Exact schedule unknown, however you can count on seeing even more folks jumping out of perfectly good airplanes in our area.
More info on the Golden Knights here https://www.goarmy.com/events/golden-knights.html
Monday, October 5, 2020
Keep your eyes to the skies this week...
Help Marjorie celebrate her 90th birthday...
4-H Week Spotlight: Sophie Cummings
Hi, my name is Sophie Cummings. I am in V-52 and I've been in 4-H for 7 years. This year I am enrolling in archery, horses, and arts and crafts. I also may do horticulture. My favorite part of 4-H is working on all my projects and being an officer. I love being in archery, it's my favorite project to do in 4-H. I love meeting new people and making friends through 4-H. To me, it's a good way to be social and still stay safe.
60 years of Butler memories: Selling it
60 Years of Butler Memories
by James Ring
October 2, 2020
Going To Sales
Early memories of life in Butler must always include participation in auction sales, and other outlets for exchanging legal tender for goods, like sidewalk sales and yard sales. As far back I can remember, we always checked out the Community Sale barns on their appointed days. There was the Roy Baker sale barn’s Saturday sale, held in the pavilion at the corner of Nursery and 71 Highway, now part of the Butler R-V football field/sports complex. Co-located with a filling station and diner out by the highway, the pens and bleachers under the tin roof allowed for auctioning off stock to the highest bidder.
We young-ins were more fascinated by the junk sale that preceded the main event. Old tools, household goods, small animals and poultry, bicycles and boxed items—you never knew what might be brought in. If the bids were slow, piles would be lumped together to speed things along, a predecessor of the TV ads that say “but you act now, we’ll throw in…” There were fruit vendors like the banana man, the apple vendors, sweet corn and watermelon sellers. Some of these could be found on the corners of the Butler Square as well, selling their goods out of the back of a pickup or car trunk.
Roy Baker’s brother Oscar eventually opened his own sale barn, just north on the other side of highway where Pitts Realty has its storage barn. I believe it was a Thursday sale. Meanwhile, auctioneer Jack Sivils became a mainstay at Roy Baker’s barn, and he went on his own with a bigger, better facility at the north end of town. Eventually, he was joined by his son-in-law Don Ghere, who expanded and improved the business.
Auctions, of course, were common clean-up events held when persons were moving away or had died and their property was being disposed of. At the end of the day, the cluttered yard would be empty, the cars parked for blocks around would be gone and the resulting money was in hand. Selling out required a lot of preparation, but it was quick and convenient. And a it was a lot of fun for bargain hunters, who often paid more than something was worth when a competitor was bidding on the other side of the sale ring.
Where else could odds-and-ends be sold? At flea markets and antique (junk) stores, of course. Butler has had several come and go, up and down the strip as well as by the Square. On any given week, you might find a rarity or sought-after item on the back shelf at these places. Does anyone remember King Arthur’s Bargain Barn discount/surplus store, first in the old grocery store at the stoplight and later in the former A&P building that’s now the county Health Department?
The spirit of entrepreneurial selling is as old as this country, and it never will go away. Codes and licenses notwithstanding, “what will you give me?” and “what would you take?” between individuals must not be infringed. Let it ever be so.
Historic aircraft passes over Butler
By LeRoy Cook
Other than for some windy days that exceeded sensible flying parameters, it was a good week’s worth of aviation. Fog is always a risk early in the morning as the nights clear and cool down. We did some night flying under the full moon for currency purposes, an easy time to do it because the runway is visible in the moonlight. That’s important at Butler, because our beacon light is still broken after a year and the runway lights are operating on low power for economy.
Aircraft in this week included a Pitts Special biplane, a Cessna Skyhawk, a nice little Ercoupe, a Piper Cherokee, and a Cirrus SR22. A hulking Twin Otter skydiver jump plane showed up Sunday afternoon. Local flyers were Brandt Hall in his KIS Cruiser, Roy Conley in his Grumman Tr2 and me in a Piper TriPacer. Jerry Burns flew his Lancair 200 experimental, I took the Cessna 172 over to Clinton and Dayne Kedigh went to Burlington and Topeka, Kansas in a Cessna 150.
This horrible year of cancelled fly-ins and airshows left us without the biggest one of all, the Oshkosh Airventure reunion in Wisconsin that brings 500,000 people together. Ah, but there was an Oshkosh fly-in, after all. It turns out that there is a little town in western Nebraska—Oshkosh, NE, with a 4,700-foot runway and a population of 800 welcoming people. Some 35 airplanes flew in and 115 people showed up at the mini-Oshkosh, right on time in late July. For the rest of us, it was the year of “Noshkosh”, but not for these diehards.
A couple of Lockheed products tangled in mid-air last week, with bad results. The Marines were practicing aerial refueling in central California when the F-35 Lightning II taking on gas from a C-130 Hercules bumped into the Herk. Scratch one F-35; the pilot ejected successfully. The C-130 wound up landing on its belly in a farm field, no injuries. Expensive lesson.
It pays to look up when you hear an airplane flying over. On Thursday morning about 11:30, Scott Phillips and Rodney Rom both saw a WW-II B-29 Superfortress pass over Butler, heading west. It had to be “Doc” out of Wichita, restored by Boeing employees from the plant where it was built. It was probably going back home after the commemorative Arsenal of Democracy fly-over in Washington, D.C , which was cancelled due to bad weather. It was supposed to honor the end of World War II.
Our question from last week was “where can you land below sea level in the U.S.? Rodney Rom voted for Furnace Creek airport in Death Valley, and Butch Leuthart suggested Calpatria on the shore of the Salton Sea, both in California, and they ‘re both right. For next time, we’d like to know if there are any deaf pilots. As usual, you can send your answer to kochhaus1@gmail.com
Sunday, October 4, 2020
Rollover accident on D Highway east of Passaic
The Butler Fire Department along with Bates County Sheriff's Deputies and Missouri State Highway Patrol Troopers are on scene of a one vehicle rollover accident on D Highway and CR NE County Rd 7003 around three miles east of Z Highway.
The vehicle is said to be a moving truck that is overturned in the ditch and no serious injuries are being reported.
If you must travel in this area please use caution; Mid America Live will update when more information is made available.
4-H week spotlight: Kameran Collier
The entire week we will be highlighting Bates County 4-H members who submitted articles for local newsHi! My name is Kameran Collier. I am a member of the Altona 4-H club. I have shown livestock since I was six years old. It is something that my entire family has always done. My dad showed when he was young as well as my brother. I show lambs, goats and cattle. I also compete on the 4-H livestock judging team. I compete on the local, state and national level with my animals and judging livestock. I have been a member of the Altona 4-H club for ten years. I look forward to building a career from the knowledge I have gained from 4-H.
Photo credit: Alicia Casteneda Photography
#BatesCo4H
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