In the Land of Hospitality (02-05-07)

Whenever I consider the differences between Western Kansas and rest of the state, one word immediately comes to mind: hospitality.

I am amazed at the difference. When I took my first job, as teacher and forensics coach of Wheatland High School, I just assumed that all schools rolled out the red carpet when other schools came for tournaments. I had no idea how spoiled I was in both the quantity and quality of food and drink presented to me regularly in every hospitality room I entered.

To me it just made sense. If you treat your guests well, they will treat you well win return. Schools were proud of their spreads. Everybody chipped in. If your team was having a bad day, there was always the comfort of the hospitality room in which to escape.

Then I moved. At my first forensics tournament as coach of Inman High School, I just assumed that because I was among bigger schools, I would find bigger and better hospitality.

Imagine my surprise when, at my first tournament, I found myself faced with a loaf of bread, a package of bologna and a pile of individually wrapped slices of processed cheese food.

Yum!

It seems that in the middle part of our great state, hospitality is a lost art. Overall, central Kansas schools seemed less welcoming and less concerned with the welfare of their guests. Hospitality rooms were often crammed in small faculty workrooms stocked so minimally that no one wanted to spend much time in there anyway. Often, there were no provisions made for bus drivers, and the judges had to often make due with cold sandwiches and, if they were lucky, warm tea.

My, oh my, how happy I am to be back! The last two weeks, Hill City has opened it doors, first for league wrestling, and, this last Saturday, for forensics. Not only was there hot, freshly made food (delicious pulled pork, and scrumptious sloppy joes), but there was all the fixings. Visitors to the forensics hospitality has their choice of several types of sides, a dozen kinds of deserts, and enough pop, tea (ice cold) and coffee (steaming hot) to quench any thirst and satisfy any appetite.

But more than that, there was a palpable difference in the feel of the hospitality rooms. League wrestling’s hospitality room took the entire cafeteria, where there was room to be…well…hospitable! Forensics used the home-ec room, the very room where most of the goodies were home-made by our talented young family and consumer scientists.

The mood in the rooms was jovial, relaxed and collegial. Most of the hospitality rooms in many of the larger schools I visited around Inman were dark places to be avoided.

So, why does this difference exist? I think that the substandard hospitality rooms of central Kansas are indicative of the pervasiveness of social isolation in that part of the state. Overall, I would say that people were just less open and trusting as they are out here. Coaches were expected to watch the kids more, because the kids were more likely to get into trouble if left unsupervised. Schools competed with the multitude of local businesses, and it was more common to see teams ordering out for delivery pizza than the coaches actually eating in the hospitality room. People made less of an effort to talk to each other, and the school was not as much of a gathering space, as a place that many were happy to leave.

On the other hand, I have been regularly impressed with the warmth and generosity of Western Kansas schools. The other night, Ransom rescued a bus full of our basketball players by providing a bus when ours went dead. And that is just the most recent story of how Western Kansas schools and communities reach out, help out, and hand out amazing hospitality.

While my family and I made many friends in central Kansas, we now feel that are among family. At the forensics hospitality room, I was again welcomed into that family, as I was reunited with friends and colleagues from years ago.

I hope we all can appreciate just how lucky we are to live where we live and to live how we live. I, for one, am glad to be back in the land of hospitality.