Lawhorn’s Lawrence: Clenece Hills, Lawrence’s birthday lady

I can’t say for certain, but I expect I have Clenece Hills to thank, in part, for the cupcake I had at the Lawrence City Commission meeting on Tuesday.

Clenece Hills, pictured at Sesquicentennial Point near Clinton Lake, is affectionately known as Lawrence's birthday lady because she has played such a vital role in commemorating city milestones.

The cupcake was in celebration of Lawrence’s birthday. It was good. Far better than a presentation on zoning code changes, far better than a discussion on sewage pump stations and perhaps so good that I may or may not have done a dance on a City Hall table that required the mayor to gavel me back into order. (You try listening to nearly 20 years of zoning code changes, and we’ll see what you do for a cupcake.)

But why do I suspect Clenece’s involvement in this cupcake? Easy, she’s Lawrence’s birthday lady.

“I am the self-appointed nudger on the issue,” Clenece says.

She comes by the title naturally. Back in the 1970s she was appointed to serve on the Lawrence and Douglas County committee that organized the local celebrations for the country’s bicentennial. Then about 30 years ago she was appointed to organize a host of festivities to celebrate Haskell’s 100th anniversary.

But many remember her for the role she played in celebrating Lawrence’s 150th anniversary. She was the president of the approximately 30-member committee that organized and planned the variety of events to celebrate that momentous birthday. She also is the sole reason that about 90 percent of the journalists in Lawrence know how to spell “sesquicentennial.”

Get ready to feel old, though. Lawrence’s sesquicentennial was 10 years ago. Lawrence turned 160 years old on Thursday. But a decade has not dampened the enthusiasm Clenece has for Lawrence’s birthday. Each year she still writes a letter to the editor reminding readers of the upcoming birthday, and she makes a few calls to local leaders as well to make sure the date doesn’t slip their minds.

There are lots of reasons that Clenece doesn’t want people to forget Lawrence’s birthday. One of them is a big box buried in the ground. Among the many events the Sesquicentennial Commission hosted was the burying of a time capsule. We’re scheduled to open it in 40 years, and it will be kind of embarrassing if we forget.

“Everybody kept thinking of a time capsule like a bread box,” Clenece recalls. “But I went to Larry McElwain at the funeral home, and he agreed to provide us with a vault. I think we have the biggest and best time capsule around.”

The folks gathered around the time capsule 40 years from now will find a host of letters written by young people 10 years ago, who said they intend to show up for the 2054 opening. Perhaps their iPhone calendars go out that far, but just in case they don’t, Clenece intends to do her part to make sure everybody remembers the date.

It also would be good to remember where we buried this time capsule, and that is particularly near and dear to Clenece’s heart. The capsule is buried at Sesquicentennial Point, which is a a nearly 100-acre city park east of the Clinton Lake Dam and across the street from the city’s popular off-leash dog park.

It may be one of the best views in the county that a lot of folks have never seen.

“To the north you see the Kaw River Valley, to the south the Wakarusa Valley, to the east Blue Mound, and to the west is Clinton Lake and the future,” Clenece says.

The site includes the time capsule and a path called a Walk through Time. The path features steps for every year of the city’s history. Many of the steps have names engraved in them listing people, businesses or organizations that have played an important role in Lawrence’s history. Donors have purchased those stones. (The price is equal to the year that you want, so 1952 would be $1,952.) That year is available, by the way, Clenece says. No one has purchased a stone to commemorate KU’s National Championship that year. No one has purchased a stone for James Naismith or for such luminaries like Langston Hughes, Clenece notes. People can contact the parks and recreation office if they are interested in purchasing a stone.

Plans call for the park to have an amphitheater at the base of the walkway. But currently the park isn’t used much, and it is uncertain when that will change. The city doesn’t have water or sewer service to the site, and additional parking would be needed to host the type of large events the property was envisioned for. Those improvements, which would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, haven’t made their way into a city budget.

“I never expected it all to happen at once, but it would be nice to see some progress because you lose your momentum entirely if you don’t have anything happening out there,” Clenece says.

But as near and dear as the point is to Clenece, there may be even a larger reason why she doesn’t want folks to forget Lawrence’s birthday: the future.

Clenece has figured out something that easily escapes many of us: Remembering the past is a great way to stay focused on the future.

“I don’t want to ever worship the past,” Clenece says. “But I do want to remember it, because it affects the present, and what we’re doing in the present will impact the future.”

It is just like how the decision by the city’s Centennial Committee 60 years ago resulted in the city now having Centennial Park at Ninth and Iowa streets. Back then, that gift of land wasn’t seen as much of a gift, since nothing surrounded it but a couple of gravel roads, Clenece says.

But then the future came, and we viewed it differently. Perhaps that is why it is so important to Clenece that we remember that park on the point and what it stands for. The point is not just a moment that comes and then leaves just as quickly. Like Centennial Park 60 years ago, it is something that will travel with us into the future. Maybe it will even give some of us an idea about what we can leave for those who will follow us.

“The future is the real reason that history is important,” Clenece says. “It affects what we might do next.”

Here’s hoping that it involves cupcakes.