Something of interest has happened to me recently that I wanted to share with fellow members of the Onondaga Ski Club. I took on the task of Historian, keeper of all things about the club through the ages. In 2003, the club celebrated its 50^th year, and I wrote a piece about the club’s history that was placed on the club’s web site for the world to view.

The next year I was contacted via email by a photographer from Brooklyn that had come across a painting of a skier done by a Fred Thrane. I had mentioned Fred’s name in the article because he was an early member of the club that did the art work for the first Schuss Boomers back in the fifties. He also did work on the club’s Indian head logo. This dealer found us by searching the Internet using Fred’s name, and up popped our web site. I ended up purchasing the painting (see attached).

While this was going on I received an email note from then club president Scott Severance that he received from a Chris Thrane, Fred’s nephew. He too had spotted his uncle’s name on the club’s web site. I contacted Chris and let him know what was happening. He and his uncle Fred were thrilled that the painting was “coming home” so to speak.

Jump ahead to just recently. I received another email from a book dealer in Chestertown, Maryland that had come across a sketch book in a box of papers he obtained that had Fred’s name on it. Again a search of the Internet led him to our web site and the article. In his note to me, he indicated the sketch book was done in 1944 during the “D” Day allied movement to take back Europe. He wanted this book to get back to Fred if still alive, or his family. I got goose bumps reading his note.

I got a hold of Chris again with the latest news and passed on the book dealers email address so they could “talk” directly. Chris let me know that he too was spooked and would let me know what was happening. He contacted me again with an Internet link to a television station in Vermont near where his uncle now resides. I went there and was moved to tears while watching a short piece they did about Fred for Veteran’s Day. I finally “met” Chris and his uncle Fred, and learned more about the man who was there at the beginning of the Onondaga Ski Club.

The link opens with a short advertisement, then gets to the main event, Fred Thrane and the notebook. http://www.wcax.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?clipId1=3128070

The power of the Internet…….. Michael McCabe