Tom Anderson with you today to welcome back
my very dear friend Kathleen Mae Schneider.
Kathleen is here to remind us that this is
a
special day on the Shady Dell calendar.
It's time for us to remember and honor
her mother Margaret Schneider on the
anniversary of her birth. In her later
life Margaret became
a celebrity on
Shady Dell Music & Memories and
earned the nickname "The Oldest
Living Dell Rat."
Margaret's father
built the Shady Dell
in the early part
of the 20th century
and Margaret and
her family were the
the first people
to reside at the estate.
Now, here's
Kathleen with this year's birthday
tribute to her mother Margaret.
An Amazing Life
A Daughter's
Birthday Tribute
to Her Mother
by Kathleen
Mae Schneider
"Life is not measured by the number of
breaths we take, but by the moments
that take our breath away."
- Maya Angelou
Pointing to the collaged "104" on the wall
above Mother's chair a few months before
her last birthday, a neighbor chuckled, "Wow,
it won't be long before we see "105" up here!
What's your secret, Margaret? How come
you've lived so long?" Mother flashed a
look across the room to me and replied,
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe God's just
keeping me going to pester my kids".
It was true that we "kids" (retirees all!)
had been through much with her those
last six years. However, instead of feeling
"pestered", I felt truly blessed to be one
of this sweet woman's caregivers.
In honor of the anniversary of Mother's birth 107 years ago on this day,
I want to share just a few of her pictures and memories that she gave me
during that time she referred to as "borrowed". We had many both
poignant and happy sessions as we looked at these photographs
together. Because she remained in sound mind and strong
spirit, she often had stories to go with them.
MARGARET SCHNEIDER'S BIRTHPLACE
This unassuming house where Mother was born on April 18, 1912, still stands
right along the main street in Violet Hill, York County, PA., at the base of the hill
where the Shady Dell is located. My grandparents operated a small general store
on the first floor at the time of her birth. Since the house has since been divided
into apartments, it looks vastly different than when the Brown family lived there.
MARGARET (FRONT ROW, FAR RT.) AND HER SIBLINGS
AND COUSIN ON THE SHADY DELL PORCH
The picture above was taken around 1914, and Mother's personality already shines
forth as a happy and contented two-year-old. She sits on her older sister's lap
along with the newest Brown family's baby, Mildred. Some of her siblings
and a decidedly un-photogenic cousin also pose for the camera. Mother
would have moved with her large family into the newly-built Shady
Dell house probably the year before, in 1913.
RECIPE FOR LONGEVITY?
Mother credited her father's homemade cough medicine for her survival at age
six from the world's first pandemic, the Spanish Influenza of 1918. Note the
list of ingredients contains turpentine - making true in Mother's case
"That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger."
(BELOW)
Nine-year-old Margaret Brown stands for her 1921 Violet Hill School
group portrait, smiling sweetly among the very classmates who cruelly
bullied her because of her father's less-than-savory reputation.
The teachers don't appear much better.
Mother's ever-present large dark bow identifies her, standing to the left of the very tall
girl with a dark sweater in the 5th row. "At least SHE was nice to me," Mother said.
Mother's shy younger sister, Mildred, with delicate features and also wearing a
large hair bow, stands in the 4th row, second from the left. Ethel, the eldest of
the Brown sisters in the picture, is 6th from the left in the next to last row,
looking none-too-happy about having her picture taken. I wonder
whether the two older girls to her left with the cocked heads and
formidable come-hither expressions were her friends or rivals!
The "Daughters of the Dell" (the Brown sisters)
can be seen better at right in this detail cropped
from the group shot. Mildred is in the first row,
far left. Margaret is in the second row, far right.
Ethel is in the back row, second from right.
Mother was fourteen and rapidly growing
into a beautiful young woman when
this picture of her was taken with
her dog named "Tiny", in Florida.
The Brown family ended up in a
"tourist" camp in Miami after losing
their Shady Dell home to bankruptcy.
The picture shows Mother next to one
of the small wooden cabins built by
the locals to contain new arrivals.
They replaced the temporary tents
belonging to the surge of "Tin Can"
migrants who poured into the
Miami community, seeking a
better life during the 1920s'
Florida homesteading boom.
The name of the group comes from the 5-gallon tin cans of fuel stowed on
early automobiles because there were few "filling stations" to service them.
Once there, my grandparents, like some of the other migrants, discovered
that the long distance "deeds" they had bought were to land that either
didn't exist or were just swamps with snakes and alligators.
The Browns didn't even stay a year!
In this picture Mother is
Sweet Sixteen! Her father
died soon after returning North.
Her mother and some of her
siblings dispersed to other cities,
but Margaret decided to stay in
York, where she lived with an
older brother and his wife, and
got a job in a sewing factory
that made coats.
Here Mother is held in my father's
arms. She met Ralph Schneider,
the love of her life, when she was
16 and he was 23. They dated for
six years before they married,
often taking excursions to the
beach with Mother's many
siblings and their families.
BATHING BEAUTIES
In the picture above, Mother, standing second from the right, poses with sisters
and members of her extended family at Bay Shore, NJ. Victorian covered-up
beach fashion was now obviously passé, judging by the women's swim suits
that left nothing to the imagination! Hubba, hubba....!!
I laughed when I found this
unsigned "Heart Trouble"
postcard from the nineteen-
twenties in Mother's attic.
If asked to visualize "Washington, D.C.", "women" and "wall"
at the same time, one probably would never imagine this:
THE CHARLESTON
Mother told me that when she and my father dated they regularly danced
"the Charleston" which was all the rage at the time. I found this picture online
while researching it. Apparently the gentleman on this picture is a senator
from Charleston, South Carolina, and he and the young ladies on the wall
demonstrate the proper groove needed for the dance by the same name.
On March 30, 1934, my mother
and father, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph
N. Schneider, posed after their
marriage in Harrisburg, PA.
They had no honeymoon
because this was during
the Great Depression and
they had to go to work
the next day!
Within a few years, the Schneider
family included two children:
James Ralph and Betty Jane.
The picture at left was taken
February 18, 1947, two years
after Mother miraculously
survived a near-death bout
with typhoid fever. Doctors
claimed the illness left her
unable to have any more
children, but in this picture,
Margaret triumphantly holds
her youngest child, one-and-
a-half-month-old Kathleen Mae.
10-year-old Betty, on the right,
was happy to have a little sister,
but 12-year-old Jim, mugging
for the camera, not so much.
He wanted a brother!
The years went by, we three
grew up and gave Mother 6
grandchildren and 5 great-
grandchildren, who continued
to be sources of joy for her
after my father died in 1980.
Fast forward to this picture of the same four of us taken a few years ago -
a true role reversal if ever there was one. Here is Margaret with her
"kids"/caregivers. Do we look like we're being pestered?
MAMA AND ME
Happy Birthday, dear Mama! Thank you for your strength and long life,
and the 72 birthdays you were by my side. I will carry your wonderful
stories and caring ways in my heart as long as I live. As you taught
me, I will share them like all good things that come my way,
especially here where Tom has given me the space to do so.
I love you more than words can express.
