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A Summer of Travel

“Rollie in front of his platoon”
Anton Tapper, Sr.
  • No. 10, Anton H. Tapper, age 61, Male, Married, If Naturalized: Citizen by Father’s Papers, Address: 616 Ann str, Hammond, Ind.
  • No. 11, Anton H. Tapper, age 22, Male, Single, Native of U.S., b. 24th July 1907, Hammond, Ind.
  • No. 12, Roland Tapper, age 20, Male, Single, Native of U.S., b. 1st Aug 1909, Hammond, Ind.
  • No. 13, Alice Tapper, age 17, Female, Single, Native of U.S., b. 26th Sep 1912, Hammond, Ind.
Louise Tapper

I just can’t imagine the grief, the loss. After her death, Anton pasted this small piece of paper onto the glass of a framed image of Louise, which says: “‘I Put All the Girls in the World in a Row and Picked Your Mother'”

  1. “College News,” About Our Young People, The Lake County Times, 7 Jun 1929, Friday, p. 24, col. 5; digital images, Newspapers.com(www.newspapers.com : accessed 7 Aug 2017). ↩︎
  2. “Did You Hear That,” The Lake County Times, 8 Jun 1929, Saturday, p. 15, col. 1; digital images, Newspapers.com(www.newspapers.com : accessed 1 Mar 2024). ↩︎
  3. Indiana Archives and Records Administration, “Indiana, U.S., Death Certificates, 1899-2017,” database and images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015, Ancestry.com (ancestry.com ; accessed 19 Aug 2019), Lake County, 1928, Registered no. 140 (penned), no. 8107 (stamped), Gretje Sophia Warber; citing Indiana State Board of Health. Death Certificates, 1900-2011. Microfilm, Indianapolis, Indiana. ↩︎
  4. “Personals,” The Lake County Times, 28 Jun 1929, Friday, p. 24, col.3; digital images, Newspapers.com(www.newspapers.com : accessed 1 Mar 2024). ↩︎
  5. “College News,” Friday, p. 24, col. 5. ↩︎
  6. “Personals,” The Lake County Times, 15 Jul 1929, Monday, p. 10, col.4; digital images, Newspapers.com(www.newspapers.com : accessed 1 Mar 2024). ↩︎
  7. “Did You Hear That,” The Lake County Times, 27 Jul 1929, Saturday, p. 1, col. 2; digital images, Newspapers.com(www.newspapers.com : accessed 1 Mar 2024). ↩︎
  8. “Hammondites Have Thrill in Europe,” The Lake County Times, 4 Sep 1929, Wednesday, p. 10, col. 3; digital images, Newspapers.com(www.newspapers.com : accessed 7 Aug 2017). ↩︎
  9. National Archives, “New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957,” database and images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2010, Ancestry.com(www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Aug 2018), 13 Sep 1929, S.S. Volendam, p. 1 (penned), p. 40 (stamped), e74, No. 10-13, Tapper Family; citing The National Archives at Washington, D.C. ↩︎
  10. “Personals,” The Lake County Times, 16 Sep 1929, Monday, p. 17, col. 6; digital images, Newspapers.com(www.newspapers.com : accessed 1 Mar 2024). ↩︎
  11. “Mrs. Tapper Dies from Embolism,” The Lake County Times, 30 Nov 1929, Saturday, p. 1, col. 6; Hammond Public Library Microfilm Collection. ↩︎

A Life-Saving Dinner Delivery

28 Mar 2011. In the breakfast room. Marie’s birthday at our home.

The Kaukauna Klub Crock

The original 1934 label. Click to view a color image of this label.
Appleton Post-Crescent 8 Sep 1933
1934, the Conway Hotel
The 1935 label. Notice the bail style and embossed lid, which is not domed like the 1934 crock.
A 1937 Advertisement showcasing the 1935 label.
International Multi-foods label
2023 – Fassbender Park, Kaukauna
An oversized replica

SOURCES

  1. “Get New Pleasure From Cheese Made By Kaukauna Firm” Appleton Post-Crescent, 21 Apr 1934, Saturday, p. 18, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 10 Sep 2018). ↩︎
  2. Newspaper Clipping, The Kaukauna Times, 18 Jun 1947 (guesstimate); South Kaukauna Dairy Company History; privately held by Susan Sternitzky Fassbender, 2012. “Hubert Fassbender and New Cheese Product Made Kaukauna Famous.” Bernard and Marie Fassbender Family Archives. ↩︎
  3. “H. Fassbender for Gettelman’s Beer,” Advertisement, Appleton Post-Crescent, 12 Jul 1933, Wednesday Evening, p. 3, col. 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 6 Sep 2018). ↩︎
  4. “H. Fassbender for Knapstein’s Beer,” Advertisement, Appleton Post-Crescent, 6 Oct 1933, Friday, p. 14, col. 5; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 6 Sep 2018). ↩︎
  5. Letter, written by Hubert Fassbender on South Kaukauna Dairy Company letterhead, ca 1935; South Kaukauna Dairy Company History; privately held by Susan C. Sternitzky Fassbender, 2012. ↩︎
  6. Newspaper Clipping, The Kaukauna Times, 18 Jun 1947 (guesstimate); South Kaukauna Dairy Company History; privately held by Susan C.  Sternitzky Fassbender, 2012. “Hubert Fassbender and New Cheese Product Made Kaukauna Famous.” Bernard and Marie Fassbender Family Archives. ↩︎
  7. Ibid. ↩︎
  8. Ibid. ↩︎
  9. “Visit the Monmouth Pottery Show Room and Gardens” Advertisement, The Rock Island Argus, 29 Aug 1935, Thursday, p. 5, col. 6; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 10 Jan 2024). ↩︎
  10. “Monmouth Pottery” Advertisement, The Rock Island Argus, 1 Sep 1939, Friday, p. 22, col. 5; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 10 Jan 2024). ↩︎
  11. “Kuebler Grocery Co. Look! At This,” Advertisement, The Oshkosh Northwestern, 2 Nov 1934, Friday, p. 16, col. 5; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 11 Jan 2024). ↩︎
  12. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ ↩︎
  13. “Cheese Jars Sometimes Come Back With Pickles,” Appleton Post-Crescent, 5 Aug 1937, Thursday Evening, p. 18, col. 2; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 4 Feb 2018). ↩︎
  14. “Young’s Market Company,” Advertisement, Los Angeles Times, 8 Mar 1938, Tuesday Morning, Part II, p. 5, col. 1; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 11 Jan 2024). ↩︎
  15. “Kaukauna Klub,” Advertisement, The Helena Daily Independent, 24 Jun 1939, Saturday, p. 3, col. 7; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 11 Jan 2024). ↩︎
  16. “Has New Plastic Lid. Kaukauna Klub Begins New Advertising Campaign” The Appleton Post-Crescent, 16 Oct 1954, Saturday, p. 9, col. 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 28 Jan 2024). ↩︎
  17. “Beechners,” Advertisement, The Lincoln Star, 13 Dec 1963, Friday, p. 10, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 26 Jan 2024). ↩︎
  18. “Food and Fun,” The Santa Ana Register, 19 Sep 1969, Friday, p. D, col. 6: digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 26 Jan 2024); Marilyn Nelson. ↩︎
  19. “Firm Buys Kaukauna Dairy Co.,” The Post-Crescent, 2 Mar 1971, Tuesday, p. B12, col. 2; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 28 Jan 2024). ↩︎
  20. “Kaukauna Klub” Advertisement, The Chicago Tribune, 20 Nov 1975, Thursday, Section 6, Food Guide, p. 4, col. 4; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 26 Jan 2024). ↩︎
  21. “Memorial to Be Erected For Fassbender,” Appleton Post-Crescent, 17 Dec 1947, Wednesday, p. 10, col. 2; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 11 Sep 2018). ↩︎
  22. Newspaper Clipping, The Kaukauna Times, 19 Dec 1947; South Kaukauna Dairy Company History; privately held by Susan C. Sternitzky Fassbender, 2012. “$1,301.50 Appropriated for Hubert Fassbender Memorial.” Bernard and Marie Fassbender Family Archives. ↩︎

A Holiday Tradition

The Gift of Food

Macular Degeneration

My mother was an artist. She attended the Art Institute of Chicago and graduated from Drake University with a BFA in Art. Art is just who she was. 

I don’t remember when she was first diagnosed with macular degeneration, but she lived with it for well over ten years. At the time of her diagnosis, she was doing finely detailed hand-painted cards. As the disease took away her ability to focus on these details, she explored other paint methods and settled on alcohol ink, loving how fluid the medium was, and yet she could manipulate the paint to create finely detailed pieces of art.

1960s

Cards were always her way of sharing her talent. I have copies of Christmas cards going back to the 1960s. Cards that she created by cutting her design into a linoleum block, then inking, stamping, and hand painting the detail. Others were in watercolor. My birthday invitation was just a black marker on orange paper. Because of this, I have years of her art, created just for me.

Mom passed away from kidney cancer in February 2021. At the end, she was almost blind. She could no longer pass the day reading books on her iPad. She could no longer spend sunny afternoons painting. Today I decided to tackle a stack of paper that was set on a shelf in her closet. I found this handwritten piece dated 18 Feb 2016. Her handwriting was still good. She wrote of her macular degeneration.

Macular Degeneration

“I understand that everyone who has macular degeneration experiences it differently. This is my experience.

I can see the world around me, but I cannot see the fine detail.

I cannot see to read a book a magazine, a menu, people’s faces are distorted — but I can see geese in the sky migrating in the fall, stars on a clear night (what a thrill!), the beautiful white clean world after a snowfall. My world will never be dark. Not perfect, but not dark. Thank you, God!”

In 2018, I took a photo of a blazing orange sunset that I was watching from my kitchen window. I sent it to Mom, wanting to share its beauty and knowing that she could access it on her large iPad, blowing it up, expanding the image with her fingers so that she could see it. The next day, she painted what could see of our backyard and the blazing sky. 

Macular degeneration is a funny thing. Mom could not see the television, and listening to programs irritated her. Yet there were mornings as I sorted our supplements, I would drop a Vitamin D gel tablet. Moving to quickly find it before our dog Lizzy would come to help, I would not see it, yet mom could always see it glisten and know just where it was. My mom’s world was not perfect, sometimes irritating, but never dark. Thank you, God!

2018