Dowager Julia A. (Landbach) Hagenbuch
If you have ever watched a Marx Brothers’ film, then you are probably familiar with the character of the dowager—a wealthy widow. In many of the Marx Brothers’ films, the dowager was portrayed by...
Tagged: Milton
Picture Perfect: Family in Photos
The Hagenbuch photo archives are massive. I have drawers of photos. I have boxes of photos, and I have folders filled with photos. Some are filed by family, but many are stored as a...
Saving Recipes: Harold Sechler and the Chef Boyardee Story
Harold F. Sechler (b. 1923, d. 2018), my first cousin twice removed, saved recipes. He cut them from newspapers, wrote them on scraps of paper, and held onto promotional recipe booklets. His collection of...
What’s in a Bible?
What’s in a Bible? I mean this literally. If you open up a Bible, what might you find inside? In June my father, Mark, and I were going through several boxes of family ephemera....
The Letter Archives
I like writing letters and receiving letters. It’s a shame that we’ve lost the art of letter-writing and saving correspondence. –Elizabeth McGovern, actress in Downton Abbey. Andrew and I often refer to the Hagenbuch...
Let’s Party Like It’s January 1, 1897!
I possess this imagination that can take me back to past times and places and wonder what may have transpired. I am not a science fiction/futurist type of fellow. Since a child I have...
Ghost Stories from Childhood
My eldest son, William, is fascinated with ghosts, and not just because of Halloween. His ghoulish obsession actually began last year when he played with some old Ghostbusters toys, and grew after his great...
Homer Hagenbuch’s Scrapbook, Part 1
Sometime before 2005 my father, Homer Hagenbuch’s (b. 1916), sister, Ellen Hagenbuch (b. 1926), presented him with a scrapbook filled with a few photos, lots of newspaper clippings, and several old postcards that their...
School Picture Day
An important day in the calendar of public school life was “picture day.” Having taught elementary school and serving as an elementary principal, all told for 35 years, that special day was filled with...
Mangoes and Molasses, Or Maybe Not!
Here is a riddle: When is a mango not a mango and a bottle of molasses something else entirely? Earlier this month, I was on a video call with my good friend, Clint Shearer,...
