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Note to Editors: This column is adapted from the Kansas Profile radio series. Every Wednesday, a different Kansan, Kansas community or Kansas-based company is profiled as a regular feature of the K-State Research and Extension News lineup. A photo of Ron Wilson is available at http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/news/sty/RonWilson.htm. Released: May 21, 2008 Kansas Profile – Now, That’s Rural  Help yourself. That’s a courteous way of saying go ahead and do what you need to do. Imagine a store where you could not only help yourself to the items for sale on the shelves, but you could help yourself by going to the cash register and making your own change on the honor system. I didn’t think such places still existed anywhere, but I found one in rural Kansas. It’s a store operated by a lady with a long service of history to her customers and it’s this week’s Kansas Profile. Maria Baumgardner is the owner of the Baumgardner Grocery Store in Elmdale, Kansas. Ms. Baumgardner is originally from the nearby town of Clements. In 1938, she married Glenn Baumgardner who from an early age was nicknamed Bummie. Maria came to be known as Ms. Bummie. Maria’s brother was in the bank at Elmdale. He was looking for someone to run the hardware store in that community, so Bummie and Maria came to Elmdale to do so and then stayed. After serving in the Army in World War II, Bummie wanted to start a locker plant in Elmdale. He built a building in 1947 and opened the locker plant to butcher beef and venison. Ms. Bummie says, “That was back in the days before people had deep freezes. We had to get our meat fresh and we got it at the locker plant.” The Baumgardners also had groceries on hand. They had a son named Boyce and now have eight great-grandsons. Bummie had a long career with the locker plant. It was located in the back of the building, while the front part was the grocery store. Elmdale was an active community in the early years, with a bank, school, hardware store, and more. But over time, all those businesses closed. Bummie fell into poor health and passed away in 1997. The locker plant closed but Ms. Bummie continues to operate the grocery store. Her house is literally across the street from the store. Like the true lady which she is, Ms. Bummie doesn’t divulge her age. However, she does indicate that her vision is not as good as it once was. But with help from some friends, she faithfully continues to operate the store. Baumgardners Grocery Store appears to be the only business left in Elmdale, other than the antique store and flea market out on the highway. Elmdale is in a truly rural setting, nestled in the Flint Hills of Chase County along Highway 50. It has a population of 45 people. Now, that’s rural. How does a grocery store operate in such a rural place? Ms. Bummie continues to work at it with help from some other people. Her son Boyce lives in Emporia and brings supplies. Various suppliers furnish meat, sandwiches, snack foods and soda pop. But it is really the people who make this place go. Ms. Bummie still faithfully comes to the store at 5:45 every weekday morning. Yes, I said 5:45 a.m. She opens up the store for the regular coffee drinkers who come in every morning from the countryside. Her friend, the lady postmaster also comes in early to add the tickets and pay the bills. Her regular customers make their own change at the cash register on the honor system. The locals also know that the store is closed each Wednesday afternoon, while Boyce takes his mother to the beauty shop. In the sense of a rural community pulling together, it is rural Kansas at its best. Help yourself. That’s a courteous way of saying go ahead and do what you need to do. In this case, the regular customers help themselves by using the cash register and making their own change on the honor system. But in a larger sense, that phrase and this store are symbols of life in rural Kansas, where self-help and helping one’s neighbor are a way of life. We salute Maria Baumgardner and her customers in Elmdale for making a difference by keeping this store going.
Longstanding relationships like these in
Elmdale make it possible for customers and rural communities to help
themselves. -30- K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus in Manhattan. For more
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