Kansas Trip

Mom, Jan and I traveled to my mom's hometown of Stafford, Kansas last week. Stafford is located in the middle of the state and is a very small town with a population of just a little over 1,000.

We stayed two nights at The Henderson House, one of three bed and breakfast houses in town. 

We arrived Sunday afternoon and the only open eatery, for miles, was Elroy's Pizza. Elroy's has been in town for years and the pizza was good!

The town has one stoplight, and it is a small one.

The old Curtis Cafe is closed. We ate here after church on Sundays. People now go to Joan's, on the highway.

The post office. Most people have a box.

 We ordered vanilla cokes at the counter at The Mercantile.

The library was closed. The hours are very limited.

We saw the newspaper office. The paper is published weekly and my mom has had a subscription since she left town for college in the late 1940s.

We always attended services at the Methodist Church. The Sunday morning congregation is about 60 people. Currently the church is getting new stairs.

The high school fell victim to a fire about a year ago, and will not be rebuilt. Each class, kindergarten through 12th grade, has about 12 students.

Stafford is a shrinking town. Some streets and houses are beautiful. Others are deteriorating and we saw a few signs of outright poverty. The people here farm and ranch (grow wheat and raise cattle), produce oil and gas and own small businesses.

October 19-20, 2015