The Schmitt family

There was a time when I could have voted for Hillary Clinton. She would never have been my first choice, but I was definitely not a “Hillary-hater”. Even through the early primary campaigning, my attitude was that I could have voted for any of them. So, what changed? I’ve never missed voting in a major election. Yet, I’ve reached the point where I may rather vote none of the above if she gets the nod from the party. Why? Read the rest of this entry »

Last night, Will had his Board of Review with the Council. It went off well, and the board told him that he was one of the most prepared candidates they had seen. Congratulations were passed all around, and it’s now down to the paperwork being submitted to the National Headquarters.

It was a long process, and one that he should be proud of. The thing about becoming an Eagle Scout is that it is an accomplishment that a scout does on his own. Parents may do a little nudging from time to time, but the entire process is driven by the candidate himself. It’s not our accomplishment, it’s his.

At the end of the review, one of the men who sat on the board who had attained Eagle himself told him that he takes the process very seriously, and was extremely pleased to welcome him to the ranks of Eagle Scouts. He also said that Eagle is the one rank in scouting that doesn’t go away when you reach the maximum age to be a youth member of the Boy Scouts. Once a person becomes an Eagle Scout, they are always an Eagle Scout.

It’s a tremendous accomplishment, and one that he will carry with him throughout his life. And he earned it himself.

Well, it appears that my son, Will, is almost done. Earlier this week, I wrote my own personal recommendation for him and others are coming. Writing it was a lot harder than I expected. It’s difficult to write about your own child without just sounding like a parent. Beyond that, he seems to have all his merit badges and paperwork in order. He brings it to a Troop meeting next week, and then to the Council at the end of the month for the Board of Review. If they approve all of his prerequisites and the completion of his project, the package goes on to National Headquarters for final approval. It’s amazing. Not counting all the advancements before this, but counting the process of determining just what he wanted to propose for his project and working out what the logistics would be, he’s been on this for well over a year. It’s nice to see that kind of commitment. Hopefully, he’s nearing the end of that road.

Last week, I received a surprise email from a relative I didn’t even know I had. It seems that the family of one of my grandmother’s half-uncles, Thomas (1874-1921) had relocated from Brooklyn to the Niagara Falls area at some point. The family there had found my Brierton family tree online and was thrilled to find the picture of Thomas. We’re still in the process of filling in the blanks, but it’s a part of the family that I had no information at all about. Thomas had a daughter named Alice, about whom I had no other information other than that she was born about 1908. The last information I had on her was that she was still living with her mother in 1930 (the last year that census information was available in which I could locate her). From that point, the trail disappeared. Now that they’ve found themselves on our tree and connected that part of the family, there’s another whole line of information that’s opened up. Isn’t the internet wonderful?!! It isn’t the first time, and hopefully not the last, that people have found us this way.

During the Great Depression, before Christmas in about 1939, my grandparents had gone out. They were attempting to negotiate a lower price on a tricycle that they wanted to buy for my fathers younger brother for Christmas. Like a lot of people at that time, they didn’t have a lot of money. My Dad was babysitting for his younger siblings while his folks were shopping.

The doorbell rang and when my father opened the door, a man asked if this was the Schmitt residence. After being told that it was, the man stated that he had a delivery for them, and proceeded to deliver what my father remembers as being all of the presents that they had put on their lists. When everything was inside, my father asked, “Who shall I say sent this?” The man answered, simply, “Santa Claus.”

My grandfather was a civil engineer, not on a project at the time, and the only guess that my grandparents could make was that when he was on a project he had done something to help somebody else and that this was someones way of saying, “Thank you.”

My grandfather died in 1973 and my grandmother died in 1995. Both died without ever having learned the identity of the 1939 Santa.

I grew up primarily in West Hempstead, New York. Shortly after we moved in, in 1960, I caught the Mumps. As the room that my brother and I shared was on the third floor was too far for Mom to continually check on, I was relegated to her bed during the day. It was just before Christmas, and I was upset because not only was I sick, but I had not been able to visit Santa Claus.

Mom was doing the things that people do after moving into a new older home. From what I’ve been told, she was on a ladder painting when the phone rang. Muttering something about the salesman who kept interrupting her, she climbed off the ladder and answered the phone. A man on the other end asked if he had reached the right number, and then told her that he understood she had a sick child at home. He asked if we would like a visit from Santa Claus.

On Christmas Eve, we heard sirens and a truck with lights flashing pulled up to the front of the house, and Santa climbed out. As my younger brother and sister watched with their jaws hanging open, he came into the house, up the stairs to Mom’s room, and spent a few minutes with me.

As we learned, The volunteer fire department in West Hempstead had a tradition of driving Santa around the town every Christmas Eve, Read the rest of this entry »

Oliver! opened Friday night to a good crowd, with a line that was long enough to delay the opening. I sat backstage Friday and Saturday as the stage construction group took turns sitting out front with the families on various days. There were minor breakages to fix and tuning to do, but mostly we just sat, listened, and tried to stay out of the way of the kids changing the scenery and props. Today, my Dad came as well as my sister-in-law and her son, and we all sat in the audience.

It was a lot of fun, getting to see the kids working towards the performance and getting it done. It was also great to see the first official performance of any kind at the new high school and know that we played a small role. The kids did a great job, and we heard a lot of comments saying how much better it was than the average high school play. Tom Surat, who directed it, did a great job in bringing out the best in the kids.

It was great for the town, too, in my opinion. With all the battles and work to get a high school built, people can finally see the promise fulfilled. A lot of people came who didn’t have kids in the school. Father Dom and some of the sisters from St. Thomas were there on Friday. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, I posted a picture of the four people who spent the most time working on the set for the Oxford High School production of Oliver! Here are some more pictures of the set itself. Not as exciting as the production, I suppose, but I took these before the actors arrived for the evenings rehearsal.

Most of the lumber for this was donated, the “brick” walls are actually a honeycombed type of cardboard, and the backdrop was painted over at Center School. The basic structure of the landing off to stage left was actually built during a full day of work by Frank Samuelson, the principal, Read the rest of this entry »

Spent the last few weeks working on the sets for the play my daughter is in, Oliver. It’s the first play put on at the new High School. Pictured at left (linked to a larger version), are Tom Adamski, Len Gerwin, myself, and Len Weisgable, on the bridge at the back of the set. Lot of time, but a lot of fun, too. Then 3 performances and it all comes down.

I’m going to try to get more pictures of the set to post tomorrow.

The Board of Ed has asked Will to come in tonight to be recognized for the project. Not sure what it’s all about, but we’ll be there. One side note we’ve learned is that several teachers had been looking for something to use in physical therapy with some of the kids, and had been thinking about requesting a climbing wall somewhere. Seems they were quite happy to find one had become available with the completion of the project…. It will also be an interesting meeting, as it will be Nancy’s last meeting as a member of the Board of Education, having been elected to the Board of Finance in the last election.