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A MAN OF EXTRAORDINARY CHARACTER, PART FOUR

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A MAN OF EXTRAORDINARY CHARACTER PART FOUR By Fred Wickert An Extraordinary Life Chapter #3 My life in family care and at the ARC Moving into family care was nice. I went to Mr.& Mrs. Shaver in Margaretville, N.Y. They were an elderly couple and couldn’t really take care of us anymore, but, I do remember they had 15 cows and Mr. Shaver would take full milk cans and drop them off down the road to the stand for the man to take them to creameries. I lived there with 3 other people and they had to leave as well. I stayed until October 26, 1964 it was 7 years, 3 months, and 26 days. Then on Tuesday October 27, 1964 I went to Mr. & Mrs. Ely in Gilboa, N.Y. I stayed until Sunday April 30, 1978, but I do have a lot of memories. I remember Mr. Ely worked as a carpenter Sunday night through Friday night. When he retired he fixed motors. This couple was to elderly to provide a safe atmosphere and environment. I live with them for 13 years and 3 months. I also remember that when living at Mr. & Mrs. Ely’s house Andrew and I would clean the bedrooms, we would clean the bedrooms, we would change the sheets, vacuum, and dust. We also would help with the living room and the stairs. I was there for 13 years, also while there we stayed home all day. There were five of us. It was Andrew, Charlie, Williams, Williams, and me. We would eat upstairs and spend most of our time up there. We even spent our holiday’s meals upstairs away from the rest of the family. My first Christmas there I got a pool table, a pinball game, cloths, and candy. Then on August 23, 1930 I got my first watch it was a silver watch. Tommy bought me a catcher’s mitt and a baseball with a bat. Then in 1936 I got long pants. I had been wearing knickers. I also received 3 Tom Sawyer books, also in 1936 on Christmas I received a camera. Every Thursday I would take pictures of everyone playing outside. I would get the staff to take the film to be developed. When they brought the pictures back I would put them in my album. Before I left Letchworth Village I shared the pictures with everyone. In 1941 I got my first radio for my birthday, I was 21 years old my brother Tom brought it for me. He came with his girlfriend before he got married in 1984 at the church in Middleburgh. There we also had a Christmas play I played the king. The play was the Three Kings. I put this memory here because I remembered it at one of my meetings we had. Here is a list of some of the things we would discuss at all meetings: Staff meetings, doctors, dressing up, who was there, discussing what, 3x year, month’s research, blocks in the right places, stop watch, reading, counting cash, Mr. & Mrs. Ely Carpenter in N.Y./ motor work, Gilboa, picnic area 2 years. Pool tables, bathrooms, who was there Willam Houser, Charlie Cohen, Andrew Phifer, and Howard Reidy, truck to work, state took ½ of the proceeds, trailer-owned property, paid rent, and I worked on the damn. Also I remember how Mr. & Mrs, Kovach came up to see me on June 1, 1970 at Mr. & Mrs. Ely’s house. Also while in Gilboa my brother Tom came up to see me on Sunday March 10, 1936 fron camp Dix and then again on Tuesday December 9, 1936 from camp Dix. While at Mr. & Mrs. Ely’s house I made really great friends with Andrew. Andrew used to draw pictures in his free time, he was an Indian. I remember I slept upstairs because he was an older man and a good friend. Then Andrew passed but I visited the breakabeen cemetery every year and put flowers on his grave. He is always in my prayers every night. I have a burial spot right next to him so we will be together. Also I just remembered something else, my brother Tommy came over to see me on Sunday, March 10, 1936 while on leave from camp Dix. He also came to see me on October 8, 1939 and when he was there he asked me what the date was. It was the date my mom passed away. Then in 1935 Tommy and my dad came, and the Tommy came again December 9, 1936. Now with that said back to what I was talking about. Now on to some of my vacation. One of my vacations was to Caroga Lake. Grant Harders was my counselor at Caroga Lake. He would take us different places like out to eat, to a dance, swimming and etc. I went to this lake three different times in 1977. I went from July 3rd through the 9th. Another counselor was Karen Reed, she went on vacations with me to Caroga lake in 1977 and 1978. I liked her, she was a very nice person. She kept in touch by mail. When she left ERDS. She was an artist. We lost touch with each other. Oh yeah at Caroga Lake they would rent 2 houses. Another one of my vacations was when I went to Florida. I went to Florida in 1981 it was on Saturday March21. I flew in the air to Orlando. I stayed in a hotel. While there I went to sea world and we also watched how to make movie actors out of clay. I took pictures of our trip. I went with the residents of River St. Now I would like to tell you about a memories that I had on one of my trips. When I was a young boy post cards were one cent, a letter was two cents. And when you went to the grocery store you brought a can of milk for only 15 cents, a loaf of bread cost 10 cents, the daily news was only 2 cents on week days and 5 cents on the weekend. The other papers were 10 cents and to see a movie also cost 10 cents. Also that trip was when my father took me on a picnic to Indian point. Then we rode a boat. Then my brother Tommy took me to Coney Island we had our pictures taken in a photograph studio. Then we sat in on a story. And now that I am down telling you about my very interesting life there is still one more put I would like to tell you and that is about my life and adventures while at the ARC of Schoharie County.