Playing Catch-up

June has really flown by and I spent most of it trying to get caught up on things. Now I'll try and get caught up here on my blog.

Sprout graduated from Kindergarten and we attended her end of the year concert. The kids sang their hearts out and were great! The behavior of the audience was deplorable. People talked throughout the entire performance and some thought it appropriate to chant or scream out their kids names. Despite that we had a good time as you can see from the picture I took afterwards.

Bean, Twig, Sil and Sprout

We've also been hosting kids night on Tuesdays and last week we still had many berries that needed picking. Mike wasn't interested and Nikki was home sick but the other four picked enough that there were some left after they'd had their fill ;-)

Bean, Liz, Sprout

Alex and Liz

Twig was more interested in walking through.

Sprout seemed to enjoy her time in the garden the most.

With Our Hands Over Our Hearts

We had another two hour weather delay this morning. I had the news on so I'd know if we closed but I really wasn't paying attention. I puttered around on my computer, working on a blog post and ignored my news feeds.

I started my elementary route right on time but fell a minute behind because several kids were at sitters or not ready because of the delay.

After picking up my first 13 kids I turned onto Main St. Just as student number 14 was boarding, the fire department's rescue truck pulled across and blocked off the next intersection - right at the corner where the funeral home is. Had I paid attention to the news I would have been prepared but since I hadn't I pulled up to about 50 feet from the intersection, parked in the middle of my lane and called in my situation to alert other drivers that the road was closed. My initial thought was that it must be a funeral for a local fire fighter.

My view was blocked by the truck but very quickly men from the VFW appeared holding American flags and flanked the side street. A procession of cars started around the corner between them. I was briefly distracted by traffic behind me and the kids getting out of their seatbelts to see what was going on - a big no-no on my bus. I was just about to order them back into their seats when members of the 10th Mountain Division started to line up on the porch of the funeral home. Waves of sadness washed over me as I realized what we were about to witness.

A line of Oswego County Sheriff's cars came around the truck on the other side and parked on the side of the road, even with and facing my bus. The officers got out and formed a line, which was quickly joined by NYS Troopers and local Officers who had parked somewhere out of my view. A line of men in blue was now standing at attention in the roadway right in front of the bus and facing the funeral home.

The kids were standing up and asking questions and I was doing my best to answer them. Some were impatient that we were being held up in this way. I told them that somebody important had died and pointed out the three honor guards that we could see from our vantage point. I told them that these men were here to honor a soldier and that we should also show our respect by waiting patiently. A couple were upset at the idea of anyone being dead and I tied to comfort them and not tear up myself. We talked about respect, honor, dignity and war. As we watched, several local residents came out from their homes to stand on the other three corners in the bitter weather.

Suddenly the officers in front of us started saluting and a few moments later we could see the casket being carried onto the porch by more soldiers. This was the first time most of the kids had ever seen a casket. I looked up in my mirror and my problem student, the one that is always in trouble for saying inappropriate things, picking on younger kids or for being just plain disruptive, this student was standing next to their seat and saluting. Despite the lump in my throat I suggested that anybody that wanted to show their respect for this fallen soldier should stand with their hands over their hearts just like the people standing on the corners were doing. The one student continued to salute and the rest of us placed our hands over our hearts and remained that way until the last of the mourners had been escorted into the funeral home.

If we hadn't had a delay we would not have been there. If I had listened to the news I might have rerouted and we would not have been there. If I had not been running one minute late we would not have been there. I believe that we were meant to be there with our hands over our hearts.

I now know that we witnessed the very sad homecoming of Army Sgt. Timothy Van Orman. Sgt. Van Orman served in Afghanistan from August 2003 to May 2004 and in Iraq from August 2005 to July 2006. In September he was deployed for the third time. Last week Sgt. Van Orman became a casualty of war, dying at the age of 24. He leaves behind a wife, infant daughter, his parents and three siblings. More on his homecoming can be found here and his obituary here.

Four of my friends have sons in the armed forces. I have never met Mike, who was wounded in Irag, but his mother is thankful that he is doing well and stationed in the US. Another friend's son is in the Air Force and will probably be deployed again. The other two young men are both in the Army and besides being the sons of friends they are two of "my" kids. Bob has finished basic and is continuing his training and will be deployed soon. Jim is still in basic training. I spent a lot of time today thinking about these four young men.

My heart felt sympathy goes out to the family of Sgt. Van Orman.

Basketball Trip

I took the VB basketball team to Syracuse yesterday evening for a scrimmage. After I dropped the boys off I ate my dinner, made a couple of calls and caught up on some paper work. Then I headed inside, figuring warm-ups would be over and the game would be about to start.

I've been to many basketball games over the years but never a scrimmage. They were already playing hard and there were only four minutes left on clock. I had visions of being home by bedtime! I was quite confused when there was a stoppage of play and the opposing coach walked out on the court and made his team run a drill while our boys just stood by and waited. Next trip down the floor it was our coach out there moving players around and coaching - you needed to be here and you needed to move this way. This continued off and on throughout the game. All the boys got to play and I enjoyed watching one of "my" kids run the floor.

They ended up playing 7 or 8 "quarters" so we didn't get back to school until 10. Coach thought they got a lot out of it. I enjoyed seeing the coaching and watching the kids that were playing their hearts out trying to get a starting spot. It made me think of this post of Brian's. Too bad coach can't start all of them!

Weather update: I got to dig out my sunglasses for a while this afternoon! We did have a few flurries this morning though, so the we're still waiting for a dry day.

Newspapers and Genealogy

In the spring of 2005 I ran across the following:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyontari/surrogate8.htm

From Geneva Advertiser 19 June 1894

(Abstracted from classified Legal Notices)

Malantha Marsh, Wallace Hall and Lyman Baker, Phelps, N. Y.
Mary Crittenden, Ypsilanti, Mich.
Charles Holman, Owasso, Mich.
Hattie Weston, Alma, Mich.
E. Burt Garlock, Jefferson City, Missouri
Cyrus Garlock, Mary C. Garlock, W. F. Garlock, Port Gibson, N. Y.
Christina Densmore and Reuhama Corbin, Albion, N. Y.
Howard Burt, Newark, N. Y.
J. Hall Burt, West Kendall, N. Y.
Harriet Briggs, Jamestown, N. Y.
Almira Sweet, Oil City, Pa.
Roswell Baker, Knowlesville, N. Y.
Alice Jeffery, Tehama, Cal.
Benjamin F. Myers, Ithaca, Mich.
Hannah Carlisle, Sioux City, Iowa
Othniel Hall, Comfort Hall, Jessie Baker, Evelyn Hibbard, Porter Grover, Caroline P. Whitney, Percy Cook, Minard Cook, John Cook, and all others, heirs at law and next of kin of LAURA CARTER, deceased.

Ann Lawson, Augusta, N. Y.
Caroline Field, Geneva, N. Y.
Mary E. Tulett, Anna W. Tulett, Laura L. Tulett and Clarence E. Tulett, all of the Town of Fayette, N. Y.,
who are interested, as creditors, next of kin, heirs at law, legatees, or otherwise, in the estate of LAURA CARTER. late of the town of Geneva, Ontario County NY.

Some kind soul had transcribed this and put it on the web for me to find. I have bolded the two names that jumped out at me, two of my great-grand-aunts, daughters of David Glover and Tamesin Hall. I had no idea who Laura Carter might be but I noticed several other Hall's and there was Roswell Baker who had been in my tree for years as an unrelated person that I knew was somehow tied to the Carlisle family.

From this small item in an old paper I was eventually able to fill in several generations of the descendants of of Capt. William Hall and Reuhama Andrews/Andros. I never would have looked at the will of Laura Carter had I not found this one small mention in an old newspaper.

Currently I have a monthly subscription to old copies of the Syracuse papers online through newspaper archive.com. For about $7 a month I can search or browse to my hearts content when it is convenient for me. To view the same papers at the library would involve a trip to Syracuse and the gas and parking would cost me more than $7 for a single day. I have added to both my husband's my trees this way.

The draw back to newspaper research is that you find out very few good things. Happy items make the paper far less often than sad times. Births merit a quick line - son born to, weddings and anniversaries get a nice write up if the family submitted the information. But mostly you find death notices, accident reports and arrests. All of these are wonderful for filling in and untangling family lines but often make me sad.

When searching old papers be sure to use every conceivable spelling of a surname and search by known addresses. In my husband's family some of the family homes were passed down through the family for 100 years.