Monday will mark 30 years I've been trying to write a column. I started in 1979 writing about the Hallsville "H" Association and Bobcat sports history. This was for the Hallsville Herald.

I planned to quit after the "H" meeting in 1980, but Ed Clark owned the paper and asked me to keep writing the column. The Hallsville Herald folded in May 2001. I started writing for this paper in 2002.

Last week, we took a late vacation to Kansas.

Now I've been to Kansas and the Kansas City area before. We've seen both the Truman and Eisenhower presidentials in the past. This trip had been planned for May.

Our first stop was at Bentonville, Ark., and the Wal-Mart visitor center.

It's where Sam Walton started his business as Walton's 5 and 10 Cent store in 1950. He opened his first Wal-mart store in 1962 at Rogers, Ark. His offices were in the Bentonville Store until 1967. He had 3 children.

Carthage, Mo., was our next stop, where former Bobcat star Jimmy Lynn Grimes lives. We missed him but saw where a civil war battle was fought. The museum was closed on Monday.

Fort Scott, Kan., is where a frontier fort was built with that name in 1840.

Many of the restored buildings still stand. The largest Civil War battle was out of Confederate Gen. Sterling Prices' troops lost a battle at Mine Creek to the Yankees.

At Osawatomie, we learned about John Brown and his abolitionist followers killing people who like slavery. Brown was hung for a Harpers Ferry, Va., incident in 1859.

The two most interesting visits were in Kansas City, Mo. at the National World War I Museum and Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

The National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial has more historical information on this war than any I've seen. It has a wall with what happened overseas from 1914 until 1917. America entered it from 1917 to 1919.

The Negro Leagues got organized in 1920 and lasted until 1955. I got interested in Major League in 1949, a couple of years after Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in the majors.

I remembered most of the players coming from the Negro Leagues to the Majors. In 1955, Tom L. Brown and I went to Kansas City with his brother, FBI Agent Charles Brown.

We saw the Boston Red Sox and Ted Williams play the Kansas City Athletics. We also saw Micky Mantle, Billy Martin, Yogi Berra and the New York Yankees play Kansas City at the Municipal Stadium (1922-1976).

I visited the area where this stadium used to be, saw a picture and remembered where we sat in 1955. This is closer to downtown than the present Royals Stadium.

We also took in the Jazz Museum, where we learned about Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck and Ella Fitzgerald, and lunched at Arthur Bryant's, a famous barbecue joint.

We visited Union Station and saw an Andy Warhol art portfolio exhibit — boy that was a waste of $24.

The Crown Center is a new entertainment center, and has a Hallmark Card visitors center. I took in the Money Museum at Federal Reserve Bank.

At Independence, Mo., we visited the National Frontier Trails Museum and learned about the Santa Fe, Oregon and California Trails.

At Cabelas, I shopped a the world's Foremost Outfitters. Great hunters like Tom Azbell and Don Peck buy hunting gear there.

It rained the day we were at Lawrence, but I enjoyed Kansas University "Hall of Fame" at the Allen Field House, where the No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks play.

The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics is new at KU. It tells all about Gen. Dole's life, war and his hero days in Washington. There's still Topeka, Fort Riley and Hutchinson, Kan. to cover later. We did go to church at Paul's Valley, Okla.

Faye Wardlow and her sister, Tammy Kegarise, spoke on foster children at the Lions Club Monday. Tammy has 11.

I missed a couple of Cowboy games and also our close lose to Texas High, but I did watch the Ladycats take out Nacogdoches in volleyball. I hope we can beat Waco–Midway. We are balanced.

The Bobcats have always played well against Sulphur Springs, so maybe we can get in the playoffs. Remember to buy a football program.

Don't forget to attend the Veterans' Day Program at Hallsville High School at 10 a.m. Wednesday.