Okay, last time, I left off with us in Winfield, Kansas, which is a charming town and I understand why our friend Judy loves it there.
I don’t want to romanticize it, however. The reality is that the town (like all towns) does have problems, mostly economic in nature. Like rural communities all over America, it suffers from changes in the ways that Americans make their livings. Farming is still important, but the family farm is increasingly overshadowed by factory farms...and corporate farms...which may do no business with the small towns in their midst.
As I said before, Winfield is fortunate in that it does have some manufacturing -- parts for the aircraft industry, some consumer goods, crayons, etc. And it has the hospital and the college, both of which bring in money.
About the photos: Several today (and for once, none of Martha). First, the windmill in Winfield that “Fred” found so evocative. Next, a sunflower, fitting for Kansas. Then, another flower, I believe this is “Doubtful Knight's Spur,” but I’m not 100% certain. Next, one of the Art Deco buildings you can find in Winfield. And, then, a brick street, just in case you’ve never seen one. And, finally, the Tree at the Lake, which Fred also found evocative.
I showed all of these to Fred in my messages. He seemed to enjoy them. Which pleases me.
But, manufacturing, too, is a scary way to make a living these days. You’re always wondering if today’s the day that some MBA or hedge fund manager Who Knows Best will decree that the factory is abandoned, the company right-sized, and industry shipped to China...or wherever...and thus taking another step toward our eventual national irrelevance and possible foreign domination. All in the name of “rationalization” and “shareholder value.”
The hospital also has some problems in this age of reduced funding and insurance issues. And the college? Again, there are difficulties. We no longer view higher education with the reverence we once did.
According to Judy, there’s another, less well-known problem--housing. Some of the town’s industries, like the beef packaging facility, have large numbers of employees, but those employees cannot find affordable places to live in town. This, too, is a story we’re hearing more and more across the country.
But...still...there are beautiful places in Winfield and the countryside around it. As I said before, I took a lot of photos.
I also found myself sending some of those photos to Fred. I’m not quite sure why. I guess...I guess...it was because I suspected (subconsciously) he would enjoy them. He told me he had been through Winfield a couple of times. His grandmother had lived somewhere in this part of Kansas, and he’d often visited her. Plus his parents had retired to another town in the area, I think Leavenworth, but I’m not sure.
And, anyway, I knew he found those towns somehow calming. I knew that Kansas was one of the places he was thinking of retiring to. He eventually picked New Mexico because his brother was there, but for a long time Kansas had been on his mind.
As I sit here now (I write this in February of 2025), thinking about how it all turned out...I find myself wondering what would have happened if his life had been different. Would he be in “The Sunflower State” even now? Maybe in some fixer-upper house, happily employing his hammer and saws, and, when necessary, hiring help to do wiring or something else beyond his skill set.
Would he have had friends? As I say, he wasn’t a particularly social person. But, maybe...maybe...maybe Kansas would have changed him. It is hard to remain a hermit in a culture as open as, say, Winfield’s is.
Anyway he seemed to the enjoy the pictures. He would send me notes in response...saying how peaceful it all looked. He liked the images of flowers--dandelions, larkspur, redbud, black eyed Susan, Rose of Sharon, sunflowers --which surprised me. I didn’t think he was the wildflower and nature-type. But, there it was.
And he liked the photos I sent him of the countryside. There was a picture of an old fashioned metal windmill that he particularly liked. And he enjoyed the pictures I sent him of Winfield Lake. There was one of a tree on the side of the lake, its branches seeming to fly off into a windswept sky that, for some reason, meant something to him.
And, finally, he thanked me for pictures of the town itself -- the old buildings, the ancient Art Deco structure that had once been a theater, the elaborate stone edifice that had been the Masonic temple...with its stained-glass windows. He even liked the pictures of Winfield’s few remaining brick streets, which he said reminded him of his grandmother’s neighborhood.
I was delighted that he liked the photos. Though, as I say, I didn’t expect his reaction. He was not a man normally given to sentimental thoughts. Yet, here he was, thanking me for my not amateur photographs of a town that he would never see again.
But...as the week went on...his messages took on a curious tone.
In one such message...he told me that while his diagnosis was not yet certain...if it was what he thought...he had plans.
And those did not involve lingering. Or pain.
And, honestly, I could not blame him.
More to come.
Copyright©2025 Michael Jay Tucker
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