August 2017 - 2
I INSIDE
Volume 34 • Issue 8 August 2017
ON THE COVER Then and now: The Hillcrest is Wichita’s Grand Dame | 4
In September, the Hillcrest Apartments – a Wichita landmark – will turn 90 years old.
Travis Mounts/East Wichita News
Features Dateline................................................ 6
w w w . e a s t w i c h i t a n e w s . c o m
From the Publisher’s Files.............. 7 Wichita Homes................................10
Geology drew Kapaun student to 4-H | 8
People & Places...............................11 Focus On Business..........................12
Wichita State’s Fairmount Towers to close | 23
East Wichita News
Performing Arts Calendar............28 Jim Erickson’s movie reviews will return next month.
Editorial
Publisher Paul Rhodes Managing Editor Travis Mounts Production Abbygail Brown Reporters/Contributors Sam Jack, Tessa Castor, Philip Holmes
Sales & Billing
Sales Valorie Castor, Shelby Riedel Billing/Circulation Briana Bade A Division of Times-Sentinel Newspapers 125 N. Main • P.O. Box 544 Cheney, KS 67025 Phone: (316) 540-0500 Fax: (316) 540-3283 © 2017 Times-Sentinel Newspapers LLC
Now in our 34th year! The East Wichita News is a monthly newspaper focused on the people and places on Wichita’s East Side. It is delivered free to most homes within our coverage area, although distribution is not guaranteed. Single copies are available in a variety of Eastside locations. One copy per person, please. Visit our website for more - www.eastwichitanews. com. Email story ideas and photographs to news@tsnews.com. Visit us on Facebook.
Traveling back in time with teens My son, Aaron, and I decided to have a last-minute holiday party last month. With most parties for the Fourth of July weekend already planned and peoples’ schedules set, we decided to have a July 1 party and celebrate Canada Day. This led to both of us being asked multiple times, “Are you Canadian?” Nope, although I visited a couple times as a youth. The closest my son has been to Canada is Mount Rushmore. However, we do love hockey, and there are several Canadian adult beverages I have a fondness for. Oh, and one of my brothers once met Michael J. Fox. That seemed to be reason enough to throw a party. (And before anybody accuses me of being a socialist or a traitor, I celebrated the Fourth of July the rest of the weekend, and have celebrated for four-plus decades. I offer that defense mostly in jest, but the last year or so has taught me there could be one or two folks who need to be reassured I still love the country of my birth). And a good party it was. The adults lasted until nearly 11 p.m. and then left me alone with about a half-dozen teenagers. And they were a blast. Not long after the median age of the crowd dropped into the teens, my son asked for a blanket. The kids were setting up a movie screen on the patio. One of them owns a 16-mm projector and a number of old films purchased off eBay. We watched an old movie of Paul McCartney being filmed by his late wife, Linda McCartney. Another was silent black-and-white game film from the Wichita State Shockers’ 1969 football season. Then there were several educational films that predated even my schooling. And those films were bad. The kids commented how cheesy they were. Most of them weren’t very
Travis Mounts | Managing Editor
educational, although they would have done a good job of eating up class time and keeping kids relatively entertained. As bad as they were, they weren’t that much worse than the good entertainment at the time. It was enlightening to hear the kids’ takes on the movies, and the current version of me agreed with them. I’m sure the young version of me would have agreed, too. I was impressed with their criticism that the educational films were not educational enough. I loved that they embraced simple fun together. And I was tickled with their love of “old” technology. In addition, I tried my hand at making poutine. If you’re not familiar with this northof-the-border dish, it’s primarily found in French-speaking Canada and some parts of the northern United States. Basically, it’s just French fries with cheese curds and brown gravy. Some friends from Maize said one of their sons fell in love with the dish in college at Oklahoma State. I didn’t know Stillwater was such a bastion for Quebecois cuisine. Next year, we may change it to a NAFTA party, or a Canada Day/preFourth-of-July/belated Cinco de Mayo Party. That way we can expand the beer selection, and add tacos and Philly cheesesteaks to the menu. And we’ll celebrate all three nations with some good, old fashioned, Chinese fireworks.