Ched U. is evidently located in Catskill, NY, which is south of Albany, along the Hudson River. Coincidently, this area is the ancestral home in America of the family Sneed. I think that I may have mentioned before that I am in the first generation of Sneeds not to call the Hudson Valley home. The Sneeds have lived along the Hudson since about 1700.
The man on the far left in this photo is my great-grandfather, who's name was Lawrence. He was born in Catskill in 1867 and died in Peeksill in 1947. His father was also born in Catskill in 1837. The woman on the far right is my great-grandmother Clara, who was his second wife. I'm not sure what Peeksill High was call in 1893, but my grandmother Clara was in that graduating class. The old woman to his right is my great-great grandmother, Lawrence's mother, Joanna.
My grandfather, Wallace Sr., was born in Peekskill in 1902 and married my grandmother Madeline, there in 1923. Because she was "with child" at the time of their marriage, they were sent to relatives in Holland, Michigan to hide the disgrace of my father's birth. They returned to Peeksill in the 1930's.
My dad, Wallace Jr. graduated from Peeksill High School, in the class of 1942 and his brother would have been in the class of 1943, but the family had to leave Peeksill suddenly for reasons that my grandfather would never divulge. My uncle said he came home from school and was told they were moving right now. My grandfather was a lot of trouble. Drama, thy name is Sneed.
My grandparents moved to and lived in Miami, Florida until their deaths.
My father joined the Navy December 15th, 1942 and served in the military until January 18, 1968. He was stationed in Tampa, Florida where he met and married my mother in February, 1949. My dad fell in love with Tucson, during his two tours of duty here and chose to make it his retirement home. My mother died in August 1988 and my dad in August, 2005.
My father never returned to Peekskill that I know of. After he left the military in 1968, he never again left Arizona, except to make two trips to Miami to attend to the funerals of his parents. In 1992 he received an invitation to the 50th reunion of his high school class, but declined to attend. The same for the 60th reunion.
I have never set foot in either Catskill or Peekskill, although I would like to. My brother, the family historian, made a pilgrimage a couple of years ago and I have to wait for the people he pissed off by barging up to their doors uninvited, to cool off, before I give it a go.
My brother wandered into a library in Peekskill (I think) and asked the librarian for some family history information. She told him to wait while she called a guy who had a lot of information. The guy turned out to be some distant relative, who looked eerily similar to my Dad. Must be those powerful Sneed genes.
Anyway, I proudly accept the appointment as Dean of Student (there's only one) at Ched U. and await the details of my duties.
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky
4 comments:
Fascinating account of the Catskill/Peekskill Sneeds. They probably also had something to do with the town of Sneden's Landing, which was Sneeden's Landing until a family named Sneed disapeared one evening, never to be heard from again. An "e" was removed from the town name, for "eluded" (or "evade") and everyone wondered how they got away.
We are so glad to have you as dean of student.
I'm working on getting a CHED U sweat shirt.
I love how everyone who gets in trouble up north moves to Florida. No wonder it's such a weird state.
Maybe you became Dean of Student because you're related to so many potential students in the region!
This is BS. You have no prior deaning experience!
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