Newcomers to Howard

[Terrell]

Greetings all!

Thank you for the welcome messages. Woke up excited about recent events and coming events and realized how wonderful it is to be alive and welcoming new experiences, possibilities and the progression of life tpward Howard of Elk County, Kansas, of the United States of America. I'm so looking forward to becoming a citizen of Howard. It's really a terrific place to hang one's hat. I guess I'm just a small town guy at heart, which is strange having spent my nurturing years in Seattle, Washington, which is a pretty big city by any standard. It seems the older I get the more I crave the pace and patterns of quieter environs and the culture of a smaller, but rich of heart, community. It will be difficult to wait for the weekends to put on our Howard hats and be where we hope to BE.

Janet's recounting of playing on the lawn of the church brought memories back of my childhood visits to my grandparents' home in a little town (then) in central Washington state named Yakima. We children played on lawns, danced with the bees, and wandered the blocks of scrabbled streets and through back yards and trees without fear and fences to hinder our adventures. That music of childhood joy has echoed through my lifetime and grows louder with each step toward Elk county. I have always longed for a return to that sort of world and find myself feeling very comfortable with the song of Howard. Not to worry, you won't find Lynne or me dancing or tossing sticks in your back yard, but you'll probably see us walking the time scratched streets, lost in conversation and gazing at the porches and pathways that sing their own histories.

I am amazed at the thought of a 60 year old building that has never felt the vibrations of a musical instrument other than the human voice. I'm looking forward to bringing music to that space a lot more. I play the guitar a bit and so there will be a christening of sorts, in my fashion, with my old starvation guord. But both Lynne and I love musics of the world and so you shouldn't be surprised to be near our corner and hear strains of Brahms to Patti Smith bounding around the place and pouring into the yard. I'm also looking toward mingling with other musicians who might gather to play and sing together on occasion. If you see me sitting on the steps with my battered old six string, have a sit and hum a few bars. We'll figure it out.

Do please keep clueing us in about our new environs. I'm expecting to have lots of questions about living supplies, merchants and artisans. It is our intent to use local resources as much as possible in our process of nesting in the old church so we'll be coming to you folks for your advice on who to contact and or where to find this and that. Always so many this and thats you know.

Thanks again for your welcomes. I look forward to tipping a cuppa with all at some point in the near future and catching up on lives full of pathways to here and now in Howard.

Good morning to all - - Have a terrific day. See you this weekend somewhere in Howard and here in the meantime.

Cheers, Terrell

[Wilma]

WOW, methinks we have a writer in our midst.

[genealogynut]

In regards to the church building and musical instruments--this is just a brief explanation regarding the churches of Christ.  They are non-denominational and base their worship on what is authorized and taught in the New Testament.  Acappella singing is the only music that is used.

[Wilma]

Lois:  Do you know if this church was always a Church of Christ or was it originally built by another church group?

[genealogynut]

According to the Elk County History book, (page 83), the building was erected in the fall of 1944.  There is a picture of it and about two paragraphs telling about it in the book. It was the Church of Christ  congregation that erected the building.

[bowie boy]

Food?? Like hot dogs and homemade pie and hot cocoa kind of food? Woo hoo! We'll be there for sure! (Does anyone in town make to-die-for chicken and dumplings or noodles??)

yes, there will be hot dogs and if i'm right pie.
no one make to-die-for-chicken-and-dumplings, but somebody does make good chicken and noodles!!

[indygal]

Hi there!

Nice to see so much activity here, and thanks for finding out when the church was built and by whom. We knew it was some time in the '40s, but not sure of the date. I also did some research into the Church of Christ denomination, and found out that they allowed only acapella singing. I don't think we'll disturb the "vibe" too much with our music, but Terrell is absolutely right: you won't know what you might hear coming from the windows. One day might be John Denver, one day might be Prince, one day might be Ravi Shankar and the next might be Glenn Miller or Sugar Ray. I do promise there will be no opera or rap, but other than that, no guarantees!

Just curious about utilities. I understand there is trash pickup; is that on a specific day(s)? Do the water/sewer bills tend to be high or low? We currently have Westar so we have an idea what electric runs, but what about gas? The folks who showed us the church weren't able to answer these questions specifically, because naturally a church wouldn't have the same type of usage that a household would have.

Also, where is the lake? We didn't see one while we were driving around the area. We went down to Moline and Elk Falls, but didn't notice any lakes in the area. (The falls are very cool, but you folks already know that! LOL)

Does the video rental place have current movies? Does the library have movies for loan? Not that we'll have much time for sitting around the TV for a LONG long while, but it's still nice to know. Also, we were told there's a used book store, so we're hoping that's true.

I have to say I am VERY impressed with the new grocery store. The prices are great! I was very concerned, as some time ago we went to Fall River and visited the grocery there. They wanted $3 (or something outrageous) for a box of cake mix (that probably had been on the shelf since Betty Crocker was a Girl Scout). Did I miss seeing it, or does the new grocery not have fresh produce? It's possible I overlooked it. We do plan to have a sizable garden and may even do a "farmer's market" at some point. Do you think folks would be interested in something like that?

OK, enough questions (at least for now!) We really appreciate this web site -- and the people who use it!

PS: Glad to hear about those chicken noodles and even MORE glad to hear about pie! Woo Hoo!

PPS: Reading the thread about the ladies' restroom and hair removal experiences made me to laugh so hard I nearly squirted milk through my nose! (I was eating my breakfast toast while at the computer, lest you think I'm capable of secreting dairy products at will...eeks!) Thanks for starting my day with giggles!

[Wilma]

Trash pickup is on Friday for the west side of town and on Thursday for the east side of town.  I don't know where that puts you.  The water, trash, sewer and gas all come on the same bill from the city.  Sewer is 22.00 and trash is 14.50 a month.  Of course water and gas depend on how much you use.  My water was 25.00 and the gas was 30.00 last month.

The lake is a couple of miles east of town on a county road.  I don't know the name of the road but it goes straight east from the veterinary's on the highway.

I don't know anything about the video rental place, except that there is one.  The library is open afternoons, Mon., Wed., Fri. and yes there is a store that has used books, somewhere on Wabash.  Have I covered everything?

The new grocery store is very nice and has a very good selection of the necessities.  Having moved here from Sedgwich County a little over a year ago, I am still not used to the limited shopping.  I have to go back over there once in awhile just for that.  I don't miss my old home at all.

[indygal]

Thanks, Wilma. You did a great job answering my questions. Although I'm a small-town girl, I've still not lived in a town smaller than 7,000, so I'm sure there will be a bit of " transplant shock" for a while. I know already I won't miss the noise or traffic of Wichita. Whereabouts in Sedgwick County did you live, Wilma? We're in the southeast part of town, close enough to McConnell and Kellogg to get plenty of noise from both. I'm glad to hear you've settled into the Howard community with no regrets, and we're looking forward to doing the same.

According to your figures, the utilities are a bit higher than what we pay now. Our water/sewer bill generally runs less than $20 a month, but I know a small-town situation is different. Trash pickup is about the same, though.

We were looking at a few of the old photos of Howard in the good ol' days and were wondering where was the old high school located? What's there now? Also, I enjoyed reading the story of cousins playing on the church steps while visiting the relatives next door. Thank you for sharing that bit of your childhood with us. ;->

[Janet Harrington]

I'll try to be a little more specific with some answers.  The video store does have current DVD's and VCR movies to rent.  They keep pretty current.  The library does loan out family movies.

The used book store must be something that Dorothy Tiffany has.  It is probably in that building that is just north of Lanning's Auto.

The lake is called Polk Daniels Lake and it is located on Killdeer Road which is just south of the Howard Vet Clinic.  To fish you have to buy a permit at either the city office or try to find the chief of police to get one.  P & J's may sell them, but I'm not sure.

Moline's Lake is north of the city.  You have to go north out of town on a city street, follow Biddle St to the cemetery, then take a right on the road that cuts the cemetery in half, follow that road until it turns back to the east, then take the first left or north on the county road to the lake.  It is easy to see.

Elk FAlls does not have a lake.  They get rural water which comes out of the Moline Lake.  The city of Longton gets their water from Elk River and this can be a problem when the pumps quit or there isn't any rain.

Grenola gets their water from the Caney River and also has a hook up to the rural water system in case of drought, etc.

The city of Fall River, which is in Greenwood County except for two blocks on the south that is in Elk County gets their water from the city of Fredonia which gets their water from the Fall River Lake.  How much sense does that make?

As for your truck graden, we are always interested in fresh produce, however; the grocery store does have fresh produce.  Currently it is in an upright cooler on the north side of the store.  Things like apples and oranges are kept in the cooler in the back and you have to ask for them.  They keep lettuce, cauliflower, radishes, carrots, the salad in the bag, oh, I just can't remember everything.

Does any of this help?