Cumberland Times-News
Dreams
inspire holiday book
Grandson pens thoughts of 1918 Christmas
Editor’s note: Anna (Beal) Snyder, heroine of “The Golden Ring,” a book written by her grandson John Snyder, died Monday morning just a few days after she and John provided an interview for this article.
LAVALE – A conversation with his grandmother a few years ago inspired one Cumberland native to write a new Christmas book that has been published just in time for the holidays.
John Snyder got the idea for his book “The Golden Ring”
three years ago after his grandmother, Anna Snyder of LaVale, related the story
of a remarkable Christmas in her hometown of Meyersdale, PA.
“I really like family history,” said John. “So I brought a tape recorder and asked her to tell me about her most memorable experience.”
The result is an inspirational story taken from his grandmother’s childhood in 1918 when, a few days before Christmas, 9- year-old Anna and her father Joseph, an engineer on the B&O Railroad, begin experiencing a series of shared dreams. Their search for the meaning of these visions leads them into an emotional and bonding Christmas experience that forever changes their feelings toward the holiday and each other.
Anna explained one reason for her grandson’s selection of the title, “The Golden Ring.”
“Mother has three girls,” she said. “And father got each of us a ring one Christmas. He slipped them on our fingers while we were sleeping. I was 4 years old at the time.
“We always had fried oysters on Christmas morning – Dad like them a lot,” she recalled. “My mother was a good cook.”
As the family gathered for breakfast her father asked Anna if she noticed anything different about herself. It took a while, but she finally saw the ring on her finger. “I said, “Oh, Dad, I got a little ring! I just love it,” said Anna.
Anna Beal was born and raised in Meyersdale with two sisters and three brothers, who are also characters in the book, along with their mother, Elda.
Anna graduated from Meyersdale High School and later married Howard Snyder who, like her father, was a railroad engineer. The Snyders spent 58 years togethers, raised three sons and eventually moved to LaVale, where Howard died a few years ago.
“Families don’t get together like when I was young.” Said Anna, who celebrated her 90th birthday last April. “We had nice Christmases- not like it is today. Now we visit with each other, but not nearly as much as we used to.”
“I have a lot of good memories, we did lots of things.” She recalls. “My brothers decorated the porch, which wasn’t so easy to do back then. We had a nice tree, too. You could go into the woods then and cut your own tree. And mother always made root beer and a big batch of cookies in a huge glass jar.”
Anna said she continues the family traditions by visiting with her sons every Christmas, but acknowledges that times have changed.
“People move so much today,” said John. “The kids just don’t get to know their grandparents like I did. My kids are the same way, I spent a lot of time here when I was young, but later I moved away.” John now owns a public relations firm in Gambrills, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.
“Christmas. It is truly the most inspiring of holidays. It evokes in all of us an abundance of sentiments and emotions,” he writes in the book’s prologue. “For a brief period in our ordinarily frenzied lives, it provides us a reason to give pause and reflect upon life, to consider where we have been, and where we are going.”
“The Golden Ring” is being released on a limited basis this Christmas, with plans for national distribution next year, and possibly a movie, according to John. The book is available locally at The Book Center, 15-17 North Center St., Cumberland, and Main Street Books, 10 East Main St., Frostburg. It can also, be found on Amazon.com, At Baltimore and Washington area Borders Books and Music, as well as in Christian and independent book stores.
In addition the book can be ordered via the Internet at www.thegoldenring.com.
John Snyder will conduct book signings on Friday at Main Street Books in Frostburg from 10 a.m. to noon, and at The Book Center in Cumberland from 1 to 3 p.m.
Area residents can also meet John on Saturday from 11a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at a table in the County Club Mall, LaVale.