I now live in Palm Springs, CA—and yes I do miss Maple Hill, but not this time of year 🙂

Palm Springs likes to think of itself as a pretty cosmopolitan place and its certainly a mecca for tourists and retirees from all over the world. When I tell folks I’m from a little farming and ranching community in Kansas, they’ll often remark about how they hated Kansas as they drove across its 400 miles. They’ll ask me if I wasn’t bored growing up in a little town, with nothing to do.

I usually fire right back and tell them that I’m glad I grew up in Maple Hill. Yes, it was likely some behind the times, especially growing up way before the Internet and other world-connecting technology, but I think that was a good thing.

The family was still the core unit of the community. I knew some of my great grandparents and all of my grandparents lived within a couple of miles of my parents. On Sunday, we went to church together and often filled one of the pews in the Maple Hill Community Congregational Church.

One of my favorite times was going to my grandparents after church for Sunday dinner with extended family. My mother’s parents, Robert and Mildred Corbin, had five children who all married and had children. Somehow, my grandmother made fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables from the garden, fresh-baked rolls or bread, pie and/or cake for 15 or 20—always prepared for one or two extra, and all on a six burner kerosene range and oven. It was like loaves and fishes—somehow God provided. I suppose others brought covered dishes but I don’t remember that, I just remember Grandma busy on Saturday and Sunday, happy that she and Grandpa could enjoy their family.

My Grandmother Clark was “a working woman.” She was chief operator at the Maple Hill Central Office (telephone exchange) and the switchboard was in a large room on the front of her house—which also served as the community hub. She would often work on Sunday morning so she could prepare lunch on her big, coal cooking range, and then her cousin, Mable (Phillips) Herron would come about 1pm and provide relief on the switchboard so Grandmother could sit down with the family and eat. My Dad’s sister, Thelma and John Hedges and their family from Denison were often guests. My Clark grandparents had a little dairy and their own milk cows, so there was always heaps of butter on bread and vegetables and whipped cream on desserts. Grandma Clark was a very rich cook.

At my Corbin Grandparents, we would always spend the entire afternoon and most of the evening. After the dishes were done, we headed for the living room where my Grandmother and aunts presided over the piano while we all sang along. Each had their little genre. My Grandmother loved the World War I songs such as “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles,” “Its A Long Way To Tipperary,” Irish balads, and many others. Then my aunts would enjoy all of the World War II songs and Aunt Sarah would show off her Boogy Woogy! It was tons of fun. After the sing along, we’d head outside to play, or in the summer we would make home made ice cream in the big two-gallon freezer, taking turns on the crank.

At dusk, we’d put out all the left overs, eat again and then enjoy an evening of visiting and games. Perhaps it was the simple life, but in my opinion it was the good life.

Next, friends will say, “Well don’t you feel you were cheated on your education?” I will emphatically inform them that Maple Hill Grade School and Maple Hill High School may not have had the same offering of classes as Topeka High School, but we received more than ample training in the basics. When I started Freshman English at Washburn University, I was the only person in my class of 30 that could diagram a sentence. I was never good at math, but I had no trouble with freshman Algebra at Washburn. The music training was exceptional in both grade and high school. I began singing in school, church and community programs at a very young age, and also played the trumpet. Our school and church choirs were excellent and I obtained music scholarships which helped pay my way through college. I don’t apologize for my education in any way.

There were 10 in my high school graduating class, I knew them all very well, and we all remain friends today. We are all retired now, but several of us graduated from university, all of us got good jobs, and we became productive citizens that contributed to our society.

I grew up listening to radio, music, news, fun children’s programs, dramas—a little bit of everything. We had only one television station, WIBW-TV in Topeka, when we got our first television in 1959. The TV antennas seemed to reach the sky trying to capture fuzzy signals, but that all changed pretty quickly. I remember when Interstate 70 was built and paved in the 1950s. Our classes were taken in school busses to watch the progress. Prior to that, I remember Old #10 being a gravel and then black top road between Maple Hill and Topeka. Making the trip to Kansas City was an infrequent and much anticipated trip. I never traveled further than Kansas City until graduating from high school.

Was I deprived of anything? I don’t think so. I later learned there was a much larger world out there to explore and enjoy, but my youth in Maple Hill, provided me with a basis for future. It provided me with a model for “family.” It offered the religious experiences, training and joy that would see me through a lot of trials and tribulations as well as incredible mountain top experiences. I learned how to give and take love. My family experiences prepared me for having my own children and grandchildren.

God bless Maple Hill. I remember a verse from our Maple Hill High School Song. It goes like this:

It was down along Mill Creek,
That Maple Hill began.
Her honor and her loyalty,
First took here noble stand.
The unity of this community,
Will weather all storms that may come.

I don’t know who wrote the song, but truer words were never spoken.

What was your experience growing up in Maple Hill??