 | Faye Graves, a native Wichitan, attended school at Friends and Wichita State, concluding at Midwestern Theological Seminary. He has been active in media for many years with Channel 12, KIRL, KFDI, KOOO AM & FM (Omaha), KFRM & KICT 95, as an owner, manager, producer, director and announcer. He has served as President of the Haysville Board of Education. He has also served on several national boards of the Southern Baptist Convention. Faye currently serves as Executive Pastor and Director of Administration and Education at Immanuel Baptist Church, 1415 S. Topeka, Wichita. You may contact Faye by e-mail fmgraves@amenibc.org, or by phone at (316) 262-1452. |
Nostalgia
2011-10-24 13:18:03
Remember...
A: Oh yes…when I think of the month of September, I begin thinking of fall and the relief from the heat of summer. I think about the first day of school and the State Fair.
When I was a boy, the first day of school always began in September, after Labor Day.
That first day of school was entering a new classroom, having a new teacher or even starting at a new school and a lot of classrooms and teachers when we reached Junior High. The first day was always interesting as I got acquainted with the new rooms,
met new friends, got comfortable in a new place to sit and listening to the new teacher spell and pronounce the names of the students. If you were in grade school (elementary), there was a new place in the coat closet to hang your coat and place your overshoes. I remember buying our new class study books usually from Goldsmiths or Orr’s book room downtown.
I always looked forward to the Kansas State Fair which was a big event as it still is today. The Fair featured all kinds of animals, clothes, art works and for us younger ones, a giant carnival which for years was the Royal American Shows. They would come in on a train which was parked at the Hutchinson, Kansas depot all through the week of the fair. There would be a parade from the depot down Main Street of Hutchinson to the fair grounds.
We would see the animals and displays and many of their personnel and equipment.
There is a song that I think depicts a day at the fair called “The State Fair.” The closing line is “as we drove away that night and looked back and saw the dust and the lights of the carnival rides and saw the fair fading in the distance, we formed a picture in our minds that would last forever.” Many of you participated in the several events with your animals, arts, cooking and many other ways. We came, we saw, we enjoyed and now we remember those days at the Kansas State Fair. This year, the fair begins on September 9th and goes through the 18th. We hope for a cool time to enjoy it.
