Dance Recital Roster

There was more to the "Spotlight On Youth" program. Here are the other three pages. If you click on each thumbnail, it should be larger and therefore, more readable. Just in case, I decided to list the names of all of the people who were in this particular recital. Are you one of them? Do you know any of the folks listed?? If so, let me know!

Angela Holomes
Angela Lomont
Ann Menefee
Barbara Dixon
Bettina Beard
Bonnie Bectol
Bonnie Sherbon
Chris White
Connie Mitchell
Dawn Carboni
Dawn Rhoads
Debbie Lenniger
Dede Pittinger
Georgeanna Stuck
Heidi Lawrence
Heidi Schmitt
Jackie Snyder
Jane Prichard
Jill Ann Shaw
Jo Lynn Shaw
Julie Hacka
Karen Summers
Kathy Dixon
Kathy Johnson
Kelly Smith
Kim Booker
Kim Elam
Kim Gottfried
Kim Shroyer
Kim Underwood
Kim Vodde
Kristina Frazier
Leslie Cook
Lisa Booker
Lisa Carr
Lisa Knight
Lisa Russell
Lori Young
Machell Crist
Marsha Eckert
Maureen Moran
Meg Gottfried
Micca O'Connor
Michelle Cook
Michelle Wiedmann
Mike Burry
Mindi Salyer
Monica Quinn
Nancy Leullen
Patty Olson
Reed Oscott
Robert Oscott
Ronda Johnson
Rose Salyer
Sally Vodde
Sandy Pressler
Sheri Crist
Sheri Knight
Susan Gardner
Susan Huntley
Susan Mitchell
Tammy Browne
Tammy Perkins
Teresa Mitchell
Tina Le Compete
Toni Eckert
Tracie Pattee
Tracie Stabler
Tricia Elam
Tricia Zuber
Vicki Olson
Vicki Smith

Spotlight On Youth

On May 17, 1973 (my parent's 7th wedding anniversary), I performed for my very first time in front of an audience in a dance recital held at South Side High School.

I don't remember being nervous. I do remember loving all of the fun costumes that I got to wear. The stage seemed enormous - I've never been back to South Side since so I don't know if I was comparing it to the stage at Indian Village Elementary (and that was small in comparison) or if South Side's was really humungous!

That's me - girl on the end (all the way to the far right). You'll notice that what I'm doing seems to be just a tad bit different from the other two girls. My grandma swears up and down (even to this day) that I was doing the routine perfectly and the other two girls were missing their moves. Dontcha just love grandma's?!

In this picture, I am almost in the middle (count four over from the right). I seem to be doing pretty much was everyone else is but NOTICE the swinging arms and the amount of space between me and each girl beside me :). Is it my imagination OR are those other girls lookin' at me?! Was I doing something special or were they watching a freak show in motion? I guess we will never know....

I am not in this picture.

Nor in this one.

But you see, these four pictures, along with the program, are the only physical/tangible things I have left from my Marlene's Dance Studio days.

My red hair bow, my red tutu, and the red/white striped outfit, and my tap shoes you see in the first and second picture - I packed those very carefully into a box that I kept with me at almost all times. When we had to pick up and move to yet another house or another school in the later years, it was part of the stuff that I kept close to me - like my identity box.

Whenever I felt lost or insignificant or sad - I would look at the stuff in my box and be reminded that I was someone who mattered and despite what was going on around me, everything would get better. That was the hope that I needed to hold on to in order to get through that day or night or week or month.

When I was 17, my box disappeared forever and as silly as it may sound, it's something that still makes me sad. It's just "stuff" - I know...the symbolism of its existence though - reinforced so many things for me and without it, well...I'm not even sure what to say. It may be the reason why I started this blog about a year ago. Maybe this is my new identity box...

R. Nelson Snider

R. Nelson Snider
Originally uploaded by kristinafh

Snider High School was just one of those high schools on the north side for those snooty kids ;).

At one time, I know it was called R. Nelson Snider but at some point, people just started referring to it as Snider. Maybe they still do - maybe they don't - I'm just tellin' you how it was in my day.

As often the case, Snider was named after somebody significant in Fort Wayne's history - Mr. R. Nelson Snider himself. Until recently, I really didn't know anything about him.

And then, I came across this picture of him. It's from the South Side Totem Yearbook (1927). He was Principal there and kind of a hottie in his day!

So I wanted to find out more about him.

The first place I went - logically - was to the school (R. Nelson Snider) web page.

How sad. Not one mention of him. Although you could click on a link to find out who your legislators are. And they're redoing the web site so there's also a page dedicated to the "Web Design Team".

Kinda shabby that they wouldn't even talk about the history of their high school. Hope that doesn't mean that they are getting ready to rename it.

I did find out at least something at Wikipedia.

"The first high school built by Fort Wayne Community Schools in forty years, R. Nelson Snider High School, named for an outstanding educator, opened in the fall of 1964 with three hundred twenty-five sophomores, twenty faculty members, four administrators, and one secretary.

In April 1966, the students and staff moved into the present facility after having shared Lane Middle School. This building has been renovated twice since then, the latest having been completed in 1982.

There is an area of ten acres of building on a forty-acre complex housing more than two thousand students in grades nine through twelve. Part of the complex includes five tennis courts, a freshman and junior varsity football game field, a softball field, a soccer field, and an all-weather track. There are sixty-nine classrooms, a metal and welding shop, a wood shop, a main gym, an auxiliary gym, a wrestling room, a wellness center, tiered lecture room, three darkrooms, a foreign language cafe, a complete television studio, an auditorium, science laboratories, a cafeteria seating over five hundred, a five hundred-car parking lot, a suite of guidance and athletic offices, a main office, a student services office, an attendance office, and a media center which encompasses approximately 16,000 books and periodicals, 1800 non-print media items, and a 32-station networked computer lab in addition to several stand-alone computer work stations with access to electronic data bases.

In December 1995, the staff voted to restructure the educational day to the 4x4 block format. The 4x4 scheduling format at R. Nelson Snider High School has students taking just four classes every day. There is more time for instruction and learning, with less time used for getting to and from classes and for classroom management. This productive use of school time translates into potential for additional labs, field trips, interdisciplinary activities and intense focus on subject matter.

In 2006 or 2007, a cell phone tower will be built on Snider's grounds. Snider will receive a monetary payment for the tower, and has yet to decide what the money will go towards. As part of the contract, Snider will not be able to use the money towards scholarships."

Huh - not much about the man (one sentence) but now I know about a cell phone tower!

I had to go to non-internet resources to find out about R. Nelson Snider.

1) He was Principal at South Side for 37 years. WOW!!!

2) That "R" - that stood for "Roy".

3) He died in 1976 and is buried in Lindenwood Cemetery.

4) His father was a farmer.

5) He was a Director for the YMCA.

6) He was on the Anthony Wayne Area Council of Boy Scouts.

7) Fort Wayne Education Foundation (now "Questa") credits its roots to R. He was a lender of money to students who wanted to pursue higher education.

Yep. There's more. But maybe those folks over at his name sake high school will complete the story.

Oh and P.S. - they might want to mention the guy that architected their building - John Davis Martindale.