Check out Elsa Carenbauer’s blog/website at
Elsa is Michael Carenbauer’s daughter and this is her digital sketchbook. Almost every day there is a new drawing – visual, witty puns and observations.
Add the link to your Google reader subscription bar like I did!
1900 Kuglens
Here are the young Kuglens – for most of us, our Grandparents – out side the house in North Wheeling. I can’t tell if they are in the front of the house or the back of the house, but I am sure someone will look at it and be able to tell.
While Mom was in Wheeling last week, George Carenbauer took her to Historic North Wheeling and the visited the house. For those of you who don’t know, George is my mom’s nephew, an attorney in Charleston W VA, and the man who keeps unearthing information about the Kuglens in Wheeling. He discovered that the house is part of the Historic North Wheeling, and that “…629 ½ Market Street, circa 1885 – Samuel Kuglen, who built 629 ½ , was a noted businessman in Wheeling.He was a builder of boilers for steamboats among other products manufactured by the firm of Duffield & Kuglen. The house is Greek Revival in style, with much of the original fabric remaining. There is a wide frieze at the cornice with sodillions and dentils, a gable dormer with closed pediment, and fluted columns at the windows. The pediment is filled with a sunburst design. Lintels and sills are stone and the building is brick with a stone foundation. All windows have operable shutters.” While he was with mom, ”We were at an antique store yesterday, where the shopkeeper is a steamboat buff and has written 2 books on steamboat manufacturing in Wheeling. He said he believes Kuglen & Duffield was a subcontractor to Phillips (sic) the major manufacturer, which had its shipyard at 6th street on the Ohio Rive, only 2 blocks down from the house.” I remember hearing when I was little the legend of Sam Kuglen, who shuttled the capital of West Virginia on a steamboat back and forth on the river (I am guessing the Allegheny) during the Civil War. Is this the man or is he one more generation removed?
Here are some up close photos of the house taken last week:
Kuglen House backyard
Steps leading to the back door of the Kuglen house
The door to nowhere
A view of the street
629 1/2 !!
Joan and Dick in front of the Kuglen house
I couldn’t think of enough superlatives to thank George for doing this – taking the photos, taking Mom and Dick down to the house and showing it to them, and gathering the information. I went to the dictionary and looked under
AWESOME
and this is what I found :
Thanks George – we think you are the best!
As I am sure you are all aware, Mom, Joan, Grandma, Aunt Joanie is traveling with Dick across the country and stopping at places that are important to each of them. Dick is taking pictures of Mom and relatives for me and emailing me a few. I just got a small batch, so I thought I would try and keep you all current, since she is headed to Wheeling soon (I hope she has not already been there!) . Here is some of what she wrote: “We have seen some wonderful things like the St. Louis arch, the Rocky Mountains and the vast plains of Kansas, Indiana and Missouri. We experienced some extreme heat mostly in the mojave desert (113 degrees) and rain and thunder and lightning. We had a good rain here in New York which cooled it down to a pleasant 82 degrees.” They are headed to Wheeling on Friday to visit Eddie, Ellen and all the other Carenbauers.
then I decided to get a little creative, so bear with me. Before I went to Erich’s wedding in Maine, I went to San Diego and Mom and I sat around for an afternoon going through boxes of pictures. Now I can give you all a little context.
Here is Mom and Uncle Michael as little children with Grandma Greene.
Here they are playing in the front yard – look at the tricycles! They don’t make them like this any more.
Many of the photos of Michael are out of focus. I assume it is because he is always moving! The next picture is when they are in high school. Check out the bobby sox!
Joan and Michael Greene
Here’s a picture of Uncle Michael at Grandma Greene’s 80th birthday party in Oglebay Park in 1970. (I told you I found lots of pictures!)
Mike Greene in Oglebay Park
Here they are in Kansas City in the last few days. Notice that the pose is quite like the high school pose, except for the bobby sox.
Joan Kuglen and Michael Greene
Here’s another picture of Michael at his place in KC.
Mike Greene
Here is a picture of Mom and Michael with Denis Greene and his family in the kitchen in Kansas City. They are all just beautiful. Honestly, you can see the love around the table. They all look so happy! From left to right: Uncle Michael, Denis, Danny, Joan, Kelly Ann, Mary Grace, Jenny (Denis’s wife) and John. Thanks Dick, for taking a great picture!
Finally, I mentioned in an earlier post that we Kuglen cousins loved and looked up to our Carenbauer cousins, and that when George came to spend the summer with us in the early sixties, how much we loved having him stay with us. Well, as I was going through all those old pictures, I found this one – this for you George! – and it offers photographic evidence of what how great he was with us when we were younger. Terry is on the left, George is holding Joanie, Maribeth is in the center and I am on the right.
Terry, George with Joanie, Maribeth and Sam
Joan is on her way to Wheeling, among other places, and she and Dick are taking a slow drive across the country, stopping in places that I am calling “destinations,” places like Denver, Kansas City, to see the KC Greenes, and Wheeling. They have a lease on a Sonata, but there is only 5000 miles on the car, so they decided to mosey across the country and put some miles on the car. I asked them to send me pictures and keep me up-to-date, so here is a picture of Mom (I call her mom, you can call her Aunt Joan, Joanie, or anything else you like) in a place called Fort Cove, in Cove Creek, UT.
MOM – if you are reading this, I now have an assignment for you and Dick once you get to Wheeling. I know you have plans to spend your time there visiting with Eddie, Ellen, Carl, and the rest of the Carenbauers, but I want you to go to 629 1/2 Market Street in the North Wheeling Historic District BECAUSE (and this is pretty exciting to all the KUGLENS out there…) George Carenbauer sent me a link to a document about Samuel Kuglen ca. 1885.
We want to see pictures!
Here’s the link, and the piece of info is on page 18 - http://www.wvculture.org/shpo/nr/pdf/ohio/88002693.pdf
BUT
Here’s what it says:
“629 ½ Market Street, circa 1885 – Samuel Kuglen, who built 629 ½ , was a noted businessman in Wheeling. He was a builder of boilers for steamboats among other products manufactured by the firm of Duffield & Kuglen. The house is Greek Revival in style, with much of the original fabric remaining. There is a wide frieze at the cornice with sodillions and dentils, a gable dormer with closed pediment, and fluted columns at the windows. The pediment is filled with a sunburst design. Lintels and sills are stone and the building is brick with a stone foundation. All windows have operable shutters.”
I don’t know about you, but I want to see if I can figure out what a sodillion looks like, along with dentils, dormers and lintels. I teach English, as you know, and you have to use and see the words at least 8 times before they begin to become a part of your vocabulary. I know what a gable is because I visited The House of the Seven Gables while I was in New England! (What would I have seen if Hawthorne had written a book called The House of the Seven Sodillions?) Who knew architecture had such specific vocabulary?
I have about 40 first cousins – 13 on my mom’s side and 26 (I think…) on my dad’s side of the family. I can’t even begin to factor in the number of first cousins once removed – that is, the children of my first cousins – or the cousins of my parents – Craig Kuglen, for example. or Lawrence Harkleroad. I am almost afraid to ask if Mom has any first cousins, but I am pretty sure she does somewhere in West Virginia or the Ohio Valley. And then there are the nieces and nephews – I have 10, all of whom, I hope, look in regularly to see what is happening. Seeing all the Carenbauers in all their incarnations last week was truly an awesome experience for me. I am familiar with most of my Kuglen cousins and see most of them on a semi-regular basis, the two exceptions being Joe Weisen (although Joe gave me his email address a few weeks ago – SCORE one for Kuglen.com) and Michael MacDonald, Gordon and Maureen’s brother and Rory’s uncle, who I hope has somehow gotten the blog link and checked us out. (Gordon mentioned Michael was coming to New Hampshire for a visit, so I am hoping Michael takes a look at the blog while visiting Gordon). I see my Greene cousins much less frequently, although Teresa loves coming to San Diego with Paul and her two daughters to visit mom; someone always makes a point to have a get together when the Toplaks visit San Diego. In true family style, while I was visiting one set of Greene cousins last week in Maine on July 3rd for Erich’s wedding, my sister KK was throwing a little party at her place in Poway for a different set of Greene – Teresa, Paul, Eva and Tessa. So far, it has been a good summer for people coming together and connecting.
Then there is the “gee, it’s a small world after all….” – hearing from both Gordon MacDonald and Christine Hamm that Gordon had interviewed Klaus Hamm for a job a Nixon/Peabody in New Hampshire a few years back – Gordon from the Kuglen side of my family and Klaus from the Greene side of the family (You have Sam and Joan and the six kids in common!), and that Gordon and Christine both know the other’s reputation in New Hampshire politics, but have yet to meet (which has to change soon!). Is it random connectedness or are there just so many offspring of BomBom and Grandpap and Grandma and Grandpa Greene that we are taking over – New Hampshire, at least?
It’s easy to get the Kuglens together – all anyone has to do is say “Party!” and easily 50 people show up. Gordon even asked if there was anything coming up! I am not the person to do it, but a Greene party (“Greene party,” – get it?) would be AWESOMELY AWESOME. Is it even possible? Is anyone even interested?
Here is a picture of Joan with the Las Vegas Greenes – they are all in the picture, except Paul – Joan, Christina, Teresa with Tessa on her lap, Eva, and Aaron.
Aunt Joan with the Vegas Greenes
Finally, here is a picture of Oly Kuglen, with a paycheck for $100.00 she earned for writing – she was in a focus group giving ideas for a TV show called “Sonny With a Chance.” (if they use her ideas I hope she gets residuals) I think she has made more money as a writer than I have so far this year. . . good for her!!
Olympia scores as a writer!
And for all you Kuglens out there – I have some AWESOME Kuglen stuff coming up. Stay tuned. . .
As my older sister, KK, can attest, when we were little, the Carenbauers were held up to us from an early age as the epitome of perfect children, who ate dinner every night at a perfectly appointed table with Bone China and heirloom silverware, never spilled a drop of milk or food on their perfectly creased trousers and crinoline petticoats, and had perfectly intelligent dinner conversations, punctuating every sentence with a “yes, please,” “no, thank you,” “may I. . . ” or “of course, mother, whatever you say.” We believed in these mythical creatures and couldn’t believe that we were actually related to such quintessential children. And they were older than us – they’d had practice, and obviously perfected, faultless behavior.
When George and Ellen visited us in California at various moments of our youth and adolescence, we WORSHIPED them. No matter what they did, they were role models for us – they were older, they had already lived through the experiences we only heard about on the evening news (or our parents), like hippies, the Beatles, astronauts (Mercury and Gemini), Grandma Greene, Oglebay Park, McCullough’s Leap, The Mount, Georgetown and San Francisco. They went out on DATES. And they were as perfect as we had been promised. Ellen was gorgeous. George was a perfect young gentleman, who held KK’s hand as the rode all the rides at Disneyland. Michael helped KK and me get a compliment (our first) from the waitress at our neighborhood pizza parlor when we took him alone, without our parents. Carl never made the trip out west to visit us on his own, so we worshiped him from afar. Christine was in the rarified air, having made the transition from perfect child to perfect adult.
And so, as I headed east to attend the wedding of decade (at least to me), this image of perfection is what was stuck in my 54 year old brain. I was nervous – I knew I had never achieved the state of perfection that had been dogging me since my childhood. (Although I did notice that I am now taller than all of them) And here I was, about to meet them all, teeming with perfection. I mean, really, the last time I had probably seen most of my Carenbauer cousins together had been at Grandma Greene’s 80th birthday in 1970 – when they were all at their collective height of coolness.
They are all still so. . .cool. I still look at them with my 5 year old, 8 year old, 15 year old eyes. They are the cool cousins, still perfect, still gorgeous, still the perfect gentlemen, gracious and welcoming and most importantly, fun.
I just had a blast. I got to sing with Christine (and found out my mother had a recording of Annie Get Your Gun that she listened to with Chris) while Michael played the guitar! I got to to take Ellen to Hannaford’s for ketchup and mustard and horseradish! I got to talk to George about swimming! (remember: 20 second intervals and hand paddles will strengthen your stroke) Carl invited me to his room for beer!
PERFECT!
Here they are:
Carl
Georgie boy
Michael and Laura
Sam and Ellen
First of all, I’ve been waiting for this day for a loooooooooooong time – the chance to do some partying with my Carenbauer coiusins under the happiest of circumstances – Erich’s wedding to Esther Moran.
BUT
Here’s what I had for lunch – a lobster roll. Yes! I ate more lobster today than I have in the last, oh, 10 years. And I loved every bite. And it tasted as good as it looks – making this kind of sandwich is simple when you pulled it out of the water an hour ago!
Now onto the REAL fun! (Once again I was remiss in taking pictures, but I will take them at the wedding, I promise!) The grounds were spectacular (Once again, the superlatives all seem inadequate to capture my experience). The quintessential Maine yard, complete with signal flags and a dock on the river. The day was PERFECT – the weather was warm, the breeze ever-so-slight and the entire scene glistened like a polished gemstone.
As perfect and dazzling as the scenery was, the real thrill was seeing and having the opportunity to talk to my Carenbauer cousins, George, Carl and Christine and their families. Since I haven’t seen them for a while, I immediately looked for familiarity – like I did with Gordon. I recognized my mother in Christine, and saw my brother John and cousin Denis Greene in Carl’s face. George and I share freckled hands and arms. (Is it possible for us to have a Greene reunion – what a trip it would be to see all these people in the same place in the same way I am able to see my Kuglen cousins) I felt so good just sseeing them and being welcomed into their family celebration. Erich Hamm is just a big blob of happiness, so happy that all these people are there for his wedding – me included. Georgie boy has 3 lovely girls, Tess, Mary and Annie – each one a gem – and Carl’s daughter Jule is another jewel. We’re just gettting to know each other, but WOW, I had a great time.
Tess Carenbauer
Annie and Mary Greene Carenbauer
Jule Carenbauer
Once everyone left, Christine and her boyfriend, Leroy Anderson (not the composer) began telling me about Hopkington New Hampshire, where Chris lives, and an amazing production of Our Town she did back in 1990, in which Erich played George Gibbs. I didn’t know any of this – Christine’s involvement with the play, which is modeled after the town of Hopkington (where she lives), and the site specific staging of the play in which the characters are in the places Thornton Wilder is writing about. The conversation was, for me, thrilling and immediate and creative and why didn’t I know about it when it was happening? Christine and Leroy are talking to me about the play with a remarkable depth of knowledge that can only come from living in the place where the action of the play takes place. HOW COOL!!!
Then as I was driving home I thought about Erich and his wedding and the characters of Emily and George in the play, and what Emily talks about as she sits in graveyard in Act III, and paying attention to every small detail because those details are what makes life full and complete. Here I was having a passionate conversation with my cousin who I never see about a revloutionary piece of American Theatre, and the point of the play echoes the very action of the evening for me – experiencing an intensely intimate and revealing conversation with this cousin about the commonality of our experience – our mothers, our uncles, our cousins, the odd intersections of connections (Gordon knows of Christine and vice versa) and coming together to celebrate our connections. To paraphrase Wilder: You don’t realize how much the little things of life – things you did not notice before – really matter.
I heard from Rory – sounds like he is doing well and getting settled in.
Here’s what he writes:
Being at Berkeley has been extraordinary. I would say that so far I’ve
spent about 95% of my time here partying, exploring the Bay Area, hanging
out with new friends, and eating amazing food; the other 5% of the time
I’ve been studying and attending lecture. Of course, the academics here are
particularly intensive and competitive, but nothing I’m not able to
complete successfully. The professor is extremely intelligent and
well-spoken, and I’ve been very impressed with my classmates in the way of
intelligence and character. Interestingly, most people in my dorm building
are international students from France and South Korea. (Naturally, I’ve
been enjoying practicing my French.) Some of the other people on my floor
are visiting students from Columbia, Cornell, and Harvard who all tell me
they’d love to come to Berkeley as full-time students.
Anyway, I’m attaching a photo of me and some of my new friends at the top
of Sather Tower.
Rory and friends at Cal
I am leaving a red eye tomorrow night and arrive in Boston EARLY Tuesday morning. I am excited and looking forward to connecting with everyone back in New England. I am bringing the laptop and the camera, so I will be taking LOTS of pictures and I am going to try and make a few blog entries while I am back there (you know, those late nights, when it is 11 pm in New England and I am still at 8 pm California time!) Does Booth Bay have the internet yet?
I get to see cousins from both the Kuglen and Greene sides of the family, so just to let you know. . . I will be taking pictures of you and disseminating them, so start working on your smiles! I have to figure out how to work the timer on the camera so I can jump into some of the shots.
I am hoping to visit the Emily Dickinson house in Amherst and possibly see Walden Pond, but I don’t know if it is drivable in a day or two. Of course, I am also hoping to LIVE FREE OR DIE! in New Hampshire.
If I get stopped by the NH Highway Patrol, and they ask me why I am speeding, can I say “I am living free?”
Next Monday night I am taking a red eye to Boston to begin my week in New England, the highlight attending Erich Hamm’s wedding and hanging out with the Carenbauers for the Fourth of July.
Great great Grandpa William Henry Greene and Grandma look suspicious.
Grandma Greene sent her love back in 1943, and looks like she might approve, but with reservations. I am sure she wishes she could be there.
I missed hanging out with Christine and George when they were kids.
Mom visited the Carenbauers often, but I was never around. . .
Here’s a picture of a time, back in 1955, when I had my first chance to really party down with the Greenes and Carenbauers in Wheeling. It looks like everyone was there – all the Carenbauers, Uncle Michael and Aunt Biz with young Mike Greene, Mom and KK (Uncle Michael is holding KK). I was there, but according to mom the photographic record is missing because I was sleeping! (Dad took the picture)
So, next week will be the first ime in a looooooong time that I get to really ROCK with the Carenbauers.
I am starting to get excited…………..
Zach (Joanie’s son) sent me some pictures from his recent trip to the Northwest and asked me to create a post for him. I’ll let Zach and the pictures do the talking.
Zach: Here are some pics from my first day in Seattle. I have too many to narrow it down. I trust you to cut it all the pics I send you to a more digestible blog.
These pictures are from the Sasquatch Festival, which is a huge 3 day music festival at the Gorge Amphitheater in George Washington (yes just like the president). It was a beautiful setting to watch some amazing shows. That gorgeous blond at the Gorge in George is my girlfriend Nicolette.
These pics are from Jakes which has been around for over 100 years. I ordered the crayfish which was a new experience, but not all that different from lobster or crab. We also walked around Washington Park which has a huge rose garden, Japanese Garden, Holocaust Memorial and much more I’m sure we didn’t see.
We were completely amazed by the food carts in Portland. They had amazing, diverse, restaurant quality food for fast food prices. This day we also traveled along the Hood River and up around Mt. Hood. We were not able to get any good pics of Mt. Hood due to clouds. The last pic is of some of the best sushi I ever had. So delicious it stands out as a highlight of my trip. I love food if you can’t tell.
A couple pics from our final day. The Hawthorne Bridge and our trip to the airport on Portland’s amazing public transit system (which is free in the metro Portland area). Overall we had an amazing time. Seattle was beautiful but we found the people to be a little uppity and rude for our San Diego mentalities. On the other hand, while Portland was smaller and less developed, everyone was very friendly and welcoming. In a lot of ways it reminded me of San Diego and Nicolette (from Michigan) described it as the best aspects of San Diego and the Mid West.
Powered by WordPress