Topeka Magazine | Spring 2021 by Sunflower Publishing

SPRING 2021

Dash

Turn

THE FAST-PACED SPORT OF BARREL RACING

TOM AVERILL TOURS HIS TOPEKA MEMORY MAP

MEET BEDDY, THE DOG WHO FIGHTS BED-BADDIES

BULL AND SANDY GIVE COWBOYS WHAT THEY NEED

CAPITAL CITY’S DENTISTS OF CHOICE

LINDSAY BIGGS, DDS

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TOPEKA MAGAZINE | Spring 2021

FROM THE EDITOR SPRING 2021 | VOLUME 15, NO. 2

Hello. As she had always done, writer Carolyn Kaberline was checking in with me about her stories a few weeks before deadline. But this email was a bit unusual. “Just wanted to let you know I am in the hospital with the virus but doing well. Have sent questions to both [people being featured]. Do you need any contact info for either of them for photos? I know this is a busy time of year for both [of them].” That “virus,” of course, was Covid-19, and within two weeks it would take her life. This isn’t an anecdote about how inspiring it was to see someone work until their death, although—yes—Carolyn was extremely dedicated to her projects and we are honoring her work by printing a few of her last stories in this edition. But I, and many others, would trade any inspiration for the chance that Carolyn would have survived the pandemic. Carolyn Kaberline connected with many people through many of her roles: a former public high-school journalism teacher, a Topeka elementary school instructor, a Star Trek fan, a horse rider and equestrian-event enthusiast, a productive and talented journalist, and a friend to those around her. Carolyn contributed an incredible range and depth of stories to this publication for the past 15 years: home profiles, corgi celebrations, rodeo events and much more. She had a knack for listening to, understanding and sharing the enthusiasm of her subjects for the theme they were discussing. I remember one of her early features was a profile of Topeka’s skateboarding culture, at a time when many people viewed the sport as somewhat suspect. Carolyn, who was definitely a few decades older than anyone else at the skate parks, had visited many of the sites, watched the kids perform their moves—some expertly so, others through falls and several retries—and spent time going over everything from the physics of the board to the slang terms in praise of the most gnar moves. We met shortly after that story and, when I asked her if she had tried any of the moves, she willingly stood up on a black skateboard with a flaming skull painted on its deck and attempted an ollie (a standard but by no means simple skateboard move where the board rises with the athlete in a jump). She couldn’t do that, but she did attempt a simple flip and was miserable at that as well—but she laughed as she caught her balance trying not to fall. We encounter people in our lives in different ways, in different degrees. Topekans like Carolyn who did not live through the Covid-19 pandemic will be mourned in so many ways: as spouses, family members, loved ones, dear friends, colleagues, acquaintances, neighbors and more. Each loss is personal, and each loss echoes in the community around their lives. To those of you who may have lost someone close this year, we share your mourning and hope you find ways to celebrate and honor the measure of the lives of those you have lost. This is in honor of Carolyn Kaberline, 1948–2020, our colleague and dear friend.

Editor Nathan Pettengill Art Director/Designer Alex Tatro Copy Editor Leslie Andres Advertising Representative Angie Taylor ataylor@sunflowerpub.com (785) 832-7236 Ad Designer Alex Tatro Photographers Bill Stephens Nick Krug Writers Thomas Fox Averill Marsha Henry Goff Carolyn Kaberline Bill Stephens Illustrator Pat Abellon Subscriptions $27 for a one-year subscription, including Topeka SR; order at sunflowerpub.com

Please contact us at topekamagazine@sunflowerpub.com for all comments, subscription and editorial queries.

Topeka Magazine is a publication of Sunflower Publishing, a division of Ogden Publications. Director: Bob Cucciniello Publisher: Bill Uhler Ogden Publications 1503 SW 42nd St Topeka, KS 66609

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I WI L L BE BU R I E D I N A S U I T OF NE BU L A E by Huascar Medina, Kansas Poet Laureate (2019-2021)

We die a bit daily —aging the rebuttal of birth. If I am to leave this earth I hope it is at night in sleep with dream so my mind is ﬁlled with heaven as I go.

They will hold my funeral with the light switch oﬀ without candles so we can change the meaning of wake & the tradition of mourning take the romance out of dying & back into living.

I want to use ether as embalming ﬂuid wrap the universe around me so when my casket is opened & placed at the parlor stars will shine in the darkness.

My tombstone with no words —just a constellation you've never seen before.

We have chosen to share this poem as a way to express our gratitude to Kansas Poet Laureate Huascar Medina as he finishes his term of service to the great State of Kansas. His ability to connect with Kansans of all ages, creeds, colors and backgrounds has expanded our view of what poetry means and of how the arts make every second of our lives more brilliant. The poem above can be found in Huascar's book of poems entitled "How to Hang the Moon" and is available for purchase at www.huascarmedina.com. #artstopeka #topekaproud #poetlaureate

artstopeka.org

congratulations KANSAS FINANCIAL RESOURCES congratulates

ERIC HUNSICKER

on earning the Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) designation. This honor is achieved only upon completion of extensive course work, demonstrated practical skill and advanced product knowledge. Further, it reflects the goal of KFR to offer all clients the utmost in professional service. Eric will concentrate on wealth management and specialized planning for his clients.

Join us in congratulating Eric of his accomplishment. He may be reached at:

3311 SW Van Buren | Topeka, KS 66611 785.266.1200 | www.KFRtopeka.com | eric@kfrtopeka.com ERIC HUNSICKER, CFP®, CLU®

Registered representatives offer securities through Securities America, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Financial advisors offer advisory services through Securities America Advisors, Inc. Kansas Financial Resources, Inc. and the Securities America companies are separate entities.

CONTRIBUTORS

TOPEKA MAGAZINE | Spring 2021

SPRING 2021 | VOLUME 15, NO. 2

Pat Pat Abellon Abellon

Tom Averill

Patlocal Abellon An O. Henry Award A Topeka portrait artist. Pat received a signedacertificate winner, Tom Averill has created from former president Barack Obama for a commissioned commissioned work is retired from portrait. He was also the port for President Washburn University, portrait artist forBarack USD 437 Wall ofObama, Fame. And also a muralist where he taught painted for USD 501 Jardine Middle School. murals and works Pat won the Grand prize of the creative writing and Topeka Art Guild Centennial Kansas literature and for local schools, Celebration Art Competition. He currently pieces locallyfounded the Thomas cur andshows won his theart Grand and internationally. Prize at the Topeka Art Guild Centennial Celebration.

Fox Averill Kansas Studies Collection.

Bill Stephens

Nick Krug

Marsha Goff

A regular contributor to Topeka Magazine for the past 14 years and to KANSAS! magazine for the past 30, Bill Stephens runs his own photography studio and plays guitar and mandolin for bluegrass ensembles.

Nick Krug is known for photographing University of Kansas men’s basketball for the past 15 years. When he doesn’t have his camera in hand, he is likely at home in Topeka with his wife and children.

Writer Marsha Henry Goff has covered numerous stories over the years as a journalist and author. She is the editor of the Topeka-based Jayhawk Area Agency on Aging newspaper, Amazing Aging.

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WHAT’S INSIDE

Spring 2021 | TOPEKA MAGAZINE

SPRING 2021 | VOLUME 15, NO. 2

D E PA R T M E N T S 9 B E D D Y, T H E

S L E E P-T I G H T D O G

A loveable dog (and her bloodthirsty bedbug training partners) enable a family to start a new venture aimed at allowing homes and businesses to rest easy

A Y E A R F O R R O S E S Volunteer group with strong roots in the community cares for one of Topeka’s showcase gardens

13 26

IN HIS OWN TIME

Clock collector Walt Rucker waits out the pandemic, chime by chime and winding after winding

F E AT U R E S 18 A P E R S O N A L M A P

OF TOPEKA

Each of us has a personal geography of Topeka, created by our own experiences and memories—and spending months at home during the pandemic has motivated Tom Averill to explore his own mental map of the city, and invite us to do the same

26 T H E B A R R E L R A C E R S

Sidelined by the pandemic, the human-horse teams are hoping to return to the stadiums and resume their sport of fast sprints and nimble spins

32 B I T B Y B I T

A Berryton couple creates authentic riding gear that ships to ranch hands and riders across the world

SPRING 2021

On the Cover

Dash

Turn

THE FAST-PACED SPORT OF BARREL RACING

TOM AVERILL TOURS HIS TOPEKA MEMORY MAP

MEET BEDDY, THE DOG WHO FIGHTS BED-BADDIES

BULL AND SANDY GIVE COWBOYS WHAT THEY NEED

Stephanie Imthurn competes in the July National Barrel Horse Association event at Topeka. Photograph by Bill Stephens.

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Beddy, The Sleep-Tight Dog A loveable dog (and her bloodthirsty bedbug training partners) enable a family to start a new venture aimed at allowing homes and businesses to rest easy STORY BY

Marsha Henry Goff |

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

Nick Krug

Beddy the beagle has been trained to sniff out bedbugs in residences and businesses.

TOPEKA MAGAZINE | Spring 2021

hen Beddy was adopted into the Kugler family in April 2018, she stepped into a loving home as well as the perfect vocation for the heightened senses of her beagle-mix nose. The Kuglers, you see, were about to become bedbug hunters, and soon had Beddy dividing her time between sniffing out troublesome insects and enjoying the good life as a cherished family pet. John Kugler was the first in the family to consider bedbug hunting. Through his day job as the facility manager at Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library and his network of facility professionals, he knew the damage that even a few bedbugs could do in shutting down a business or public building. It took a year, however, to convince his wife, Jina, a counselor at Wamego High School, that buying an expensively trained scent-hunting dog and starting a business was a good investment of their family’s resources. “Finally,” Jina says, “I decided, ‘I’m going to let him do this, and the worst thing that can happen is we’ll end up with a really expensive pet.’” It took a year for the Kuglers to go through the process of working with a trainer to select and receive their talented dog, but Beddy finally arrived in April 2018. Except, her name was not Beddy then; it was Karen. Initially, the family tried to keep the dog’s name, but eventually decided to hold an online contest, where the winning name of Beddy was submitted. Beddy’s arrival coincided with the arrival of a few other animals, though not necessarily pets—bedbugs. After all, without bedbugs for practice hunts, how was Beddy going to keep her nose and instincts finely tuned? The first batch arrived from on online supplier. “They were expensive, around $90 for 10 or 12 of them,” says John, “but we have thousands of them now.” With that type of growth rate, Kugler is obviously doing something right. Or maybe he is just tasty. Bedbugs have a life expectancy of four to six months, but die much sooner without feeding every week to 14 days on blood. And the Kugler bedbugs have a willing blood donor in John, who displays a dark red blotch on his non-dominant left hand. “Feeding them saves me about 90 bucks a month. I turn the jar upside down on my hand, they’ll hang on about seven to ten minutes, then they’ll release and another will take the same exact spot,” John explains, adding he is confident he will not get diseases from the bed bugs because they have fed only on him, but that the job “is quite literally, blood, sweat and tears.”

TOPEKA MAGAZINE | Spring 2021

Other family members refuse to donate their blood to the bedbugs, but they do help out in other ways. The couple’s oldest son, Jacob, contributed money for Beddy, helped build a kennel and watches the dogs when needed. The Kuglers’ youngest son, Jayson, has begun training two new additions to the family: a brother and sister pair of German shorthairs, Huck and Finndy. Another German shorthair, Cocoa, rounds out the Kugler’s bedbug-hunting crew and their on-site bedbug hunting business, Bug Hounds, LLC. When they arrive at a home or facility to search for bedbugs, the dogs’ sensitive noses allow them to locate nymphs the size of a grain of salt and which often evade visual inspection. In northeast Kansas, the Kuglers and their dogs have inspected for bedbugs in libraries, nursing homes, hotels and other businesses as well as residences. Other jobs have taken them east of St. Louis and south of Oklahoma City. Jina says bedbugs can invade anyone’s facility or home and that people should not be embarrassed if they discover them or suspect they have them. Their dogs have found bedbugs in nice facilities and the cleanest of houses. “We were in an almost 200,000-square-foot facility, and, as we were taking apart some of the furniture the dogs alerted on, there was one little corner of this furniture that had four tiny little eggs. I thought that it is amazing that, out of this entire building, they can find those,” Jina says. For John, everything (well, except perhaps the bloodfeeding) about the business is a joy. “I saw something that my boys and I can do together. We enjoy dogs, we enjoy hunting, and this is just a different type of hunting. We get to watch our dogs work and they’re right beside us. That’s the reward.”

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A Year for Roses Volunteer group with strong roots in the community cares for one of Topeka’s showcase gardens STORY BY

St. Patrick rose from the Reinisch Rose Garden

Carolyn Kaberline |

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

Jason Dailey

his year, members of the Topeka Rose Society plan to meet, as they have for the past 66 years, to share knowledge with one another about growing one of their favorite flowers. And, as they have done for decades as well, members will assist with one the city’s showcase rose garden, the Reinisch Rose Garden in Gage Park, which boasts some 4,500 roses. Debra Coffland, who serves as the society’s vice-president and horticulturalist assigned to the Reinisch Rose Garden for the past eight years, says she has met “some of the nicest people around” while working at the garden. “I never realized how many rose lovers there are out there,” she adds. “Some people come out to the garden because they remember being there as a child. I’ve spoken with others that come out to relive their wedding day that was oftentimes many years ago. The great thing about the Reinisch Rose Garden is it gives people an opportunity to see what grows well here in our climate. You can walk around and find out which ones smell good, how a certain rose ages and the growth habits before buying your own.” In addition to assisting at Reinisch, the society traditionally meets in the Preston Hale Room in the Ward Meade Mansion on the second Tuesday of each month, beginning at 7 p.m. “Anyone is welcome to attend these,” Coffland says, “but we do encourage people to join. Our $10 yearly membership will get you a

TOPEKA MAGAZINE | Spring 2021

A Rose for Topeka Gardens

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Looking for roses that will do well in this area? The Topeka Rose Society says these six roses are favorites of their members. All of these varieties can be found at the Reinisch Rose Garden and all are suited to local growing conditions. LADY ELSIE MAY was introduced in 2001 but has an old-fashioned look due to a petal count of ten. This orange/pink shrub rose is a favorite of Coffland because of its blackspot resistance. SECRET is a more traditional pink blend rose with 30 to 40 petals. This hybrid tea rose was introduced in 1992 and won the All American Rose Selection award in 1994. It is considered to be a good repeat flowering rose, and Topeka Rose Society vicepresident Donna Coffland says it “smells fabulous.” A beautiful dark red color with a 35-petal count, MISTER LINCOLN is a hybrid tea rose with

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classic and elegant buds. Introduced in 1965, this rose has long-stemmed flowers that are good for cutting and last well in water. Striking looks combined with a strong, sweet fragrance make this rose a favorite of many, and one you will definitely want to consider for your garden. OLYMPIAD is another hybrid tea rose for consideration. Boasting a medium red color, 30 to 35 petals, and a light, sweet fragrance, Olympiad is a winner in any garden. This rose was introduced in 1983 to honor the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. CHRYSLER IMPERIAL is a widely popular hybrid tea rose with a strong, rich scent and a bright crimson color. Topeka Rose Society President Bill Klecan describes this as one of his favorite roses because it is “such a fragrant and niceblooming rose.” The Chrysler Imperial is full

Spring 2021 | TOPEKA MAGAZINE

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and shapely and produces tons of flowers, making it one of the most productive of all roses. Finally, LOVE AND PEACE is another hybrid tea. Introduced in 2001, it’s known for its deep buffyellow color and crimson edges. It won an All-American Rose Selection prize in 2002. But, as with many things, different people will have different favorites— the key is to find what you enjoy in terms of blooms, fragrance and ease of growing.

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“The good thing about roses is that they’re beautiful for different reasons to different people,” Coffland says. “I think every single year I’ve worked here at Reinisch I have a new favorite.”

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TOPEKA MAGAZINE | Spring 2021

Cherry Parfait rose from the Reinisch Rose Garden

mailed newsletter that one of our members writes faithfully for us each month. And who doesn’t like to receive snail mail with a rose stamp on it?” Topeka Rose Society President Brian Klecan says that the society can also help new growers in gaining knowledge to choose and cultivate rose gardens at home. “They don’t take as much work as people think. You prune them, cut them and enjoy them,” he says. “I have roses in bloom by my mailbox [in the front of my yard], and I can smell them when I stand at my front door.” Topekans who grow roses at home can participate in the society’s annual rose show, this year tentatively set for the fall. Here, members and the general public can bring a rose from their garden to display and be judged. “Don’t be intimidated,” Coffland says. “Many times first time entrants have won the Queen of the Show Award. We’re all there to have fun and we want everyone’s experience to be a good one. Some of us just love the way a rose can smell and how easy they are to keep alive. Others want to grow roses to show in local and not-so-local competitions. But no matter the reason, we all have a love for our nation’s official flower, the rose.”

Topeka Rose Society To be placed on the Topeka Rose Society’s email list for notifications of meetings, volunteer opportunities and show schedulings, send a message to Topeka Rose Society President Bill Klecan at wklecan@sbcglobal.net.

a personal map of topeka B

ecause I’ve lived most of my life in Topeka, I have a deep sense of what I call personal geography. I reside in my hometown of today, but also in memories that carry me into the past. I’ve been especially aware of this double vision over the past year, when Covid-19 has driven us all to stay home. Unable to see friends, eat in restaurants, attend events, visit museums, or go to movies, I have found myself imagining those people, places and experiences. I also remember backward, into my deeper past in this place. I am living a kind of double life. This layered vision started years ago, when I was a boy.

In the Air My father was irrationally afraid to fly, but he knew from his professional life as a Menninger-trained psychiatrist that it was a fear he should overcome, or at least not pass on to his children. So that we wouldn’t inherit this phobia, one day my father and mother took me and my siblings to Billard Airport in North Topeka. My mother later remembered that the airport, or a charter company, was having a special: flyers were charged not by the passenger, the time, or the distance, but by the pound. How inexpensive, then, to have us four children board a Piper Cub and have us flown over the landmarks of our lives on that bright, clear Saturday morning. Aloft, like Penny from one of our favorite old television shows, Sky King, the ground moving away and everything below shrinking, I had the best view I’d ever seen, whether from Burnett’s Mound, or the bluffs above the Kansas River, or the Kansas State Capitol, where we climbed steep and

ILLUSTRATION BY Pat Abellon

precarious stairs to the top of the dome, the very highest place in town. Our pilot buzzed that Capitol, then headed south above Kansas Avenue, which we recognized from shopping at Pelletier’s and Crosby Brothers. We flew south and east to Lake Shawnee, the home of our day camp. In fact, one summer, my brother and I became legends when, thinking we had missed the bus, we walked from the stop at Southwest (now Whitson) School to Lake Shawnee. More than two hours after we should have arrived, we trudged into camp full of our exploit. Even the counselors, concerned because they weren’t sure where we’d been, admired our feat, and our feet: we had stamina and a sense of direction. From Lake Shawnee, the airplane took us that same route we’d walked, only backward, through south Topeka, over the State Fairgrounds with its oval racetrack, over Washburn University, where we took art lessons, over First Congregational Church, where we attended Sunday school and then walked the few blocks east to Dairy Queen for a different kind of sundae, then over our school, and above our house on Stratford Road, so small and unremarkable among however many like it in our neighborhood, but nevertheless distinctly our own. Next, the pilot banked south and west to fly over Burnett’s Mound, a frequent destination reached by bicycle and enjoyed with a sack lunch. Then north to our next favorite haunt, the Kansas River, to a place we called Horseshoe Cliff. Even from the air we could see the bike path across a field of grass, the bike trails cut among hillocks and steep bluffs, the ones we rode, proving our daring, sick with speed.

Spring 2021 | TOPEKA MAGAZINE

We followed the sandy old Kaw back across downtown to the airport and landed, home again to our parents’ waiting excitement. My father accomplished his goal: none of his children fears flying. More important, he gave me another way to know a place. To hold it all in sight, from above, is to feel a part of it, past and present. Topeka, from above, unfurled like a map, the map of itself, but also the map of our lives.

On the Ground From 1967 to 1982, I lived in Lawrence and in Iowa City, Iowa. I took a position at Washburn to teach creative writing in 1980, and once that became a tenure-track position in 1982, I moved back to Topeka. Our daughter was born at the Holistic Birth and Growth Center at 6th and Washburn that same year, and we had more family in Topeka, and I could spend more time at home if I didn’t commute. At Washburn, I joined a group of faculty and alums who exercised together, running every day during the noon hour, exploring neighborhoods, the Shunga trails, the parks, the underpasses and overpasses of train bridges and streets. We’d run between five and eight miles each day. When I was in my forties, my goal each birthday was to run as many miles in a week as I was old. This became more difficult the older I became, of course, but having companions helped. These friends often indulged my whim to run past one of the sites of my personal geography, calculating my miles to match the age I was when I experienced the place. For example, on our first day we might run straight to SE 6th & SE Golden, a distance of about four miles, because my first days and nights in Topeka, where my family moved when I was four years old, were spent at what was then the Golden Glow Auto Court, little cabins that backed up against woods and fields. On the way there, I’d sometimes share a memory. From Golden Glow, of being bitten on the waist by a cow when I got too close to the fence behind our little cabin. The little toothmark bruises, no blood, were trophies to show off to my brothers. The next day would be a jog west on 17th Street for First Congregational Church at 17th and Collins, for Southwest Elementary School at 17th and Arnold,

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then a side track to Gage Center, my first strip mall, where I stole a comb from Schaffert–Grimes Drug Store and took trumpet lessons at Midwestern Music. Then we’d jog west again for Capper Junior High at 19th and Hope, then swing by Mount Hope Cemetery, where I worked three summers when I was 17, 18 and 19, we runners hitting our 19-mile mark just as I was recalling the time Skip, the oldest member of the grounds crew at Mount Hope, took me to the crematorium the first time, tasking me with unscrewing the handles from the coffin containing the body we were about to lift into the oven. He waited until I was right next to the lid latch, then opened it for my first gasping look at a dead body. Six hours later, that body was ash. I was still ashen. In this way, then, we’d get through my life and miles, perhaps marking my 47th mile and year at Stormont Vail hospital where my father died in the emergency room in August of 1996, when I was 47 years old. The next year, in January, while I was still 47, our son was born in that same hospital. All places contain memories and stories, of course, but the longer I’ve lived in this place, the deeper and more layered those stories have become.

The Remembered and the Real With my exploring curtailed by the pandemic, Topeka has become nearly “virtual,” the past and the present more equal. Staying home, I can recall the old bowl of a swimming pool at Gage Park, where we feared the occasional outbreak of polio. I can see the zoo’s Monkey Island, and the caged gorilla who once grabbed a woman’s hand when she placed it close to the bars, which I witnessed with my friend Mike. I can pick up my Chinese carryout at Hunam, but remember family dinners after church at the Red Dragon, once on 21st, across from Topeka’s first Pizza Hut, housed in a white cinder-block building just a block or two from Seacrest Drug, owned by Joel Reibstein, the father of my friend David, with its soda fountain, where we ordered chocolate root beers. Myron Green Cafeteria at 715 Quincy is equal to any other downtown restaurant I cannot now patronize: one distant in the past, the others distant from my present possibilities. A lot of us, homebound in 2020 and 2021, have exercised imagination and memory to savor what was there for us in a past, in a place entirely unique to us. Still, I look forward to finding normalcy again. I look forward to lifting up and out, buoyed by the imagined, the remembered and the real that makes up my mental map of Topeka.

Spring 2021 | TOPEKA MAGAZINE

My Topeka Several years ago, I was discussing with friends the notion of personal geography: How did we map our lives in the world? What places do we know intimately and best? Where do we feel most comfortable? These spaces could be relatively small and immediate, such as the homes we lived in. They could be past and distant, such as our childhood neighborhoods or vacation sites often visited. Among my friends, I was the only one in the group who had lived mostly in the same town from childhood into adulthood, and I drew a map of Topeka by hand, showing that from my current home I could visit most all of the important places of my life— homes, schools, birthplaces of children, work places, places my parents died and are buried—all within a five-mile radius. I pointed out that I lived close to much of my life by living so close to my past. When our daughter turned 18, we invited a bunch of her friends to meet for dinner at a small restaurant where she worked. Then we surprised her: the Topeka Trolley pulled up, and everyone climbed in for a tour of her life—all of her significant places. The next year she went to the University of Kansas, then to Iowa, to Pennsylvania, back to Lawrence, then to New York, to Vermont, and to California. Soon, she’ll move to Massachusetts. Such is her nomadic life, much the opposite of my life, but equally rich. Here (on pages 20–21 and listed on page 23), are the locations of my life in Topeka, significant places or locations of significant events marking out my geography of the city. What does your personal map of Topeka look like? —Tom Averill

1) St. Francis hospital, 1953, the birth of my sister Libby, our first

Kansan in the family

2) Golden Glow Auto Court, corner of 6th and Golden, 1953, first

nights spent in Topeka

3) 4309 Stratford Road, 1953, first Topeka House 4) Ward Creek, 1955-1962, favorite play place 5) Southwest (now Whitson) School, 1954-1960, grade school 6) First Congregational Church, 1954-1967—also 1996 and 2009.

After church we’d sometimes walk to the Dairy Queen at 17th

and Medford

7) Lake Shawnee—day camps, the big walk, 1960—SE boundary of

my childhood

8) Burnett’s Mound, day trips by bicycle—SW boundary of my childhood 9) Horseshoe Cliff, Kansas River, day trips by bicycle—NW boundary

of my childhood

10) Boys Industrial School (now YCAT), 1954-1967—where my father

was clinical director and where we swam over the noon hours

many summer days

11) St. David’s Episcopal Church, where my Boy Scout Troop 41 met 12) Capper Junior High School, 1960-1963 13) State Capitol, to climb through the rotunda to the top 14) Pelletier’s and Crosby Brothers department stores 15) Gage Center: with Safeway, Schaffert-Grimes Drug Store,

Midwestern Music, where I took trumpet lessons for years,

Woolworth’s with a lunch counter, first strip mall built when I

was a child

16) Topeka West High School, 1964-1967 17) 4400 block Holly Lane, 1964-1967, residence 18) Gage Park—Topeka Zoo and the Rose Garden and the old bowl of

a pool—we were afraid of polio outbreaks

19) Topeka Fairgrounds, where we attended the State Fair every year 20) Washburn University, where I’d get off the bus for art lessons as a

kid, and where I taught from 1980-2017

21) Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, remodeled the year I

arrived in Topeka, and where I’ve been a patron for many years.

22) Holistic Birth and Growth Center, 6th & Washburn, where our

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daughter, Ellie, was born in 1982

23) 700 block Green Street, 1982-1986, residence 24) 600 block Webster Avenue, 1986-2002, residence 25) 300 block SW Greenwood Avenue, 2002 to present, residence 26) Stormont Vail Hospital, where my father was pronounced dead in

the emergency room, August 1996 and where our son, Alex, was

born in January 1997

27) Ward-Meade Botanical Garden, a daily walk for many years 28) Brewster Place, where my mother lived from 2001 to her death in 2009

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TOPEKA MAGAZINE | Spring 2021

TOPEKANS

In His Own Time Clock collector Walt Rucker waits out the pandemic, chime by chime and winding after winding STORY BY

Walt Rucker’s collection of clocks includes some 30 pieces, many discovered at estate, garage or rummage sales.

Nathan Pettengill |

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

Bill Stephens

or many of us, time stood still these past months of the Covid pandemic. Plans were put aside, and we simply waited out several aspects of our lives. Walt Rucker, who lives just east of Topeka, waited too. Retired for the past seven years, he put off his hobby of spending weekends visiting garage, estate or rummage sales. But, in many ways, the downtime was also a chance to enjoy what he had. “I’ve been saying to people that in some sense I’ve been planning for this year my entire life,” Rucker notes. “I have everything I need here at home, so I’ve stayed here with my wife, my cat, my teapot, my books and my clocks that chime on the hour and the half-hour.” And those are plenty of chimes. Rucker began collecting clocks in 1996 when he inherited one from his uncle, and now has at least 30 clocks in his home. Not all of them chime, and that number does include the odd ordinary clock, such as the one on his stove, but most are musical and interesting or unique in some way. There is a double-faced clock that Rucker calls Janus (after the two-faced Roman god of calendars and doorways); a Delft named for the eponymous Dutch city, also famous for Gouda cheese, clay pipes and windmills; a stainedglass clock he found at a Topeka antique mall for $20 and outfitted with flickering lights; and a banjoshaped quartz clock that he discovered at a rummage sale.

TOPEKA MAGAZINE | Spring 2021

CLICK AND YOU’RE

CONNECTED

Rucker is not a rareitems collector, but after 30 years of picking up clocks he has developed his own criteria. “The curious things about clocks, is with these tiny little quartz movements, you can drill a tiny hole in anything—like a saw blade—and then you put a clock face on it. But I generally prefer something that is created as a clock, that is mechanical, attractive and in a nice case,” he explains. “And clocks are like kids, each has their own attributes. One keeps perfect time, but it is always a bit out of tune when it chimes. They each just have quirky habits.” Rucker says some of his favorite clocks have been discovered at church rummage sales or high school pep club sales— events where people have already donated the item and have emotionally parted with it. And that’s the funny thing about clocks, Rucker notes, though they might be widely replaced by the time display on handheld phones, people can still be emotionally attached to them. “I think it is because they are pretty remarkable in the mechanical work that is in some of them, and people often remember the clocks as being in the homes of their parents or grandparents, so they are attached to them,” he says. After months of staying home with their clocks, Rucker and his wife received their second Covid vaccinations in early March and are looking forward to resuming weekend routines, eventually, this spring or summer. That is, except for the weekend when daylight savings time ends and the clocks advance an hour. Usually, Rucker spends about one hour each weekend winding his clocks that need winding, but on that weekend he spends almost an entire day at home adjusting all of his clocks, each with their own attributes, but all keeping and showing the same time—at least for a while.

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HT FIG UD FRA

THE BARREL RACERS Sidelined by the pandemic, the human-horse teams are hoping to return to the stadiums and resume their sport of fast sprints and nimble spins STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY Bill Stephens

or the past months, competitive sport leagues have struggled to find the balance between keeping competitors safe from the pandemic and keeping their sport alive. That has not been as much of a problem for sports like barrel racing, or equestrian sports in general. As the spring season approaches, leagues like the National Barrel Horse Association, Kansas District 09 (which includes riders from the Topeka area) are beginning to look at when they might reopen their season, allowing horses and riders to show off what they have been preparing during the downtime. “The horse and rider practice as a team for at least six months prior to a competition, learning to anticipate each other’s moves and peculiarities,” says Rick Myers, a Valley Falls resident and district director of the association. “The rider needs to intuitively know when to add speed or slow up, when to lean into a steep turn, and when to ask your teammate to correct errors which you have made in setting up a turn.” Over 120 riders participate in the Division 09 competitions, which include riders from northeast Kansas and northwest Missouri. “Our folks come from Emporia to St. Joseph following up the K4 corridor,” Myers notes. “Our local circuit includes the Douglas

County Fairgrounds, North Topeka Saddle Club, Valley Falls, Circleville, and Meriden.” The organization has been working with the Shawnee County Health Agency to follow their recommendations for Covid-19 concerns once competition resumes. Since the sport naturally lends itself to solo practicing and solo competition, most of the focus has been on the audience. “Shawnee County has asked us to limit our crowds,” Myers explains. “In addition we developed online contactless event registration and fee payment to further limit face-to-face contact.” One of the local barrel racing trends that the pandemic has not affected is the dominance of women competitors. Myers estimates that in this area, some 90 percent of the competitors are women—a typical competition breakdown being about 12 men to 120 women—with all ages and sexes usually competing in the same category, though occasional “senior,” “youth,” and “peewee” divisions are created when enough older or younger riders enroll in an event. “Until 2020 the sport was enjoying a 5 percent growth rate compared to previous years,” Myers notes. “We don’t know what the current numbers will look like, given the Covid situation.”

Spring 2021 | TOPEKA MAGAZINE

What is Barrel Racing? Barrel racing is a timed equestrian race through a course of three 55-gallon barrels arranged in the shape of a triangle. Although the exact dimensions of the triangle will vary depending on the size of the arena, usually the first and second barrels are 80–90 feet apart, and the third is 95 feet from the second barrel. The riders then have a 116-foot dash to the finish line. While it is fast-paced and exciting to watch, barrel horse racing is much more than dash and spins, according to Rick Myers, district director of the regional National Barrel Horse Association. “This sport involves mental focus, athletic ability, core strength and the ability to communicate with your horse. The horse is your teammate, not a tool for you to use.” The barrel racing horses come from quarter horse stock, making good use of the quarter horse’s speed and agility. The saddle used is similar to a Western-style saddle but a little bit lighter. The cloverleaf pattern can be completed in under 15 seconds if the rider has a good run. You can read more about barrel racing, watch videos and see the list of competitions, including for the local district, pending final confirmation, at nbha.com.

Spring 2021 | TOPEKA MAGAZINE

Barrel Racing Terms 55 GALLONS OF BAD LUCK: describes knocking over of a barrel during a ride; a horse and rider can touch and tip a barrel, but if they knock a barrel over, they receive a 5-second penalty THE MONEY TURN: refers to the first of the three barrel turns. Circling the first barrel with no penalties is a good indication that the rider is set up for a successful run. The second barrel requires a full 360 degrees around, and the final barrel is only a 90-degree swing around before the rider and horse gallop for the finish line.

POCKET: the space a horse and rider require to execute their turn around a barrel SOUND: a term used to describe a healthy horse able to compete in the race BOOTS: worn by a rider, yes, but also specifically referring to the protective hoof and ankle covering worn by many of the horses

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“The horse and rider practice as a team for at least six months prior to a competition, learning to anticipate each other’s moves and peculiarities.” –Rick Myers

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Hilario “Latigo” Reyes, Sandy Bryant Parker and Bull Parker create customized Western gear from their studio in Berryton.

BIT BY BIT A Berryton couple creates authentic riding gear that ships to ranch hands and riders across the world STORY BY Carolyn Kaberline PHOTOGRAPHY BY Nick Krug

Spring 2021 | TOPEKA MAGAZINE

ull Parker and Sandy Bryant Parker met the way many horse people do—through rodeos and horse competitions. That was in 1986, when they both had regular day jobs and were both making and selling tack and horse gear on the side. Once they married, their common hobby developed into a business. They bought a 30-foot trailer with a bed in the nose and the rest of the space dedicated to their workshop and showroom of saddles, saddle blankets, grooming products, roping equipment and “about anything else a horse person might need,” recalls Sandy. “As the tack industry changed and evolved, so did we.”

That evolution came through the knowledge and kindness of mentors. First there was Jerry Cates of Amarillo, Texas, who asked Bull why he didn’t make his own handmade bits (the metal pieces placed in a horse’s mouth that assist a rider in controlling its movements). “He knew that Bull had been an ironworker all of his life and was familiar with Bull’s good work ethics and dedication to building things correctly,” Sandy says. After Cates taught Bull to make bits, the couple met another craftsman, Don Rogers, who became a good friend and taught them more about handmade bits and spurs. “Don is a master craftsman and was kind enough to share his knowledge

Spring 2021 | TOPEKA MAGAZINE

and love of black iron products with us,” says Sandy. “To this day, Bull and Don call each other regularly and exchange information, questions, and ideas. We were very fortunate to have Don come into our lives as he did.” Developing their skills, Sandy and Bull began to concentrate their business on fewer, more specialized items. For the last 25 years, they have focused on handmade products—particularly bits and spurs. Made from their home in Berryton, the equipment ships out to professionals across the world. “We sell a lot to feedlot cowboys, and the real working cowboys out in places like western Kansas and Texas,” Sandy says. “We have bits and

spurs in almost all of the 50 states, in Brazil and Europe.” The equipment they produce can be as specific as the customer who buys it. “We sell spurs that we fit to each individual customer’s boot size,” says Sandy. “Wearing spurs is a lot like wearing boots or shoes; if they don’t fit, they are not going to feel good. We see people add rubber bands or baling wire underneath their boot to hold the spur in place. We build them to where that is not necessary. Each style of riding requires a different shank [the part of the spur that sticks out from the back of the boot]. Team ropers ride short shanks so they aren’t spurring by accident when they stand up to deliver the rope. Western

Spring 2021 | TOPEKA MAGAZINE

Independent Living Independent Living pleasure riders prefer a long shank that has been curved in so that they can send subtle signals to their horse. Reiners have their preferences, as do the versatility ranch folks,” Sandy adds, describing different types of equestrian event competitors. “Bits are even more varied. Everyone is looking for what I call ‘The Magic Bullet.’ If they see a guy win a bunch at an event, then they all want to order that bit.” Though their business, Bull and Sandy’s Bits and Spurs, is known for those two items, the couple continue to create and sell other items such as buckles, jewelry, scarf slides and even dog tags. And all the items have a signature mark. “Eight years ago, Bull had a major heart attack. Once he was back working in the shop, a customer and friend asked Bull to stamp a heart on the inside shank of a bit he had ordered. He kind of joked that it would make the bit worth more money once Bull died,” Sandy recalls. “Since then, up to March of 2020, he has stamped a heart on everything we build. In March, he suffered a second heart attack, so now he stamps two hearts.” True to the tradition of their craft, Bull and Sandy are now passing on their skills, just as they were mentored when they began. Eight years ago they hired Hilario “Latigo” Reyes to help them around the shop. With each year, he added to his odd jobs with welding and helping to create items. “Now Latigo can build any bit we make,” says Sandy. “He’s as important as any of us and we couldn’t operate without him.” And true to the people who taught him, Latigo’s works also carry the two-heart signature. “It’s a great source of pride to be at an event or perhaps just walking down the street, and see someone in a pair of our spurs, or wearing one of our belt buckles or some jewelry,” says Sandy. “We used to go to Texas quite a bit, to Pueblo, Colorado, to quite a few areas in Nebraska, and a little in Missouri. And of course Kansas shows. Now we just stay home and make stuff. Ninety percent of our work is mail order, so we keep the post offices in Berryton and Overbrook busy.”

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