Greensburg revisited
Don Coldsmith
Monday, July 9, 2007
“SUMMER TIME, and the livin’ is easy . . .” say the familiar song lyrics. Not necessarily, I’m afraid. A great many things happen, especially this year, to cause a memory of columns from the past. For instance the destruction of the town of Greensburg. Here’s our impression from a few years ago.
We had been to Greensburg, Kan., before. Usually, en route to somewhere else. We’d stop to let the kids out of the car to run around and see the Big Well, the “World’s Largest Hand-Dug Well.” Those had been pretty brief stops. This year, (2003) however, I was honored to be the speaker, through the Humanities Council, at their Chamber of Commerce annual dinner. There’s a lot more to Greensburg that the Big Well.
Founded in 1886, and named for a stagecoach driver, “Cannonball” Green, the town boasts a population of about 2,000. It’s the county seat of Kiowa County, as well as its largest city. “Farming, oil and natural gas” are listed as the major industries in the area.
In addition to the Big Well, Greensburg has its own municipal power plant, several churches, schools, shops, restaurants and motels. It’s a prosperous-looking community, with well-kept homes and well-paved streets, and a traffic light where Main Street crosses Highway 54.
Travel in late winter in Kansas is sometimes unpredictable, so it seemed prudent to spend the night there after the dinner and program. A bed and breakfast had been suggested and we made advance reservations. That in itself was a great pleasure. We were quickly old friends with the Haneys, Janice and John, who operate the Green Acres Bed and Breakfast.
The Haneys advised us not to worry if we heard a siren in the night. It would be either a fire or an accident, requiring the turnout of the fire department or the emergency rescue crew. The siren is located on the water tower, across the street from Green Acres.
The dinner was excellent, nearly a hundred in attendance, and a really good male vocal group performed from the “Alliance,” an interdenominational church organization. Their closing number was “Home on the Range,” with the audience joining in on the chorus. My talk, on historical Kansas, was well received. Altogether, a great evening.
Back at Green Acres, we stayed up a while, winding down, visiting with the Haneys about things of common interest. Books, cattle, crops, Kansas weather and Greensburg’s problems and successes. We all laughed a lot and finally headed up to bed, for a good night’s sleep.
It was 7:14 a.m. when the siren went off across the street. And yes, it was pretty loud. It was quite a comfort that Janice had mentioned this possibility earlier. Otherwise, it would have been a pretty scary experience.
We dressed and proceeded down to the kitchen where our hostess was cooking a great breakfast while listening to the police scanner. Nearly everybody has one, for obvious reasons.) The emergency was not a fire, but an accident on Highway 54, about eight miles west of town. The emergency unit was on the scene and had called in the medical airlift to evacuate a serious injury.
At one time, I had been involved in training EMTs. Now, I was interested. How could a thinly populated area such as Kiowa County support this sort of emergency units? With VOLUNTEERS. Both the fire and the rescue squads, separate but in communication with each other, are completely volunteer. They undergo the same complete training as the professionals, with refresher courses as required and are on call at all times.
Now there’s a community with civic pride and a sense of responsibility.
See you down the road.
Author and columnist Don Coldsmith lives in Emporia.