A child’s note found in the wall of a local home has sent Glen Sander, Great Bend, down a memory lane that included his boyhood paper route.
The note on a 2-by-4-inch card says:
“Hello. I’m taking over my brother Glen’s paper route. My name is Bert Arlen Sander, 1321 Morton. Phone SW 3-9620. I will have to collect the 20th of the month. Your cooperation will be appreciated. I will do my best to please you. Thank you.”
It was about 60 years ago that Bert, Glen’s little brother, probably placed the note between the door jamb and the wall at the Parrish family home, 2506 Forest.
The message was recently discovered by installers from C & V Kansas Doors, 1107 10th, Great Bend.
“Our installers found it as they were removing a front door that was to be replaced with a new version,” said Matt Hoisington, C & V Kansas Doors owner. “This was the first time we found a note. We have found a whiskey bottle, old coins and bits of paper. But this note was typed, and is easy to read and in good condition.
“I am really grateful our team didn’t just toss it aside. I have known Glen for many years and it has been fun to hear him reminisce.”
Sander, who was 14 at the time, recalled that his mom, Kay, typed the note so that Bert, 11, could introduce himself as the new paperboy.
And, of course, this was decades away from the convenience of typing one email or text and forwarding it on to subscribers. The route included 16th, Broadway and Forest streets from Washington to Morton. Sander’s best guess is that about 60 residences were involved, which meant about 60 separate notes.
“When Matt Hoisington called me, I immediately knew what he was talking about,” Sander said. “Then he texted a photo to me and I thought it was pretty wild that it was in such good shape.
“It took me back to the days when my brothers and I would stop in at Woolworth’s for something to drink, while waiting for the papers to be ready at the Tribune. We put the papers on our bikes’ handlebars and rode to each house where every paper was put on the porch.”
Sander started working for the U.S. Post Office in 1980 at Great Bend, and eventually served as postmaster for Chase, La Crosse and Ellinwood. He retired 14 years ago.
Current owner
Jill Vsetecka is the current owner of the house at 2506 Forest where the new door was installed.
“I never had thought about finding anything in the wall,” Vsetecka said. “I was so surprised. It was a nice little note from a paperboy; it was so sweet.”
Vsetecka bought the house in 2014 but it had “quite a number of owners” over the years. It was built in 1937 by the Parrish family.
“It’s a good arts-and-crafts-style house that has a great new door,” she commented.
Vsetecka moved to Great Bend in 1989 to be special education director for Barton County Special Education Cooperative. She retired from that position in 2008 but kept working; she is now special education director for Rice County Education Co-op.
