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Opinion / Religion -
September 1, 2025
Tammy's Takaways
By Tammy McCain Lonker
I have wanted to write a column for awhile now, but haven’t ever
broached the subject with Kevin. I have been encouraged by one reader on
more than one occasion to start one, so here we go, Alan Goering.
I love meeting people and writing their stories. However, I also love
being able to write about random things that are floating around in my
head.
With the news this week that we may not be receiving the dispatch record
for publication, I decided to come up with something to fill some of the
vacated space and submit it. It may be short-lived, but it was fun to
write.
I’m planning to share my thoughts/takeaways from the stories I’ve
written for the edition, some girly kind of things (both of our other
columns are written by men - no offense, but you probably won’t find
household tips among their writings), maybe a favorite app, life
experiences and/or something about faith.
THIS WEEK’S EDITION
Kiowa Museum
A story took me to Kiowa this week so I could write about the updates
made to the original historic museum. I felt honored to be the first to
be given a complete tour. Following the tour of the firehouse building,
we made our way to the downtown location. Both facilities are SO nice,
clean, fresh, not overcrowded, very, very well organized and provide a
wealth of information about the Kiowa community and history in general.
For anyone who loves history (even if you’re not from Kiowa), I highly
recommend both locations.
Medicine Lodge Collision
I smile whenever I think about Nick purchasing this business from Larry.
I’ve known Nick since he was an infant and through the years would often
see him with Larry. What an amazing story of how someone can influence a
young life by investing time in them. I’m pretty sure Larry gleans just
as much from their relationship as Nick does.
Medicine Lodge Grade School Playground
I spent countless hours during my career in education on the playground
at MLGS. This is the second makeover since at least 1988. We had what
has been deemed “dangerous” equipment on the playground when I started
my career. One of those pieces of equipment was a merry-go-round where
Mr. Wanger would run laps as fast as he could, tie flapping from the
momentum, while children spun in delight as their friends sprinted from
other parts of the playground to get in on the action. The teeter-totter
was another “dangerous” apparatus. I don’t remember anyone ever getting
hurt on it. Another memory is Mr. Wanger giving countless kids underdogs
on the swing. Swings are still a part of playgrounds and honestly the
most injuries I remember happening throughout the years came from this
piece of equipment (just to be clear, they were not from the underdogs).
This new playground is awesome! It even has a merry-go-round type
apparatus. Now if we can just get Mrs. Fisher to take laps around it I
bet the kids would still come sprinting to get in on the fun! (For those
that don't know, Mrs. Fisher is my sister-in-law, but that probably
won't get me out of hot water for this last comment.)
MY LIFE
American Field Service
This past weekend we spent time with some of our friends from Germany -
Chris, Claudia, Sarah and Hannah Strohla. Chris is someone our family
met through my husband’s AFS brother, Uli. Chris came to the US with Uli
a few years after Uli lived in Medicine Lodge. In the years that
followed more family and friends arrived in town and fell in love with
our little community. They love to ride horses, take pictures of the
Kansas sunsets and compare life between our two countries. Did you know
there are no turtles in Germany, their grocery stores have a very
limited supply of Mexican food ingredients, restaurants never provide
free refills and a glass of water costs between two and three dollars
when you are dining out? It has been quite an incredible journey that
will continue for many years to come. If you’ve ever considered AFS and
need a recommendation, it has certainly enhanced our lives!
From the kitchen
Adding a can of beef broth to a roast when you cook it makes gravy that
is “ten outta ten” as the kids would say. I had never used it until
recently and honestly it was out of desperation that I even tried it. I
didn’t end up with much juice from the roast I had cooked and so I
grabbed a can out of the cupboard and took a chance. I am actually
surprised that I even had a can of beef broth in the cupboard. I was
thinking tonight about why I haven’t ever used beef broth and am certain
it revolves around bad memories of having to drink it when I was in the
hospital and on a liquid diet. By itself, beef broth is a zero outta
ten. It’s amazing what some juice from the meat, flour and water do for
that can of broth. If you haven’t ever added beef broth to your roast
beef gravy, give it a try and let me know what you think.
TV subscriptions
I received an email this week from our television provider with a
message that they have been unable to come to an agreement with Fox. If
things don’t change soon we will be without all FOX network affiliates,
including sports. Fox just released Fox One, which is a complete package
of all their stations that they are providing in subscription form for
$20 a month. A little suspect in my opinion. Our TV provider is
providing a $10 credit for the inconvenience, which is really nice and
something I’ve not ever heard of a provider doing, but still...
In a separate conversation with my sister and nephew this week, we were
discussing the various ways to view college football this year. It's the
same sort of thing. If you want to see all of your favorite teams'
games, it’s probable you will have to subscribe to something other than
your main TV package to do so. Fortunately for us, my nephew had read
that SEC+ is free with many TV subscriptions and our team is in the SEC
conference. A win for us, but not for others.
Even though it’s most definitely a first world problem, it irritates me
to no end! Between movie channels, music subscriptions, different TV
network packages, etcetera, I wouldn’t have money to eat if I subscribed
to all the things I’d like to watch and/or listen to.
I love my Sooners, but won’t be buying anything extra to watch them this
year. I may have to go old school and find them on the radio. As for
Fox, 24 hour news is overrated, but I still hope they come to some sort
of agreement so I can watch “The Five” whenever I want to.
Faith
I grew up for the last half of my growing up years as a PK (Preacher’s
Kid). I have said many a time that had I not been born into the family I
was, faith would have been longer in coming for me than it was, or I may
never have found Jesus. I accepted Christ at a young age - it’s actually
one of my earliest memories. This didn’t, however, stop me from asking a
lot of questions. I remember many nights with my dad standing in my
room, patiently answering my questions or sometimes saying, “You’re just
going to have to accept that one on faith, Tammy”.
As I grew older and moved away from home I would still call my dad any
time I came across something relating to faith that I didn’t understand,
a scripture I couldn’t find or another question from my overthinking
brain.
When my dad died in 2007, one of the things I missed most was having my
human concordance at the other end of a phone call. Several years later
a friend shared a website called Got Questions (gotquestions.org) that
has a wealth of questions and answers that line up with all things
relating to my faith. I now have the app and, although I’d much rather
be talking to my dad, it is a great alternative. If you are a believer
and have questions or are someone who wonders what Christianity is all
about, I encourage you to check it out.
I know for multiple reasons, Kevin would like to resolve things with the
dispatch office and be able to continue to share with our readers the
way in which our agencies serve us. He spent many hours this week trying
to work things out. John 14:1 assures us with words spoken by Jesus,
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”
Even if we don’t get the answers we are hoping for, I do know that God
sees our frustration and he cares.
Have an amazing week!
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