Sixty six years ago, I left Westminster to live in Baltimore. In 1929, I left Baltimore to live in New York City and in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1940, I left New York City to join the U.S. Navy, and in 1946 I left the Navy to live and work in Chicago. In 1960, I went to work in Washington, and from 1960 to 1980, I worked, lived and traveled in France, in California, in Hawaii, in South America and Africa -- but I learned more in Westminster and Union Mills than anywhere else! Moreover, what I learned in Westminster and Union Mills has meant more to me than all the other things I ever learned in all those other places. So:
Tonight I’d like to talk about “What Westminster Taught Me” because then, we may all be happier and more appreciative of the good fortune we enjoy just being born and raised in this wonderful community.
Westminster taught me first to love my neighbor.
The Black people who lived right behind our house on Green Street were my first good friends. We played together, enjoyed slaughtering hogs together, and setting aside and cooking the bacon, chitlings, scrapple, and mush the slaughter produced. We raised chickens and collected eggs together, played baseball together, and never experienced racial hatred or anxiety.
The same openness and friendship linked all of us in Westminster.
“Tut” Mascot, the famous mechanic and his brother Jim, the painter; Charley Wacklin, the accountant; Charley Fisher, the famous lawyer; Dr. Henry Fitzhugh, the medical doctor for everyone and for every ailment -- all of these people (and many more) were open to everyone, approachable, kindly, and generous.
It cost 50¢ to visit Dr. Fitzhugh in his office (paid in advance by just putting 50¢ in the open basket in his waiting room). And it cost $10 for him to deliver a baby!
Someone said to him . . . “How can you live on such low fees? No doctor charges as little as you do…" To which he replied, “The difference is I get paid.” And Fitzhugh was a Johns Hopkins Medical School graduate.
Eddie Weant’s father was Chairman of the State Central Committee for the Democrats. He hosted Governor Ritchie frequently, Millard Tydings, the U.S. Senator, and other luminaries -- but he was open and ready to talk with and advise everyone. No wonder his son, Eddie and Eddie’s wife, Sally, are so hospitable and intelligent and open-minded.
So, Westminster taught me first of all to accept all my neighbors, respect everyone, and work with everyone for the good of all.
Westminster (and Union Mills) taught me respect for nature -- for animals, trees, ice, bees, chickens, cattle, growing crops like peas, corn, asparagus. I learned from Westminster that there’s a time and place and a season for everything. That all created things are good, and they deserve respect.
Westminster taught me to admire men and women who worked hard. My grandmother gave birth to 13 children in Union Mills, and she brought up every one of them successfully. Every Sunday, they rode on horseback, or in carriages, all the seven miles to Church here in Westminster, and then back home. They farmed 100 acres, ran a flour mill, and opened up canning factories here in Westminster, in Union Mills, in Tareytown, and elsewhere. The boys all fought in the Civil War and ultimately became lawyers, bankers, farmers, hard-working men -- all of them. They made their own preserves, their own honey, their own electricity. They cut and stored their own ice in a huge ice house. They milked their own cows, grew their own flowers, and welcomed all travelers. What an example they gave to their own children, to their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren.
Westminster taught me patriotism. Our Fourth of July family gathering in Union Mills brought together 75 to 100 Shrivers from all parts of Maryland every year. We enjoyed sensational picnic luncheons on the banks of Pipe Creek. Everything we ate was made at home. The games we played were totally American -- baseball, hide and seek, and tag. And the fireworks at night reminded us all that Shriver men had fought in the Revolution, the French and Indian Wars, in the War of 1812, in the Civil War and in World War I. They served in the earliest legislatures in Annapolis, and T. Herbert Shriver was Adjutant-General of the State. We were weaned on the Maryland belief in religious freedom, in the efficacy of local self-government, and in states’ rights. We opposed the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. We sold Liberty Bonds in World War I, and my dad was Regional Director of the Red Cross charged with leadership of Liberty Bond sales. We were taught that the Shriver family had fought in every war in American history, and we believed that God was on our side in every conflict. We didn’t have to recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day. We lived it, and so did everybody in Westminster.
Westminster taught me respect for women. Not only was my mother Queen in our house, but the sisters of Notre Dame who taught us in school exercised total authority in our school. Most men in those days wore hats, and it was routine for men to tip their hats to ladies passing by and to remove their hats completely when speaking to a women or even when riding in an elevator if a woman got in the car. Fathers could be tyrants at the office, brutes in a boxing ring, and blood thirsty in war. But not with women. My Father always took my Mother’s side in any argument within the family, no matter what he may have said to her in the privacy of their bedroom. We shined our own shoes; we ate everything we were given to eat; we spoke when we were spoken to. I never saw even a picture of a naked woman until I was 15 years old. No one was divorced in our family, or even separated, until after World War II!!! Contemporary ideas and practices in sexuality were unheard of, let alone practiced. Women may be much more independent and free today, but in those old Westminster days, they were certainly not mugged and molested, divorced and left alone with children as they so often are today.
Westminster taught us that women were different, and better than men. We were taught to treat girls differently because they were different, not less than boys or men, but probably better.
Truthfully, these were Westminster, Union Mills, and Carroll County virtues: respect for your neighbor; respect for your country; respect for your parents; respect for hard work; respect for religion, especially for priests, nuns and ministers; respect for education and learning (you’d better pay attention in class, keep silent, and do your homework); and finally respect for yourself.
We were taught and believed that the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were truly more unique, that all men were equal in the sight of God, and that we were obligated to pledge “our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor” to the support and defense of this unique land where we lived.
Yes, it’s true that I learned all these things in Westminster and Union Mills. I learned them all by the time I was seven years old; and even though I haven’t always practiced them perfectly by any means, I wanted to be here tonight with all of you current citizens of Westminster. I wanted to be here and say thanks for all that Westminster taught me. I hope Westminster is living and teaching those same values today. Our country and our world needs those ideals and practices now more than ever. And I believe Westminster probably still embodies those concepts today.
A couple of months ago, I was in town to visit my Father’s and Mother’s graves, to say prayers for them and my other relatives buried in St. John’s Cemetery, and I took the opportunity to drive down Willis Street where I lived on the corner of Center Street in B. B. Billingsley’s house for a number of years. I parked and rang the doorbell at Eddie Weant’s house. Sally answered the bell and looked at me. We hadn’t seen each other in 30 or 40 years. But she said, “Why, hello Sargent, how are you? Come on in . . . Eddie is working in the basement but he’d love to see you. Can’t I get you something to eat or drink?”
I went in. Eddie came upstairs. We talked. It was almost as if I hadn’t been away from Westminster for 65 years. I remembered that Eddie had been born in this very house where he now lived. He had practiced law with distinction and success all of his life. On the other hand, I had kicked around the world, been everywhere, seen everybody, done everything.
Was I any better off than Eddie? Did I know anything about life or people he didn’t know? Was Willis Street any less interesting than Fifth Avenue, New York?
I’m not sure. Tonight all I do know is that Eddie and Sally have lived a full and rewarding life and almost all the values they rely upon are the same ones I learned here. I could not have survived without what Westminster taught me. And I’m glad finally to be back at home publicly thanking this town and its citizens for all they gave me. No wonder I long ago bought a burial plot in St. John’s Cemetery where I hope the Mathias family will bury me one day. Then I’ll be back in Westminster where I belong -- for good.
