Suitcase Repair

This blog is intended to be about time travel, and I've delivered stories covering a couple of centuries.

But, it is also a personal account of one man's life. So, this post is about a current event in that life.

A couple of Saturdays ago, I was taking suitcases out to the shed for storage, since we have no trips planned in the foreseeable future.

One that we especially like had a broken handle. The strap was unattached at one end, because the rivet holding that end was gone.


I didn't take any "before" pictures. But in the one above, you can see the intact rivet at the lower edge near the right corner. The other end of the strap is missing the leather piece, torn away at the rivet hole, and you can't quite make out the bolt head. But, I'm getting ahead of the story.

There was another well-used suitcase in the bunch that I just carried to a dumpster, as it was too far gone, missing one complete wheel assembly, and with a stuck handle. It hurt a bit* to throw it away, because everything else was fine. The zippers worked. Nevertheless, out it went.

But we liked this one, and it just needed the handle re-fastened. A small bolt, that would do it. I looked around the house for awhile, but couldn't find one the right size.

Sara was working at the Food Co-op, so there was no car. I walked two blocks to Sutherlands and bought a bolt, a washer, and a nut with an integrated lock washer. All for 52 cents, one one hundredth the cost of a new suitcase.

The walk was interesting. It's less than a mile, but it is quite strange here to be walking when almost everyone else is driving. The only people who walk are too poor and/or too young to own a car. A shame in a way, as it was a beautiful day for a walk.

Here is the other end of the repair, showing the nut and the end of the bolt, which sticks into the interior just a bit. A rivet would have been better, but that requires a special rivet setting tool, which I don't have.

My dad had that tool. I remember the day he bought it. He also had a nice bolt cutter, that, if I had that, could be used to trim the bolt to just the right length.

All this reminded me of him. His grandchildren, most of whom only remember him as an invalid, couldn't know what a great repairer of things he was. Almost anything broken, he could fix. He even took a welding course in town one winter, and bought an arc welder, so that he could make repairs on the farm equipment. I can still picture him, in my mind, welding, wearing his protective helmet. The power supply hummed loudly, and the arc made a loud distinctive buzz and was as bright as the sun, so as an unprotected observer, I had to turn my head away. When the welding was done, he would take the piece to his electric grinder and smooth the rough edges while it was still red from the heat. I wish that I could produce those images for this blog, but my head is not equipped with video out jacks.

*Our parents grew up during the first great depression, so we were raised on the saying, "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." While googling this, I learned that the saying also appeared on a World War II poster.

Friday Flashback: Door Approaches

Somehow, I was reminded about some missionary experiences. These stories are mostly about creative "door approaches" used while tracting. Much of the missionary's working day was spent going door to door, which we called "tracting." When someone came to the door, we had to grab their attention in just a few seconds, with the objective of being invited inside and giving a "discussion."

Clermont-Ferrand: cookie anyone? Okay, this isn't a door approach at all, but during my very first talk in a French language sacrament meeting, I was about to quote a verse from Galatians in the New Testament. In French, the book is Galates. The congregation laughed out loud as I spoke the reference. Later I learned that I was about to quote from the book of cookies: le livre des gallettes.

Yverdon: can we have a prayer? I don't remember what we said that got us invited in, but I do remember what happened when we asked the elderly woman if we could have a prayer before we left. We asked, "Pouvons-nous avoir une prière?" She promptly opened a drawer in the table in front of her and produced a spoon: une cuillère.

Yverdon: a couple can be together in the next life. Our knock on the door was answered by a young couple, obviously in love. We asked them if they would be interested to know how to be together in the next life. During the course of the discussion, they explained that, while they loved each other passionately right now, they each expected to have many other partners during their lives, and weren't really interested in our message. Six months later, I was still in Yverdon, but had a different companion. I didn't recognize the door until the same couple answered. They looked at me, and I looked at them, and the three of us burst out laughing. After a brief check to see if they had changed their minds, my puzzled companion and I moved on to the next door. Clearly, I had stayed in Yverdon too long.

Béziers: a program to help families get along. Once, as we approached a door, we could hear a very loud argument between a man and a woman. As the door flew open to our knock, I quipped, "Would you be interested in a program that helps families get along?" (It was something in French, of course, but to that effect.) They calmed down and invited us inside. During the discussion, I pointed to their wedding picture, prominently displayed, in which they were both radiantly happy, as we told them about the Family Home Evening program. Nothing long-lasting came of this contact, but the argument was stopped that time, at least.

Béziers: Elders of Israel. As we approached another door, I noticed a little box attached to the door jamb. Somehow, I recognized this as a mezuzah, and that therefore our usual door approach referring to Jesus Christ would likely be ineffective, because the family living there would be Jewish. My invention at this door was to announce, "Nous sommes des anciens d'Israël." Which interpreted is, "We are elders of (from) Israel." They welcomed us with open arms, much to our astonishment. My companion remarked, under his breath, that he was looking forward to seeing me work my way out of this one. I tried to explain the restoration of the priesthood, and the sense in which we were elders, but as soon as they realized we were Christians, we were politely shown the way out.

Marseilles: sometimes it takes three. One sister missionary was missing a companion for a day, and so two elders and her worked together. At one door, the young man responded to the elder by inviting us inside. This was such a novelty that he didn't understand, and kept asking if we could come inside. Finally, one of the other two, either the sister or myself, I don't remember, stepped inside, and he followed. This young man was himself a door-to-door salesman, and was quite receptive to our message. In later visits (this time minus the sister) he told us a lot about his sales techniques. Sadly, after going to his parents' home for vacation, and speaking with the family priest, Frère (Brother) Boulanjon, as we had been calling him for weeks, asked us not to continue teaching him.

Marseilles: I can't pay tithing: I smoke. We taught several discussions to another young family. When we got to the lesson on tithing, the family huddled and computed the monthly amount. Sadly, they explained that they just could not spare that amount. We returned later and gave another lesson, this one on the Word of Wisdom. Again, the father sadly said that he could not give up his cigarettes. In an attempt to make a point, we asked him how much he spent on them per month. After a brief calculation, he named an amount. We all froze in disbelief as we heard him say exactly the same number that he had named in the tithing lesson. Unfortunately, even this coincidence was not enough to bring the family into the church.

Genève: best foot forward. Another threesome. This time, myself and the two assistants to the president. I was irritated with them for some reason, and when it was my turn at the door, I spoke the usual door approach and then walked into the apartment, as the woman stepped aside and let us in. My stunned companions followed. After a brief moment, she persuaded us that she was really not interested, and we left. The assistants closely interviewed me, having been astonished at my success. I explained that this was a technique that I had learned from Frère Boulanjon in Marseilles. After the door approach, he said, you simply take one small step forward, adding, "may we come in?" Most people, he explained, will take one step back, and if they do that, you just walk right in. Shortly after that, Frère Boulanjon was asked and accepted to speak at a missionary zone conference in Marseilles. But the technique was not adopted by our mission in the end.

Genève: vous êtes malades--allez vous cacher. Finally, not a door approach, but a most creative response. Another threesome, two other elders and I knocked on a door, and said our piece. The woman replied that we were sick and should go hide ourselves. She then promptly closed the door. We had a good laugh as we walked to the next door.

Friday Flashback: Fear of Crocodile

This flashback was prompted by Nancy's post, in which Rachel wakes up with nightmares in which she is chased by crocodiles and other beasts.

When I was very young, our family went to the movies in town. Now, this was a rare event back then. We had a radio, but this was before the time of television (even black and white television). While we listened to radio dramas nearly every day, a trip into the movies was a once-a-year event, at most.

For days (nights?) after the movie, I would awake, terrified, with a crocodile chasing me. It wasn't just any crocodile, and it wasn't crocodiles, plural, either. It was The Crocodile. You know, the one that swallowed the alarm clock. The movie we had seen was Peter Pan.

Looking back, I imagine it must have been my subconscious mind hearing the kitchen clock that triggered the episodes.

The movie was released February 5, 1953, and I imagine that it would have taken a few months to make it to our small town. Too bad the archives of the Taber Times aren't available on-line. If they were I could narrow the time of this flashback down to an interval of a few weeks (the typical run of a movie at the Tower Theatre). In any case, I was at least a year older than Rachel at the time.

I don't remember my parents coming up with any creative ideas for dealing with this, so I suppose the nightmares must have just faded away, as I traveled through time at the usual rate of one second per second.

Question from Elizabeth

My daughter, Elizabeth, asked me a few weeks ago to tell me when her ancestors joined the Church*. I didn't take the time then to put together a complete answer, but just told her a couple of stories. Today, I spent several hours working on this, resulting in the post that you are reading now.

M (1978, 33)
FMMMMM (1839, 49) Lois Knapp
FMMMM (1839, 27) Louisa Walker
FMMMF (1831, 24) Edson Barney
FMMFM (1840,33) Joanna Case Worden
FMMFF (1852, 47) Elisha Barrus Keyes
FMFMMM (1848,59) Delia Deliverance Byam
FMFMMF (before 1836, before 49) Tillison Reed
FMFMM (unknown) Sally Ann Reed
FMFMFM (before 1838, before 54) Millicent Waite
FMFMFF (before 1846, before 62) Naham Curtis
FMFMF (1833,15) Joseph Curtis
FMFFMM (1833, 41) Experience Wheeler
FMFFMFM (before 1847, before 78) Amy Ward
FMFFMF (before 1833, before 33) Joseph Hancock
FMFFM (1847,12) Amy Experience Hancock
FMFFFM (1831,36) Alta Adams
FMFFFFM (before 1847, before 78) Amy Ward
FMFFFF (1830,37) Solomon Hancock
FMFFF (1834,8) George Washington Hancock
FFMMM (before 1862, before 55) Anna Wylimann
FFMMF (1861,58) Casper Wintsch
FFMM (1861,10) Anna Caroline Wintsch
FFMFM (1862,70) Elisabeth Luethi
FFMF (1861,30) Nicholas Muhlestein
FFFMMM (1843,37) Hannah Whitcomb
FFFMMF (1843,37) Gilberth Haws
FFFMM (1843,15) Lucinda Haws
FFFMF (1843,21) Shadrach Holdaway
FFFM (1864,8) Mary Elizabeth Holdaway
FFFFM (1841,39) Sarah Adams Bitely
FFFF (1866,35) Charles Conrad

There it is, to the best of my ability, using the New Family Search website, and taking into account not a few peculiarities.

Each line shows the relationship to Elizabeth, the year of the ancestor's baptism and their age at baptism, and finally the ancestor name (maiden names are used for all women).

Some dates (and therefore ages) are best guesses. The notation "before" gives the date/age of the ancestor's death, when it is strongly believed that they were baptized during their lifetime. Often, this is believed because their death occurred at a place and time where/when the Mormons were gathered, such as Winter Quarters or Clay County, Missouri.

In the case of Anna Wylimann, we know from her daughter's account that she was baptized about a year before her daughter. We also know that she died while crossing the plains on 4 September 1862, and was buried on the prairie.

In the case of Experience Wheeler and her second husband**, Joseph Hancock, I am relying on the accuracy of the linked account. Interestingly, these two appear to have been first cousins. Joseph and Solomon Hancock were brothers, making their children Amy Experience and George Washington first cousins.

The short answer to her question is that Elizabeth has both a parent who is a recent convert, and the first in a family, as well as a parent who is a product of a complete ancestry of people who joined the Church within the first few decades of its organization. I have attempted to identify the first in each family line to convert, but have also included a couple of cases of an ancestor baptized at age 8. To my knowledge, all of the ancestors missing from this list, but closer to Elizabeth, of course, were baptized at 8.

It was difficult to put all this together, partly because the work has been done for the dead sometimes many times over, and people who we are sure were baptized during their lifetimes often show a baptism date/temple well after their death. In some cases, the website showed a confirmation date during the lifetime, and in those cases, I used the same year for the baptism date. In the case of Sally Ann Reed, all of the LDS ordinance dates are hidden because someone has decided to do all of her work yet again. However, I am very sure that she was baptized, at least, during her lifetime.

*By "the Church" is meant "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

**Edited the next morning. Here is a screen scraping of a pedigree section that led me to look deeper into the situation:

The question raised in my mind (and resolved by reading the story of her mother's life) was how Amy could have the family name Hancock if her father was a Rudd. He wasn't. The pedigree section on the website was based on an incorrect resolution of conflicting data.

Regula Sauermann

Regula Sauermann is my great-great-great-grandmother (more precisely, my FMMFM*).

In what follows, I am going to put events** in order, but add very few, if any, invented details. I will also add a couple of location links. But, it is a very interesting story, even if one only considers the events themselves.

She was born on 21 November 1779 in Volketschweil, Zuerich, Switzerland to parents Hans Jakob Sauermann (age 25) and Elisabeth Frei (age 26), and was apparently their only child***. Nothing is known about her childhood and growing up years.

At some point (perhaps at age 22 or 23), she married Martin Wintch, who had been born in the same village on 22 December 1776. Tragically, about 4 weeks before the birth of their first child, Regula's father, Hans Jakob, passed away at the age of 48 without seeing any of his grandchildren. Regula and Martin's children were Casper Heinrich Wintch (born 30 January 1803 (my FMMF)), Verena Wintsh (born 26 February 1804), and Hans Ulrich Wintsch (born 3 February 1805, but who lived to be only 15 months).

Sadly, her husband passed away on 7 May 1806, just three weeks before his youngest son. Regula was only 27 and a half years old. She had only been married 4 or 5 years.

We know nothing of her mourning the twin loss of husband and son in the space of a single month, but can assume that she was busy with her 2 and 3 year-old children (who ended up living to ripe old ages (and dying in Utah as it happens, but that is another story)).

In any case, she remarried within a year, moving to the nearby village of Bisikon in Illnau, to Hans Jakob Vollenweider who was about 33 years old. Within the space of just a few years, they had 5 children. Hans Heinrich Vollenweider (born 18 May 1808), Barbara Vollenweider (born 9 December 1809), Magdalena Vollenweider (born 23 February 1811), Adelheid Vollenweider (born 9 July 1813), and Heinrich Vollenweider (born 2 July 1817 who only lived 3 months).

Sadly, again, her second husband passed away, less than two months before his youngest son. Regula was 37 and a half years old. Again, there is nothing recorded (that I have found) of her mourning another twin loss. At this time, she had 6 children, ages 14, 13, 9, 7, 6, and 4.

Almost two years after her latest losses, on 28 July 1819, she (aged 40) married widower Kaspar Willemann (aged 50), whose first wife, Regula Maeder had died nine months earlier, leaving him with 5 living children (not counting the 4 they had lost as babies), aged 25, 24, 23, 19, and 12. One can assume that not all of these children were living at home. But still, the blended family, at the time of the wedding, included children aged 25, 24, 23, 19, 16, 15, 12, 11, 9, 8, and 6. Wow.

With Kaspar, Regula had two more children, Barbara Wylimann (born 26 May 1820) and Kaspar Wylimann (born 16 December 1822).

Her third husband lived long enough to see his children grow to adulthood--another 15 years, until 10 March 1837, when he died at the age of 68 years. Regula's mother, Elisabeth, had died just 4 months before, at the age of 83 years. Regula lived on in Bisikon another 9 and a half years, and died there 30 October 1846 at the age of 66 years.

One can only wonder what she felt about the wedding, at age 21, of her oldest son, Casper, to her oldest stepdaughter, Dorothea, then 30 years old, on 2 February 1824, back in Volketscheweil (Regula being 44 years old at that time). She would have known their three children, Rudolph Wintsch (born and died 1826), Henry Wintsch (born 15 April 1828), and Barbara Wintsch (born in 1830 (and lived to be 86 years old)).

Regula would also have experienced her oldest son's wife's death on 22 February 1835, at the age of 41 (and Regula being 55), when her two children were only 5 and 6. This must have brought back such memories of loss for her, not to mention sad for the children and Casper.

Her son Casper remarried within the year, at age 32, to the youngest sister of Dorothea, Anna (my FMMM), then almost 28, on 25 May 1835. Regula lived to see 6 of their 8 children born. These were Jakob Wintsch (born 29 August 1837), Magdalena Wintsch (born 3 March 1839), Anna Wintsch (born 12 September 1841 and died just over a year later), Hans Heinrich Wintsch (born and died in 1842), John Ulrich Wintsch (born 1 March 1843), and Elizabeth Wintsch (born 27 February 1846 and lived 5 and a half years).

Eight months after the birth of her granddaughter Elizabeth, and about ten years after the death of her mother, Elisabeth, Regula left this planet.

After her death, Caspar and Anna welcomed two additional daughters, Louise Wintsch (born 13 February 1849) and Anna Caroline Wintsch (born 12 January 1851).

Up to this point, the story of Regula Sauermann, my great-great-great-grandmother, has been told merely by putting together the dates of recorded events, and calculating peoples' ages when those events occurred, with just a little supposition.

But, fortunately, Anna Caroline Wintsch, my great-grandmother (my FMM), took the time to write some of her life's story. It has been posted on the Internet as part of Dianne Elizabeth's Family History.

If you, too, are descended from Regula Sauermann, as are countless Utahns--and many Swiss--I invite you to read her story. Among other details, you will encounter the story of the conversion to Mormonism, and the adventures of the journey of her son Casper and his wife Anna, and several of her grandchildren, out of Switzerland, across the Atlantic Ocean, and finally to Utah.

*My father's mother's mother's father's mother.

**Source: USGenealogy.net, and linked pages.

***Oddly, her parents also appear each to be only children. This is probably an artifact of the way the records have come down to us, being brought by Henry Wintch (Senior) to Utah. It is reasonable to assume that he wouldn't have brought information about his great aunts and uncles (if any). This also explains why there is so much more information about the family members who came to Utah than there is about those who stayed "behind" in Switzerland.

QR Code

Funny how long it can take to hear about something big!

The QR Code has been around since 1994. Fifteen years. Wow. And I've only learned about it, by accident, this year. It is very popular in other parts of the world.

Here is an example, the QR ("Quick Response") Code for this post*:


This could be crocheted or knit into a scarf, or published in some other way.

A cell phone, equipped with a reader for the code, could take a picture of it and then immediately go to the web page.

*The image above is actually a URL which computes the code on-the-fly from the permalink of this post (which is, http://sanbachs.blogspot.com/2009/11/qr-code.html). Below is a static image, captured today (by screen scraping), just in case the image generator goes off-line.

Unknown Chess Champ

As I was preparing to graduate from W. R. Myers High School, a teacher/mentor (Frank Semaka) tried very hard to convince me to enroll in the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He was quite disappointed that I chose Brigham Young University instead. Why? Probably because earlier, I had had some experiences on campus, which led me to want to spend more time there. In particular, during the summer of 1967, I attended a Boy Scout conference held at Brigham Young University.

There were many enjoyable activities. I would like to be able to say memorable, but all I can actually remember is a chess tournament, which I won, after some grueling hours. As it was, I think one of the leaders talked my last opponent into resigning, to save time.

At the closing ceremonies, a plaque was awarded to the winner of each kind of competition. The printed program had all of the names and events. Except mine! But, orally, I was called up and recognized as the chess champion, and awarded the plaque. Really, I do remember this.

I have kept the plaque all these years, but have no documentary evidence to substantiate this claim. My mother believed me though, and it is her handwriting on the reverse of the plaque.

Below are pictures taken in 2009 of the obverse and reverse sides of the plaque, along with transcriptions of the text on each side. The plaque itself is a nice piece of walnut, with an embedded plastic emblem showing the logo of the conference.

Obverse (detail photo available on posterous):

L.D.S. Explorer - Ensign 1967 Leadership Conference

Reverse:

Bruce Conrad Chess Champ

I really need to get a better camera than the one in my cell phone!

The pictures are taken with the plaque pillowed on a quillow which my mother made for me many years later.

During my first semester at BYU, I had a lot of trouble keeping up with my classes. I finally decided that I would have to give up not only chess playing, but also science fiction reading, and concentrate on getting the grades to graduate.