Belleau Wood American Cemetery In Eastern France

Belleau Wood American Cemetery In Eastern France

At Belleau Wood American Cemetery in eastern France are American soldiers from both World War I and World War II. "Over there....over there" the song by George Cohan reminds us that American soldiers went "Over there" to fight the Germans in World War I but this American Cemetery at the village of Belleau shows that many did not return home to America. I toured this cemetery with three other school teachers from Frankfurt American Elementary School #1 in Frankfurt, Germany in the spring of 1972.

Here is a beautiful war memorial monument at Belleau Wood American Cemetery.

And here is Gladys Madison who also taught first grade at my school. She is pointing to the gun shell hole in the monument that was caused by a later military battle right at the cemetery during World War II. Consequently there are American soldiers from World War II also buried at this cemetery. Belleau Wood is in the Champagne region of France.
So here's to all the American soldiers of both wars. And to learn more just Google the phrase "American cemeteries in France" to find out more about this cemetery as well as the ten other American cemeteries in France.

The Tenth Day of Christmas Janury 3, 2009

The Tenth Day of Christmas

Saturday

January 3, 2009

Chistmas Stories at Lake Wales, Florida

This was a forest scene in the upstairs hall at Pinewood Estate.

All the forest animals await Santa's arrival in quiet anticipation listening to the tick tock of the grandfather's clock.

Today I will tell you two brief stories that I played a part in long ago in school. Be fair warned that the stories are now inappropriate. Why? Because I would never in a million years do today in a public school what I did back in the sixties and early seventies in school. You ask what I did that was inappropriate? Well, I celebrated the story of Jesus as if every child in my class was a Christian. In today's diverse world that is not the case.

Story Number One

The Setting: Huffman Elementary School on Huffman Avenue

In Dayton, Ohio

Fresh out of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio I landed my first teaching assignment on the east side of Dayton which was all white at the time. (You would go across a bridge to the west side of Dayton and you would be in Dayton's version of Harlem which was all black.) Anyway Huffman Elementary School was at that time in the fall of 1966 the oldest school building still in use in Dayton, Ohio. By the year 1973 I believe Huffman School would be 100 years old and Miss Tetslaff, the sweet little spinster who taught right next door to me would have taught at that very school for 50 years and of those 50 years 49 would be in the very same classroom! Totally amazing. The first time I walked into her classroom I saw these very faded nursery rhyme pictures nailed to the blackboard bulletin board.The little kids in the illustrations looked like wholesome little kids from Campbell soup ads from the thirties. If you got near these pictures and blew on them, they would disintegrate into small particles and land on the floor. How old was Miss Tetslaff? I don't know but I reckon she was fast approaching seventy five. In fact one of the eighth grade teachers at this K-8 school who was in his mid thirties had her at Huffman as his first grade teacher.

Does Miss Tetslaff figure in the story? No, but she was such a character that I just had to put her into the intro to this story. But this side of Dayton had a sizable Polish population and another teacher at my school was Linda Sobieski who lived right in the neighborhood and went to the Catholic University of Dayton before landing a first grade classroom down in the basement of this school. She liked it down there because the principal seldom made it to the classroom by the boiler room so she and her students could be very noisy at times. Meanwhile, I was next door to Miss Tetslaff and just down the way from the Principal's office, so I had to keep a lid on the noise in my classroom. Oh-ooh, here comes the principal now thru the back entrance to the classroom which was the old, old cloakroom! I swear that many times I felt like I was reliving Laura Ingalls in her teaching days because the school was truly an architectural antique.

So in the fall of my first year of teaching Linda Sobieski approached me and asked if I would like to go in with her class to recreate the Christmas story for the December meeting of the Huffman PTA. I said OK and so we selected students to play all the parts from singing angels and talking shepherds to the three wise men. The leads of course went to Mary and Joseph. Jesus was played by some little girl's doll baby wrapped in a blanket and set in a mock manger filled with straw. Everyone learned their part for the play. It was now very close to Christmas and the last day of school before the Christmas Holiday (that's what the vacation was called in 1966) but the big play production for the PTA was on the agenda for that very day when Linda ran into my classroom and announced that she and I had a major play fiasco on our hands. I remember that I asked her what the problem was and I'll never forget her answer: Joseph, Mary's husband had run off to Kentucky with his parents!

Joseph's in Kentucky! Oh, my gosh, how will the play go on I asked Linda. She replied that quick, we must get a brand new Joseph and he better be smart and learn his part and lines in a flash! We found a new Joseph and he did a fine job in our little play and all was well once more. Linda's parting thought after the play was this. Don't ever Joann choose a child whose parents just came up to Dayton, Ohio to work in the '60's very robust GM auto parts factory in Moraine because those Kentucky folks are only here for the money and they miss their families in the hills and hollows of Kentucky and you just know that they will skip school and head down interstate #75 before school vacation actually starts. Ahhhhhh.....those were the good old days in Dayton, Ohio. The auto parts industry was going strong and it was not inappropriate to stage a Christmas play in a public school or to wish folks a Merry Christmas and a happy Christmas vacation.

Story Number Two

Setting: My first year of teaching first grade to the DOD dependent children and the state department children in Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Here's another inappropriate school incident in my classroom. At Frankfurt Elementary School #1 which has since reverted back to being a German school since there are no U.S. military now stationed in the city of Frankfurt which Gen. Eisenhower selected as his Army headquarters in Europe at the famous I.G. Farben Chemical Complex. Now the I.G. Farben Building with its oh, so famous pater noster elevator is a part of Goethe University. My, how the world changes if you live long enough to witness it!

So it is Christmas once again in Germany in 1970 and I have decided to have the students help me decorate my main bulletin board which was located by the door to my classroom so everyone coming down the hall could see this display. I loved having the students create the art work for this bulletin board and we would always come up with something that was both interesting and very attractive. I would line the background of the board with appropriate scenery, create the word heading and assign students to create the figures in front by drawing and cutting out their artistic creations.

Ok, so you guys will create the shepherds, OK, you folks can make the angels, who wants to do one of the three kings?, who wants to draw some cute baby sheep?, we need some shepherds too. So as each child finished his morning seatwork while I conducted three old fashioned reading groups that morning they would place their drawing on my desk for me to later staple on the board. As I was taking the drawings to the board and stapling them into the scene there was one little drawing that I just couldn't quite figure out. Was it a donkey? Was it a sheep? What was it? So I called the child up and asked what his assignment had been. He told me he was supposed to draw a shepherd. But this looks like an animal not a shepherd. Oh, no, Miss Gariety, this does look like a shepherd. A German shepherd!

I learned to my surprise that this little boy had a German shepherd as a pet and yes, he had drawn for me a shepherd. So that is how in 1970 a drawing of a German shepherd was the hit of my Christmas bulletin board display. Word spread quickly thru the teacher grapevine and everyone stopped in to see my German shepherd at the nativity scene. Even the Principal, Mr. Mebane came by to take a look and shake his head, have a little laugh and give me a sly wink.

The twelve days of Christmas plus one are fast coming to a close for yet another year. But remember, it is not over, till is over in the wisdom of Yogi Berra so get out this weekend and do something special for the Christmas holidays.

We Meet Again - 36 Years Later

Saturday Jack and I drove to the little village of Clifton, VA and I was able to meet again, 36 years later, someone that taught first grade with me at Frankfurt American Elementary School #1 in Frankfurt, Germany. Linda Franklin (now Linda Franklin Carroll) was one of the twelve first grade teachers at Frankfurt #1 that I taught with in the early '70s. At the time Linda was married and had two sons. While at my school I remember that she had her daughter, Kellee, unexpectedly on a vacation trip to London. And I remember going with the other first grade teachers to her home to meet baby Kellee. But most of all I remember having her precocious six year old son, Kirk, in my first grade class the school year of 1971-72. How precocious was Kirk? Well, he showed up in my first grade class already having read Lew Wallaces's novel, Ben Hur. What a thrill it was to meet again yesterday after 36 years! Retirement parties are bitter sweet occasions. I found myself both laughing and crying and rejoicing at the opportunity to reconnect with an old friend and work colleague from long ago. And it was a thrill to meet the now grown man Kirk Franklin and his lovely wife Teena. I learned that Kirk now lives in San Francisco and is working in the web design field. No wonder the retirement party invitation included a website Kirk designed for his mother's retirement. Take a look if you like. I guarantee that even if you don't know Linda, you will be shedding tears at this wonderful Thanks For the Memories tribute that Kirk created for his mother. Here's the address: http://lindafranklin.i2ilabs.com/ Linda is retiring from Laurel Ridge Elementary School in Fairfax County where she has been a kindergarten teacher for the past 34 years. Wow! Current and former principals, teachers and kindergarten students came to the retirement picnic to give Linda a big retirement send off. Happy Retirement, Linda!

Our Wedding Day

Jack and I got married 34 years ago today in Frankfurt, Germany at St. Sebastians Catholic Church. My father, Leo A. Gariety, flew from Ohio to give me away. My brother, Harold Gariety, flew from Denver to attend the ceremony. My only sister, Mary Ellen Thobe, was expecting so she regretfully could not attend to be my matron of honor. So my good friend, Joyce Mattricciano was my maid of honor. Jack chose his best friend, James Blakelee to be his best man. Later that same year our two witnesses became Mr. and Mrs. Blakeslee. Jack's mother in Arizona regretfully could not attend as well as Jack's father in Missouri.And my mother was deceased. Our wedding reception was at the Officers Club in Frankfurt, Germany. Before leaving for the reception we had to take some pictures with my first grade students who came to the church to see their teacher get married. These little first graders are now in their forties. My time flies! Whenever we look at this photo we always remark about how the trees in Frankfurt, Germany were totally leafed out on April 15. In Virginia which is closer to the equator than Germany is the trees are never in full leaf by April 15. We can never figure out why that is the case. Tomorrow I will show you a photo of where we went for our honeymoon.

Permission Letters to Wed

You have heard of people younger than 21 who have had to get permission from their parents to get married. (To sign for them) Well, even though Jack and I were both approaching 30 we had to get permission from our bosses in Frankfurt, Germany to get married in Basel, Switzerland! We laughed about it at the time. We could see them asking for a letter from our parents but from our bosses! Holy Cow! Anyway here's what our bosses wrote:
Joann's principal, Mr. Templeton wrote:
This is to certify that Miss Joann M. G......... is a Department of Army Civilian assigned to the USDESEA School System and is located in the Frankfurt Germany Elementary School #1. She has been an employee of the Department of Defense Oversea Schools for six years and after researching her records there is nothing to indicate that she is other than of the highest character. After two years of personal contact the undersigned can personally attest to her professional competencies, integrity and character.

It is indeed a pleasure to recommend Miss G........ as an excellent teacher and an outstanding person. I have no reservation in recommending that her application for marriage be approved.

This is what Jack's boss, Dan C. Crowley, the associate district manager of the European Army Audit District, wrote for Jack:

Mr. Jack S........, an employee of the European District, U.S. Army Audit Agency, is free to wed Miss Joan G........., a U.S. citizen.

April 2, 1974 - April 2, 2008

When you get married in Europe you need a civil wedding ceremony but not a religious ceremony. Jack and I had both ceremonies in 1974. We drove to Basel, Switzerland on March 31'st and on April Fools' Day we two fools registered to marry each other the next day. So on the morning of April 2, 1974 we went to the Canton of Basel's City Hall and got married. After lunch in Basel we drove back to Frankfurt, Germany where we both went back to work the next day. The students in my first grade class had been practicing with the room mother to call me Mrs. Shipley, so they were really excited to come into the classroom on April 3 and say Good Morning, Mrs. Shipley. It took me awhile to get used to it. Later in the month we had our Catholic Wedding Ceremony at St. Sebastian's Catholic Church on post.