Les Anderson is a professor in the Elliott School of Communication at Wichita State University. This is his second year of bringing journalism students to Greensburg to tell the story of its rebirth.
Hardware store owner Vic Hannan, standing, laughs at comments among early morning regulars including, from left, Denny Ross, Clay Corbet and Dwight Smitherman.
The conversation early this morning among coffee drinkers at the Haviland Hardware store focused on politics and weather.
The possibility of an Obama-Clinton ticket sparked comments among what seems to be a mostly Republican crowd. Clinton’s reported plan is to drop out of the presidential race, endorse Obama and ask for party unity to carry the Democrats to victory in November.
Clay Corbet said he can’t wait until the Obama bumper stickers come out so he can plaster hardware store owner Vic Hannan’s vehicle with them. Vic is the most vocal Republican supporter not only in the morning group, but likely in this part of the state.
Today’s forecast of possible nasty weather was a recurring topic. Half-joking, a couple of the coffee drinkers asked others as they came in if they had their fraidy hole cleaned out in preparation for predicted bad weather later today and tonight. It figures, Clay said of the forecast of even stronger winds than we’ve had since late Wednesday. Today is league golf day for some of them.
Eighty-something Clifton Clark, farmer and school bus driver for more than 50 years, got the biggest laugh of the day when he proclaimed that women and weather were two things men always talk about but can’t change. At least with the weather, he added, you can hope.
Conversation stopped momentarily just after that when Debbie Smitherman joined husband Dwight and the group at the big round table.
“Why is it,” someone asked, “that when a woman sits down it suddenly gets quiet?”
2 responses so far ↓
1 Norma Dixon // Jun 5, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Howdy Les! It’s great to see you working on such a meaningful project. What an awesome opportunity for students!
I couldn’t help but notice the Red Cross blood drive table tent in this photo. I have to say, Greensburg residents have shown an enormous amount of support to their community.
Shortly after the devastating tornado, residents insisted on still hosting their July blood drive. They scouted out a new location since the old one was blown away, put up posters and made homemade pies for the donors (in FEMA trailers!). The blood drive resulted in 82 pints of lifesaving blood, and a bonus of 16 first-time donors.
McConnell Air Force Base donated the meal, and several FEMA workers donated blood. Greensburg donors even signed banners with words of support for the people of Southeast Kansas who were devastated by recent flooding.
Greensburg residents saw the blood drive as an opportunity to give something back during a time when they didn’t have much left to give. These folks are amazing, and they deserve a Big-Well sized thank you for their commitment to saving lives.
Your favorite student ever,
Norma Dixon, Red Cross Communications Manager
2 jack // Jun 17, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Great job, good stories, just a small detail i’d like to point out. Clifton Clark is actually 79. He will be 80 on July 16th. So he is really not ‘80 something’ as the story says. Minor detail, but when you live in these small towns, they’re not so minor! Thanks, keep up the good work.
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