I am Mary Richardson Lasley, youngest child of W.S. and Sarah Atteberry
     Richardson. I had three brothers, William, Raymond and Claude, and two
     sisters, Mae Bell (always called Mabel) and Ethyl. They are all gone now
     but me. Joe (Scripsick) and Mabel's home was a second home to me and they
     even took the trouble to move my piano to their house when I wanted to 
     stay with them for awhile. When they were dating, Kid-like, I often wanted
     to tag along when they went for a walk. I can't remember they ever tried
     to get me to stay at home. The nuts or candy Joe would go to my dad's
     store and buy for me tasted much better to me than what I could go and get
     free any time. I spent many hours on my horse, riding over the countryside.
        I remember my dad as a good-natured man always quick to laugh or smile.
     I can't remember him ever being angry. I don't remember too much about my
     mother - she passed away soon after I was eleven.
        I guess Aetna is a ghost town now, but it used to be buzzing with activity.
     My three brothers were good baseball players and Aetna had some good teams.
     Sporting events were often improvised, and sometimes the men would match
     my brothers against others in foot races, which they nearly always won. If
     any old timers are left around the country, they could tell about the good 
     times we used to have there. I;m sure lots of people remember the Hotel at
     Aetna. That was my home as a girl and the dining room was the best dance
     floor in the country. Roy Platt would vouch for that, I'm sure. I kept the
     floor oiled and there was never any doubt that we would have a crowd. Bert
     Berton, who taught school at Hardtner, would come on weekends if we were
     having a dance and he would cream the butter and sugar by hand for several
     cakes if I would play the piano for him. We always had cake and coffee or
     sandwiches and coffee for refreshments at the dances. I remember my and
     Bert's mothers making oyster soup for everyone once in a new wash boiler.
     It would have been unthought of not to feed everyone. One night my sister,
     Ethyl, went to our dad's store to see if he needed any help while the dance
     was going on, and she found him inside the store holding a coal oil lamp so
     two fellows could see to fight and he was enjoying it but she passed out.
     We always knew we would have a full house when we decided to have a dance.
     I don't know where they all came from, but they did, and what good times
     we had! I wonder sometimes what became of all my friends, but I have never
     forgotten them.
        The top of the hotel was a tin roof which sloped a tiny bit to the west
     end and I remember one time a girl friend and I were up there on rollar
     skates and my brother, Ray came and stuck his head up through the opening
     and made us get down off of there in a hurry. There was nothing whatever 
     across the west end to keep us from going overboard - two stories below!
        I went to school at Aetna, and to Normal school at Medicine Lodge. One
     or another of my brothers would take me down into Oklahoma to take piano
     lessons from Bessie ARcher. Bessie was a sister of Emil Archer, a well
     known fiddler who played for many dances around the country. His wife
     accompanied him on the banjo.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 273 
     Submitted by: Mary Richardson Lasley