When we lived on the farm in that Great Stone House, I went to school in Womelsdorf. This was in 1955 to 1957 for first and second grades. One day, and I’m not sure exactly when, or even in which grade it occurred, a new kid showed up for class. But unlike the rest of … Continue reading A Stranger in Our Classroom
Womelsdorf
The 1950 Census
Census records are only released to the public after 72 years, which means that the 1950 records were made available earlier this year. Now that the family search site has had some time to scan them and digitize them and convert the handwritten census takers’ scrawls into computerese, I stared looking for them. And I … Continue reading The 1950 Census
The Fire Grenades
The salesman was sitting in our kitchen, and we were all gathered around the the table, my mother, father, the salesman and me. I guess my sister had already been put to bed. She would only have been about one or two years old at the time. This must have been in 1956 when we … Continue reading The Fire Grenades
James’s Excellent Adventure
Map of Womelsdorf, click to enlarge While there were lots of advantages to living on a farm that was well outside Womelsdorf’s borders, there was at least one big disadvantage: playmates were few and far between. So one day I decided to rectify that and take a walk into the town to visit Ricky, a … Continue reading James’s Excellent Adventure
Those Other Classmates
While I was searching yearbooks for Nancy Oberly, it occurred to me that I had another set of classmates of whose fates I had no idea. That is, I went to kindergarten in 1954-55 in Wernersville, PA, and to first and second grades the following years in Womelsdorf, PA, both part of the Conrad Weiser … Continue reading Those Other Classmates
My First Baby Sitter
During my first three years on this planet we lived on Front Street in Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania. Next door (or maybe a few doors up) was a restaurant, and that’s where Nancy Oberly lived with her parents, who owned the restaurant. I know this because every time we’d talk about those days, my mother would mention … Continue reading My First Baby Sitter
My Conducting Debut
I attended school in Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania, for first and second grades as we were still living on my grandfather’s farm just outside the borough in those days. My recollection is hazy, but I seem to recall that the school held two major events each year, one in the fall and one in the spring (May … Continue reading My Conducting Debut
The One Where I Went Through the Wringer
My earliest memory is not exactly a pleasant one. It was probably March of 1952 and I was about a month shy of my third birthday. We were living in a house on N. Front Street in Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania, we being my parents and me. My father was at work on his father's farm about … Continue reading The One Where I Went Through the Wringer