Feature Stories

Visiting Yesterday

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There is a not insignificant line to buy $3 tickets to the
Wichita Flea Market at Century II’s Exhibition Hall. Inside, the diamonds and detritus
of a city’s inhabitants stretch across both time and space in this corner of south
central Kansas’ prime convention center. Star Wars action figures entice Generation
X, while baby boomers fawn over car doors painted with antique logos from the
1950s. Those who long not for their own glory years, but those of their
forefathers, can purchase a Confederate sword from a collection of Civil War
memorabilia under a glass display. Travel to the past cannot be purchased, but
for the hundreds of people in attendance, the nostalgia machine that is a flea
market does its best to approximate it. As he stops at a booth filled with Civil War memorabilia, 63-year-old
Wichita resident Les Klingenberg takes off his jacket to reveal a cutoff T-shirt
advertising motorcycles.

Telling Wichita’s Story

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Everyone likes a good story. In Wichita, enlightening and provocative voices are waiting to be heard. In the multitude of micro-communities that comprise our city, men and women are creating, inspiring, and doing. We aim to tell their stories. But it’s not an easy time to be a storyteller.