God has a way of tapping you on the shoulder at times when you least expect it. In June of 2009, I received in the mail a letter from someone I have never met or talked to. I was taken a back when I saw this letter from someone in Hays Kansas. When I opened it, it was as if God was tapping me on the shoulder as a reminder of the pack I had made with him so many many years ago. This letter was from one of Gods angels here on earth named Arlene. As I began to read this letter, it brought tears to my eyes as it brought memories back of a time in my past. You see Arlene had a similar experience to what I had gone through all those many years ago. Here is a copy of the letter I received from her.

July 3, 2009

I am not sure if you are the right person that I am trying to locate after so many years have past.

I am Arlene from Hays. Kansas. Just recently I have remodeled my home and was going through a lot of cards that I have kept all these years from when my husband was in an accident n 1963 and was killed instantly. I came across a card that I received with this very thoughtful note from a young man by the name of Gerald E. Alflen who had been in an accident near Smith Center, Kansas in June of 1963, which had taken the life of his wife and young daughter. At the time he was a patient in St. Anthony's Hospital in Hays, as was my brother, Paul who was the driver of the vehicle that claimed the life of my husband Irvin.

At the time of Irvin's death we had one son 10 months old and another son was born a month later. We never know what will be handed out to us and life can take a turn in a split second.

If you are the person I am looking for and want to respond, I would be very interested in knowing how your life was affected after experiencing such a tragedy at a young age.

I am enclosing a copy of the note that I received back in August of 1963.

Sincerely,

Arlene

Dear Arlene

In this great hour of Sorrow keep in mind the Lord will help you. I know what you are going through. I was in an accident last June which took the lives of my wife and little girl 10 months old. I have been in the hospital ever since. It is real hard to understand why these things happen . Someday we can go to meet our loved ones on the other side.

I know you don't know me but I wanted to write you because Sorrow is hard to take. Your brother is on the same floor as I am.

No words can explain the sorrow I know you are going through.

With Sympathy

Gerald E Alflen

I was amazed at what I had just read and had many questions in my mind for Arlene. So I sent her a letter back with wonderment of how she could have found me after all these years and only having this note to go by. Here is a copy of that letter to her.

Dear Arlene

Hi, Yes I am Gerald Alflen that you are looking for. It was nice of you to contact me and send me a copy of the note I sent to you way back then. A lot has happened since then and I will try to tell you about my life after that time we both went through a tragedy. I hope I don't get to long winded for you but will start back at the beginning. This is what I just wrote in my Blog a few weeks ago.

We boarded the train for home and settled in learning to sleep to the clickty clack of the train track. We arrived in Karney Neb. late in the evening and when we went to get our car, that we had left with a friend from Osborne, they tried to get us to stay the night but I told them that I had to be at work the next morning. So we set off around 10:00 PM on the 100 mile trip home.

We went through Smith Center Kansas which was about 20 miles from home. I had been having trouble falling asleep at the wheel but though I could make it home. It was around 1:00 in the morning and Ruth and Valerie were both asleep. I guess I was asleep too because I woke up to Ruth yelling "Look Out" then there was this big crunch and I was knock out and didn't even know what I had hit until I came too later. I didn't feel anything yet but as I came too I yelled for Ruth and Valerie. I could see the stars and hear the popping of metal. I tried to stand up and found out that my leg wouldn't hold me and that I didn't have any control of it. I took the weight off of it and stood on my other leg that wasn't broken. I then realized that I had hit a bridge and the car went across a creek bed landed on its top smashing the top down to the seats and then landing back on the wheels. I was standing in the car up through where the windshield used to be. I tried to get out of the car but my leg wouldn't come out as my femur was broken. I had to lift my leg out of the car and tumbled down to the ground. I was still looking for Ruth and Valerie when to my horror there was Ruth under the car all except her feet. I lost it and tried to pull her out, but to no avail as she was gone. Then I saw the lifeless body of Valerie about 10 feet from the car and she had a big gash in her head. By then I started to feel some pain set in. I prayed for God to take me too if it was his will as I couldn't understand why this had happened to us. As I lay there on the ground and realized that I was bleeding real bad on my hand from cutting it when I got out of the car. I also had several broken ribs and a broken collar bone. I then tried to crawl up out of the ravine by using my one good leg and one good arm. I pulled myself about 15 feet from the car but couldn't go any farther. I listened to the frogs croaking and the other night sounds. Every once in a while I would hear a car coming and as it got closer I would yell "help, help"and of course they couldn't hear me. This happened several times during the night until day break when I heard a car stop, I heard a door open but didn't see anyone as I yell for help. I then heard the door slam shut and the car sped away. I thought oh no they didn't hear me. About an hour later help arrived and they came down to help me. I asked if they could cover up my family as they were both gone. I told them where I was hurt and that I knew that when they lifted me onto the gurney it was going to hurt. I yelled out in pain and then they carried me up to the ambulance. I asked them to call my father in law and let him know what had happened. They took me to the Smith Center Hospital, put my leg in a splint and sewed up the cuts on my hand, arm and leg. By then my father in law arrived and came in to see me. I cried and told him I was sorry for what had happened.

The doctors decided to send me to the hospital in Hays Kansas as they weren't equipped to operate on my leg. I was pretty well out of it from the morphine they put me on. After the long trip I was admitted to St Anthony hospital and taken into surgery to put a steel rod in the middle of my leg bone. They found that I had one lung collapsed so they could not put me under long enough to put a steel rod in and instead put in a steel pin through the bone just below my knee so they could put my leg in traction. So when I woke up there I was with this traction bar overhead with a rope through pulleys and weights holding my leg bone apart. The Doctor came in the next day and explained that they would gradually remove part of the weight letting the broken bone move together. After that was done the doctor said that the bone was lined up perfectly and that they decided not to put in the rod and just let it heal with me in traction. When they told me when the funeral was going to be, I asked to go but of course wasn't able to. I had said my goodbyes out there in that creek bed. They were buried in a casket together and later on, I put on their grave marker, Together in Birth, Together in Life, Together in Death, and Together in Eternity.

After two and half months in traction I was released from the Hospital and put in a body cast for another two and half months. I then walked on crutches and with a cane for sometime after that.

In Dec. of 1963 I met a girl that was a senior in high school and to my utter dismay, this beautiful girl said she would go out with me on New Years Eve. I knew on that first date that she was the reason God didn't answer my prayer to take me home out under that bridge. We dated that spring and were married in July. A lot of people told me it was too fast to consider marriage so soon but it was right and we were both madly in love. We had a son born in Osborne in 1965 and then moved to Washington State in 1966. We were blessed with a daughter in 1967 and have now been happily married for 45 years. She is my soul mate and my reason for living. I am now retired for the past three years and we try to visit back home when we can.

If you would like I too would like to know how things turned out for you.

Sincerely

Gerald




On July 21, 2009 Arlene sent me another letter telling me how her life turned out after what she had gone through in 1963 and here is a copy of that letter.

Dear Gerald;

First of all I want to thank you for responding to my letter and I apologize for taking my time getting a letter to you. It was very interesting to read how your accident happened and how easy it was to visualize it while I was reading it.

I am so glad I wrote that first letter. I was hesitant at first but yet deep down I thought it would be a good thing to know just what had happened to the young man that wrote to me when we were both going though the same thing. There was a reason for me going through the things I have kept all these years.

At that time we were living on a small farm right outside of Hays. We had a few cattle and just rented a pasture and a few other buildings. Irvin and I both came from the farm and this place came up for rent just before we were married. It was only 2 miles from Irvin's work.

Irvin was working at Plainsman Supply and Paul was working at a service station. Both of them had worked till 9:00 that Thursday night, August 22nd. After their work day, both of them went to the field to relieve my brothers of field work. My parents had left that morning to vacation in Colorado and of course the boys were going to make sure that everything would be done by the time they came home. Paul and Irvin were on their way home from the field, Paul was driving the pick-up and fell asleep, Irvin was sleeping already, they also hit a bridge and fell into the ravine but Paul was able to crawl to the highway for help. We lived 2 miles from where the accident happened so I saw the ambulance go to the accident site but it was about two hours before my brother -in-law came to get me. Little did I think at the time I saw the ambulance that it could be anybody that I knew.

Paul had a broken pelvis and lots of cuts but Irvin had a broken neck and died instantly. Paul was in the hospital till Sept. 23rd. We had no idea where my parents were staying or what they would be doing so it was Saturday noon before we were able to find them. A couple from Victoria accidentally saw them at a tourist spot in Colorado and could tell that they didn't know yet so they were the ones to tell them. They made it home yet Saturday evening. We buried Irvin on Monday morning but unlike you, I was fortunate enough to say my goodbyes. I think back now and wonder how I ever got through that but always come to the same conclusion, God never gives you more than you can handle, somehow you always have the strength to go on.

Irvin Jr. was 10 months old and I did take him to see his daddy before we laid him to rest. He did recognize him and said "Da Da". His was all to young to even know what happened, but we talk about it quite often. I tell them things we did in the short time we had together. Mark, my second son was born on Sept. 24th. Paul was dismissed from the hospital on the 23rd and I went in on the 24th. I lived with my parents for 6 months before I bought my home which is where I still live.

It was hard to be by myself but it was the best thing for the boys because we needed to be our own family. My dad was special and understood when I needed someone. He would take the boys with him and always had time for them. He even went to Boy Scout Camp with them. He taught them a lot and they learned what was the right thing to do.

My dad too was killed in an accident in 1985. He lived for 8 weeks following the accident and spent 6 of those weeks in Wichita. He had extensive internal injuries which just never healed. He was hit head on by another vehicle driven by a careless driver.

I never found the right person to spend the rest of my life with, there was a time when I really got close to a young man but there were a lot of differences and it just wasn't meant to be. Since then I have settled into single life and pretty much spoiled myself.

I stayed home with the boys till they started school. When Mark started kindergarten, I started working part time and was always home when they were. I was very fortunate in getting good jobs. My dad was an auctioneer so I did his bookwork for years and had several bookkeeping jobs before I started working for on CPA firm in the early 70's and in 1980 I went to a different CPA firm working as a accounting tech till 1987 when I took on a job with a family owned business which I still work for. I do all the accounting for the business. It gets to be pretty much sometimes as they have oilfield and environmental service trucks and pipe hauling road trucks. They own an oil company farm and several other entities. I am very fortunate though that I have my office at home and can work when I want to. Thanks to cell phones I can leave when I want too. I think it would be a lot easier to retire if I didn't like my job.

I have been blessed with six grandchildren, ranging from 16 years old to 22 years old. Three of them will be graduating from college in May of 2010. One will be graduating from junior college in 2010 and one of the will start college in August. The youngest will be a sophomore in high school. Two of the boys were very active in sports and went to Plainville High School so we did get to Osborne quite often. The 16 year old is still going Plainville, plays basketball and baseball, he plays football too, but that's not his favorite sport. I go to most all ballgames. Irvin Jr. lives in Plainville and it it is real easy for me to go to their games. Mark lives in Hesston, Kansas and as long as his two children were in high school it wasn't easy for me to make it to their activities, but I went when I could.

Another adjustment was when both of the boys left home a year apart. It didn't seem so bad when Irvin left to go to Vo-tech in Beloit but when Mark left the next year to go to Salina Vo-teck it was pretty empty here. I got used to it now I call them company.

Did you ever get to see Paul while he was at the hospital? Being in traction I don't know if you would have been able to get around. Paul does live in Salina since the late 60's. He did marry one of the nurse aid's that took care of him.

I have babbled on way to long about myself, I would like to know how long you were in the hospital? You might have been there yet when I went in on the 24th of Sept. I really didn't think of anything till after I had that baby, all my thank you cards and notes were put on the back burner so I wouldn't even have thought to ask about anybody else. What took you back to Washington? What kind of work were you doing before yo retired?

I work on the computer everyday, I never get caught up so most of the time I have the computer tied up with work related things. Do you have to get into a website to get into your blog? I have never explore going into a blog so am not sure how that works.

I hope you don't get bored reading this and if you want to write back feel free to do so. I would eventually get back to you, might not be right away but I would in time. Again thank you for writing.

Sincerely:

Arlene

I sent this letter to Arlene in July 23 of 2009

Dear Arlene:

It was nice to hear from you and I hope this talking about what happened to both of us doesn’t bring up bad memories for you. For me I had blocked some of the details out, so I could go on with my life. All the memories were still there, but I had to shut out some of what happened. Its funny a while back by wife asked me when Valerie’s birthday was and it took me aback as I could not remember the date. (she was only 10 months old when she passed which was the same age of your son) It was among some of the things I had stored in behind that door I had closed in my mind. I had to think a bit to recall. It was kind of like when you get that blue screen on your computer. When I read your first letter to me I had to think a bit to recall writing to you all those years ago, but it clearly came back.

As a time line my accident was on June 24, 1963 and I was in the hospital until around Sept 10. I was confined to one room so I didn’t see your brother when he was there. So I wasn’t there when you were there on Sept. 24. I remember that one of the candy strippers told me about you and your brother and that he was down the hall. It moved me to write to you and it is my hope that it helped you in some way.

I was in a body cast until around the third week of Nov. and walked with crutches and then a cane until the last of Dec. I went back to work around the middle of Jan. 1964.
I asked Janet for marriage on Feb. 22 and we were married on July 26, 1964.

I was born and raised in Osborne and moved to Washington state to be closer to my parents and seven siblings. Another reason we move to Washington was sometimes in small towns people can be cruel with gossip and pointing fingers which was upsetting to my new wife. She was born in Downs Kansas and although it was hard for her to leave her family it was the right thing to make the move.

I was a produce manager in a grocery store in Osborne and when I came out here I was only off a week as I was hired on a Friday and went to work on the next Monday. I was in management for Safeway stores for 40 years and retired in January 2006.

Isn’t it amazing all the things that happened that night that were the same. I fell asleep hit a bridge and landed across a ravine like your brother and husband did. My wife was asleep and your husband was asleep when it happened. My daughter was 10 months old and your son was 10 months old.

I started my blog this last spring and posted some of my memoirs that I have written about my memories of my growing up. There is a lot of family memories that you might not be interested in but I will send you the address to get into it. There is a more complete account of what all happened back then and I am still working on writing about my history up to now. If you have a Google account it may ask you to sign in or you may have to establish an account and it is free. The address is
http://geraldscorner.blogspot.com/

My email address is gea43@aol.com if you would like to email me. You could put in the subject line -- letter from Arlene -- so I would make sure to open it. Some days I get a lot of emails.

I was wondering how you were able to find my address?

It was great to read of your history and how things turned out for you. As you said God only gives us what we can handle even though we may not understand at the time. I remember as I lay there under that bridge and realized that God had answered my prayer that it wasn’t my time to go. I laid there making plans of how I was going to go on.

Sincerely

Gerald E Alflen

I received an Email from Arlene on Sept 8, 2009

I sure hope that you haven't given up on me by now. It has been very hectic with work. I started a letter several days after I received your last one but never got it finished so I thought before I do anything today I am going to send you a note at least. I have one more big audit to get through then I can start preparing for year end stuff and that doesn't sound like any fun. August was extremely busy with trying to get caught up and keeping the CPA's happy. I did manage getting caught up working week-ends and evenings, but here and there I did socialize too. If an opportunity comes up where I can go someplace, I go.

We are finally getting a little moisture, at least it is measurable. We have had showers here and there but it is pretty dry. Fortunately we haven't had much summer. August was extremely cool but at least we could have the fresh air instead of the air conditioning. I have taken the sweatshirts and coats out for the football games already.

It was kind of interesting how I found you. I think I already told you that this spring and summer I remodeled my house and along with that I did some cleaning out. I came across your note that you wrote to me while you were still at St. Anthony's Hospital after your accident. My boys don't want to look at anything that I have saved so I shared your note with a friend of mine and of course she asked me if I had ever heard from you or tried to get in touch with you and I said no. Well one day she was at the library with one of her granddaughters and she asked about getting into newspaper articles in 1963. They showed her how to get that and she just found a lot of stuff including an article about your accident. She also found articles about her family so she had a hayday. She printed off the article but could never find when you were dismissed from the hospital or anything more. It was kind of like a dead end. At that point the computer came in pretty handy. PeopleFinder.com was the website where we found three different Gerald Alflen's. There was a Gerald D. Alflen from Grand Rapid's, Michigan and a Gerald E. Alflen from Auburn, Washington, but his age didn't seem to be right so I tried the Gerald E. Alflen in Puyallup, Washington first and that was the right one. It took me several weeks before I finally decided to write and was so surprised to hear from you right away that I still am in awe about the whole thing. I just never thought that I would find this person and on my first try I found the right one. I sure am glad I wrote that first letter. I was so glad when you responded that I read that first letter several times before writing and still finding it hard to believe that it was so easy. I have really enjoyed hearing from you. It doesn't bother me to talk about how Irvin was killed in the accident. I think it makes it easier to go on, and from day one I always said "That's the way it was suppose to be" and that has gotten me through it all.

I went into your blog and found that so interesting. It was funny to ready about some of the things you did when you were growing up. Makes me want to start writing about things that I remember. All I can say is that my son's and daughter-in-laws are going to find a lot of stuff one of these days.

The football season has started and Plainville played Smith Center last Friday. Smith Center had won 67 games in a row so we knew that there would be one chance in a million of us even getting a touchdown. Well they made it 68 in a row and it wasn't pretty, Plainville lost 59 to 0. I am hoping that the season gets better after that game. This week Plainville will play Osborne at home. Don't know what kind of team Osborne has but I hope we will see more of a game and not a run away.

I will be e-mailing this which is a lot easier so if you want to respond by e-mail it would be o.k. with me.

Duty has called with the phone ringing so I guess I had better get started on my work.

It was great hearing from you way back in July.

Have A Great Day

Arlene


When one goes through a life changing event such as we both have one often wonders how a person could have ever made it through. God has been the answer to how one can live with such a tragedy in your life. I think that there has never been a day that you don't have a thought about it but you still have to live day by day.

Cabin In The Woods

Cabin in the Woods

In 1971 we started looking for some acreage for an investment and also for a vacation spot. After looking at several parcels we decided on a 10 acre wooded site up in the mountains 65 miles south east of our home in Puyallup. It was covered with fairly large trees as it had been logged off in 1948 and it has a view of the valley below. The road winds up several steep hills, through the trees until you come to a nice flat area where we built a cabin.

We started looking for building materials to start the project when I noticed a house to be tore down in Tacoma for free. So I agreed to tear it down and completely clean the lot off. We started with the roof and worked our way down. To my amazement I found old rough cut lumber with some of it 26 ft long with no knots. It is almost impossible to buy that kind of lumber now days. I also found newspapers under the floor that they had wrapped the pipes with that were dated 1909. Just about all the lumber was excellent for reuse in our cabin. I was even able to cut the floor into 8 foot by 14 foot sections, haul them on a trailer, and install them for the floor of our new cabin. It had 3 inch flooring with 2 by 8 stringers which made a very solid floor. It saved a lot of money as I only had to buy the plywood for the siding and for the loft. It is a three bedroom with a open A frame ceiling which is about 20 foot tall. I did have to buy the windows also.

Over the years we have spent a lot of time enjoying the quiet time up in the back woods. We built a trail down below the cabin down to the bottom of the property on which the kids had many Easter egg hunts. We would hide 100's of eggs for the kids and they would find most of them but I think our dog also found some of them. We had a Doberman which loved it up there and one day a deer ran across the road by the cabin and off she went and was gone for a couple of hours. She came back with her tongue hanging out so we knew she had been running for a long time. We have seen signs of many different animals including bears, elk, deer, mountain lions, coyotes, and many squirrels jumping from tree to tree.

One day we were driving out on our way home when we noticed a buck deer in the meadow just below the road. I stopped the car and watched it for a while and notice that it started slowly to walk up towards the car. Finally it came right up to the car so the kids started feeding it some potato chips out the window. He really liked the salt and just stood there eating them as fast as they could stick them out the window. After they ran out of the salty goodies, I opened the door to get some more for the kids to feed him out of the trunk and figured he would leave. He then did something that to this day is unbelievable. He walked around the car and proceeded to climb into the car with his whole body except his two hind feet. I had to coax him out with some more food. Then the kids got out and feed him some more and was able to stand by him and pet him on the back. The kids really had a blast getting close to nature that day. We finally got back in the car and left him standing in the road and went on home. I bet he didn't last long on the first day of hunting season.

We don't have city power or water so we use propane cooking and lighting and a generator for lights also. I found a large stainless steel milk tank to collect water off the roof and piped it into the kitchen. We pack in our water for drinking just to be safe. I put in an old time outhouse so that brings back old memories of when I was a kid. When it comes time to take a shower we heat the water on the fireplace and pour it into a bucket on top so it is almost as comfortable as it is at home.

What is amazing to me is how the food always tastes so much better when you are out in the open air away from the city. Those early morning breakfasts of bacon and eggs and pancakes sure taste great. We also would pop a big pan of popcorn to snack on while we play card games, and with no TV reception, we would listen to the radio or tell jokes in the evening. With no city utilities we usually would go to bed fairly early to conserve our portable power and then get up at daybreak. It was so neat to set out on the deck and watch the sun come up and listen to all the birds sing.

Over the years we have spent a lot of time riding motorcycles and just recently I bought two four wheel ATVs. There are a lot of trails and roads to spend hours riding on. In the winter we do receive some snow and last winter it was up to three ft deep. If there is much snow you can't get up the steep roads and even if you did I wouldn't want to go down in the snow and ice. I now have a 4 wheel drive SUV which comes in handy to drive up the hills.

In 1980 Mount St Helen's blew her top and since we are about 25 miles, as the crow flies, there was around 8 inches of ash that fell on everything. It plugged up the gutters and was quit a mess. We shoveled it around the cabin and pushed it over the hill. Now you can hardly tell that there was that much ash. Although as I was starting to dig a new hole for the new outhouse the other day, I found the ash still there. It was very fertile and didn't have much acid rain in it. It has been good for all that grows up there.

We have had a lot of Realtors and speculators offer to buy it from us but so far I have held my ground. There could be close to two hundred thousand dollars worth of trees on it. The 10 acres next to us was bought and logged off, so that opened it up and I did lose a few trees to the wind. We had 3 large trees fall onto the cabin and damage the roof some, but didn't go down through it. I will now have to put on a new roof which will be fun as it is very steep.

That will be all for this post but may write more later.

Forty Fifth Wedding Anniversary

Forty Five Years

It is hard to believe that it has been 45 years since we got married. And it has been 45 wonderful years. Oh, there has been ups and downs as we went along the way but most of all the deep understanding love we have for each other was made in heaven. She is my soul mate, my lover, my reason for living, and all that too. As I was listening to the radio the other day this song came on that fits the occasion perfectly.
----------------------------------

Then

I remember trying not to stare the night I first met you
You had me mesmerized
Three weeks later under the front porch light
Taking forty five minutes to kiss good night
I hadn't told you that
I thought I loved you then

Now your my whole life
Now your my whole world
I just can't believe
The way I feel about you girl
Like a river meets the sea
Stronger than its ever been
We've come so far since that day
And I thought I love you then

I remember taking you back
To right where I first met you
You were so surprised
There were people around
I got down on one knee right there, I didn't care
And I thought I loved you then

Now your my whole life
Now your my whole world
I just can't believe
The way I feel about you girl
Like a river meets the sea
Stronger than its ever been
We've come so far since that day
And I thought I love you then

I can just see you
With a baby on the way
I can just see you
When your hair is turning gray
But I just can't see how
I'm going to love you more
But I said that before

Now your my whole life
Now your my whole world
I just can't believe
The way I feel about you girl
Like a river meets the sea
Stronger than its ever been
We've come so far since that day
And I thought I love you then

And I thought I love you then

------------------------
So on that wonderful day, July 26, 1964, we started this lifetime of love. As we go on from here we continue to love each other until our dieing day and beyond.

I love you my dear

Gerald

Remembering Granddad Knoll

A little history about granddad knoll. He was forty seven years old when he married grandma and I think she was eighteen and had a child 18 months old from another man. This shows that he had compassion as in those days to have a child out of wedlock was a no no. They lived on a farm north of Bloomington Kansas and were blessed with nine children. She accidentally cut herself one day and got blood poisoning and past away at the age of thirty five. This was very hard on granddad and with nine children from eighteen years old and down to a baby a few months old. What is really sad is that the County decided to take the kids away from him and place them in different homes in the area. Some of the boys went to farms where they could help with chores and others were placed with relatives and the baby was adopted by a family north of Alton Kansas.

This was during the depression and times were hard. Granddad was working the farm and also working for the WPA a program which put people to work from the government. He would walk around eight miles to work on the Dam just west of Osborne Kansas. When grandma passed he was off work for a couple of days for the funeral. When he went back to work they was going to dock his pay and when the other workers heard about it, they threatened to go on strike so they paid him for those days he was gone. The pay wasn't that much but that was all that was available.

Just recently I heard that when mom graduated from high school he walked from Osborne to Downs and back for her graduation. This is twelve miles so it shows his love he had for his family.

Even though I was very young when Granddad Knoll came to live with us I remember him dearly as a quiet man who read his bible daily and a very proud man. We had just move into the house on 5th street in Osborne when he came to live with us. Some of what I write about I remember and some of it are stories I have been told by my mom.

When we moved in, there was just an outhouse and no inside plumbing. Dad added on a bathroom and I remember I tried to help even thought I was quite small. After it was all completed it was so great to be able to not have to go to that old outhouse out back. Well Granddad knoll wouldn't use the inside plumbing he still made that trip out back. So Dad had to tear down the old outhouse because he was afraid that in the middle of the night granddad would slip and fall and freeze to death on those cold snowy winter nights. Granddad wasn't very happy about it but he started using the inside bathroom.

One night after we had gone to bed, Mom heard granddad and it sounded like he was crying. She asked dad if he knew why granddad was upset and he didn't recall any reason. So the next morning at the breakfast table she asked him what he was crying about. He said, "I wasn't crying I was just laying there and finally got the meaning of that joke I had read the day before." He was snickering and it sounded like he was crying.

I remember as a child the old trunk that he had with some of his keepsakes in it. There was a lot of old family pictures and an old kaleidoscope which had the double pictures and when you looked through the lens, it was as if you were there. This was a great adventure to go through his trunk of memories. He even had this razor sharpener which would sharpen a double edged razor blade.

After he lived with us for a while he moved in with Maxine and Alvin until he past away in 1950. I must have been around 7 years old and I remember Dad and Mom discussing if I was old enough to go to his funeral. They decided it would be the right thing so we went to say our goodbyes. I remember they explained that granddad wasn't there and that he was in heaven. He looked like he was just sleeping there in the casket. I think it was a good thing for me to be there, since then I have been able to except a loved ones death even if it is hard to let them go.

Remembering the Knoll Family

The Knoll family has always been and still is a very close knit family. I can remember as a child they always would at least meet once a year and sometimes more often. There would be Holiday times together with this enormous spread of home made foods of all kinds. I can still see in my mind this wonderful event of family visiting and stuffing ourselves with that special food. They would take turns having these get togethers at each others house but I think we met more times at Uncle Harvey and aunt Marys house.

I know that many times if you just happened to drop by to see Harvey and Mary, Harvey would always invite you to stay for a meal. Aunt Mary may be in the middle of preparing the meal and Harv would tell her to set more plates on the table. I always tried to argue with him to no avail and had to stay for dinner. They always open there house to anyone who happened to come by.

I remember when Harv an Mary lived on the farm just a mile south and a few miles west of Osborne. One time we were there when they were making soap. They had butchered some hogs and were rendering the fat in these big cast iron pots to make soap. As a young child this was amazing to watch this process.

We visited them many times on the McKinney farm taking in all the things of running a farm. Milking the cows, feeding all the animals and of course some more of those wonderful meals. Harv decided to take us duck hunting at a nearby pond where he knew there was several ducks. I was the only one who had a shotgun and we carefully creeped up behind the dam and peaked over it. The ducks took off flying away and circled around over head. They were flying quite high but I tried one shot and to our dismay I hit two ducks and they landed at our feet. I thought Harv was going to beat his stub off with excitement. (Harv had lost his hand in a combine accident many years ago.) When we got back to the house he had to brag to everyone about what a great shot I had made.

I remember the times we went to Uncle Anthony and Aunt Joann's farm. We would help with the chores or go hunting, but of course some more of those delicious home cooked meals.

These are just a few of many memories that are engraved in my mind of the many Knoll reunions and meetings. The Knoll family to this day still get together at least every other year. I just returned from the Colorado reunion last week. We all had a wonderful time visiting and playing games. But most of all it is great to see the love everyone has for each other. Very few families have this closeness that they do. As we get older and have lost some of our love ones we still meet and we know that they are with us in spirit. And we are all looking forward to that large Knoll reunion up in Heaven.

Finding Love Part 2

Finding Love Part 2

In the fall of 1963 as I was recuperating from my accident, and I was first getting around on crutches and then I walked with a cane. My Dad had called me in August to see if Jim, my brother, could come live with me so he would finish High school. So I agreed and he came back in time to enroll in High school. We were attending church, and participating in the young peoples group who always would have sing ins for the shut ins of the community. At Christmas time we were out going to several homes singing Christmas carols. I was still using a cane to get around and really enjoyed being able to get out and be with other people. I noticed this girl that kind of flirted with me and I was amazed that she would do this to a crippled, widowed man. I talked to her, and she told me her name was Janet. A few days later after a church service I asked her and her friend if they would like to go for a snack and ride around for a while. They agreed and after some time of nervous conversation, it was time to take them back to their car for them to go home. New Years Eve was a few days away, so I thought I would ask her if she would go on a date with me. So I dropped the question, “would you like to go out on New Years Eve?” and there was this long silence. Then she said, “who are you talking to?” and I said “why you of course.” and to my surprise she said that she would go out with me. Later she told me why there was a long silence, because her friend was the one who was wanting to go out with me. Needless to say her friend gave her a ear full on their way home that night.

I couldn’t believe what had just happened, here was this beautiful girl who had just agreed to have a date with a widowed man. I had to pinch myself all the way home that night to make sure I was awake and it wasn’t a dream. So when the night finally arrived I drove to Downs to pick her up. I went to the door and knocked to see if she was ready. Her Dad came to the door and invited me in. He was busy installing a hardwood floor in the living room so I visited with him about his handy work and then Janet came down and we left. I had this old 49 Chevy and we proceeded to go out for this first date. I was still in shock that here was this gorgeous girl sitting beside me. The conversation was kind of short at first as I didn’t quite know what to talk to her about. She was a Senior in High School and here I had been married before.

On the way back to Downs I noticed that the gas gage was down to ¼ so I stopped for gas. The attendant came out and filled the tank and put in around a $1.75 worth of gas. As I drove away I noticed that the gas gauge had hardly moved up any so I figured that he didn’t get it full so I went to another station in Cawker City. This time the attendant said “that will be 25 cents.” We laughed as we drove away as now I realized that my gas gauge wasn’t working right.

We drove around till 12:00 to bring in the New Years Eve and then I took her home. As we sit in the car visiting I decided that I had better ask her if she knew what all I had been through and that I had been married before. She said that she knew all about it and that didn’t make any difference to her. I walked her to the door and give her a kiss good night and got back into the car and knew that this was the girl that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. People may say that there is no such thing as love at first sight but I would argue with them. This was the best thing that had ever happened to me up till then. Its hard to explain, I knew we were about to embark on an adventure of a lifetime.

The next morning her mother questioned her about who she had a date with the night before. When she told her who she was with her mother was upset and said “you can’t go out with him again.” Her dad interrupted and said “Oh yes she can if she wants to, he is a real gentleman and I really like him. ” So I guess that was the end of that and after I met her mother she changed her mind and really liked me also.

Around the middle of February I decided to ask her for her hand. This was kind of fast since we had only been dating for about six weeks, but it was right as we were falling into a deep love. I bought the ring and put it in the glove box to pop the question that night. So when the time came I asked her the big question and she didn’t act surprised. She did put on the ring and said she had to talk to her parents first. I thought Oh no I asked her too soon as she wasn’t ready for this. She wore the ring to school the next day to show it off to all her friends. I asked her on our next date why she wasn’t surprise and she said she had looked in the glove box and found the ring while I was in a store buying something. So she was already prepared for that big question. After talking to her parents they said she had to wait till she was 18 and it would be fine with them. Her birthday is in September so we started planning for that big day. I spent most of all my spare time with her and as she graduated from high school her parents agreed to let her marry me before she was 18. So we set a date of July 26 and was united in marriage on that day.

Finding Love

Finding Love

I guess at a early age I kind of liked the girls even if I was awkward around them. At the age of around 6 Pamela was the first girl I kissed. Through grade school I didn’t really have much to do with the opposite sex but did have one date with a Girl who live across the street when I was in the 6th grade. We went to a Friday night football game and she didn’t really have much to do with me after that. In junior high I was introduced to my kissing cousins. We attended church Sunday and Wednesday and after the services we would go to the local drive in for a snack. We were not old enough to drive so we would all pile in to a older friends car and drive around all over town and I would usually sit in the back seat with two or three of my cousins on each side of me. One night for some reason they started kissing me. This was very upsetting to me, Ha Ha, as they would keep track of which one of them kissed me the most.

One of the older friends that would drive us around was the preacher daughter, Ruth. She was 4 years older then me and soon she was in on these kissing
sessions. I was in the 8th grade and she was a senior in high school. She would take my cousins home first and me last, and we would talk till quite late into the night. She would give me a kiss goodnight and I would go in and go to bed thinking about what was happening. This was a new feeling for me. This went on until she graduated and was going to go to college that next year. She came to my house and wanted to talk to me. I went to the car and she said that she had the deep feelings for me and that she wanted to write back and forth from college. She said that even though she was 4 years older than me and had been teased about robbing the cradle, she loved me and wanted to be together later.

I agreed and we corresponded that next school year. I went on with my Freshmen year of high school. I kept busy with basketball and my school work. That next spring I went to the Woodston church camp and after a couple of days Ruth showed up and introduced me to her fiancee and shoved this engagement ring in my face. I was devastated and completely surprised. So I decided to move on and find another girl. My kissing cousins set me up with a girl from Greatbend and we dated for a couple of nights. She had to go home before the camp meeting was over so the next night this girl, another preachers daughter, ask me to go with her. We went to the services that night and after the service we walked around and she pulled me into an empty tent. We set on a cot and she started kissing me only this was a French kiss, my first. She started getting a little too frisky for me so I told her I didn’t believe in having sex before marriage. Well she was intent on having more than I was willing to give her so she moved onto another guy the next night that would please her. In the mean time the other girl from Greatbend decided to come back, so when she found me with this other girl it broke her heart. My cousins informed me of this so I apologized to her but to
no avail. I think I had done all this to show Ruth that I could be fine without her.

Later in the fall our church youth group went to Wichita for a state convention. This was the first time I think I stayed in a hotel. It was neat how we could walk down the hall going to the rooms, touch someone and send this ½ inch spark through their ear. I meet this girl Sharon who was from Overland Park, Kansas. We set together during the services and she gave me her address and I gave her mine. We started corresponding over the next years and she said she was falling in love with me even though I thought we were just pen pals. After about 2 years I had to write her a letter explaining that I was planning marriage with someone else and she sent me this heart breaking letter of sadness of losing me.

During my junior year of high school Ruth came back to town and came to the house and wanted to talk to me. She told me that she had broke up with her fiancee because she decided she was still in love with me. I listened to her as she said she was sorry for what she had done and wanted to get back together with me again. I told her that I wasn’t sure if I could as she had hurt me very deeply. She had decided to for go college and go to beauty school in Salina. She would come home on some week ends and we started dating again. I tried to keep up my guard and kept telling her she better not dump me again. We corresponded writing letters and seeing each other on the week ends when she was home. She graduated from beauty school and went to work in a local beauty shop. That spring I decided to get a job with my dad doing road construction. I drove a packing tractor for that summer on those hot summer days. In the fall I decided to ask Ruth if she would marry me. I asked her dad and he agreed but had some concerns about the 4 years age difference. I bought a engagement ring set and popped the question. We stated the process of planning a wedding. I had saved enough money that summer so I bought my first car, a 1954 Chevy. Sure wished I had that old car now.

So I started my senior year engaged and planning to be married that next summer of 1961. I worked odd jobs the first of the school year and decided it was time to get a real job. I started looking and heard about the local funeral parlor needing help. I made an appointment and found out he was wanting experienced help. I then applied at the local grocery store and was put to work as the Produce manager. Now with a regular job I went to the local appliance store and bought a dinette set and a new washer and dryer. I was making payments on these my senior year. In school I had 3 hours of wood shop so I built a mahogany bedroom set and a oak china hutch. We also built a beauty shop in our home as she planed on going into business for herself. By the time I graduated I had our home pretty well furnished. I traded my 54 Chevy for a 59 Chevy in 1961. It was a really nice car with those big fins on the back.

I graduated from high school in the spring of 1961 and we were married in June. We had a large wedding with 6 or 7 attendants standing on each side of us. As I was waiting for her atI the front of the church, she came in the back of the church with her father and we sang a song to each other, I love you truly. She sang a verse to me and then I sang a verse to her. The church was packed but I got through it. We went to Colorado Springs on our honey moon. We came back and settled into the normal routine of married life. I worked 6 days a week as a produce manager and she opened her beauty shop and was doing quite well. We were blessed with a little girl born in August of 1962. Here was this little bundle of joy we named Valerie.

My parents moved to Washington state that year and as they left dad tried to talk me into moving there to. In the spring of 1963 we decided to take a vacation to Washington to visit my parents. We drove 100 miles to Kearney Nebraska where we boarded a train and they picked us up in Tacoma Washington. This was our first train ride an even though we were traveling with a baby we really enjoyed it. We had a nice time visiting all the sites and were amazed at all those trees. Everything was green and we drove 100 miles to the ocean and 50 miles to the top of MT Rainier. On one of the days we were spending time at home Ruth was doing hair for my sisters and decided to do two of my brothers Jim and Dennis. She washed and set their hair like they were girls and since there hair was long enough that it curled nicely and changed them into girls. We were able to get movies of them even though they weren’t happy about it. Four or five days before we were suppose to return home to Kansas, Ruth got upset at me and said she was going to return early. I guess that I had spent so much time with my family that I didn’t pay enough attention to her. I patched it up with her but later wondered if maybe I should of let her go. We boarded the train for home and settled in learning to sleep to the clickity clack of the train track. We arrived in Kearney late in the evening and when we went to get our car, that we had left with a friend. They tried to get us to stay the night but I told them that I had to be at work the next morning. So we set off around 10:00 PM on the 100 mile trip home.

We went through Smith Center Kansas which was about 20 miles from home. I had been having trouble falling asleep at the wheel but thought I could make it home. It was around 1:00 in the morning and Ruth and Valerie were both asleep. I guess I was asleep too because I woke up to Ruth yelling “Look Out” Then there was this big crunch and I was knock out and didn’t even know what I had hit until I came too later. I didn’t feel anything yet but as I came too I yelled for Ruth and Valerie. I could see the stars and hear the popping of metal. I tried to stand up and found out that my leg wouldn’t hold me and that I didn’t have any control of it. I took the weight off of it and stood on my other leg that wasn’t broken. I then realized that I had hit a bridge and the car went across a creek bed landed on its top smashing the top down to the seats and then landing back on the wheels. I was standing in the car up through where the wind shield used to be. I tried to get out of the car but my leg wouldn’t come out as my femur was broken. I had to lift my leg out of the car and tumbled down to the ground. I was still looking for Ruth and Valerie when to my horror there was Ruth under the car all except her feet. I lost it and tried to lift the car off her and then tried to pull her out, but I knew she was dead. Then I saw the lifeless body of Valerie about 10 feet from the car and she had a big gash in her head and I knew she was gone too. By then I started to feel some pain set in. I prayed for god to take me too if it was his will as I couldn’t understand why this had happened to us. As I lay there on the ground and realized that I was bleeding real bad on my hand from cutting it when I got out of the car. I also had several broken ribs and a broken collar bone. I then tried to crawl up out of the ravine by using my one good leg and one good arm. I pulled myself about 15 feet from the car but couldn’t get any farther. I listened to the frogs croaking and the other night sounds and every once in a while I would hear a car coming, as it got closer I would yell “ help, help ” and of course they couldn’t hear me. This happened several times during the night until day break when I heard a car stop. I heard a door open but didn’t see anyone as I yell for help. I then heard the door slam shut and the car sped away. I thought, oh no they didn’t hear me. About an hour later help arrived and they came down to help me. I asked them if they could cover up my family as they were both dead. I told them where I was hurt and that I knew that when they lifted me onto the gurney it was going to hurt. I yelled out in pain and then they carried me up to the ambulance. I asked them to call my father-in-law and let him know what had happened. They took me to the Smith Center Hospital, put my leg in a splint and sewed up my cuts on my hand, arm and leg. By then my father-in-law arrived and came in to see me. I cried and told him I was sorry for what had happened.

The doctors decided to send me to the hospital in Hays Kansas as they weren’t equipped to operate on my leg. I was pretty well out of it from the morphine they put me on. After the long trip I was admitted to St Anthony hospital and taken into surgery to put a steel rod in the middle of my leg bone. They found that I had one lung collapsed so they couldn’t put the rod in and instead put in a steel pin through the bone just below my knee so they could put my leg in traction. So when I woke up there I was with this traction bar overhead with rope through pulleys and weights holding my leg bone apart. The doctor came in the next day and explained that they would gradually remove part of the weigh letting the broken bone move together. After that was done the doctor said that the bone was lined up perfectly and that they decided not to put in the rod and just let it heal with me in traction. When they told me when the funeral was going to be, I asked to go but of course wasn’t able to. I had said my goodbyes out there in that creek bed. They were buried in a casket together and later on I put on their grave marker, together in birth, together in life, and together in death.

After five months in the Hospital they put me in a body cast for another five months. When I went back to the Doctor to remove the cast I looked at this shriveled up leg and had to walk with crutches for quite a while. I was married at 17, a father at 18, and a widower at 19. I look back today and wonder how I managed to make it through all that but with Gods help I made it.

My Earliest Memories Part 2

I remember my first week of school we had this large slide in our school room and we got to take turns sliding down it. After our lunch time we would take a nap on the special rug we brought to school. I seem to be remembering the happy things by this time. One day at recess this girl name Pamela starting throwing twigs at me. Well I wasn’t going to put up with this so I told her if she threw one more at me that I was going to kiss her. I guess she wanted a kiss because she threw another one and Wow my first kiss. That romance ended that same day. I guess now days I would have been expelled from school, that’s another whole story.

I liked school those early years but didn’t really have to many real close friends. We lived about 4 blocks from school so we almost always walked to school. We always played a baseball game at recess by choosing up sides. I was playing second base and made a bad play. This girl named Connie came over to me and was giving me an ear full. Then all of a sudden she kicked me real hard and it hit that special spot. Well you know how this story goes there I was laying on the ground moaning and groaning and was glad to here the bell ring. I managed to get myself back to class but still didn’t understand why she kicked me there, maybe she didn’t really mean to. Later she said she was sorry and we became friends. She lived just down the street from us and one day I went down to see if she wanted to go do something. I knocked on the door and her mom told me to come in and wait for her. So as I enter the room there was her mom with slacks and a bra on. She was ironing a blouse to put on and said she hoped that it didn’t bother me being half dressed. Well I was very embarrassed and tried not to look her way. I think she enjoyed making me feel bad. Connie then came out and we left to do something I can’t remember, as all I remember is her mom half dressed.

As a young boy I decided to mow lawns for the summer to earn some money to buy a bicycle. I worked hard mowing lawns up and down 5th street. I finally earned enough for this special bike. Even though it was a used bike I was proud of it. I decided to take it all apart to give it a new paint job. I went to the Western Auto store and picked out a special blue paint and worked on it for several days. I then decided to make stripes on the fenders so I masked off a design on both the front and back. Then another trip to the Western Auto to look at all the reflectors and lights I could put on it. After making that final decision home I went to install all these new gadgets. Oh yes I had to have these handle bar grips with the plastic strips hanging from them. And there it was that super bike all done and ready for that first ride. I thought I need to put some playing cards to flap on the spokes making the roaring sound as I raced down the street. Those were my super wheels and I was so proud of my handy work.

I remember as a child I loved to look on the cereal boxes for those special treasures that you could send for. After saving several box tops and sending them in it became a daily game to see if I had some mail. We also would receive these special fliers selling fireworks by mail. I guess you can’t do that anymore. I would go through them trying to figure which box lot of fireworks I wanted to buy and save my money for them. When the 4th of July finally came we would have a blast firing them off till the wee hours of the morning. We would take two cans that fit together tightly, take a nail punch a hole in the bottom, put in a firecracker fuse out the hole slide the can together light the fuse and shoot them high in the air. It also worked great to throw them in a large bucket for a louder bang.

Since I am the oldest of eight kids we didn’t have a lot of fancy toys as kids. My brothers and I decided one day to make some trucks and tanks out of blocks of wood. We used nails for the guns on the tanks. Dad had build us a big sand box and we were playing with them building roads and tunnels and running our new homemade toys on them. My brother Jim had this nice tunnel but it collapsed as he drove his truck over it. He looked over to see this nice tunnel my sister had and kind of stepped on it. She had a temper, so she grabbed one of the tanks and threw it at him. Jim ducked and it hit its mark in Dennis’s wrist. He started screaming as he looked at this tank with a nail sticking in him. I grabbed his arm and tried to pull the tank out to no avail as it was stuck into the bone. So I had to twist it out all the while he was screaming. When Mom found out what happened we had to destroy our new toys.

This brings to mind another time earlier when us kids were playing in the front yard. We had this file with a sharp point on it and Marsha was throwing it up in the air and trying to get it to stick in the ground. Well maybe we were all taking turns but anyway just as I told her to be careful here it came down and stuck in the top of her head. It’s a wonder that we survived those youthful days. I always teased my sister about not being the same after she had a file stuck in her head.

As I got older I was ready to get past a bicycle and get a motorcycle, well it was a Cushman motor scooter. I bought it used and proceeded to run all over town and getting stopped by the cops and told not to drive it in town as I didn’t have a drivers license yet. So I would run it on the dirt roads on the edge of town. Sam, down the street also had one and we decided to race. Well I ran off and left him in my dust making him to wonder why my scooter was so much faster then his. Come to fine out it had been bored out so had more horsepower. I remember my first wreck as I came around a corner a little fast I went along the curb and ran through some leaves. To my surprise there was some mud under them and down I went. As I looked over my scrapes and scratches, I up righted my scooter and went on home with a lesson learned.

Remembering Dad

Things I Remember about my DAD

Where does one start on a subject that one could go on forever. I guess one of the most important things is that Dad brought us all up in a Christian home. What ever we do or where we go that will always be with us in our hearts. As long as I can remember, as a small child I knew nothing else. I remember clearly the day and the place in children’s church that I gave my heart to Jesus and how I couldn’t wait to tell my Dad. He always encouraged me to sing in church. At about 4 years old I remember they had me sing for the alter call the song, Come into my heart. As a small child I don’t think I was old enough to be scared. I just remember that there wasn’t hardly a dry eye in the church. I know that Dad was proud of me.

Dad loved to listen to his records of the old time gospel quartets . After church every Sunday we would go home and he would put on his records, sit in his chair, and enter into a world of his own with tears running down his face. He always said he wanted us boys to sing in a quartet someday and I guess we didn’t come through with that dream for him. It was nothing for him to travel across several states to go to a all night singing. One time I traveled with him to Texas to see, I think there were six quartets that night. He was on top of the world and loved to talk to all of them as they sold their records. He would go up to any of them and talk to them as if he was their best friend.

Since Dad was so into his gospel music, he had Me, Marsha, and Jim take piano lessons. I remember going to these weekly lessons and the piano recitals we were in. I look back now and realize that this was Dads dream and us kids didn’t have that same dream of that gospel quartet that he was raising. But I did learn a lot that I was able to use later in life.

I remember at around the age of 8 Dad decided to visit his sister, Alice Noyes who lived in Kansas City. Now this was the first time I had a trip to a large city. After the trip of around 265 miles we entered what seemed to me a city that went on forever compaired to our little town of Osborne. I remember walking down the street in front of their house with all these homes so close together. We had a nice visit with his sister Alice and here family.

I remember when I was around 12 years old, the Puderbaughs from California was visiting Grandpa and Grandma Alflen and the motor on their car had went bad. So you know Dad, always helping people out, overhauled the engine in the lean too at grandpas greenhouse. I was so excited because he let me help him. He was finishing up and let me put the bolts in the bottom pan of the motor. I was tightening up the bolts and ask Dad “how tight do you want me to tighten these bolts” when I heard this snap. I knew that I had twisted a bolt off and thought boy I am going to get it now. To my surprise Dad was very cool even though we had to take the pan back off and drill out the bolt. Dad could be stern at times but also had a side to him that made it a learning experience for us kids.

I remember all the years as a child that Dad would always take us for vacation to Colorado. This one year Dad was working on the road in Atwood Kansas. He was staying with a family who rented rooms and knowing how Dad was, he became very friendly with them. Well they told Dad about their cabin they owned in the Red Feather Lakes in Colorado and that he could use it if he wanted to. So we loaded up everyone and traveled what seemed forever to find this cabin way back in the sticks. Here was this beautiful cabin with bedding and cupboards full of food. There was a note on the cupboard stating to use what you need but please replace what you use. Behind the cabin it was kind of steep and covered with trees. Us kids had a wonderful time hiking and climbing on the rocks. I remember how Mom fixed pancakes for breakfast that first morning and how great the food tasted in the mountain air.

I remember on the many trips we took to Colorado that we always visited the Garden of Gods, Seven Falls, and the long climb up Pikes Peak. Dad would tease Mom by driving real close to the edge of the road next to a shear drop off. She would yell at him and he would just laugh and continue on the road. We also would always take the beautiful drive up to the Cave of the Winds. We would always beg Dad to take us down in the caves, but because of the cost he would always say its too expensive. Later in life on my honeymoon I made that trip again but this time I took my new wife down in the caves. Wow! As kids we really missed a sight of all the stalagmites and stalactites and will go there again given the chance.

I remember that when we would camp in the campgrounds, after we got all set up Dad would sometimes disappear. We would usually find him in the next camp setting by the fire talking to strangers as if he had known them for years. Dad was always able to walk up to anyone and talk to them as if he was there best friend.

Dad had a unique sense of humor and was always playing jokes on people. As a child, I remember that Dad wasn’t home much during the week. They would sometimes have jobs half way across the state, so he would come home on week ends. Mom had her hands full with us kids. On this one week end Mom wanted to surprise him with a super clean house. She had us help her and worked hard on it for 2 days. Well when Dad came in the house, with out thinking, he said. “when are you going to clean up this house”. Mom said “what” and proceeded to empty most all the chest of drawers and scattered stuff through out the house. She then said “now there’s a messy house”. Dad just stood there dumb founded not knowing what to say to fix what he said. Mom had to stay up all night putting back everything. I think Dad learned his lesson on thinking before talking, Well he did a little better.

One time on a family get together we decided to go hand fishing in the river. Most of us were out in the water feeling around for fish and as usual Dad had to have some fun with Harvey. He was very goosey and would jump at about anything that touched him. So Dad dove under the water and proceeded to touch Harvey on the leg. He yelled “OHH there’s one.” He just got settled down when Dad hit him again and this time he headed for shore screaming “he’s got me he’s got me” He was ready to shoot Dad when he realized what just happened.

When we lived out on the farm Dad told me he wanted me to build a fence while he was gone for the week. So I spent several days building this fence on the north side of the mulberry trees. I was so proud of my work and when Dad got home I proceeded to show him my handy work. Well he shot me down and said “now look down this fence” and when I looked down it, it looked like a snake. I told him what different does it make if it is a little crooked. Well anyway we fixed fence the rest of the day making it straight. Nobody told me to run a string to make a straight fence. Dad didn’t always expect perfection but did teach us to try to do things right.

One night as we were coming home from Sunday Night church we were driving through the snow when all of a sudden a bald eagle flew in front of the car, and we hit it. We stopped to see how he was and found him stunned laying in the middle of the road. We were afraid he would freeze to death in the snow so we got him in the car and took him home and put him in the garage for the night. The garage was in two sections with a shop and a attached garage and in the shop we had sows with piglets. As soon as they smelled the eagle in the attached garage they began grunting and all the piglets huddled close to them for protection. When Dad picked him up his wing span went past his outstretched arms by several inches. The next morning we opened the door on the garage and he flew away. He was a beautiful bird.

Dad loved his cars and to him there was only one kind which was Chevrolet’s. Back in those days there wasn’t any speed limit which was a good thing as Dad would have had many tickets. I remember the 54 Chevy which just had a 6 cylinder motor in it. Dad was always tinkering with it to get it to go faster. So he took out the hydraulic lifters and put in the old solid lifters to make it go faster. Then he put in special heavy duty valve springs to try to get a few more miles faster. I remember that old 54 getting up to 112 miles per hour, which was pretty fast for a 6 cyl.

He was always racing the other guys back to the job site whereever it was. Of course some of them were Ford men so it became quite a challenge between them. Of course those Fords had 8 cylinders motors for several years. But in 55 the Chevy came out with a 8 cylinder motor, and Dad was about to make his big move. In 58 he ordered from the factory his new toy with the new big block V-8. I remember him figuring it all out and since he couldn’t get it from the factory with a overdrive he planned to remove the transmission and install the new overdrive transmission before he drove it out of the garage. I remember as each week went by he would go down and check if it was in yet. Well when it finally arrive sure enough he tore it all apart putting in the overdrive and also changing the rear end to a higher gear ratio. He carefully broke the engine in but could hardly wait to try to see how fast it would go. Finally the day arrived and we took it out and as he shifted to second gear and overdrive we were up to 120 and then he shifted to high, and it kept climbing. I don’t know if he really knew just how fast it would go but all I knew was that those Fords couldn’t keep up anymore. What was amazing was that if he drove it without kicking in the 4 barrel carburetor it would get almost 25 miles to the gallon. Those were the days and I think that was his favorite car.

Dad loved his favorite hobby, riding trail bikes. I remember we each ordered a Super Bronc, which came in this box all in pieces so we had fun putting them together. I think the most fun we had riding was a trip we took to the top of Goat mountain. It was several miles to the top with switch backs and a steep climb most of the way. After we got on the top we set up camp with a view of MT. St. Helen just a few miles to the south of us. We built a fire and enjoyed our meal in the open air. We had these 2 person pack tents that were actually really meant for one. We both finally settled into our sleeping bags and were discussing the events of the day. All of a sudden dad hollered out “Oh No.” I said “what’s wrong”. “I got a cramp in my leg“. I could remember that earlier that day he was pushing that bike up that mountain. We lay there laughing crammed in this small tent as he tried to rub out the cramp. Then here it came again “Oh No” I said “now what’s wrong” “ I got another cramp in the other leg“. So in the middle of the night while it is pouring down rain, Dad squeezes out of our tent to walk out his cramps. The next morning we got up to a beautiful site of St Helens. That was one of the most memorable bike trips I took with Dad.

Dad was a successful businessman and a mechanic most of his life. You can say that Dad was a self taught man, as he only completed the 8th grade. As a child I remember he worked doing road construction. He started by running turn-a pulls building highways across Kansas. Many times as we would travel across country and if he saw some road equipment anywhere we had to stop so he could check out anything that might be new. As he got a little older he became the mechanic for all the big machinery on the job. He didn’t go to any big schools to learn this as he could just take a book with all the parts in it and rebuild just about anything. I remember one year during the off season in the winter he decided to rebuild the turn a dozer. I went with him one day and couldn’t believe my eyes. Here is this big machine that has tires about 8 feet tall all in pieces. It had a automatic transmission with all these bands and clutches and he had parts every where. I heard the boss comment to some other guys how he was amazed that Dad could rebuild this large machine by looking at a book. It’s amazing what a 8th grader can do. Of course that was the way dad was, he could do anything he put his mind to. Maybe he inherited some of this from his dad who did things the same way.

Later in life he opened a auto mechanic shop which he could rebuild any thing that drove down the road. He built up the business and was well liked in the community.

As I said in the beginning, These are a few of the memories I have of Dad. Through the years since Dad passed, I hardly ever have a day goes by without a thought of my Dad.

In Loving Memory;

Gerald

My Earliest Memories

When I tried to remember my first memory the thought came to me, The day I was born I opened my eyes and hollered “Turn off that bright light, I’m not going to open them again until you do .” Of course this didn’t happen but in this time of trying to remember my thoughts came to things that I have been told that happened but I don’t remember them.

Mom has told me that when I was just starting to get around they had a old stroller that they had removed the bottom tray that was there for my feet so I could stand up in it and push it all over the place. Well one day Mom said she saw me headed down the street, she guessed I was on my way to see my Grandpa Alflen. I could really make those wheels sing as she finally caught me 4 blocks away. My Uncle Harvey would come down to visit and was trying to help me learn to walk. He would push me in that old stroller and noticed that I would always put down my feet and never hit the wall. My foot brakes would stop it no matter how fast he would push me. After a while he was wore out as he couldn’t make me hit the wall.

On another occasion the family was down at an old swimming hole and I was just a baby. Of course I didn’t yet know how to swim. My Uncle Teak was holding me in the water when the water got to deep for him. Since the uncle Knolls are all quite short, the water didn’t have to get to deep. Anyway he started taking on water and in his panic just let me go. My dad had to dive in and save me. I guess he had to save Uncle Teak too. Dad was pretty upset that he just let go of me.

We seem to remember the things that happened to us that were traumatic. Or something bad that etched it in our minds forever. The first memory that I can remember was as a small child I always had the run of the whole house. But this one Sunday afternoon I tried to go into Dad and Moms bedroom and the door was locked. I banged on the door to no avail, crying and couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t let me in. This was a traumatic situation, I could always go to Dad or Mom anytime but they told me to go play with my toys. Of course years later I figured out why they needed that Sunday afternoon nap without me.

I remember that my Grandpa Knoll lived with us at the house we lived in on fifth street in Osborne Kansas. When we first moved there we just had an outside toilet but my dad put in the new bathroom inside. It was so nice so we didn’t have to make the cold trips out to the outhouse in the middle of winter. Well Grandpa Knoll didn’t really take a liking to the new bathroom in the house and continued to make those icy trips in the winter. Dad was afraid that he might fall in the middle of the night and freeze to death, so he tore down that old outhouse forcing him to use the inside toilet. He wasn’t too happy but at least he was safe. Sometimes at night we would hear Grandpa Knoll making a noise like he was crying. Mom asked him what was wrong and he said that he just got the joke that was told at the dinner table as he was snickering and not crying. He was a little slow when someone told a joke. He was a god fearing man and read his bible almost everyday. He was loved by everyone he met even if he was a little shy and quiet.


The next traumatic thing I remember was when my Grandpa Knoll died. I must have been around seven and didn’t quite understand what had just happened. I heard my parents talking about how I was old enough to go to the funeral. So we all packed into this church and they talked about my Grandpa and that he wasn’t with us anymore. At the close of the funeral we all went by this casket where there he lay asleep. They explained that I couldn’t see him anymore and that he was in heaven. That was my first funeral I remember and will never forget. Even though it was traumatic for me I believe it was good for me to learn about life and death at an early age.

Remembering Granddad Alflen

I always felt that I was one of Granddad’s favorite grand kids as we always had a great relationship. He seemed like a gruff guy who could cuss and was not afraid to let you know his mind. But down inside he had a heart of gold. He was a Farmer and a Florist by trade and although his schooling was only through grade school he taught himself how to be successful in business. He had a large greenhouse which consisted of around 8 buildings in which he raised from seed everything from carnations, gladiolas, and just about every kind of flowers for the local gardeners to buy from him. He also raised all kinds of vegetable plants in the spring. He also farmed around 160 acres of river bottom sandy land in which he raised all kinds of fruits and vegetables to sell from his greenhouse. He was very proud of his work and employed several people to work for him.

Granddad had a special way to greet you as he would grab you just above the knee and with his big hand, squeeze your leg and laugh and say horse bite. He was very special to me as he molded me into knowing a good work ethic and the value of everything in life. We would go to the field, which was 2 miles east of town, early in the morning, come in for a meal at noon, and if there was a baseball game on the TV we would watch it as my granddad was a true baseball fan. He had his favorite team, the Dodgers, but would watch any game before we went back to the field. After our restful nap watching baseball we would go back to the field to finish the day.

I remember that he always wore a tie even out to the field in over 100 degree weather. It was fun to play in the greenhouses with rows and rows of flowers and vegetables plants. As I got a little older he would put me to work watering, weeding, or putting a new load of cut flowers that had came in for a wedding or funeral. One summer he told me that he wanted me to work for him both in the greenhouse and also out on the farm where he raised all kinds of vegetables to sell. He started me out at $12.50 a week and as a kid around 10 years old that seemed like a lot of money. He was one of the first organic farmers as he didn’t believe in insecticides. Therefore one of my first jobs for him was to pick of tomato worms off the plants and put them in a can of kerosene. We also had to pick off potato bugs. Of course our biggest job was hoeing and pulling weeds. Granddad didn’t want to find a single weed. I remember one time several of us was hoeing weeds out of the rows of melons and vegetables when he came to me and said he wanted me to drive the tractor up and down the rows of corn packing the newly planted seeds. This was something he discovered that give him a higher corn plant count. So off I went to drive the tractor while the others had to hoe weeds all day. I really got teased from the other workers as they call me granddad’s favorite. One time when I had this job driving the tractor as I was turning around at the end of the row I got too close to the irrigation ditch and over the tractor went on its side. Luckily I didn’t get hurt but we had to get another tractor to pull it out.

He raised many acres of each watermelons, cantaloupes, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and sweet corn. They were prone to have what he called lice on them ruining the production of fruit. I think they were aphids as they would attack the leaves and the plants would die. We had to dust them with lime powder which helped control them. One year he was the talk of the town as he ordered 100,000 ladybugs.When they came in to the local post office here was this box full of bugs. When we went up town to pick them up they ask him what on earth he was going to do with them. When he said he was going to turn them loose out in the fields, they thought he was crazy. You see the ladybugs would only eat other bugs that ate the plants. So there we were out in the field turning loose all these bugs. Later when it came time to harvest everything he showed me how to pick a ripe watermelon, by thumping them with your finger and to listen for a low pitch sound. A high pitch sound meant that they were still green. But the best test he showed me was to cut one open and just eat the heart out, and to this day I have a hard time picking through the seeds. Cantaloupe were much easier as they turned a golden color when ripe. We would load the truck and a trailer full and head to town. He would sell everything at his greenhouse. People would drive many miles to buy fruit and vegetables that had the best taste around. Some of his watermelons would weigh over 100 lbs. I remember he sold the watermelons for 2 cents a LB and cantaloupe for 6 cents a LB.

In 1951 we had a massive rain storm across Kansas which flooded all the rivers. The water got so high that it washed out a lot of bridges. Granddad always raised hogs to sell at market and since he farmed river bottom land we had to go and move all the hogs before they drowned. It was quite a job rounding up 100 head of pigs. We watched as the water got higher and higher across most of his farm. We didn’t have to irrigate for a while that year. After the water had gone down to normal we had to replant most of the fields as the flooding would ruin the plants. We also had to clear the logs that had washed up and blocked the low water bridge. We was busy clearing when Granddad announced that he had to take a dump. To my shock he walked over the edge of the bridge, pulled his pants down and proceeded to do his business . Then with his usual joking loud voice he yelled “hey Gary, come over here, and swat these pesky flies off my butt.” and then let out this laugh as I was on my way to see what he wanted. He always pumped water out of the river to water everything. One of my jobs at the first of the year was to dive under water to clear the pump. We would then fire up the tractor and pump 8 inch water pipe of water either to a irrigation ditch or to pipes of sprinklers. This made everything grow well in this hot climate of Kansas. Another job we had was to castrate the pigs and granddad always believed that if you let them get quite large they would recover better. Most farmers would do this job when they were real small. Well he would get his knife real sharp and then it was our job to hold them down. They would squeal and kick as it would take 2 or 3 of us to hold them down.

In the greenhouse I helped with preparing flowers for making large arrangements for funerals and weddings. It was amazing to me how he could take all these flowers and arrange them into master pieces. We would harvest flowers from the greenhouse but at certain times of the year he would have to ship them in by bus. These large boxes of flowers would have to have there stems cut and put in gallon jars of water and put in the cooler. This was a job that I could handle until one day I broke a jar and cut my wrist and had to go get stitches at the doctor. We had to water all the plants everyday so with hoses running all over this was another job I would help with. There were windows in the top of the greenhouse that had to be opened if the temperature got to hot. I would go through each house and crank the wheel to open them. Also we had to spray liquid lime on the glass to cut down on the heat. I would help with the hose while granddad would spray away. In the winter time as it would get quite cold he had coal fired furnaces that had to be maintain to keep the flower from freezing. We would stoke them all full just before bedtime. He also had portable kerosene heaters we had to fire up in some of the houses.

As kids do we would throw rocks and as you know a greenhouse is all glass. Granddad was very protective of all that glass as he had to replace it when broken. He was always getting after us kids if he caught us throwing things. On day Keith and I was harvesting sweet potato plants from sand beds to be planted later. This bird kept dive bombing us as she must have had a nest near by. The plants were growing off full sized potatoes and well without thinking I grabbed one and let fly at this pesky bird. Just as I let it go I realized it was headed for the green house. I hollered “Oh No” just as it hit the glass, banging from roof to roof. We really got busy as we knew granddad would soon be there cussing us out. By some miracle It didn’t break a glass. But granddad did come out and ask what was going on out here. We just kind of shrug our shoulders and got back to work. We would wrap these plants in newspaper soaked in water. This would keep them until planting. Granddad had this old antique planter which he would pull behind a tractor. It had two seats on the back about 12 inches off the ground where we would set and plant the plants in the ground. It had a double disc which we would lower and from the water tank a lever would click and put in water and that was when would stick the plants in. Sometimes we would get off timing and miss the water. Well when granddad would look over his planted field, here was dieing plants that had missed the water. He would get after us and show us once more how to plant with the water. I wished I had that old planter as it was so much fun riding on the back doing our job.

They always say that behind every successful man there is a women. Well my grandma Alflen was about everything to us all. She was always there for help in the greenhouse and always had the meals prepared on time. I remember those special tastes that only she could prepare. Fried potatoes served with meat and vegetables. She had a special way she prepared sweet potatoes. She would boil them in the skins and then peel them and cut them in half inch strips and then coat them with sugar and fry them until golden brown. To this day I can’t seem to duplicate this taste. For breakfast it was usually bacon and eggs with pancakes. Her pancakes was always cooked in oblong shapes instead of round. I don’t know if granddad realized it but she was always there for him even if he was at times harsh to her. She always attended church every week and I can still see her reading her bible and praying for all of us. Later in life she became ill and was in the hospital with pneumonia. Mom and I was there with her as she got worse and was unconscious. She would forget to breath so we would have to tell her to take another breath. The next morning she past in her sleep. This really hit my granddad hard as now he realized how much he depended on her. All those years he talked about putting in a bathroom as she had to use the outhouse. A cold experience in the middle of winter. He finally put one in after she was gone. He spent years in limbo as he missed her. He did hire several house keepers to cook and clean for him. One day I received a call that granddad was down and to come right away. When I got there they said he had died in the bathroom. I was 20 by this time and the only relative in town so they wanted me there. They told me that when they were going to remove his body from the bathroom that I could leave but I though I owed my granddad the dignity to stay with him. As they couldn’t get the gurney in the bathroom they had to put a blanket under him and carry him out. Granddad was a little on the heavy side so as they brought him out his head would bang on the floor. Even though I knew he wasn’t there it bothered me to hear that thud. I was able to say my goodbye and then begin calling relatives about the bad news. To this day I miss him greatly.