((PKG))  CONNECT WITH – DIANA WERTS, PAINTER    
((TRT:  03:22)) 
((Topic Banner:  Connect with – Diana Werts))  
((Reporter/Camera:  Deepak Dobhal)) 
((Locator:  Matfield Green, Kansas)) 
((Main character:  1 female))  
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Diana Werts, Painter))  
Okay.  So, my name is Diana Werts, and I am a painter, and I 
studied art nearby, and I am 66 years old.  
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Diana Werts, Painter))  
This building right here was a bar called the Hitchin Post.  So, as 
a 17-year-old college student, stopping in the Hitchin Post when 
you're almost, almost of age to drink but not quite, was pretty 
exciting for me.  I could order a red beer and feel like a real big 
person.  
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Diana Werts, Painter))  
I had some, a lot of tragic things happen when I was young.  I 
drove through here all the time, back and forth, to get home, and 
this drive was a healing thing for me.  It was like this magical, 
beautiful place, especially this spot right here.  And so, two years 
ago we realized this bar was for sale and had been empty for five 
years.  And it seemed like, kind of a self-healing thing to do, to 
come here and grab this building and give it some love.  
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Diana Werts, Painter))  
It's just one of those things you do when you're young, and I think 
I was, maybe, 20.  I had an idea that, maybe, I should hop a 
freight train.  So, I did that.  It was illegal and it was risky.  One of 
the trains I hesitated because it was starting to take off.  And so, I 
ran and I climbed up, I grabbed it and got up.  And I was like 
proud of myself because I was standing, you know, on the train 
moving.  And then the conductor or whoever he was, was 
standing at the other end of the train going, um, umm.  And so, 
we had to kind of get over to him, the opposite side of the car, and 
he acted really tough like he was, he said something like, “You 
know what I do to people who hop freight trains?”  Like, no.  What 
do you do?  He wanted to, you know, really bully us and scare us.  
And then he ended up being really fun to talk to and told us all 
about the train.  
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Diana Werts, Painter))  
Well, the reason I say I was orphaned is that my mother died 
when I was 15 and my dad just completely checked out.  He, and 
then he married a math teacher at my high school.  And I wasn't 
nurtured anymore.  And I was, it was, they were counting the days 
till I was gone.  That's probably why I liked to stretch the rules a 
little bit because I felt like I didn't have anybody watching over me, 
you know, holding me to anything, sort of like find your way.  
Okay, I'll find it my way.  And I did.   
((NATS/MUSIC))