Published in Old Town Gazette, June, 2008

Recently, the Wichita Eagle had a column explaining to 30 year olds, 30 things they should know by the time they were 30.  Such things as take your hat off while eating.  How to drive a stick shift.  How to wrap a gift.  Own a pair of jeans you can wear out to dinner.  How to play a sport (excelling not required).

I made up a list of 60 things people should know by the time they were 60.  However, I forgot most of them and I can’t find the list.  Here are a few.

• Don’t wear speedo’s to the beach.
• Don’t wear tank tops anywhere.
• How to wrap a gift (applies to all ages).
• Don’t say, “I’m old, but—,” and then explain why you did something that was old.
• How to play a computer game besides solitaire.

I think Pat Salerno is going to be a good city manager.  It’s my understanding he comes in the tradition of Chris Cherches.  By that I mean he wants to get things moving.  Bring in more businesses, more industry, etc.  My friend Wainright Winger said, “They all want to do that don’t they?  Any time I hear somebody talkin’ about bringing stuff in, they’re talkin’ about spendin’ money.”

Actually I learned from Chris Cherches that all city managers do not necessarily want to bring in more industry,  He told me about being hired as city manager of Reno by a city council that wanted more industry.  But when they were replaced by a city council that wanted more tourism, he was let go.  A city manager is pretty much there to get things done that the council wants done.  I think this council wants more industry and that’s why they hired Mr. Salerno.

I can truthfully say that there has never been a storm warning in which I didn’t discover a town on the Kansas weather map that I had never of.  I always look forward to being interrupted from what ever I’m watching with the life long goal of recognizing the name of every town on the weather map.

As many opportunities as we’ve had this spring (every night), you’d think I’d have succeeded by now.  Not so. In fact one night set a record for most towns I’d never heard of.

I made it a point to write them down.  It’s not something I had to do quickly, since the local stations spend ¾ of their broadcast time showing the map during these events.  My newly discovered Kansas towns from that one night are—Kirwin, Bogue, Webster, Zurich, Paradise, Waldo, Natomay, Turkville, Codell, Laton, Woodston, Covert, Ionia, Tipton, Hunter, Woodward, Downs, Corinth, and Scandal.  That’s 19 and has to be a record even including the days of black and white TV.

I certainly enjoyed being in A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To the Forum, for Music Theatre Of Wichita.  What a talented cast.  Myrna Paris was here to do Pirates of Pinzance, and then did our show as well.  She did 10 shows in 10 days.  We did 7 shows in 5 days, but we only had one script to learn

Bucky On Baseball

The Shockers concluded another highly successful season this year after winning the 1st and then losing the next 2 games in the Super Regional at Florida State University.  This was the 2nd year in a row they went to a Super Regional (the equivalent of the Sweet Sixteen).

Next season will be very interesting with so much new talent coming in.  I’m confident coaches Stevenson, Kemnitz, and Thomas, are more than up to the task.