Range Road, Windham NH

    The Following is from the book, “Looking Back,” by Frank R. Johnson. “If you only recently came to town, you have missed seeing the little red house on the hill just up Range Road on the right past the farm. You may of heard of ‘the little red house with the windows always open.’ Born in Germany, Gus and Max Kretzig lived in this Windham house for many years after leaving Lawrence where they lived with their family and worked first in Lawrence, later in Lowell. I may have told you about Gus on his Saturday night walk home from Lowell to find old Kenyon sitting up in his casket on that cold, wintry moonlight night. The Kretzig brothers are long gone and their house has been replaced…However… in the Cemetery on the Hill…the brothers are buried with their mother.”

    “These brothers could not have been more unlike each other in appearance or personality. Where Gud was very congenial and comfortable meeting people and talking with them, Max was intense and energetic, always busy with a shop project. Gus was the older brother, good naturedly putting up with Max’s constant complaints and criticism of anything and everything…But why the open windows? Even on the coldest winter days, they kept the windows open! Not all the way, of course, but about ten inches. Max often told me fresh air and exercise was the secret of staying healthy; that and drinking lots of water…A pioneer in the early development of flying machines, Max built these ‘machines’ and covered the wooden frames with fabric, usually linen bed sheets. ‘…Our airfields were farm pastures…He sensed that all this was too long ago for me to appreciate, so he said, ‘Did you ever wonder how we could buy groceries without money?’ I hadn’t even thought of it, I said. ‘Did you ever notice on modern airline aircraft how the flaps slide out and extend from the back of the wing?’ Yes I had noticed. ’Well, I and a man named Fowler invented them. They are called Fowler Flaps, but I still collected part of the royalties all those years. Didn’t know that did you?’ ’No,’ I said.” For more interesting stories about Windham past check out “Looking Back.”   https://vintageaerial.com/photos/new-hampshire/rockingham/1966/PRO/77/31