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Most people think of Kansas as being a land of wide open flat spaces. The only thing that blocks a view to infinity is when something moves in your line of sight. Kansas, short grass prairie and flat land, hardly the setting for adventure or facing sudden death. That's what my great grandfather thought when he saw it for the first time.
My great granddad was named after one of the founding fathers. His name was Thomas Jefferson Hartung. His dad named him that when he born, only 2 years after coming to America. Now at the age if 8 the family was moving, trying their luck in the new territory of Kansas. As the wagons rolled westward into Kansas Tom was filled with excitement as they approached their new home but the excitement was tempered by the boredom of day after day and mile after mile of flat land and grass.
It was the end of the days travel, as the family was making camp that a family legend was born. It was the start of Fall and the night came quickly. Tom was sent off with the water bucket to get water from the creek that could be seen about a quarter mile from the family's camp. The grasses were dry and crunched under Tom's boots as he made his way to the creek in the gathering gloom. Being a typical child and bored with his task, Tom wasn't paying attention to where he was walking. Suddenly the ground gave way and Tom began to slip down the edge of a cliff, the bottom lost in darkness. As he fell he grasped the dry leaves and flower stems of the dormant grasses around him. He couldn't climb back up and he didn't know how far he would drop or what was under him. He began to cry out at the top of his voice, hoping someone in the family would here him and effect his rescue. After holding on for what seemed forever, and as his arms began to numb with fatigue he could hear his parents coming to his rescue. When they were just inches away from lifting him to safety the unthinkable happened and the grass and straw finally gave way. With a wail Tom plunged into the darkness. He fell 3 feet down into the creek. There he was, sitting in the water soaking wet, covered in mud, with his arms still extended grasping the life saving straw.
For the rest of his life, Tom's family would respond to a bad idea or plan with the question; "Are you grasping at straws again?"
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