Affair of
the Heart
This
is an excerpt from a book being written about our experience in Kansas
entitled,
Two Parked Cars and a Dog in the Road by Pat Wick and Jessica Gilbert.
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We've been
coming to Ramona, Kansas since we were little girls because it's the
place where our grandparents lived. Furthermore, it's the place where all
the stories began--where our parents were born and raised, where our dad was
basketball champ and our mother drove the Model-T into the lilac bush because
she didn't know how to stop the car. It's where our parents romanced in
orchestra class, where they wed, where
Pat swallowed kerosene out of curiosity and grandpa sneaked Jessica chocolate
chip cookies even when
her mother emphatically said, "No!" |
We
were halfway through our lives before we realized just how firmly Ramona held
our roots. Pat was the first to recognize her hunger to own some Kansas
turf.
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"So
you want some property here in Ramona," our 80-year-old Uncle Hank asked
with disbelief in his voice. "Why not buy a cemetery plot--they're 4
plots for $10--cheapest land in town," he teased. |
Uncle
Hank teaches Jessica the rules of 10-Point Pitch |
But
we wanted land to enjoy while still living. We wanted four walls to hold
pictures of ancestors, a container for the heritage and legacy that was ours, a
stage for tea parties and celebrations, a porch and swing where stories would be
told and memories passed along.
"Now
don't you girls go off and do something crazy in Ramona," admonished our
father when he heard us talking about our dream to have land in the town
that he was eager to leave when he got married. But we did!
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It
was 1989 and we had come back to town for a family reunion and discovered this
little abandoned bungalow on the main street. Walking around the
tumbledown house with the grass up to our elbows and broken windows boarded
shut, Pat said to Jessica, "I think we're supposed to have this place.
Do you see those butterflies in the bushes? They're called California
Sisters. It's an omen!" |
Being
mystics at heart, we couldn't resist the urge, and Pat bought the house for less
than $4,000, in celebration of her 50th birthday, in 1990. When folks
looked at her as though she'd "gone 'round the bend," she soundly
replied, "That house cost less than your last vacation!" We
named the house, the "Ramona House" in honor of our ancestors.
"You
girls are going to invest $20,000 in that house before you're finished,"
warned our dad. The house needed a foundation, a new roof, electrical and
plumbing, and neither of us had that much money. But within a year
the money arrived --
But That's Another Story.
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Thus
began an adventure that brought us back to Kansas every summer to renovate first
this house, and then another, and another. When Jessica turned 50, in 2000
she took the second bold plunge into the unknown, and suggested they not just
vacation in Ramona in the summer, but actually move there. We had more
dreams to fulfill, we figured we should get on with it!
But thatās another story too! |
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