It is tim for a trip through the decades to visit the faces and places of Hattebergs people.

And coming up, the premier of a brand new story.

Here's a peek.

We can be togethe and appreciate who weve become in a place that we lov and grow together and appreciate where we are.

But I think there's something really specia about the fact that Rolf and I both have such a deep love for this place.

Kristin Bush and Rol Potts have led the kind of lives that most people just dream about.

Well, no they are living in rural Kansas, which they say makes their lives even more exciting.

And you'll find out why.

Also.

When I was in medical schoo and there was no one particular area that ever turned me off, so to speak.

I like to take care of kids and adults and mothers and babies.

And he liked to do it in a small town.

We go back all the way back to 1977 for the story of this young doctor in his first year of practice in Kingman.

Then learn what's become of him since.

Plus-- You come in and have a good time.

And the table hopping.

And enjoy good food at the same time.

People here are just like my family.

Sometimes you want to g where everybody knows your name.

Well, that was the appeal of this little Wichita restaurant an the immigrant woman who ran it.

You'll see why it was so special to so many people.

Hi, everybody.

I'm Larry Hatteberg.

And I'm Susan Peters.

Get yourself comfortable.

Those are jus some of the stories coming up.

We're about to cover almost 5 years of Kansas life in the next 30 minutes on this edition of Hatterbergs People.

These stories are like old friends.

Their lives radiat from the screen, like prophets of the past.

They were teachers, but not in a classroom.

Instead, they taught about lif to those around them who cared to listen.

And I was their student.

There are those who look at rural Kansas and see nothing but cows and crops.

That is a reality, to be sure.

But there are also people who choose to live in Kansas despite their international lifestyle.

So what if I told yo that there's a bit of Hollywood lurking on the other side of those barbed wire fences in certain places?

Well, an actress makes her home near a barn that houses a small horse and a friendly pig.

And what would you think of one of this generation's foremost travel writers and author was planning his next trip behind that same fence?

Well it is down a Kansas gravel road just east of nowhere.

It is remote and it is so typical Kansas.

And it is home.

A road can be a metaphor for life.

You are either arriving or leaving.

Rolf Potts and Kristen Bush have arrived.

You're not going to pout, are you?

I hate when men pout.

Go away.

Originally from Sterling, Kansas Kristen is a Hollywood actress.

Would you please wait?

No, I'm not waiting.

You promised this wouldn't happen.

And it did.

You never told me you were arrested.

Don't contact me again.

A working actress, as she likes to say.

How could you do this to us?

She's also a film producer, stage actor and a realist.

Statistically speaking, women's roles dip starting to take a nosedive after 30.

And men's roles reach their pinnacle at 45.

Please tell me I get to go for her.

And even though, you know, I may be a young looking, whatever it.

There were just less roles for a 35 year old, a 40 year old.

And now that I'm encroaching on middle forties, it's like, okay, we've got a mom role for you.

But now there's the writers strike.

So it's just... it's a challenge.

Meanwhile, hailing from Wichita, Rolf Potts is this generation's world renowned international travel writer.

Over the past decade, I've been fortunate enough to have some pretty amazing adventure in different parts of the world, including seven year of living and traveling in Asia.

I drove a Land Rover acros the Americas for three months.

I've been to Afric for the New York Times Magazine.

I've been to Australia for Slate.

I've been to the Falkland Islands for National Geographic Traveler.

He's also a podcast creator, teacher and author of five books on travel.

I sort of stumbled my way int my dream job in a very real way.

It started in Kansas with me dreaming about travel and points beyond.

Now, of those five books he's written, one of the Vagabonding, has gone through 37 printings in multiple languages.

But Rolf approaches trave a little differently than most.

But it's those little moments where suddenly you're doing something that's familiar to home.

And in Asia, it could be a toilet that's a squat toilet, rather than a normal commode.

Or, again, a restaurant where they don't serv you silverware in parts of India because you expected to eat with your hands.

There's some eel, some catfish, some frogs.

And I thought I saw some snakes but those could have been eels.

And you're you're suddenly realizing how rich the world can be and how friendl and how amazing the world can be just by going out and living your everyday life in a different place.

And you knew this was going to happen.

You knew this was going to happen.

I came into Bangkok looking for street food and we found a tray of bugs.

We've been here for like 3 minutes.

You know, I'm going to eat some.

And he's done one other thing-- For six weeks, he traveled through 16 countries in five continents with no luggage, not even a carry on.

But to be honest, after about a week, I got used to traveling with no luggage.

And now it meant I had to wash my clothes.

My one change of clothes every day.

But that became normal.

I'm traveling around the world with no luggage.

Everything I have is in this vest for the next six weeks.

This is my first stop.

Joy in that trip was not the struggl of overcoming having no luggage, but just the joy of being able to throw myself into th pleasure of a travel experience.

Everywhere in the world.

As you can tell, both Rolf and Kristen led separate lives in their own choices of vocation.

For her acting.

I am doing it.

For him, travel writing.

We'll see how it goes.

Now they met during COVID on a dating app, and in June of 2021, they were married under cottonwood tree on their rural Kansas property.

We clicked in a way that is unique and that I'm grateful for always.

Now because both were older an their dating days behind them.

Things moved quickly.

It went from hello to we should probably get married in a very, very fast.

I think he felt like a version of home to me.

I feel like I need to pinch myself sometimes because I've I feel like I've got everything I've wanted, which as soon as I say that, it's like tempting fate in a weird way.

I mean, we're here.

We're comfortable.

I don't have to worry about rent like I did in New York.

We're on one of the most beautiful stretches of land in Kansas.

It is gorgeous.

A miniature horse and other animals along with a large barn, make up the place that Rolf and Kristen call their Kansas home.

There we can be togethe and appreciate who weve become in a place that we love and grow together and appreciate where we are.

But I think there's something really special about the fact that Rolf and I both have such a deep love for this place.

Since COVID flying off to try out for an acting gig is no more.

Try outs and voiceover work are done in the home.

Yep.

This is.

This is where the magic happens.

First half o life is about creating yourself.

It's about achievement.

It's about creating this vessel in which to put your life.

But the second half of life, I think, in America, we overlook sometimes, and that is filling that vessel with the life that you love to live.

The life Kristen would love to live is acting.

People leave this profession all the time, and maybe I should have to be honest, but I'm not going to.

Have you ever been alone?

No, I haven't.

It's all very glamorous until you need a kidney.

Rolf and Kristen don't need a kidney.

What they need is to make thei own luck in the movie business.

Earlier in 2023 Kristen questioned a committee of the Kansas legislature.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Members of the committee.

Question was why they didn't offer monetary incentives to movie companies to shoot in Kansas.

Instead of hoping productions will come to Kansas I've decided to create my own.

The thing is, I don't want to shoot in Oklahoma and pretend it's Kansas.

I want to shoot my home state.

So she is, without help from the state.

And I think so many things have aligned to really present this opportunity to me.

It felt like just the perfect thing in the perfect time.

Kristen and Rolf are making their own film right here in Kansas.

It's called The Game Camera.

She is executive producing and acting.

Rolf is script writing along with Kristen.

Now it was shot in Kansas on their rural land, and together this Kansas couple is making a dream come true.

But I think there's something really special about the fact that Rolf and I both have such a deep love for this place.

So this summer, a movie crew descended on Rolf and Kristen's land.

Producers, director, lightin and sound crews, makeup people, and a host of other movie folk brought Hollywood to the Kansas heartland.

I think Rolf and I have seen that we can, in part, try to give back our own talents and the things that we've learned in Kansas back to certain communities.

This is the challenge of Kiki's life that basically from all this stack of auditions, she gets cast a few times, a handful of times for all those auditions.

It sort of comes with the territory.

And I think if we can show people, even on a small level with this film, if folks can see this and be like that is a beautifully shot, professionally, cinematically done short film with incredible Kansas actors and a largely Kansas crew, it might interest people to see more of them.

On this little piece of prairie.

These two Kansas natives are learning that perhaps this is where they should concentrate their efforts.

Kansas has molded me in a way that I think I ran away from for a long time.

I think that no partnership, professional or otherwise is going to be free of conflict.

But I think the actua the tensions and the pressures and the challenges make it worth it.

Youre an actor and you pretend like you're so many different things for so long.

I think you forget who you are at the core.

It's so much more satisfying to have overcome the challenges of trying to shoot a movie on your property and other parts in central Kansas.

And when we watch that movie on the screen, when it's finally out there on the film festival circuit, I think it's just something that we can savor because we overcame certain struggles.

And the fact that I've been able to come home and have been given so many opportunities and had so much support and so much emotional backing from the people in my life that it's manifested in this, you know, the wide open spaces and the kindness from people.

And my home, it's my home.

It is their home.

But Rolf will still travel the world to write.

I'm in the famous Piccadilly Circus.

And Kristen will go wherever the acting work is.

Oh, that Jerry.

He's got a heart of gold.

But still, they are finding that opportunity and satisfaction may lie down an the old country road where the cicadas sing and the wind that softly calls.

Their motion picture, “The Game Camera” will be released in Europe to the film festivals later this year.

And Kristen and Rolf are hoping to catch the eye of a major studio or film director, which may lead to more roles and even making more films.

Unbelievable that they make their home here in Kansas and like you say, just east of nowhere.

So two things about this.

Number one, I don't ge how he travels with no luggage.

How in the world does anybody do that?

I applaud him.

I could never do that.

But number two, when I'm at the grocery store, when I'm at the QuikTrip, any place, people are asking me, is Larry ever going to do any new Hattebergs People?

There it is.

A new one.

And I love it.

I love it.

They're still finding these stories and you go out and shoot them because it's great stuff.

Well, it is great because I love meeting these people.

Imagine meeting a Hollywood actress in rural Kansas.

Imagine meetin a great travel writer who, yes, he can travel around the world with no luggage.

And by the way as you probably saw in the story there, he just wore a coa and all his luggage was in coat.

You know, and you really don't need much luggage to travel.

I mean, you just get of the plane at your new location.

If you want to get on a train, you do that.

You hop a bus.

There's nothing, nothing to carry.

You're free.

You're free.

Great way to travel.

It's great.

Couple pair of underwear in this pocket.

That's right.

Toothbrush and toothpaste and.

That's right.

You're good to.

Go.

And your prescriptions right over there, you go.

You know you are set.

Uh-huh.

From Larry's latest story, the one he just shot recently, to one of his earliest.

Let's rewind a 1977 for the story of a doctor who also enjoyed the rural and small town lifestyle.

Dan Fahrenholtz had just graduate from the KU School of Medicine.

And he could have gon just about anywhere to practice, but he chose Kingman, Kansas.

There's a special qualit about the people in rural areas, so says the doctor who decided to become one of them.

I'll be back over there in a little while.

Dr. Daniel Fahrenholtz says in his first yea as a family physician in Kingman and although his hectic schedule is demanding, he enjoys his work in this small community.

He's one of a growing number of physicians who serve community hospitals like this one.

But he says it's the residents that make the difference.

It's the people in general.

There's really no class structure at all.

Where in a city, you might live in a lot full of doctors.

Here, you know, there's really no separation.

And you get to know your patients, not just in the office, but also in the community.

And you see how they grow and get along in other way other than just in the office.

And that's a help also in taking care of some of the problems that you see because you can understand some of the ramifications of problems that involve a whole family instead of just one person, because there's no one that's really isolated, just an individual.

When I was in medical school there was no one particular area that that ever turned me off, so to speak, I like to take care of kids and adults and and mothers and babies.

And it's all very exciting.

And I felt that it was possible to practice as high a quality of medicine in a small town as I could in a large town.

And be happier doing it because I grew up in in this kind of environment.

I like it.

But if there was no money in it, would you still do it?

Oh, sure.

You know, like I told you earlier, it's sometimes seems a crime to m to be doing what I really enjoy doing it and still get paid for it.

From Kingman, this is Larry Hatteberg.

Dr. Fahrenholt practiced in Kingman until 1993, and then he moved on to Granby, Colorado, another small town where he continues to practice medicine to this day.

It is fascinating to me to see what happen to these people in their lives, where they go, what they do, how life changes them.

Exactly.

And, you know, as you practice quite a while in medicine, you want to go to a place, an area that you really like Colorado, Granby, Colorado's great town.

I can just picture him in that small town.

And Granby, Colorado, the town doc.

Right?

The town Doc.

And it's great that we keep up with where these people are.

Our producer, Ji Grawe does a great job of that.

Huge, great job.

Okay.

If you just think of your jo as just your job, you probably won't be very good at it.

And you probably won't be very happy.

Probably not.

If you're like Maria Caldeira, on the other hand, your work is a labor of love.

While Maria was a restauranteu who didn't just run a business, she created a place that felt like home to scores of loyal customers.

Its friends and families of th neighborhood that get together and talk about any and everything.

A lot of friends are made her and everybodys friend is owner Maria Caldeira.

Maria is from Portugal.

She and her husband owned this restaurant for 30 years until his death last year.

Now it's just her and she is a tireless worker.

Maria doesn't speak much English so her daughter Elsa translates.

All she knows how to do is cooking and not much else.

Here we are.

But it's out here where the hand-painted sign hangs above folks who don't need to look at any menu.

We can come in and have a good time.

And the table hopping.

They have... and enjoy good food at the same time.

People here are just like my family.

We're just all family.

We share the good times.

We share the bad times.

So the neighborhood adopted this little place.

And Maria.

And it feels oh, so comfortable.

Like everybody else.

I just love coming here.

It gets my day going.

It's kind of like coming to see your family.

This picture calendar was made by Maria's customers.

It's pictures of everyday folks who frequent the cafe.

It's moments in time and a little place that not everyone notices.

But when they do, it appears they are hooked for life.

Its work that she loves being around the people like the people that she's met over the years, the friends she's made here.

Is pretty much the same.

We kind of take care of each other.

Oh, I love it.

I mean, when my husband passed away, this really became very close to me.

People down here will do everything for you.

There are thousands of these little cafes scattered all across the country.

They are more than a place to eat.

They are part of the American story.

A plac where we go to feel comfortable.

A place where they know our name.

And a place where immigrant like Maria still come to be part of the American dream.

I'm Larry Hatteberg.

Unfortunately, Maria's restaurant is not in business anymore.

She closed it a few years ago.

Now, her daughter says Maria is now happily retired, but she's still living in Wichita.

She's enjoying her golden years with her daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Nothing at all wrong with that.

That's what she should be.

As it should be.

I agree with you 100%.

Yeah, absolutely.

Not everybody cherishe the idea of retirement, though.

For example, Bill Roberts from Fowler.

Now, Bill believed in education, family and hard work and now those three things put together, made for a long and by all indications, happy life.

This story is from 1999.

Lets see.

I came out here April 1936.

In Fowler, Kansas, where grain elevators are the tallest buildings in town.

And across the stree from the Duck Inn caddy-corner from the Neon 57 and next door to Betty's Beauty Shop.

There sits Bill Robert in his insurance and tax office.

Well, Id probably go crazy if I wasn't doing something like this.

In an office of the familiar.

90 year old Bill Roberts i heading into another tax season.

He does 250 returns.

And at nine decades of life, this is routine.

Every kid had a college education out of my family.

And last October, I lost the youngest boy in the family.

He was 87.

And that's all of them.

I'm the only one left out of that twelve.

The great wheat bearing prairie states were turned into a gigantic dust bowl.

Starting life in those times when dust and depression were constant companions.

Bill Roberts loved sports, but coaching didn't pay.

So with his master's degree he began his business in Fowler.

Well I worked hard.

But now I'm getting the advantage of that because I don't have to work.

But he does anyway.

He raised two daughters.

They gave him four grandsons.

Now he lives the sports life he didn't have, through them.

Right there they are, tw will be doctors pretty soon... We don't have a call from two or three, you know.

The highlight of his day perhaps the most important part, is taking his wif to the nursing home for lunch.

Hello, Bill.

Hello, James.

You got somebody to help you?

Somebody to feed you?

Well, I know someone, I used to do their income tax.

You want some salt?

Yeah.

She eats.

She eats real good.

Bill Roberts is a man who takes care of things in his life.

His wife, his children, his grandchildren.

Yeah, I guess the community.

At 90--He says that number is busy.

He's still working, still learning, still alive with knowledge.

There is no retirement for those with much to give.

Yeah, that's alright.

Well, Bill lived another five years passing away in 2004 at age 94.

Nobody says you have to retire at 65 or 55 or you just keep working if you enjoy your life.

And he loved what he did.

He did that for a long time.

Yeah.

And the office is still going.

Isn't that weird the office is still there?

The tax office is still there in Fowler.

All good things sometimes come to an end.

It's tim for us to say goodbye for now.

But before we go jot down this e-mail address.

We lov all the questions and comments.

Until next time.

I'm Susan Peters.

And I'm Larry Hatteberg.

We're glad you took the time to watch tonight.

We'll see you again soon.