Are you a Haigler person? Or a Benkelman or Wray or a St. Francis person? I wonder if growing up equidistant from all these other towns makes people wonder "who" they are or have multiple personalities.
I call myself a Haigler person, but we did all our “legal” business in St. Francis because our farm was located across the state line in Kansas. Our telephone was listed in the phone book as “South Haigler – Kansas”… our phone lines came from Haigler, but our area code (when we got one) was 913 – a Kansas area code. We were on the Haigler exchange, but the phone was actually in Kansas. Our mail was delivered to a Haigler address and carried by a Haigler mailman (Stan Zuege). We took our cows to the sale barn in Benkelman most of the time. Andy Anderson was my dad’s favorite auctioneer. We went to church in Haigler. We went to the doctor and dentist in St. Francis. Dr. Walz and Dr. Haberbosh. We took music lessons and swimming lessons and did some of our shopping in Wray. Our grandmother lived in Wray. We got most of our groceries in Haigler.
What is it that determines if you are a Haiglerite?
Is it because you went to high school there? Is it because it was the closest town? How far east did you have to live before you called yourself a Benkelmanite? Or how far west did you have to go before you called yourself a Wrayite? How far south did you have to live before you became a Saintyite?
Maybe you are only a Haiglerite if you lived in Haigler, went to high school in Haigler, married another Haiglerite and stayed in Haigler, raised your kids in Haigler and when you die you are buried in the Haigler cemetery.
So there must be DEGREES of Haiglerite-ism. Some people lived “around” Haigler and went to high school there, but then married someone from somewhere else and raised their families somewhere else. These Haiglerites would be a degree MORE Haiglerite than someone like me who lived “around” Haigler and went to high school somewhere else….. etc. etc.
Or maybe its where the heart is. That’s what it is…. If you grew up around Haigler and have fond memories of Haigler and love to visit Haigler and people who live there, then you are a true Haiglerite. That has to be the answer and that makes me one of the HIGHEST DEGREE of Haiglerite there is!
I think you are exactly right. That you had to live there, visit there, which means encompassing the tri-state area. Boundries of state lines for legal, medical, commercial reasons – that made us diversified of the three corner area. Haigler just attaches itself to various degrees of our values and livelihood (coming from the heart) – Home.
ReplyDeleteOur roots were our most formative years of our lives (especially kids) is what we attach our security to. Many people lived in the area and moved away, as did our founder, Jake Haigler. People were very mobile even in the horse and wagon days. Myself, I was raised there, but have lived elsewhere the last 48 years. Even a brief stint of living there, you and your associates are considered a Haiglerite. Now you have been knighted as a Haiglerite!
-- Dallas Adams