Fly Killer

I’ve created a killer, a fly killer, that is. A few weeks ago, in the natural course of an energetic four-year running in and out, a quick thinking fly managed to breach our inner sanctum. Quick thinking yes, but maybe not so quick moving. After my own thwarted attempts at swatting the little pest, the grandson begged me to let him try. 

So I handed over the white fly swatter. And what do ya know? Deadeye managed to do in a few well-aimed swats, what Grandma had not. He killed that darn fly. 

 “I’m really quick, right Maw?” 

 “Yes, you are.” 

 “You couldn’t get him, could you Maw?”

 “Nope, I could not.” 

 “We don’t like flies, do we Maw?”

 “No, we do not.” 

 “Hey, are you goin’ to tell PaPa Al, that I’m quick?” 

 “Yes, I am.” 

 A few weeks later, when one of the deceased fly’s buddies made it in through the opened screen door, the grandson was not pleased when I managed to shoo the fly back outside. 

 “But, I wanted to kill him,” grumped the peanut gallery. 

 My explanation of a win-win philosophy was lost on a four-year old who thought I was just mucking up his chance at another fly victory. Later, as we played outside, the little guy got his chance when a hapless fly landed on one of our outside toys. Deadeye, took aim, and swatted the fly with his BARE hands, and put another notch in his fly killing belt. After a brief discussion about why it was good policy to wash one’s hands after such a heroic act, I made one of my usual breezy pronouncements. 

 “Hey, I’m going to have to start calling you Fly Killer. Yep, I’m going to call you, Fly Killer Snyder.” 

 Silence, as the two of us walked the length of the stone driveway.

 Then, “Its okay, Maw. You can call me Fly Killer if you want.” 

 A few more steps, a quick kick of the stones, and then my buddy looked straight up at me and said, 

“I kinda like that name.” 

 Glad to oblige, kiddo. Glad to oblige.

© 6 October 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder 

I Read it in the News - Evidence of Collateral Damage

When people get divorced, whatever wonderful quality they first saw in each other, has long since vanished. What doesn’t vanish is their mutual offspring, something often overlooked by warring parties.

When my grandparents divorced, it was not pretty. 

My grandmother, a petite, spunky woman, and her ex Mother-in-law formed two separate camps. There were no prisoner exchanges, no mingling of combatants and both camps remained armed and on alert. The fact that the two women had never gotten along, guaranteed no one would be suing for peace. 

My grandfather, whom I have written about previously, died suddenly at the age of 39 from a burst appendix. My grandfather had been living in Toledo with his second wife, and four children. My grandmother, my dad and his sisters lived in Clyde. Nettie, the mother-in-law lived in Florida.

Nettie sent a notice to the Clyde newspaper giving the details of her adopted son’s death. The story goes that this was how my grandmother and her children heard about the death. I’m prepared to give Nettie a pass on that one, because I don’t know whether she had tried to contact grandma. Perhaps she had or perhaps Nettie figured letting the paper know was a good way to tell her former daughter-in-law and her grandchildren of the loss. 

However, what she did next seems particularly spiteful. The list of survivors given to the newspaper included the four children by the second marriage, but not one word was mentioned about the three older children who were living in Clyde. A week later, the following short notice appeared in the paper:

“Mrs. Anna X asks that we make a correction in the obituary notice of the late Walter X sent us last week by Mrs. Nettie X from Florida. Mrs. Anna X, says he is survived by three children by a first marriage, and 4 children by a second marriage.”

I can almost see my grandmother pulling herself up straight, and making the simple, direct correction. Nettie had landed a well-aimed blow at my grandmother. Maybe it was deserved, maybe not. I wonder, however, did she think about the collateral damage? Was the chance to stick the knife into my grandmother so irresistible that all other considerations were secondary? Fair or not, that one act defined, for me, Nettie’s character. And I found that character wanting.

Written for 57th Carnival of Genealogy - I Read it in the News

© 2 October 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder 

Geneablogger Gnome makes a visit to the Desktop Genealogist

The little fellow below came for a visit to the Desktop Genealogist blog via email for my participation in Terry Thornton’s “Getting to Know You Challenge. " I wanted to take him around and show him the sights of Northwest Ohio, but I’ve been chained to my desk for the past couple of weeks.

 

So far, all the poor little guy has gotten to see is a fog-enshrouded sunrise out my backdoor.

 

Maybe, if he sticks around long enough, I can take him to this weekend’s Civil War Encampment at Spiegel Grove. What do you think? Would that be a good place for a Gnome to visit?

In the meantime, you can checkout Hill Country of Monroe County’s overwhelming response to the Getting to Know You Challenge. Forty different participants with 42 blogs are represented. You can read about the brightest, the breeziest and the most beautiful from some very talented geneabloggers here, here and here.

Our host, Terry Thornton, in his usual Southern charming fashion, did a thorough job putting this project together. If I were pressed to describe Terry with only one word, I think that word would be gracious. He certainly handled this Herculean task in just such a manner. Thanks, Terry for a wonderful idea.

PS Just to put this in perspective - Terry had to read 42 posts, and another 126 posts that we geneabloggers submitted for our brightest, breeziest and most beautiful. Then Terry had to write a summary about each blog. When that was all done , he had to LINK 168 POSTS to his own blog. By comparison, my post had a mere six links .Just the thought of posting this to my archive blog, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, makes me darn cranky - and I only am talking a paltry six links. So Terry really is THE MAN!.

© 1 October 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder 

Getting to Know Me, Getting to Know Desktop Genealogist

Something was missing. Like the midnight snacker standing before an open refrigerator, I had a taste for “something,” but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what that something was.

 When the News-Messenger advertised for bloggers for their online edition, suddenly it all clicked. Overcoming my usual shyness, I submitted a proposal to the city editor, who requested a meeting and some writing samples. From that meeting the Desktop Genealogist was born. 

 Initially I had hoped to help other family historians better navigate the waters of Internet research. However, once I started posting, I realized the posts I enjoyed writing the most had to do with telling a simple story.

 Whether it was about a grandmother, an old church, or why my toes are deformed, the constant knot in my stomach dissolved and that missing “something” was suddenly found. 

 My friend Mississippi Terry, of Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi, decided with the growing number of geneabloggers finding their way to the Internet, it might be nice if each of us posted an article about our blogs, including an example of the brightest, breeziest and most beautiful of our posts. Below are my own nominations for my best of the best: 

  Brightest – Stories My Grandmother Told Me This was written for an edition of Smile for the Camera. It gave me a chance to experiment with my tools for telling a story. 

  Breeziest – One SuperPower to Go – Please! My answer to the question, “Why are you twitching your nose?” 

  Most Beautiful – The Art of Painting Pictures Note my breeziest and brightest posts links take you to my original Desktop Genealogist Blog on the News-Messenger.

© 27 September 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder 

Strange Things A Happenin'

Note: This post pertain's to my Desktop Genealogist blog on The News-Messenger. In the interest of keeping my archives up to date, and because some people follow this blog, (thank you Sheri, Miriam and Apple), I have went ahead and posted it to the Unplugged site. If I've confused you, imagine being me!!!! I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but of late, I have been MIA on this blog. My MIA status extends to all my “homies” in the geneablogger community. So when I did a quick check in on Monday to find out what ‘s been happening in the world of genealogy, I was surprised to find my blog mentioned in Randy Seaver’s weekly Best of the Genea-Blogs September 14 -20, 2008. Surprised, pleased and dismayed because Randy wrote, I also had Terry Snyder's post "The Gentle Ferocity of Love" from The Desktop Genealogist blog on my list, but the Fremont News-Messenger site is messed up and I couldn't find a link. I'll add it to my list when I can find a good link. So I sent Randy the link, and I thought all was well. But hold it, not so fast. I noticed in my Google Reader that a post I had dated September 4, now showed that it was posted September 20. Huh? For those of you not familiar with Google Reader, it is a wonderful little tool offered by Google that allows you to organize your blog subscriptions, and see them all at a glance. Occasionally, however, it does some wonkie things.

So being a Curious Georgia type a girl, I clicked on this new link to my old post, and what do you know, I end up on Cincinnati.Com’s very own online edition. AND THERE I AM IN ALL MY GLORY!

I’m giving you the link right HERE, but just in case they fix the darn thing, and you start thinking, “That Terry chick has finally gone off the deep end,” I took a print screen picture of me, on Cincinnati.Com’s online edition. Darn, I almost feel famous.

I’ve reported the problem to the media editor here at the News-Mess, and he basically said: 1. Huh, really AND 2. That's above my pay grade. But bless is heart, he did report it and you can see how quickly the wizards behind the newspaper curtain have reacted to the problem. I haven’t seen any other bloggers mentioning these weird happenings, but then again, I haven’t been paying close attention. I’m not sure when the Cincy newspaper will notice they have a freeloader on their website, but hey, my screenshot proves I was there – hidden where nobody can find me, but there nonetheless. In the meantime, you can head on over to Randy Seaver’s blog, and find a variety of blog posts to keep you in the genealogical loop. Hey, I wonder where this post will end up? Who knows - today Cincinnati, tomorrow Hackensack!

© 24 September 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder 

The Gentle Ferocity of Love

The elderly couple came tentatively into the waiting room of the doctor’s office where I sat. Both were white haired. Both were frail looking, though she, the more frail of the two, leaned a bit unsteadily into the arm of her mate. He fussed with getting her seated and letting the receptionist know that they were there. I saw the look of concern etched so clearly on his face, as he continued to fuss around her until she took his hand into her own and patted it softly. I watched the look that passed between the two of them, feeling as if I had somehow invaded their privacy yet unable to pull my gaze away, drawn in by the gentle ferocity of love that passed between them. I saw that same look this past Saturday, with a younger cast of characters, as I witnessed the marriage of my eldest stepson and his new bride. Though this time the look included the exuberant dash of youthful joy, it was, nonetheless. the same gentle ferocity of love that I had viewed so many years ago in that doctor’s office. It was beautiful and breathtaking to behold. Erin, my new daughter, had her heart set on being married beneath the trees on her grandmother’s farm.

 

The weather, which had been withholding rain for weeks, suddenly decided that this weekend it was time to let loose. It rained on Friday and it rained on Saturday. A call from my stepson, told us that they were moving the ceremony to the reception hall, but because Erin still hoped to say her vows on the farm, the wedding party and a few close friends were going to meet there. Sure enough, the rain stopped. Erin and Matt were married just as they had wanted to be - on her grandmother’s farm.

 

I don’t know what kind of journey awaits them. I hope that life is kind to them. I hope that when their hair is white and their gate is slow, their love is still beautiful and breathtaking to behold.

 

© 16 September 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder 

Kościół p.w. NMP Królowej Polski

In the village, nestled beside neighboring trees, it stands. Made of brick, embedded on a stone foundation, it is the perfect example of Gothic architecture - pointed arches, stained glass windows, and ribbed vaults. First built in the sixteenth century, fire has been its natural enemy. Repeatedly it has been rebuilt, so that bits and pieces of the structure originate from different centuries.

 It was here, beside the eighteenth century alter, that my great grandparents, Leo Schröder and Emma Gleffe Schröder were baptized. It was here, standing above, in the 17th century pulpit, Reverend Walter Bielenstein preached the last sermon before he and the rest of his flock were forced to leave their church and their homes at the end of World War II.

 I had thought, looking at the few pictures found online, that the church had been abandoned. I imagined a dusty, dark neglected cavern, left as a relic of a forgotten time, and a forgotten people. I imagined this, that is, until a certain German friend set me straight. Below you are looking at Kościół p.w. NMP Królowej Polski or Church of Our Lady Queen of Poland. The church, far from being abandoned, is still busy baptizing the children of Budowo.

From Website: http://spanie.pl/12-atrakcje-turystyczne-Budowo- 

Kosciol_p.w._NMP_Krolowej_Polski_-1974.html 

 Though the dogma preached from the 17th century pulpit is slightly different and the voices lifted in song are of another language, the ghosts of Budow's German parishoners must be smiling. For their church, still lives. It lives. 

 Until Next Time . . . 

 Information Sources: http://spanie.pl/12-atrakcje-turystyczne-Budowo-Kosciol_p.w._NMP_Krolowej_Polski_-1974.html http://www.hinterpommern-info.de/kirchspiel_budow.html http://www.powiat.slupsk.pl/index.php?dzial=dzieje&strona=zabytki&go=budowo&tlo=1 

http://www.stolp-pommern.de/Stolp-Kreis/Orte/budow.htm 

Email correspondence with Siegfried Krause.

© 12 September 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder