Category Archives: Kansas

Kansas Cow Paths: Suggestions for Stops and Starts

15 Monday Oct 2012

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I never get too much of Kansas. There’s always something I want to see next time.

Here are a few places I recently stopped at (October 2012.)

Braums (across the state) – good hamburgers, so many kinds of ice cream that you won’t know what to do. I tried Pumpkin, Butter Pecan, and Peanut Butter. I bought Pumpkin. http://www.braums.com/

The Bread Basket  (Newton) – Mennonite fare. At least: six soups served daily and three choices of fresh bread. Pie by the slice, cream puffs, and other dessert goodies. Bags of zwiebach, bread, and cookies, along with jars of jam.  http://www.newtonbreadbasket.com/

Faith and Life Bookstore (Newton) – It’s my pleasure to sign books and/or talk here. I always buy more than I sell. The seasonal décor, variety, and Kansas bookcase all draw me in. The frequent eblasts of events are intriguing and enticing. I wish Newton was closer to Colorado! http://www.faithandlifebookstore.com/

Bethel College Life Enrichment (Newton) – terrific programs with a series of three presentations each time. I presented on “Adventure and Alaska.”  http://www.bethelks.edu/academics/convocation-lecture-series/life-enrichment/

Ten Thousand Villages (Newton) –I love that shopping at Ten Thousand Villages (across the United States and Canada) is both a buying and giving opportunity. Ten Thousand Villages is a nonprofit marketing program of the Mennonite Central Committee that creates opportunities for artisans around the globe to earn a fair wage. http://newton.tenthousandvillages.com/about-our-store/

Kansas Aviation Museum (Wichita) – many airplanes and flying artifacts. Accessible control tower. This is where Cessna Aircraft Management held a dinner meeting where I was invited to speak. My presentation was “What Aviation Means to Alaskans.” Wonderful evening. http://www.kansasaviationmuseum.org/

Kansas Originals Market (Wilson – just off 1-70 between Salina and Russell) – Everything-Kansas! Items made by Kansans that represent the state of Kansas: sunflower motifs, quilts, jams, books, stitchery, jewelry, tole painting, woodworking, and so on.  http://www.kansasoriginals.com/

If someone were to visit your state or province, what would you highlight as “must-see”?

 

 

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Kansas –Back to my Roots

02 Tuesday Oct 2012

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Ruby Leppke: Kansas Farm Girl

Kansas, an earthy place of black loam, wheat, corn, soy beans, sorghum, and sunflowers.

Kansas, a prairie-land with cows and calves, flat horizons, rolling hills, enormous skies and expanding clouds.

Kansas, the place my ancestors settled after the voyage from the Ukraine and the train ride from New York. Peabody, Kansas, the place they stepped into their New World and created the Bread Basket of America – with the Turkey Red Wheat they’d carried with them.

The Leppke farm, where my mother grew up, brought in corn cobs for kindling, milked cows, drove tractor, mended fence, and butchered chickens and hogs.

Kansas, where I come and try to reach back to the stories of my parents and grandparents. Where I drive through Peabody, Hillsboro, and Newton and wish the brick streets, stone buildings, and wide-porched houses would talk to me.

Kansas, where I feel space to breathe and move, where my senses are stimulated by the humid smells of simple, living things.

Kansas, where I show slides and tell stories of my parents’ plain beginnings, before they embarked on the journey to their Frontier World in Alaska.

From Kansas wheat fields to Alaska tundra where a Mennonite family found home, yet never forgot their roots.