Schumann Family Newspaper Clippings

  July 8, 2023 Today, when Daddy and I had a phone visit, I shared with him that a poster in the "Growing Up In Vero Beach," group had shared an experience he had while visiting the "park airplane" at its home in the Pensacola Air Museum.  I found the post, which had been written by David Barker, and read it to Daddy. " I am in Pensacola today to see the Banshee we all played on — While I am taking photos of the magnificently restored aircraft, an elderly gentleman standing next to me begins to tell me about it, such as the way the cockpit opened. His voice was strained but I leaned in to listen. I said I had played on this very plane and had sprained my ankle jumping from this very tail fin — he smiled and said that he had been an electrician who worked on this very plane as a corpsman at Cherry Point NC in the early ‘50s! Mel Parker — I did not get his rank before he needed to rejoin his grandchildren and great grandchildren — said that “we were able to get i...

  July 8, 2023 Daddy said, "We really took that seriously, didn't we? Every member was an officer." He said there were two Whizer Motor Bikes and two motor scooters, and that it would have been when he was in high school, and they were old enough to ride motor scooters on the street. The article is dated 1958, and I mentioned that, and he said, "I think that date has got to be wrong. You were born in 1952. I wasn't riding motor scooters then." And that's when I remembered a feature the Press-Journal used to run. "Remember?" with articles from 20, 10, and 5 years ago. Sure enough, this article first ran in 1948. 

  July 8, 2023 Beautification days started in 1928, and they seem to have had one in 1961, but they became a thing of the past not long after that. Daddy said they were like a holiday, only you worked. All the businesses closed and all the grovers came to town. The paper always publicized the event. Daddy remembers taking part a project that was downtown, and another one near the hospital. He said there is a picture somewhere of Grandad with a shovel, working on Beautification Day. I have a guess as to which person in the photo is Grandad, but I'm not sure enough to mark it for you. 

  On May 24, 1950, Indian River County held an election regarding a school bond. On May 19, the Vero Beach Press Journal published four student essays, with this introduction: "Students of the Vero Beach schools have written some highly interesting and pertinent essays concerning condtions that now exist in the local school system. They urge the freeholders of Indian River County to go to the polls next Wednesday and cast their ballots for the school bond election. Billy Law, Charles Bracket, Gwen Loy authored the other three essays. Daddy's is below. When Daddy and I talked about it, he said that he thought he seemed rather adamant to have been so young. ..... "Adamant" may not be the exact word, but it conveys the impression I took away.  As of this writing, I am still experimenting with the best way to get these articles from Newspapers.com to Blogger, so the first part of what you see below is actually the last part of Billy Law's essay. Daddy's name is r...

 

  July 8, 2023 The "Justin" in this story is my grandfather. I knew it was his middle name, and knew that I had heard Grandmother call him that, but was evermore surprised to see "Justin Schumann" in several articles in the Orland Sentinel during his high school years. (The fact that he lived in Orlando when he was in high school was another surprise. Somehow I had missed that part.) I thought that Grandmother calling him by his middle name was a sort of affectionate, wifely thing, but it occurred to me that "Justin" may be how he had introduced himself.  Daddy said that Grandmother did ususally call him Justin, and Johnny said that she told him once, "The people in Indiana all call him Justin." When I talked to Mark about this he laughed and said, "And sometimes when he was rough housing with us." I didn't remember that at all, and said, "He used to play fight with you?" Mark said, "Oh, yeah!" like it was someth...

July 8, 2023 This year when I asked Daddy what he might like for Father's Day, he suggested a fund associated with the veterniarian that they use, that enables the vet to provide care for pets whose people would not otherwise be able to do so. The vet lowers their cost as much as possible. Daddy's request reminded me of this article, which I had come across in my research, so I tucked a copy of it in his Father's Day card, even though I was pretty sure he had already seen it. When we talked on Father's Day, he thanked me for the article, and said that he had not seen it. He noted that the event was on January 8 (his birthday) and that might be why he didn't remember it. He said, "The article says I was given a plaque though. I need to find it!"  

  ~ I was telling Mark about the articles in the Orlando paper referring to Grandad as "Justin," and Grandmother calling him, "Justin," and Mark said that's what she called him when he would rough house with them. I didn't remember them doing that, and said, "He used to play fight with you?" and he said, "Oh, yeah," like it was a frequent hting, but that it wouldn't go on for long before Grandmother would put a stop to it. ~ When I mentioned Grandad's high school year in Orlando he said, "and skinny dipping in _____ Lake," which is now part of downtown Orlando.

  July 8, 2023 I wish I had been able to save this closer to time, which according to my cell phone log was July 2. I was able to sit out on the deck at Firefly and just have a nice long visit with Johnny. I told him about the fun I was having with the newspaper articles, and that I thought I remembered him telling me that Grandad had told him he thought  "Schumann" was a nice-looking (May not be the exact adjective, but similar) name and that he should take the time to write it carefully. He said, "Yes! I was in his office, something about the groves, and he had a check that I had signed. I wrote it carefully after that."  I told him about the articles in the Orlando paper, and Justin, and Grandmother, and he said, "One time she said to me, "You know, people in Indiana call him Justin."  ~ Johnny said that when he was about ten or twelve, he needed some parts for his bicycle. He was telling Grandad about the purchase and said, "He wanted twenty-...