MR. HIXENBAUGH & (INCIDENTLY) *LORENE

I was five and six during the 1935-36 years’ dust storms and Depression. At Beloit, Kansas, Dad was a math and science high school teacher. For cheap entertainment our family visited friends for pot-luck dinners at Van Pelts or Mears – both farmers – Perrys, Brewers, or Hixenbaughs, who lived near the edge of town with a few animals. It happened in a moment at Hixenbaughs, watching the men play horseshoes – clobbered in the nose from a backswing – blood everywhere. I surely had been warned to stand way back. What did I learn? Never stand close behind anyone pitching horseshoes, or using other sport equipment – baseball bats, golf clubs. It instantly stops the game.

About 25 years later, while residing in the field for Caterpillar at Tustin, south of Los Angeles, I took my family to Knott’s Berry Farm, an amusement destination near LA. One of the features was a one-room schoolhouse complete with desks and slates (on which children practiced their lessons with chalk in the “old” days). One of the slates had HIXENBAUGH on the top and several slates had other names which sounded vaguely familiar.

On inquiring of my mom and dad they said “Oh, yes”! They recalled that an outfit from California had come to Mitchell County several years ago, bought an old, dilapidated, closed, one-room, frame school house lock, stock, and barrel, taken it apart, and hauled it off. It was the talk of the small town of Beloit and the story appeared in the local paper at the time, (published by Mr. Brewer. The Brewer’s daughter, Lorene, and I, both first-child, were born at the same time, so our moms discussed many child-rearing matters and took a few too-cute photos – few, because photos were an expensive luxury in those days.) *

Everyone in town thought the purchasers of the school house must be a little crazy to buy and haul such a structure of no apparent value so far. But I suppose it is still there providing amazement and amusement for all, with Mr. Hixenbaugh’s childhood slate still on the desk he occupied. It was surprising that at 30 years old I recognized a Beloit name though we had moved to Hutchinson at the end of the 3rd grade.

*Actually, Lorene was a gorgeous, well-built blond, and the first girl I ever slept with. Being only up to one-year-old, I don’t really remember this much – but photos show it to be true.