MANHATTAN, Kan. – The Livestock and Meat Industry Council, Inc. named Pat Koons of Burdick, Kan. as the 2022 Stockman of the Year during ceremonies last month at Kansas State University’s Stanley Stout Center.
Our pastor and his wife recently went on a trip. When he returned home, he asked me, “How many drivers pay cash for their diesel”? This is an interesting question.
Three weeks ago I was going to write about the wind in this space but I ran out of time. I used to proclaim that I loved the Kansas wind, always have, until lately. The blowing, flowing, mowdown wind that has been sweeping across the High Plains of Pratt County lately has started to get annoying. The other day I was walking down the sidewalk downtown and I turned to say something to my husband, a chunk of dirt literally landed in my mouth from whoknows-where. And I was going to say something nice!
What a pleasure it has been serving the community of Pratt, while also getting to know the people and area so much better! I’ve spent many days in this fine city due to my son’s travelling ball tournaments through the years, but I truly didn’t realize the deeper beauty and offerings available until my time working as the Interim President/ CEO for the Pratt Area Chamber of Commerce.
I cannot but wonder how many people are still living who remember the old crank phones and the party lines. Our ring was 2 longs and a short: rrrrrring, rrrrrrrrg, ring. When our phone rang, all of the phones on the party line rang, but only the family whose number had rung was supposed to pick up the receiver. Sometimes, that was too tempting to lonely neighbors eager for some gossip, and my Greataunt Abbie was one of those lonely people. An often told story in my family involved Abbie and her nephew Ray, who lived just a quarter of a mile down the road and who shared the party line with his aunt. He was on a long distance business call and was having trouble hearing. When an additional receiver was off the hook, the quality of the transmission was reduced. Patiently, he said, “Please hang up, Auntie. I’ll call you when we finish and tell you what we said.” My great aunt’s loneliness and curiosity often tempted her to eavesdrop on the party line, and her nephew understood. As the family story was told, Abbie did hang up, and he did call her for a chat when his call was finished.
Pratt High students came home triumphant after the Central Kansas League Forensics tournament on Monday: winning first as a team, with 18 of their 18 entries making it to finals, which meant that all of the students who competed made it past prelims and into finals. This included four freshmen and four upperclassmen performing at league for the first time.
College Signing Day for the Class of 2022 presented students that will attending a variety of schools across the state and country. There, they will be studying programs that vary from lineman work, to bio-med and health. Below is a list of everyone who participated in the assembly, as well as where they will attend college.
More than three quarters of Americans who have a yard (76%) say the family yard space is one of the most important parts of their home, according to a new poll commissioned by the TurfMutt Foundation and conducted online by The Harris Poll.
On Wednesday, April 19, at Butler Community College, PrairieStar Health Center was recognized by the Kansas Department of Commerce as the 2021 South-Central Region winner for excellence as a Healthcare Non-Profit. Accepting the award for PrairieStar was Chief Executive Officer Bryant Anderson.
May 2022 boasts the 101st anniversary of the polygraph machine. John Larson, the inventor, was raised in New England and later moved to Berkeley, California, where he obtained a doctorate degree in physiology with a concentration in forensic science. In 1920, he joined the Berkeley Police Department, making him the first police officer to have a terminal degree in the United States. His invention, commonly known as “the lie detector,” simultaneously measures suspects’ blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin variations during the interrogation process. Over 15 years, Larson used his grilling apparatus to solve hundreds of criminal cases, including murder, robbery, theft, and sex crimes. In 1922, the polygraph went into production and was soon used by law enforcement agencies throughout the United States (Alder).