We get a chance to meet people and cultivate friendships over the years.  Sometimes we disagree but always we remain friends.

            If not, then maybe the friendship was never real to begin with.

            When you have the opportunity to begin a friendship with a teacher, who made an impact on your life, you remember them.

            When you have the wonderful opportunity to renew that friendship later in life it is great to have the memories from school to reflect upon and share.

            Then, to have that same friend contribute to your life for 33 more years is exhilarating.

            Such was Carl Arner.

            Yes, Carl was a teacher; a school Guidance Counselor to be exact.  But, throughout the years he was just as much a student as he was a teacher.

            He never stopped learning about his Pennsylvania-German heritage and he never stopped sharing his knowledge with others.

            The dialect, customs, food, history, occupations, and more.  He shared it all with everyone who wanted to learn about it.

            Carl was so much more.  Active in his church and community, he was known by many and involved in so many opportunities to remind the old of their heritage and teach the young about a past that is slowly disappearing.

            I was privileged to know Carl for than sixty-years.  He was a caring and giving individual with a wonderful sense of humor.  The number of readers who took the time to write a note of "thanks" for the Schnitzelbonk column he penned for more than three decades was a tribute to his dedication to the written word – in the Pennsylfawnish-Dietsche dialect.  The number of people who ran into him at the Kutztown Fair, Fersommlings, church, senior living communities and other places who thanked Carl for his preservation of a way of life must have blanketed him with a personal satisfaction of a job well done.

            When Carl moved away from Hereford Township, I missed our weekly in-person talks.  But, the telephone and occasional visits helped to hold that link and keep our talks alive.

            He will be missed.

            Next week, we will publish Carl's final Schnitzlebonk column.

            With that, we will say a final farewell to a good friend, an accomplished writer, a learned advisor, and an all-around good person.

            Throughout your life, make and keep good friends.