Daddy used to say that if you read it in the Banner, then it was surely true. So I am writing to you, Mr. Editor, to ask you about what was written in last week's edition. You ran an article about the Kiwanis Club not renewing its charter and drawing to a close. Say it ain't so, Mr. Editor, say it ain't so! I know the saying about all good things coming to an end. I read earlier this year where it was announced that the train was being sold and that ending of an era was a possibility, but to read the confirmation of that end in the Banner hit me hard, just as if you would have told me there was no Santa Claus. Surely the world is coming to an end. At least the world as so many of us knew it.

The Kiwanis club, to me, is synonymous to excellence. The men who formed the club, and ran it so caringly, were also the men that shaped our town. They were farmers, merchants, attorneys, editors, restauranteurs, mayors, aldermen, and held a myriad of other professions, but who they were was more than their jobs. More than anything else that they were, they were our friends.

They were friends to the town and to the town's children. What a prescription for joy they carved into our childhood when they opened the train at Kiwanis Park! Now I have been to Dollywood and Disneyland, and experienced those expensive thrills, but I can still feel the delight at rounding the bend on the train, coming so close to those teepees, and imagining that perhaps Chief Reelfoot still haunted that area. It was always driven by one of the Kiwanis members, and always boarded by best friends and families out for a Sunday together by one of God's greatest creations, Reelfoot Lake. The carousel and later the ferris wheel made for what was basically our own private amusement park; complete with our parents as chaperones, our friends waiting for us to get there so we could ride, run, and of course, eat snow cones and cotton candy.

They held Easter eggs hunts that were along the same lines as a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade, as some of the Kiwanis members stood in the back of a pick-up, waiting as the children lined up, (being on the small side, I always thought there had to be at least a thousand of us as I fought for my place in line, and somehow always ended up at the back), and then with a train whistle, they took off in the truck, pelting us with the rainbow-colored candy eggs. Unlike today's politically correct egg hunts, where every child is assured of getting the same number of eggs as everyone else, I'm sure I never got as many eggs as I wanted, but I loved the adventure anyway. Each year the "hunt" was a highly anticipated event, complete with rides on the train, warnings not to go in the teepees because that was too far away, (making them so appealing, of course!), and the inevitable snow cones that I always craved. The town turned out in full for these events, and unbeknownst to any of us there at the time, created a Utopia that no longer exists, no matter how we try to find it.

The world has changed. It is faster, slicker, smarter, and scarier. If you now told a tale about a small amusement park, where grown men took time out of their Saturdays to monitor small children on the rides, lifting them on and off, teasing with them, passing out candy, and totally enjoying themselves, you would be telling a creepy story about a place where no sane parents would take their child. But such was not the case. Innocence, chivalry, graciousness, propriety, and virtue abounded. To even discuss the world we live in today in the same story with these fine, upstanding men, is seemingly wrong and sinful.

But to declare their worthiness without examining where we are today, however, is to fail to see what we will and do miss about that time in our lives, about the men who were members of this outstanding organization, and the high moral standards that they lived by. They were our fathers, our friends, and our families, and they taught us how to live, how to show respect, and how to be loyal to a "club" without making it your religion. They were serious when it was appropriate, but were also the source of much merry-making with their jokes, their humor, and their wise wit; many times at each other's expense!

So, Mr. Editor, if you tell me that the Kiwanis Club is no longer, I shall sadly believe you, while saluting the men, and now the women that have made our town a stronger and a better place to live for 51 years. I am glad that the charter, the flag, and the other mementoes will stay at Boyette's. Whenever I am home and go to eat at Boyette's (which I have to do whenever I am home!), I always rub the brass plate that bears my father's name and states that fact that he was the president of the club in 1958, the year I was born. I feel as if I touch a piece of my own history in that corner of the restaurant, and am glad that it will remain in place for a while. The little girl who rode that train and imagined that perhaps the ghosts of Chief Reelfoot and his tribe still inhabited that land, now thinks that perhaps the spirit of those fine men that have come and gone before us, might still gather around that table at Boyette's on Tuesdays, telling jokes, laughing, and most of all watching over their families and this county that they loved so dearly. I know that God smiled at the heaven they made on Earth in the form of that park, and I am sure that as each one of them arrived in the real Heaven, He said to them, "Well done, my good and faithful servants. Now whose turn is it to drive that train?"



For 51 years, Boyette's Dining Room has been preparing something special for the Tiptonville Kiwanis Club on Tuesday at noon.

Yesterday, Boyette's co-owner Fran Hearn and staff served the four remaining Kiwanians for the last time.

With a specially prepared meal on the table and a quiet sadness in the air, the Tiptonville Kiwanis Club met for the final time in the fireplace room Tuesday.

The club will not renew its charter and is disbanding after 51 years as one of the county's most prominent civic organizations.

The club has been meeting each Tuesday in recent months every other Tuesday in that same room since 1954.

Four of the five remaining members of the club attended Tuesday's meeting including president Jimmy Yates, secretary Claudia Adcock, and members Howard Todd and Terry Petty.

"We are here to liquidate all our assets," said Yates. "We are trying to dispurse the money here and there. It is a good problem to have really."

The Kiwanis Club has some significant money to donate to various projects including Lake County High School athletics, libraries, Tiptonville Main Street and others.

"We have talked to an attorney and he said the best way to disolve the club was just to not renew the charter which is up in November," said Adcock.

Jan Richardson Boyd, co-owner of Boyette's and daughter of the late Jack Richardson, a charter member, also came out to express her regrets about the club's disbanding.

She intends to keep the club's charter on its accustomed place on the wall despite the club's demise.

"They have been meeting here so long, it makes me sad," said Jan. "I remember when dad was here on Tuesday, he would be the first one sitting out there at the table waiting for the others to arrive.

"If we ever decide to move the charter and flag, I will probably take them to the Tiptonville museum. That is such a nice place."

Yates said the beginning of the end for the club came when the state dissolved their lease for the Kiwanis Park funland.

For decades the club operated a small amusement park with its signature ride, a passenger train that carried happy riders on a short trip around the edge of the lake.

"We couldn't get anybody to run the park for a couple of summers and they canceled our lease," said Yates. "That was all part of the lease and was really the beginning of the end for the club."

The club once included business, civic and political leaders from throughout the Tiptonville area among its members.

The train was sold to Johnny Lucy of South Fulton who, members say, intends to install the track and operate it in his back yard.

All four members agreed that in some respects, civic clubs belong to another generation and another time.

"Younger people don't like to be in clubs and things," said Petty.

"Both parents now work and it seems like there is something always going on," added Yates.

All four members paid tribute to past members, many of them who are now deceased.

"We want to donate this money to various organizations in memory and honor of past members like Richard Jones and James E. "Babe" Naifeh," said Petty. "They put so much time and hard work in to make it successful."

Workmen have been taking up track at Kiwanis Park in recent days as the train is being moved to South Fulton.

Literally and symbolically, it is the end of the line.



CREDITS: Various Newspaper Clippings from the Lake County Banner and Laurel Jones Childs.