Baker moved "up north" to Iola

2/26/09


By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter

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Lydia Baker didn’t have far to go when she decided to move to Iola. Her family has been moving further north with every generation, the last two veeeerrrry slowly.
“I grew up in Humboldt,” Baker said. “My mother and dad grew up in Chanute.”
The family made a leap before that, though. “My grandparents were both from Mexico. How they ended up in Chanute I don’t know — I think it was the railroad migration.”
Three of Baker’s siblings — “I’m the fourth of five children,” she said — were born in Chanute as well.
Despite her heritage, Baker never learned to speak her parents’ native tongue.
“My mom and dad both speak Spanish. All my grandparents spoke Spanish and broken English.
“My grandfather would tell stories to me and my siblings. He’d start a story in broken English and continue in Spanish. He’d forget we didn’t know what he was saying,” Baker said.
Once she married, Baker and her husband John opted to move north again.
“It was basically family that made us want to settle in Iola,” she said. “John is from Moran, and that puts us between the two sets of parents,” Baker said.
Baker isn’t sure if her own two children, Justin and Maria, will settle in Iola after college.
“My son is a junior at Pittsburg State,” she said, and Maria is a senior at Iola High School.
“I’m dreading the empty nest,” Baker said. “Maria graduates in May.”
She, too, plans to leave town for college, either Emporia or Pittsburg, Baker said.
“I don’t know if it will be possible for them to come back. I guess it would, because Justin’s major is finance and Maria’s is Education, but unless we get some economic incentive, it will be hard,” Baker said. “Unless we get some more industry or there’s an upturn in the economy, I don’t know.”
Baker works in Humboldt, at the ANW Special Education Co-op. “I take care of student records,” she said. The location allows her frequent visits with her parents, with whom she is still close. She knows she is lucky.
Bakers sees both Iola’s strengths and its weaknesses.
“The strongest point is the Bowlus Fine Arts Center,” she said. “The Bowlus is good for the city — it attracts a lot of talent that we wouldn’t see otherwise. The shows they bring in, you’d have to drive to the city to see otherwise.”
In addition she said, “The library is a strong point for Iola — Nobody else houses the stuff you can find there, and if they don’t
have it, they can get it for you.”
And, she said, Iola Industries helps. “They really try to bring in industries; they work on it.”
But Iola needs some work, too, she said.
“I’d really like to see something done with the schools. I know we can’t afford it right now, but I’d like new schools.”
“I’d like to see a recreation center with a walking track that you can use anytime you want. I’d love to see an indoor pool.”
“I hope the future of Iola is growth,” Baker said thoughtfully. “It was a great place to raise my kids.”
“Four years ago,” she said, “my son went from sport to sport to sport, so the recreation department was really good for us. When he aged out with American Legion baseball, that was the saddest thing.” But for families not sports-oriented, there’s not much to do, Baker noted, especially in the winter.
“I am not a winter person. I don’t like driving in the winter. I like spring because everything starts blooming,” Baker said.
Still, she added, “I wouldn’t have wanted to go to the city.”
Baker believes Iola can weather the current economic storm, if it can only grow.
“I think we’d want to get a little bit bigger. If you grow as a city you can grow your schools and rec centers. Growth stimulates the economy” she said. “I have hope for it.”