News
   Valley Center
   Park City
   Kechi
   Bel Aire
   School
   Sheriff
   Police & Fire
   Deaths
   Looking Back
   Heard on Main Street
Municipal Court
Sports
   School Sports
   Rec League
People
   General
   Birthdays
   Engagements & Weddings
Opinions
   Editorials
   Letters
   Commentary
Columns
Church
Advertising
   Classified
   Legal

Out of the office
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: June 04, 2015

Bad news from a couple of  long-timers

A couple of Valley Center old-timers stopped in The News office this week.

Both had bad news for us.

First, Corky Evans came by to renew his subscription for another year. He said he needed to point out a mistake we made in a recent edition of The News.

The Valley Center High School boys' track team captured an Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League II championship, and we said it was the first ever for the boys.

Well, as I found out, that's only partially correct.

What we should have said was Valley Center boys won their first Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League title.

I looked it up.

Seventy years ago, Evans was part of a Hornet track squad that won the Sumwick (Sumner and Sedgwick) league championship, beating teams from Oxford, Conway Springs, Clearwater, Belle Plaine and Mulvane.

Individually, Evans won the 880-yard run as well as the high and low hurdles. Herman Mindling, also a senior on the squad, won the mile run. But fellow senior Walt Byfield stole the spotlight. He won the 100-yard dash, the discus and the javelin and was on the 880-yard relay team that placed first.

Byfield was the meet's high-points winner.

Byfield and Mindling both passed away in 2009.

Also during that time, Valley Center won the 1944 league title in football.

I'm glad we could clarify that bit of history for Valley Center High School.

†††

The other bad news came from Sonny Bennett, who also stopped by to renew a subscription last week and inform us that he was moving to Dallas to be near relatives.

I was surprised.

Longtime barber Larry Nordstedt was in the office at the time and was just as surprised by the news as we were.

Sonny was a staple in Valley Center for many years. He was one of the biggest jokers we knew. He was always laughing, big laughs, too.

I wrote a story about Sonny for our annual Our Older Youth special section back in 2007.

The youngest of three ornery brothers, Sonny grew up in north Wichita and went to Valley Center High School.

He never finished high school, dropping out to work full-time in the stockyards. He also hauled freight for 25 years.

He was married and divorced four times. He lived in Wichita for a while before returning to Valley Center in 2005.

He was a regular with the coffee-drinkers and was a faithful Meals on Wheels delivery driver.

"I'm trying to change my image," Sonny told us with a loud laugh.

We will miss having him around.

Larry promised to visit.

†††

Did I miss something? Did this just pass me by without me realizing it?

I got a package in the mail this week with a free Gillette razor inside. With it was a coupon for another razor, called the Gillette Body, made for the "male terrain."

It wasn't explicit, but I assume by the name of the gadget plus the picture of a man's bare chest on the insert, the razor was made to shave a man's entire body.

Gasp. When did this start?

I've been plucking and trimming unwanted hair from a variety of places ever since I turned 40, but never big areas as the advertisement suggested.

Forgive me. I'm old school like that.

Chris Strunk is publisher of The Ark Valley News. Reach him at 755-0821, news@arkvalleynews.com or on Facebook.




Trending Stories
Deaths KRISTINA LEONARD

Legals SEDGWICK COUNTY PUBLIC NOTICE

Valley Center City trims street projects

Valley Center Wrapped in love

Valley Center Student enrollment sees a small dip

Other Sections
News

Sports

People

Columns

Opinion

Contact Ark Valley News | Archives