Gypsum is about 12 miles north of Roxbury, just over the border (from McPherson County into Saline County), and was a city of intrigue for teenagers needing to spread their wings and experience the neighboring communities. Growing up in the Roxbury area, many of our friends came from the neighboring communities of Canton to the south and Gypsum, an equal distance to the north. Going to Gypsum for the annual Fall Festival was filled with fun and memories. My mother without a washer and dryer on the farm, for years trekked to Gypsum every Monday to do the laundry for a family of six. In the summers, the big auditorium on the east side of Main Street was the dance emporium for the small towns of the area. Saturday evenings were often spent rockin’ and rollin’ to a live band in Gypsum.
The weather was cool and brisk, but not nearly so frigid as the weekend prior at the Svensk Hyllningsfest in Lindsborg, another community approximately the same distance to the west of Roxbury. When I was a junior in high school, the Roxbury school district unified with Lindsborg, so my entire class, sans me, attended the Smoky Valley schools. I lived south of Roxbury, and traveled to Canton for my senior year.
We arrived early afternoon on Saturday and walked the main street to view exhibitors and booths set up for the festivities. We stopped by the TEA Party exhibit and visited about the current state of national politics, checked out the local sporting goods establishment, and visited with people along the way.
As time grew nearer for the parade to begin, we found our way back to the old, vacant school building and grounds where we waited in line. (Gypsum went through the consolidation process several years after Roxbury succumbed to the state mandate. A beautiful new building was erected west of Gypsum and, through consolidation with Assaria, Kip, and others, was renamed Southeast of Saline.) Carl unloaded the TRIZZARD, the 3-wheel recumbent manufactured by RANS, Inc. of Hays, that has become his mode of transportation at these parades. He has a great time wheeling around and through the parade entries, handing out candy, and engaging in “high-five” socializing with the younger crowd anxiously lining the street.
As we awaited the “green light”, I visited with Bill Mondt, one of my Secondary School Students from Assaria, who drove a vehicle pulling a trailer full of pre-schoolers from the Little Tykes Learning Center, just as he had done the previous weekend in Lindsborg. Chris, a friend of our son Brandon, was also nestled among young children on another trailer adorned with pumpkins and straw bales. The three gentlemen, Eric Faubion, Lance and William Miller, in the “jacked up” American made automobile, right in front of us, offered to place my “Sue Boldra for Congress” signs on their vehicle and do a little extra advertising. (See picture) They also offered to do it again next year. We will have to remind them of their solemn vow!
Good times, warm people, great American tradition!
