Kansas is a beautiful state, full of wonderful places to explore and people to meet. But during election season it is easy to become distracted and forget the good that is in front of us. Endless negativity can cause us to forget that we have much to be proud of.

The prisoner was a woman, unusual in 19th century America. And the fine was large for that day—$100.00 plus court costs. After being held for quite some time in a New York jail, the prisoner finally had her day in court. It was a brief day as lawyers for the defense and the state presented their cases quickly. The verdict was equally fast in coming; she was guilty as charged. Anyone could understand that. There followed the sentencing, and it seemed all over. But almost as an afterthought, and possibly out of courtesy to his unusual woman prisoner, the judge asked if she wished to speak. She stood tall and erect in the prisoners’ dock.

THIS AND THAT * Actress Angela Lansbury passed away a few weeks ago. I really love watching her in the TV series “Murder She Wrote.” Also, she was a wonderful Mrs. Potts in the movie “Beauty and the Beast.” (I have a china Mrs. Potts bank that I bought at Smith’s many years ago. Roma said she bought it because she thought it was cute.) And I loved her as Miss Price, in the Disney movie “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.” She was an actress with a repartee of Broadway successes and movies through several decades that only a few can aspire to. Here are just some of her film successes: “The Long Hot Summer” (I am not going to lie, I watched it for Paul Newman), “The Court Jester” with Danny Kaye, “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” “Samson and Delilah,” “Fantasia,” “National Velvet,” “The Manchurian Candidate,” “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” “The Grinch,” and “Blue Hawaii.”

Several years ago, I believe it was the fall of 2019 b.c. (before covid), one of the keynote speakers at the Kansas Housing annual conference was an author by the name of Sarah Smarsh. She is a journalist who was published in newspaper columns and magazines, but her greatest success came from the first and only book she had written: “Heartland — A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth.” Almost an overnight sensation, Sarah’s book soared almost instantly as a New York Times bestseller.

HALLOWEEN JOKES * If you haven’t already, it’s time to release the Reese’s Peanut butter Pumpkins! * What do you call a witch’s garage? A broom closet. * What kind of food would you find on a haunted beach? A sand-witch! * What was the witch’s favorite subject in school? Spelling.

Onomatopoeia! My what a word! It means every sound effect that you have ever heard: crash, crunch, zing, zip, meow, munch, roar, rip, sizzle, crackle, splat, kerplunk, bang, clank, woof, thunk, hiss, whiz, oink, moo, sniff, snap, cough, achoo, dong, ding, pong, ping, bang, bing, zap, zing! Pow! Bowwow! Burp! Slurp! Whish! Swish! Oops! Whoops! Click and Clack! Boo hoo! Choo choo! Cock-a-doodle-doodle-doo! I think that when you’ve read this list you’ll get the main idea... All these crazy sound effects are onomatopoeia! Once you’ve learned to say this word you kind of want to yell it; but even if you yell the word I bet you cannot spell it! But you can learn to spell this word in just a single day...

PUMPKIN PATCH FUN If you missed the Stockton Pumpkin Patch this year on the first weekend of October, then you missed out on a lot of good old family fun! I am probably the event’s number one cheerleader since you all know how much I LOVE Fall, so I am going to brag it up!

There’s a little word that gets overused in some circles, and just hearing it can drive me a bit over the edge. Like, you know what I mean? You know, like, really? It’s been around, like, for centuries, as a verb (“I like you guys”) and a preposition (“just like that”), among many other uses, and more recently, as an interjection (“like, that was so cool!” or “It was, like, all I could handle!”). It seems this word gets (over)used, like, more than any other word in some conversations. My granddaughters, for example, can barely say a complete sentence without, like, interjecting this word.

GOBLIN’S GLORY MEMORIES When the moon is full and the witches fly the Stockton FFA members prepare for the annual Goblin’s Glory! Members set up booths and conduct a variety of games with the format not changing since its inception. That means there is always the auction where people can bid for special prizes, and the soup supper to kick off the event!

__ It has been fun here in Stockton City watching an artist put paint to the bare wall on the southeast corner of U.S. 183 and 24. As of Friday, Sept. 30, Matt Miller, from Hays, had started adding some details to the S, T and O of STOCKTON, with the two highway signs in the S, tiger stripes in the T, and the background behind what will be an oil pumper. This postcard greeting from Stockton will be amazing, I have no doubt, as I’ve seen the amazing work Matt has done on several murals in Hays. Matt has a goal of being finished with the mural around the 20th of this month. Before he finishes, RoCo Arts Council needs to bring in about $3,000 more in donations. I know there are many of you who are enjoying the progress on this project, and I invite you to help the arts council raise the funds to finish the work. This mural is a statement of “who we are” in Stockton with bits and pieces of our lives incorporated into the design. Financial support from the community is a great way to identify with the art and the story it will tell about Stockton. Please help support this awesome project by dropping off a donation at the Sentinel office towards the remaining balance needed.