Bierock Bake Fundraiser 2011

That time again. Time for our Golden Wheat Chapter AHSGR bierock bake fundraiser! We're getting it down to working like a well oiled machine. Well... there were a few glitches, but all went well. First have to thaw the frozen dough...
The meat and cabbage mixture was made up the day before and then reheated and measured out...

Everyone working hard...

The dough is rolled out to just the right size...

...and the filling is folded up all nice and neat and place on a baking sheet.

They're set aside to rise up all plump and pretty...

Then baked all toasty brown and brushed with butter. Mmmmm.....

And the smell... like walking into a bakery. Once they've cooled they're boxed up nicely for pick up or delivery.

All total there were 50 dozen made and people were already placing orders for our next bierock fundraiser.

We have a great time working together and really enjoy this ethnic G/R way to raise funds for our Golden Wheat Chapter of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia!

Golden Wheat Library Day - AHSGR

The Golden Wheat Chapter AHSGR library is open the second Friday of every month. To kick off the year the board decided to have a sort of open house for Library Day in February. Some did research and others of us visited and shared family and research information.
Rachel (center) is our faithful librarian. The shelves behind her hold the majority of our library. We have family histories and files in file cabinets. The library is open from 1pm - 4pm or on request when arrangements are made with Rachel.

Folklore Meeting Golden Wheat Chapter AHSGR

The Folklore meeting is one of the most popular meetings of the Golden Wheat Chapter AHSGR. Members are encouraged to bring ethnic German-Russian foods to the potluck dinner. I normally get pictures of the food all set out on the tables before everyone is lined up to indulge. This time I was busy setting up the audio/video equipment so I sent the grandson with the camcorder to capture what he could while everyone was lining up. Below is the quick video of the food follow by the Installation of Officers, the Memorial and the Sing-a-long with Harold.

By the time I finished up and got my my camera out everyone was seated and happily eating.
The food was pretty much gone. Good food never lasts long.
Attending the meetings is time for visiting with friends that don't see each other often enough.
I hope everyone takes time to check out table displays. Our librarian picks choice research and reading books as a sample of what we have available at our chapter. And you wouldn't want to miss out on our fundraisers, noodles, songbooks and cookbooks.

After our meeting we enjoying viewing the video “Children of the Steppe,
Children of the Prairie. The story of the Germans from Russia-agricultural pioneers on several continents whose quest for land and place shaped them into a distinctive and enduring cultural group.”

It was a beautiful day to be out and about and it was another wonderful meeting.

January 20, 1972

(click on the article to enlarge)

I didn't attend the assembly that is mentioned in the article I posted. What I recall was walking down a dark empty hallway with my books in my arms and finding the door to my history class still locked. I stood in the doorway as the riot descended down the hallway towards me. A black (is that politically incorrect? I apologize if it is) classmate hollered at me to get the 'H' outta there. I think I was in shock. Another girl that I did not know grabbed my books and started pulling on them. The classmate I knew came to my rescue telling her to leave me out of it. But as she walked me out of the fighting, her arm around my shoulder another girl hit me over the head with a combination lock. The fighting only extended about halfway down the hall. Further down at the intersection was a gathering of students and teachers. My classmate handed me over to them and headed back into the fray. Being a head wound, by the time we got to the nurses office I had blood down to my waist. They put ice and pressure on my wound and by the time my dad got there to pick me up it had stopped bleeding. He had picked me up on the way back to his office and had a client with him so we had to make a detour to drop off the client before going to the hospital. We didn't hurry. I was the unnamed student mentioned that went to the hospital. They put in stitches, don't remember how many, 3 or 4? By the time we got home, rumors were flying. My locker-mates were concerned because they found my bloody books. Someone was saying that I had gotten my throat slit.

Later, back in school, I asked my classmate that had helped me to introduce me to the person that hit me over the head. She set up the meeting in the student lounge. I went alone, the other girl didn't. I held out my hand and told her, "no hard feelings." I know that she didn't hit me personally, because she didn't know me. I just wanted the fighting to stop.

Treasures in my Attic

Today I was finally putting my Christmas tree up in my attic and I decided to spend a little time cleaning and sorting while I was there. I have been putting off doing this because it is a major undertaking. Ever since my son shored up the roof and floored the attic (he did this when he was in high school) I have been moving things up there to store. It had been in need of going through for some time as is evidenced in the blog post from November 2007. I think I can pretty well say that nothing more was moved up to the attic since that post and some of the boxes were thinned out BUT then we had the house re-roofed. They didn't just add another layer of shingles, they couldn't, we were at the limit. Since they were having to strip off layers my husband pointed out to the insurance agent that the very bottom layer was wood shingles and REALLY needed to be removed. They were a fire hazard. Well, when the wood shingles were stripped off there was wood and dirt and nails that fell down into the attic. I had attempted to staple plastic and cardboard up underneath and did manage to divert a good portion of it to the sides. But it's still a mess. I get nice and dirty when I get up there moving things around and sweeping up the roofing material. So today I decided to at least attempt to clear an area in the center where I could work, somewhere to sort things. In the process I came across the Commencement Program for my South High Class of 1974.

(right-click on pictures & open in new tab/window to enlarge)

I enjoyed reading through the names, realizing how many there that are familiar to me.
And also realizing the names, like my own, that aren't there.

For myself, on May 6, 1973 I became a married woman. On May 13, 1974 I gave birth to my beautiful baby girl. So by the date of Commencement I was a young wife caring for a two week old baby. I'm happy to say that thanks to Facebook I have reconnected with many of my classmates that DID make it through to graduation. So here's to the Class of '74! Well Done!!!

Winter Finally Arrived

SNOW! Here it is going into the 2nd week of January and only now is it feeling (or looking for that matter) like winter. This is the first real snow we've had this 2010-11 winter season.
A week or so back I saw a few barely visible snowflakes fall but you had to have been in it to know it had happened.

This has been a nice snowfall. It's not blowing white blinding blizzard. Or drifts towering over fences causing waves across roadways.

It's been enjoyable to sit inside my nice warm house and watch the beautiful winter snowscape. I hope all of you out there are safe and warm, too.

Merry Christmas!

I got my little Christmas tree down from the attic and set up. It's still as pretty as ever, don't you think?
I put my singing and dancing tree, penguins and snowman under the tree along with the presents. When you have a small tree, you need small presents.

Because my daughter works on Christmas this year we all gathered at her house on Christmas Eve day.

With all the presents placed under the tree the children entertained themselves playing video games.

No Christmas meal, just loads of snacks, finger foods. I brought over my new smoothie maker and ingredients like bananas, creamer and other fruit. My brother supplied the Baileys.

First we snacked and the kids continued to play.

Then we opened presents.

Do you see K-monster with his hands full of the little boxes? The Princess is opening hers. The hand show the bling from the little boxes. Jewelry they were ALL happy to receive. Definitely one size fits all. Then after the unwrapping it was back to playing.

The menfolk spent most of their time back out of the way, out from under foot.

Another Merry Christmas for the KS Born bunch. Hope You and Yours enjoyed the same!

K-5 Christmas Concert

Kindergarten & First grades...

Granddaughter in 2nd row from top, 4th from the left.

Second & Third grades...

Fourth & Fifth grades...

Grandson 2nd row from bottom, 4th from the left.

The band and an overview of the audience.

The following is a condensed video of the complete concert...

Thank You, Children for a Wonderful Program!

Old Frame

I was going through some things that I had brought home from my Aunt Leta's apartment and decided to take the old pictures out of their frames and put them in the albums with the family pictures and history. The pictures in this frame I already have copies of, they are of my mother and Aunt Leta in the first picture. My Uncle Vernon in the second picture and my Uncle Howard and Uncle Donny in the third picture. I never met Uncle Donny. He drown not too long after this picture was taken.

I like the old frame, it has that folk artsy quality to it. So I turned it over and pulled the nails out that were holding in the cardboard.

It was then I discovered a message, written in pencil on the cardboard backing.

It says,

"I got 5 gallons of gasoline. I was out or I awaited till tomorrow.

pay you later

Lewis Nowak"

I called mom to let her know what I found. She said the Nowaks lived down the road from them in Brewster (near Goodland) KS and that Lewis went to school with Uncle Howard. Lewis' father, Carl, drove the school bus for the Brownsvilled School District, Sherman County. Carl was from Poland and when driving the bus would say he "pulled the hill up" and "turned the corner round." Later Lewis drove the bus. Mom knew nothing of the note, nor any idea when it might have been written. Lewis died in 2008, so far we haven't been able to contact any of his children to find out if they'd like the note.

For the time being, I think it shall remain in the old frame.

Golden Wheat AHSGR Christmas Party

Sunday, December 5th was our annual Christmas Party for the Golden Wheat Chapter AHSGR. We had a really nice gathering of friends and family this year.
We started out our program wishing my granddaughter a Happy Birthday. Her Great-Grandmother, my mother, brought her a nice big sheet cake decorated with her favorites, horses, to share with everyone for the occasion.

For our Christmas Party we celebrate with finger foods and goodies galore...

Our program begins with the reading of the Christmas story in both German and English...

Then we had members share stories of personal memories of Christmases past and also stories of German beginnings of Christmas traditions that we all celebrate now.

Joel and Karen shared their childhood memories of visiting their grandparents on Christmas. The apron that Karen is wearing is reminiscent of her grandmother's apron and has her grandparents picture on it. The told of standing on that very stool and reciting passages for their grandparents. Then the grandmother would fill her apron with oranges and candy and they would all get to pick their treats from it.

We all stood and sang Christmas songs in German and/or English.

Rachel shared with us the Certificate of Appreciation that she received at the Kansas Round Up.

And then, what all the children had been waiting for... Santa! The children seemed to be a bit shy this year. They hurried up as Santa called their names and then scurried back to their chairs, often moving so fast they were but a blur on my camera.

Santa stuck around and helped with the drawing for the door prizes but had to go tend to his reindeer. Children were called up on to help with the fund raiser drawing.

It was wonderful to see the families that were able to make it, and we had cooperative weather this year for travel.

Here's wishing everyone

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

and

HAPPY NEW YEAR

from the

Golden Wheat Chapter AHSGR