This is an open invitation.  The Genealogical Society of Southwestern Pennsylvania will be holding its yearly meeting and luncheon on Sunday, December 14, 2008 at the Citizens Library, 55 S. College St., Washington, PA.

We will be installing the 2009 Officers and Board Members.  We will hold the induction of the Pioneer Families of Southwestern Pennsylvania and we will have a visit by General George Washington and his wife, Martha telling us about December 1758 during the French & Indian War.

Attendance fee will be $20.00 which includes lunch.  Contact gsswpa@gmail.com for a reservation form.

                                                                              Bryan Cunning, Re-enactor

 

In honor of my father-in-law, Edward William Nixon whose last birthday on this earth was on 9/11.

   1957 - Germany

JUST A COMMON SOLDIER               by A. Lawrence Vaincourt

He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast,

And he sat around the Legion, telling stories of the past.

Of a war that he had fought in and the deeds that he had done,

In his exploits with his buddies; they were heroes, every one.

And tho' sometimes, to his neighbors, his tales became a joke,

All his Legion buddies listened, for they knew whereof he spoke.

But we'll hear his tales no longer for old Bill has passed away,

And the world's a little poorer, for a soldier died today.

He will not be mourned by many, just his children and his wife,

For he lived an ordinary and quite uneventful life.

Held a job and raised a family, quietly going his own way,

And the world won't note his passing, though a soldier died today.

When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state,

While thousands note their passing and proclaim that they were great.

Papers tell their whole life stories, from the time that they were 

young,

But the passing of a soldier goes unnoticed and unsung.

Is the greatest contribution to the welfare of our land

A guy who breaks his promises and cons his fellow man?

Or the ordinary fellow who, in times of war and strife,

Goes off to serve his Country and offers up his life?

A politician's stipend and the style in which he lives

Are sometimes disproportionate to the service that he gives.

While the ordinary soldier, who offered up his all,

Is paid off with a medal and perhaps, a pension small.

It's so easy to forget them for it was so long ago,

That the old Bills of our Country went to battle, but we know

It was not the politicians, with their compromise and ploys,

Who won for us the freedom that our Country now enjoys.

Should you find yourself in danger, with your enemies at hand,

Would you want a politician with his ever-shifting stand?

Or would you prefer a soldier, who has sworn to defend

His home, his kin and Country and would fight until the end?

He was just a common soldier and his ranks are growing thin,

But his presence should remind us we may need his like again.

For when countries are in conflict, then we find the soldier's part

Is to clean up all the troubles that the politicians start.

If we cannot do him honor while he's here to hear the praise,

Then at least let's give him homage at the ending of his days.

Perhaps just a simple headline in a paper that would say,

Our Country is in mourning, for a soldier died today.

The Genealogical Society of Southwestern Pennsylvania will be holding its Fall Family History Conference on Saturday, October 18, 2008 from 9:00AM to 4:30PM at Citizens Library in Washington, PA.  The speakers will be William “Bill” Poellet, Jr., railroad and oil historian presenting “Echoes of Washington County, The Railroad and The Oil Well”, Frank J. Kurtik, historian and archivist, presenting “Monongahela Rye Whiskey – Its Impact on the Culture and Economy of Nineteenth Century America” and “Vesta Coal:  An Overview of the Bituminous Coal Mining Operations of Jones & Laughlin Steel”  and Elissa Scalise Powell, CG  presenting “Windows to the Past:  Newspaper Research” and “Hiding Behind Their Skirts:  Finding Women In Records”.  Vendors will also be displaying their products.  Registration fees are:  Members - $25.00 and Non-members $30.00.  A continental breakfast and box lunch is included in the conference fee.  Registration is due by October 4, 2008.  For a word document copy of the registration form, please e-mail gsswpa@gmail.com providing your name and e-mail address.  Come and join us for an interesting day.

     “I saw behind me those who had gone, and before me, those who are to come.  I looked back and saw my father, and his father, and all our fathers, and in front, to see my son, and his son, and the sons upon sons beyond.  And their eyes were my eyes.  As I felt, so they had felt, and were to feel, as then, so now, as tomorrow and forever. Then I was not afraid, for I was in a long line that had no beginning, and no end. And the hand of his father grasped my father's hand, and his hand was in mine, and my unborn son took my right hand, and all, up and down the line that stretched from Time That Was, to Time That Is, and Is Not Yet, raised their hands to show the link, and we found that we were one, born of Woman, Son of Man, made in His Image, fashioned in the Womb by the Will of God, the Eternal Father."

Extracted from the work of Richard Llewellyn
"How Green Was My Valley"

 

 

     Picturing my maternal grandmother in my mind, I always see Bubba, my Polish grandmother, in a cotton house dress and an apron.  She always wore an apron in the house. Today, I don't think our kids even know what an apron is. The principal use of Bubba's apron was to protect the dress underneath, but along with that, it served as a pot holder for removing hot loaves of homemade bread from the oven.  She made the best bread.  When I think of walking into her kitchen, I can still smell that fresh bread right out of the oven.  Bubba’s apron was wonderful for drying our tears, wiping our skinned knees and on occasion, was even using it for cleaning out dirty ears.  From the chicken coop, her apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.  When company came, her apron were ideal hiding place for my shy cousins. And when the weather was cold, Bubba wrapped it around her arms to ward off a chill.  I remember her using those big old aprons to wipe her perspiring brow, bent over a hot stove.  And from Judza’s garden, her apron carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.  In the summer, her apron was used to carry pears from the pear tree Judza had grafted onto an apple tree and in the fall, Bubba’s apron would bring in apples that had fallen from the tree. When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how muchfurniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds. When dinner was ready, Bubba walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and Judza knew it was time to come in for dinner.  It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that "old-time apron" that served so many purposes.
     Bubba used her apron to set her hot baked pies on the window sill to cool. Her great-granddaughters now set theirs on the window sill to thaw.  They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.   I know I never caught anything from Bubba’s apron--except love.

In memory of Bubba, Louise (Ludwika Mikulec) Severyn (1895-1985).