Erie Bean Feed: 'It means something to us'
(Photo by Adam Vogler)

Erie Bean Feed: 'It means something to us'

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They start in Erie, Kan., at around 7 a.m. on a Friday, dropping 1,400 pounds of navy beans into more than 50 metal kettles ranging from 25-75 pounds each filled with water. A few hours later, with wood stacked under each kettle, a team goes around lighting a fire under each kettle, using a propane tank attached to what looks like a combination of a blow torch and hair dryer. Within a few minutes, a fire is going under each metal container.

And for the next five or so hours, members of the George L. Hendricks Post 102 American Legion Family will add seasoning and meat to the pots until they are ready to serve to hundreds of Kansas residents lined up with their own pots, pans, buckets and coolers. At 6 p.m., the serving lines are open, and 26 minutes – a testament to the efficiency the post members have developed over 90-plus years of experience – the lines are gone and most of the beans have been served.

“Most of these guys are here helping every year,” Post 102 Sergeant-at-Arms John Gilbreath said. “That’s how we’re able to do what we do.”

Post 102 has been doing it for more than 90 years, six-time Post Commander Jack McGowen said. The bean feed is part of Erie’s Old Soldiers and Sailors Reunion, which celebrated its 145th year July 9-14 this year. McGowen believes the post took over sponsorship of the reunion in around 1925.

Gilbreath has been helping cook and serve beans for 14 years, attributing dedication and patriotism that keeps bringing him back to brave temperatures that hit the mid-90s this year.

“I’m American,” he said. “I was born American, I’m going to die American, and this is part of keeping the tradition of this going on. It’s been going on 145 years. You’re talking about a small town and a bunch of country people pulling together to make things work. You’ve got to keep it going. It’s just like celebrating the Fourth of July. It means something to us.”

And it means something to those who live in the area. Alberta Westhoff, 80, comes nine miles every year for the bean feed. An American Legion Auxiliary member for more than 50 years, she said it’s an excellent opportunity to get together with others and see old friends.

“You see a lot of class reunions this week,” Westhoff said. “It’s a good time for everyone.”

Tony Jimenez drove the nearly 20 miles from Chanute to Erie to stock up on beans. He wasn’t surprised by the lines at the bean feed. “If it’s a bean feed, there’s going to be a line,” he said. “It’s the people getting together.”

Bill Locke, a 92-year-old member of Post 102, was born and raised in Erie, spent 24 years in the Navy and now lives in Raymore, Mo. He came to the reunion when he was younger and spent many years helping cook the beans. Now – after a 120-mile ride on his Harley-Davidson trike – he sits back and watches, a fixture at the bean feed who comes to the reunion for “camaraderie. They’ll be people here that I haven’t seen for 40 years. I probably wouldn’t know half of them, but they’ll know me. That’s what it amounts to: camaraderie.”

Though he still enjoys the reunion and won’t miss a bean feed, Locke does miss the old days. “This was before television, air conditioning and microwaves,” he said. “People would get their beans, sit here in the courtyard, and eat and talk. That’s the way it was back then. They didn’t go home.

“Now they get a bucket of beans and head to the house and turn on the television.”

The bean feed is by no means the end of the Legion’s involvement. On Tuesday and Wednesday nights, the 38th annual American Legion IPRA World Championship Rodeo takes place at Post 102’s outdoor arena. The rodeo started in 1980 with portable everything, including chutes. Now there are permanent chutes, corrals, bleachers, stands for selling food and beverages, and an announcer’s box. Members of the International Professional Rodeo Association and the American Cowboy Rodeo association compete in the rodeo.

“The rodeo has basically gotten bigger since its start,” McGowen said. “We get the gate money. It costs us X amount of dollars to have a contractor produce the rodeo. And the post and its Auxiliary unit man food and beverage stands.”

The Legion-sponsored week also features a youth rodeo, children’s tricycle and bicycle races, concerts, fireworks, a 5k run and walk, a car and truck show, a golf outing and a parade down Main Street – right in front of Post 102 – on the final day of the reunion. Post 102 invites all of the Legion posts in the Third District to march in the parade. More than 100 Legion Riders also take part in the parade, and this year’s parade also included Department of Kansas Commander Dan Wiley, Department Adjutant/Past National Commander Jimmie Foster and other state Legion leaders.

Post 102 hosts community meals during the week, and several high school classes have their reunions in one of Post 102’s rooms. And in the last 10 or so years, local organization Main Street Memories has teamed up with Post 102 on the reunion, adding an arts and crafts show to the lineup.

People don’t just come from all over the state, but “all over the country,” McGowen said. “We probably have a group of 25-30 volunteers from the (post’s Legion Family) who help out during the reunion, from the rodeo to the bean feed and other events. And as long as we’re breathing and still available, we’ll keep doing this. And we’ve gotten three or four new members involved in the past couple of years, and they’ve been working their butts off this year learning the ropes. So I’m pretty confident they’ll be involved for a while.”

Wiley said the Old Soldiers and Sailors Reunion is typical of what one will find in Smalltown, USA. “This is about giving back to the community, and it’s really pretty reflective of the central part of this country: a lot of small towns, small-town pride and small-town festivals. And that’s exactly what this is,” he said. “And the Legion in these smaller communities is at the forefront of these.”

Hosting the community event is in line with what American Legion National Commander Denise H. Rohan asked posts to do when she was elected last August. “Commander Rohan wanted our posts to open up to the community and be a focal part of the community, and that’s certainly what they do here,” Wiley said. "(Post 102) has done an excellent job. They open up their doors, put on this week of programs and open up to the community.”

This year’s grand marshal was David Larsen, who served in the U.S. Navy from 1966-1972 and was awarded the Navy Cross while serving as the gunner’s mate on River Patrol Boat 775 during the Vietnam War. A member of Post 102, Larsen said the Legion’s involvement in the reunion shows the members’ effort to ensure that those in the military continue to get both remembered and honored.

“Now veterans are treated with respect, and I think it was a handful of veterans who helped change that culture,” Larsen said. “I don’t think you ever see (veterans) treated like they were (after the Vietnam War) because of the people that are here today.”

Legionnaires from all over the state come to Erie to take part in the parade, one of the final events of the reunion. Roger May, an American Legion Rider from Post 225 in Ozawkie, Kan., rode more than 150 miles for the second straight year to attend the bean feed and then ride in the parade the next day. “I just heard about it from other (Legion) Riders who said it was a neat thing to see,” he said. “And as you can see, it is.”

May said being a part of an event that has lasted for 145 years “is motivating to know that there’s people out there that still care enough to do this sort of thing.”

John Melvin, a member of Post 182 in Arma and Kansas’ Third District vice commander, has been coming to the reunion for 15 years. He made the 45-minute drive again this year to take part in the parade and regularly marches in parades while representing The American Legion.

“It’s really kind of interesting … that you will see a different reaction along a parade route in different areas,” Melvin said. “There’s more patriotism and more respect in some places. Very seldom do you see community members just sitting on the side of the road in Erie when the color guard passes. That’s nice to see.”