I really made a mess of things in my previous opinion column about how to watch the University of Kansas Jayhawks win a basketball game, huh? Boy, they just got skunked on Saturday. I am not sure they even showed up for the game. I didn’t watch that one, I must admit. The Mister was doing a music thing in Wichita and without his announcement that “KU plays today” I wasn’t even aware that they were on the court. By my own admission last week, I wouldn’t have been able to watch, so it is just as well.
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I hope all of you will make it down to the American Legion Saturday night for the Peabody Main Street benefit auction. There are some really nice things for sale this year. It never ceases to amaze me that you folks are willing to donate so many terrific items.
Norma Patton brought in a wonderful old poster announcing the October 1908 Anti-Horse Thief Association annual picnic. It was taped to the back of a more recent trucking calendar and had been folded over several times. Fragile hardly describes its condition. I took it to River Mill Woods in Marion and Pat Enos poked and prodded the shards of paper back into place and carefully inched it all under filtered glass to be matted and framed. It is a wonderful piece of Peabody history. You will enjoy looking at the events planned for that day more than 100 years ago.
Jim and Marilyn Cox purchased a watercolor painting by PHS alumnus Warren Taylor at our first benefit auction in 1990. It is a view of an American flag flying in front of the 1880s architecture at the top of the Peabody City Building. The Coxes donated it back to PMSA this year so a new owner will be able to enjoy it for awhile. Now that is generous!
One of our most consistent and supportive donors spent some time working at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and brought us an official NBC-Vancouver Olympics jacket. It is on display this week along with several other items at the Peabody State Bank. Conveniently, it is an adult size large so it should fit just about anyone out there!
In addition, three stained glass windows from the Presbyterian Church that stood next to the city building where the duplex is today have made it back to Peabody. Former resident Richard DeForest bought the windows at the auction of architectural salvage that took place before the church was razed in 1981. After his death, his family donated them to Peabody Main Street for the auction. They are in good condition and with a little elbow grease, putty, and sand paper could be made into a focal point in any home or business. See them in the front window of Eldridge’s building downtown.
The evening will also bring you another “To-Die-For” dessert auction. The famous cherry cheesecake that has been a staple of this event sold for $300 in May. We have ordered up another and you won’t want to miss seeing it sell Saturday evening. That may be an historic event in itself.
Elsewhere in this newspaper is an advertisement listing the items to be sold. We will have fun Saturday evening and invite you all to join us.
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Peabody Economic Development Council is sponsoring a “meet and greet” session at 8:30 a.m. March 13 at Legacy Park. Area legislators Jim Barnett and Bob Brookens have been invited to come to Peabody and visit with you about issues that concern you.
This is a big opportunity, folks. The plan is for each of them to address the gathering and then take questions. I listen to lots and lots of your complaints and comments about the “gummint” and how unhappy you all are with your elected officials and why. This event will give you a chance, up close and personal, to find out what your representatives intend to do about your concerns.
Here is where I get preachy. If you don’t show up and hold these reps’ feet to the fire, you don’t have any right to complain and moan at the coffee shop that your legislators don’t care about what matters to you. You need to be there to tell them how you feel. Period.
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And one final comment, just because I can. I want to wish my mother a happy 96th birthday today. Scary, isn’t it? I have those same genes coursing through my body. I might be around yet for decades harping about what I think, right here in this column. But whether or not that happens, I love you, Mom — happy birthday!
— Susan Marshall