Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Cecil Hoge Of course, I have to admit my nautical experiences were nothing compared to those of Andrew Shewan, my great, great, great-uncle, who sailed clipper ships in the 1860s and 1870s repeatedly from Scotland and England, across the … Continue reading →

I worked with Thomas Jefferson. Not the gentleman whose portrait is shown above, not the 3rd President of the United States, the plantation owner, the slave owner, the founder of the University of Virginia. No, I worked with a black … Continue reading →

By Cecil Hoge That is not exactly true. Olga never heard of the word “blog”, but she did ask me to write about my family. Olga, whose full name was Princess Olga Ivanovna Obolensky had read some of my articles in … Continue reading →

  By Cecil Hoge In 1954 my father started advertising a product called Addiator. This was a small German adding and subtracting device that was operated with a stylus. When you wanted to add, you stuck the stylus into a … Continue reading →

  By Cecil Hoge Under normal circumstances my family would never be able to rent a house for the summer in Southampton, but my family had a secret. Because they were one related family they were able to rent one … Continue reading →

  by Cecil Hoge Of all the houses in Southampton that my family rented over the years, the nicest one was the Zirinsky House. It was situated at 353 First Neck Lane behind a high green hedge on a 2 … Continue reading →

by Cecil Hoge I never realized that my grandmother, Ann B. Shewan, caused the Town of Southampton so much trouble. I doubt she ever felt sorry for the trouble she caused. She had a tendency to cause trouble for people. … Continue reading →

by Cecil Hoge In the late 1970s, a family friend decided to take up gardening. At the time he was living in a sprawling farmhouse on 10 acres of prime potato growing land. This property was set on one of … Continue reading →

By Cecil C. Hoge Starting in the late 1920s my father’s family spent their summers in Quogue. They had decided on Quogue for a number of reasons. My grandmother, Sidney Cecile Cunningham Hoge, was looking for a suitable summer place … Continue reading →

by Cecil Hoge It took me 6 years to get my Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia… two years to flunk out, two years to get back in and two years to graduate. The transition from a … Continue reading →