Editor, News-Register:

The announcement of the cancellation of the Wheeling Winter Viennese Ball is met with great disappointment among many. Sometimes, the ball goers embraced a winter night filled with crisp, cold, biting north winds and fresh snowfall.

A Winter Wonderland: a true Vienna winter atmosphere.

The decorated Glessner Auditorium red carpet world, the scent of beautiful fresh cut flowers that took the onlookers dressed to the nines to the magical time of the House of Strauss, as the young cotillion members who had spent countless hours in organized workshops and dance classes learning the steps for this very night now were presented in a feature dance, with a slight pink blush set against the beautiful young ladies’ white gowns and young gentleman in black tails swirling on the dance floor to composer Johann Strauss II’s melodies of famous waltzes. Parents and grandparents bursting with pride, and all who were blessed to listen to “The Blue Danube.”

I have enjoyed reading about it for most of the past 44 years, rushing to the newsstand the next morning, and in more recent years, also watching clips of the grand evening on YouTube.

Many young Cinderella readers wonder how he or she could ever be invited to such a glamorous night. While grandmothers who had traveled Europe with Rick Steves or grandfathers with Patton’s 3rd Army during World War II recalled the great cities of Austria.

“The Congress Dances” is a 1984 history book by Susan Mary Alsop that details the Viennese Court sleigh ride in Schonbrunn during the Congress of Vienna on Jan. 22, 1815. This is my heritage that is once again being pushed aside.

The problem, I believe, is the people who think it costs too much have been blinded by the glittering candlelit chandeliers of privilege and do not appreciate the advantage they have been given. They fail to see all the young girls who toil cleaning the fireplaces and sleeping among the ashes and cinders. Do you realize how young girls would like to have this opportunity?

From the home of Reggie Ann, I remain Cinderella Chimney Sweep.

Michael Traubert

Wellsburg