Sometimes when we do a feature, we find out at a later date that person has passed away. It can be a recent feature or one that was done several years ago. When Jim Hamilton submitted his column for this issue, I read it and knew we had done a feature on Richard McConnell. In November we featured Richard and Tina Williams and their operation Hand n Hand Livestock Solutions as an Eye on Agribusiness. Although I didn’t know Richard personally or even in passing, I still felt a sense of sadness at the loss of someone that was involved in agriculture, and someone that was involved in teaching others about agriculture.
By the time you read this issue, Memorial Day will have passed and I hope that everyone was able to spend that day doing some reflecting on what the holiday really means. I have family that served in the military as does my husband and to my knowledge we do not have anyone that died while serving. As a family we use this day to not only think about those that died while serving, but to remember those in our family that have passed away.
It is a tradition we call ‘Cemetery Crawl’, and we spend the day visiting several cemeteries and decorate the graves of family members. We begin in the Pensacola/Langley area at ‘Military Cemetery’, where my great grandparents and great aunt and uncle are buried. That cemetery also has an area dedicated to 11 unknown confederate soldiers that died in the Battle of Cabin Creek.
Visiting these places gives you a chance to reflect on history and to appreciate the sacrifices past generations have made. I was never much of a history buff, but when we do the cemetery crawl, I always come away with some new information I want to research. For some people, visiting a cemetery is creepy or sad, but I have always found them interesting and full of history.
After several more stops we end up in Miami where we have lunch and visit with a few more family members before we part ways. Since we are in my hometown, I like to drive around to the places that hold memories from when I was a kid. When my children were little, they would moan and groan about the ‘drive of memories’, but now my daughter enjoys it and we like to spend that extra time visiting. I am not sure my son-in-law sees the enjoyment aspect of the side trip and I am confident he would rather be fishing!
One of the cemeteries we visited was just over the Kansas line in Baxter Springs, known as the first Cowtown in Kansas. Baxter has the other distinction of being the crossroads of another famous highway, the Jefferson Highway, which runs from ‘the pines to the palms’. The Baxter Springs Cemetery has a lot of Civil War history and the earliest burials there include 132 Union soldiers that were killed in 1863 during the Battle of Baxter Springs. My great, great, great grandmother and grandfather and great, great grandfather are buried here. They are of native American heritage descending from the Wea tribe.
Since we were in the area, we made a side trip to Galena traveling on old Route 66 and stopped at all of the fun things they have in town that are familiar to those who have watched the animated movie, Cars. There were a lot of photo opportunities and we made sure to take advantage of some of them. We got to see the Hudson Hornet and Tow-Mater, the International Harvester boom truck that was the inspiration for ‘mater’ in the movie as well as Luigi’s Pit Stop where there was another great set of photo opportunities.
I hope everyone has some Route 66 events planned for the summer and with a lot of our coverage area being so close or a part of Route 66, it is easy to take a day trip and see the sights. In this issue of OFN, we have included some Route 66 trivia as well as a Roots feature on how Route 66 connected farmers in Oklahoma to America. Make sure to check out the classified section for the trivia!
We will officially be into summer after this issue and of course my schedule is jam packed with cattle shows and kids! There will be some out of state traveling and new adventures so stay tuned for those crazy adventures.
Debbie Elder is a native of Ottawa County, Okla. and lives on her farm in Webster County, Mo. To contact Debbie, call 1-866-532-1960 or by email at [email protected].
