Small Kansas Towns
Posted: November 2nd, 2009 | Filed under: Other Sports | 54 Comments »
My wife always knows what’s coming whenever her hometown of Cuba, Kansas comes up in conversation.* She always knows I’m going to tell the story of the first time I went there with her. We’ve been married for more than 11 years, so we’re now in that early stage of finishing each other’s stories. And I suspect that the “first time I went to Cuba” story has been told more than most.
*This happens more than you might think.
At first she thought I was poking fun at the size of her hometown — Cuba, Kan., pop. 220 or so, — but I think over time she has come to realize that while, yes, I am poking fun at the size of her hometown, I am also in wonder about the place. Cuba is really small. It had a brief burst of national (and perhaps even international) fame because a wonderful National Geographic photographer named Jim Richardson twice published Cuba, Kansas pictorials in the magazine.* But to be honest about it, that has not given the place much lasting glory. I’ve talked to people who live in towns barely 45 minutes away who have never heard of Cuba, Kansas.
*And I have long said that someone could make some money by rolling cigars there. Cuban Cigars from Kansas. It’s gold, Jerry.
To get to Cuba from Kansas City, you drive along Highway 36, a pleasant two-lane highway that was once part of the Pony Express. I call it pleasant, and it is when you’re actually moving … but like so many two-lane country roads it can be excruciating to drive. You can and will get stuck behind slow-moving cars, trucks, tractors, burros or one of the Molina brothers for hours at a time. I’m fairly certain that the Pony Express’ failed in large part because the riders would get so frustrated after getting stuck behind a particularly slow truck on Highway 36. It’s like they finally said, “Forget this.”
Anyway, I knew Cuba was small before I ever went there. The first thing I remember Margo telling me was that she was in a graduating class of 12*.
*Which led to my critical second question: “Were you valedictorian?” I am not an education slob by any stretch of the imagination — I was a pitiful student — but for whatever reason this seemed important to me at the time. Turns out, she was valedictorian.
But it was that first drive that made me understand. We were driving along, farmland on both sides of the road, when suddenly she said to me: “Slow down.” I look at the speedometer … I’m doing the speed limit.
“I’m not speeding,” I said
“No,” she said. “Slow down. It’s coming up here on the left.”
I am not exaggerating: I was looking around and I saw nothing. NOTHING. I didn’t even see a farmhouse, much less a town. She said again, only more insistently, “slow down!” And then she pointed at … the only way I could describe her target was “a driveway.” A driveway leading to nowhere. In memory, I recall the driveway to Cuba being dirt or maybe gravel, but in our return trips I have noticed that it is actually paved. I always ask, “Did they pave that road,” to which Margo — pretty persuasively, I must admit — suggests that they haven’t paved a road in Cuba in quite some time.
“There’s my school,” she said, as and she pointed out the window, and once again I saw nothing but trees. It occurred to me then that maybe Cuba was like one of those Magic Eye pictures where everyone else can see the beautiful woman in the boat or the flying Unicorn, and I see nothing at all. But then we went around a bend and sure enough, there was a school. And then there were a few houses, a few small streets, and some real dirt roads. This was Cuba. This was where my wife-to-be had grown up.
And I was mesmerized. Still am. I grew up in cities. I never thought I grew up in particularly big cities — in fact, it was hammered in my head that the places I have lived are considered small markets by Major League Baseball — but the places where I lived were unquestionably cities with neighborhoods and traffic and McDonalds and Baskin Robbins and malls and all those other things. When I lived in Cleveland, I thought of Akron as a small town. When I lived in Charlotte, I thought of Greensboro as a small town. Even when I lived in Augusta, which I had considered a small town, I thought of Aiken as even smaller.
But none of these are small in the way that Cuba is small, in the way that little places in the Heartland are small. There is quite a lot of this in Joe Drape’s wonderful book Our Boys about the football team in Smith Center (which is also along Highway 36), but Cuba is significantly smaller than Smith Center. In Cuba, the high school played eight-man football … when the town had a high school. Sometimes, when trying to get my mind around Cuba, I would ask Margo where was the closest movie theater (30 minute drive) or McDonald’s (45 minute drive) or supermarket (45 minute drive). I found these things interesting, but I still couldn’t quite place myself there.
This, I suppose, is why the story of Ashland, Kansas and women’s basketball has me so enthralled. Ashland is a lot like Cuba. It’s bigger in some ways (There are about 800 people there — and it is the Clark County seat) and smaller in others (it’s out in the Western part of the state, which is more desolate than Cuba’s North Central Kansas). But it more ways, they are alike. For good and for bad, everything feels far away.
Among the bad is this: The closest mammogram machine to Ashland is two and a half hours away, in Wichita. Mammogram machines, you know, are used to detect the early stages of breast cancer — the No. 1 form of cancer for women in the United States. The numbers are pretty staggering: The most commonly recited statistic I hear is that one in eight women in the U.S. will develop breast cancer at some point in their lives.
Well, at some point a young guy in Ashland named Joe LaBelle lost his grandmother to breast cancer. This inspired him to want to do something — you know that feeling. You want to do … SOMETHING. LaBelle worked at Ashland Health Center at the time, and he was riding in a car with the hospital’s CEO Benjamin Anderson. LaBelle suggested playing some sort of high school basketball game to raise enough money to bring a mammogram machine to Ashland periodically. Anderson loved the idea — he had grown to like women’s basketball when he was a student at Southwest Missouri State (now just Missouri State). When he was there, the school had an electrifying player named Jackie Stiles — the female version of Pistol Pete Maravich. She is the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer, and in her senior year she became something of a sensation by carrying Southwest Missouri to the Final Four. Anderson was enthralled.
So, Anderson started to make all the requisite calls to set up a charity high school girls basketball game … and he found what almost everyone who tries such things finds: The rules are against it. Apparently Anderson was allowed to set up a game, but by State Association rules only three high school players on each team were allowed to play in it. Or some such thing. The idea died before it even was born …
Only this: Benjamin Anderson is not really the sort of guy who lets ideas die. He is pretty relentless. And so, he decided to go right to the person who sparked his mind about women’s basketball in the first place. He called Jackie Stiles family going on the American philosophy that has launched a million great ideas — the worst thing they could say was no. Jackie is also from a small Kansas town. She grew up in Claflin. And she is a wonderful person. When Jackie found out about the game — which, of course, wasn’t a game at all yet — she immediately said she would help out. People from small Kansas towns have a connection.
What followed — all the calls and people who volunteered to help — is the same story as the ending of “It’s A Wonderful Life,” when all those people rushing into George Bailey’s living room with money to offer. Friday, they played a women’s basketball game in Ashland, Kansas. Jackie Stiles coached one team along with Cynthia Cooper — the all-time leading scorers in the NCAA and WNBA respectively. Ruth Riley, a current WNBA player, coached the other team along with Kristi Leeper-Meis who led Fort Hays State to a Division II National Championship. Shalee Lehning, a WNBA starter, showed up even though she had a dislocated shoulder and could not play. Many former Kansas and Kansas State basketball players came to play. And so on.
The Kansas and Kansas State cheerleaders were there. The Kansas State pep band was there. A halftime dunk team was there. A couple of opera singers were there to perform the national anthem and God Bless America. Fox Sports Net was there taping the game — they will rebroadcast it several times. And it is something to say they were all there because there is no easy way to get to Ashland — you can get to Wichita and drive about three hours or you can take a tiny plane in Dodge City and drive an hour. Jackie Stiles did the latter and ended up bouncing in the Kansas wind on a six-seat plane. Not to say too much … but Amelia Earhart is also from a small Kansas town.
I wanted to make it there myself, but I was pulled away to bigger cities for the World Series. I did write a short bit about it for Sports Illustrated this week. I’m told the gym was packed, and the town was very much alive. Benjamin Anderson said that he wanted and hoped to raise $100,000 to make those mammogram screenings available monthly and to provide other tests and cancer preventative education. Last I heard, they had not determined if they reached their goal, but you can help by donating at the Hoops for Home Website.
I often wonder why the George Bailey scene in “It’s A Wonderful Life” has made so many people cry happily through the years. I’m sure that Mister Potter (and his bitter Twitter equivalent @HenryFPotter) would say it’s sentimental hogwash, but I think it’s because many people want to believe that, deep down, we do want to help each other, and because many want to believe that in our moment of crisis people want to help us. There are plenty of moments in our lives when it’s hard to buy into any of that. But, every now and again, people will find their way to a small town in Kansas to help out because … well, just because. And it’s just enough to make you believe again.
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Circle me, education slob.
Circle me, Fidel
Great, great story. Very inspirational. Thank you, Joe.
Joe:
I spent my first 14 years in a small Kansas town before eventually landing in Montana. Small towns are a dying breed here (as they are most other places) but the life blood for those that are on life-support is still high school sports. I’d highly recommend an award-winning 2008 documentary, “Class C” about the ongoing love affair small towns in contemporary rural Montana have with their girls basketball. And vice versa . . .
http://www.classcmovie.com/home.html
Well done, sir. This one hits close to home.
People’s stories of their tiny hometowns of several hundred citizens always amuse me because I know I can one-up them. I grew up on a farm outside Carpenter, South Dakota, which has a current population of 4 people.
The first time my wife (a Minneapolis native) rode through the town with me she literally didn’t realized we had passed through it until we got to my parents’ house four miles outside of town.
“I thought we were going to pass through your hometown,” she said.
“We did. I pointed it out to you a few miles back,” I replied.
“Seriously?! I thought you were kidding!”
Joe,
I’m from a small Western Kansas town (Hanston), where I was the Valedictorian of a 12-person graduating class, participated in track meets at Ashland, played Claflin in football (8-man, no less), was a contemporary of Jackie Stiles, and am a distant cousin of the “legendary” Smith Center football coach. Also, I have flown in and out of the Dodge City airport on a 6-seater. If I could have requested a blog post from you, I could hardly have expected so many connections.
Joe,
Great story. Some wonderful small towns where I grew up, central VT. My graduating class was around 100, but that was with 5 towns sending students to the school.
Any chance you could provide a link to all of your SI-related content on this page? I’m lazy… and want to be current on all Poz-related material.
Joe, I grew up in a small North Dakota town of about 250 and my graduating class was 12 like your wife’s. And again like your wife, I was the valedictorian. My favorite joke: “I wasn’t in the top 5%. I was the top 8%!” Now that I live in Minneapolis, even St. Cloud and Fargo seem sleepy and small, but I’ll never forget — or regret — those formative years on the prairie.
Fantastic story about the charity game. Absolutely fantastic.
[...] original post here: Joe Posnanski » Blog Archive » Small Kansas Towns Posted in Moving Trucks | Tags: burros-or-one, call-it-pleasant, country-roads, molina, [...]
Joe, just wanted to say I bought The Machine, hardcover, in large part to thank you for all the entertainment you’ve provided on the blog. Great book and great blog, much appreciated!
Frankly, the line that got me was the concept of being stuck behind a Molina brother.
It was a very inspiring event starting with the opera singers from New York to the closing speaker at the Women’s Health Forum on Saturday, Dr. Mary Beth Miller of St. Francis Kansas. And you know what, Cynthia Cooper from the Watts neighborhood in south central L.A. would fit right in with small town Kansas. She is a great and genuine person as well as a world class basketball player. Thanks for your fine article.
While I am from small-town Kansas (more specifically, a farm 20 miles away from the nearest small town in Kansas), I’m sure Kansas doesn’t have the market cornered on providing growing up experiences that urbanites cannot fathom. My KC raised wife and children are continually amazed when I recall some facet of my childhood that is totally foreign to them, like only going to town once a week, having a total of 5 “elective” courses to choose from my senior year in high school (one of which was Band), or not having an indoor bathroom until 1972.
wow… just wow. Great post, Joe. It’s one that I’ll remember for a long time.
Side note — i feel like an emotional/sentimental girl when I read some of your columns and blog posts, but I think that’s an extreme compliment.
If there is something good happening in the world, and a WNBA player is involved somehow, you can just assume Ruth Riley is involved somehow. She has become to the WNBA what David Robinson was throughout his career to the NBA – a person who uses his/her platform to highlight good causes and help people in need.
Kudos on finding and attracting a small town girl, Joe. My wife is from a small town in Nebraska, and graduated first in her class of 6.
When I saw the subject of “Small Kansas Towns”, I was really hoping you’d mention one of my favorite town names in America: Flush, Kansas.
But the heart-warming story about famous people coming to Smalltown USA to help fight cancer will have to do.
Speaking of Jackie Stiles…..What a phenom she was. I saw one game in particular during her time at (Southwest) Missouri State and have to say it was the single was dominating performance I ever seen in any sport EVER — male or female.
Great story, Joe.
http://pics4.city-data.com/cpicv/vfiles8199.jpg
That’s rough when the salutatorian can’t crack the top 10% of the class.
Great piece! I have to echo Tim. H’s comments. I’m originally from Spearville and Ashland was in our sports league. I’ve flown that little Beechcraft into Dodge City numerous times (7 years from D.C. to DC and now 3 years from SoCal). It’s nice to read an article that I can relate to on so many different levels. Thanks for covering the area and representing it in such a good light.
@Steve Buffum- as a Cardinals fan, that line hit home with me, as well. I’ve always said that I’ve seen sun dials that move faster than Yadier Molina.
Great story; laughed out loud at the Molina brothers line.
I live on a small farm (5ac), 10 miles from a small town (maybe 200), in a small country.
Been here 15 years — lost the door key the first week, never replaced it, never needed it.
We had season tickets at Missouri State for about 10 years, including all four of the Stiles era. She was a phenomenal player and seemed like a wonderful person. Her willingness to help could not be less surprising. She was also the WNBA Rookie of the Year, before injuries cut her career short. Man, what a player!
I have covered HS sports in Minn. for a three years. I do 3A football (think 2,500 pop.) and also do some recaps for 9Man and 1A schools when I can.
I lived in the DFW area until I was 12, then a 4,000 pop. town in SE Minn. after that. Rochester was close, but nobody cared. We like Grand Meadow, Spring Valley, Mabel, Fountain. True blue Americana.
Love these stories.
Joe, over in Montgomery County is Havana, Kansas, pop. 86. I think they would make a nice cigar, too, if the folks in Cuba won’t go for it.
Amazing piece! I am actually a graduate from Ashland, and had the opportunity to play in the WEPAC game with all the outstanding players, and play under Jackie Stiles and Cynthia Cooper. I think what we are doing in these small communities is a great thing. I hope that the WEPAC Alliance can keep the game going for years to come. I know I will be attending!
Joe:
Thank you very much for the mention, I really enjoyed the entire story. The event may have been the highlight of my life and its going to be an annual thing. I couldn’t be more proud of my small town in our corner of the world doing something larger than anybody thought was possible. I hope more places take a page from our book and this becomes the type of thing that spreads like wildfire, helping women across the nation. Thank you so much again for the attention you have brought to this event and the cause it supports.
God bless
Joe LaBelle
Joe, if you and Margo finish each others stories now, can I find a continuation at Margo’s blog?
Great article Joe! And awesome line about Molina–I’ll remember that one for a long time.
A few years back, I was an underwriter for an insurance company specializing in medical malpractice coverage. My territory included literally the entire state of Kansas, so I made several circuits of the state over the years to visit the agents that we worked with and the small county hospitals and health clinics that we insured. Being a city/suburbs kid, Western Kansas came as a bit of a shock to me, too. (Until then, tumbleweeds were just abstract things that only existed as props in old black and white westerns.) Anyway, I can speak first-hand about the lack of health care in that part of the country, so this is a wonderful event and worthy cause. Thanks for giving it some additional publicity, Joe.
Joe — Holy cow. I actually lived in Cuba Kansas for until I was 4 years old. My parents met, married and lived there down the street from my dad’s parents.
Small world.
Ask your wife for some Koláces and if she ever paticipated in the Rock-o-thon
[...] So my man Joe Posnanski has written another beautiful blog essay, about a group of people from a small town in Kansas who got together to … well, I’ll [...]
Great stuff, Joe. It hits very close to home having grown up in Kansas – although not quite a small town.
I am from Ashland (and also Hanston!) and am so incredibly proud of my little hometown. Way to go all of you!
Great story, Joe. Thank you.
Having covered the KS 1A hoops tourney in Hays for awhile (saw Margo there once), there are certain truths you learn:
-It’s a real adventure calling a game in which three teammates share the same last name. It’s usually two siblings and a cousin.
-Each school has its own version of Gary Glitter’s Rock & Roll Part 2. Each version stinks.
-Jackie Stiles was a great, great player. Never saw anything like her.
-There was nothing better than the sense of pride and community each school brought with them to the tourney. It’s something you don’t find in the big cities.
Great story. I grew up in a small town in South Dakota. Graduating class of 10. Tell my kids I graduated in the top 10 in my class. Although I was the 40th percent of the class.
Koláces are the bomb. My grandmother made the best ones.
Sounds like the paths heading to and from Cuba, KS can get ‘clogged’ pretty regularly. Might be a reason that Dusty Baker and Joe Morgan don’t visit there more often.
In comparison, Cuba, Missouri is a virtual megalopolis with approx 3.200 residents while Cuba, New Mexico claims about 600….How many of those 600 New Mexican Cubanites are large lizards and/or dead roadkill alongside the road I would not care to predict. It does however have a McDonald’s – with probably the best (modern and relatively clean) bathroom facilities in the area.
Joe,
That’s a nice piece and I thank you for the nod to my work in Cuba, Kansas. As you might know it’s been about 35 years since I started photographing the town and I go back for just the same reasons you encountered and so eloquently talked about in you column: it gives me hope. These are folks in a nearly forgotten place with nothing to call upon in the world but each other. The great message is that that’s probably enough.
Thanks for a great column. I’ll buy you a beer in Cuba sometime. They have a great Christmas opening, by the way. I think you’d enjoy it.
Jim
Great story. Being from a nearby small town to Ashland, I enjoyed it, as I always do your stories, Joe. Small town people pull together, in the same or the nearby towns; ask Greensburg (which is nearby as well).
However, there are mammogram machines in Dodge, only an hour away!! A quick google check shows options in Dodge, and I believe my mom and others have had it done at their Dodge doctor’s office. Pratt is only 1 1/2 hours away. No need to make western KS out to be MORE desolate and backwards than it already is.
Part of choosing to live in desolate areas is knowing you have to drive 30-45 minutes for the groceries, the doctor and the movies. It’s part of the trade off.
Joe, another well-done entry. Brought back memories of driving across western Kansas to cover high school games for the Hutch News, including Ashland. The drive on Route 34 from Bucklin to U.S. 183, which takes you into Ashland, was one of the more remarkable drives I had. Curvy, hilly road at sunset … it was like driving from Emporia to Wichita on I-35, except it was a two-lane highway.
Re: Stiles, I never got to see her play, but heard all the stories. Fortunately, I did get the chance to see Lehning play four years at Sublette. Always worth the drive to see the Larks play.
Joe: Great, great article!! I grew up in Tampa, Ks., pop. 100 give or take. Class of 6–yes valedictorian. High school size in 1963 was 30. My joke is “my high school was so small that I was the boys quartet”. We played in pep band during the B basketball game, then suited up for the A game.
My dad was from South Haven, KS which is a mile away from the Kansas-Oklahoma border south of Wichita. His graduating class? 9 people.
I am a resident of Ashland Kansas and yes I am a proud resident. WEPAC was wonderful.
When I first heard about the dream, I was a sceptic, but as time went by and I started hearing names of players and coaches, I too got excited.
I am looking forward to next year, the players, coaches, commentators and many more have already committed to doing it again. So everyone put the date on your calendars and come to Ashland in October 2010.
I also lived in Cuba all through school and graduated with a class of 9! And yes I participated in the Rock-A-Thon! This past summer my kids got the chance to go to it as well. It was a great little town to grow up in . I really enjoyed reading your post. My husband (who grew up in Denver, CO-talk about a shocker for him
He did the same thing when he first went to Cuba-what road? Turn where? The roads are paved?
Joe,
I grew up in Cuba. I graduated in ‘74 in a class of 24, it was the last big class. I have lived overseas and near big cities but Cuba is still my home. I now live in McLouth, KS which is a small town but big compared to Cuba. I love going back to get kolaches at the Two Doors Down and buying poppyseed by the 1/2 lb at Cuba Cash.
I like to think that the Molinas run a cross state rickshaw business in the off season.
My favorite small-town Kansas story comes from my father. When he grew up, he left his small home town to go college in McPherson (which was a few thousand even then).
His letters home were hard to address:
Dad
Athol, KS
That’s it. Just “Dad”. Athol was small enough that a letter coming from McPherson to “Dad” had to be Walt’s kids, so he go the letters.
My favorite Kansas small town is actually a pretty big town for Kansas but a small town compared to where I live – Hutchinson, home of the GREAT Prairie Dunes Country Club.
Joe,
Thanks for the post. I lived in Riley, Kansas for the first few years of my life, and look back with fuzzy but fond memories. Even having lived in bigger cities ever since, the values and fundamental goodness of small town life are still with me, almost subconsciously. It is a lot of fun to watch your journey from local legend to national treasure, and I hope you are enjoying it too.
Joe–
Thank you so much for bring attention to the wonderful work of CEO Benjamin Anderson. In high school, Ben was my cheerleading coach. His greatest desire for the cheerleaders of Missouri Elite Athletics was to make sure that we went to college, and he did everything he could do to get us scholarships to college. I am so thankful for Ben Anderson, and the work that he did in my life. Ashland, Ks is VERY lucky to have him.
Joe,
If you are ever in Cuba again, come over to the county seat, Belleville, and have a book signing. I will be there with book in hand. Great article.
Loved the story. I grew up near Skiddy, KS, but went to school in White City, pop. around 400. My class had 17 and most of them I started 1st grade with. Small town folks really care for each other.
Joe,
I used to go to Cuba to the harvest festival periodically, and always there for Sat. night dances when “Fire” was the band playing at the dance hall. The Cuba dances were a second generation social event for our family.
It was always fun when the local Catholic girls showed up at the dances after Saturday night mass in their dresses. That was an easier approach than having to do what us Lutheran’s did. They didn’t have to scrape themselves up off the bed the next day for church. The dances also could result in a drive the wrong way home, by going to Hanover for late night breakfast. One could also meet Roger Lindberg, the local Highway Patrol, if you were lucky (not).
I have a couple identical twin friends from near Cuba. You can tell them apart now 30 years later based on a broken nose that occurred in the late 1970s on mainstreet Cuba during a dance, likely while “Fire” was on stage.
I’m from two miles outside another small town in the the same county, with about six people, three dogs, and two house cats. I was a member of the last graduating class of Courtland High, three towns west of Cuba, just off Hwy. 36.
The part everyone should know, is just how happy (and nice) people are from Cuba and other surrounding towns… and in most cases small town Kansas and America. Cuba (and Courtland) especially are very happy towns. Despite hardship and struggles, they remain very optimistic about life.
P.S. Jim Richardson’s work is wonderful, and you can see more at his studios in Lindsborg, Kansas. He also clearly must have had a role in getting Cuba featured on CBS Sunday Morning twice as well.
For the first CBS profile of the town in the late 1970’s, Randy Valek, a close friend of many of us, had died the day before in a sad accident. His death and others have shown again, just how supportive and closely knit small towns can be. Kudos to you and to Jim for recognizing one of the great hidden treasures of America.
Dave