In Greensburg

Vic Hannan of Haviland Hardware hands a gallon of milk to Megan Gwin of Plains, who was in town to visit her parents.

Vic Hannan, proprietor of Haviland Hardware, was in Pratt this week to pick up supplies.

As he does occasionally, he stopped at an antique store to look for books while he was there. He says he has about 15 authors he likes to read, so he’s always scouting for their books.

At the store, he found some Greensburg memorabilia that he bought for a few dollars: matchbooks, old calendars, a little funnel and a squeeze key protector. Vic says only one of the businesses that advertised on the items is still operating: Greensburg Equipment, which has its name on the funnel.

Company names on the matchbooks and the 1977 and 1978 calendars included Bob’s Club — also called the 54 Club, J-Hawk Motel, Security Oil Co., Mary’s Supper Club and Swisher Sales. Someone at morning coffee today at the store joked with Vic that one of them had been lighting the matches. Another regular kidded him that one coffee drinker had stuck some of the matchbooks in his pocket, thinking they were giveaways.

The phone numbers on the items have the old 316 area code, which the coffee drinkers said — maybe for my benefit — was “taken away by those people in Wichita” about 10 years ago. A couple of them said it hadn’t been that long since they were stuck with the 620 area code.

Vic says the people in this area ought to secede from the Union over the loss of the 316 area code.