Armistice Day

The 11th hour, the 11th month, the 11th Day. Armistice Day. The end of the Great War, the war to end all wars.

I wonder where (great) Uncle Eddie was that day? What was he doing? And what about the rest of the family? We know that most of those were in Calvert, with the exception of those who remained in the Old Country (Prussia and Germany) when Eddie's parents came to the United States in the mid 1800s, after the Civil War. (And we don't know who those are.) I always wondered how Eddie and others might have felt, knowing that they were going to have to fight people from their parents' homeland, and possibly their own relatives.

Eddie's name is one of the over 170 Brazos Valley area veterans whose names have just been added to the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial. There are over 4,000 names on the Memorial now. There will be an unveiling and dedication at 6 p.m. today at the Memorial, complete with the Ross Volunteers and others participating in the ceremonies. Chet Edwards is going to speak. And there will be a barbeque, all to pay tribute and honor to our veterans.

In the rotunda at the George Bush Library, a chorus will be singing starting in just a few minutes.

There was a parade downtown on Sunday, along with a show of military equipment, a mini veterans museum, and other activities. It doesn't feel quite right to not have a parade on the actual day, to me. I guess there is too much going on at one time.

There are other activites that involve the local veteran's groups today. One is at a large retirement center.

We thought a while about adding Eddie's name to the Memorial, but felt that he needed to be on there. It cost a minimum of $100 to add a name. My aunt had already added her brother's name when the memorial was built. Irvin served in the 88th Infantry Division (The Blue Devils) during WWII. Eddie was in the 3rd Infantry Division in the Army in WWI.

One of these days, we need to get Eddie's service record from the NARA. Maybe we can learn more about him. It seems we know so little, and I have found such few pictures with him in it. I wouldn't have known who he was, if his sister, Hulda, had not told me, years ago. I've only found one photo of him, working in his father's grocery store, and another in a family portrait. To have a picture of just Eddie, I isolated his image and saved it that way from the family portrait. I wish I could find a picture of him in his uniform. Lacking that, we may be able to use a picture of a WWI Army uniform and paint a portrait of him in the uniform. One reason that there may be so little about him is that he never married or had children, like many in our family.

I only know one little story about him, that his sister told me. When they were growing up, she was the only girl among several boys, so she liked to play with them, run, jump, climb, play ball, and all those unladylike things. She said that the boys were "a sight" and mischievious. Always into something.

One time, the parents decided that the boys should take violin lessons, and sent them for private lessons with a man in town. The boys didn't want to go, and balked and protested, but went to their lesson. Eddie was determined to go home and play ball, so when the teacher went out of the room, Eddie peed in the teacher's violin case, and ran home. He didn't have to go for any more violin lessons!

I don't think he was punished. I think that everyone got the message that Eddie didn't want to take violin lessons!

Eddie worked in his father's grocery store on Main Street in Calvert and did some farming.

He served in the U.S. Army during WWI, a private in the 3rd Infantry, according to his tombstone.

He died of pneumonia, a complication of the flu at age 45 in 1933, according to his death certificate.

It's a beautiful day, now, but rain is predicted. I hope that it will hold off for the ceremonies this evening. We won't go, if the weather turns bad. We certainly need to be there to represent Eddie's and Irvin's family, though.

I never knew Eddie, since he died a few years before I was born. But, of course, I knew some of his brothers and sister, Emil, my grandfather, Hulda, my great-aunt, Rudolph, Paul, and Gustave, my great-uncles. Another of Eddie's brothers, Otto, was killed at about age 6 when a train cut off his legs.

From their photos, Eddie and Paul look a lot alike. I do remember Paul, somewhat. He painted houses and put up wall paper in them. I remember when he wall papered and painted our new little house. I mostly remember his white painter's outfit and his pants legs, as I was not yet four years old at the time! I stayed right beside him while he worked on my bedroom. I remember him telling me about how to avoid having drips in the paint. He was nice and I was sad when he was through with his job and went on to work on someone else's house.

Only one person in each generation since has married and had children.

Today, we are remembering Eddie, Irvin, and all the veterans, on this veterans day.

Top Photo: An Armistice Day Parade in Calvert, Texas Date and subjects unknown. Private family photo.

Middle Photo: Conitz Grocery Store 407 Main St. Calvert, Texas Eddie Conitz, left, Emil Conitz Sr., right. Private family photo.

Bottom Photo: Portrait of Eddie Julius from family portrait. About 1909.

Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial http://bvvm.org/

You can click on the top two photos to enlarge them. I don't know why the bottom one won't enlarge. Also, you can click on the photo in my sidebar of the Armistice Day Parade, and that will take you to the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial site. It does not list the names of the veterans whose names appear on the wall, however. You have to go to the Memorial to find those names, I was told.

There is a book that looks like a yearbook, "The Men and Women of World War II from Robertson County" that has many names and a little biography for each name and picture of veterans from Robertson County, Texas.

Calvert Sufferagettes

Calvert Sufferagettes

personal photo

During Hillary Clinton's speech tonight, she mentioned that this is the anniversary of the Suffragette movement. ( I looked it up and noticed that the sign in this photo is spelled sufferagette, while online it is spelled suffragette. I went with the way the sign in my picture has it spelled. After all, the photo shows women who were involved and, if that's the way they spelled it then, that's fine with me.)

I thought it would be appropriate to remember the women (and men) who were involved in obtaining voting rights for women. Many of them went through a great deal.

Do you know who these women are?

Flossie gave me this wonderful old photo and asked if I know who the ladies are. I don't have any idea. But it's a great historical photograph of a time that we don't often hear about.

We assume that they are Calvert ladies.

The fire escape steps behind them sort of remind me of the fire escape that is on the back of Calvert High School, leading from the auditorium down past the cafeteria. However, depending on when this picture was taken, the school may not have even been there, yet. I don't really know where the picture was taken.

While women couldn't vote, in times past, they still could persuade their husbands, in a lot of cases.

By the time I was old enough to vote, Texas had a poll tax. Most husbands would pay the money for their wives, if they were supportive of their wives. However some still had the idea that wives were something like property, or were to be kept dependent, or "barefoot and pregnant", as the saying went. Stay in the kitchen and out of anything that was deemed really important. The fee was a whopping $2.50, but you would have thought it was a small fortune. And, in most households, the men controlled the pursestrings. Women had to beg for everything they got, trick their husbands, or they had to save back something from anything that they were able to get their hands on.

I had been sick and had to go back home to live at the time that I was old enough to vote. My notice, and my mother's, came in the mail. I wondered how you knew about how to vote, since we didn't have a lot of communication back in the 1950s. Not much in the way of tv, but there were newspapers, radio, newsreels, magazines, and, sometimes, a candidate might come through town to make a speech or shake hands along Main Street. The main thing was to listen to the elders and see who they were endorsing, it seemed. People would visit all along Main Street in small groups, seeing who the elders or their bosses were endorsing. I tried to listen and watch as much as possible.

But, when it came time to pay that poll tax, all I heard was "Women are too stupid to know how to vote right." And there went our opportunity to vote.

Later, when I was working, I was able to pay the tax and vote. And, I've tried not to miss voting since. And I encourage others to participate as well. It hasn't been that long ago when a lot of men probably thought that their horses had more sense than their wives or daughters.

"We've come a long way, baby," from having to fight to get to vote, having to beg for $2.50 to pay the poll tax, to having a woman, "a traveling pantsuit sister", run for our highest office and make a speech before thousands while her husband, a former president, looks on.

Wouldn't the ladies in the photo be thrilled !

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Hope that you enjoy seeing this photo as much as I have. There are some wonderful old pictures of Calvert. We really should try to get as many as possible together and do something with them. We talked about that in 1986 for the Sesquicentennial.

This is also a good reminder to label your pictures while you remember who is in them and where they were taken!

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If you can identify these ladies, let me know.

Spring Break! Yea!

Virginia Field Park

Calvert, Texas

(1970s)

Snow in Calvert, Texas

Hulda Keeling, Louise Conitz, Augusta Meier ,

snowman and Prince

with 2 unidentified little girls

(the girls look like my sister and me, but this was long before we were born!)

in front of Emil Conitz Sr.'s house

Guynes home in background
(old family photo)

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It's Spring Break here. Yea! (And it started out different from any time that I remember!)

But, wait a minute. I really don't have anything to shout about. It doesn't really affect me anymore. I no longer have to worry about needing a week to catch up on sleep or to recover from the flu, or even to catch up on paperwork from school-or laundry and housecleaning.

The week will be the same, except that the young grandson is home from school all week. The oldest is now involved in the world of work. He just has his usual days off. He will probably want to rest!

Nothing more planned than we usually do on a weekend or holiday-stay at home, watch tv, do laundry,sleep late, kids play video games, and the young one might draw. Maybe we will go for a walk, if it doesn't rain or get cold.

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I only remember one time that we ever went anywhere for Spring Break. We took my aunt down to the middle Texas Gulf Coast (Port Lavaca) for a short trip, then returned via the beach route. That was the closest I ever got to seeing what they talk about in movies and news stories. Lots of lines of cars of kids, cruising the beach in a couple of popular spots. But there was lots of open beach where there was no one, between Surf Side at Freeport and Galveston.

By then, of course, I was too old to be out running around in a bathing suit, chasing boys, dancing and drinking!

We didn't do anything, just drove all day and into the night to hurry and get home! I was not going to drive. I was going to sit back and enjoy my time off from school while my daughter drove. But, of course, that didn't happen and she slept while I drove the whole time! I needed to rest from my vacation, such as it was! Houston had changed so much since the time that I lived in that area and drove that highway to home almost every weekend, that I felt lost until I got about 30 miles from home! It was nerve-wracking, especially in the dark and in a lot of construction on the highway. Couldn't recognize anything. What had been open land was big houses, built close together, and enclosed with high wooden fences.

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Spring Break was also a time to get final preparations finished for the spring art shows for students and for adults in this area. So, sometimes, I might be painting, framing, putting mats on, picking entries, and that sort of thing.

I kind of miss that activity. But not all the work and lack of help ,or interest. The No Pass/No Play rule for schools in Texas just about killed activities for most of my students. I went from showing their work in several car loads, with excitement and enthusiasm, pride, etc. to "who cares anyway", and maybe 3 or 4 half-hearted entries, with maybe a couple that cared. Kids would quit school because they couldn't participate in things they cared about, and felt that they were doing their best already, so it was hopeless to them. Well, I won't get on my soapbox about "the rule" at this time.

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I never heard of Spring Break until my later years of teaching. We had an Easter holiday, sometimes for as long as two days, when I was in school! We had Lincoln's birthday, George Washington's birthday, and such holidays, but not a holiday just to have a break. Holidays had to be to observe something. We heard of colleges, mostly large ones up north, having a break. I thought that was just to get away from the cold weather and snow, and that soon turned into a wild party time. As in the movies.

Of course, we would have loved to have a week off, in college, to party. As it was, we just went home for Easter. And we wondered why we couldn't, somehow, manage to get a week off as some other schools did.

We never dreamed that such a thing was possible in high school. Of course, we would have liked to have had an additional week off, but, for a class that didn't even get to have a prom, a senior trip or a senior play, all we could do is to fume and complain about not getting to do things that students in other schools did. We were expected to go to school, unless we were sick, or we were observing a special historical day. We did have a holiday at Christmas, and a day or two at Thanksgiving. That was enough.

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If it got too cold, we might have a day or two off, as the time that we had a pretty big snow. But that was rare. We just bundled up, took quilts, blankets, or whatever to school, and suffered through a cold day. Our school had 3 floors. The boiler to heat the school was in the basement, where the cafeteria, restrooms, and elementary grades were located. The janitor had the job of keeping that boiler going. (There was no air conditoning for hot weather. Not even a fan!)

Middle school , the auditorium, and the offices were on the second floor. And high school and the library were on the third floor.

People on the first floor were too hot, so they opened the windows. People on the second floor were cold and those on the third floor were freezing!

On those really cold days, we were allowed to wear boy's pants to school, overalls, or whatever would keep us warm. I would wear a set of long underwear from Grandpa's dry goods store, and my Daddy's old A&M uniform, which was wool. I wore thick socks and Daddy's cowboy boots, knitted gloves, a long wool scarf around my neck, and my coat. Then I took a quilt and wrapped up in that in my desk. (I thought I was hot stuff in Daddy's Aggie uniform. Especially since girls were not allowed to go there! And it was warm, too!)

Sometimes, we were allowed to sit together when it was that cold, and share blankets and quilts.

How wonderful it was to have extra warmth from bodies and two or three quilts on top of us!

We didn't get much work done, I guess, but we were there!
Now, I look back and think about the teachers. They couldn't huddle under a blanket, or wear anything other than their dresses and suits. I'll bet they were glad when school was out and they could go home and get warm!

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What was really exciting about this year is that we had real snow here on Friday morning, as everyone rushed off to the last day of school and work before Spring Break. I don't think that has ever happened before!

Of course, it was too warm to stick, but it was there long enough to play in and get some pictures. Covered roof tops, grass, etc., but didn't accumulate in the streets. There were even some big flakes that were really coming down as my crew started off for work and school.

The weatherman had first predicted a possiblity of a few flakes, but that was dropped during the night. I stayed up all night, watching the radar, when I started seeing a little pink strip on the radar, heading toward us, but still 90 miles away. At one point, it looked like it was going to the west and south of us, but, no. There was a tiny blip of pink at the edge of the screen. That soon became a wide band of pin, with white behind it.

About 5 a.m., I gave up as there was only a little light rain outside, and went to bed. But, in an hour, the youngest grandson came into my room. "Wake up, Grandma! It's snowing outside!" I went to the front door and, sure enough, it was all white outside, with big flakes fluttering around. So much for getting any sleep!

That certainly was a memorable event to start our Spring Break!

We had been wishing for snow, for so long! I guess wishes do sometimes come true! (It didn't get the kids out of school early, though!)

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I thought that you might enjoy some snow pictures. Just to remember when we have had snow. These are all old. The camera needed new batteries, so we didn't get any pictures this time. There are lots on the KBTX tv website, though. My sister got some good ones in Calvert, but we couldn't upload those to the computer.

A.E. Conitz Home
Calvert, Texas
1940s snow

Grandma's Side Yard

1940s snow

Browning Street Snow


Happy Spring Break!