Back row: Richard Dubs, Wayne Harman and Jack Hoffnagle. Front row: Bonnie Dubs, John and Judy Hoffnagle, Gwen Harman. (Courtesy of Gwen Harman)
Hanover >> Wouldn't it be fun to be able to go back in time -- just for a little while -- and see how your great-great-grandparents lived? And wouldn't it be even better to take some photos to share your time-travel adventure with the world?
Two local sisters brought that concept to life for their family recently in a Memories Recaptured photo shoot which included their 91-year-old father and 87-year-old mother, John and Judy Hoffnagle.
Bonnie Dubs was the mastermind behind the idea of a Memories Recaptured, said her sister Gwen Harman, but the whole family quickly became involved in the process, including the sisters' husbands, Richard Dubs and Wayne Harman.
Other family
The Hoffnagle family used old photos to make new memories in their Memories Recaptured project. (Courtesy of Gwen Harman)
members involved included their brother, Jack Hoffnagle, Dubs' daughter, Karen Dubs, and daughter-in-law Kathryn Dubs.
"About a month ago I really felt an urgency to get this done," Bonnie Dubs said. "It seemed like something was pushing me to do it before it was too late."
The sisters worries that their father's Alzheimers could be a problem during the photo shoot ending up being needless, Harman said, as his entire demeanor brightened throughout the entire event.
"It certainly was a day enjoyed by the entire family, including Dad, whose memories of the past seemed so clear that day," Harman said. "For Dad it was a really good day. He was smiling and laughing the whole time."
Kathryn Dubs, who is a digital graphic designer, edited all the photos, adding things that weren't really there, such as chickens, geese flying over head and even the water spilling out of the wash tub. Kathryn Dubs also created a sepia finish for the photos to give them an old-time look, Harman said.
The initial idea for the photos was born more than 30 years ago, said Bonnie Dubs, when she was investigating her family genealogy. The Hoffnagles had immigrated from Germany
The Hoffnagle family used old photos to make new memories in their Memories Recaptured project. (Courtesy of Gwen Harman)
in the mid-1800s and built a homestead in the tiny hamlet of Larue, near Glen Rock.
In the early 1980s, Dubs had visited the family homestead, which was still owned by Arthur Hoffnagle, a distant cousin whose grandfather was the brother of her grandfather. During her visit, Arthur Hoffnagle gave Dubs copies of photos, probably taken in the 1850s, of the then newly built homestead and family members outside the home.
That visit to the homestead and the photos were put to the back of her mind for decades as life went on, Dubs said, but about a year ago she came across the pictures again.
"First I laughed that they looked like a bunch of hillbillies," Dubs said. "But then I thought we could make this into a real memory of family by re-enacting scenes of the photos together."
The plan was to get old-fashioned outfits, some primitive props, and go to the old homestead with her parents and extended family and take photos that would look like they were actually from the mid-1800s.
But that plan was brought to a halt when Dubs discovered that the homestead's farmhouse roof had caved in several years ago and the entire house had been razed. Only the barns remained, structures that had only been background in the original pictures.
"I was so disappointed," Dubs said. "My father has health issues and I felt an urgency to get this done this summer if we wanted to get it done at all."
She and her husband got in their car and started driving around the New Oxford area, searching for another site for the photo shoot. Her husband remembered an old vacant home in the area that would be perfect, Harmon said, but they didn't know the owner well.
The couple drove to the home of the farmer who owns the property and met him coming in from the field on his tractor. They explained their idea of having Gwen's parents -- particularly her father, who has Alzheimer's disease -- in the photos and the property owner's quick response surprised even them.
"He said, 'If he's 91 years old, you better get it done,'" Harmon recalled.
The next step was getting clothes and props to set the stage for the photos.
The sisters worked together to find or make clothing and gather antique cooking utensils, jugs, crocks, wash bowls and a warming kettle, plus several authentic aprons that had belonged to their own grandmother.
"We wanted to have different things that were handed down to us," Dubs said. "Using actual items that belonged to our grandparents or great-grandparents made it even more special."
While some of the props were easy finds, others such as old-time musical instruments weren't so easy. Dubs and her husband solved that problem by building a very passable banjo out of a cake pan and wood, plus a washboard out of thin metal and wood scraps.
Soon the family's hillbilly band was built -- complete with the new "banjo," a washboard, a dish pan and a wooden spoon to play it, a harmonica, and of course, a jug, Harmon laughed.
"We asked Dad which instrument he would like to use and he said 'The jug, I always was good on the jug,'" Harmon said with a smile, adding that she doesn't believe her father ever played in a jug band, but apparently he always wanted to do it.
Other special settings included her parents pretending to make sauerkraut in big crocks, all the while singing to each other.
To begin with, they were just going to take one or two pictures, like boardwalk photo shops where families dress up for old-fashioned scenes. But the project just kept growing as all the family members started coming up with memories that could be recreated and photographed, Harman said.
The entire family set up unique scenes at the re-imagined homestead, with specific settings that ranged from back-porch "wash days" and humorous "pie stealing," to "sauerkraut making" and each of the "menfolk" outside "shaving" with a straight knife.
Each family member had several ideas for forming the new memories such as her idea for the "menfolk" to hunt "ducks," Dubs said, with the dead duck formed out of a refashioned stuffed toy with glued-on feathers.
Another unforgettable "recaptured memory" was a spur-of-the-moment idea, Harman said, when she decided to set a scenario in which her husband, Wayne, was protecting the homestead from intruders in the middle of the night.
"He made believe he was running out of the house in his nightclothes, which were long johns," laughed Harmon. "He really got into it and looked so serious that we all were laughing so hard we could hardly breathe."
Throughout the approximately two hours that the photos were shot, the ideas were flying as fast as the duck feathers, Harman said, with everything falling into place perfectly.
"It was the providence of God that it could all come together like it did," said Dubs. "It was a beautiful day and everything blended in perfectly."
The entire day was very enjoyable for everyone, Harman said, including their parents, and especially her father who is often forgetful of recent events.
"Mom really had fun and it was a good day for Dad, too. He was laughing and really getting into the action," said Harman. "Our family really let their hair down and just enjoyed being together. We made special memories that will be in our hearts forever."
When the photos were finished and the family took the video album to show their Dad he had no recognition of the day's events left in his mind, said Harman.
"He said he didn't remember being there, but then he paused and added, 'It looks like we all had fun,'" she said with a smile. "And we did have fun -- the whole family had fun together -- creating memories we will always cherish."
Remembering all the fun of that day still brings smiles to the sisters' faces even as they recount the problems that were solved through family teamwork, and what they say was sure to have been divine intervention.
"What we learned from this is don't ever give up hope," said Dubs. "Even when it seems like nothing is going to work, gather your loved ones around you and keep trying. That's what good memories are made of."
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