Dandelions on 240 North

Dandelions on 240 North is just a story. It came from a combination of fabrications and actual events that occurred over the years while we spent summers at the lake. It is a book for young people in some ways and a book for adults too. I wrote it with the intention of entertaining the readers. But I also hoped that the readers would enjoy experiencing the innocent approach that children take towards the unique people around them. The neighbors down the road at the lake confuse the nine-year old Jamie. One has been labeled a lesbian because she lived with another lady for nineteen years and was never married before. Another neighbor has been called a killer. He uses his shotgun to kill the moles in his yard. Jamie struggles to understand these people. As the summer passes, she begins to form her own opinions about these people. In the novel, Jamie is the one who shows us how to be more tolerant, but it isn't easy for her. The dog Dunker is simply a stray dog that happens to add to the emotions that are so plentiful among the neighbors. Humor, anger, hatred, sorrow, and love all come to 240 North on the back of this stray dog. Dunker is the tool that Jamie uses unknowingly to shape her values. Biography David Schnieders was almost born in a taxicab en route to the hospital in Indianapolis. His mother said she still had her shoes on when he showed up. He was the third son and he would be one of six children. His father was an independent insurance agent and his mother stayed home to referee the children, cook, do homework and laundry, clean house, and drive to practices, doctors' appointments, and the emergency room. A Catholic family, the children all went to Catholic grade schools andhigh schools. In grade school Schnieders was not much of an athlete despite the efforts of his father and the examples of his older brothers. David was content to play in the basement with his toy town and train. His next favorite past time was to chase his terrified younger sister around the house with a mounted deer head that was kept in the basement. He tried hard to be good in school when he was young, and he did not like to draw any attention to himself. Attention made him so nervous that one teacher called his mother to see if he was epileptic. By middle school he had become a Boy Scout and learned to enjoy the outdoors and the many overnight campouts. He moved from his basement town out to the basketball court in the backyard. His three-year middle school career netted him a single point, a banked in free throw. Middle school also brought a girlfriend, assigned by the student majority. In ninth grade Schnieders attended a day-time seminary school. A priest who was a good family friend encouraged it and Schnieders's parents were thrilled. Schnieders was not. That lasted a year. He transferred to Cathedral High School, where he spent three years learning some good things and lots of bad habits. It would be those bad habits that led to shortened college experience and a three-year stint in the US Navy. While aboard the USS Schenectady (LST1183), Schnieders traveled the Pacific Ocean and saw much of Southeast Asia. A quick stop in Viet Nam made him a war veteran and allowed him to leave the Navy early with a much-improved attitude toward education. He immediately re-enrolled in college and began his studies to become a teacher. He graduated in 1974 from St. Norbert College in DePere, Wisconsin, with a teaching degree. After teaching a year in Green Bay, Schnieders returned to Indianapolis to teach. A year later married Sue, a teacher who happened to work across the hall from his younger sister. Schnieders started his family a year later with a daughter Jamie, followed by Katie, Mary, and David. After teaching and coaching in parochial middle schools for fifteen years, Schnieders took a position at the Indiana School for the Blind in 1989 as a fifth grade teacher, and he is now working there as a middle school teacher.