Steppingstones to a Brighter Future (eBook)
124 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-1559-4 (ISBN)
Anyone who knows me by now, is aware that I am not just known as Paul Volkmann, but various names based on my initials. For instance, people have called me "e;Pee Vee,"e; "e;Mr. Pee Vee,"e; or just plain "e;Peev."e; I have taken my name and come up with sayings or my own descriptions of words and called them "e;PeeVeeisms. Upon departing from the presence of a friend, I'll usually state, I'll see you next time I'm looking at you unless you see me first!"e; Another is, "e;You've never know what smooth is until you've been through the potholes of Pittsburgh."e; And third, "e;Weather is weather, whether you like it or not!"e;I am very conservative in my PeeVeeistic patterns of thinking. For example, I am 100% against abortion whether it is medicinal or by slaughtering children right out of the mother's womb. Abortion is murder in the first degree. Anyone who think it is the right of others to do so because it is impractical to have children will have to stand beford God and tell Him He was wrong in creating that gift for all mankind.My wife had a hard time getting pregnant. She even miscarried at work and worked through it. Three times she lost children. We were blessed to have Aaron and Kelsey. From a very young age all the way to the late 70's, some type of illness was always knocking at my door. When I was born, the doctor was half asleep when he delivered me and as a result, I did not get enough oxygen to the brain. I ended up falling victim to epilepsy which I've had all my life. Through my childhood , I'd find myself being operated for tonsillectomy, appendectomy, a ruptured spleen and two hernias. All through my life I was in the hospital for something. Even in my late 70's, I was admitted to Latrobe Area Hospital any number of times, Greensburg Care Center for a month, and Oak Hill Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center, also for a month. After I was discharged from there I was under the care of Bethlen Communities for approximately one year. In the last ten years or so, I had some bad falls resulting in 21 concussions. Even though my life was filled with a lot of bumps ad bruises, I can't say my life was all that bad. I fell in love with my first girlfriend while working one summer at Bayside Lodge, Harborside, Maine. It was one of those summer romances that didn't last long. We made the best of each evening, laying on the sands of the Penobscot Bay, hugging, kissing, and gazing at the Northern Lights far out in the heavens above. My brother and I both worth there all summer long, not only doing maintenance work but serving lobster on shores every Saturday night. He wasn't as girl crazy as I was. Even after my wife died in 2018, I've still been on the search for someone who would be willing to date me, but to no avail. In between my times of recuperating, the Lord showed me how to do pencil drawings which I made notecards out of Latrobe landmarks as well as photographic notecards displaying some of the pictures I've taken throughout the United States. The Holy Spirit also showed me how to make fishing lure jewelry. I sold all my merchandise either at the Latrobe Art Center and the Latrobe Farmers' Market. In addition, He also help me write six books, this the last of six. The first one I published was called Off the Wall Favorites, which told of one hundred favorite opinionated newspaper columns, Peeveeitry in Form of Versity, from the Sublime to the Ridiculous, my favorite poems, With Me Always, A Talk with Delbert, where i go into the woods and talk with ten animals about how they bring up their young, their animal friends, and the threats to their environment. The fifth book I wrote was one I polished that my mother wrote of her biography as she traveled with her father, a physician, between the Bronx in New York and a small town in Germany where he also had an office. My mother, wanted to learn to sing opera found herself being given lessons by Nazis. And this book, Steppingstones to a Brighter Future, Is my biography.
Chapter Two
Private Schooling in God’s Country
There is one thing that stood out to me while attending Oakmont Junior High School (OJHS). Walking to and from there took approximately twenty-five minutes. At first, my sister and I both attended that school while Bob was educated at Shadyside Academy in Fox Chapel, approximately five miles away. Then my parents had a split-level house built in another part of Oakmont, and we moved there.
During the summers, we would often travel to New Hampshire as my parents belonged to the Appalachian Mountain Club. Many a day, we would wake up early in the morning, get a paper bag containing our lunch from the kitchen, and then hike one of the many trails in search of the mineral mica which we’d peel off and then take back to our cabins. Discovering nature in its purest form was definitely worth the trip each summer we went.
In as much as there was a creek that flowed down the mountainside not far from our cabin, I decided one day to stand on one of its rocks and peer into the crystal-clear water. As I did, I noticed a cigarette butt lying in the leaves along the shore. I slid off the rock, pinching it between my thumb and forefinger. I then threw it into the water underneath the rock I was standing on. In no time at all, a fairly large trout came out of nowhere and swallowed the white-papered tidbit and was gone as fast as it came. That was a moment I’ll never forget.
Another family vacation we took was overseas whereby the whole family boarded a Trans World Airlines plane and flew to Germany, a twenty-three-hour trip for a two-week stay in my grandparents’ homeland. I should remember a lot, but I don’t. My parents bought both my brother and me hats to wear to travel abroad. When I got off the plane after landing, I remember the turbulence of the wind blowing my hat off my head, and travelers could be seen scurrying across the runway after my apparel. As fast as it left my head, it was returned to me in excellent condition.
Visiting relatives may have sounded good in the planning stages, but after a while, it got a bit boring in as much as we kids couldn’t speak German. Since it was a different culture, sightseeing caught my attention wherever I went. The food was not only well-prepared but very tasty. One thing that struck me as being a bit odd was that people of all ages thought nothing of bathing in the ocean in the raw. In the US of A, that would be considered taboo.
Since my parents spoke German fluently, it made it easier for us kids.
Another trip that took me out of the country was my visit to the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, a part of McGill University. My parents consulted the best doctors in the center to see if my epilepsy could be cured by these highly trained specialists. The ward I stayed in was high up many floors above a football field. Often, we patients could watch Canadian football games through the smoke-filled atmosphere of that stadium. Even though the staff gave me a good going over, it was determined that my condition was untreatable.
After I got discharged, my father and brother hired a fisherman to take me to a lake to fish. I would try my luck from the shore, and they would accompany the guide out on his watercraft. I made one mistake. I saw a log protruding from the shore. I climbed up on it thinking if I would be closer to deeper water where the fish hung together. It would be easier to catch them from that advantage point. No sooner did I get on the timber than it started to spin. Before I knew it, I had landed in the drink. I ended up clinging on to it for dear life until I could work my way back to the shore. That was one scary moment. My efforts were in vain for I didn’t catch any fish. The family then visited a restaurant in a densely wooded area. We all wanted to try something new. It was unanimous. We all chose a fillet of duck, a new dish for us. When we got it, it wasn’t duck at all, but haddock. We were disappointed. However, it was very delicious. I guess that it made it all worthwhile!
My stay at OJHS lasted only two years. After graduating from eighth grade, many of my friends moved on to ninth grade, the beginning what is considered the first year of high school. My parents, realizing that I may not fare well academically, decided to send me to a private school in Potter County, located in Pennsylvania, known to many as God’s Country.
Taught by a husband-and-wife team, Oak Hill School for Boys housed sixteen students from third all the way up to twelfth grade. Since I had just graduated from eighth grade in the public school system, it was decided by this couple to begin my classes in fifth grade and see how far I could get.
My experiences at Oak Hill were truly unique. First of all, the school was located across the highway from a chicken farm that raised 16,000 birds. Along one side of the property was a body of water called Small Pine Creek. The farmer once told me he used to catch lots of trout out of that stream.
All the students were given chores to do. I and another fellow named Tony had to clean out the barn daily where two horses were kept. During the winter, we would toss manure at each other in something we referred to as manure fights. The real challenge came when we had to scrape frozen feces from the barn floor. One thing about Tony was that he was an expert equestrian. Mounting a horse came easy to him. He didn’t need a saddle. He jumped onto the horse sitting straight up, holding onto it using his legs.
One day, as we were going about our duties, he called to me stating, “Hey, Paul. Let’s mount the horses and go horseback riding together.”
I exclaimed, “If I am going to accompany you, you will have to put a saddle on my horse. I refuse to go bareback!” So, he did as I asked him to. There I sat, saddled on a brown horse, and Tony riding bareback on a black animal galloping behind me.
Behind the barn, we headed toward the woods where, in short order, we would find a narrow path to the creek. The trail was no more than forty inches wide. At first, everything seemed to go ok but a bit uncomfortable on the buttocks. I made the best of it. Halfway along the trail, something unbelievable happened. The saddle that Tony had tied to my “four-legged friend” all of a sudden slipped and I was riding underneath the horse. I looked at the horse’s head and it was going back and forth as the animal increased its speed heading back to the barn. Staring back at the tail, I noticed it blowing in the wind. I yelled repetitiously, “Tony! Tony! Tony.” He never responded.
All of a sudden, I heard a voice whisper to me, “Don’t be afraid, Paul. I have prepared a place for you to land. If you look ahead, you will see an opening in the trees. When you get there, push yourself free from the horse and land in the leaves. You will be perfectly all right.” Even though I was upside down, I glanced at a small semicircular cutout in the upcoming trees. There it was, the place I was told I would find peace and comfort. What a revelation. I did as I was told. I pushed off from the saddle, rolled once on the ground, and stood up laughing. I believe with all my heart it was the Holy Spirit telling me what to be prepared for when I leave this earth.
Since there were woods all around the property, I often took walks to immerse myself in everything nature had to offer. The day I got lost on top of a mountain, a grouse flew out from behind a stump and scared the willikers out of me. In the wintertime, heavy snowfalls fell on the hill just left of the school building. I recall one of my classmates tobogganing down a steep hill. The device he was riding finally came to rest against a tree injuring him. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where it was found he had ruptured his spleen. With lots of snow blowing in one’s face on one of these inventions, the person riding up front often gets a face full of the white stuff and is blinded from steering the unit properly. Thus, accidents do happen, and in this case, did.
It was rare, but all the students were educated in one room. Every pupil in attendance was taught with desks next to each other. For example, the fourth graders and the seventh graders were given books from which to learn their assignments. When they went through one book, they advanced to the next grade. I got as high as tenth grade before I had to drop out because of an illness.
Once a month, we were driven into a small town where we would compete in bowling. After a short stay, it was back to the school where we were told to resume our education and chores. While we were away from the school property, we were told not to talk to anyone. On Sundays, the teacher held a brief study hour using the Holy Bible as a teaching aid. It surely wasn’t the same as going to Evangelical Lutheran Church in Aspinwall, Pennsylvania, where the whole family worshipped Sunday after Sunday and attended Sunday school as well. Back then, I went to church as a formality. I hadn’t received the Lord into my life. I mainly attended to flirt with the girls.
Because of catching pneumonia at the end of the school year while entering tenth grade, I returned to my parents’ house in Oakmont where I recuperated, being bedridden during my summer vacation. It was the choice of my parents that I didn’t return to Oak Hill. Instead, we approached the superintendent of Oakmont High School to see if it was possible that I could be enrolled as a tenth grader taking some courses on the side, such as algebra and English, to complete my requirements to graduate and get my diploma.
When I was able to return to public schooling, I...
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 1.11.2023 |
|---|---|
| Sprache | englisch |
| Themenwelt | Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte |
| ISBN-13 | 979-8-3509-1559-4 / 9798350915594 |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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