lIBERAL THE lAND OF AHS

I was born on the 20th of July, around 5 AM in the morning, at the Epworth Hospital, in Liberal, Seward County, Kansas.  That is a story all in itself but for now, Jerianne has asked me to describe the place that I grew up, including sights, sounds, and smells. 

I loved growing up in a small town.  It got it’s name from what I understand, by a particular man being very “liberal,” with the water from his well, in a considerably dry part of the country. 

Liberal is famous for the annual Pancake Day Race with Olney, England.  That was always a highlight of the year with parades, a pancake race, school was always out, and my mom was famous worldwide because of it. She and her best friend Sally Warden, were the prettiest girls in town and they used them on a postcard that is still sold to this  day.

Uncle Gary in the Liberal parade, he is on the left holding the gun on his shoulder.  He used to make me cry when he would walk by looking so handsome.

Liberal is on the very plains of Kansas and is dry for the most part.  Not a lot of moisture to remember.  The feeling I have climate wise is one of dirt, in my teeth, on my face, and sunburns.  Oh, my sunburns were a plague to me.  I never tanned and had freckles a bushel.  I don’t remember  a lot of snow, or rain but do remember a lot of threats for tornadoes.  Running to the cellar or basement, or being stuffed under the bed while my mother stood and danced in place. Dark funnel clouds and anxiety. The song from Oklahoma, which was four miles from Liberal, is that there is corn and wheat as “High as an elephant’s eye,” and you can see for miles and miles.  Cows, everywhere, the smell of cows and my daddy would always say, “Verlinda, that smells like money to me!”

Growing up in Liberal was fantastic for me.  I loved it and look back on it with nothing but pleasant memories.  Maybe it was the small town that I loved.  Mike and I and Diane and Kelly, and our friends would play outside all day long.  LIterally, and into the night.  Our mother was never worried about us, there was nothing to worry about.  My grandparents both lived within blocks of us and that is where we spent most of our time.  Mostly, always over at Grandma and Granddaddy Upchruch’s.  No phones really, party lines I remember. No cell phones, we didn’t watch tv and there were no computers.  Just wonderful friends and the big outdoors.  We would ride our bikes, play ball in the fields, draw houses with rocks in the street, (they weren’t paved) play in the lumber yard, Uncle Bud’s big old truck, games galore in our yards and used our imaginations. 

Liberal was dry as I said and some of the feelings of the place is that my feet hurt!  They had goatheads, huge, hard stickers, that would get in  your feet and you had to literally pull them out.  Your feet were sore for days, but we really didn’t wear shoes a great deal.  There were also sandburrs, stickers on a stem that we would throw at one another, and play tag.  We played all of the old games, Annie-Over, Hide and Seek, Kick the Can, The Bears, Blind Man’s BLuff, Red Light Green Light, Mother May I, and on and on.  Always we were outside.

On Saturdays, during the summers, we could go to the Tucker Theatre, downtown for 25 cents.  We would buy a series of tickets from school.  We would walk all the way downtown, by ourselves, across the train tracks, and go to the movie and to Duckwall’s, where we could spend 10 cents for a candy.  We could walk all over town when we were younger and no one ever worried. We were safe back then. What a wonderful way to grow up.

Liberal was synonymous with family.  Family all around me and memories so close to my heart.  Grandmother Upchurch would put Mike and I in the car and we would “ride around,” Liberal for hours on end.  Looking at houses, waving to friends, going to the grocery stores, shopping at the Gibson store, visiting their friends, riding, riding, riding.  I never got tired of it.

Liberal is bible school at the neighbors house, going with my grandmother to so many different churches, family dinners, the smell of fried rabbit, walking to and from school twice a day, Rainbow Girls, wanting to fit in at school, McDermott,UFO’S, tinsel Christmas Trees that turned colors,  security, laughter, friends, happiness, joy, and gratitude and so much more. Liberal is part of who I am.