A Brother Carl Stella Fella's memory at 9 28 24 Memorial Hill Gathering

          John, Carl, Tom    The Stella Fella’s   The Fox's Den

When Patty and I, moved back to Winamac from Florida in 2002.  Carl and Johnny were always playing golf on Friday Morning, then usually going to the Fox’s Den for lunch.   I did not play golf.  So after their golf game I would meet them at Fox;s Den for lunch.  And we always had one or 2 glasses of DRAFT Stella.  Pam the waitress finally named us the Stella Fellows (Fella’s).  It has stuck with us JOHN, CARL, TOM for ever.

The Everglades

A library book that brought back many memories. 

-- Gator Country Rebecca Renner cr 2023 (about Alligator poaching in the Everglades)

Thank you PCPL for this very interesting book. Gator Country. It brought back LOTS OF MEMORIES for back when I lived in Florida. I have rode my Motorcycle through most of the Everglades many times. Camped in the Everglades several times.

I have a signed copy of Totch Browns ‘Life in the Everglades’ book. I got it in The Small Wood museum in Chokoloskee and read it, in early 90’s. I would nearly always drop down to Chokoloskee to visit the Smallwood Museum / Store when I crossed the Everglades on US41. Totch Brown, The Smallwood Museum and Chokoloskee were mentioned many times in the book ..

I can well imagine what author Rebecca Renner went through and experiences she had in writing this, her 1st book.

Tom Anspach 2 15 2024

MY VISIT TO ANSBACH GERMANY 1990

 This subject came up the other day. I thought I had written this story sometime but I could not find it. . It is a great memory so here we go. 

 In 1990 my work friend Andy (Honeywell Clearwater FL) and I went to the World Cup games in Turino Itally. We had made the deal to go 4 years before on a business trip to Minneapolis, were we hunted down a little bar that was playing the final 1986 World Cup Game in Mexico. We made a promise to go to the 1990 games.  Saved up the money over the 4 years and went. 

 Without looking it up in my note book I believe we could only get tickets so up through the ¼ final games. So we left after or before the ¼ finals. We were there about a month. It was.GREAT We travled there and back separately for some reason. 

 To get back I traveled from Turino Italy to Frankfurt Germany on the train to catch my plane to the US. I had a Urail pass, My trains path was Turin, Verona then to Frankfurt via Munich, Nurenburg (as I recall) . I noticed that Ansbach was a little ways west of Nurenberg so I decided to take a little side trip and visit Ansbach. There is an Anspach north of Frankfurt but it was out of the way. I went there years later with Tommy. 

 It was a night ride from Verona to get to Frankfurt. It would be overnight to get to Ansbach. When I caught the Frankfurt train in Verona I wanted to find a ‘cabin’ so I could catch some sleep. i.e. not full of people. I found one. It was occupied by a man and lady. I figured they were related. Turns out they were not. The lady was from US and traveling to meet or had met family members. I don’t recall where the man was from. He spoke English well so maybe from the US. It was an interesting meeting. The man eluded that he was some kind of a spy. The lady was traveling in coach with scruffy cloths. She said she did not like traveling in high class with nice cloths as it tempted people to steal from her. We were able to convert the seats into 3 separate sleeping places and I slept pretty well. 

 Now comes the Ansbach story, finally. I arrived in Ansbach in the morning. I got me a room in a ‘run of the mill’ little hotel near the train station. The room key was a BIG ol door key with a big card attached. I turned the key in and they hung it in a box hanging on the wall behind the desk. It turns out, as you will see, that I should have checked more about the hotel key rules.

 I walked around Ansbach checking things out. It was a neat small City. Picked up a couple post cards and mailed them home. Finally late after noon I found a little bar restaurant near the Hotel and train station for relaxing and some food. 

 There were a couple guys sitting at the bar. We started chatting as I had a beer and something to eat. They were convinced that I was USArmy from a nearby base. I finally convinced them that I was on my way home from the world cup games. Told them my last name was why I stopped there. There was a jug of some kind of German ‘Schnapps?’ on the bar and they started buying me shots. We all, including the bartender, became very friendly and it was very enjoyable. I had bought 2 or 3 World Cup T shirts in Italy and decided to go down to the hotel and pick one up and give it to the bar.

 I got my Big OLD LOCK type key from the desk, went up to my room, got the shirt, turned the key back in and took the shirt to the bar. They loved the shirt and hung it up near the bar. It turns out a few days later that Germany won the 1990 games. As it started getting later I decided to head back to the hotel and get a little shut eye as I had to get up early in the morning to catch my train. It was probably around 11 pm or so. 

 I got back to the hotel and LO AND BEHOLD it was locked up tighter than a drum. I pounded on the door, hollered etc but NO ONE answered. I started getting worried and started looking for a policeman or someone to help. NO one. I climbed a gate in the rear of the hotel into what may have been a parking area. Started hollering again, that I was locked out and needed help. Lo and Behold a young man about 2nd floor opened his window “what is wrong?” in clear English. I explained, he came down and opened the front door to let me in. "" MY KEY was LOCKED in the little wooden box on the wall behind the desk (I assumed). I could not get it open. There was was NO NONE AORUND I went into the near by kitchen and found a BIG spoon. Ah this might work. I managed to pry the box open and got my key, whew!!. "" I got a few hours sleep, Got up early (about 5 or so) packed up, left my key on the desk, no one was around, and went and caught my train to Frankfurt. Got on the airplane and made it home ok.

 What A great, and interesting trip. And of course, the Ansbach visit was just part of it.

PBS Sun 9 18 22 and 9 19 22

Watching most of the Queens funeral today Monday on PBS makes me think back about 12 hours ago. And watching the Ken Burns documentary ‘The U.S. and the Holocaust “The Golden Door” (Beginnings-1938)” ’ on Sunday. Such a dramatic difference in world happenings. It is nearly incomprehensible to understand the differences, the why, the how and will it ever change

My lost as a child experience.

OK here we go, let’s see what I can do. My lost as a child experience. This was the 1st place, the share cropping farm we had after moving to Indiana. I am sure we came to this area as it was in the Indana area near Moms Aunt Ida Sluyter who lived in Buffalo. And they were very close. Carl was born in Aunt Ida’ s house in March 1935, so we moved to Big Creel. Southwest of Monticello, around that time. We called it Big Creek as that was the name of a creek that ran through the woods on the west side of the farm. I think this picture is it: 40.66064625819204, -86.7796538630557 Although I dont recall the field being that large between the barn / house and the woods creek. Thisis the way the picture looks on this Stupid blog even though I uploaded it as a jpeg as instructed :(

Lost: I do not recall exactly when I got lost, mom told me the lost . But this is the way I remember it and the way I have told it MANY times. I would guess that I was about 4 years old or so at the time. I went out in the woods for a walk. . . and evidently did not return as expected. Dad and Mom got pretty worried. But as I was walking around in the woods trying to figure out where I was and how to get home, I ran across this BIG brontosaurus wandering around in the woods. We became friends, me petting him and he nuzzling me. I named and called him Bronti. As it was nearing dark he realized I was lost and needed to get home. So he had me scramble up on his back and he walked me back to the house. Mom and Dad were very happy as they were worried. After that every time I went back out into the woods or near the woods. . I would see Bronti and would go for a ride on his back. It was a GREAT experience. When we moved from there in 1938 or 39 up to the west of Buffalo and aunt Ida’s, of course we could not bring Bronti with us. And I missed him terribly. Once in about 2003 or 04 or so a bunch of us, brothers, cousins rented a van from Winamac and took a tour of the previous share cropping farms (5) we lived at. Including Big Creek (#1). We did not go out into the woods but I did not see any evidence of Bronti being there. So I never knew what happened to him. Of course, I still remember him rescuing me from being lost in the woods.

MY 911 STORY

Called 911 story since it ocurred as we were in the process of moving from FL to IN.------- It looks like I have never put my 911 story on my Blog. I know I have told it many times and probably written several emails. Since it is a story I will NEVER forget I will write it for my Blog. ---- Since I CANNOT figure out how to get paragraphs to work, I am ussing ----- to indicate a paragraph..... -------------- At our family 2000 reunion we (my brothers and I) decided to sell most or all of the farm, Our mom had passed the family farm down to us 15 or so years earlier. ------------ Starting about 2000 or soPatty and I were looking into moving up North from Florida. We had had enough of Florida, which seemed to be changing dramatically. My brother Johnny suggested, why don’t we buy the old family farm house. So we did, along with about 10 acres. Also we brothers kept about 5 acres of adjacent woods for a family memorial. -------------- In 2001 we decided to move north at the end of the year. We had started packing our STUFF early that year. On about Thursday or Friday or so September 6, 7 we were ready to take the 1st (1of 3) largest U-Haul from Florida to our new Indiana location. ------------- My brother Johnny came down from Logansport to help me drive up. We unloaded our 1st load of STUFF in a large semi truck trailer that Johnny had helped me rent. We had it PACKED after the 3rd load. -------------- I took the truck into South Bend on Monday the 10th and turned it in and flew back to Florida. ----------------- We lived on a small lake, Island Lake Ford, about 5 miles east of Tarpon Springs. On Tuesday morning I was walking from the house down to the lake to do something. I got about halfway, 50 feet or so, and Patty shouted at me “Tom get back up here and look at the TV” . I can still hear her in my head. The 1st plane had hit the 1st tower. The 2nd plane was on the way. I can still in my mind see the picture and remembering thinking it was a small plane..Once it hit I realized it was NOT a small plane. Of course then we were glued to the TV watching this terrible tragedy. And following the terrible story as it unfolded during the following weeks. . ------------------ I realized if I had planned on coming back from Indiana a day or so later my trip back to FL would have been MUCH different since public transportation had been canceled. ----------------- We took 2 more UHaul loads up to our new Indiana home, and were moved in by the end of December. Snow birds at last and because of the timing, with 911, this move will never be forgotten. -------------------------

 

12 28 2020

My 1950 auto accident

1950

(Pictures at the end)

Saturday night on our brothers ‘zoom’ gathering the question man, Gene, asked the question about memorable experiences that have happened in our lives.  And on my A Walk in the Woods Sunday morning I decided to write this one up and post it on my blog. I have been wanting to do it for quite a while.  (Try not to worry Sara I will get my ‘World War II kid on the farm’ story written sometime)

Probably because it happened at the intersection of 100N and 200E (#1 on map).   Nearly every time I drive by it I recall it. 

 It was in the summer of 1950, I don’t recall whether it was the end week of July or the 1^st week of August.  I do recall Dad mentioning that he had just changed auto insurance companies at that time.  

I have tried to find notes about it in moms ledgers and at the library newspaper microfilms with no luck.

 I was coming home from summer band practice in Winamac with my cornet in the case, probably on the front passenger seat. Usually I would come from the south, IN 14.  For some reason this time I was coming from the west on 100N, heading east to home (#4).  All roads were gravel.  No stop signs.  Corn was high on all 4 corners.  No one ever stopped at these country intersections.   I was in Dads, the family, car a Chevy as I recall.  I was probably driving up towards 40mph. 

 I recall as I approached the intersection a thought ”what would happen if a car was coming to the intersection along 200E?”  I slowed down and little, maybe 5 mph or so. 

 When I got to the intersection, holy S... there was a local electric power company (probably REMC) truck coming from the North, the left.  I hit the brakes. The car was having some brake problems that Dad had not got fixed yet.  The brakes did not lock up but did engage to some extent. 

 I hit the truck on the passenger side.  It twisted and rolled over making a couple flips as it rolled South on 200E.  It came to rest on the driver side with the driver pinned between the road, door and frame.

 My car spun around and stopped with the rear end just over the south east corner.  There was a side ditch there so the rear of the car was resting slightly in the ditch.  I was knocked out some way and came too within seconds under the car on my back.  I managed to squirm out from under the left side of the car on my back.

 Except for a few bumps etc the ONLY INJURY I HAD was burning the inside of my right arm (I think it was my right arm) on the exhaust pipe as i squirmed out.  My Shoes were laying in the intersection, all doors were shut, my glasses were on the car floor, my closed cornet case was in the back seat.  Later I found that my cornet had been bent. 

 I checked the truck but there was nothing I could do, the passenger seemed roughly ok. So I walked down to the neighbors house (Gil Gordons) in my stocking feet (#2 on map).  I got there and tried to tell the lady what happened.  She immediately jumped into action and settled me down and called the authorities and my mom at home.  (Remember no cell phones, no computers, etc at that time)

 Mean while, my dad and 1 or 2 of my brothers were setting out pine trees across the SE field about a quarter mile (#3 on map).  He heard a crash and saw the truck top rolling over the high corn.  They went over immediately.  They could not find me but assumed I had wandered off.  They tried to roll the truck over but as  I recall did not have much luck.  The authorities got there pretty fast and they got the truck upright and the driver out.  He was in bad shape.  They rushed him to the hospital about 20 miles away.  Plymouth I believe it was. 

 I do not recall how I got back down to the site, probably the neighbor lady took me.  We found my glasses and shoes and noticed that  my cornet was inside the case and bent slightly..  But still worked fine during my senior year of band. 

 The truck driver survived but I think, I recall, he was seriously injured and may have not been able to go back to work.  Dad did 2 things that have impressed me all my life.  As soon as he could we went for a drive in the car and he had me drive to convince me I could still drive ok.  And he took me to the hospital to visit the injured truck driver. 

 I do not know any of the legal and insurance stuff that happened.  The rules, as I recall, was that the person on the right has right of way, but also the person who enters the intersection 1^st has right of way.  The passenger and truck driver, as I recall, did not see me coming at all. And did not brake at all.  As I mentioned I did see them.  I recall dad saying that they blamed it on me since I was a kid. 

 As you can tell I was EXTREMELY FORTUNATE.  The only injury was the burn on my arm and even it was not real bad.  Even the car damage was not too bad.  And the bent cornet still worked fine.

 

Cornet about  70 years old                                                    1950 calendar

 

Intersection of 200E and 100N  (at #1)