Lots of visiting, cooking and back-to-school students keep Polo museum busy

I was busy this week with people stopping by the museum, family visiting at home, doing extra cooking, and students heading back to school. Summer is over and the locusts have begun to sing which means it is time to get out the fall stuff. The year moves right along.

At the museum, Ruth Schmidt’s daughter Laura stopped by with some wonderful Polo memorabilia. A very beautiful glass pitcher with Polo on it and one I had never seen before. It will go in the display case but we are still oohing and aahing over it for a while. Also she brought several little boxes of buttons from the Polo Garment Factory.

I remember Kenneth’s sister working there and bringing me dresses that were made there. I should have kept one or two but never even gave it a thought. I certainly was not thinking museum in those early years of being married. The buttons are fabulous and I just want to sit quietly and look at them before they go to Aplington House with other early buttons.

Did you know that Polo had an early button organization? Our town had many different kinds of groups one could join to keep one busy. Remember, many women did not work outside of the home so our community was humming with ways to stay occupied as if gardening, sewing, cleaning and cooking were not enough.

I did extra cooking this week and made a big pot of my calico beans since I had grandson Kyle, his wife Rebecca, and children, Anna, Mary, and James visiting me from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I had a house full of other family members also. I also had fried chicken from our store next door. You cannot beat their fried chicken.

I gave the girls little bags full of back-to-school crayons, Barbie markers, and colorful Post-it Notes. James had to be content with a bag full of colored Goldfish crackers while the girls colored. The kids even got to enjoy a little tea party under the tree in my yard. They loved the shady tree where it was cool and inviting away from the sun.

At the museum on Saturday we had the Class of 1970 visiting us and Bill “Dewy” Bower’s son from Indiana. Bill graduated with the Class of 1948. Steve came to find out about Polo, where his father grew up. Linda has been sending him all sorts of family information and he had to come and visit us.

The Class of 1970 had all sorts of questions about Aplington House and the restoration of it many years ago. Were the light fixtures in the living room and dining room original with the house? (They are not.) Are the parquet floors original with the house? (They are not.) Are the porch posts original with the house? (They are not.) Nor are the windows in the house.

It is time to get out all the information, make sure it is all documented, write it up, and have it out at Aplington House where all can read it. I will get started on all that soon.

• Betty Obendorf is a retired teacher and volunteer for the Polo Historical Society.