Each week we’ll take a step back into the history of Great Bend through the eyes of reporters past. We’ll reacquaint you with what went into creating the Great Bend of today, and do our best to update you on what “the rest of the story” turned out to be.

The premier of a different kind of news program began this week in 1968. On Sept. 24, CBS-TV aired the first installment of 60 Minutes, where it was described as a television news magazine. It was a Tuesday night show at first, but later, in 1972, it was moved to the 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. position on Sunday night. 

Likely, if you are part of Generation X, your parents tuned in every Sunday night, and you will recall the trademark ticking sound of a pocket watch that marked the beginning of a commercial break (which meant it was okay to bug mom or dad). 

Later, you might have tuned into it yourself when the news of the world became important to you. 

The voice of Mike Wallace, the host of 60 Minutes for the first 40 years, was as familiar as an uncle’s, stopping in to visit for Sunday dinner, at least in this writer’s memory. If you care to remember, here’s a link to the Mike Wallace farewell episode.  

Now, 50 years later, 60 Minutes is celebrating its 50th season. The program was in the media spotlight recently following the firing of its executive producer Jeff Fager, after he sent a warning to the CBS correspondent reporting on allegations from several women that he had sexually harassed them in the past.  

War poetry

The country was deep into the Vietnam War in 1968, and the Associated Press was there to report on war action, but also the lives of soldiers. One report published in the Tribune this week in 1968 featured poetry that had appeared in a recent American service publication:

“For one GI at the U.S. air base at Danang, the rising sun meant the end of a perilous night. He celebrated it in this poem:

“The sun just came up and the first golden spears

Came piercing the sky like a child’s flowing tears

The wounded are moaning, 

The dead make no sound,

The story of last night is soaking the ground.”

And this, from across the lines...

“Among the North Vietnamese forces, an enemy soldier writes:

“When I had to lay a mine,

How my hand trembled,

And then I watched the blasting human flesh, the splattering rain of blood.

Whose blood was it?

The blood of people like ourselves.

My people’s blood, mother...”

Just a reminder that humans fill the uniforms on battlefields. 

Photo news

News of the world outside of Great Bend filled the Tribune this week in 1968. The local news consisted mostly of photos with captions, which is why we offer more photos than usual this week. 

The Great Bend Black Panthers varsity football team faced Hutchinson’s Salthawks this week, and won 7 to 6. Varsity cheerleaders posed for the Tribune gameday morning, in time for the Friday afternoon deadline. Back then, the Tribune was an evening paper, so the paper was delivered before the start of the game. 

Anyone who has driven near Barton Community College will recognize the “golf ball” water tower there. It was this week 50 years ago it was erected, and the Tribune carried two progressive photos of the process. No longer called a junior college, Barton has stood the test of time. 

At the end of the week, students all over the state recognized Francis Willard Day. According to the photo caption, the date was a state holiday. 

“One -fourth of the day must be spent in teaching children of the woman and her programs to educate people on the evils of alcohol and tobacco.” 

We attempted to find out what happened to the observance of Francis Willard Day, but could not find documentation even of its official existence anywhere but in the 1968 newspaper report. It can be assumed that it might have had to do with the many challenges that have been fought over the years separating church from state. Kansas Memory, a Kansas Historical Society website, remembers Francis along with the organization she devoted her life to, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. At any rate, it makes sense Kansas, the last state in the union end prohibition and finally allow the sale of liquor by the drink, would honor Willard.  

Willard was president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union for 19 years. According to the WCTU Wikipedia page, “she focused on moral reform of prostitutes and prison reform as well as women’s suffrage. With the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, Willard’s predictions that women voters “would come into government and purify it, into politics and cleanse the Stygian pool” could be tested. Frances Willard died in February 1898 at the age of 58 in New York City.”

Today, schools have adopted the D.A.R.E. program, which teaches students about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, but does not include a religious component to its curriculum.