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I was reminded of a policy of the Photographic Society of America ... all
of their circulating photo portfolios contained a written autobiography
of each of the participants ... what they shaped their interest in photography,
cameras they owned, family, age, perhaps what they did for a living.
<p>It occurs to me that I don't really know most of you. Oh, I've
had Derrick Brashear in my home a couple of times. Ed Lyberger has
been a "fixture" here since 1973. I met Jim Holland at an ERA convention
in San Francisco when he motored one of the fantrip cars (I have his picture
there) and we've traded Christmas cards and letters for 20 years.
But most of you are simply names; sometimes nothing more that internet
addresses.
<p>How about it folks... would each of you mind bashing out a one page
autobiography so I can associate addresses and names with a living, breathing
human being?
<p>I'll start off ...
<p>Fred Schneider -- born in Magee Woman's Hospital, Pittsburgh, March
1940. Worked in government service ... army, two years as a public
school science teacher, thirty-one years with the state of Pennsylvania
mostly as a labor market analyst, supervising analyst, and managing analyst.
Probably wrote 600 or more economic press releases during the state career.
I was trained at Franklin and Marshall College as a geologist and ended
up in statistics and economics. Retired March 31, 2000.
<p>Three years co-editor of ERA <i>Headlights </i>magazine. Co-authored
two PCC books with Steve Carlson which were published by Interurbans Press.
Did the layout for Jim Henwood and John Muncy's Laurel Line book for Interurbans
Press. Have two other books in the hopper, one actually dummied-out,
which followed Dick Steinheimer's <i>Growing Up With Trains </i>series,
one was to be my work in the southeast states and the other a variety of
people from Lancaster ... may never finish them now that Interurban Press
is defunct. Have always wanted to do the definitive history of Conestoga
Traction Co. (Pennsylvania's 7th largest electric system ... 165 miles
and 165 cars) and, since retirement, have gone back to reading all the
local newspapers. Thought it might also be nice to do a book on the
evolutionary history of the streetcar ... treating it not as individual
cars like Birney's but as a series of inventions with made cars possible.
But there is plenty of room for someone else to do that ... life won't
be long enough.
<p>As you've deduced from my recent diatribe on copywrite law, photography
has been a joy and avocation for a long time ... since a gentleman in the
local YMCA gave me a used and abandoned Brownie Target 620 box camera when
I was ten or eleven. A used Baldina 35mm followed, then a Voigtlander
Bessa (sometimes sharp ... sometimes not ... ask Bill Middleton, he had
one too), then a used Kodak Recomar (2 1/4 by 3 3/14) and then a series
of new cameras as described in a previous transmission. Photography
is often a secret justification for doing something else.
<p>Love building architecture ... English Gothic cathedrals or Italian
Romanesque or the Eastern churches dripping with gold leaf, houses (I've
been photographing all the remaining 18th century homes in Lancaster County),
castles, towers, bridges (Marie claims I have an orgasmic relationship
with the Golden Gate Bridge because I've photographed it from so many angles
... from Sausalito, from Yerba Buena Island, from the fort below with a
ship coming it, and from a Cessna 172 circling overhead).
<p>Celtic, Baroque, and Classical music are delights even though I cannot
sing a single note. I'll not forget the day I found two organ recitals,
one in the Catholic cathedral and one in the principal Evangelisches Kirche
(Lutheran church) in Nurnberg, Germany ... mixed in with the castle, the
trams, the subway, and even a model store where the obligatory purchase
of a HO gauge tram was made.
<p>Museums are turning into a strong interest ... I've motored at Baltimore
for more than a decade, at PTM for five years or more. I've done
a heck of a lot of photo printing and mounting and caption writing
for museum displays (and I must thank Ed Lybarger for his share of the
work too). I also had ten years under Railroad Retirement at the
Strasburg ... two in engine service and eight in the coaches. A controller
is a lot nicer than the wrong end of a coal scoop.
<p>And its time to quit ... Marie, to whom I've been married for 29 years,
has announced dinner. And I never met a meal I didn't like.
Oh yes, one daughter, one son-in-law, and one grand-daughter (12 going
on 15).
<p><b>NOW PLEASE, INTRODUCE YOURSELVES TO ME.</b>
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