Marian Lang Family Chronicles – Forward

THE FAMILY CHRONICLES

FORWARD

On 4 December 1987, two days before Mom turned seventy. George and I flew to Chicago as a surprise for her birthday. That evening, Jerry and Mari led Mom into the Black Forest restaurant where George and I were waiting. It was immediately evident that the surprise was a great success and that stories of the occasion may be told for years to come. How many years? It would be hard to say since the only family historian of any kind, now seventy, kept all the data in her head.

With that thought in mind, I decided to urge Mom once again to write down her recollections of the family histories and stories of the Lang, Kahles, Quint and other clans as may be appropriate. My latest strategy is to convince her of the magical powers of my word processor which would allow me to be editor and publisher of the chronicles, thus freeing her to concentrate on the task of initial authoring. She could type out any story or historical segment of any family from any time period which happened to move from the long-term archive sector of her brain to the active task sector. After a core dump to hard copy of any logical record of family history data, she would send it to me for entry into my computer system. At appropriate intervals, I will match/merge or otherwise append and/or concatenate like records to assemble the chronicles in correct order.

Wish us luck on this joint venture. It may well be a long haul to completion, but I for one am excited about the thought of recording the family history and publishing it for posterity and the enjoyment of all. During the process, of course, I would welcome comments on my periodic updates and would also expect interested family segments to embellish the core chronicle with their own additions.

Richard F. Lang

December 20, 1987

Dear Mom:

I feel especially near you today as I know you are to me in a very special way. I am cutting out the Vanilla Grentzla, getting them ready to send to George and Dick. I have your cutter that Uncle Karl, your cousin, made for you in his tin smith shop. In a while I will have to put the cookie halves together with the jelly. You really did not like doing that! I never minded. I remember coming home to “do the jelly”. We talked about many things, had tea, and enjoyed our time together.

Susan spent the day with me last week and Jerry joined us for dinner. I made your Kaese Palatschinken for them. I especially wanted to serve something you might have made for them. It followed naturally that we would talk about you. Your grandchildren and your great grandchildren have their own special memories of you, as do I. However, they would like me to try to recall some of the stories you told me about your parents, relatives, your childhood and perhaps even your early married life. So, it seems that I’ve been elected the clan storyteller. I will try my best and ask John to help me.

Love you,

Marian