Time Marches On

Bill on left, George on the right

While working on The Brass Bell project I have met so many wonderful people who were once upon a time students at Cherry Road School when Marion Parsons was principal. Now in their 70s, 80s, and 90s, they still love to share stories about those days.

Two charming men who have been friends since childhood, Bill Eriksson and George Kinder, met with me one afternoon and had me in stitches and in tears, telling me about the olden days, about Miss Parsons. There was a story about how she had excused them from school to go see the opening day of the Chiefs. Others who had skipped school wound up in detention. Their idea about confronting her with the truth paid off. Bill told me several stories about how Miss Parsons had made it possible for him to participate in paying events by hiring him to work around the nieghborhood. She trusted him so much, she would go to him and ask him to ride a sick child home on his bike. The two friends were always up to something, but it seemed as though they would somehow make the right decisions. One time they asked Miss Parsons to take them over to Solvay so they could buy a squirt gun.  Bill said, "She probably took it away from us the next day, but she took us nevertheless."

The sad part about this project is that some of those who have contributed to the book will not be around to enjoy it. We lost my beloved Betty Jerome recently. Yesterday I found out that we've lost Bill last December. There will be a memorial get-together for Bill on April 27, 1:00 p.m., at the Amber Congregational Church. A luncheon will follow at the South Onondage Fire Department where Bill was a long-time member and fire-fighter.

Bill will be missed but the excellent stories he shared for The Brass Bell will live on in the book.