News From Lowell Township

Every small town needs a coffee shop or watering hole and Woodston now sports two coffee shops. Betty Lala is open weekday mornings at the former elevator office for coffee, and she keeps the farmers and ranchers well-fed with cinnamon rolls and baked treats. Card games are held some afternoons. The Woodston United Methodist Church was purchased by Kenny and Patty Lay and is now the site of Penn Street Place. Open on Saturday mornings at 9:00 a.m., coffee and treats are enjoyed, as well as visiting. The Lays chose Kansas to retire, moving from the Fresno, California area. Patty was involved in daycare and Kenny in auto and tire repair auto and tire repair. They have ties to Woodston since Patty is Ali (Grady) Imel’s mother. Grady is the son of the late Carleta Imel of Woodston. Patty is enjoying Kansas sunflowers, cardinals, and the prairie wide-open spaces. They offer the church to the community for gatherings and funerals.

Thomas and April Yakish have purchased the Woodston Fellowship Hall. April has plans for future events which may involve a pancake feed and even showing movies, plus it's a nice place for family gatherings.

While in Osborne a week ago, I bought a copy of the Osborne County Farmer and found the obituary for Steve’s great-uncle Sterling Melton’s daughter, Twyla (Melton) Marton, Argus, Indiana. Born in 1937 to Sterling and Beulah (Kurtz) Melton, she graduated with the class of 1955 at Osborne High School. Twyla’s stepsiblings were Rhonda Rose, Rita Marshall, and John Melton and wife Ann (Ballinger) Melton, former Stockton High School students. Sterling Melton was Steve’s grandfather, Verne Melton’s, youngest brother.

We were in Salina, Thursday, January 26, for a checkup at the doctor. While in the Atwoods Farm Store, I talked with an elderly lady in the chicken department. A friend had given her a few chickens, and she was surprised when one laid light blue eggs. I told her she probably had an Ameraucana and they have a nice gentle personality.

I was getting disgusted with the idiots calling wanting to send me braces, etc., using various Woodston phone numbers so I called the Attorney General’s Office. They recommend not answering the phone, and it seems this is widespread. I want them to stop calling so the best thing that worked was to just breathe into the phone and not answer and they hung up on me! This week my animal trap caught the Easter bunny, only it was a female. I released it and Mollie gave chase but the rabbit won.

We thought the Nova movie, “A Man Called Otto,” was a great story. I had some trouble hearing certain parts. I use closed captioning on the TV as much as possible!

Condolences to the Casad, Townley, and Iwanski families on the passing of Hanna Townley of Lincoln.

Instead of a Sunday nap, we attended the Historical Society and Museum’s Kansas Day program at the Nova for the presentation by Steve Burns, Russell, as President Abraham Lincoln.

Brian Nelson and his son, Aidan, also spoke at the Nova and gave a slide presentation of their ancestor, Jacob Nelson, a Union Civil War veteran and early Rooks County pioneer in Medicine Township. Sheldon Nelson, Brian’s father, Salina, came for the program also. It's always good to have younger family members interested in their family history and be willing to pass it on.

My heart cannot take more of these games. KSU won, KU finally pulled it off, as well as the Chiefs!

We had a six-inch snow, another one or two inches Saturday night, and another inch or so covering Sunday night. Be careful on this icy snow underfoot. I slipped once but the snow wasn’t too bad to land on!

You can be a Rooster one day and a feather duster the next!