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It's time for Positively Kansas coming up.

He's devoted his life t honoring Pearl Harbor survivors and telling their stories.

Now, this Wichita man considers the future now that most of those survivors are gone.

He fears the lessons of Decembe 7th, 1941 are being forgotten.

Also, in the history of aviation, there has never been a group like this more than a thousand years of flying and no accidents.

And where else would you find so many master pilots but in the air Capital?

Learn about the secret sauc that makes these Kansas aviators some of the best of the best.

Plus who knew that a love for daisies and roses would land this Kansas florist in the record books?

Find out why he's truly outstanding in his field of flowers and she's known as mighty.

That's her nickname.

She's the newest member of the Harlem Globetrotters, and she hails from Salina.

Corresponden John Wright scores an interview with his heroine of the hardwood.

I'm Sierra Scott.

Well, those stories and more on this week's editio of Positively Kansas, starting right now.

Remember Pearl Harbor.

It was a rallying cry for generations of Americans.

That 1941 attac by Japan made Americans realize they had a false sense of security, that everything they knew and loved could go away if they weren't vigilant.

Now, nearly 80 years later, there are few of us who actually remember Pearl Harbor.

And as those voices go silent, Jim Dennison is concerned that the lessons they've taught us are being forgotten.

Jim Grawe has the story.

Known forever in history as a date which will live in infamy December 7th, 1941.

Japanese bombers appear in the sky and unleash a torrent of death and destruction.

2400 Americans, most of them Army men, Navy men and Marines, are killed, and the United States finds itsel immersed in the war of all wars.

December the 7th.

I don't know, Jim.

I was always intrigued about a day, one day i the history of the United States that changed the world forever.

The United States would go all in over the next three and a half years to rescue the rest of the world from Japan and Germany and a few other bad apples bent on world domination.

The war was over before Jim Dennison was born, but the Pearl Harbor bombing has fascinated him since he was seven years old.

I had, when other kids were reading comic books and watching Howdy Doody.

How well, HOWDY DOODY boys and girls.

Dennison was reading all about the USS Arizona and its brave crew, nearly 1200 of whom perished in the attack.

Here is the actual bombing of the mighty USS Arizona.

We forget too much.

We are.

You know, we were a complacent time before December the 7th.

Dennison went on to serve in Vietnam and become a hero in his own right.

But he has always had a special place in his heart for those men and women who were at Pearl Harbor on 12/7/41.

His interest in that fateful day was so profound that the Wichita chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association named Denison an honorary member.

For 31 years, he has organized or been a part of Wichita's annual Pearl Harbor memorial service.

I tried not to miss any of that.

And, you know, even December the 7th in Kansa is kind of like everything else.

You know, we've had snow flying and we've had 70 degree weather.

And over the years, the number of Pearl Harbor survivors attending the service has also changed.

Although predictably so.

Everybody you're looking at in here is gone.

While they survived the Japanese attack on that fateful day in 1941, there is no escaping the sands of time.

As a veteran service organization, the Pearl Harbor survivors folded their tents in 2011, in Wichita.

Being that they had me.

We kept it alive.

We depleted the Treasury by going out and having dinners together.

The last of us and those memories.

Denison says there are fewer than a dozen Pearl Harbo survivors still alive in Kansas.

One of the latest to pass away was 95 year old Earl Schaffer of Azaria.

He was a 19 year old Army private working on a communication switchboard at a nearby airport.

When the bombs started dropping.

Though the eyewitnesses to that day are fading away, Dennison hopes the lessons learned are never forgotten.

People fail to remember history, and if you fail to remember history and everything, it has an awful bit when it comes back against you.

Our best offense is a good defense.

And we have to keep it up.

That's why Dennison says Americans need to be taught at a young age to never take their country and its security for granted, and to always be willing to step up and protect it.

My grandkids, as people know, have been with me to the memorial services here in Wichita.

They've been with me everywhere.

I can take them.

And the older they get, the more they will understand.

All around you, is my collection of Pearl Harbor, and somebody is gonna have to get it.

Dennison's collectio of memorabilia includes actual fuel oil from the Arizona.

The ship was carrying hal a million gallons when it sunk, and it continues to leak from the submerged ship more than 75 years later.

This is what we call the tears.

The tears of the Arizona.

And this is fuel oil that was captured in this medicinal bottle and sealed and given to me.

He also has models of the Arizona on display in his basement.

Some he built, others were gifts.

All are reminders of that day that will live in infamy.

Those who lost their lives there and those who sprung to action in response, and then went on to save the free world from tyranny.

Jim has been highly recognized for his efforts through the years.

He just recently earned the Robert J. Dole Distinguished Service Award for his work with Pearl Harbor survivors and Kansas veterans in general, and for his own military service.

Sierra.

Some of the Kansan in this next story are veterans, some or not, but each has earned his wings as a master pilot.

And this is a big deal, especially given the size of this group and that they're all from the Wichita area.

Jim Grawe shows us how these elite men have been flying safely for a combined 1000 years, and loving every minute of it.

When they're not all zooming across the sky, you'll find these longtime Kansas aviators hanging out on the ground, sharing memories and plans for their next adventures.

And so it got wrecked in 47.

Like the like a lot of them did.

This is a bunch of guys that.

You're not going to find too many places.

Each one of these guys, 20 at all, recently earned the FAA's Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award.

We've all managed to survive 50 years of flying without tearing up airplanes and getting our license revoked by the FA for doing something stupid and.

Never before has the FAA presented this many master pilot awards in one year.

Up in all, the South central Kansas who have mastered the air over the air capital and a lot of good training and exposure, just like all these guys ar exposed to a lot of good people.

Some of these men qualified for the award years ago.

For example, Jay McLeod.

He has been flying for almost 80 years.

I have soloed in 1940, but it took somebody to get the ball rolling and get all these guys to apply for the award.

That was the handiwork of retired airline pilot Doug Moler.

He thought it would be great if they all got their award together as they're all longtime friends.

Wichita is kind of has always been the hotbed of aviation.

Moler recently invited the guy out to his hangar at High Point Airpark in Valley Center to talk about their love of aviation.

When we all learne how to fly back in the old days, it was a it was a real thing.

It was fun And that's what you want to do.

I love the freedom.

I love the, perspective that you get of things from the air that you don't get from the ground.

My first flight, I remember I was two years old, and I remember sitting i the back seat on my dad's lap, looking out the window and I think the bug bit me then.

Some of these pilots have flown only for fun.

But others made aviation their career.

Harold Walter worked his Cessna Boeing and Beech as an aerodynamicist, so he not only flew safely himself for half a century, but he also designed planes t be safer for everybody to fly.

The Wright brothers developed it, but now each of us, as engineers, makes little modifications to the airplan that we are where we are today.

Meanwhile, Wayn Borman was an airplane mechanic and then became a commercial cargo pilot.

He first flew in his early teens.

I remember getting my first airplane ride was in an L-3 and never had flown, scared and going down the runway and the airplane went airborne, and it was the most beautifu thing that ever happened to me.

And from that point on, I knew what I was going to be doing in life.

Aviation was also a career for David Lee Blanton.

He worked for Cessna and Beech and has also been a flight instructor for 38 years.

He says one of the keys to safe flying is flying a lot.

Going out in three months and going on a three hour cross-country.

Every three months that person isn't near.

The pilot is a guy who's going out every week and fly in 20 minutes.

So the frequency is really impor And where would yo find more opportunities to fly than the city where the aviation industry was built?

Everybody around here was so aware of aviation because if you didn't fly, you were working on an airplane, or you worked at Boeing or Cessna or a beech.

In the 40s, mid 40s and on up through the 50s, especially the airframe manufacturers, Cessna, Piper Beech, they started pumping out airplanes like you couldn't believe.

The government was fundin flying lessons under the GI Bill for a lot of folks.

And it became the end thing to learn how to fly.

It was, it was remarkable.

I remember when Cessna out here, which turned out at 150 every 13 minutes.

Can you believe that?

These men all earned their wing when aviation was at its height.

And now they have all been recognized for reaching the pinnacle.

And this record number of award winners may never be topped.

That's because the numbe of new pilots across the country has taken a nosedive in recent decades.

Some blame video games and th vast number of other activities now available to young people that didn't exist back when these master pilots were earning their wings.

Sierra.

Thank you Jim.

Great story.

Now let's venture into another area where Kansans excel the art world.

Take a look at what ceramic artist Conrad Snyder is working on in his studio in Newton.

He's building 13, 4.5ft tall sculptures that will be set up outside the entrances of Wichita's new public library.

On the library project, the, the, there are bollards, which are the columns that keep a car from running into the front door.

And, you know, they're very utilitarian.

And we wanted to do something with them that made them a little bit more interesting.

So Snyder came up with the idea to incorporate unique art into these structures that are necessary to protect the building and the people inside.

My proposal was to sort of tie a library in the print printed book into its history, of the tree and of Earth.

So the bottom part of the pieces are, sort of a tree stump, stone looking piece.

And then coming out of the top of that is a scroll that, piece of paper that has, and there will be recognizable quotes from different authors on those pieces.

Each one takes 2,200 pounds of clay and about a year's time from start to finish.

These are jus the latest projects for Snyder, who has create several large scale art projects for the locales in Wichita, Newton and Salina areas.

Snyder say he gets a special satisfaction doing these big outdoor sculptures for public places.

Yeah, I you know, I enjoy ho we interact with and relate to something that's larger than us, so that we can't pick it up.

We can't.

There's no sense of domination.

We have to walk aroun the piece and interact with it that way.

And also I enjoy doing, public projects and getting my work out where people see it.

Snyder lives and works in this former feed mill that he remodeled.

You can imagine how he needs lots of room to do this kind of work.

Snyder couldn't find kilns big enough to fir the kind of projects he creates, so he had to design and build his own.

But he says he likes doing that, too.

Now to a really fun and interesting project underway a the public library in Hesston.

I don't think I realized how much was left behind.

I've probably been just as guilty of it myself.

Library staff has been collecting all the things they found wedged inside, books that have been returned, and they've turned all these odd things into an art exhibit called Mark My Words.

I have no idea where the exam room club came from.

hopefully they were just visiting a medical office.

We did have a real M&M in here.

The kids who come and view the exhibit have bee very excited about that.

Eminem.

but we've taped it down so it won't disappear.

We obviously have a quilter that's an avid reader.

We have several scraps of fabric.

There's also an airline ticket, a band aid, and several shopping lists.

So I think my favorite list is down here.

And this is honestly probably a list much like my own.

going to the store must be a superstore because they need half and half yogurt and pants.

And there's a 1987 report card for an eighth grader named Aaron Wall.

Oh, it looks like she was a great student.

There are also several unidentified photos.

looks like maybe, late 60s, mid 70s photo there.

we do have some reproductions of, World War II photos here that obviously belong to a family.

and over on the other side of the exhibit, we have some vacation photos as well as, I believe some baby pictures.

Toddler pictures.

This one is about circa my age up here with the old, playpen in the background.

The library is eage to give any of these items back to the rightful owners, but in the meantime, they've made for a collection of left behind bookmarks.

That's way more interesting than you might expect.

It has been, overwhelming.

We're really surprised, actually.

People come in, they chuckle, they read through things.

They're dumbfounded at th amount of stuff that came out.

I mean, we're we'r we're a small community library, population about 4000 people here.

I can' imagine the volume of material that large library systems like Wichita receive.

You know, they must fill a trash can each day with just what gets shaken out of the books.

The Mark My Words exhibit was designed to be o display just through February.

The library staf likes to come up with new ideas every month to create interest in the library and reading.

Nobody appreciates Kansa being called the Sunflower State more than the gentleman you're about to meet from Halsted Joe Flask floral shop on Main Street has been going strong since 1972.

Now in his 80s, he's earned the title of America's oldest florist.

Anthony Powell recently witnessed Joe's incredible passion for flowers.

I love flowers.

If 84 year old.

Joe Flask had a dollar for every time.

He said that over the years he'd be a multi-millionaire.

And while flowers have provided Joe a nice living for decades, it' how they make him feel inside.

That's priceless.

Both of his parents were avid gardeners, and Joe says he knew from the eighth grade he wanted to be a florist.

I just love the fact that you've put a seed in the ground, and it isn't long until it's up and you watch it grow.

After high school, Joe and his wife, Carol Lee, who we met in elementary school, headed west to Denver so Joe could get some floral training.

There he met a couple from Hutchinson, Kansas, who wanted him to help them open a flower shop.

At first, Joe and Carolyn weren't so sure about moving to the Sunflower State, but they gave it a shot and boy are they glad they did.

Nine years later, we were still in Hutchinson.

We loved Hutchinson.

We love Kansas.

Eventually, Joe had the chance to open his own store on Main Street in Halstead.

He's been going strong there since 1972.

During that time, he's taught flower arrangement in every state and has earned the title of the oldest florist in America.

But being in Halstead and making friends is what makes Joe happiest.

I get to know yo and I get to know all about you.

I know you, and you get to know me.

And if you're having a bad day, I can give you a flower.

Now, Joe admits there have been some bad days in recent years for mom and pop florist like him.

With the internet, there are so many different places to buy flowers.

But technology, he says is no match for the human touch.

Number one, service number one loving my customer.

Number one, being there for them.

As you might have guessed, when it comes to the way he runs his business Joe is nothing but old school.

No cell phone, n email for sure, no social media.

The fanciest he'll get are these custom made signs letting his customers know where he is.

Or perhaps he just felt like taking some time off.

You do not get the warmth of a heart and of a soul on a cell phone.

Besides finding technology cold, it also saddens him.

Joe fears that in the near future, store like his might be gone forever, but he chooses to focus on all of life's positives, like reminding people that in the end, it really is all about stopping to smell the roses.

Look around, admire the beauty.

I mean, I see beaut in everything that's around me.

In Halstead, I'm Anthony Powell for Positively Kansas.

As you might imagine, Joe has no plans to retire.

He says he's too young for that.

Joe says he'd do his job for free.

In fact, he often gives away bouquets for no charg because he believes so strongly in the joy that flowers can bring.

And that's something he say he simply cannot put a price on.

A Kansas girl followed her yellow brick road from Salina Driveway to Wichita State University, and now to cities around the globe.

She's the newest member of the Harlem Globetrotters.

Correspondent John Wright caught up with Hannah Mighty Mortimer, playing for the world famous tea in front of her hometown crowd.

Its been beyond worth it.

It is a grind.

That's what it is.

We way almost every day.

You don't have a lot of rest, but the grind is what I love.

Hannah, Mighty Mortimer of Salina is in the middle of her rookie season as a Harlem Globetrotters.

I want to show that women can do equally, and they have the athletic ability and talent as men.

So instead of it just being a one day out of the year, thing, it could be every day you just you don't see us as female athletes, but you see us athletes.

As a ten year old, mighty started handling the basketball in her driveway, watching her father spin the ball as he was teaching her the spin.

He told her that she coul become the next Lynette Woodard.

So from then on, I was like, that's the first female Globetrotter.

I want to be just like her.

And I was blessed enough to have my dream come true.

So she played a huge role in what I'm doing and what I'm doing now.

Mighty took the long road and at times without a basketball in her hand, going to several schools and finally landing at what Wichita State University, Linda Hargrove was her coach.

Well the thing that stood out to me is how hard she worked and practice every day.

She came to Wichita State as a walk on practice player, and I think I if I'm not mistake, and I think she was actually working in that role for a couple of years before she got a scholarship, she just had such a positive aura about her.

I mean, you want to smile when you're in her presence and she has a contagious type of competitive personality.

And then when she decided to really hone her skills as a ball handler and a trickster, and she worked and worked and worked on and all of that, and then started posting them on YouTube and then it really became known, you know, kind of from from the, social media.

And that's when the Globetrotters came callin and invited Mighty to try out.

And she made the team.

Mighty, made it back to the Sunflower State to perform with the Harlem Globetrotters in Wichita, just one of 450 live events each year.

Man, it's awesome.

I get the chance to play in front of all my friends and family and of course, the shocker fans, so that's a great experience.

I'm totally blessed to be here and it just be able to play in Kansas.

That's one of my main dreams, is to be a pro basketball player playing in Kansas.

So I couldn't be couldn't be better.

Mighty 54 is no taller than some of her fans.

Mighty showed off her trick of the trade and tried to teach an old dog new trick.

Oh, for Positively Kansas.

I'm John Wright Nice story.

It's great to have journalist John Wright join our Positively Kansas team.

Well, that's a wrap for this week.

If you have a story idea, please send us an email.

The address is positively Kansas at CPGs dot dot org.

We'd love to hear from you.

Take care.

We'll see you again soon.

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The preceding program was brought to you by tz productions, supporting KPTS and the communities it serves in south central Kansas.

Great starts here on KPTS.