Ark Valley News - The View from Sunflower Gardens

The View from Sunflower Gardens
By Marilyn Bentley
Last Updated: September 10, 2015

Orphan train museum interesting

Kansas roads take us many place. Kansas byways are blue roads or country roads. Some are least traveled by.

If you enjoy the corny things of life, in October at Oakley there is an area Corn Husking Bee adventure. Farmers enjoy sharing their land and corn crop for the community event. Even teenagers get involved.

"It's fun stepping back in time to get a real appreciation of what our early farmers did every day." — C. Park

In the 1920s and 1930s, the husking bees drew crowds.

So many points of interest are in Kansas on historic byways. One of these shows the Lindsborg area of Little Sweden started by Swedes.

The Kansas State Fair starts Sept. 11 in Hutchinson.

We have the Flint Hill National Scenic Byway, also Gypsum Hills Byway south of Pratt. We have the Post Rock Byway in north Kansas, the Smoky Valley and Western Vista byways, also Military Roads Byway near Fort Scott. Glacial Hills Byway is in northeast Kansas, near St. Joseph, Mo.

All of these have unique Kansas wildlife to respect. The wetlands have unique birds of many colors. The marshes come alive with many species.

In summer, we enjoy the farmers markets for corn, potatoes, tomatoes, flowers, plants, and baked goods.

Meanwhile, we like our Sunflower activities of coffee chats, parties, game nights, Bible studies, walks around the building and musical concerts.

Remember to keep our troops and their families in prayer.

Kansas roads may be built of bricks. Some towns have some brick streets: Goodland, Baldwin City and Atchison, Olathe, Topeka (even Wichita), and Beloit, and Lindsborg's red brick streets. Then we have the Oz story with yellow brick roads.

Today, a north route of roads take us through quaint towns of Waterville, Blue Rapids, Centralia, Corning and Frankfort.

Verse of the week: "And now abideth faith, hope and love — but the greatest of these is love." (I Corinthians 13:13)

Did you know? The town of Concordia is home to the National Orphan Train Complex, an interesting museum. It was estimated in 1900 there were 300,000 orphan children and homeless through the U.S.A. The orphan train brought some children to Kansas to be adopted and some had homes on farms and learned a trade. Others were in small towns. These were to be fed, clothed, educated, trained and loved.

We are glad for many bricklayers in Kansas. In 1925, an Oneida Indian helped lay bricks on the streets of Olathe.

We marvel at history of Kansas. Time marches on.

"Be kind, anyway." — Mother Teresa.