Dear Hearts & Gentle
People:
The old hometown is buzzing with
excitement and preparations for the week's festivities. We are observing the
150th anniversary of the Battle of the Hemp Bales aka the Battle of
Lexington.
I cannot begin to describe all the
events but, in addition to the re-enactment and occasional skirmishes, there
will be an author's forum, a film festival, a Parade with four marching bands,
old-time Base Ball in the Goosepond, a Social (read: Beer) Garden, lots
of entertainment and vendors, plus a Chautauqua Tent.
Yawl come!
And if you cannot make it to
Lexington this week (events begin on Wednesday and go through Sunday), our
annual Apples, Arts & Antiques Festival will take place in just two weeks,
Oct 1 and 2.
Webmaster Bob
Ball '58 is in the process of posting many items of
interest.
Snaps Hulver was busy recording
history via his camera, and there will be photos by him of our recent Community
Fair Parade and the amazing Patriot Walk which occurred on Friday. Estimated
crowd was over 600 people! You'll see some familiar faces.
But that's not all! Just before
the last issue, we had a bad storm. There are photos from several sources
showing the damage. No one was hurt, but we lost quite a few trees, and there
was some structure damage.
In addition, we are featuring the
photo which was supposed to be embedded, but was not, in the last issue.
(Technology is not my friend.) Jim O'Malley shared a photo of a Bathing Beauty
contest from 1937 at the community swimming pool which was behind the old high
school. Actually, saying "old high school" could refer to the site on Southwest
Blvd, or Central School (where the "new" post office is), the Jr-Sr High
School at Main & 16th...or even the current high school, which has had
the "new" rubbed off it. In this case, it was located behind the Jr-Sr High
School, on the 16th St. side. It was removed in order to build a tennis court,
which when weather warranted, also served as a skating rink. How about that,
Youngsters?
Jim O'Malley's mother
is shown second to right, and she captured second place. Jim also has been
thinking about our coal mining era:
Thought you'd find this
interesting. Lexington has many old coal mines and I wonder if there's any
record or map of them?
Bette
Phipps Thomas, who thinks she is a lot younger than I am, objects to
being placed in the Class of 1958. She is from the Class of 1959. The editor
regrets the error. She contributed the following:
Again I enjoyed TLC but am
saddened to learn of the deaths of so many fine people who contributed so
much to the Lexington I remember. There's just one teensy, eensy fact I'd like
to correct: I graduated from LHS in 1959, not 1958. You must have been thinking
of my older cousin, Diane O'Malley, who was born four months before
moi.
Jim (O'Malley), I really enjoyed
the website you passed on; in fact I was so engrossed I didn't get to bed
until no o'clock in the morning. I'd been told that, as children, my
father and his older sister, Aunt Ann, were put in a boat during the flood
of 1903. They had to have been with others (family?), but no one else was
ever mentioned. So as you can imagine, I spent a lot of time
researching Missouri River floods. I also learned more than I'd
ever known, or wanted to know, about the Missouri River, floods,
height and depth of the river from the 1800s on and numerous technical
data about channels, the measuring of height and depth year by
year.
TLC #134 September 12. 2011