Young Mary Müssig and her son Frank.

I was searching through the Edward Knurow volumes of Berkshire County History and I found a photo of Mary Müssig and her son, Frank Weneger, though my records say "Wineger", taken some 20 years before the 1903 photo of them taken by the Palmer bros.

The Drescher Family at Musicwoods Farm: A Glimpse into 1969

As I look at this photo from 1969, I’m struck by how young my grand father, Harold Drescher, must have been at the time—about the same age I am now when my parents took on the monumental project of moving to Musicwoods Farm in 1967. This photo, taken shortly after we moved in, captures a moment in time, a snapshot of family, history, and tradition. As for me, I look a but like Frank Weneger in the photo above.

In the picture, you can see my grandfather Harold J. Drescher, who lived at 90 Riveside Drive in NYC, sitting on the porch of our new home. Harold, a respected attorney from New York City, was the Chief Counsel for Greyhound Bus Company at the time and had made quite a name for himself in the field of patent law. He was the son of Alexander S. Drescher, who emigrated from Germany, started out as a street cleaner, and worked his way up to become an Alderman in Brooklyn. Think about that for a moment. A young jewish emmigrtant comingn to america about the time this house was built and goign from someone who picked up after horses to being a leader. There are even a few monuments which bear witness to that in Brooklyn. This lineage, both ambitious and hardworking, was the foundation of the values that defined our family.

My father, Dr. Alexander Drescher, who is also pictured here, had an impressive background of his own. A graduate of Allegheny College and the College of Medicine at New York University, he trained in pediatrics at the NYU-Bellevue Medical Center before completing his residency at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. Between 1957 and 1959,when I was born, he served as the Chief of Pediatrics at the U.S. Army Hospital in Fort Carson, Colorado, before returning to Albert Einstein as an instructor and researcher. His work focused on kidney disease, infant nutrition, and endocrinology. In 1962, our family moved to Pittsfield, where my father practiced pediatrics for many years. He served as the head of pediatrics at Pittsfield General Teaching Hospital, and he was the town pediatric doctor for Lanesborough.

Later on, in the 1970s, my father decided to pursue further education, training as a psychologist at the Institute for Living in Hartford, CT. Even while in the Berkshires, he continued his passion for teaching, regularly giving classes at Albany Medical College and serving as the Chair of the Mt. Greylock Regional High School Board of Education. As the years went on, he shifted toward becoming an independent scholar in English literature, focusing on the works of James Joyce, Herman Melville, and Vladimir Nabokov. His journey was one of endless learning and growth, much like the evolution of our family at Musicwoods Farm.

The photo also features a few other family members and friends. My brother, Tom Drescher, is in the red and black plaid shirt, Peter is sitting below him, and I’m right behind them. And of course, we’re joined by the first two dogs to patrol the farm—Androcles, an Old English Sheepdog, and Pupchen, a dachshund who was a fierce guardian against groundhogs. Androcles was a gift to my father from one of his pediatric patients family, marking the beginning of a long line of Old English Sheepdogs at the farm.

A small but significant detail in the photo is the pair of binoculars resting on the porch. They belong to my grandfather, Harold, and are now safely stored in the hall closet. Birdwatching has been a lifelong passion for our family, passed down from my grandfather, and it remains a cherished activity for all of us.

Looking back at this photo and reflecting on the journey our family took to settle in Musicwoods Farm, I’m reminded of how much we’ve inherited—not just in terms of our academic and professional pursuits, but also in the love for the land, the outdoors, and the simple joys of family life. It’s a legacy built on hard work, education, and a deep appreciation for the beauty around us. And in many ways, this moment on the porch captures the spirit of that legacy—quiet, reflective, and very much in the present, yet looking toward the future.