Our Past Is Present July 25, 2017

July 25, 2017

            You are reading “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

            A neighborhood feud in Junction City was settled in August of 1924, much to the relief of the police and county authorities.  The neighbors in this story will be referred to as Neighbor No. 1 and Neighbor No. 2, just in case any of our readers might be able to identify the characters involved in this story.

            It seems that Neighbor No. 1 had been complaining that a cow belonging to Neighbor No. 2 had been allowed to run at large to the detriment of the first’s garden.  Shortly afterwards, No. 2 called the police and complained that No. 1 had locked up his cow and demanded $25.00 for damages to his garden before he would turn the cow back to its owner.

            The police and county authorities declined to get involved in this fuss and suddenly the matter was dropped.  Shortly after this incident, Neighbor No.2 caught a white angora cat belonging to Neighbor No. 1 on his premises and locked her up on the claim that she had been eating his chickens.  When Neighbor No. 1 called to protest, he was told that it would cost $25.00 to get the cat released.  Neighbor No. 1 replied “I’ll trade you the cow for the cat”….

And with that exchange, the feud ended. 

            Wouldn’t it be great if disagreements could be handled that easily today?”