Let There Be Peace on Earth

The last month and a half have been filled with non-stop planning.  From wedding and Christmas plans, to creating gifts,  putting final touches on a book, I have spent a lot of time away from my laptop.  I also prepared for two holiday parties, one of which I was the guest speaker.  Needless to say it’s been a busy time, and I know, no matter what you have been doing, it’s been a busy time for you, too.

Yesterday blew a hole into all of these tidy little plans. It was an exceptionally sad day both in Connecticut and in my town.  Everyone is stunned.  Everyone asks the age old questions.  How could this happen?  Why did this happen?  We seek answers in the world around us, but walk away empty handed with more questions in mind. During these times, I turn deep inside myself where the inner struggle leads to more questions. Thank goodness for sleep to still the brain.

I awoke this morning with the song “Let There Be Peace on Earth” playing on repeat in my mind.  I particularly like the Vince Gill version so I heard it sung in his voice. As it plays over and over in mind, I imagine going into a room, closing my eyes and listening to the song over and over again.  Whenever the words of:  

"With every step I take

Let this be my solemn vow.

To take each moment 

and live each moment

In peace eternally.

Let there be peace on earth 

And let it begin with me."

A surge of power comes over me of how we can change the world, our individual world, with every step we take, every act, every word, and every kind thought. We can change it with everyone around us and let it ripple out across our town, our county, our state, our country and eventually around the globe. We are it. We can change the world. From our small vantage point, we can with every step and every act, be the peace we want to see in the world.

This is my hope and dream for us. To take the devastation of yesterday and turn our world peacefully around. Let greed, fear and horror dissipate when the new peace we create day by day and person by person overtakes us all.  This means no quibbling about how Auntie makes the dessert. No backstabbing a co-worker, no casting blame on others. We need to aspire to this way of life so no person in the world ever feels the need to act that way again. Not an easy task, but if we can live this thought and act this way together we can make the world change.  What better legacy could we leave behind?

'Tis the Season

You may think it is the week of Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, All Saints and All Souls Day, but you are wrong.  Those days will happen next week, but more than a daily celebration is at hand.

 It is the beginning of the holiday baking season.  Doesn’t matter which holiday you pick, anyone who has walked through a grocery store recently knows the signs…bags of flour and sugar are in every aisle, canned pumpkin appears where you least expect it, both fresh and canned cranberries are easily found.  And you thought product placement only happened in movies? The comfy cozy family aura with an aroma of home baked goodies has been firmly planted in your mind. 

I believe some people are immune to this season, but many are lured into it without realizing it. I am unabashedly lured. Like a dog sniffing a fresh new bone, I am entranced.  

Food, family and holidays are one and the same to me. This was the focus of my presentation “Grebel & Gemütlichkeit” at the AHSGR Convention in Portland.  The local Arizona Sun Chapter has invited me to present this workshop again on December 1, right between the two peaks of the holiday baking season, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

For most people, the memories of food and family are what make the holiday come alive.  My senses must have been in tune with the season long before the stores displayed their baking merchandise based on my recent book choice.

Last week I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver. Kingsolver and company take the “buy local” food mantra to a level I've  never experienced.  And, my grandparents were farmers!

Many recognize Kingsolver as the best-selling author of The Bean Trees and The Poisonwood Bible.  She called Arizona her home for decades until she married Steven L. Hopp and spent her summers at his farm in Virginia.

   

As she returned to her farming roots, her concern for our petroleum spending, fast food nation obsession grew.  After they decided to make their home in Virginia year round, the family agreed to accept the challenge of only eating food they grew or was grown within an hour’s drive of their home.

An ambitious goal for many, Kingsolver’s determination would be impossible for me. I know my limits. This culinary lifestyle goes well beyond commitment.  I will spare you the details of harvesting turkey and chicken.  Those things you can read for yourself.  And, I strongly recommend that you do.

After the toils of spring, summer and autumn, Kingsolver experiences the joy of the holiday baking season.   She writes:

“Kitchen-based family gatherings are process-oriented, cooperative, and in the best of worlds, nourishing and soulful. A lot of calories get used up before anyone sits down to consume. But more importantly, a lot of talk happens first, news exchanged, secrets revealed across generations, paths cleared with a touch on the arm. I have given and received some of my life’s most important hugs with those big oven-mitt potholders on both hands.” pg. 288.

When she further discusses her experience with the Day of the Dead, she explains how she is drawn to this celebration.

“When I cultivate my garden I’m spending time with my grandfather, sometimes recalling deeply buried memories of him, decades after his death.  While shaking beans from an envelope I have been overwhelmed by a vision of my Pappaw’s speckled beans and flat corn seeds in peanut butter jars in his garage, lined up in rows, curated as carefully as a museum collection. That’s Xantolo, a memory space opened before my eyes, which has no name in my language.” pg. 290.

Kingsolver said Xantolo is found in many places, such as fields of marigold and farmer’s markets. While I cannot live a year of food as she did, I will consciously shop and choose the best local products I can find during this holiday baking season.  I have a lot of investigation to do but in the meantime...Chandler Farmer’s Market, Queen Creek Olive Mill and Kokopelli Winery, here I come.  

Hometown: Sights and Memories--Now and Then on Superior Avenue

As I mentioned in my last update, visits to your hometown turn everyday sights into photo opportunities.  My stop at Superior Avenue is no exception.  Trying to compare my new images to old ones has left me with a challenge.

As a young child, I often walked along this street.  When I was in kindergarten at Jefferson School,  I walked the long way to school over the Superior Avenue viaduct.  Kuehlmann Sheet Metal and Heating Company was in the brick building on the southwest corner.   

Only later, as a teenager, did I learn that my mother grew up near this viaduct at 1711 Superior Avenue. We talked about many things in her life but we never talked enough about what it was like to grow up on Superior Ave. The best way I can tie back to her time there is through photos of now and then. 

The picture below on the left is my mother and her best friend, Lydia Schneider. I always thought this picture was taken in the 1940s next to the former Kuehlmann building, before Kuehlmann occupied the site. I captured the picture on the right during my recent visit to Sheboygan on August 18, 2012.

The ivy over the building now covers the bricks and the facade underneath it. Yet when I google the address, the view of the building without ivy does not match the brick facade on the picture from the 1940s.  Check out the link below and click on the arrows until you see the white brick building with just a trace of ivy.  

http://www.walkscore.com/apartments/details/superior-ave-and-n-17th-st-sheboygan-wi-53081

Also, the sidewalk in the 1940s picture is much wider than the sidewalk in the picture I took last August. Could the sidewalk now be narrower due to changes made when the viaduct was under re- construction?  I believe the viaduct was rebuilt in the 1990s.  It is possible the sidewalk changed but the narrow sidewalk appears older than the 1990s. Could these be the same sidewalks on which my mother roller skated as a young girl? And, the grassy patch between the sidewalk and brick building also contradicts my understanding of where the picture was taken. 

Ivy covers former Kuehlmann Building August 2012

So where were my Mom and her friend Lydia when this picture was taken?  There are many brick buildings in Sheboygan, from Central High School to many downtown stores.  I would greatly appreciate input from anyone who is familiar with the brick buildings in Sheboygan during the 1940s.  Any idea on the what building may match the one in the background?

I have a few clues about my Mom's early life in this house from experiences she shared with me.  I know her grandfather lived with her family. I know her mother was a great cook. Her father raised rabbits in the backyard.  My Mom considered them her pets, even though rabbit occasionally was the main course on Sunday. 

Another picture clearly shows my Mom at her home as it includes a view of the old Superior Avenue viaduct with the iron railings.  Below, Lydia and my Mom look south from her home and appear to stand between the house and an add on to the brick corner building.  While google shots of the house now show sidewalk on the other side of the building, it appears that the girls are between the house and an add on to the brick building.  

The photograph below shows the current view between the house and the brick building looking south from the viaduct.  You can see most of  the sidewalk is no longer there.  

This picture below clearly shows one piece of the original sidewalk which is the only piece which remains of the walk next to which my mom and Lydia stood.

Again, I am open to ideas to better pinpoint the location but I think it is reasonable to conclude the location of the photograph with the viaduct in the background.  

And, here is my daughter Ashley taking a photograph of the house at 1711 Superior Ave in August, 2012.

I am also curious about Irwin Koepke's business that occupied the brick building before Kuehlmann's opened on June 9,  1959. Koepke's business would have been in place when my mother lived here. (Source: http://www.kuehlmannsheetmetal.com/).

When I return to Sheboygan, I will be certain to more picture of this house, perhaps one from the alley so I can try to match up the setting with my photograph from the 1940s.  If you have any ideas on the site of the first picture, or ave  more information about the house at 1711 Superior Avenue, I would be happy to hear from you. 

Close-up of the Ivy on the former Kuehlmann building

The west side of 1711 Superior next to 1713 Superior Ave.

The new Jefferson School at the same site of the old school where I attended kindergarten

Hometown: Sights and Memories - Holy Name Church

When I returned to my hometown, what used to be everyday sights turn into photo opportunities.  Here are some of my favorite shots from the "tourist" point of view. It's time to let the memories flow and capture the moment.

Holy Name Church, established 1868, was the parish my Dad attended when he was growing up.  He attended grade school here as shown by his graduation picture below. My Dad is in the top row, fourth from the left.

As I grew up, I knew it as the church my Uncle Fred and Grandma Bauer attended.

I attended Mass here often although my family were members of St. Dominic's Church. My favorite memories surround the Christmas Eve Mass. One year, I had to work the day before Christmas Eve which postponed my drive time from Franklin, Tennessee to Sheboygan considerably. I told my parents we would arrive in Sheboygan just in time for church. 

I drove through the night with my young daughters, north on I-65 to I-94 to I-43, stopping at Steak and Shake to keep awake during the cold, dark drive.  We arrived at 10 a.m. Christmas Eve morning much to my parent's surprise.

Of course, we went to church hours before the service began to secure the best seats. We headed to Holy Name church hours ahead of time to secure the best seats. The pre-Mass concert was worth the wait. The sounds flowed from the choir balcony at the back of the Church creating the most moving Christmas prayer experience.

I can still hear the drums pound as my favorite carol "The Little Drummer Boy," is introduced. I remember looking over at my Dad as the opening notes of Amy Grant's "Breath of Heaven" lofted down gently from the balcony.  Tears filled our eyes as the words "Be with me now," echoed through the church. My Dad nodded at me.

There are many more memories I could share, from the time I fainted in one of the back rows, to my cousin Mary's wedding, to the time my Dad slid in the snow and I tried to help him up.  I told him to grab the car door handle and together we would pull him up.  He told me the door would open since it wasn't locked.  I assumed him it was locked. As I tried to help him up the door swung open and we both landed in a snow bank.  We laughed so hard I barely get myself up, truly lock the door, and then really help him to his feet.

So many moments which now only remain in my mind's eye. Thanks for listening as the memories flowed.

Hometown:Cemeteries

After our stop at the Calvary Cemetery in Sheboygan, we drove around Kiwanis Park to the entrance of the Lutheran Cemetery, the resting place of the Herzogs and Reimers.

Many of the Germans from Russia who chose to live in Sheboygan were from the villages of Reinwald, Schaefer, and Schwed.  Most of them are buried here.

We parked and quickly located my great-grandparents headstone.  As I look at the stone, memories flooded back to me of all of the research I still want to do on the lives of Philip and Anna Maria Reimer.  The Reinwald Censuses of 1850 and 1857 opened many avenues for further exploration of their lives.

My grandparents, Fred and Sophie Herzog,  are near. Cousins from this side of my family still reside in and around Sheboygan.  They maintain and clean the areas around these plots as evidenced by the hosta plant behind my grandparent's stone.  I like how it has filled in the space and I hope the hosta Ashley and I planted will do the same at John's grave.

Fred Herzog remains my mystery to solve. I believe his family moved to Rosenfeld am Nachoi as I have found a number of Herzogs in the 1862 Census.  This census could be the link to pulling the family tree chart  back to the original Settler's list.  Yet, there are so many Fred's and misspellings and date contradictions, I need to cloister myself and submerge into the documents again before I can confirm my findings.

This visit I located my Mom's brother's grave.  The last time I was here with my cousin Charlotte, we could not find the stone. When I talked with Charlotte, she told me that her daughter found  the stone, but it had sunk so far into the ground, most visitors would not have seen it.  It has been raised again and it now visible.  A beautiful green plant grows behind the stone.  Fred died at 29 years old after a car accident on 8th Street during a snow storm.

Before we visited the Lutheran cemetery, we drove past my grandmother's house on St. Clair Ave and circled the block to check if my cousin Charlotte was home. She was sitting in the yard and we had a wonderful unexpected visit.

Hometown: Cemeteries

I love to visit cemeteries. I always have.  As a little girl, I always helped my Dad plant geraniums at grave sites on Memorial Day.  It was our way to remember.

As an adult, I attended a few Feng Shui classes and vaguely recall that our ancestor's burial ground has links to our lives.  When I googled this topic, I found this interpretation:

Death is just a transition point. If the human remains are interred at a good location at the correct time (time being the heavenly component of the Heaven-Earth-Man trinity), then a chain reaction will be set off in which the earth’s productive capacity is modulated by the human qi interred, and a ‘signal’ of sorts is generated. The deceased person’s descendant's have an affinity, or linkage, with this ‘signal’. We can think of it as a ‘DNA signature’ of sorts. Only the descendants having the same ‘DNA signature’ will be able to pick up this ‘signal’, in much the same way that only a specific tuning of the radio will be able to receive a specific broadcast frequency.
If the burial site is good, the ‘signal’ generated will be positive and the descendants picking up this ‘signal’ will be blessed with good health and good fortune. Conversely if the burial site is bad, a negative ‘signal’ is generated and the descendants will be impacted negatively. http://www.absolutelyfengshui.com/library/yin-house-feng-shui-intro-1.php

I realize my ancestors never studied feng shui.  And, they may not put any value in this assessment.  But they did respect and care for the burial sites.  Despite that I live in Arizona, I respect and want to care for the burial sites, too. Especially since the last of the Dalhaimer family recently moved to Illinois.  I felt this pang of regret last Memorial Day when I realized for the first time since the 1940's there was no Dalhaimer relative in town to tend to the sites. I committed on that day that when I visit, I would continue the care.

Why is this so important? Perhaps it is due to "feng shui" or maybe it is simply my upbringing. My ancestors who stayed in Russia more than likely did not receive a proper burial.  My grandmother made my father promise to always tend his brother John's grave. My Dad and I visited and cared for the site every Memorial Day.  After my grandmother was buried next to John, we tended to both graves for years.  When I moved my Mom and Dad followed this pattern for years. When my Dad moved to Oregon, he asked his brother Fred to tend the sites.  Fred immediately understood and did so every year until this past May.

On Saturday, August 19, my daughter Ashley and I made the trek to Calvary Cemetery. We stopped at the cemetery to check the stones, then headed to Shopko for plants.  It was a bit too late in the season for geraniums but we found good substitutes. We came back to the cemetery, washed, cleaned and planted our selections...hosta and pink begonias, pink because it was my grandmother's favorite color. We did our best.

Our next stop was the Lutheran Cemetery.  Stay tuned.

Scenes from Calvary Cemetery