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1977197819791980198119821983198419851986198719881989

(part 2)
May 1, 1986


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pix # 1 - All photos with this article show Paty (Walsh) Foote taken in their home at Huntsville, Ala. The clock in the background was made in 1700 at the Louve, when the King of France, Louise XIV, was living there. It is a museumpiece.

pix # 2 - The suit of armour shown in the photo was made for one of Henry VIII's knights (battle armour). Paty and her husband call it Sir Cuthbert.

pix # 3 - Paty with their dog Phoebe. In the background the long-case grandfather clock was made in Ireland about 1740. It was made for an Irishman named Barnaby Mathews, so they call it "Barnaby."

(AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the second and last of two articles about Paty (Walsh) Foote, a former Fostorian, now resident of Huntsville, Ala.)

Paty remembers much from her growing-up days in Fostoria. To repeat some of them will be of interest to readers, and to some of her old school-day friends if they are still here.

The Review Times 125th Anniversary Edition called-up some recollections. "WOW! I read every word of it," she said. "I sent it to my sister in Columbus, and it will be tattered by the time they finish."

MANY WILL RECALL DICK MURPHY

"Do you remember Dick Murphy who was in Believe It or Not? He came from a sound, good, kind, respectable Irish family. He would sit on a curb or a railroad track and every now and then pound the side of is head, as if to "clear" it. My dad, holding my hand would say "Hi, Dick"...he'd look up with that tortured face and say "Hi, Jay," and then my dad would ask "by the way, Dick, what time is it?" Dick would say without looking at anything "12:42," or whatever time it was. Out of sight we'd check and he was always correct. It was a phenomenon, none can explain."

Reading about John Burgbacher (coming home from the war) in the special edition, he was a darling boy and classmate of mine...it was his grandfather, John, who was a crossing-guard at Columbus Avenue, and watched out for Dick. "I was glad to see that Miss Ida McDermott and Miss Mabel Bourquin were lauded in the special edition. Miss Bourquin-...how her eyes twinkled...she was brilliant..., she had "class" other than those occupying the desks in her room. When my father died she wrote "so sorry, Pat" in the book."

PATY RECALLS SCHOOL AND TEACHERS

"She commanded respect from all, including my hero from third grade, "Smitty," Mr. E. E. Smith who started me on violin. I worshiped him. My son asked me once why I am such a fastidious housekeeper and I said "because of my violin teacher. He once looked inside my violin case and said, 'Patsy, this is filthy. When you grow up and get married I will never come to your house, I cannot stand a dirty house', I bawled all the way home and have been a door-knob wiper ever since.

"One day, Smitty was conducting Handel's Messiah with full-chorus and I was sawing away on the first violin. Miss Bourquin had come in quietly to hear it. He turned around, saw her, and said, "Miss Bourquin what do you think - how was it?" Miss Bourquin, in her glory said, in pear-shaped tones "They are not putting enough feeling into it! Handel wrote it on his knees!" Roger Ridge, first-chair "hot" trumpet, yelled out, "I always thought he wrote it on paper!" Well, it was terrible. I am ashamed to say that I behaved just like a common herd - I almost broke my chin-rest laughing. Smitty's face was vermillion. He batted the baton against the podium - his eyes (he was hyper-thyroid like a lot of good musicians). No one had the nerve to look at Miss Bourquin. I do not know what was done to Roger Ridge, but I suppose he still has some feathers sticking to him somewhere."

RT SPECIAL EDITION GAVE PATY ANSWER

"I am so glad that the 125th Anniversary Edition finally solved the mystery for me. I had always wondered where the Chinese family who had the laundry lived, and what they did other than wash and iron, for you never saw them except in their shop. I finally figured it out that they lived in the store."

"The big mystery to me was solved about one Mexican family in Fostoria by an item in The Review Times 125th anniversary edition. That family, named Duran, had a tiny...quiet son named Senaido.... he was sweet... I was fascinated for his family spoke another language. Languages fascinated me the way flame does a moth. I have studied them wherever we have gone. I know one or two words of Navajo, Tagalog (Philippine) and others. I studied Japanese and loved it.

"The Duran family used to be sick a lot, I think, for the mother...came into Cunningham's drug-store frequently where I would be with my friends. I would not tell my friends what I was doing for they would not have understood, but I would leave and gum-shoe right behind the Mexican family just so I could hear the music of that language. When I finally took Spanish I was reminded of little Senaido.

"Then in the 125th edition an article mentioned "the Mexican groundskeeper." That had to have been Senor Duran. I don't know how they kept body and soul together."

PATY'S TEACHER - MOM PROVIDED LAUGHS

Paty's mother was a school teacher...went to Heidelberg and Bowling Green for training. She taught in Bascom, Tiffin, Risingsun and country schools in the area.

Paty recalls things her mother told her about her teaching days. One boy who was in Paty's grade, Glen Windsor, 6-foot-2, redhead, held it against Paty because her teacher-mother "shellacked" his hulking brother in school. "I asked, why did you do that and ruin my popularity?" Paty said.

Her mother replied, "I walked into the room every morning and the boys would be humming, and no-one would own up to it. Finally, I grabbed the biggest one in the room and whacked him." Paty told her mother that Glen, his brother, said his brother was deaf because the teacher boxed his ears. My mother said, "If where I hit him is where his ears were, no wonder he couldn't learn."

"Mother humiliated me at school. When Rubinoff and his "Magic Violin" came to town my mother made friends with him so that she could see that Stradivarious. Them she mentioned me as a violinist. I wanted to have the earth open up and swallow me. Rubinoff told my mother "Tell Paty to practice!" Years later I told her that joke about the fellow who came up from the subway in New York City and asked a news vendor how to get to Carnegie Hall, and the vendor said, "Practice.""

The father of Paty will be remembered by some of the Fostoria's senior citizens (including Ray Coburn), so some remarks as told by Paty, in a humorous way will be included.

PATY'S FATHER WAS COMICAL IRISHMAN

Walsh was gassed in W.W.II and was a disabled veteran. His best friend was a red-headed Irishman named Pat McGahee, married to Helen, who taught piano and organ. They lived at 237 W. Center St.

"I remember they told about me learning to talk," said Paty. They would point to "Jiggs" in the funny paper and saying "Patty Gay." Jiggs, in the funnies was an Irishman, like McGahee

One of the pastimes of McGahee and Walsh was poker, also boxing. McGahee broke three of Walsh's ribs while boxing one time and they had to be taped with adhesive. My mother was trying to get the tape off an inch at a time, with my dad hanging onto a door knob and groaning. "I (Paty) said, this is the way...grabbed hold and whisk." I think my Dad fainted, and I know that my mother shouted, "Don't come back until I tell you."

In one of her letters to me, Paty told more about her father, whom she and her sisters Kathleen and Colleen adored. "He suffered from the Peter Pan Syndrome...the man who refused to grow old."

"Daddy used to tell outrageous lies about mother to amuse us kids. Example: "...when we were engaged I took your mother to the finest restaurant in Toledo. The waiter came with a menu with tassels on it...she read it, and put it down and said, "don't you have any corned beef and cabbage?""

(Author's Note: I hope you enjoy this type of article...if you do let me know, and I'll try to provide more.)

HEED GOD'S WORD

The answer to an important question

Many readers of this column look forward to this portion of it, and it is for those who are willing anxious to be used as witnesses for God that herewith is reprinted at item in "Standard," published by Nazarene Publishing Company, Kansas City.

"BE FILLED! BE FRUITFUL. So you want to become an effective witness to the world. Fruitfulness, effectiveness, productivity: these are your goals. But can you be effective? Will you really produce fruit?

"Yes! You can count on it. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes to you. (Acts 1:8 NIV). It is not so much you who produces fruit but rather the Holy Spirit in you. When the Holy Spirit is active in the world there is fruit. Read Acts and then notice that the intervention of the Holy Spirit is practically continuous. It might be better to say that Acts is an account of the acts of the apostles. Of course, it is both...the Holy Spirit working in and through and upon and beyond the apostles.

"You and I can have one of two views: (1) Lord, here I am. I am out to change the world but please give me some help. Or: (2) Lord, You will accomplish your purpose in the world. I want to be involved. Fill me, use me, empower me, move me. The latter attitude is right.

"The emphasis is on the action of the Holy Spirit rather than on our action. Out of that approach comes a deep confidence that fruitfulness is certain! For God will accomplish His desires, (Isaiah 55:11, NIV)."

(The central thought for the above originally appeared in The Holy Spirit in Action by F.J. Sheed's Servant Books).

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