SENIOR
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THE SHERIDAN PRESS
www.thesheridanpress.com
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015
Anonymous donor catalyzes
Senior Center’s public phase
of capital campaign
FROM THE SHERIDAN SENIOR CENTER
SHERIDAN — An anonymous donor is inviting the
community to support the Sheridan Senior Center’s
Celebrating Generations and Building Community
capital campaign. The donor has pledged $20,000 to the
public phase of the Senior Center capital improvement campaign. During the public phase, the community will be asked to consider supporting the Senior
Center’s goal to expand its facilities and services.
Community donations will raise funds for the center
as well as help the center garner additional funding
from other sources, once community support is
demonstrated.
“The intent of this gift is to catalyze the public
phase of our capital campaign,” said Rindy West,
Development Director at the Senior Center. West refers
to the Senior Center’s current capital campaign goal of
over $8 million for expansion, investment and transformation of the Center’s facilities.
“Studies show that the population we are serving is
on the rise,” West said, “and we want the center to be
ready to serve this gray wave.” The gray wave is the
surge of older adults who will be turning 60 in the
near future nationally. Sheridan County is not
immune from this national trend and the county is
one of the top areas in Wyoming for retirees.
The center has completed a quiet phase of fundraising with a core committee of volunteers and is now
asking the community to support its campaign goal
through donations and pledges.
Individuals interested in supporting the Senior
Center’s capital campaign may make donations or
pledges to the Senior Center at 211 Smith Street or
donate online through the Senior Center’s website at
www.sheridanseniorcenter.org.
For more information, interested donors may contact Rindy West at 672-2240.
COURTESY PHOTO |
Photos and videos are great ways for sharing family stories and yield benefits that you may not realize. Following a few tips such as
labeling photos with archival quality products need not be expensive.
Develop your personal treasure chest of family stories
BY LOIS BELL
SHERIDAN SENIOR CENTER
SHERIDAN — We all love a good
story. Do you know some of the best
stories are from your family? Do you
enjoy hearing family stories? How do
you share them?
One of your cherished activities
may be sitting around the kitchen
table with family you haven’t seen in
awhile sharing family history and
current events. But how can you preserve and pass those stories on to
other family members not at that
telling?
Still shot photos are one way to
record family stories. The key is to
protect those photos from damage
and to label what’s going on in the
picture and who’s in the photo. You
don’t have to tell an entire story if
you don’t want to: just a sentence or
two or the “who, when, where” label
is sufficient.
If you’re inclined toward print photos and a scrapbooking enthusiast —
get those photos into an album as
soon as possible. Use acid-free,
archival products. If you like print
photos but are not inclined to scrapbooking, you can put your photos
(each labeled with the who, what,
when, where) in archival sleeves and
then into three-ring binders. You
don’t have to spend a lot of money,
but be sure to look for the archival
label.
Another way to capture family stories through photos is to label the
photos and store them in acid-free
archival boxes. Label the boxes.
A third venue for capturing family
stories is to record them. The benefit
of videoing a family member telling
their story is to see and hear them.
Just be aware that you will be transferring recordings to the newest tech-
nology (for those of you who remember, do you recall reel-to-reel, 8 millimeter and VHS, just to name a few?)
Research shows that children benefit from hearing family stories. Such
sharing helps develop a connection to
the family, a sense of identity and
improves self-esteem.
There is another group that benefits from sharing family history: caregivers. Those who care for a loved
one whether a child, spouse, sibling
or parent. Caregivers also experience increased self-esteem and connection while storytelling reduces
stress and anxiety.
“I recommend starting with the oldest photos first,” Judy Slack said.
Slack is the manager for the
Sheridan County Fulmer Public
Library’s Wyoming Room archives. If
your photos are scattered about, gather them up first and put them in
archival safe boxes before beginning
to organize. The archival safe environment will slow down further deterioration of photos.
Slack strongly advises to get old
reel-to-reel, cassettes, film and other
recordings out of attics.
“Early 20th century film is highly
unstable and combustible,” Slack
said. “This film was used into the
1940’s and 1950s. Get them into metal
containers and refrigerate them then
consider converting them to DVD.”
If you want to collect your family
history on video, start with the oldest
family members first.
Consider developing your personal
treasure chest of family stories.
Consider taking notes while visiting
with parents, aunts, uncles, cousins
and grandparents. Take their phots.
Find, label and organize family photos and stories in the venue that suits
you the best. Then share — and
enjoy!
Tips from Slack:
• Label, label, label! Write down the
who, what, when and where (and why
if you know it) on the back of special
photos. The staff of the Wyoming
Room uses foil-back stickers but you
can access these labels through the
Internet. These stickers prevent the
writing from bleeding onto the photo.
Key search words are foil-back,
metal-back or archival labels. A no. 2
pencil is the best although pencil can
smear. Be sure your pencil is sharpened.
• If your photo is torn, use acid-free
tape to repair. Look for tape that is
marked archival or acid-free.
• Store photos in acid-free archival
boxes and sleeves. You can find such
boxes locally and inexpensively. If
you are scrapbooking, use acid-free
paper with appropriate ink. Never
use glue.
• The staff of the Wyoming Room
likes to organize chronologically as it
tells a person’s story. This is from a
researcher’s view. If you like to
organize your home photos by events
such as by holidays, consider organizing your event by year.
• There are other ways than photos
to tell your family’s photos. Including
reel-to-reel audio tapes, cassette
tapes, video tapes. In the 1950s and
1960s there were the 8mm and super-8
tapes. Don’t throw these away. They
can be converted to DVD.
• Some family histories have a collection of tapes and photos that tell
their family history. To begin, you
want to start with your oldest files
first. The oldest could be unstable
and deteriorating so you want to
start with these first. If they become
brittle, you may lose grandma’s voice
telling her story.
CENTER STAGE |
WWII Rationing
P
ractically everything necessary for life was rationed
during World War II. For example, gas, meat, shoes,
dairy, sugar, tires and many other things were rationed.
Needless to say, the black market and other ways to
skirt the law were employed to get the items necessary for
life.
Mom was an excellent baker. As a family we used a lot
more sugar than was allotted. My folks
were friends with Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur
“Buck” Lewis, the owners of the Western
Bar. The bar could get all the sugar that
was needed and then some. Lewis gave
our family a lot of sugar.
In exchange for sugar that they gave to
mom and dad, they wanted dad to tend
the Western Bar for him from time to
time. Dad did not enjoy tending bar. He
BOB
was not a bartender. Lewis prevailed
HUFF
and dad tended bar many times. Lewis
had heard the same stories of the
|
patrons so many times that he needed a
break.
Dad did dirt work and trucking before WWII, After the
start of WWII, labor and parts were hard to get. He finally
had to quit the business. Prior to WWII dad had an
employee by the name of John Calusis. Calusis was drafted before the start of WWII.
When he got a furlough, dad drove him to Sheridan
where Calusis’s dad lived. His dad Pete had migrated from
Italy when he was about 25 years old. His dad did not
speak English very well.
His dad really gave a big party for Calusis. There were
many rationed items at the party. My dad asked Pete how
he got so many rationed items for the party. Pete showed
dad a billfold full of big bills. He told dad in broken
English, if you had plenty of this, you did not need the
required stamps for the rationed items. The black market
was alive and well in Sheridan during WWII.
Rationing in some cases was in effect to make the general public aware that the war that was on going. In some
cases there was an abundance of the rationed item. I
heard rumors of a rationed item being thrown overboard
or burned. Overall the rationing was effective and drew
the country together in a common effort.
Granddad was in the cattle business during WWII. He
was buying cattle in Texas and Mexico during the war. He
did not realize that his tires were getting mostly worn out.
When he did realize that he needed new tires, he was in
Brownsville, Texas.
Tires were being rationed in the U.S., but Mexico had
plenty of tires during WWII. Mr. Parker, a friend of granddad’s, told granddad that he would get a new set of tires
for granddad’s car. Mr. Parker had an employee, that floated the tires across the Rio Grande River. Granddad had
new tires. The employee was sort of an outlaw and was
real proud of his illegal accomplishment. The black market was alive and well in Texas, too.
Gas was rationed in WWII. If you did not have an occupation to get more, you were issued an A card and stamp.
If you were a farmer or rancher, I believe you were issued
a C card and stamp which allowed you to buy more gas
than an A card and stamp. Gas and diesel were rationed
no matter of your station in life. Rationing restricted your
travel. There were a lot of places if you were willing to
pay more per gallon, you could get all of the gas you wanted: another case of the black market doing well.
BOB HUFF is a veteran and grew up in Upton. Center Stage is written by friends of the Senior Center
for the Sheridan Community. It is a collection of insights and stories related to living well at every age.