The Road To Topeka Calls

          This is my mother's college yearbook picture taken in 1930.  She attended college in Topeka, Kansas from 1927 to 1930.  She earned a bachelor's degree from Washburn College (now called Washburn University) with a major in English and a minor in Music.  She was born and raised in New Hampshire but went to Washburn because her family had relatives there.  I posted a blog in November, 2011 entitled, "The Kansas Connection" that described the family connection between New Hampshire and Topeka, to include some stories of my mother's school life. 

     Next month I plan to drive to Topeka with my wife to take a firsthand look at Washburn and some of the places where my mother resided while attending school. I've done the research to determine the addresses and have seen photos of them on Google but I want to see and photograph them myself.  Some of the stories I've heard about her Topeka experience indicate that she didn't just kick back and relax in the homes of her relatives but had to do housekeeping chores in order to earn her keep.  One of her biggest complaints was that at one point she was required to clean the bathtub in a house where a resident who may or may not have been a relative, used the same said bathtub as his personal spittoon!  She didn't care for that particular assignment. 

     Anyway, I also hope to visit the cemetery where those relatives are buried and to the library to see what records I can locate regarding their lives in Topeka. From Topeka the plan is to perform a hook slide back east as we head toward a vacation on the Vineyard again. Hoping to visit relatives on the way in Nashville, Saint Louis, and Cincinnati.  We'll keep the visits short and hope nobody asks us to scrub out their bathtub!

     Wait. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......Did you hear that? I did, it's the road calling! ROAD TRIP!!!!! And my search goes on.