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The whole growing up season of Garden and Village, which continues to this very day, could fill volumes of books. In fact, it does fill 25 volumes of the Victoria Gazette. The stories of nearly every Diethelm, Schneider, Schmieg, and Notermann have graced the front pages of the Gazette through personal interviews with first and second generations of these early pioneer families.
Hundreds of other historical families, including Schmidts and Schmids and Williams and Wartmans, have also been interviewed and featured in the Gazette these past 25 years. Throw in the Aretzes, Gregorys, Kerbers, Kelzers, and Zangers and you still haven't picked all the flowers that were opened in the Gazette.
Readers have come to know the growing pains and joys of a living breathing community - one that necessarily involved both Village and Garden - through the telling of these personal firsthand stories.
Readers have seen over the years, and especially at the turn of the new century, that people continue to settle here for many of the same reasons. It is not mere coincidence that the motto "City of Lakes and Parks" has a ring similar to "City of Gardens, Woodland, Hillside, and Vale."
Sing gaily in chorus,
The bright angels o'er us,
Re-echo the strains
We begin upon earth.
It is no small thing to cultivate a new Garden upon earth, but it's happening on Sunday, May 8th, 2005, at 2:00 p.m. when the new St. Victoria Catholic Church will be grandly opened and dedicated midst pomp and circumstance, not to mention incense and oils. Petals and pollen from old and new generations will combine in a floral pattern much unlike the more homogenous pattern of yesterday.
Before that historical moment tran-spires, it behooves the Gazette to give a final nostalgic nod to the beloved past. My personal 35-year history at St. Vic-toria is being given with torn heart, tender tears, and thoughts of thanksgiving for flowers of the rarest.
My soul is imbued with confident hope in the fragrance of old friendships, the beauty of eternal truths, and the bursting forth of God's purifying graces in this new season.
Forsake us, Oh never!
Our hearts be they ever
As pure as the lilies
We lay at Thy feet.
I Remember ...
I remember when the resident priest at St. Victoria lived in the little white house built onto the back of the church, and it had an attached garage. If the priest drove too fast into the garage, he could have gone through it and landed in the Church Cemetery on the other side or probably rolled down into Church Lake. I remember the house had a tiny kitchen, tiny bedroom, tiny bathroom big enough for barely one person to turn around in, and a small living room, but Franciscans traveled lightly and lived providentially. I remember that the house came to have a front office with a picture window onto the parking lot. I remember that a tree next to the picture window held a birdfeeder and furnished entertainment and scriptural thoughts about sparrows, until the tree was struck by lightning and had to be taken down. I've got pictures to prove it. I remember there was only one phone in the place and it was only ever answered by one person, the priest, no matter the time of day or night.
Father Bernardine Hahn, OFM
At St. Victoria 1952 to 1954
I remember that shortly after Tony Aretz introduced him to the Victoria Gazette, Father Bernardine began writing notes and letters to the paper, to me. I learned that Father Bernardine was the priest here at St. Victoria for only a short time, from 1952 to 1954 (which is about 20 years before my arrival here in 1971), but that he made a lasting impression and kept in touch with Victoria people. I remember when Fr. B. came to visit friends and friars in the area, he would call on me too and we'd sit at my kitchen counter and chat about the church in the world. I've gone to see Fr. B. in recent times at the St. Anthony Friary in St. Louis, Missouri, where he lives and from where he drives 20 minutes every morning to say Mass for the Poor Clare Sisters. Father Bernardine will be 90 on December 13th.
Father Ronald Dinn, OFM
At St. Victoria 1971-1980
I remember how Father Ronald looked and talked and walked like Alfred Hitchcock. He wore his sandals barefoot, even in the winter, even in the snow, with a winter jacket over his long brown Franciscan frock. Father Ronald smoked a lot of cigarettes. He played cards at the Village Hall every week with the Victoria Senior Citizens, and often joined parishioners for coffee at the old Victoria Café on Main Street Victoria. When he left Victoria he subscribed to the Victoria Gazette and wrote letters to the editor up until the very end. His handwriting was very even, neat and legible, and stayed neat and legible in a squiggly way. His death in 1992 was due to heart failure at St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Illinois. He is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery at Indianapolis, Indiana.
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