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Crest ends season against Hanover
Monday, November 16, 2020
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Fire chief hangs up his helmet By VICKIE MOSS The Iola Register
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State sets virus record TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Some churches in Kansas suspended indoor, in-person worship services and the capital city’s zoo even tightened its rules as the the state set another record Friday for new coronavirus cases. Public health officials in the Kansas City area urged new limits on restaurants and gatherings on both sides of the Kansas-Missouri state line. But Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly See STATE | Page A2
Iola Fire Chief Tim Thyer has seen a lot of changes over the 33 years he’s worked for the department, but the basic mantra remains the same: “Put the wet stuff on the red stuff.” But thanks to technology, Thyer said, “We just have new ways of applying the wet stuff.” Go back to 1987, though, and things were quite a bit different. In January 1987, then-Fire Chief Clarence Hydorn interviewed him for a full-time position, though Thyer wouldn’t actually be hired for another six months. “Why do you want this job?” Hydorn asked. “I want to help people.” That’s something that hasn’t changed. “I was 23 years old when I started,” he said. And because of how much he’s enjoyed the job, he’s “never worked a day since.” Thyer, who will soon celebrate his 57th birthday, will
Iola Fie Chief Tim Thyer is retiring this month after 33 years on the job. REGISTER/VICKIE MOSS retire on Nov. 25. He took some time last week to reflect on his career. “We see people when they are having their worst day,” he said. “I’ve been blessed to
be part of the response team that helps them through it.” THYER’S career will end during a pandemic, a situation that has brought new
The train that threw lightning
Above, as one enters Humboldt, there are enormous billboards celebrating Walter Johnson and George Sweatt. Johnson is shown at left. REGISTER/ TREVOR HOAG
ball. As for the beginnings of other athletic abilities, Johnson credited his physical strength and endurance on the ball diamond to endless labor on the farm when young. But although well-suit-
ed for such work, Johnson suggested that farm life was also isolating, and he and his siblings relished traveling into “the big towns” of Humboldt and Iola in order to procure necessary supplies. Upon entry into Humboldt, one has been greeted for decades now by an impressive billboard honoring Johnson, along with his contemporary phenom George Sweatt. Given his famously humble demeanor, one wonders if the spectacle would have
See CHIEF | Page A4
Biden seeks vaccine info as Trump stalls
By TREVOR HOAG The Iola Register
Long before Walter “Big Train” Johnson became arguably the greatest pitcher in Major League Baseball history, he was just your average kid on a farm north of Humboldt. Though the family’s white clapboard house is long-gone from where it once stood, one dreams the place abuzz with activity nonetheless, breaking through the silence of farm fields under cloudless cobalt skies. There in the river one could swim all summer in dark water, and fish under willow trees that still bend in the soft wind. When he was young, Johnson exhibited an almost supernatural kinship with animals, whether it was trying to break in his father’s colts, or trying to capture and tame various wild creatures. His brother Earl shared the story that once he and Walter spotted an enormous gray wolf across a pasture, and chased it back to its den beneath a rock. Fearless, Walter started scooping up the five young cubs he found nearby, and as Earl observed: “Had the dens been connected, the mother would have torn him to bits.” Earl likewise recalled his brother’s abilities with a rifle, and how he revealed early physical gifts by being able to target squirrels 60 feet away with a sling. One wonders if he threw sidearm even then, a style that became a signature part of his lightning-speed fast-
challenges for firefighting and ambulance crews. “Unfortunately, 2020 just decided to be difficult. I knew when we had a fertilizer plant
embarrassed Johnson, such as when thousands would later gather to celebrate him in town for annual “Walter Johnson Day” celebrations. AS PER formation of Johnson’s early character, it’s intriguing how, according to his biographer (and grandson), Henry Thomas, the Johnsons were exceptionally upright people, but their moral education was more secular than religious. As brother Earl explained, “it was wilderness-country where we lived, and churchgoing was difficult. But our father and mother taught us the Golden Rule, and we lived by it to the best of our ability. Walter, I believe, best of all.” See TRAIN | Page A4
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden’s scientific advisers plan to meet with vaccine makers in coming days even as a stalled presidential transition keeps them out of the loop on Joe Biden g ove r n m e n t plans to inoculate all Americans against COVID-19. President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept that he lost the election means that the Biden team lacks a clear picture of the groundwork within the government for a mass vaccination campaign that will last the better part of next year, says Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain. “We now have the possibility ... of a vaccine starting perhaps in December or January,” Klain said. “There are people at HHS making plans to implement that vaccine. Our experts need to talk to those people as soon as possible so nothing drops in this change of power we’re going to have on January 20th.” A lack of coordination between outgoing and incoming administrations would be especially problematic in a worsening public health crisis, said the government’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci. “Of course it would be better if we could start working with them,” said Fauci, head See VACCINE | Page A2
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