachel Brown, Adrienne Adamson, Lacy Adamson, Sarah McCoin, Sarah Sykes, Tasha Hueller, Sabrina Kiniston, and Jennifer Lynn are doing a great job with their sponsor, Cathy McCracken. The volleyball and football teams will be playing at Springfield on Saturday evening which will be so nice for the youth who want to show their own animals at the Livestock Sale on Friday at 4:00 p.m.

I commend Superintendent Glenn Smith on the informative article he wrote in the Kiowa County Press about happenings at the Eads Schools.

We were pleased to get postcards from the Klieboeker girls, (Jenness and Gary Richardson and Ann Crowell), who have been on a tour of Alaska.

Terry Laird made a quick trip to Colby, Kansas to watch is son, Bruce, run in the Cross Country Track Meet. Bruce won second representing Garden City Community College. This week-end he will be running in Colorado Springs.

I hope friends and neighbors will have a good time attending the Thursday and Friday morning breakfasts, the barbeques at the fairgrounds and looking at the exhibits. New features and activities have been added to make the Fair more fun.