6B
Monday, August 24, 1992
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Seniors find fun clowning around
By Doug Hesse Special to the Kansar
Members of a Lawrence club use their talents to bring cheer to people of all ages.
The seven members of the Senior Citizens' Clown Club don their polka-dotted costumes and bulbous noses for performances throughout the community about twice a month.
The Lawrence Senior Center provides a practice area, books and props for the clowns, who practice for several hours every Monday. The clowns have no formal training but they do attend occasional workshops sponsored by the senior center.
Isabelle Ericksen, a member of the club said, "People hear about us through articles and through our performances. We really could use more clowns."
Gladys Timmson formed the club 10 years ago. But she moved to Denver shortly afterthe. The club passively recruits members, letting interested people come to them.
Ericken got her clown name, "Smiley," because she smiles all the time.
"We can make a mistake, but since we're clowns, we just go on," she said. "But I always get tickled."
Ericksen started performing many years ago when her father and her were minstrels.
Thirza "Froggy" Reed has been a member of the club for almost 10 years. She said she got her name because she liked to hop. She also likes the idea of a non-traditional clown. She wears green face make-up and a frog costume that she designed herself.
"I used to belong to a theater group, but that's different than being a clown," she said "I don't have many lines now."
Before retirement Reed was a physical education teacher and a dancer. She now performs a strip tissue routine with the club that culminates in a lily pad where she pops out of her shirt.
Doris Dort's character, "Jill," is constantly
changing. Her clown name comes from "jack-of-all-trades" and from the "Jack and Jill" nursery rhyme. She decided to become "Jill-of-all-trades" so she could become many different characters.
Dort, who used to be a chemistry professor, credits her ability to perform in front of people to teaching. Four of the seven in the group were teachers.
Dort said she and the other clowns in the club liked to make people laugh.
"I like to brighten lives that might otherwise be dull, like at nursing homes," she said.
The other clowns agree that clowning has a therapeutic effect on both them and their audiences.
"There is definitely medicine in laughter," said Virginia "Miss Melody" Penny, who writes original compositions for the club and plays the piano during performances. "I'm not trained to be a clown. I'm just a prop."
She is trained in classical piano and has taught music at elementary schools. She joined the club last August.
Clint "Pops" Leon, the mime of the group, introduced himself with a pretend balloon that he blew up and popped.
"My son called me pops once, and I thought it sounded like a good clown name," he said.
Pops performs as a clown in parades when he taught in the art department at Haskell Indian Junior College and occasionally at birthday parties. He joined the club about two years ago.
Two other members work with the club but are not senior citizens. The club has no age requirement.
Jesse "Jody" Peterson, 11, from Dallas, visits his grandmother, Ericksen, in the summer and clowns with the club. His parents clown in Texas.
Kim Alexander, 24, also clowns with the club.
Her clown name is "Diddles."
Doris "Jill" Dort, of the Senior Citizens' Clown Club, introduces the club during a performance and Virginia "Miss Melody" Penny plays the piano to accompany acts during the show. Approximately 10 members perform for various groups and functions in the Lawrence area.
Smithsonian displays quilt from Kansas
The Associated Press
DODGE CITY — For Ruth and Howard Stude, a journey on a tractor from Copeland to Washington, D.C., back in 1979 was their first step to the Smithsonian Institution in 1992.
Originally, the hand-quilted work was made to be taken to the national AAM convention held in Wichita in January 1988.
Ruth Stude was notified by the Smithsonian in July that a quilt she made honoring the 10th anniversary of WWII would be displayed in DUR7 will be displaced there.
However, the Studes' involvement in the agriculture movement began long before that. In 1979, Howard and a friend drove a tractor to Topeka and on to Washington as part of the AAM's national "tractorcade" protest
The farmers were protesting what was happening to the U.S. farmer. The Studies became members of the AAM in its first year of existence in 1977 to join other farmers in their protest.
The quilt was sold at the AAM convention in 1988, but Stude bought it back. At that time, they contacted the Smithsonian to see if there was any interest in displaying it, but were told there was no room.
When the Studies celebrated their 50th anniversary two years ago, Sen. Bob Dole sent them a flag that had been flown in Washington. In a thank-you note, Howard Stude mentioned the muilt.
Ruth Stude said that the Smithsonian contacted the couple not long after
The Studes moved from their farm to Dodge City two years ago but maintain their belief in the purposes of the agriculture movement.
"We're just trying to fight for the
same," she said. "We need a lot of
help."
Makers say their root beer is uniquely American
The Associated Press
LOUISBURG — A mixture of sarsaparilla, wild cherry bark and dandelion roots might seem like an acquired taste, but two Kansas City area retailers say their homemade root beer is pure American.
Theirs is not as well-known as some national brands, but Kansas-made Lost Trail Root Beer and Little John's Root Beer have a steady followi
shows around the country and a drug store in Independence, Mo.
At a cider mill near Louisburg, a town of 1,700 located about 35 miles south of Kansas City, making root beer has been a rewarding experience for owners Tom and Shelly Schierman.
Little John's Root Beer, made in Patricia Mertz's Kansas City, Kan,
basement, is sold only at them
"I can honestly say root beer is pure American," said Tom Schierman, coowner of the Louisburg Cider Mill where Lost Trail Root Beer is made. "It's virtually unknown in Europe. We have a good recipe and a good story behind it."
The Schiermanns started a successful apple cider and doughnut operation in 1977, but it was not until 1988 that the first glass of Lost Trail Root Beer was served in Louisburg. The bottled version was first produced on July 4, 1991.
Shelly Schierman said, "The aim was to commercialize the root beer to boost cider sales during the slow summer months."
Family tradition has it that the Schierman root beer recipe dates back to the 19th century when settlers headed west along the Santa Fe Trail.
The legend is that a distant relative of Shelly Schierman, Joe Marshall, got lost along the trail in 1848 and ended up in eastern Kansas. There he met some locals who quenched his thirst with root beer, according to Marshall's journals that were saved by his family.
Marshall settled and later created his own root beer.
Though Louisburg is not on the 780-mile Santa Fe Trail that stretched from Independence, Mo., to Santa Fe, N.M., the Schiemans linked the Marshall story and a family recipe to come up with their now patented
The Lost Trail taste comes from traditional ingredients, including a combination of roots, herbs and berries. Traditional root beer flavors include sarsaparilla, wild cherry bark, lemons, ginger, molasses, sorrell leaves, wintergreen, spikenard, hops and juniper.
The Schiermans said their primary ingredients were filtered water, sugar and a secret blend of extracts, roots and spices.
Lost Trail is made in batches of 2,000 bottles at a time. The non-alcoholic drink is then sold to warehouse outlets in Kansas and Missouri, including Dillons and Food Barn grocery chains. It retails for between $2.99 and $3.59 for a six-pack and 60 cents
to $1 a bottle.
Harrods, a department store in London, will sell Lost Trail and 42 other Kansas products as part of a sevenweek promotion program starting Sept. 7. State officials hope will bring more attention and tourism to Kansas.
Little John's Root Beer also is experiencing growth.
"We're told day after day that we have the best tasting root beer," said co-owner John Brosam, who sells the brew in an 1850s style bottle. "People love it."
Brosam came up with the idea about 10 years ago when he was a Boy Scout leader.
"We made 15 gallons and it went real fast," he said.
Brosam said he met Patricia Mertz in 1988 and a partnership was formed. With Mertz's investment and Brosam's ideas, the venture flourished.
The brew made its debut overseas during Operation Desert Storm.
"My son was serving there, so I sent enough for the whole unit," Brosam said.
Clinton Drugs, where President Harry Truman worked as a young man, also serves Little John's as a fountain drink.
University follows national self-enrollment trend
Because no beverage association keeps track of root beer makers, it is impossible to say how many there are around the country. Schiermans, Brosam and Mertz agreed their operations are the only ones in Kansas.
Special to the Kansan
By Andrew Arnone
For most students, college and long lines are synonymous. During enrollment and fee payment, many hours can be spent waiting for what can sometimes be a simple task.
While the enrollment center has eliminated many problems students used to face when enrolling, one hindrance remains — students must show up at a specific time and place or they may not be able to enroll. This can pose a problem for students with conflicting schedules or an emergency situation.
The obvious answer is to eliminate the enrollment operator complete and allow
students to enroll themselves.
Two such methods of student-initiated enrollment exist today at other universities: telephone enrollment and computer-terminal enrollment, both of which allow students to enroll at their convenience and return to make changes at any time.
Telephone enrollment began in 1848 when Brigham Young University and Georgia State University developed the first touch-tone system, said Wayne Childs, associate registrar at BYU.
The phone system at BYU allows students to add or drop classes to their schedules from any touch-tone phone in the world, 24 hours per day, seven days a week, Childs said. Students may also confirm their mailing address and list grades from previous semesters.
More than 60 colleges and universities use the touch-tone system today, according to a report from BYU.
Richard Morrell, KU registrar, said the other system widely used was a computer terminal network, or distributive system, largely developed by the University of Iowa. This system allows students to use terminals situated across campus not only to add and drop classes but also to change their address and other written information as well, he said.
After a visit to the University of Iowa during
the summer, KU officials decided to implement a distributive system at KU rather than the centralized one.
"We are actively moving ahead with the plan," Morrell said.
Morrell did not give an exact time when the new system would be put in place.
One of the reasons KU opted for the distributive system was the cost of the hardware required for a touch-tone operation, which is about $100,000. Morrell said 'The distributive system, he said, could use many existing terminals already on campus, eliminating the need for much additional hardware.
Morrell declined to estimate the cost of such a system, but he said it would take two programmers about a year to create it.
"One day, students will be able to order transcripts, apply for graduation and even apply to graduate school using a terminal," he said.
But what can students expect in the decade to come? Childs said he thought a paperless office is the next step.
"Already some schools are eliminating the paper element," Child said, mentioning that high school students applying to the University of Southern California just send in a floppy disc or use a telephone modem at their high schools.
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1992
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