Pauline Shuler Authenrieth

My grandparents met in a bar near Camden New Jersey. It was August 1942, my grandfather (an only child from Columbus Ohio, son of a school teacher, graduate from Ohio State University, with no clear religious affiliation) was up singing “Temptation” with the local band. Pop-pop had stopped in along with his fellow soldiers from a nearby army training camp. It was then that my grandmother fresh off her late shift at the RCA factory walked in. Pauline Shuler was one of eight girls, raised Catholic, daughter of Royden Lynn (I’m named for him, Lynn being my middle name) and his wife Sylvia Catherine (she’s our Irish connection, being a Callaghan),  a divorcee, and mother of an 8 year old girl (my mother). Six months later they were married just before Pop-pop was shipped off to Europe.  My grandfather raised my mother as if his own. My brothers and I were lucky to have such wonderful grandparents - Mom-mom adored us. She and Pop-pop taught us to love Big Band music. At Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings they would dance to the beat of Artie Shaw or Glenn Miller, watching them dance together was a bit like magic. Pop-pop was a man of few words but had a great wry wit and probably was the most handsome man I’ve ever met.  My grandmother was the keeper of the stories and throughout my childhood I peppered her with endless questions about her family - her sisters (Ida, Sylvia, Nita, Ronnie, Boots, Fay, and Dru), what her parents were like, what it was like growing up in such a large family during the depression, where she was when she heard about Pearl Harbor, how she met my grandfather?

In 1989 I visited her in Florida taking along a cheap tape recorder. Every morning while having our coffee, I'd turn on the recorder and off we’d go - back to her childhood and beyond - further back in her family history. I have five tapes (now transferred to CD’s) of my grandmother’s voice - her laugh, her intonations, her slight Jersey accent on certain words, her funny way of saying “yeh” in a high-pitched voice in response to my “No kidding” when some family story surprised (or shocked) me.  The other day my niece and I were baking my Great Aunt Fay’s (my grandmother’s sister) cookies - while listening to these tapes. I love the fact that she can hear her great grandmother’s voice and unique laugh. These tapes are one of my most treasured possessions.  I’m in the process of transcribing the text and one day will present the tapes/CD’s and transcripts to each of Pauline Shuler Authenrieth’s great grandchildren - she would have liked that.