I have a dentist appointment this morning, so instead of doing the research and writing a new post, I am re-publishing an old one. It got me thinking about the old saying, “An apple a day keeps the dentist away.” I did a search on that proverb and discovered that its origin came from a different saying, “Eat an apple on going to bed, and you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread“. That saying was revised later to the one that now applies to dentists. As for me, I do not go out of my way to eat raw apples. However, thanks to my wife, I eat plenty of apple pies, apple crisps, apple cakes, and a variety of other desserts made with apples. For some reason, I don’t think those desserts keep the dentist away.
This is not the first time that I have shared this post. I shared it a year ago on this date because our twin granddaughters were participating in the Illinois state Lutheran volleyball tournament. I guess you could say that sharing this story again today gives me the opportunity to brag on our twin granddaughters who were on the team that won that state tournament. They beat the team from Trinity Lutheran School in Stewardson, Illinois. I watched this year’s championship game yesterday online, and the team from Stewardson won this year’s tournament. That school has become a volleyball dynasty in recent years. This also gives me the opportunity to say that another previous post on this blog was written about some characters from Stewardson. That post was titled, The Klepzig’s Arrive Late from Stewardson.
Today’s attached post tells the story of how a young Poppitz man from the Seelitz community in Perry County might have met a young Bollefer lady from Kimmswick. These two managed to get married and live out the rest of their lives in Perry County. It turns out that this Poppitz/Bollefer story intersects with me and my family in several ways. Maybe that’s another reason that I want to share this post for the second year in a row on November 9th. Here are a few ways that my life story connects with this one.
- My father was living with Hannah Bollefer’s mother and siblings in Kimmswick when the 1940 census was taken.
- Ferdinand Poppitz married Hannah Bollefer at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in St. Louis, the same church where my parents were married and where my maternal grandparents were members. I could also add that the pastor who married Ferdinand and Hannah, Rev. Nitz, had a daughter who was in my class at Lutheran High School North in St. Louis.
- It was only after I moved to Altenburg and began writing for this blog that I discovered that one of my high school soccer teammates, Dale Septeowski, was part of the Poppitz family tree. Dale is some sort of “nephew several times removed” of Ferdinand Poppitz. Not too long ago, Dale and his wife visited our museum, and we got the opportunity to reconnect.
- A year ago, as part of our trip to the volleyball tournament, I was also able to attend a Concordia Historial Institute dinner at which the creator of the German Family Tree, Lynn Degenhardt, was receiving an award for his contributions in promoting Lutheran church history. Lynn’s mother was a Poppitz who was related to Ferdinand. If I am not mistaken, Lynn now owns the land where the apple orchard was once located.
- As a child, I spent many an hour fishing in a pond at the bottom of Stephansberg hill in Seelitz while staying at the Oscar Schlimpert farm. Oscar was my uncle. That little piece of property right below what was once Ferdinand Poppitz’s apple orchard is special to me.
Now, I’m inspired to request from my wife to buy some apples while I am getting a hole in my tooth filled in Perryville later this morning. I have a hankering for eating some sort of apple dessert.