Milford chronicle., 1957-09-20
1851 Mayo
Topeka. Kansas
SeDtember 16, 1857

September 10, 1857
Dear Friends:
Seems to ME this week have
so many little things TO tell you.
I've thought a lot about you this
week and what you're doing dur
ing the fall weather. Have you had
fall weather yet? Are the trees
pretty? You know we never have
a colorful fall here like we do at
home. Right now the only color
Kansas has in the country side
are the native sunfiowers. The
fields seem to be choked with this
yellow and brown flower and they
are pretty, but / miss the fall coll
orS in the woods.
We haven't had heat on yet.
This morning it was down to 50o
but it will be in the eighties today.
The Kansas Free Fair here in To-
peka always takes place in Sep
tember and this year the fair was
open five days and two of the days
it rained and rained. You know
what a mess any fair ground can
be like in wet weather. This year
| had planned to attend the weight
pulling contest, but just didn't
think I could walk through all that
sticky, Kansas mud to witness the
event. Here in the midwest they
always have this contest. but it
was new to me when we moved
here Farmers bring their favorite
team of mules to try to "out-pull''
other teams from Kansas.
/ have often wished that you
could attend the Kansas Fair with
me because you would readily see
differences in this fair and ours in
Harrington. We have been here
four complete years and we still
enjoy watching people from the
Kansas plains. We had lunch one
day at the fair and ate hot dogs al
the Shawnee County All Club
| booth. While we sat there we could
see attractive young girls leading
their stock to the Judging arena
One girl wore cowboy hat, pretty
blue plaid shirt, tight blue jeans
wide belt with cleaning brass
buckle, and fancy, expensive pair
of high heeled cowboy boots. The
boots were not new and you could
tell that this was her daily attire
on her parents ranch.
The exhibits of cookies, brown.
les, cakes, breads, jellies always is
one of my favorites at the fair
RiObons were given to those who
displayed ingenuity in table set.
tings. With each table setting there
would be a card suggesting a bal.
/ anced meal to be served with it
Was surprised to see that Sara
Rodewald of Douglas County, Kan.
sas, used China just like that oil
my siSter-in-law, Sara DickersOr
Kirby. Her china is hard to find
now so when she breaks a piece
/ I'll know where to find more, huh
Not only do you see corn, apples
melons, and wheat here at the fair
but there is lots of sorghum. This
you know is feed for cattle out
here. We had never known about
sorghum before we were sent 20
Topeka. Yesterday we went riding
out in the country to buy some ap-
| pie cider and while we were in
this apple packing house some
other customers asked for sorghum
Not only do they feed the sorghum
stock to cattle, but the sweet juice
from the sorghum makes a rich
syrup.
During Fair week Mrs. George
Docking extended an invitation tc
all Fair visitors to make a tour OF
her home. She is the Kansas gov
ernor's wife. The governors man.
sion had never been opened to the
public before and this brave, gra.
cious lady decided it was time fol
the natives to see their executive
mansion. 1 took the children tc
school Tuesday morning and ther