It is a TV show unlike any other.

An archive of Kansas history told through the lives of regular people.

A half hour of Hattebergs people is ready to roll.

Here is what's coming up.

When they come and tell you he's gone.

You think you know he's he's gone.

Her husband was shot down over Vietnam, and for five years she thought he was dead.

Then came the shock of a lifetime.

Learn what happened.

Also coming up.

Mentally.

I'm just.

I have a better attitude.

I'm lighter.

I feel like I have more energy.

And that's only part of it.

You'll see how Wade Brown found a way to improve his life and make Wichita a cleaner place at the same time.

Plus.

I've just been intrigued by Wichita.

There's a tremendous musical culture here which is perfectly suited to the work that I do.

His work is repairing violins, and Simon McCue popped over the pond to make Wichita his home base for fixing fiddles.

You'll see how passionate he is about his craft.

In this story from 1992.

And we'll have this.

He was the guy that happy making other people happy.

With the work.

And he did it with art.

See how this our Kansas City man came up with an idea to promote the community while using his creative talents.

Hello, I'm Susan Peters.

And I'm Larry Hatteberg.

Join us for those stories and a whole lot more on this edition of Hattebergs People.

These stories are like old friends.

Their lives radiate from the screen, like prophets of the past.

They were teachers, but not in a classroom.

Instead, they taught about life to those around them who cared to listen.

And I was their student.

When your spouse goes to war.

You have to pray for the best.

But prepare for the worst.

In 1968, Shirley Montagu got the dreaded knock on her door.

Now she was told her husband Paul had been killed in Vietnam.

But was he really?

Paul Montague was a Kansas farm boy, born and raised in Anthony.

Paul wanted to serve his country.

So he joined the Marines doing two tours as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam.

Then on March 28th, 1968, in a helicopter much like this one, Major Paul Montague was shot down over Vietnam.

It just.

Crushes your whole life.

To the rest of the world, including his wife, Shirley.

Paul was dead.

When they come and tell you he's gone, you think you know he he's gone.

But on the other side of the world, Paul was very much alive, but in deep trouble.

He was surrounded by North Vietnamese soldiers.

And with that, there was about four or five in the air with automatic weapons right on top of us.

He was captured and taken along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, where they stopped at a number of P.O.W.

camps.

We figured we were being reported dead, so it wasn't a big surprise.

Over the course of months and years, he finally ended up at the infamous Hanoi Hilton where other P.O.W.s were being held.

Let's face it, that was a hell in its own right.

And the no, I wasn't a superman.

And I wasn't.

I could break you very easily.

And they found the way how to break.

Me at home is death.

Now in the headlines, Shirley attended his memorial service, ready to live out her life alone, raising three children.

Then five years later.

A miracle when the peace treaties were signed.

And they put a list of the P.O.W.s.

The military called me and told me he was on the list.

In March of 1973, Paul was released from captivity and reunited with his family.

There were parades in his hometown.

Speeches, interviews.

And the difficult task of getting to know his wife and family again.

So physical changes, mental changes.

This is where he looked like an 80 year old man home.

And so I was very shocked at that.

For Paul, it was his faith in God that got him through all of it.

And believe me, he made himself known during those three years because he was the only only person I had in my cell with me.

Now, he's a lifetime away from that prison camp.

He and his wife are retired quietly, living in Rosehill.

Shirley making beautiful, handmade greeting cards.

That's her hobby.

And Paul, he loves to watch old movies, even war stories.

Vietnam was a long time ago.

But for Paul, these images hold no special meaning.

He was just a guy doing a job the best he knew how.

You got to pay the price and then you can enjoy the the freedom.

As it turned out, that first report of Paul's death was 51 years early, but he finally did pass away in 2019, surely followed in 2021.

And they both lived to be 85.

Just imagine in your life, if that happened to you, what would you do?

What would you think?

How would you react?

How would you react when you find your husband is alive?

Both instances when you found when you thought he was dead and when you found out he was alive, they would both be traumatic.

I would think, yes.

I mean, one good, one bad, obviously, but.

Wow, unbelievable.

And they lived.

85.

Fascinating people loved leading them.

Here's another Kansas veteran who found a way to blend his love for the military with a civilian job that paid the bills.

His name was Jerry Smith, and this story is from 1996.

Tokyo buckled under the savage bombardment.

They are images of another time.

Pictures burned forever on the minds of those who were there.

Sort of like a museum.

And maybe we try to make it like an adventure.

And for those who were in the military or who just want a taste of the past, Jerry Smith and his wife run the command post.

And it gives me a lot of satisfaction.

A collection of military artifacts Jerry has collected throughout his life.

What really prompted this was the computers.

Put the address a graph in this, put my address.

I grew up in this out of business in about 1980, so I needed to make a kind of a midlife correction course.

And we decided I decided to to start the store.

Live in the last week of August 1944, the first burning division again got the call to hit the beaches and secure the torch.

You smell the past along these crowded and stuffed aisles, fatigues, dress uniforms, boots shined with someone's spit and polish and the rewards of war.

But again, the Marine veterans.

Knew their stuff.

I really do.

I have that.

I have that in the back of my mind.

Every time I put something up on the wall or put something up on the ceiling, it does have sort of a museum.

As the B-29 sailed from.

I've been accused of being in love with mandatory.

There are some things I don't want to sell, but I'm trying to adjust my thinking on that.

But it's a great deal of fun and pride.

And I enjoy, you know, coming to the store and meeting the nice people and and selling something occasionally.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

This is an ejection set up for me.

52.

These are all someone's memories.

Maybe yours, maybe mine, maybe a former enemy.

These guys were trying to surrender.

There wasn't enough white cloth left around over there.

They were trying to put it all in use, but I don't blame them.

And it would be a no win situation.

Smith spends much of his time restoring military vehicles, some of his time in the store, and moments when he wonders where it's all been.

It's a great deal satisfaction, just even though we're not inundated with customers.

But people have a really, really nice.

You may have drank from this canteen or these boots or one this metal.

It's part of our nation's history and part of Gerry Smith's life.

Well, it's great.

Satisfaction is probably the best job in the country.

If you just pay like the best job in the country.

But then you can't have it, can't have both sides.

But I prefer the the fun side rather than the, you know, the high reimbursement side.

A final break.

Allied victory in the Pacific has been one.

Now, Gerry died in 2003 and the store is no more.

There is a tattoo shop in that location now.

And, you know, it's just another lesson that things go away another generation replaces.

With what's popular.

Exactly.

History doesn't stop.

It doesn't.

Stop.

Just life moves on.

I hate that.

Well, I do, too.

I just don't like it.

And now to a Wichita man who took his diagnosed year of diabetes to heart.

Yeah, he followed his doctor's orders, and he started an exercise program by walking.

But the walking turned into something.

So much more.

It was.

Time.

I got to where?

You know, if I.

Didn't walk, I wasn't as happy on the dirt roads around Wichita.

I was never once weighed.

Broden is a familiar sight.

Yes, definitely.

He began taking long walks when at £240, he was told he had diabetes.

I was a little worried.

So the walking began and then something else happened.

Decided to start keeping track of how many cans I found, what day I walked.

And where I walked.

Now, there is one thing to know about Wade.

He worked for Boeing for 34 years and was a lead mechanical engineer with the last year of his career working on Air Force One.

So he is meticulous in the detail of his life, including keeping track of the can.

So it got to be like a research project.

I want to know how many cans were on.

The average can count per mile road in Sedgwick County.

So he kept these incredible daily records of the cans he found and where he found them.

Over the past two years, I've I've now crossed the 19,000 can mark.

He knows for example that on average there are 108 cans per mile of road that £3.9 of aluminum in that mile.

And because recycling 2112 ounce cans saves a gallon of gas.

His figures show that he has saved 837 gallons and also shed some pallets.

I was out 240 and I threw all six.

Now then while doing this, he found other things along the road.

Anything shiny represents aluminum cans.

So I noticed shiny things.

I found this.

This is a sealed box of cigars, a cell phone, a plate, a rubber ducky stocking cap.

Looks pretty nice.

What's really nice is that weight.

Broden found a way to control his diabetes, to recycle, to lose weight, and to put his engineering background to use mentally.

And just have a better attitude.

I feel like I have more energy.

But it sure makes a big difference in how people perceive which when they're driving down the.

Road, when it's clean or not going.

Well, that was 28.

Now, take a look at what Wade is up to.

He is still walking.

He's retired and he has more time to do it.

At last report, he had walked more than 4130 miles.

Picked up more than 197,695 cans.

And found more than $133.

This guy knows what he's doing when he goes for a walk.

He helps the environment, makes a little money.

Makes a little money on the side.

But he's incredible.

Exactly.

And he's counted every single.

I love that.

And you said he still posts on Facebook sometime.

He does.

I read his post.

He's still walking, still collecting.

And I goodness, he's just an incredible.

Wade Broden walk that route, by the way, was that who you filmed?

Well, you know what he does?

He calls it How to Work Route.

I love I love it.

I did not know that until just now.

We have the best producers in the world.

I had never heard that.

The best researchers yet.

All right.

All right.

You didn't know you had a street named.

After I visited.

It was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who said that music is the universal language of mankind.

It's easy to receive, but takes talent and training to express.

And it takes talent and training to keep musical instruments in shipshape.

So when it comes to violins, though, Simon McCue is your go to guy in Wichita and it is a timeless sound that through the centuries has helped to soothe civilization's madness.

Valerie Sullivan is a violinist of renown, and she understands the depth of feeling that the wood, the bow and the strings can produce.

But sometimes the instrument needs help.

It gets dropped or stepped on, and that's when they call Simon McCue.

A lot of people ask, what can go wrong with a violin?

That's a popular question, and there are enough examples around my shop here showing all the different things that can happen.

People have backed over them in cars, put the instrument down behind the car and stuff and talk to a neighbor.

Born in Britain, Simon found a new life thousands of miles away here in Wichita.

I've just been intrigued by Wichita.

There's a tremendous musical culture here which is perfectly suited to the work that I do.

But the people, the community and the spirit of community is wonderful here.

He's an expert at restoring violins, and it is a rare art form.

He's widely known and recognized for his expertize.

There's intrigue when I'm working on them as to where they've been and whose hands they've been played in.

And that's always exciting.

But there is a problem.

Simon is behind in his work, six months behind, and he's not accepting any new repairs until next year, when he finds a qualified repair person to help.

They don't want to move to Wichita.

They still have they still have a mentality that perhaps they're thinking of the the dirt roads, dirt streets and cowboys and hitching posts.

And that's wonderful and exciting for books, but it's not the real world.

So he works alone and he loves his work, especially working on a violin made in Europe in 1795.

This is worth $6,000.

It's had 200 years of fairly active playing.

It's had a few repairs done along the way.

What's always intriguing is just whose.

And this has passed through.

And the Bose, they're complicated, too.

They can range in price from 50 to fourths thousand dollars.

What's exciting about Bose is that for different those played on the same violin will yield a different sound.

Is it boring work?

Never.

Nothing mundane at all.

There's always something different.

Just when you think you've seen every possible repair, something new springs out of the woodwork.

Valerie Sullivan's violin has been here, and its music is sweet testament to Valerie's talent, but always waiting behind the scenes.

Is Simon McHugh in his work?

There are always strings attached.

Well, 30 years later, Simon is still fixing violins at a shop on George Washington Boulevard.

He's really a nice guy.

And as I was explaining to you earlier, I went to a birthday party set at a table.

This guy comes over, shuts down and said I was on, had a burger, people.

And I said, what's your name?

And he said, Simon McCue.

And I hadn't seen him since then.

And this was just a couple of months ago.

This was a few months ago.

That's right.

And it was just amazing how how people come in and out of your life.

Exactly.

Many still fixing violins.

I love it.

Yes, I'm a great guy.

Creativity is a real gift.

Of course, but all too often it is not appreciated.

Not in the least of terms of financial reward.

But for true artists such as Dwayne Heastie, the joy of creating and making art is all the reward they need.

It's a great idea.

A coloring book with our Kansas City businesses drawn by a local artist.

The businesses pay for the books, and the books work as a continuing promotion for the city, creating.

This is Dwayne Hasty.

He's the artist for the book, but he can't do his art full time.

Instead, he works for a construction company.

It's going on.

The bartender.

Dwayne has no formal art training.

He wanted to do the book.

New York City Chamber of Commerce said they did, too.

Chamber of Commerce.

This is Mala.

So a joint project was born.

Wish I could year all the time.

I really do.

But he can't.

It's hard for artists to get jobs, so construction work fills in the gap.

No, I think they're down there.

On the ground.

They drag by a lot to be done.

Not ready to be drawn.

While he works, he sometimes thinks about his coloring book project.

Kids can really bring something to it that I that I didn't.

And the color.

And stuff.

Not a lot of times kids can draw with the colors, with what they feel as far as.

Bright and happier and whatever.

Cities and towns are full of folks like Dwayne Hastie.

People who give the community its character and flair, talented people who can't always do what they really want to do.

And yet don't complain.

Just a guy that's happy making other people happy with their work.

I can see a smile on their face because there's something that I drew or something that I've expressed and drawn and makes me happy.

That's what it's all about.

From the park to the coloring book.

A bank also makes the pages, as does the Chamber of Commerce.

It's the type of art that I do that I'm teaching in school, and it comes from inside.

People really do like this.

This color that makes me happy.

Well, that was 1989.

And Dwayne says the coloring book was a big hit.

He did some other community art projects as well, such as a promotional brochure for Art, Kansas City and another one for Clay County.

But Dwayne says he hasn't done much art lately.

He fell off a building and that unfortunately left him disabled.

But Dwayne says he enjoys watching this show every week.

Well, hi, Dwayne.

We hope you're recovering well.

And we just love doing this story and remembering this story because you made a difference.

And thank you for your art and your colorful illness.

And Dwayne is not the only one in his family that Larry has done a story on.

His sister is Donna Caywood.

We showed you her story a little while back.

She was the small town postmistress who built her dream cabin out in the country with her own two hands.

So this is just on our family and has given us so much art and given you two great to peoples.

It is such a small.

World, isn't it?

You know how people are interrelated.

It's fantastic group.

All of you are doing well.

All of these stories have become history.

Caught on tape.

Thanks to Larry and Larry.

You started doing these stories when?

1974.

1974.

I started Cake in 1963.

It took me ten years to figure out what the heck I was doing, because the first ten years in television, you don't know what you're doing.

And in 1974, we started doing these little features and people seemed to like them.

And I continued.

You're so humble.

People seem to like them.

People seem to love them.

And I'm so glad you did.

Because then we get together and we get to give them all to you.

And I can't tell you how many people stopped me at the gas station or the grocery store to say they love looking back on these Hatteberg people.

Well, it's fun for us, too.

It is.

Well, you don't have to work at a TV station to capture and save history on video history, as you see here every week, isn't just about famous people or public events.

It's about everybody, including you and your family.

Until I'm done.

What are you going to think that you tend to love to do here?

You're a mother of I guess.

It was nearly 30 years ago when that little girl said, you're the mommy.

But we started our historical archive of family tapes, that little girl and mommy and little sister in that long ago kitchen have all since grown up.

This is that little girl today.

Here's her sister.

So you may be wondering, well, why is he showing me all this?

Who cares about his family?

Well, really, nobody except me.

But what I want to show you is, you know, that fancy new video camera you might get this Christmas?

Well, instead of just doing home movies, instead, make family histories.

Okay, this is our house.

And we moved here in 1979 and it's now 1986, which means we have lived here for seven years.

Now, family history tapes are a lot different than a home video.

Now, upstairs is where my parents are in my room, and my sister's room.

Is my daughter is giving the.

Curling.

House tour that.

We used to curl our.

Hair.

We're saving that house and the people who lived in it back then in 1986 for future generations.

Not important now, but 50, 100 years down the road.

This is my room.

It will be priceless.

Back in 1986, when this particular video was made, my wife is showing how much common items in our kitchen cost.

Sure, it's not important now, but I'm telling you, future generations will find it fascinating.

Where the red shirt.

Where that last week you get a real feel for how a family lived.

The tension between the teenage daughters.

I love this part.

Well, no.

One's going to see your socks.

Just wear that to them.

I mean, the shoes don't.

Match what my daughters wore, how they sounded, their mannerisms.

Now, this isn't just a family movie.

It's a history Oracle document.

It's what we were like back in 1986.

Sure, we've changed a lot since then.

But that's not the important thing.

The important thing is a moment in time was captured for generations to come.

And these are our colors, red and black.

And this this ribbon says we're number one.

While this whole fire here feels pretty good tonight because it's cold.

I was sitting here thinking of all of the fun we had with our extended family at the beach this summer.

We rented a beach house.

All of us got together.

We just had a great time.

And one of the things we did with a video camera is we created a family history book with it.

I'll show you how.

Sunday afternoon, June 24th, 2001.

It's about 630 in the afternoon.

The house is all quiet because all the kids are gone.

This is where.

Katie and Jake like to sit on these big, tall stools.

I'm ready to do.

I'm ready to take a picture of you.

Are you ready?

Yes.

I'm ready.

We had a lot of fun.

This is the living room where.

You hear my wife is explaining what the house was like so that we can put where we were in context and remember those little things that we might have forgotten by the fire tonight.

Beach memories.

Pretty sweet to remember those and to see them.

One very special piece of video that I have that I will cherish forever is about 15 minutes that I shot with my dad in the bakery, and Winfield's the only video I have of him actually working in the bakery.

And to me, it's priceless because I can see myself in him.

I can see my mannerisms in him.

I wouldn't trade anything for this particular piece of video.

And you can use your camera in other ways.

My mother had her 90th birthday a couple of years ago, so my daughter Cherie sat down with my mom.

We put the camera on a tripod and she just talked to my mom, interviewed her, if you will, created another little piece of family history because she had my mom talk about what life was like when she was growing up out on the farm in the early 1900s.

And you see, once my mom's gone, so are all those memories.

And I remember I was six years old.

Just take that little video, put it on the shelf and forget it.

But I will tell you that generations from now, your family will thank you a million times because they can see who you really were in these little moments that you recorded in video.

History you got from the work.

I have a splinter in my foot, so I'm trying to get it out.

Seeing that brings back so many memories, my daughters would be embarrassed.

You know?

And technology has changed so much since we did that story.

That's still embarrassing for me to watch.

I'll go home and I'll tell my daughters, Hey, guess what?

You're going to be on TV.

They will not be happy about they won't be they will not be happy about that.

But I think they'll enjoy it and their kids will enjoy it.

Oh, but I've been looking back at old videos that I just got dubbed off to a hard drive or a DVD, and my kids love looking back on it.

Oh, I know.

Course, my husband was not a good videographer as you were.

Those are some good tips.

I wish we would have told my husband a long time ago.

You can rewind and look.

There you go.

That's a wrap for this week.

We are so glad you spent time with us and I hope you enjoyed it.

Our e-mail address is hattebergspeople@kpts.org.

If you have a question or comment, well, we always love hearing from you.

So until next time, I'm Larry Hatteberg.

I'm Susan Peters.

Thank you for joining us.

We'll see you again next time.