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Do a little dance
The Friday night dances at Dodge City Senior Center have been so popular that it amounts to a second career for the boys in the band.
The Ford County Band brings together popular local musicians Chuck Riley, Don Pray, Larry Durr and John Westmacott for the kind of evening that used to be commonplace in every small town — sometimes called socials, they were dances with food and lots of conversation.
The action begins tonight at 6:30 p.m. and continues to 9:30 p.m. at the senior center located at 2408 Central Ave.
The event is open to the public — and people of all ages — and admission is $5.
Buzzing Scott City
Gravity-defying aerobatics, $5,000 in prize money, great food and games for the kids will be featured at the 2010 Showdown on the Plains BBQ Challenge & Wings N’ Wheels Aerobatics Show scheduled for Saturday at the Scott City Municipal Airport.
The event will be centered around a Kansas City Barbecue Society-sanctioned challenge that begins today. Professional and amateur enthusiasts will be competing in four separate categories for their share of the $5,000 purse. Saturday’s festivities will include plane rides, children’s activities, music, electric car races and a thrilling aerobatics show by stunt pilots Brian Correll and Patrick Carter. The winners of the barbecue challenge will be announced Saturday afternoon.
The event is hosted by the Scott City Area Chamber of Commerce (www.scottcityks.org), Wheatland Broadband (www.wbsnet.org) and Precision Ag & Seed Services (www.vffarms.com/PASS.html).
Admission to the event is free, though attendees are encouraged to bring their lawn chairs for seating. Fly-ins and motorcycle ride-ins are welcome. For more information about the event go to www.showdownbbq.
com.
Cowboy spoken here
Hot on the heels of a very successful "Gunsmoke" 55th anniversary celebration last weekend, the lore of the cowboy continues to keep Dodge City busy.
The Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame, which is located at Boot Hill Museum, inducts five new members this weekend, with a full day of activities Saturday.
The day begins at 11 a.m. with a presentation by Jim Gray, cow boy historian and author, whose topic will be "Kansas Cattle Towns."
Gray brings a wide knowledge of the fascinating history of cowboy culture and is himself a member of the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Gray's presentation is part of Boot Hill's adult education series. It's open to the public and there is no charge.
At noon, Boot Hill's country-style dinner will be served. The meal includes slow-roasted beef brisket, tators n' onions, creamy coleslaw, corn with cream and butter sauce, hot biscuits, grandma Sally's apple crisp, tea and lemonade. Tickets for the meal are $15 and reservations are required.
At 2 p.m., the induction ceremony will take place under the big tent at the museum, with refreshments following.
At 3:30 p.m., Zerf the cowboy entertainer will amuse the crowd with sounds and stories of the wild Kansas frontier.
Do a little dance
The Friday night dances at Dodge City Senior Center have been so popular that it amounts to a second career for the boys in the band.
The Ford County Band brings together popular local musicians Chuck Riley, Don Pray, Larry Durr and John Westmacott for the kind of evening that used to be commonplace in every small town — sometimes called socials, they were dances with food and lots of conversation.
The action begins tonight at 6:30 p.m. and continues to 9:30 p.m. at the senior center located at 2408 Central Ave.
The event is open to the public — and people of all ages — and admission is $5.
Buzzing Scott City
Gravity-defying aerobatics, $5,000 in prize money, great food and games for the kids will be featured at the 2010 Showdown on the Plains BBQ Challenge & Wings N’ Wheels Aerobatics Show scheduled for Saturday at the Scott City Municipal Airport.
The event will be centered around a Kansas City Barbecue Society-sanctioned challenge that begins today. Professional and amateur enthusiasts will be competing in four separate categories for their share of the $5,000 purse. Saturday’s festivities will include plane rides, children’s activities, music, electric car races and a thrilling aerobatics show by stunt pilots Brian Correll and Patrick Carter. The winners of the barbecue challenge will be announced Saturday afternoon.
The event is hosted by the Scott City Area Chamber of Commerce (www.scottcityks.org), Wheatland Broadband (www.wbsnet.org) and Precision Ag & Seed Services (www.vffarms.com/PASS.html).
Admission to the event is free, though attendees are encouraged to bring their lawn chairs for seating. Fly-ins and motorcycle ride-ins are welcome. For more information about the event go to www.showdownbbq.
com.
Cowboy spoken here
Hot on the heels of a very successful "Gunsmoke" 55th anniversary celebration last weekend, the lore of the cowboy continues to keep Dodge City busy.
The Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame, which is located at Boot Hill Museum, inducts five new members this weekend, with a full day of activities Saturday.
The day begins at 11 a.m. with a presentation by Jim Gray, cow boy historian and author, whose topic will be "Kansas Cattle Towns."
Gray brings a wide knowledge of the fascinating history of cowboy culture and is himself a member of the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Gray's presentation is part of Boot Hill's adult education series. It's open to the public and there is no charge.
At noon, Boot Hill's country-style dinner will be served. The meal includes slow-roasted beef brisket, tators n' onions, creamy coleslaw, corn with cream and butter sauce, hot biscuits, grandma Sally's apple crisp, tea and lemonade. Tickets for the meal are $15 and reservations are required.
At 2 p.m., the induction ceremony will take place under the big tent at the museum, with refreshments following.
At 3:30 p.m., Zerf the cowboy entertainer will amuse the crowd with sounds and stories of the wild Kansas frontier.
And in this corner
The Cowhands and Corrientes Ranch Rodeo finals will be held Saturday and Sunday.
The finals bring together local and area competitors from a dozen preliminary competitions held throughout the summer in towns across the Great Plains.
The finals rodeo is produced by the Dodge City Community College rodeo team under the direction of Kent and Danielle Crouch. Team members are responsible for advertising and sponsorships as well as organizing information. They take money at the gate, help get the arenas ready and prepare the stock and equipment for the rodeo. The experience gives the team a chance to work with the public. All proceeds from the rodeo are donated to the team and used to help pay for practice equipment, scholarships and travel.
The gates open at 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday at Roundup Arena, at which time the vendor booths will be open. The top hand competition begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, with chuckwagon lunch at noon and round one of the finals at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Sunday's schedule features breakfast at 9:30 a.m. followed by cowboy church at 10:30 a.m., muttin' bustin' at 1:30 p.m. and the final round of ranch rodeo at 2 p.m.
Awards presentation begins at 5 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for kids 7 to 12 and kids 6 and under are free.
Day of Remembrance
U.S. veterans, members of military service and local first responders are invited to be guests at Ford County Retired Senior Volunteer Program's first National Day of Remembrance and Service to be held Saturday.
The day begins with a poker run sponsored by Blue Star Mothers, leaving from Dodge City VFW at 9 a.m. Participants will collect donations of food or money to send to deployed southwest Kansas service men and women.
At noon, a free steak dinner will be served at Victory Electric, provided by National Beef, followed by a patriotic program at 1 p.m. and a ceremony at Liberty Gardens in Wright Park at 2:30 p.m.
The Day of Remembrance is being combined with the senior center's annual volunteer recognition banquet and RSVP is encouraging their volunteers to adopt a soldier and bring items to include in the Blue Star Mothers' shipment.
Reservations are requested and may be made by calling (620) 227-7077 or e-mailing fordcountyrsvp@yahoo.
com.
Get out of town
Ford County Retired Senior Volunteer Program is planning two trips this fall. The first is a trip to the Kansas state fair, with the opportunity to sneak in a little shopping, on Sept. 13. Tickets are $15.
On Sept. 21 the group will travel to Ulysses for the Grant County products supper, which features a meal made entirely from food products produced in Grant County. The popular annual event also features entertainment and, being an election year, plenty of political candidates. Cost for the trip is $20 per person and $30 per couple.
Reservations for either trip — or both — can be made by calling (620) 227-7077.
I'll have seconds
The Dodge City Public Library is offering a four-part book discussion this fall entitled "Food for Thought."
The series is sponsored by the Kansas Humanities Council as part of its Talk About Literature in Kansas program. The council furnishes the books and provides discussion leaders.
The first discussion is at 7 p.m. Sept. 18, and the subject is "Secrets of the Tsil Cafe" by Thomas Fox Averill. The discussion will be led by Kevin J. Rabas, an assistant professor of English at Emporia State University.
The series continues with "Miriam's Kitchen" by Elizabeth Ehrlich on Oct. 2, "Empire Falls" by Richard Russo on Oct. 16 and "Epitaph for a Peach" by David Mas Masumoto on Oct. 30.
For more information about the series, contact the library at (620) 225-0248 or visit www.decp.info.
For more information about the Kansas Humanities Council, visit www.kansashumanities,org.
A good troubadour
is hard to find
Jeremy Taylor, troubadour, poet and humorist, will make two Dodge City appearances: Sept. 24 at the Homestead Theater and Sept. 25 at the Carnegie Center for the Arts.
Taylor, a British performer, was banned from South Africa in the 1960s for ridiculing apartheid. He worked with Spike Milligan, Cat Stevens and Donald Swann. His show, "Wait a Minim," ran for seven years on four continents.
Early in Taylor's career, author Studs Terkel said "His songs were universal in their meaning. Jeremy was en rapport with the world ... his music was not only powerful; wit and laughter were there too."
Taylor's appearances in Dodge City are being organized by Jim Johnson, retired weatherman, amateur actor and folk musician, who appeared on the same bill as Taylor several times in England in the 1960s while Johnson was stationed there as a USAF airman.
Thanks to the Internet's ability to get people back together, Johnson discovered that Taylor was planning a North American tour then found out it would be cheaper to bring Taylor to Dodge City than travel to see one of his concerts elsewhere.
Johnson hopes to organize workshops with local students while Taylor is in town.
For information about Taylor or to hear his music, visit www.JeremyTaylorMusic.com.
Tickets for Taylor's local shows are available by calling the Depot Theater Company at (620) 225-1001 or the Carnegie Center at (620) 225-6388.
Slow-quick-quick
Get out your dancing shoes. The annual Beaux Arts Ball, complete with fine food and dancing to a live band, is scheduled for Oct. 2 at the Knights of Columbus hall. This year's theme is "Casablanca," and proceeds from the ball benefit the Carnegie Center for the Arts.
Music for this year's ball will be provided by River City Jam out of Wichita. Tickets for the ball are $60 per person and reservations are essential.
For more information, call Carnegie at (620) 225-6388. The password is "Rick sent me."
Pssssssst...
USD 443 offers the Gold Pass to members of the community 60 or older who reside in the district. The pass admits the eligible person, free of charge, to the district’s athletic, musical and thespian activities with some exceptions, such as the Tournament of Champions and state-sponsored events.
Passes may be obtained by visiting the administration building at 1000 N. Second Ave. Room 108, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call (620) 227-1704. Information needed: First and last name, address, city, state, zip code and telephone number.
What a deal.
