Matt Osterhaudt doesn't consider himself an expert on bells. He just really loves learning about them, talking about them, and most of all, hearing them ring.
Sam Tenney / The Citizen
Former Syracuse basketball player Roosevelt Bouie catches a pass while guarded by Moravia senior Kurt Berry during a basketball camp at Moravia High School Sunday afternoon. Bouie will teach the second half of the camp next Sunday and will also be speaking at the basketball team's year-end dinner.
Former Syracuse basketball player Roosevelt Bouie catches a pass while guarded by Moravia senior Kurt Berry during a basketball camp at Moravia High School Sunday afternoon. Bouie will teach the second half of the camp next Sunday and will also be speaking at the basketball team's year-end dinner.
Back in March, while repairing the clapper on the bell at the Sterling Center Church, the 72-year-old Fair Haven resident suddenly realized that the bells that once called us to work, celebrated births and mourned a loss among us, simply don't ring anymore.
“I realized that we're losing the sound of our bells,” he said. “Who's ever heard any except a church bell?”
A member of the Sterling Historical Society, Osterhaudt started photographing and recording the sound of all the bells he could find in the area. He climbed the bell tower of the Red Creek Union Academy to record its 1865 brass and copper bell, clanged the brass fire bell in his backyard and captured the sound of friendly chatter above the low, full voice of the Red Creek Community Church bell, ringing on a recent Sunday morning.
When he plays his recordings, he laughs at his own enthusiasm.
“I love bells!” he says half-mockingly.
“You're a belliphile!” accuses his wife, Barbara, with a chuckle.
For Osterhaudt, a retired high school science teacher, bells are more than just interesting noisemakers. He is fascinated by the physics of a bell, whose unique shape creates sound in ever-increasing waves. Regular variations in the thickness of the bell, Osterhaudt says, makes it ring in harmonic thirds, giving birth to the complimentary tones you hear even after the clapper stops.
Leaning back in his antique rocker sipping a glass of fruity herbal iced tea, he muses about the long history of bells from their musical beginnings in China almost a thousand years before Christ to their religious significance in European life.
In our country, bells were commonly used in schools, an association that Osterhaudt says triggers some early memories. Growing up on a farm near Schenectady, he attended a one-room schoolhouse with a pot-bellied stove in the middle and a hand bell on the teacher's desk.
“I was a bad boy. I spent more time out in the cloak room up against the wall than probably any other four people in that school,” he said. “I always wished that I could have been the nice little boy or girl because (the teacher) let boys and girls ring the hand bell for recess. Boy, I really wanted to ring that bell, but I never even came close. I didn't even get to touch that bell!”
Years later, the little schoolhouse closed, and Osterhaudt's father, president of the New York State School Board Association, was presented with the little school bell to thank him for his work on behalf of centralization.
“I could take that bell out and ring that baby and think of Mrs. Twilinger who never even let me touch the bell,” he said laughing. “Take that, Mrs. Twilinger!”
In the process of recording the area's bells, Osterhaudt made an exciting discovery for those who grew up in Fair Haven. In the back of a friend's repair shop across the street from the site of the old elementary school, Osterhaudt found the long-lost Fair Haven school bell.
“I remember seeing the bell, and I was thrilled. The word is just thrilled,” he said.
His excitement grew, moments later when he rang it for the first time.
“I wanged it good so I could hear it,” he said. “Man, what a voice.”
The 20-inch iron alloy bell is all that remains of the two-story brick school on Lake Street that served the children of Fair Haven from 1899 until 1973, when it was torn down to make room for a trailer park.
Osterhaudt donated the bell to the village and is building a cupola he plans to mount atop the community bandstand for a dedication ceremony on Memorial Day.
For local resident Lezlianne Parsons, 48, hearing the bell again will bring back fond memories of growing up in the quiet lakeside community in the late 1960s.
Every morning, Parsons walked to school with the five kids from Victory Street, and a couple of their dogs, too. Many days, her family's yellow lab mix, Boffer, was there waiting for her when she came out of school at the end of the day. The sound of the school bell is part of the fabric of those days.
“Even though elementary school is such a small part of our lives, it holds the strongest memory,” she said. “The smell of the school, the sounds, the lunch, it holds such a sweet memory for us. So to have that bell. ... it's an emblem I guess of those special times in our lives.”
If you go
What: “The Voices of our Bells” presented by Matt Osterhaudt
When: 7 p.m. Monday, May 19
Where: Little Red School House, 1294 State Route 104A, Sterling
To learn more: Contact Don Richardson, president of the Little Red School House Historical Association, at 947-6461
“I realized that we're losing the sound of our bells,” he said. “Who's ever heard any except a church bell?”
A member of the Sterling Historical Society, Osterhaudt started photographing and recording the sound of all the bells he could find in the area. He climbed the bell tower of the Red Creek Union Academy to record its 1865 brass and copper bell, clanged the brass fire bell in his backyard and captured the sound of friendly chatter above the low, full voice of the Red Creek Community Church bell, ringing on a recent Sunday morning.
When he plays his recordings, he laughs at his own enthusiasm.
“I love bells!” he says half-mockingly.
“You're a belliphile!” accuses his wife, Barbara, with a chuckle.
For Osterhaudt, a retired high school science teacher, bells are more than just interesting noisemakers. He is fascinated by the physics of a bell, whose unique shape creates sound in ever-increasing waves. Regular variations in the thickness of the bell, Osterhaudt says, makes it ring in harmonic thirds, giving birth to the complimentary tones you hear even after the clapper stops.
Leaning back in his antique rocker sipping a glass of fruity herbal iced tea, he muses about the long history of bells from their musical beginnings in China almost a thousand years before Christ to their religious significance in European life.
In our country, bells were commonly used in schools, an association that Osterhaudt says triggers some early memories. Growing up on a farm near Schenectady, he attended a one-room schoolhouse with a pot-bellied stove in the middle and a hand bell on the teacher's desk.
“I was a bad boy. I spent more time out in the cloak room up against the wall than probably any other four people in that school,” he said. “I always wished that I could have been the nice little boy or girl because (the teacher) let boys and girls ring the hand bell for recess. Boy, I really wanted to ring that bell, but I never even came close. I didn't even get to touch that bell!”
Years later, the little schoolhouse closed, and Osterhaudt's father, president of the New York State School Board Association, was presented with the little school bell to thank him for his work on behalf of centralization.
“I could take that bell out and ring that baby and think of Mrs. Twilinger who never even let me touch the bell,” he said laughing. “Take that, Mrs. Twilinger!”
In the process of recording the area's bells, Osterhaudt made an exciting discovery for those who grew up in Fair Haven. In the back of a friend's repair shop across the street from the site of the old elementary school, Osterhaudt found the long-lost Fair Haven school bell.
“I remember seeing the bell, and I was thrilled. The word is just thrilled,” he said.
His excitement grew, moments later when he rang it for the first time.
“I wanged it good so I could hear it,” he said. “Man, what a voice.”
The 20-inch iron alloy bell is all that remains of the two-story brick school on Lake Street that served the children of Fair Haven from 1899 until 1973, when it was torn down to make room for a trailer park.
Osterhaudt donated the bell to the village and is building a cupola he plans to mount atop the community bandstand for a dedication ceremony on Memorial Day.
For local resident Lezlianne Parsons, 48, hearing the bell again will bring back fond memories of growing up in the quiet lakeside community in the late 1960s.
Every morning, Parsons walked to school with the five kids from Victory Street, and a couple of their dogs, too. Many days, her family's yellow lab mix, Boffer, was there waiting for her when she came out of school at the end of the day. The sound of the school bell is part of the fabric of those days.
“Even though elementary school is such a small part of our lives, it holds the strongest memory,” she said. “The smell of the school, the sounds, the lunch, it holds such a sweet memory for us. So to have that bell. ... it's an emblem I guess of those special times in our lives.”
If you go
What: “The Voices of our Bells” presented by Matt Osterhaudt
When: 7 p.m. Monday, May 19
Where: Little Red School House, 1294 State Route 104A, Sterling
To learn more: Contact Don Richardson, president of the Little Red School House Historical Association, at 947-6461
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