Dad called «roughhousing» the behavior of his four sons in the family car en route to Evergreen Road, where his parents lived. Inside the Fort Pitt Tunnel, his boys should have known to look up in anticipation of the curtain rising on the Point, stage name Golden Triangle, a showpiece of the «Pittsburgh Renaissance». From there, we crossed the Manchester Bridge and its replacement, the «Bridge to Nowhere», whose span over the Allegheny River was begun in 1963, finished in 1969. Farther on, there was no time for Buhl Planetarium, Allegheny General Hospital, Allegheny Observatory, Perry Theater, though Dad, a doctor, could have remarked, if he were not inclined like his father to silence, that he was once a resident at Allegheny General and, since Grandpa was a carpenter, buildings might have a family association or be otherwise important and/or beautiful, though beautiful was not in his vocabulary, unless in rare moments he could bring himself to apply the word to my mother in the early, happy years of their marriage. Instead, his musings or teachings would have inclined toward the cruciform virtues of Catholic churches such as St. Bernard in Mt. Lebanon, where we lived south of the city, or St. Boniface, near Evergreen, dedicated in 1926 in a parish founded in 1884 by German Americans, saved in the 1980s from the wrecking ball of a highway project. In 2025, a fictional Allegheny General began to star in a tv show. Let’s back up the car for a detour to Buhl Planetarium (Ingham & Boyd, constructed in 1938-9 with Indiana limestone). A couple of times at Christmas, we could stand in wonder at the model-train exhibition (before searching the parking lot for the indispensible automobile), glimpse our smallness under a 65-foot-high copper-topped dome in a «Theatre of the Stars» (while acting big, see «roughhousing»), and allow a 35-foot Foucault Pendulum to hypnotize us (without lasting effect). Concrete Allegheny Center Mall, which opened in 1965, was a missed opportunity for our parents to abandon us to consumerism. Thanks, Mom and Dad.

Ungefähr so (roughly this way) began the undersigned’s pilgrimmages to Evergreen Road «to be gathered to/among his own» (zu den Seinigen versammelt werden).

Known as «Val», short for Valentin, Grandpa was born in 1892 in the town of Eichenried near Fulda, a city in the state of Hesse, and died in 1971 in Pittsburgh. I was told in my 60s (born in 1960) that Grandpa was proud of his service as a U.S. Army sergeant during World War I. He belonged to the Teutonia Männerchor, a fraternal society located in a building with a steep roof and timber framing. Inside was a Ratskeller. The word Rat must have been funny to us. Rat does not mean rat. It means council/board, councillor and advice. The Hohmans assimilated under the cloud of two world wars. While Grandma, a Pittsburgh native, must have known some German, Dad did not or encourage its acquisition. Today, though fluent, I am unable to see Immergrün in Evergreen. Grandpa never returned to his Heimat (homeland).

Surnames, the names of businesses and place names did not scream German. The cognates didn’t either.

Adler, Bach, Berg, Braun, Daum, Eck, Falter, Feld, Goldberg, Graf, Gross, Hahn, Hammel, Hufnagel, Hug, Jung, Junker, Kaufmann, Klein, Kramer, Krebs, Laufer, Luft, Maier, Nuss, Reich, Schaffer, Schwartz, Schwarzwaelder, Snyder, Stein, Stern, Turner, Weber, Weiss, Zimmerman, Zug.

Eagle, stream, mountain, brown, thumb, corner, butterfly, field, gold mountain, count in (abolished) class system, big, tap or rooster, mutton, horseshoe nail, hug, young, another class title (not a «junker» car), businessman (literally «buying man»), small, hardware-store proprietor, cancer, runner, air, farmer, nut, rich, shepherd, black, Black Forest resident, tailor, stone, star, wood turner or gymnast, weaver, white, carpenter, train.

Most are simple translations of names, or their derivations, in my high-school yearbook, according to which I was a member of the german (sic) club. Whom was I trying to impress with that Übertreibung (exaggeration)? A kid named Eckenrode, I see now, might have ancestors from the same town as the Hohmans. Our surname’s original second «n» was dropped at an unknown date. Because passion for genealogy and the like does not run in my blood, I leave assigning a date to a future generation. One of Dad’s favorite restaurants was the Candle Keller (cellar).

Some ordinary German expressions have personal significance out of proportion to their meaning. They are my kind of genetics. I would write inexplicabe if I did not plan an explanation.

Gehabt Euch wohl.

Zu den Seinigen versammelt werden.

Next stops

1. more about landmarks of Hohmann Heimat/s, Mt. Lebanon Historic District and Sewickley area, which relate to my acquisition of the German language under two themes: 1. search for Heimat 2. that search is connected with preservation.

2. University College (now NUI) Galway’s German Society, including two of its annual plays: Lernziel Deutsch, a fragment by Ulrich Wünsch, a faculty member, words by Peter Hanke, and Absurda Comica oder Herr Peter Squenz (printed 1657, first performed 1668) by Andreas Gryphius. Plus close readings, or what passed for close readings in a general education setting: Leben des Galilei (1939) by Bertolt Brecht and «Katz und Maus» (1961) by Günter Grass.

3. Hannover, wo das beste Hochdeutsch gesprochen wird, so der Ruf und Stolz. Hanover, where the best High German is spoken, or so goes its reputation and pride. Studentenwohnheim Silo, Nachbar: Herrenhäuser Gärten. Regelmässig im Ballhof (Theater). Brechts Die Massnahme an der Uni. Footnote: Penn State graduate program, a disaster.

4. San Diego, erster Teil. Gesprächspartner I: ___ at Union-Tribune. Gesprächspartnerin II: Neighbor Erika, until she must escape from her son. Theater heute, erster Teil.

5. D’Schwiiz. Familie Schmid. Writers: Burger, Hürlimann, Laederach, Muschg, Widmer, u.a. Regula’s father is kind enough to use his influence to have a short play of mine read by a dramaturg at Theater St. Gallen. A polite conversation with her follows. I cannot recall a single word of it, which is telling of a humiliating rejection.

6. San Diego, zweiter Teil. Gesprächspartnerin III: Nilmini, an international-energy law professor. What led to Jelinek and Schleef? Gesprächspartnerin IV: ___, coworker.

7. Palm Desert. A €1,000 offer to translate more Schleef for book on European dramaturgy comes to nothing, describe the unprofessional episode without bitterness because it helps to explain reluctance to expend great effort in exchange for prestige and peanuts. Ex-wife chapter of my memoir is in German. Theater heute, zweiter Teil.

8. Visual aids.

9. German version of foregoing.

Be patient, we will get to Goethe.

Signed,

One Hohman|n