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.

While world leaders wrangled with the problems of nuclear test bans, the people of Great Bend set aside worries of doom and destruction and took time to enjoy all the fun summer had to offer.  
On August 1, 1963, the very first edition of The Beatles Book, a monthly magazine, hit the stands and was completely sold out the same day.  
While this was big news in some larger metropolitan areas, no stories or advertisements indicated there was any interest in the Beatles.  But, according to Karen Neuforth, historian with the Barton County Historical Society, and David McKown, one of the owners of Johnsons Smokehouse BBQ in Great Bend, the Beatles were very popular here, as elsewhere.  Both were about 10 years old in 1963, and recall the sensation the Beatles made when they made their debut appearance on the Ed Sullivan show a year later.  At the time, there was a music store in Great Bend called Ruth and Rays where records were sold, as well as in the basement of Komarec’s jewelry store.  There, customers could preview records in a sound booth before purchasing, Neuforth said.  At the time, songs came out on 45s, which held one song on the each side.  The A side featured the popular songs played on the radio, and the B side featured the more obscure songs.   There were longer playing LPs too, featuring an album’s worth of songs, but most people still bought the less expensive 45s at the time.  McKown, in fact, had an uncle who worked for Capital Records, and was able to get him 45s for free, which was a pretty big deal to a young boy back in the 1960s.  

Music at the Movies
What did make the paper was how everyone was getting ready for the Barton County Fair, which would be held at the then fairgrounds north of town close to then Lake Barton.  It was also when the Great Bend Drive-In Theatre sponsored a hootenanny.

“A Hootenanny, otherwise known as a gathering of folk singers, is set for this coming Friday night...Jerry Monday, DJ at radio station KLEO in Wichita will emcee the Hootenanny and will have several folk singers from around Kansas with him.  There will also be a dance on the patio to the “tops in pops” records.  Free records as well as albums will be given away.
“There will be two performances of the Hootenanny and three features including Chubby Checkers in “Twist Around the Clock”, also “Rock all Night” and “Shake, Rattle and Rock.”  There will be a record hop between the first and second feature and second and third feature.”

Hootenannies were made popular in the 1960s by singers like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.  While the term Hootenanny sounds old fashioned and “back woods” (the term is an Appalachian colloquialism), in today’s urban homestead movement and local food movement, it’s still used to describe get-togethers complete with live folk music--but here in Great Bend, there hasn’t been one for a pretty long time. ( http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/2012/11/30/hootenanny/ )
This was the summer musical comedian Allan Sherman released his still classic song about Camp Granada, “Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda.”  Any kid that has ever gone away to summer camp can’t help but giggle about the song, because often it hits close to home.  Still, parents still sign their kids up for camp every year.  Hmmm.  Camp certainly helps awaken a sense of adventure, and for three young men in Great Bend, adventure was certainly on the menu that summer.   

Where are they now?
Each summer, the blue-line highways of Kansas see their fair share of what we’ll call “questers.”  They are the ones who choose to travel by their own power over an unusual number of miles for a cause, sometimes altruistic, and sometimes just to be able to say they did.  August, 1963, was no exception.  Hwy 56 saw both locals and out-of-town questers traveling both ways.  
In the Aug. 1 story “18-year-old Kentucky youth pedals across four states on a 1200-mile trip back home,” readers learned for one evening, Harold J. Nalley, age 18, spent the night at the Fort Zarah park while traveling by bicycle through Great Bend on his way home from the Colorado Springs area.  The story of the young man is inspiring--an orphan from the age of six, he and six of his thirteen siblings went to an orphanage.

“He stayed with a Kentucky family for seven years and graduated from high school at age 18 after passing tests that enabled him to complete schooling early.
He spent one year studying for the ministry, gave that up and then spent a year at Villa Madonna.  This year he will be a sophomore there.”

Traveling between 50 and 60 miles a day, he calculated he would arrive home Aug. 14.  He must have made it.  While we could find no stories about him, we did find him listed on contributors lists of Northern Kentucky Senior Services  and at the Covington Latin School, which is closely associated with Thomas Moore College, formerly known as Villa Madonna.
But Nalley wasn’t the only person to catch the quest bug that August.  Two Great Bend Sophomores, Randy Yowell and Alan Detrich, took it upon themselves to take a 50-mile hike from home to Chase to “get in shape for football” they told The Tribune upon their return.  

“(The two) limped into the Tribune office Wednesday afternoon after arriving back in Great Bend.  “They left the city at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, arrived in Chase about 1 a.m. Wednesday, and then returned to Great Bend.  
“Their only nourishment during the trip was soft drinks, four or five cookies,” and sunflower seeds, according to the pair.”

Randy Yowell, according to his obituary, at age 65, died in February this year at his home in Quinter, Kansas.  He went on to excel in sports in Great Bend and was named All-State Football, All-State Basketball and All-State Track and Field his senior year.

“He graduated from Great Bend High School with the class of 1966 and was senior class president. He was a member of a band called “The Elements”. He went on to Wichita State University on a football scholarship and eventually graduated from Fort Hays State University with a Business degree. He ran for 1st District U.S. Congress in 1977 and lost to Keith Sebelius. He was well known for his writing and had a weekly column called “The Treasure Ranch” in the Gove Advocate for many years. He wrote a book called “Beneath the Cantaloupe Moon” that was about Sheriff Stackhouse in Gove County Kansas. It is still being published today. He enjoyed Western Kansas History and shared it in his writings.”

Alan Detrich, his high school pal, continues to live an adventure filled life.   He went on to be a fossil hunter and dealt in antiquities.  He was named one of People Magazine’s Top 50 Bachelors in the July 2, 2001 edition.  In the article, at age 53, he was described as a dinosaur hunter, who called the Travelodge hotel in Great Bend home.  He never married, held a B.A. from Kansas Fort Hays State University and M.F.A. from Wichita State University.  People described his resume:

“While digging in South Dakota in 1992, Detrich discovered the largest male Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever found. He sold it earlier this year to a private buyer for more than $8 million.
“For the right price I’ll part with anything,” says Detrich. “When you think you possess something, it really possesses you.” For that reason, and because he travels so much, Detrich doesn’t own a home: “I’ve been a nomad most of my life.”

Detrich teamed up with his brother, Robert, according to their website, before retiring.  Today, his brother runs the Detrich Fossil Company headquartered in Wichita.