Goodland...the City

I mentioned last time that Brent and Diana Flanders had their sister Fawn staying with them in their home…and so couldn’t accommodate us there and had to put us up in a motel.  It was good to see Fawn again.  She was one of the starting five of the Goodland Cowgirls basketball team that became state 3A champions back in the last 1970’s (1979, I think).  I worked at the radio and TV station in Goodland at the time, and we followed them all the way to the championship game, taping the game and rebroadcasting it back in Goodland at a later time.  We also carried it live on the radio.  I was on the “travel squad” that went to those games for the station, and from time to time did some “color” work on the radio during the games.  She, Nyla Wilson, Bev Musselwhite, Cheryl Cooper, and Ann Jarmin made up the starting five of the team.  It was made even better because it was shortly after Title IX came out guaranteeing equal opportunity for women as well as men in sports activities…and the Goodland women proved themselves capable of playing “with the big boys.”

The Flanders family and we ate at a steak place in downtown Goodland.  As with many smaller towns, the downtown area isn’t what it used to be.  There are empty store fronts, and stores that used to be integral parts of the community no longer are there.  But the community seems to be making the best of it, and the businesses along the Interstate, even though most are chains, seem to be doing fairly well.

Brent tells me that there used to be over 5,000 people in Goodland itself; now there are not even 5,000 in the entire county.  That’s rather sad, because Goodland is a good place to live, work, and raise a family.  The people there work hard, deal honestly, and uphold the basic values that we appreciate and love.  The climate can be a bit harsh in the winter, but most summer nights, one can open the windows and let the cool, 60 degree breeze waft through the house…even when it reaches 100 during the day.  Goodland is the beginning of a more mountain-type climate.

Work opportunities are primarily agribusiness, services (plumbing, HVAC, etc) and education.  There is some tourism opportunity there, and for someone who would like to begin some kind of manufacturing small business, there is good vocational education there as well as a workforce that would show up, on time, on the day they were supposed to be there, and provide a day’s work for a day’s wage.

We were there only five years, but continue to enjoy our visits there and miss being there to enjoy the people, the climate, and the community.  It’s a different world and a different culture, but we enjoy both immensely.

Our purpose for stopping in Goodland was two-fold.  I wanted to reconnect with Brent and Diana, and I wanted to attend church services there.  We were active in the church when we lived there,, and I wanted to know how it was doing.  We had heard that the church had grown out of the old building, and had purchased a new (to them) building and were remodeling it.  Evidently, over the years, it had grown from about 20 to in the neighborhood of 85 to 100 in attendance.  As you may guess, that is relatively unheard of in any circle, but especially in a smaller community in Northwest Kansas that is losing population, how is that happening?  I wanted to know.

We had opportunity to visit at length with Brent and Diana, and to a lesser extent with Kevin and some others who were members of the congregation.  We got to experience the dynamics of a worship service and see for ourselves the nature of the congregation there.  And that’s the topic of the next blog…stay tuned.