Haysville Online

By Barb Walters
The Haysville Times

Photo Credit: Barb Walters

The Campus High School music department has yet another accolade to add to its already impressive list of accomplishments. According to Director of Bands, Becky Hughes, over 500 musicians from fifty area high schools took part in auditions last October for the South Central District Honor Band and Orchestra. Three Colts distinguished themselves from the herd. Mike Campbell was named to the Honor Orchestra as the top tuba player in the South Central District. Marshall Berube on euphonium and Justin Whitmer playing the baritone sax were named to the Honor Band.
Because the three won District titles, they qualified to participate in auditions earlier this month in Salina for the Kansas State Honor Band. Campbell, a senior at Campus, made the cut and will be among those who will perform in February at the Kansas Music Educators Association Conference which will be held this year at Century II in Wichita.
Campbell is thrilled to be selected to represent Campus at the State level. He expects to receive the music that will be played at the Conference soon. He will meet with the other orchestra members from all over the state the day before their performance for an all-day rehearsal. Campbell plans to continue studying music in hopes of one day becoming a high school band director and a member of a local symphony orchestra.
“In addition to playing the tuba, Mike also plays euphonium and trombone in our bands,” said Hughes. “He plans on majoring in music in college and is currently undecided about which college he will attend. Mike ran cross country this past fall and is currently on the swim team. He’s a great kid and I’m going to miss him and his musicality next year.”

By Barb Walters
The Haysville Times

Thousands of people have entered Clark Hardware Store over the years. Some came in for supplies to fix a leaky faucet or repair a broken gate, but all left having made a friend. For fifty years, Bob Clark presided over his store, handing out advice, hugs, warmth and, always, Juicy Fruit gum.
A hole was left in the heart of this community when Clark passed away on December 13, 2005. In addition to his duties in the hardware store, Clark was a loving husband and father, devoted grandfather and great-grandfather and a community servant. Most of all, he is remembered for his devotion to God. Continue reading “Bob Clark: Leaving a Legacy”

By Patricia Barkley
The Haysville Times

There was a big change for the Haysville Activity Center during the transition from 2005 to 2006. On December 31, 2005, HAC Director, and head of the City’s Recreation Department, Wendy Wilkinson left her job with the City to pursue a different career.
Wilkinson had been with the City for seven years, since shortly before the HAC opened up. Her replacement, Georgie Root, was hired shortly after that.
On December 29, at the City Council’s last meeting of the year, Wilkinson was presented with a service plaque in honor of her years with the City. She had already been preparing Root to take over the position of Recreation Director.
“We expect it to be a smooth transition,” said Carol Neugent, director of governmental services for the City.
Root agrees, although she admits that her new position does involve “more responsibilities, different responsibilities.” For now, the HAC will be one staff member short, but Root says they will probably not consider anyone new for a few months.
In the meantime, Wilkinson has moved on to a career in real estate and property management. She is now selling houses in the Haysville area and managing rental properties.
“I was ready for some new challenges and new adventures,” said Wilkinson. “It was time.”
Wilkinson will be working on growing her new business but says she will be “more than happy to help” if Root needs any more advice or assistance while she’s getting the hang of her new job. Wilkinson thinks Root will do fine, though, and she still has interest in what happens with the Recreation Department, including her hope that the City will build a new HAC.
“It was an experience, helping to bring the Recreation Department from nothing to where it is today,” she said.

The Haysville Times
By Kathleen Barkley

Picci Castleberry came to Haysville from Italy in 1952. She had lived in Trieste until she was thirteen, when she moved to Rome. She remembers what holidays were like there.
Castleberry can still sing in Italian, just like she used to in the Christmas plays in school and in the church choir, where she played an angel. Nativity scenes can be found in churches, homes, shops, and other buildings all over Italy at this time of year. Christmas markets are found throughout the country, selling Chritmas merchandise such as sweets and other foods, flowers, and decorations. Musicians wander the streets or sit on the sidewalks, playing their instruments and singing. Passersby can donate money to them.
On St. Nicholas Day on December 6, Catholics have processions or parades. During the month of December, up through the Christmas Eve midnight service, people participate in Christmas novellas or special prayer services with singing, and Castleberry always took part in these. Thefigurine of baby Jesus is placed in his crib or manger on Christmas Eve.
On that night, the children hang their stockings so when Santa Claus comes down the chimney, he will leave them fruits, such as apples and oranges, cookies, and candies. In Italy, it is believed that Santa was born in Naples.
Christmas trees are decorated with small candles and other ornaments, sometimes homemade ones.
“There were no electric lights and no top [for the tree],” said Castleberry.
Pieces of cotton are added to the tree, as well. The candles have to be watched carefully to make sure the tree doesnt catch on fire, or a new tree would have to be chopped down and decorated. The candles arent lit, however, until exactly midnight, and they are lit every day after that through January 6.
On Christmas Day, families come for a big feast with ham, vegetables, homemade bread and pies, and sauerkraut.
On New Years Day, children visit their neighbors houses, going door-to-door to get fruits, candies, cookies, or money in their own brand of trick-or-treating.
On January 6, the three wise men visit. Also, Bafana, always an old woman, brings gifts of fruits, cookies, and candies for those children who have put their shoes on the steps in their homes. Only after this is the tree finally taken down, and the winter holidays in Italy come to an end.

The Haysville Times
By Angie Gumm

If the case for Christmas is to have faith in goodness and in one’s fellow man, then it can be especially irksome when our best efforts at goodwill are squashed by ne’er-do-wells. The challenge of Christmas, of course, is to keep believing.
Haysville Pride and the seniors at the Senior Center who helped put up the Christmas decorations in Riggs Park are living up to that challenge and proving that faith-and decorations-are resilient, not to mention buoyant .
As part of their annual efforts for the holidays, the Pride Program sponsored supplies for Christmas decorations, which Pat and Jack Ferguson designed and cut, and many local seniors helped paint. The decorations were up less than a few days before some “ruggers” took them down.
Continue reading “Christmas Cheer Gets New Life”

The Haysville Times
By Kathleen Barkley

Throughout Germany, Christmas traditions vary, but Haysville’s own Christel Cloyd, of Bergland Trachten German and Austrian Imports, can remember the traditions she enjoyed as a child in Germany. She lived in Peine, near Hanover. For St. Nicholas Day on December 6, the children put their shoes in front of the door so that St. Nicholas can put cookies in them. The Advent Calendar is hung, and for each day, the children find a picture behind the number. During Advent (the four weeks prior to the week of Christmas), the Advent wreath is placed on a stand which sits in the middle of the table. On the first Sunday of Advent, one red candle is placed on the wreath, and another one is placed for each consecutive Sunday leading up to the week before Christmas, until there are four red candles.
Next comes Christmas Eve, the Holy Evening, or Heilige Abend. The Christmas tree is picked out and chopped down. When the tree is standing inside, tinsel is hung on the tree, piece-by-piece, and candles are sometimes added, as well. Any ornaments put on the tree are homemade and created from whatever a person chooses. In Cloyd’s family, the tree was left up until January 6 of the next year. When the tree is taken down, the tinsel is removed, one strand at a time, and saved for the next year.
The “Christ Child” (Christkind) delivers the children’s presents to the foot of the tree, and they’re usually covered by a sheet or such. When supper is served, there is goose, which first has to be caught, preferably early in the season to make sure there was one available. There is also red or blue cabbage and yellow boiled potatoes. Christ Stollen, or Christmas cake and sometimes poppy seed cake, cinnamon stars, and gingerbread cookies or houses are served. The gingerbread cookies or houses aree made with homemade molasses, one for every child, and coated with sugar and chocolate. Almost everything is homemade.
“I never make anything from a box,” says Cloyd.
After supper, each child recites a poem having to do with Christmas, and everyone sings Christmas songs, such as “Silent Night” and “O Tannenbaum.” Now the children are allowed to receive their unwrapped Christmas gifts brought by Christkind. Everyone then proceeds to church for the Christmas Eve Midnight Service. A 10 a.m. Christmas Day church service follows the next morning, and this concludes the traditions in Cloyd’s region of the country. The remainder of the day is still a holiday from work, just as Christmas Eve was, and just as it is here.