Independence Day Aftermath

Some post Independence Day questions triggered by the above photo…
Is Haysville deserved of its “white trash” reputation?
Would this scene make our founding Fathers proud?
Is this stupidity or ignoranance?
Would either of the above justify setting off fireworks on someone elses property and leaving the trash?
Do the people who did this even know what year the Declaration of Independence was signed let alone what it means?
Do the offenders pay property tax?
Do the offenders even pay income tax?
What if everybody did this?
What would Jesus do?
After I left the scene of the crime I thought to myself, what does this make me to stop, take pictures, fuss about it, then leave it?
Could I possibly have paid for a portion of these fireworks?

Guilt set in and I went back and picked up the trash.

Whats pictured above was just the tip of the iceberg.

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Could Haysville Be The Next City To Be Bought?

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For years Derbyites have been smugly residing in their nice little town in their nice little (sometimes large) homes having their yards nicely manicured while unbeknownst to them a lawn service company had bigger plans then just keeping the city well groomed.
According to the headline Derby will be bought by the Suburban Landscaping company.
Could Haysville be the next city to be bought by this landscaping company or will Haysville’s own Jojac’s or Klean Kut beat them to it?
I suppose their could be worse companies to buy your city than a lawn care company. Maybe someone should check out that peep hole at the steam’n weenies place and see what’s really going on in there. Are they really steaming weenies or planing a municipal take over?

Note to self: Klean Kut needs to be added to the K for C list.

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Read the Kansas.com article here.

Haysville – The Rodney Dangerfield Of Small Towns

Just like the late comedian, Haysville gets no respect.
At a recent Jeff Dunham show in Wichita, the ventriloquist/comedian likened Haysville to hell.
A show now running at the Mosley Street Melodrama is titled “The Dukes of Haysville or the Hazzards of Going Down South…of Wichita”. I haven’t seen the play but I’m sure it pokes fun at Haysville and the South end.

I could list all the derogatory names I’ve heard Haysville and it’s citizens called but I wont. You’ve probably heard them all too. Especially if you know someone from Derby.

When and why did Haysville get this reputation?

Just a few quotes I found on the internet referring to Haysville…

“I dont like Bobby and never will, hes fake and white trash. Hes from Haysville so that can tell you something.”

“Why do people call Haysville “The white trash capital of KS?” I’ve heard that many times. Maybe it doesn’t apply anymore after the tornado? Everything’s new. ”

“My vehicle stalls out if it crosses Douglas st. to the south. Whole different breed of folks down there.”

“because the Haysville white trash don’t care ”

“i went garage sale’n in haysville or shall i say redneck city”

“I live in Haysville, and wish I could move. People that live there are the dumbest, blue collar union people anyone could ever imagine… I can’t wait to see this hole get annexed into Wichita and all the rednecks kicked out”

“9/10 people down THERE don’t carry auto insurance. A dentist would starve in that town.”

“as the people there invoke trailer trash better than Haysville, Kansas”

What’s a Haysvillian to do? Defend yourself and your town from this bad reputation (deserved or not ) or embrace it?
The area band Soulicit chooses to embrace it in songs of there’s such as Dirty South.

The Dukes of Haysville or the Hazzards of Going Down South…of Wichita

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Jumping To Conclusions

The other night while driving by the Haysville Middle School, a vehicle in the parking lot caught my attention. It was a cute little white car with the word “Hawks” in giant red letters on the side. I couldn’t imagine an individual displaying the name of their kids middle school mascot so big and boldly on their personal vehicle. I thought only Chiefs fans did that. So I quickly concluded that this must be a USD 261 vehicle payed for with my tax dollars. I wondered who was driving this thing the principal? Argh!
The next day it just so happens that I spot the same or a similar vehicle at another location far from the middle school. Upon closer inspection I then realized my jump to a conclusion was a stupid one.
Do you know how this story ends?


Hawks Inter-State Pestmasters, Inc. Vehicle.

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Sign Of The Time… And Temp

Historic District Sign

There was a time long ago when a person would travel down Grand possibly not having a clue as to what the time and temperature was. Luckily due to advances in sign technology things have changed. For a while now our city has had a couple of electronic signs that display the time and temperature. Haysville State Bank had the first digital sign in town. The second one I believe was installed at City Hall to keep tabs of the West side time and temp. For a short period there was even a digital sign at the corner of Main and Grand to monitor time and temp changes while you waited at the light. Since then a Church at the East end of town has installed one. Earlier this year the city installed a digital sign by the entrance to the Historic Park to keep you up-to-date on time/temperature changes between the existing signs at City Hall and Intrust Bank.

New Sign at Alternative School

The current sign system works fine if you’re let’s say… going to City Hall to pay your water bill after having the number 1 combo deal for lunch at Sonic. But what if you need to go to Kwik Shop for gas and an Icee after leaving City Hall? Sure you know what the time and temp is when you leave City Hall but a lot can change between there and Kwik Shop. Lucky for you it looks like the School District is stepping up to fill that void West of City Hall. The old Grandlane shopping center sign is receiving an upgrade. As of this writing the sign is only flashing pretty designs and the manufacturers name but I’m willing to bet it won’t be long before the time and temp is displayed.


East End Church Sign

As colorful and flashy as these newest signs are, when it comes to digital signs in the area none of these hold a candle to the Mother of all digital signs the one at 63rd and Broadway.
If you would like to experience what a drive down Grand might have been like before the invention of the digital sign, drive down Main street. I don’t know why the city’s North/South street is being neglected when it comes to the time and temp.
Granted these signs can be used to display messages in addition to the time and temperature. One particular message on the East side church sign recently got my attention. Being a Church I wonder why they just didn’t stop at “Don’t Drink”?
Back in the day changing the message on a pre-digital sign meant a person getting a little exercise and fresh air. Especially if trying to keep the time and temp up to date (I don’t recall ever seeing this done though).
Misspellings couldn’t be blamed on simple typos.

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If Ed B Were Elected Mayor

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All this election discussion got me to thinking what I might do if I were to become Mayor. Just like other Mayoral candidates I would place a priority on both how money is spent and new business in Haysville. But before we build new buildings for retail, commercial and civic use it makes more sense to me to fill the existing empty buildings first. In addition to reusing existing buildings there are other money saving ideas in my plan which are emphasized in italics. Continue reading to see my suggestions as to what could be done with some of these vacant buildings. Click the images to enlarge.

Reopen Pam’s Diner as the Spam Diner. Only one letter would need to be moved on the sign. This would give us bragging rights over Derby as it’s something they don’t already have. It would even draw business from Derby as I’m sure there are plenty of Derby residents craving a good Spamwich or Spam boat. Especially in the future when Derby outlaws Spam within it’s city limits.

Schneider Clinic for obvious reasons could become the Mexican Restaurant Haysville is missing. This would require new signage to read El Viejo Píldora Molino Restaurante but other than that the exterior of the building would need no other changes. This new restaurant would be known for it’s large waiting room so you’re not standing, waiting outside on a busy Friday or Saturday night. Not for sure if the rest of the interior would need any changes though.

The School district could purchase another strip mall. This time instead of an old money pit that requires a lot of work I suggest the new one on North Main. The purpose of this school would be to educate students who for what ever reason can’t learn in any of the other 3 schools Campus, Alternative and Tri City. An alternative alternative school.

The old Norland Plastics building looks to be pretty big so I think for only the cost of a few thousand folding chairs it might work well as a arena/concert hall/convention center. It could catch the spill over from Century II, Charles Koch Arena, the Coliseum and the new Intrust Bank and Hartman arenas. Plus it’s just a mile off the Turnpike and right next to the train tracks should Amtrack ever decide to make Haysville a stop. Parking might be an issue but that could be dealt with after the fact.

I think Haysville has outgrown it’s little Post Office. Instead of a expensive nice new one like so many other smaller communities get I propose we divide the town by East and West of the tracks each side with it’s own Post Office. The old City Hall/Senior Center building would work great for a new East side branch. It’s already brick, bland and boring so no changes needed. With the railroad over pass now in place there shouldn’t be any major delays in East-West mail traffic.

The old Sonic building. I would wait for this building to either fall down on it’s own or be taken out by a tornado thus saving the cost of tearing it down. Then we would construct a new replica building around the surviving deep fryer and designate it a historical park. Fast food workers could meet here occasionally to hone their deep frying skills.

Looking towards the future. At some point in time another nice building will become vacant when the next new library is built. I believe there are lots of possibilities for the future old library building.
With a big addition built on to it, another church.
After the recession I think there will once again be a need for more tanning salons and video rental stores. Possibly a combination of the two in the building.
Although long time Haysville residents have already “been there and done that” the building could be remodeled into a roller rink or bowling alley for those who haven’t.

Mexican Missing From Haysville

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There is Chinese, Italian and American but where does one go in Haysville to get their Mexican food fix?

At one time Haysville did have the Taco Express located on North Main which had good Mexican fare. At some point the Taco Express added Chinese food to the menu which did make it a little easier to please the family’s opposite cravings in one stop. Later they eliminated the Mexican food, made a name change to the Bamboo Garden and moved the business to the building on Anita which the 99 tornado destroyed. This name and menu change made more sense to me considering the owner’s ethnicity. The business did reopen a few years after the tornado under the name China Cafe in what was left of the destroyed building and is still serving up great oriental dishes today.
In the time period between the Chinese restaurants there was a restaurant serving Mexican food by the name of Amelina’s. This place had really good authentic (at least as far as I know) Mexican food. Ironically it was in the building that the China Cafe now resides in. From what I recall Amelina’s might have been open a couple of years.

Anyway enough of the history lesson and back to the missing Mexican food. Why is there currently not a purely Mexican food establishment in Haysville? I think there now may be a burger joint in town that also serves tacos but I want a place dedicated to only this fine cuisine and is so proud of the fact they include Taco or Burrito right in their name. Would Haysville not support it? I thought everyone liked Mexican food. Especially the Americanized kind with ground beef and a lot of cheese. Should be easy enough to make.
I can’t recall exactly how many food groups the USDA claims there is but I think it’s at least 4. American, Chinese, Italian and of course Mexican. A balanced diet should contain weekly meals of each of these food groups and I shouldn’t have to go far to get it. The more I think about this I would like to not have to drive to get these meals. Within walking distance would be ok. Or at least within delivery range. Maybe one of those “Taco Trucks” from North Wichita could come down South here to Haysville at least once a week.
What to do? Until Haysville gets it’s own Mexican restaurant… I’ve figured out that regardless of what part of Haysville you live in you are no more than 3 or 4 miles from a restaurant serving Mexican cuisine. Those on the East side of the tracks might head north on Broadway to 47th where you have a choice between Taco Bell (blah), Taco Tico (blah) and little hole in the wall place hidden back in with Subway (pretty good if it’s even still open). West siders can head North on Seneca to 47th where they’ll find Taco J’s (been open a long time, must be doing something right) and the newly opened Los Mexican Burritos no 2 in the old Sonic building just North of 47th on Seneca (now my favorite).
Adios and Bon Appetit.

BTW Haysville Online’s new Dining Guide is what got me to thinking about this. Check it out.

Who Are These Hicks?


Spotted Near Haysville.

While out for a drive I spotted this building and wondered about the graffiti upon it.

Who are these Hicks? Could they be a family that’s done someone wrong and their quaint little cabin in the sticks was vandalized as retaliation? Maybe this building is the meeting place for a group of unsophisticated provincial persons (Webster’s definition of Hick) whom this person dislikes. Maybe it’s the clubhouse for an an athletic team The Haysville Hicks who’ve had a bad season. We’ll probably never know. We do know that someone felt strongly enough about these Hicks to spend their own time, effort and spray paint to make their feelings known. I do hope at sometime this person and the Hicks are able to work out their differences.

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The “ABK’s” Of Haysville Business

Can you find the K for C businesses on these signs?

I’ve always wondered about Haysville businesses misspelling words in their name by replacing the C with a K. I assume it is to grab your attention but once it has your attention what are you then to think?
I’ll start with two local businesses who provide the same service as a daycare and both use the the K in place of the C in their names. What does it say about a business whose business it is to provide a learning environment for kids while being day cared for. Do the children in the care of these “double K daycares” have a hard time when it comes to spelling? To find out I quizzed my own offspring (now an adult) and a graduate from one of Haysville’s “double K daycares”. I started out easy with words like “cow” and “car”. I then jumped to a tough word “cuisine” and finally threw a curve ball with both “cat” and “kitten”. I’m glad to say he aced them all and thus I conclude that the name of the daycare had no effect on what he learned while there.
If you’ve been around Haysville awhile you know the K for a C business name isn’t restricted to daycares. You can get a hair kut at Klassy Kuts, gas and snacks at Kwik Shop and who can forget Kritter Kingdom and Krzy 4 Kool Klothes.
Now I know it’s not only Haysville businesses that use this clever(?) misspelling tactic as I have seen it done else where but it does seem to be pretty popular here. I wonder is it popular as well in other counties? Does it even work in someplace like China?
I also wonder would .kom have created more of a boom and buzz then .com?
Oh and surely at one time or another that restaurant on South Broadway was called the Kountry Kitchen.

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