IN REMEMBRANCE

It is indeed regretful that I waited until my PIONEER Parents had passed off the stage of action before the "seed" was planted and the thought process began to "germinate" in my otherwise intelligent mind....the thought of writing a book similar to the ones mentioned in "COMMEMORATION"....However, I did "come to my senses" before my brother ESTEL FRANK SCHMEISER (3/6/1912-7/8/2004) passed away....
July 8, 2004....a day that is stamped indelibly in my memory....because that evening I was installed for the first time as the Disabled American Veterans Central Florida Chapter 16 Chaplain. Not only was Estel the oldest of my siblings....he was also a GOLD MINE of information....a LOT of information that I waited almost too long to realize that I needed to know in order to even begin to write my life story and get it right!!!
And then there was my sister GLADYS EILEEN (SCHMEISER) HOOPES (8/19/1919-2/6/2010) who was instrumental in filling in a LOT of blanks after the demise of our brother Estel. Upon attempting to "dig out" some information from my brother Vern who was the sibling that purchased the OLD HOMESTEAD when my parents decided to retire from farming....I'd ask him questions like...."Hey, Vern can you tell me some of the names of the horses our Dad used for farming"? "Well, what do you need to know all of that for"?
That certainly was no where near the response that I got...or would have gotten... from THREE of the other NINE of our siblings!!! Gladys remembered AND related to me the names of EVERY one of Dad's horses from the time she had gotten old enough to realize what was taking place on the old HOMESTEAD and perhaps years before that!!!
My PIONEER father farmed with horses from the time he was big enough to harness a team on his mother's homestead/farm in Indiana until he retired from farming in 1954....a span of almost a HALF CENTURY...!!!
Another GOLD MINE of INFORMATION that I still have around is my little sister GLIDA ISABEL (SCHMEISER) HUGHEY who presently lives in the state of Oregon and was widowed 2/15/2002 when her lifemate Gene passed away. We've spent at least the last eight years on nearly a monthly basis of filling each other in on details of our lives!!!