Another Highland man heads to Iraq

By Chuck Gait
Posted: August 27, 2008

On Aug. 22, Mike Beltz, of Highland, left for a six month assignment to the green zone in Baghdad, Iraq. Mike, husband of Ruth and father of Jim, Jon and Jake Beltz, works for the U.S. Government and volunteered for this post. He’ll be gone til February of next year. I was kidding with Mike, telling him that he’ll “be the oldest American in Baghdad”. A while back he told me that he felt that this was something he had to do because two of his sons, Jon and Jake, served in the Armed Forces there. We wish him well and that he’ll remain safe.

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“Cow Whisperer” Carol Hill

By Chuck Gait
Posted: August 27, 2008

I recently got a couple of e-mails from Carol Hill, the former Highland postal route carrier. The first contained some information about an upcoming event at her church,
Mt. Zion United Methodist, in Highland. I sent her a response and a question or two and she responded. “Cucumbers! What cucumbers?”, Carol wrote. “They were absolutely delicious.”

She had major surgery on the day of the Clarksville picnic and couldn’t make it up to St. Louis and get her fill of the picnic cucumbers so I was able to scrounge her a quart. “The recovery is complete, I think” she said. Carol helps out at the dairy farm across the street from where she now works and is having the time of her life.

She is learning how to “harness, lead, wash, feed and milk the cows,” she wrote. Can you imagine Carol sitting next to a big cow and squeezing …, well, they probably using a milking machine because it’s faster and cleaner.

She wrote that she was “partial to and I think she knows it. ha ha. I know, I know, don’t get too attached to any of them. But, she is so cute! I call her “Wild Thing” because she wouldn’t walk with anyone else before I came along and she comes right up to me and walks with me and looks at me when I talk to her,” hence the “cow whisperer.”

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Highland man leaves for Iraq

By Chuck Gait
Posted: August 20, 2008

It has been said that war is for the young, but not everyone who goes to war is young. Sam Adamczyk, a Highland neighbor, is one such guy. He’s in his 30s, is married to Deanna, has two boys, Austin and Ian, is not in the military, but has left for Iraq. Sam works for the U.S government and has taken a short-term job in Baghdad in support of the coalition forces. Sam left Aug. 15 and should be back home in time for Christmas.

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After summer stint in Florida, son comes back to Highland

By Chuck Gait
Posted: August 19, 2008

Our son, Charlie Gait, came back home after spending the summer living and working in Melbourne, Fla. His cousin, staff Sgt. John Beltz, is stationed near there with the U.S Air Force and had invited Charlie down for an extended stay. The only thing left for him to do was to find a job. It turned out that he got a job at the apartment complex where his cousin, John, resides.

Charlie spent the summer working as a maintenance man. There he got a taste of what the world was really like. On his very first day of work, Charlie was assigned to clean out an apartment from which the tenants were evicted. I can’t describe some of the things that the former tenants did in the apartment, but suffice it to say, the condition of the apartment after they were evicted was atrocious.

Throughout the course of his employment, he learned to do some simple plumbing, lots of painting, carpet removal and laying — he really learned lots of things that he’ll be able to use once he completes his schooling and gets a place of his own. That’s one thing that this job really drove home for him — the need for a college education. “I had fun, learned a lot but I’m glad to be home,” he said.

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Parking Permit Meetings Aug. 19 and 27

By Chuck Gait
Posted: August 19, 2008

Everyone makes mistakes. Almost all are minor and at most cause little or no inconvenience but some are real whoppers. Hopefully this is one of those minor ones.

If you have a child who is of legal driving age and you intend to allow him/her to drive a vehicle to Reservoir High School (or any other Howard County school for that matter), then you and that child must attend a mandatory parking permit meeting offered at Reservoir Tuesday, Aug. 19 and again Aug. 27 (not the 22nd as was mistakenly reported in a letter which was sent home with your students’ school schedule). The meetings start at 7 p.m. in the school auditorium.

If you are unable to attend one of the presentations at Reservoir, you may attend one at another school. Please call the high school office at 410-888-8850 for more information.

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