VADA (DWINELLE) KRUMWIEDE

6

Lynn and Vada Krumwiede

A few months before Betty died . . . .
Back Left to Right - Sharon (Dwinelle) Leiker & Vada
Front Left to Right - Edith Dwinelle, Betty (Dwinelle) McNeal & Ray Dwinelle

Four Generation Picture

Back Left to Right - Vada and Daughters - Darlene Bedford & Kim George
Front Left to Right - Daughter - Joy Harbaugh, Mother - Edith,

Daughter Jenny Garcia and her son - Derek Garcia

Hi. I’m Vada (Dwinelle) Krumwiede from the Class of 1958. My mom and dad had four kids, me being number three. My brother, Marvin, was killed in an automobile accident in 1963 and my sister, Betty, died of cancer in 1993, thirty years later. My younger sister, Sharon, and I survive along with Mom. Dad died of a heart attack in 1997, a few years after my folks moved to Salina.

I attended Brown-Mackie in Salina in the fall of 1958 when a girl came up to me and asked me if I wanted to go on a blind date with her boyfriend’s buddy. Lynn had gone with a few girls at Brown-Mackie and wasn't impressed by any of them, he described to the girl what he wanted a girl to look like. She looked around BM and came up with me. I didn't know what to think of him and so I went with him again. (He turned out to be a salesman.) But it's fine the way it is.That’s how I met Lynn. I began working at a real estate and insurance office and did so until our first daughter was born in 1961. I stayed home until after our second daughter was born and we were informed she needed heart surgery (paton ductus). She was eight months old at the time. For the most part I was a full-time homemaker and mother until the kids started school before going back to work as a secretary. I’m glad I did it that way as the kids commented on me being at home for them. After many years working in the private sector, I took civil service tests and worked for the State of Kansas, spending seventeen years with them before deciding on retirement.

I married Lynn from Buckley, Illinois at the Methodist Church in Paradise in December 1959. He was in the air force at Salina’s Schilling Air Force Base. That base was closed in 1966. After he was discharged, he began selling insurance for Metropolitan Life and spent thirty-two years as one of their top salesman. He now is an agent for Jackson National Life Insurance Company and any others he wishes to license with. He has an office in our home where I help him doing the computer work, printing off insurance forms and obtaining rates on clients, etc.
We checked out churches in Salina before deciding on Trinity Lutheran Church. All our daughters were baptized at TLC and we continue to be a part of the pastor’s bible class. Lynn taught a bible class for many years as well.

We have four daughters, Kim George, Salina; Darlene Bedford, Lenexa; Joy Harbaugh, Culver; and Jenny Garcia, Cedar Falls, Iowa. They each have two kids except for Jenny who had their third child in December 2007. We are very proud of their picks for husbands and cherish our grandkids tremendously. For the year 2008 our oldest grandchild is a senior at Ft. Hays and the youngest just learned to crawl. Two are freshman in college at Kansas State and Baker University in Kansas, another is a junior in high school, two more are in first grade, and two are in pre-school. That’s quite an expansion. Our grandson (Washington D.C.) and granddaughter (several countries in Europe) in Lenexa have traveled with the People to People Mission former President Dwight Eisenhower started years ago. Another granddaughter traveled with a church group to New Orleans to help rebuild their homes.

Mom (Edith Dwinelle) turned 97 in July and wants to live on her own as long as she can. She fell and broke her hip several years ago and went through rehabilitation. She’s fallen several times since then and has the use of a wheelchair although she is trying to use a walker most of the time now.

We are Kansas State fans although neither one of us attended K-State. Two of our daughters graduated from KSU and one attended KSU one year after attending Marymount College in Salina and then coming back to Marymount. She later got her degree from Kansas Wesleyan when her two kids were well along in school. One other attended Hutchinson Community College on a sports scholarship before transferring to Brown-Mackie on a sports scholarship and one on a sports scholarship at BM before transferring to Kansas State. They are high achievers as well as their husbands.

As K-State fans, we are members of the Salina Catbackers club who have the coaches and staff speak as guests of our club. In addition to Coach Bill Snyder speaking at Catbackers, we attended a prayer breakfast where he was their guest speaker. We’ve also attended many bowl games and have enjoyed each of them. When we spoke to Snyder, we told him we’ve gone to many of the games but didn‘t go to Hawaii to watch them play. He said he didn’t think they made it either. We lost to Boston College. Since our daughter worked at the Rec Center on campus and knew many of the players when they came in to work out, he always asked us how she is doing. Although we have not won every one of the bowl games, they are a change from the normal ho hum of staying home and only watching the games on TV. We flew in a chartered plane sent to Salina, we park at our air port, and on to the games in San Diego and Phoenix. For Tucson, Lynn and I flew to Phoenix to his brother’s home on our own, joined by his other brother in Sacramento, and we all took a bus to Tucson. They had never seen so much purple in one spot in their lives. On trips to the playoff game and to Dallas and Houston, we’ve taken a bus.

Since I had an aortic valve replaced in 2004 and also now have a pace maker and have to be on oxygen at night, I’ve lost my enthusiasm for going to games although I did go to Houston. We still get season tickets to football and Lynn also for men’s and women’s basketball. When I don’t go to Manhattan, Lynn takes our son-in-law or gives our two tickets to both of them. I like watching both sports but don’t care to drive at night and especially with all the traffic coming out of Manhattan. Lynn doesn’t like to drive on the open highway; I don’t care to drive in large cities.

We will have been together forty-nine years this December and believe me, that’s a long time. A very long time. I told a guy at work one day that every once in a while I’d like to trade Lynn off for a new model, but I didn’t know anyone who would take him. He had this look on his face that told me he was trying to figure out whether I was serious or just kidding. I left it at that. Life is one big grin after another. Whenever I have a birthday, I tell people I am one day older than yesterday.

While talking with our girls many years ago already, Lynn and I mentioned that we didn’t have cars when we were in school. They were shocked. How did we get around? We walked. That got me thinking and especially when we bought our first computer to write a story about my life, how we lived, what we did, etc. and give that “masterpiece” to the girls. This project has been an on-going thing for years now. I will remember something else I want to add and the thing goes on and on. I’m not finished yet but I will get there eventually.

I kept my high school scrapbook and have scanned it since the Paradise Educated Blog has come into being, thanks to Onnalee Harrell and to Millard who provides her with information I’m sure. Comments and pictures from other classes need to come on board and give others a chance to reminisce over the “good old days.” Times were much simpler then--times when a jet plane flying overhead would make us go outside and look up--times when we would run outside and wave to the train conductors and they would wave back--times when we’d find our outhouse up on Main Street the morning after Halloween--times when bunches of kids played ball in our front yard.

I’ve enjoyed reading about Pat and Alice on the Blog since they left Paradise. Thanks to Onnalee for asking me to provide her with info about me. A few years ago I wrote Randall and asked him if he had e-mail addresses for our classmates. He requested I send to the last known address he had and find out if they had computers and e-mail. I did and Alice is the only one without a PC. I now have a Classmates directory.