The Star (A Headliner Christmas Special of "Our Lord's Corner") (December Edition)

          I’m behind deadline on writing this article. This morning I walked out the garage and unto my driveway. A breeze blew lightly skipping the yellow, orange, and red dried leaves. I watched them dance as my feet crunched through them and I thought to myself, how many times I had done this throughout my life. I wondered about what I was going to write.

          I took in the cool crisp, clean air deep into my being, thanking God for another day. I looked one more time at the crimson waltz around me, turned once again and walked inside.

          Here I am, thinking about the past year and Christmas. How quickly time has gone. How quickly it goes every year now at my age. It is not hard to think back at my youth.

          I remember times of heavy snow fall as we had last year. I remember that when we lost electric it would be for days. One year a telephone pole came down right across the street. We had a gravity fed oil heater and a wood burner in the kitchen and we were warm. I remember my father talking the telephone company into laying and later cutting up that creosote soaked firewood for us. It burned very hot. Freezer items had gone out to the snow where it was buried with a piece of plywood placed over top to keep the wild from it.

          There were other times I remember that we would journey to the Christmas party the Allen Wood Steel Union would hold in union hall. We had gone with our neighbors the Dunn’s. Then there was the stuffed dog which to today I can still see in my mind. I hated that! I wanted a toy gun. After all I was a little boy. I remember Christmas shopping for Baccala in Norristown at a little but popular Italian market in Norristown, Shetone’s. I remember the few times we went out to eat. It was at a little bar in trooper where we lived. We had hamburgers. My dad had a beer with it, he did like his beer.

          I laugh at myself. I remember later when I was a young man and my brother and I was in the Army. I remember my father, that when my brother couldn’t be home as I, that he kept the Christmas tree up until March so that he would have a Christmas. As a father with boys of my own and one in the Army I am reminded. I know my father’s feelings as I speak to my son Mark whether we will see him or not for Christmas and would have no doubt that I too would go through such lengths.

          I thought of this past summer, money tight, business struggling a little I had a red bag with approximately $50. of change of sorts and papers for my business. As I was helping a child bring an electric wheel chair to the car her family member was in,  I became distracted and when I unloaded my cart, must have forgotten that little red bag. It was gone. After kicking myself that Friday I had a quiet chat with the Lord. “Let it help whoever has it”, I prayed. I left it go.

          I was also reminded of others who because of their own lack of self discipline squandered 10’s of thousands of dollars. It hurt me to think of that. Then as I balanced everything I was more thankful to have lost the $50. than to have had the opportunity to blow through a lot more.

          As I am looking at Thanksgiving and preparing myself for Christmas, I am thankful that Christmas is not about the next gift. It is about those times that I remember and learn from. It is about my next breath. It is about giving or giving up. It is about family and looking at my two new grandson’s and realizing in my heart that I live on in their tiny beings. It is about looking up and taking in all of the stars that God has placed in front of me finding one bright one and remembering that on that day Jesus was born to give to us. In so doing we have rebirth every day of our lives, just by following The Star.

          On behalf of my family. We would like to wish all of you and in particular those who cannot be home for any of the holiday which are in front of us a Happy Thanksgiving, a Happy Chanukah, a Merry Christ centered Christmas and a Happy New Year.  -Wil

Sgt. Fryer Left Lasting Impression in Luxembourg (A military special by Megan C. Carpenter with Willard N. Carpenter) (December Edition)

          When serving overseas and stationed in Luxembourg, the late Lester K.
Fryer of Englesville, befriended a 13-year-old local girl, named Odette
Oestreicher,during the summer of 1944. Fryer was shipped out of
Luxembourg, a country slightly smaller than the state of Rhode Island, just
before Christmas of that year. The two lost touch after that, but Odette
would never forget the impact Lester Fryer had on her life, and a new
connection would be formed decades later.
          Before we tell the story though, we must tell how Lester Fryer came to
be in Europe during the war.
          While listening to Charles Fryer talk about his father we learned that
he did in fact tried to seek out his military records. In doing so he
found that they were destroyed in a fire. This moved me and I knew
thatthere had to be a way of learning where his father was and what he
did.
          There was one point when we were speaking about him that he got
excited and quickly went upstairs and came back with a box containing no less
than his father’s uniforms perfectly preserved.
          What I pulled from it and what I found out after careful research is
that he was with the 8th Infantry division or nicknamed the “golden
arrow division” or “pathfinder division”.
          Lester Fryer, Tech S Sgt. or Tech Staff Sergeant Lester Fryer worked
in finance. After receiving his training in the continental U.S., he was
assigned to the 8th Infantry division and on the 15th of December 1943
the division arrived in Belfast in Northern Ireland for additional
training prior to going into combat. It remained in Northern Ireland at
two other posts until 30th of June 1944 where the division was at sea.
          On the fourth of July of 1944, after d-day it landed at Utah Beach. By
the 9th Of July it was in combat in the Manche Region of France until the
28th.
          Beginning the 5th of August of 1944 Tech Staff Sergeant Fryer moved
very quickly with his division through 6 towns in 3 regions before arriving
in Wiltz in Luxembourg, where the division prepared for the move into
Germany and the Rhineland campaign.
          From the 20th until the 28th of November, it was involved in some of
the fierce fighting of the war in the Hurtgen Forest.
          During the German’s Ardennes offensive (Battle of the Bulge) the 8th
division found itself at the northern part of the bulge. Charles Fryer
remembers his father telling him he himself seen little action during
that time but remembers seeing the tracer rounds overhead at a
distance.
          By the 3rd of May 1945 the eighth had gone thru 20 towns in 4 German
regions, its last being Mecklenburg. During this time Charles because
of his Pa. Dutch (German) back round was called upon as an interpreter.
          This history now takes a turn and brings us to the story that brought
us to Charles Fryer and his father’s story.
          Almost two years ago, Lester’s son, Charles, received a letter from a
Luxembourg man named Tom Wagner. The letter inquired as to whether
Charles was the son of a World War II soldier named Lester. Charles
was the grandson on Odette, who was now 81 years old. Charles sent a photo
of his father to Charles and Odette and the trio struck up continued
communication.
          Odette had so many questions about what happened to the American
soldier who was so nice to her and her family once the war had ended.
          So in June of 2013, 69 years after his father, Charles Fryer went to
Luxembourg. Charles met Odette, her children and Tom. There for
Odette’s 82nd birthday, Charles brought items for Odette including photos of
his father and the gavel from when he served as Speaker Pro Tempe of the
Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
          Though Odette doesn’t speak English, and Charles doesn’t speak
Luxembourgish, the two communicated through her grandson who speaks
both languages. While there, Odette kept referring to Charles’ father as
her Lester. Charles hopes to go back to Luxembourg possibly as soon as
mid January.