Celebrating the Hello Girls at the U.S. Army Museum

I spent a wonderful afternoon on Sunday, May 25, at the Museum of the United States Army, celebrating the "Hello Girls" — the female telephone operators who served in the U.S. Army during World War I.

It took 60 years for the Army to recognize them as veterans — a tragic delay. But over the past decade, their service has finally begun to receive the recognition it deserves. At this commemorative event, a beautiful new plaque was unveiled, accompanied by a moving performance by U.S. Army musicians.

Many thanks to historian Diann Smith for organizing the event, and to the Doughboy Foundation, the U.S. Army Museum, and many others — including two Hello Girls’ granddaughters, filmmaker Jim Theres, and my good friend Colonel Linda Jantzen (retired). Their dedication to securing the Hello Girls’ rightful place in American military history is truly inspiring.

From 2013 to 2015, I had the privilege of professionally telling the story of the Hello Girls at various venues across the country, including at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri. 

It’s wonderful to see how far their story has come in the past decade.

Halloween - A Time for Ghost Stories!

Halloween - a perfect time for ghost stories! Here's an old favorite of my stories that I found on YouTube to share with you:

A Bit of My History

Remembering one of my essays which I called A Bit of My History. 

Years ago, I once stood at the back of a crowd pressing into the room listening to Gloria Steinem and I felt a pull to the past – the past when I was much more excited about the women’s movement.

 

That day Gloria Steinem was tall, very thin, and lovely. Dressed in a black long-sleeved sweater over long black wool gaucho pants, also wearing boots. An elegant silver Navaho belt is draped casually around her hips and a heavy silver Indian bracelet at her wrist reminded me of a Wonder Woman bracelet. A large, hammered silver ring accentuated her long slender fingers and her beautifully shaped nails. Along with her trademark straight hair and aviator glasses. Elegant, understated – she shows a careful image

Fascinated, I watched the way she gestured with her hands. Gloria Steinem exudes style. But more, she looks at everyone in the guest line individually with a gaze that makes you feel special.

I had not seen Gloria in about three years. As I watched her I thought she must be a bit like fine wine – she gets better with time. 

I was moved by her talk about her book tour for her new book - Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions –how people tell her their stories. She says, “ I feel like an heiress and I have to figure out how to share the stories back with everyone.”

She graciously acknowledged all the women in the audience, “You who do the work here and in Washington – how much we all owe you.”

 

It is so rare, in my experiences that I heard anyone acknowledge those working in the fields.

 

I felt memories stirring – of the excitement in Houston for the national IWY meeting – of having the feeling it could all be done – of having heroines like Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem, and so many others – that was all before I turned negative – when I still felt energy and enthusiasm for the Women’s Movement.

 

When I felt all the idealism – saw only possibilities, not difficulties – was too naive to realize the obstacles ahead for women trying to pass the ERA.

 

Where did that feeling go? What happened?

My idealism was kicked out of me – squashed by the failure of ERA – in 1982. 

 

Women across the country poured every ounce of their energy into the campaign for 10 years of trying to pass the Equal Rights Amendment were squashed by the failure to pass it. All that and we came up empty.  

In 2016, 33 years later, I found a small journal with a reflection on Gloria Steinem in it and a rush of memories.

 

I wrote an essay when I got home from NYC where I attended the book signing for Steinem’s book, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions.  The large open lobby at the Equitable Life Assurance Building was packed – feminists standing in line for Gloria’s signature and chatting with old friends and other ERA Campaign veterans. It was a grand reunion as well as a celebration of the book

 

Robin, my daughter,  had a job in NYC at that time and she came with a friend.  Afterward, we went to the NYC 21 Club for supper – some fun is always a worthy use of time  - and, of course, it calls for money.

 

There was a lot of hope in the air for that time when there was the November 8 election outcome.  I was so hoping there would be large and small gatherings across the country to celebrate the first woman US President.

 

Well, it never happened.

 

Now it's March 2023 and there is recognition that this time is being called Women's Year.

 

This is another time for HOPE for Women.

Writing for Jim

My husband Jim Schoettler (Doctor James Schoettler) died March 6th, ten years ago.

It has been a long, lonely time for me and our children miss him as well. They are all adults – with their own children – two girls and 3 boys and, now there is a new addition to the family -- our first grandchild -- a darling growing girl.

I am sorry that Jim missed her because I am sure he would have dearly loved her. That’s how he was and I knew it from the day I met him in Baltimore when he was student doctor at Hopkins Medicine School - far from his hometown in California. 

Later, he was a doctor in Brooklyn, then he was a doctor in the US Air Force in Texas and then North Carolina. After that, he moved us to Washington where he was Chief of Psychiatry at Andrews Air Force Base. 

When he left the service and moved into private practice, he kept an office for a long time in DC, before he moved to his home office in Maryland. After a long illness, he died at home, with all of us.   

 

Now we visit his grave at Arlington National Cemetery as often as possible. Sunday, in honor the 10th anniversary of his death, we brought beautiful flowers to his grave. 

It's not the way we want it to be because we miss him at home. But we think about him all the time, and love to share his stories. That's the way we keep him close. 

 

 

 

Loving Color - with an Appreciation for Kaffe Fassett

Color settles me. It has done that since my mother gave me my first box of crayons and a coloring book.

Color motivates the focus of my work as a visual artist. Colors calm me and they give me the courage to take risks.... like wearing red shoes so I can walk up in front of an audience as a storyteller performer.

When I was online recently I was reminded that the artist Kaffe Fassett is on YouTube. He is an American who lives in Great Britain and is admired worldwide. I was first introduced to his work in the early1980s when I worked in Washington, DC, for the League of Women Voters as ERA Project Director.

One afternoon I was walking back to my office from a meeting at the White House. Along the way, I saw a beautifully decorated window at a small shop. A spread of vibrant colors stopped me. 

I was wrapped in and fascinated by the colors. I wanted more views of the examples of the brilliant colors I was seeing in the display of small and larger needlework. So I went in.

What I discovered was the world of Kaffe Fassett. I learned we were the same age. His work in knitting and needlepoint looked like modern paintings made with vibrant blocks of color.

l went close and carefully examined the way he had put the colors together. As a visual artist, I have always worked with color. 

Just looking at the arrangement of the Fassett's colors made me feel stronger that day-  and still does. 

As a teenager, I had learned to knit, and as a young mother in the late 1950's, I knitted for my family.

I thought to myself, "I can do this needlepoint, too.”

That afternoon I returned to the small shop and bought a Fassett design kit and a small pair of scissors.

That was in the 1980s.….. I loved it - and still do! 

You see I was about to go on the first of many trips for my job. I would travel by car, train, and plane across the country trying very hard to convince people to support the ERA.

I needed to find a way to settle myself while away from home. And it worked.

Seeing Kaffe Fassett's work again and listening to him on YouTube I was touched by his view that we need to surround ourselves with wonderful, vibrant colors to give us energy and make us come alive. And - I also heard his plea to young women not to wear beige clothing – they are too dull - - a good laugh!

For the past two years during the Covid pandemic threat, I have been slowly resurrecting my artwork from my studio and hanging it on any bare wall space I can find in my house. 

I love it. 

In writing this, I realize now I have been wrapping myself in colors and they keep me settled in today's unsettled times.

Color is what gives me...my 86-year-young self..... the energy, motivation, and focus to be calm and keep going.

It really works for me! How about for you?

                                                                                                                                  

Looking at My Irish Roots

Looking at My Irish Roots Visual artists often stop and take stock and select works for a retrospective of their art work. Here is a chance to do the same with my story work. When I read the Song-catcher by Sharyn McCrumb, a novel featuring a ballad handed down through generations of her southern family, 

I was impressed by the way she incorporates family history into her story. came to storytelling through genealogy and did much more of that when I first started telling stories. She inspires me to go back in that direction, asking new questions. In the biography on her website Sharyn McCrumb talks about the two worlds of her parents. That’s true of my family too. 

 My father’s family was proud of their social position, which was based on my grandmother’s father. He was a Mecklenburg County elected official and a very popular figure. When I looked up his obituary in the Charlotte Observer a huge picture of him stared back at me from the front page of the newspaper. I remember my grandmogher as a tall, aristocratic looking woman who was not prone to spontaneous hug. She was the mother of eight children, she was a reader, a versifier, an Anglophile and an avid Bridge player. She was proud of her lineage, especially her Confederate roots, because she did not know her Revolutionary War ties. If she had looked into it she would have found her Revolutionary War roots and saved me a lot of trouble later. She would have been proud of all those deep tap roots that came through her father’s paternal family. Her father’s mother was an Irish immigrant, from Tipperary, Ireland who arrived in America in 1837. She came with an extended family before the potato famine. Maybe they were seeking religious freedom, because they had both money and a trade. She left us our Catholic faith. Her family arrived in America through Nova Scotia, went to Albany, New York for a time where they had family, and then came to North Carolina following the little known 1840s gold rush in North Carolina. She married a young doctor from Newton, NC and they had eig Surprisingly no Irish stories have been handed down through the family. I was not raised on the stories she must have told her son and that one would think he told his daughter. And, that he might have told my father, his grandson. The newspaper articles I found about him say he was known as a storyteller and a wit. I wish we had been left a legacy of Irish songs and stories like Sharyn McCrumb describes from her Appalachian family? 

Ever since I discovered my strong Irish heritage I have wondered about this. Now, Sharyn McCrumb, in describing her family, opens the question for me from another perspective. I will dig deeper. I want to find any stories about the Lonergan family of Catherine Cobb.

Blue Darling

    

 

 

Grand-dad with the "boys"

Wonderful days when Jim and I flew in from the East Coast to spend time in California with the Foxes we love - - our daughter, her husband and their three boys who lived close to the southern Ocean in CA. 

Jim loved being with these boys and it reminded him of his own childhood in CA.

Great fun there then- - - - - and now wonderful to have the pictures to keep the memories.I love carrying my cameras.

Remembering Yvonne Pickering Carter - '78

 

The Eye of Yvonne Pickering Carter -  she was invited to select works from as artists for a show at the WWAC.

When I saw an article about artist Yvonne Pickering Carter recently I was surprised and delighted to recognize her and remember how we worked together in arranging this show.  

We had fun deciding how we wanted to set the uptake for the picture - as I recall Yvonne used the mirror  to connect with the statue. 

She aded her poem - -  quite an addition.

It took time for me to find the picture in my studio- and I am very ,happy to have it out for all again to see. 

I loved working with her,

 

Remembering John Walter Cobb. Jr.

 For the Remembrance Day today I introduce my father’s uncle, Sgt. John Walter Cobb, Jr. who served in France for almost two years.  Then 2 days before the War ended, he died there from the great Flu Epidemic.  He is buried in the American Military Cemetery in Saint-Mihiel, France – a very lovely place. 

Three years ago, I added a stone for him on the Family plot in Charlotte, N.C. so that he will not be forgotten. Knowing his story has brought him alive for me and others.

The Snake on the Bridge Was Moving Slowly Over the Creek

On a warm Sunday afternoon my daughter and I decided to walk to the Creek which is pretty near. 

The sky was bright above. I felt grand to be out in such weather because the day before it was raining,

We heard active water below the Bridge and we saw several elderly seniors speeding toward us. 

"Its a snake on the Bridge" called the elder man as he rushed by us. 

I looked ahead at the side where the Snake was moving directly over the Bridge. 

Seeing the Snake scared me. 

Another old man called out - "watch out for Snake on the Bridge." 

This Senior's tall son whispered as he passed near me. 

"This snake doesn't have poison - its a racer."

I waved to him as I took several deep breaths ----

then added several pictures.  

Somehow I knew I would come back soon to explore the Creek -

since I have ignored it for years.

Field Guide to Maryland's Snakes (Order Squamata)

 

LETTERS

  

Where do family stories come from - - 

My first storytelling passion came from genealogy.

I have often laughed that I began storytelling as a subversive activity.

I wanted a way to tell our family stories so that they would want to listen. And then - as so often happens - the glitter and sparkle of storytelling itself lured me away from genealogy.

I will be posting something about the family 

To start again I have reached back to several posts I wrote couple of years ago.

I love old letters, whether I know the people or not. 

The handwritings bring me close to the person who wrote the letters - - - - 

often there is a story hidden in an old letter

How about you? 

WHAT WILL HAPPEN - - - -

 Tuesday, October 19, 2021,

Bright cold sunlight fills the home rooms.                        That gives me good feelings,                                                     - - - and makes the cat intensely curious.                   

Who knows what's ahead?

I have a deadline.

A few ideas are wiggling in my brain - like small rubber balls that won't stop bouncing back and forth.... while my deadline presses.

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Traveling Inside Myself

Traveling Inside Myself

Recently I watched the movie Night Train to Lisbon featuring actor Jeremy Irons.

I had seen it but as I watched it did not recall the story yet I felt that there was something 

in it I wanted to "catch' again. And - there was.

The story is a mix of mystery, romance, and discovery set in Lisbon in a non-specific modern 

time. The characters too are rather universal and yet non-discript. Their soft identities do 

not take away from the stor. The Irons character, a middle-aged professor, saved a girl from 

jumping off a bridge in Bern. She runs away and he impetuously hops on a train to follow her 

to Lisbon, to find her and to discover her story. You guess soon into the movie that who he 

eventually finds, along with an interesting story, will be himself.

The key to the search for the girl is a haunting memoir by a young doctor - the other driving 

character. For me the heart of the story rests in the book.

All of this was familiar as I re-visited the movie ...then in the ending and I found what I was 

looking for - a piece of verse:

I spent some time today recapturing it. I don't want to lose it again be cause the poem tells 

me why I am tied to memoirs and to capturing my past. It is the reason for my own personal 

searches and now at 85 years old I have a lot of ground to cover as I find bits of myself and 

quilt them together.

This is the passage of one of the characters in the film who writes into his journal which will 

come his book. 

We leave something of ourselves behind in a place we have been. 

We stay there even though we go away. 

There are things in ourselves we find again only by going back there. 

There are things in ourselves we find again only by going back there.

 ( Collage by Ellouise Schoettler )

 

 

 

Starting today I will add stories, essays and videos to my ellouisestory Blog.

Take a Trip with Me

• OCTOBER 1, 2021
• NEW EPISODES

Join Ellouise Schoettler, host of Stories In Time At Home on a long ago trip to Athens, Greece. 

She was transported to Greece as a member of a group trip with her husband, Jim. 

Watch as she tells about her fear of the water, and admits how she faces that anxiety with Jim’s help when she is forced to jump onto the ship. 

Learn about the momento she bought to mark the occasion ----- and learn what's happened to it 22 years later.

Check out this episode of Stories In Time At Home below, or on MMC’s YouTube channel and subscribe!

 

 

HANG IN - KEEP WALKING.

October 1, 2021

You probably know that people in Tenn don't enjoy wearing masks which makes them on a chancy edge which is not completely safe from Covid - - -  so I have been advised by my doctor in Maryland. "to stay home." No do not fly down to Tenn next week for a family gathering that I have been looking forward to attending. You can bet I will be holding back curses and tears.

To help me out with my disappointment I have had a wonderful two days at home - -  watching the National Storytelling Festival which uses zoom at home which protects us all.  Next year will be the 50th year of the Festival  so ........ lets all hope it will be open next year.

The stories which have wrapped me warmly have been great - funny and strong. And also - there is the pleasure of seeing many familiar storytellers and seeing new tellers. 

September 26, 2021

Its been quite a month - 

starting with deep memories of the horrors of September 11 and the losses of people where airlplanes were used to kill innocents. 

When the planes attacked the NYC buildings at the World Trade Center my husband Jim and I were in Italy. We had dreamed of a wonderful vacation but it turned into fear for people especially members of our family who were close-by. 

The day that the remembrances touched all - -  it especially opened  the story for  people who were too young to know what happened and why people care.

I cried as I heard names spoken, watched films and listened to personal stories.

On another one of these September weeks - we drove across a State line to take care of some business and to stop at a large impressive store where they gather orchard fruits daily. Delicious peaches and pears! Yes, the peaches are grand but its the pears that call  to me.

Soon my grandson's wedding will be in a State across a couple of state lines. I was happy and excited about  being there. But its all changed for me. When I talked with my doctor and she heard about my plans to go - my doctor said, "NO, you can't go. The people in that State are not required to protect themselves." Yikes. In my State I received the Vaccine in April. I have a collection of many masks, and keep safe distances from other people. Along with that I understand that older "grands" are safer if they protect themselves. Why are so many people ignoring the dangers and avoiding vaccines.

Something I really enjoy. My daughter and I have discovered a Roy Rogers place to pick up delicious fried chicken served with a paper cup filled with tasty "slaw". Its on the - Rockville Pike. Just thought to tell you.

Last Saturday my son and daughter went downtown with me to a beautiful small church on Capital Hill (DC)  - - to attend the funeral of a fine, generous doctor who met my husband as they arrived at the same time (1962) to serve at the hospital on Andrews Air Force Air Base. When Don and Jim completed their time in Air Force uniforms they remained in Washington and shared civilian medical offices for at least 30 years. 

This Saturday was a lovely sunny afternoon. The room was washed with color through the glass in a line of old windows. We had been here before for his wedding and - - in fact Jim had been Don's Best Man. This Saturday a gathering of his white haired friends wearing a collection of masks sang familiar hymns, colleagues talked of Don,  and his grandchildren were touching with their words of love.  We were there to represent Jim to his colleague and friend- and to say good-bye.

 

After the services the three of us talked to a few of  those who gathered. Then we drove from the center of DC to a small restaurant in a familiar neighborhood. It was a sweet place to sit out side to talk and share stories of Jim and Don - - and to laugh as they would. 

 

 

Granny's Birthday

"June 1 is a special day to me -remembering my dearest grandmother - Ellie Hall Keasler Baer - deep rooted in NC she is a loving woman who still means the world to me. I decided to use this picture because the dress has a story for me.

FINDING MORE ON A MEMORY

 

Finding More on a Memory

Last week I called the Carolina Room at the Main Library in Charlotte, NC where I always ask for research help and they were wonderful again. I came away with unexpected family history. From a 1937 city-information-book they found my maternal grandmother's Seventh Street address- along with her professional occupation - Manager of a Department at Montaldo's elegant women's clothing shop. I remember how she loved it there - and especially she loved packing for her yearly train trips to New York to select fine merchandise for the year. When I went to Montaldos to meet her I loved being drenched with wonderful perfume as I walked through the Tyron Street elegant entry. I remember the afternoon I stopped by to talk about the formal dress I needed . For Granny the reasonable solution was for her to help me try-on something beautiful --- that was perfect for me - to wear to the Junior/Senior dance at Central High School. Today was an afternoon filled with sweet memories.

• Ellouise Schoettler

  I was surprised to find this pair of photos shown together, The photo on the left was taken by my husband in my "at home"art studio.. I am not sure of the absolute date but think it was probably in the mid 1980s, when I had completed my ERA job and had more time to work in the studio. The picture on the right was taken at American University when I performed my Pushing Boundaries feminist story. All these personal finds help me getting my story together.

  
  

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  • Elizabeth Forbes Wallace

    Ellouise Schoettler

     I remember your performance that night surrounded by art that also pushed boundaries 

    

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• Karyn Page-Davies

  I remember the story you told of my Kilgore cousin that was, I think, a principal at one of the school's you attended in Charlotte at the luncheon we had at 1st Pres while you were at Stone Soup. I was sitting at the table with 3 of my cousins. We were blown away. You had walked around the church and noticed the Kilgore legacy within our church and added that story to your performance.

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