Milestones & Christmas Traditions - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Milestones & Christmas Traditions

Congratulations on 500 wins for area basketball coaches Paul Bremigan and Carla Siegel. Enjoyed seeing the above photo of Paul with his first team in 1984, as well as Carla celebrating the milestone with her parents, Vern and Mary Jo, who were the coolest couple back in high school during the 1960’s.

Being all cooped up during the so called “Boom Cyclone” over the Christmas holiday, my siblings and I exchanged many texts and photos of Christmas’s past, Here’s a quick recap:

Our Christmas eve began right after all the farm chores were done, skipping the evening meal, because none of us kids would sit still enough to eat, being so anxious for Santa to come. Mom always had some last minute excuse that she couldn’t ride with Dad and the rest of us around town to tour all the lights. That allowed her to stay back and put out all the gifts from Santa. After seeing the lights, culminating with a final drive by St. Michael’s church to observe the lit rosary up-close. My younger siblings claimed I would tell them to look up as I had just spotted Santa and his reindeer flying over the church. We’d then head back home, with Dad making sure the front porch light was on indicating Mom’s all clear signal.

Before going into the living room to see our gifts, the youngest in the family had the honor of placing baby Jesus into the manger pictured above while Dad read the following bible passage led everyone in singing Silent Night. Dad had made the crib, as he was a great carpenter who had also helped make the crib at St. Michael's church pictured above on the right.

We finally would bustle into the living room to find out what Santa brought us on the chair we each had marked with our name before heading out to see the lights. Mom and Dad always had some favorite gifts on their desk as pictured below, typically a bottle of whiskey, a carton of cigarettes, some old fashion hard candy, a new white shirt for Dad and a piece of jewelry or perfume for Mom. Then at just the right time, our grandmother, uncle Bob and aunt Catherine would show up bearing more gifts. Soon we had all settled down enough for a wonderful late night meal with everyone. Fun times!

Over the years, Dad made a crib for each of our 5 families so now we carry on the tradition. He meticulously cut, nailed, glued and stained each crib, and used the straw from the barn to line the bottom of the manger. Our aunt Carolyn arranged for her sister who had a ceramic kiln to mold the white pearl figurines for each crib. On the bottom of the St. Joseph statue was the following inscription, “Christmas Mom & Dad 1980”. The next year, we each received statues of the three kings inscribed with Merry Christmas 1981. Every year at our family Christmas get-together, we faithfully follow the same tradition.

There was one Christmas memory my sisters recalled that involved turning one of the large evergreens in front of our house into a makeshift manger where they’d place baby Jesus represented by one of their doll babies in a swaddling blanket onto the evergreen. Mom was invited to particiapte, but Dad and us boys were not. Since the baby (and likely my sisters and Mom) was getting cold, they would then make a procession to the brooder house located on the other side of the barn singing Christmas carols while holding the baby doll and a decorated white feather Christmas tree that Mom used at her room in Dayton at the Loreto boarding house before getting married. My sisters presumably felt since the border house was good for baby chickens, it might also be good for baby Jesus!

On Christmas Day, my grandmother would host a family get-together at her home on the farm across the road from us. I can vividly recall her setting in front of dozens of grandkids patiently handing each one of us a silver dollar for Christmas. I never recall spending those silver dollars but have no idea whatever happened to them. Likely my younger siblings know!

After Christmas for a number of years, we’d replant the Christmas tree out back hoping it would grow, but alas it never did!. Seems roots are important.

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Becoming an Engineer - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Becoming an Engineer

A favorite Twitter site I follow is called World of Engineering, with the appropriate motto “A fun way to learn something everyday”. The site typically provides interesting and creative tidbits about engineering or poses provocative questions to it’s 2.6 million followers. Recently, the site asked when you first decided to be an engineer, which got me thinking about the subject.

First of all, as a farm kid in elementary school, the term engineer meant absolutely nothing to me; however, there were signs and indicators that becoming an engineer could be in my future. Primarily an interest in math and science coupled with my fix-it skills were prevalent at that early stage, but probably playing with my Erector set received as a Christmas gift around the 4th grade was the first true indicator of my eventual profession.

At first, building the various models depicted in the set’s instructions were the focus of my attention and a challenge as depicted in the cartoon above. It seems the instructions for each of the various models were always somewhat unclear, which meant frustration followed by creatively thinking about a solution. After literally building every model in the instructions, I started creating items on my own, most frequently farm equipment that we would use to play farm.

The Erector set was rather limited at first, but whenever a particular part not in the set was needed, I’d order it and wait impatiently for its arrival, typically a month or more; nothing like Amazon deliveries today. My allowance money of $1.25 a week was used to pay for the parts, and since there were no credit cards, and I didn’t have a checkbook, cash was sent with the order. The parts always came in and fortunately no one walked off with my money. A battery powered motor shown below on the right was not included with the set, so that was one of the more expensive parts ordered at a cost of $3.94, almost a month of allowance money! But that little motor allowed me to build vehicles that would move on their own without being tethered to a power cord using the bulky conventional motor that came with the set shown on the left. The seed for my automotive engineering career was firmly planted at that young age. Oh to be 22 again and start out designing electric vehicles.

Grade school teachers also had an influence on my eventual career choice by encouraging excellence in math and science. For example, an elementary teacher asked me to help out at the high school science fair each year, which allowed me to see and learn up close and personal the various displays and to interact with the older high school kids about their various projects. Also, growing up on the farm provided many neophyte engineering opportunities, primarily around fixing things that were broken or creatively solving problems on the fly and on the cheap. Dad was a great innovator who taught me a lot.

So was Mom around the house and garden, but she had ulterior motives by redirecting me towards becoming a priest. She always had stated her desire for me and my siblings to enter religious life. Encouraging me to become a mass server during grade school was step #1 (see the photo below), followed by enrolling me in various Catholic camps each summer to expose me to religious life.

Mom’s persuasion finally culminated in her encouragement that I enter the seminary as a freshman in high school, which I did. The experience was eye-opening in that the priests and brothers who taught at the seminary were extremely bright and enthusiastic. They exposed me to all kinds of new endeavors, especially from a math and science perspective, which just reinforced my urge to become an engineer rather than a priest. Another benefit was spending time in the gym honing my basketball skills rather than milking cows and feeding hogs! But after two years of intense learning at the seminary, I broke the news to my parents that Mom’s dream of me becoming a priest wasn't going to happen. They took it hard but accepted my choice and never looked back. Neither did I, jumping head first into math, science and athletics “with enthusiasm unknown to mankind”, borrowing a current approach by a favorite football coach. At that point, becoming an engineer was inevitable.

My wife sometimes gets exasperated at my technical explanations on how things work, so she simply walks away muttering “Dilbert” under her breath! But here’s how she really feels: Ten Reasons Engineers Make Good Partners

Merry Christmas, Fish Report readers.

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Generational Athletes - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Generational Athletes

While reading about, watching and listening to the area sports teams on Fish Report the past years, I’ve concluded that most of the players' surnames are very familiar and really haven’t changed much since I was playing several generations ago. For example, I competed in high school basketball against Russia athlete and senior Ross Fiessinger’s grandfather Dale. The above three generation family photo from a few years back shows Ross just behind his grandmother Kathy, a former Russia cheerleader back in my day, sitting next to Dale. And we have to point out Ross’s dad and Fish Report's own Craig Fiessinger, prominently stationed in the center back row next to his lovely wife Stacey.

For years, the children of those I knew growing up were competing in sports on local teams, like major League baseball player and Ft. Loramie native, Jared Hoying pictured above with his family, including his Dad Bill who is my first cousin. But the three generation connection is still appropriate, as Bill’s dad Lindy, pictured above on his wedding day to my aunt Mary, was an outstanding basketball and baseball player at Ft. Loramie in the 1940’s.

Checking out the boys and girls basketball rosters from Minster, Loramie and Russia generated many very familiar last names:

Minster Girls: Albers, Bergman, Barhorst, Larger, Wuebker, Hoyng & Heckman

Minster Boys: Schmiesing, Prenger, Watercutter, Poeppelman, Homan & Albers

Loramie Girls: Brandewie, Hoying, Turner, Rose, Mescher, Albers

Loramie Boys: Eilerman, Hoelscher, Raterman, Pleiman, Maurer

Russia Girls: Monnin, Shappie, Borchers, Sherman, Poling, Doseck

Russia Boys: Philpot, Shappie, Monnin, Quinter, Francis, Cordonnier

No doubt I knew many of their grandparents, so to confirm my suspicions, I referred to a favorite ancestry website administered by a cousin of mine, Ron Thieman, originally from Minster.

Ron’s family farm west of Minster shown above is prominently portrayed on the ancestry website cover page. As a kid, I vividly recall exploring all those buildings, with hide and seek a favorite game and of course the challenge of playing basketball against big Ron, an eventual star player for Minster who led them to the State Semifinals in 1965. Check out this YouTube video of that memorable game that I luckily attended.

After checking out the ancestors of the kids on the Minster, Ft. Loramie and Russia rosters, sure enough, several three generation connections were found. Most prominently was Russia’s Felix Francis as his connections actually go back 5 generations since Felix was named after his great-great grandfather, who also happens to be my wife’s great grandfather, who has the short tie in the first row on the above photo. I played basketball against young Felix's grandfather Bill, as I recall a real scrappy guard with a great shot.

Another example is Avery Brandewie from Ft. Loramie, who is the granddaughter of Dan Brandewie and Treva Ernst, whom were a couple years behind me in school. I knew Avery’s great-great grandfather as well, Herb, who’s farm was in our neighborhood. Whenever I see a Brandewie on a Ft. Loramie team, I know they’ll be very good. What a great family of athletes, several of whom have lead Loramie to state championships, in fact I think there has been a Brandewie on the roster of all six Loramie state champion basketball teams over the years, starting in 1977, with the banner posted above.

Minster girls player Jenavieve Hoying is another case in point, as her grandparents Bob & Janet Hoying are both relatives of mine on my mom’s side as shown in the above ancestry chart from the Thieman website. Summer Hoying on Ft. Loramie’s girls roster is also a relative. Here’s a past blogpost about Summer's heroic great-grandfather Vernon Hoying.

Here’s my all time favorite relationship between current and past players that connects all three schools in one family tree: The grandparents of Skyler Albers, who plays on the Ft. Loramie girls team, are Norm Albers from Minster basketball fame and the late Jane Monnier Albers, a former Russia cheerleader and brother to Tim Monnier, a star on Russia’s basketball team in the late 60’s. I went to college with Tim where we played a lot of basketball together. Her lineage sure explains why Skyler is such a great player.

Knowing well the grandparents of many of the local basketball players, no doubt they are all "chips off the old block”, holding onto midwestern Ohio values just like their grandparents. God, family and academics provide the foundation for their athletic endeavors just as it did back in my day. May they find great success on the court and their lives ahead in this ever-changing and challenging world.

PS: My sister Lucy provided the following list of additional Ft. Loramie players and their grandparents, for the most part whom I all knew and recall. No doubt the same would be true for Mister and Russia. Amazing how the apple indeed does not fall from from the tree!

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