Wichita State University - Parnassus Yearbook (Wichita, KS)

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ali CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Erna and Otto Woermke, the original owners of the Old Mill Tasty Shop, pose outside their cafe. 2124177 Gale Cowan, known as Flash at the restaurant, is just a blur as she waits tables. 1123185 WSU graduate student Kim Schield and her husband, Doug, divide the hot fudge left in Kim's sundae. 1126185 The Old Mill runs low on ice cream cones. 1124185 The owner's daughter, Shannon Wright, attends night classes at WSU, enabling her to keep her job as soda jerk at the Old Mill Tasty Shop. 1124185 Kandy Eaton meets her friends for lunch. 1124185

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Photo courtesy of John Freeman Visions Measured In An Ice Cream Scoop Since reopening its doors in October of 1982, the Old Mill Tasty Shop has been the best example of an Old Town success story. The patrons are a steady combination of the business-suit set and the tattered-jeans. artist-colony crowd. They come for the food and the atmosphere which, perhaps, best represents what Old Town could become. Mary Wright and her husband john are the urban pioneers who own and operate the Old Mill. They bought the place after the previous owner, Otto Woermke, died in 1981. Otto and his wife, Erna, who died a few years earlier, ran the place for 49 years. The Wrights kept the old name and interior styling. One important feature they also kept was fountain service - sodajerks still hand-mix syrup and soda water and concoct fountain desserts - something for which the Old Mill was famous. The Wrights' daughter, Shannon, a freshman at Wichita State University, has been working behind the counter since the place reopened and has learned the skill of making fountain desserts. Mary Wright said one of the people who used to work there when the Woermkes owned the place came in and gave a few hints. 'I have never been able to do it well,' Wright admitted. 'I think that's a lost art.' The business has grown to the point where she is talking of serving evening meals and expanding the size of the dining area. But for the place to be a real success depends on the growth of the area, she said. The interest does seem to be there. Last year during the river festival, over 10,000 people came to Old Town. In September, the Old Town Association held it's first annual Old Town Chili Cookoff, also thought to have been a success. The idea behind these events, Wright said, isito get the public used to coming down, seeing what the area has to offer, thereby changing the perception of the area as blighted. 'Iwo me it's beautiful to look at these old buildings,' she said. She us- ed to come down to shop when she was younger, and, while remembering that the area was not all that attractive - especially during the early 1970s - she wants to bring back some of the home-town feel. Wright hopes to bring in picnic tables to Naftzger Park - called Wino Park by the transients who fre- quent the place, and, dur- ing good weather, turn it into a party spot. 'You just have to break patterns,' Wright said. 'If we have some security over there then you can come down, get your lunch, and go over and not be harassed. The way it is now, you will be harassed. It's the most beautiful park in the city. It's our park, we just got to get over there and start using it.' Most people interested in developing the area say the problem is not with the local bums but with the pubIic's perception of them. The crime is not severe - most of the muggings are among the transients themselves. The established bums, the ones who have been around for years, have indoctrinated themselves into the area and are fixtures. What problems there are come from the nomadic transients - the ones whose behavior patterns aren't known. 'I had one of the drunks explain it to me this way: I-Ie told me to always be careful with them because you don't know what they're go- ing to do because they don't know what they're going to do from one minute to the next. They could just go off and do something real crazy or be real mild, you never know. Developers point out the changes the area has undergone and the success ofthe Old Town events in bringing in people. 'Growth is go- ing to change and improve the area but the rate of that growth is hard to gauge, said Steve Fairchild, executive member of the Old Town Association and a WSU graduate from 1972. 'The area is going through a puberty stage, and building owners are holding onto their lands, anticipating an increase in value. Spring always brings a renewal, too, Wright said, 'new people, new action. Yeah, we do feel like this every spring but each time I think, 'This will be the time it happensf The energy and the faith people like Mary Wright put into the area strongly suggests a renaissance. For the people that may mean a chance, as one resident put it, 'to be who or what you want. A man was sitting at the Old Mill Tasty Shop's long marble counter to order. I'd like a peanut butter and pineapple shake. The waitress, Ann, made a small face, but responded, relatively un- fazed, by asking, 'Would you like an egg in it? Sure,' the man replied, 'why not? He then turned to his companion and said, 'l'll get the barf bag, toof' Jr Old Town stories by Peter Ingmire

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River Festival 1984 City Turns Out For Vernal Block-Party lf size can be any indication of success, then the 1984 River Festival continued to flourish. Festival organizers try to blend a bit of history with what is current during the 10-day event - held since 1974 - to come up with something in which Wichitans can both participate and just watch and enjoy. Based on sales of festival buttons and rib- bons, an estimated 175,000 people attended some part of the city's inauguration of spring. 'lt seems like every year it gets bigger and bigger, said River Festival organizer Marita Weninger. We just anticipate how many people will comef' were in the 80s and rain fell only on the next-to-last day. Weninger said that after the months of planning she was glad the good Lord helped with the weather. 'Some people refer to the festival as a Rite of Springf Broadfoot said. 'The first festival was held in july and people were sweltering. So the decision was made to have it in May when public schools can take an active part and more people aren't on vacationsf' The festival began with something of the feel of a block party. Friends and small families crowded along Main Steet for the sundowner parade, one of the openers for the festival. Lining the back streets of the parade routes, Shriners, wearing fezzes, skirted along in their minature cars into which they barely fit. Another group of parade entrants were drinking beer to pass the time and stave off the early spring chill. A group of children with the Camp F ire Girls and Boys looked as if they were freezing with only their swim- suits to wear. One girl, who would only say she was seven, wore a set of corrugated cardboard water skis as part of the Camp Elma Broadfoot, director of 1 Wichita Festivals Inc., said size is only part of the measure of a festivals success. The best yardstick is whether we are giv- ing people an opportunity for them to come together, to celebrate what we have in the community - our cultural and recreational resources.' Weather was probably the most influential factor for the week's success. Temperatures i x -'Mike Fire group's motif, but the skis kept falling off her tennis-shoed feet. The sign atop the Kansas State Bank and Trust building showed 66 degrees as the sun was going down. On the back of a black Ran- chero sat two speakers wired to a sound system cranking out about 60 decibels with a trailer hitched to the back loaded with baby boomers and their children.