Summer Vacation 1938 10 years old

This July Lake Winnebago was cold

Summer of 1938 the entire William Bergin family of 6 vacationed in a cottage at Lakewood Beach on Lake Winnebago, Fond du lac, WI. My parents rented upstairs from Mrs. De Sombre. She was an interesting character, an old maid school teacher.

Elayne, Billy, Mother, Jimmy, DeSombre Cottage, MaryKay

This was a very awkward, scrawny  year for me physically. Additionally, I had this brown knit swim suit which did nothing for my developing figure which was almost a uniform for the vacation duration.
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There was a large green lawn leading from the cottage down to the lake. A stone wall was all around the water’s edge and no shallow beach, stones rather than sand. 

There were a few of the large white adirondack chairs set out on the lawn.The entire time we visited the weather remained chilly and the water cold.  It was July but there was not a warm day in the entire month that year. We shivered constantly when we went swimming which is what we had to do because the lake was there after all. We met a young boy about our age who had a rowboat and gladly he shared with us. 

Learning to row a boat

We spent much of our time on the lake learning to row that boat as he so generously shared his boat, time and talent. We were often home alone as mother and dad left to visit various relatives. They had such trust in us. I remember a number of fights we had with Billy while we were left alone. He would chase us through the cottage, threatening us, sibling rivalry. Perhaps looking back it had a lot to do with the three of us coming of age. I don’t recall Jimmy being there. Safer with mother and dad, I suppose.  

We met Aunts Anna and Ellie, as we were told befriended my dad and helped and encouraged him to go to Marquette and complete his courses at the University. He always spoke lovingly of them and with such gratitude. They were lovely women. 

Cow Pasture on Aunt Ellie's Farm

I remember walking out onto their cow pasture one Sunday afternoon with them, with mother and a few others, where the cattle had pastured and us stepping between the drying ‘cow pies’. Wherever the grass is greener it has been thus enriched. One walks carefully.


One Sunday we were left in town at a young cousin of my dad’s home, while the folks went out to Mass, probably breakfast as well. I always thought the name was Shea but have not been able to verify this relation until recent times when looking through my father’s letters I saved several times he refers to them when he visited his sisters Helen and Veronica in the 1970’s. 

The Shea’s  had this modern radio in their home with lots of knobs. I believe there were some short wave knobs unlike the radio on the right. I turned some knobs and was scared that I had broken it and kind of laid low when they returned so as not to be suspected as a villain. Darn another sin to fret over. Apparatus of all types were becoming complicated. I think our ancestors would swoon had they seen what is available today. I remember they had a baby daughter that year, 1938, when I was 11 and Elayne 12, Billy 9, Jimmy 2+. We were again told the story about Aunt Veronica and Harry. They married and he left her immediately and they never could find him. In those days a divorced person was someone the family treated carefully, like arm’s length, maybe like contagious. They were never to remarry. We saw Aunt Veronica at our home in Chicago for some Thanksgivings. Mother said she was beautiful. Seemed like such a sad story to me, never able to marry and her husband whose whereabouts couldn’t be known.  How would it be dissolved? Uncle Dave had a twin who died at birth. I saw Uncle Dave when attending Mount Mary College. He was a very big man and married to Theresa. They invited Elayne and me to dine with them at their restaurant. This was the evening I had my first Martini and wow was it strong. My head was spinning.

Uncle Mansfield at a later date spent many days with us at our Greenview address in Chicago. I remember fondly his teaching us to wish on and then break the turkey wishbone and about a turkey’s whistle, the portion of the bird which held the tail feathers. Thereafter, speaking for myself, of course, this part of the roast was shunned.  There was a time with us when he had this corrugated cardboard, like logs, and he constructed an entire farm set for us down in our basement and I was in awe of his creative talent. Gradually, we saw less and less of him. At one point we were told he contracted spinal meningitis. But, he didn’t die. [I had 2 young friends in grade school who died from it]. One evening we were returning to our home, riding in the streetcar, with mother and she saw him on the same car. Mother told us to pretend we didn’t see him, in hopes he wouldn’t recognize us. By then he had a serious alcohol problem and apparently no amount of ‘helping’ him seem to be a solution. They didn’t know how to. Much later when in California he joined AA. And many years after when I am married and living in CA my dad sent a copy of a letter he received from Uncle Mansfield, then living in San Diego. I was delighted and told my father I would look him up. He cautioned me not to. He will bring only trouble. Apparently trouble is what he always brought with him for his brother and sister-in-law, my parents. They had been at wits end dealing with his alcoholism.

Serenity Prayer

Only by this time he was keeping his pledge and been sober for some time. I have the copy of that letter from my Uncle in a loose leaf containing many of my father's letters in the 70's and 80's.
In my generation we began to learn how we control our behavior, sin being wrong choices. Previous generations referred to a child as bad seed or bad apple the child who struggled to conform at home, school or society. I was enlightened a bit when our Kevin was born at the Harvard, IL hospital and I was wide awake as I had been given no drugs to dull my senses. I felt that he and I were as close to Creator God as we could ever be. This was a heavenly moment. As years passed I realized Christian children are erroneously  being taught a child is born with original sin on his/her soul. The child’s soul is spotless. We, it’s family soon begin to instruct the child in our sinful ways through our choices, mainly due to ignorance. In addition we righteously  most often choose our family’s methods of dealing with behavior we rightly or erroneously believe needs changing. These behaviors today have a label, dysfunction. Alcoholism fits into this label and is found among my ancestors. Not just my beautiful granddad and uncle/s. I discovered many years later the brothers who emigrated to Minnesota found solace in Alcohol and in a generation or two lost out. One child growing up decides to overcome this family problem by not using alcohol at all. Another decision my father chose was to use but not abuse alcohol. He had his small cabinet in which he kept alcoholic products. If there were cause to celebrate or simply enjoy a drink  he would go to the cabinet, remove a bottle, pour into the required glasses and return the bottle to the cabinet. We grew up with our dad modeling this behavior. He taught us as well. He was in control of it rather than the alcohol controlling him. What he didn’t know was why his father,  my grandfather, drank in the first place. Control rather than solution. Other families have experienced dysfunction when they sought solutions to problems in food, shopping, gambling, drugs, sex, work, and other. Such addictive behavior exists in the many other than family societal groups as an example the church. See The Dysfunctional Church by Michael Cosby. Such a church is incapable of helping families overcome addiction unless they see it in themselves. Families are left on their own to search out  and identify problems, deal with them, ridding themselves of their ‘sin’ of choosing wrong behavior, wrong solutions. I share what I have learned because I too, without all the pieces, spent much of my life, in error or ‘sin’ making wrong choices. And then it was too late. My children would be on their own striving to be functional. Bradley, La Leche, Montessori,  ongoing search for those nuggets of truth, sharing, were steps in the right direction. I spent several years with only Jaime at home when living in Riverside, CA attending CODA meetings [Children of Alcoholics], an offshoot of AA. I was not a Child of an Alcoholic. I was a grandchild of an alcoholic though and I realized my own father and mother didn’t have all the facts when they made some very important decisions. And neither did I/we. I learned the 12 Steps are even good for grandchildren of alcoholics. .  

Neighborhood/Parish 1936-40

Our Lady of Lourdes

For Stations of the cross on Fridays in Lent we were seated in church by classroom. The nuns kept us in order in church by sounding their clickers. When May came around each year, the month of Mary, Jesus’ mother we would participate in the May Crowning  processions  so exciting and unforgettable. This would take place in late afternoon. Each of us girls carried a fresh, fragrant and beautiful long stemmed pastel peony blossom into church in procession which we placed at Mother Mary’s altar.  

 An eighth grade girl would place the crown on Mary’s head, statue of Mary, that is.There was a grotto in a room west of the altar which we could also enter outside through an alleyway. It was dimly lit and a replica of the grotto at Lourdes, France, rocks and pool and running water, where Mother Mary appeared to Bernadette.

Grotto at Lourdes

Mother would often meet us afternoons when school dismissed following a visit to church with Jimmy in his stroller. They would say to us they had just visited the ‘Pretty Lady’. Once a year we would have a carnival on the school grounds over a weekend. Elayne discovered her lucky number to be ‘4’. I sometimes thought mine was ‘7’ but it failed me. My brother, Billy, as I referred to previously had this paralysis affecting his right arm and leg. I cannot get inside my mother’s brain to know to what extent she felt responsible for her little child’s handicap. I label it so, even though Billy never, ever allowed himself to be kept from participation in life. Mother prayed petitions. She wanted Billy cured. We would attend Perpetual Help Novenas at Lady of Lourdes which were ongoing every single Tuesday should she choose. However, there was an extremely popular novena going on at Our Lady of Sorrows Church with services every Friday evening. These novenas would consist of song, Benediction, sermon. There would be a small booklet containing the procedures or a song card or prayer card. At Our Lady of Sorrows’ peak in 1930, Friday Masses served about seventy thousand people and almost 1,000,000 copies of the church’s Novena Notes. On January 8, 1937, the Sorrowful Mother Novena began an era that would establish Chicago’s Our Lady of Sorrows as a Marian Shrine of national and international fame. Through the 1940’s and into the 1950’s the Great Novena filled the church weekly in up to 38 separate services. They prayed the Novena of Our Sorrowful Mother and the rosary all through the Great Depression and the war years.

"Pretty Lady"

One chilly, Saturday afternoon walking home from the beauty parlor 2 blocks away while her hair was still quite wet our Mother developed a terrible ear infection. There weren’t antibiotics in those days and the infection persisted a long time. The first safe antibiotics were discovered by a British scientist in 1945. Mother was bedridden often after this so Elayne and I took turns staying home from school to be with our little brother, Jimmy. The nuns were so cooperative. Mother had special relationships with these BVM nuns. They would talk at the doorway to the classroom for long periods of time. I wonder what about. This infection seemed to affect her overall health ever after.

Exact Stroller Boy Is Son Michael

I especially loved putting little Jimmy in his stroller and taking long walks. Mother trusted me completely. On Saturdays we would walk down Wilson Avenue, east,  towards the lake and north on Broadway, checking out what might be playing in the movie theaters . The nearest one on Wilson was the De Luxe Theater and admission would be 10 cents.

Broadway was a busy street with many shops, dead fowl hanging from hooks, feathers, beaks and all. The 2 theaters we would pass charged 15 cent, one the Uptown Theater.

Eventually, after s slow walk we would return home with the playbill announcement. 

If parents thought it good fare we could attend a movie that afternoon. There were many cowboy movies, Tom Mix, Gene Autry, Jesse James, sometimes Shirley Temple, and always a cartoon and a March of Time Newsreel, week’s review of what happened in Europe, Germany, France, England, Poland. My favorite- Shirley Temple movies. Young Shirley seen here.

Shirley Temple - Cuppycake song

Sometimes when on Broadway with our parents we would buy shoes. There was an x-ray machine which was such fun to look into and see our bony feet. These were later banned from stores as health hazards. On our walks beyond Broadway we'd come to the tip of Lincoln Park and beyond this Lake Michigan.

My little brother, Jimmy

One can see a bit of our house and Freddy’s, next door, on this special picture of little Jimmy. A man passed by one day when we were in school. He had this pony and a camera. Jimmy’s cousin Jack, about his age, has a similar pony picture.

On hot summer days we 3 could walk up to Wilson and catch a bus bound for Montrose Beach. Often the bus was a double decker.  Without parents checking us invariably we would stay out in the sun too long and have painful, blistered backs next day and a week following. Later in the summer there would be prohibitions from gathering on the beach at all as we entered polio season which we observed by not gathering in crowded spaces. When a child came down with contagious disease, whooping cough, measles, chicken pox, the health department would place a contagious disease sign in the front window warning off any visitor. We took swimming lessons at Amundsen High and one summer typing lessons.  There were many neighborhood friends, a number of them attending public school. We would play in our yard or out front. One holiday when running I tripped over a wire which was protecting the lawn, hit the edge of the concrete walk with my mouth and broke my front tooth in half. I ran to my mother who was beside herself with grief because I had ruined my appearance. I often wondered how the pain of my broken tooth and bloody mouth was a greater problem for her than for me. Another thing I recall were our trips a few blocks south and west in the other direction to buy ice cream cones, sometimes rainbow triple deckers. We saved any money we had to buy lead soldiers from a school store on Montrose. I referred to these lead soldiers previously, which we dramatically played with together, replacing our soda bottle caps. Dad made the basement of this 2 flat special for us kids, even though we were renters. He built 2 storage rooms so other than the furnace we had lots of play space marked off. He painted the walls to resemble red bricks. We played grocery store sometimes having some of the  ‘stuff’ from the West Allis grocery store. One day I stepped onto a nail in the furnace room and didn’t tell mother. I worried. I could get lockjaw. Slowly it healed and nothing else happened. Apparently I had a problem with slapping Billy when frustrated at play. I recall mother frequently chiding me to keep my hands to myself.  We had an old victrola on which we could play a few records. Elayne was showing artistic talent and mother was about ready to send her Saturdays to the Art Institute for lessons. Circumstances changed.  Billy took lessons in elocution at the Cummerford Studio at 4354 N. Ashland Ave. Chicago Academy of Theater Arts and Elayne and I had our dancing lessons, tap, ballet, gymnastics.  I loved my lessons but Elayne hated the lessons. I wanted to be a ballerina when I grew up. On a few occasions when our cousins, the Collin's, moved to Chicago and while mother and Aunt Flo were visiting on a Saturday morning I would teach MaryAnn the steps I learned in dancing school. She would pay me a dime. Mrs. Cummerford along with her husband ran this studio. I recall this one year [believe there was another] when we had prepared numbers with costumes for a show. This was to be on a stage in a neighborhood movie theater, the Uptown. I recall tickets needed. The film showing was Wuthering Heights. I think it was Friday evening. Friends and families attended. After the film ended the screen went up, next the curtains and we staged our performance. My sister has kept the theater bill on which we are listed as performers. One of the boy tap dancers listed is Bob Fosse who would later become a star and a Hollywood director.

Dad always took public transportation to and from work. On Saturdays he would get off the streetcar at Wiebolt's and buy special groceries, cheese, eggs and clothing for family. Once he found this great buy of white oxfords in sizes for Elayne and me. Only problem is they were definitely for boys. I hated those shoes and had to wear them even so. One year we tried our hands as entrepreneurs. With neighbor kids, we put on a fair in our basement for the entire neighborhood. Fair failed for mother let everyone in free. We bought our fresh bread from the bakery on Clark Street, around 2 corners and meat from the butcher shop nearby. We had no freezer. Often we stood in long lines within these shops. Grownups frequently sneaked ahead of us kids. Just wasn't fair. Today we'd say 'pushy broad'. In those days customers were waited on individually. There were no supermarkets. There was an A and P south on Montrose, west of Ashland.

We had milk delivery by horse and wagon

The milkman left the glass milk bottles on our doorstep, pasteurized though not homogenized with a 4” layer of cream on top. Other horse and wagons were the ice man and the rag man. We could play a game of baseball in Freddie's yard. He hadn't a mother, just older sisters and his dad. The back yard was dirt like an empty lot. Usually the games ended abruptly when a fight broke out. We had no referee.  I loved roller skating, spinning tops, Hi-Li, riding our bicycles, jump rope- M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-i and many other, Spin tops,  Red Light Green Light, Stone Teacher, Captain May I-, Hop Scotch, playing War with marbles. If we were out front of our home neighbors would eventually gather.  Friends names I recall- Delores Wilson, Ilene, Tom and Genevieve Manning, Freddy Hartenberg next door, George and Jim O'Brien up the block toward Wilson, Georianne on the next corner, John and Lawrence Fogli. Jim now adds Bobby Dietrich and that Freddy used to stand outside and call Oooh-Oooh, Billy! We never phoned and no tex.  So real. If we wanted a playmate we would go to their home and call out for them. Mom or dad might call out the window, “Sorry, Billy is eating lunch now”. We lived here for 4 years packed with memory. A few times I went with Dolores to the YWCA for swim or dance lessons. We were not supposed to be there, you know, Protestants. One day after school my friend, Georgianne, walking home collapsed  and died that night from Spinal Meningitis.

Return to Chicago 1936-40 9 yrs.-13 years old

4th, 5th, 6th, 7th grades.This year my father is employed at American Printing Ink Co. in the line of  work appropriate to his education.  Family moved from Milwaukee to 4513 Greenview Avenue on north side of Chicago, 2 1/2 blocks from our school, Our Lady of Lourdes and 3 blocks from the playground.

Chase Park

I spent many hours of play at nearby Chase Park. I loved what we called 'the ringers' and would sport terrible blisters on my hands. The ringers were a string of about 8 ringers in the row of ringers hung by chain from a metal support, much like ones swings hang from. There was a wooden wedge platform I mounted at the start which raised me from the ground enough for me to catch the very 1st ringer in one hand.. Then with a thrust of my body I would leap forward for the 2nd wring. Now the objective was to twist my body 180 degrees around and get enough forward swing to catch on to the 3rd ring and so on down to the last and then return one ring at a time to the platform where I started. I needed to rub a chalk on the palms of my hands both to protect them and to keep them from slipping. This was never ending challenge to me, much to parental dismay. I would come home with the large broken open blisters on the palms of my hands. At this ‘awful’ stage I would need to do without my ringer fun until the blisters healed. The park was across from our school and provided many hours of fun for us. They flooded a rink in the winter for all neighborhood kids to skate on.  

Especially remember the black, pot bellied stove in the center of this shack where we could put on our skates or retreat to  warm our fingers and toes and the smell of woolen mittens drying against the stove, and inside that stove a blazing, red hot fire. The shack would have kids of all ages coming in and leaving. We could freely visit this park just so we would be home for dinner or for whatever was on the day's schedule. I found this piece on the Chase Park’s history.

In 1920, the Lincoln Park Commission converted a deserted semi-professional baseball field into Chase Park. Known as Gunther Park, the ball field was home to the Niesen-Gunther team beginning in 1905. The facility went out of business in 1913, during the construction of Chicago's north side professional baseball field, Wrigley Field. A community member suggested the conversion of the old ball field into a park in 1914, and several years later the Ravenswood Improvement Association and some local officials petitioned for the park. The Lincoln Park Commission finally began land acquisition in 1920. Within the next two years, tennis courts, a playground, an athletic field, a wading pool, and a fieldhouse were constructed in Chase Park. In 1934, the Lincoln park commission was consolidated into the Chicago park district. The Park district demolished Chase Park's original fieldhouse and replaced it with a new building in 1976.

Chase Park was one of seven neighborhood parks created by the Lincoln Park Commission. Five of them were named in honor of President Abraham Lincoln's cabinet members. Chase Park honors Salmon P. Chase (1803-1873), who served as Lincoln's secretary of the treasury from 1861 to 1864. In late 1864, Lincoln appointed Chase Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Early in his career, Chase became well known as a defender of runaway slaves and leader in the anti-slavery movement. As one of his initial acts as Chief Justice, he appointed John Rock, the nation's first African-American attorney to argue before the Supreme Court.

We attended Our Lady of Lourdes elementary, We had BVM nuns in the school once again as we had at Gesu Grade School in Milwaukee. Elayne and I continued our piano lessons. I think the lessons helped pay school expenses. Tuition was $2 a month per child. Noontime there would be a few kids walking about the playground holding a flat box suspended from their shoulders. The box held candies, like peppermint patties. We would buy one for a penny and if inside the chocolate covering we saw a colored creme we could win a prize. One noon hour as I arrived in the school yard a Sister approaching saw that I was walking with my head down. She greeted me and gave me a directive that I must walk with my head up high. I found this information below from a parish bulletin.  ...we closed the School program 3 years ago due to low enrollment, but the building is still intact and providing a home for our large Religious Education program and a full-time Adult Medical Job Training School. In addition, the class photos are still on the first floor walls.

Elayne and I wore these one piece, navy blue, pleated, wool serge, uniforms. We had stiff, white collars and cuffs which snapped on and off.  We would remove them at night and scrub them with a brush and sudsy water to wear the next day. Eventually they would develop cracks and when too many we had them replaced with another set. As we grew older, 6 & 7th grades we would get so sweaty. We wore red wool tams. The boys wore tan dress shirts and knit navy blue ties. After school we must change out of uniforms and don play clothes. This way we could wear them longer before needing to wash clothes. Our pastor, Monsignor Campbell, was a jolly white haired man.  We  attended a children`s Sunday Mass, 9 AM in full uniform.  

Older boys would deliver white or chocolate milk to the classrooms. With a long pole we opened or closed the windows, or remained after school to erase blackboards, clean erasers or dust. We considered helping sister an honor and a privilege. There were altar boys and patrol boys or crossing guards.                    


                             

At dismissal time Sousa records were played from the office and came to us over loud speakers. We marched to the music from the building to our respective corners. Reminds me of a special happening at home each morning when mother had the 'Breakfast Club' on the radio. Little Jimmy learned to march all about the house.

Don McNeil's Breakfast Club

The host called it 'marching around the breakfast table'. At school there would be occasional fire drills. Sometimes the janitor would bring in sawdust to sprinkle on the floor for a special cleanup.

At scheduled times I would return to school at 7 PM for my Girl Scout Meetings held in the school basement. Several times we scouts traveled together to the Des Plaines Forest Preserve on Saturday for a campfire and wiener, marshmallow roast. 

I have special memories from each grade. 4th Grade my teacher was Sr. Mary Edgar. She seemed to love song and drama and shared her talent with us. “I’m Happy when I’m Hiking off the beaten track. I'm happy when I'm hiking pack upon my back. Up hill and down the valley, along some winding lane with a real good friend to the journeys end tramp tramp tramp tramp tramp tramp--”. We had  a play in which we dressed in full costume as colonial folk. And I recall 
               
                        John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt

                         His name is my name too.

                         Whenever we go out,

                         The people always shout,

                         There goes John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt.

                         Dah dah dah dah, dah dah dah                                    

She was my favorite teacher of all time and probably an important reason why transferring from Milwaukee to Chicago went so well for me. We studied the History of Chicago, Chicago Fire and all that from a blue, soft covered text. I often copied answers from my sister’s last year History Workbooks for I was just a year behind.

Billy was in 3rd grade and just the right age to begin altar boy training. He would be required to learn the rubrics for his position. Along with he'd need the Latin responses to the priest's words when assisting at the altar. Et introibo ad altare Dei iuventutem meum  etc. I will go up unto the altar of God, to God who gives joy to my youth etc.

Mass Server's Card

Billy would be reciting his memorization all about our house so that Elayne and I began to learn the words along with him. There were four sides to know perfectly. After mastering his card and having the rubrics down pat he became ready to be placed on the altar boy schedule for the week.
I found this site with a beautiful copy of Mass Servers Card. St. Joan of Arc parish, Fairview, Camden, New Jersey.
http://www.fairview.ws/sjoa_church/latin.html



5th Grade Sr. Margaret Mary, quite elderly, Spelling Bees, standing up quickly when Fr. Runkle entered her classroom for special religion classes, ‘Good morning Fr. Runkle’,  during which he gave us the opportunity to ask him questions, the examination of conscience sort. 6th Grade, Sr. Barbara and my Confirmation year in which I chose Barbara as my saint’s name and read up on her life. That year we exchanged names for Christmas gift giving. I was totally disappointed when I opened my gift which was a tiny 8” doll pillow which this boy’s mother had made from drapery material to ‘fill the bill’. Recall the clothes made from drapery in Sound of Music. There was still poverty in the neighborhood in 1938. We had a Valentine box. I was beginning tonotice special boys that year-- Donald Turner and James  Furstal.

Elayne adds that Sr. Barbara also her 6th grade nun shared that she taught Elmer Layden, the Notre Dame great and he sent her a football game which the boys in her class played some noon hours. Elmer also gifted her with their classroom radio.

3rd Grade 1935-36

After the grocery store experience we were back living  near the grandparents on Highland Ave. and I was in 3rd grade. My mother said to me,” MaryKay, it’s just doesn’t seem right. We are always moving into another home when it is your birthday.” BUT, you know what? I loved this. My birthdays were always so exciting. New place, new windows to look out from, new doors to open and look into new rooms, new floors to squeak around on, new sounds and echos of voices in empty rooms, so I loved these days and days following were very special for me. Especially, during a depression who could top this for a small child? Only this time we lived in an apartment on Highland Avenue, same street as the grandparents but just across 12th Street from their 2 story Victorian 2-flat. To go any further on down towards downtown the neighborhood was almost totally black. Because of this fact we never did go further towards downtown on Highland Avenue. Though I know St. Rose Church was down there somewhere, that trip would be with my Uncle Tim.  Always, especially afternoons, the smell from the breweries was very strong. Personally, I didn't like the smell. It's aroma covered up everything else. I believe I wouldn't be able to smell a fragrant rose if I found one. 

Mother was very pregnant, well I think I knew we were to have a new sibling. She had a young girl help her out in the kitchen, etc. The girl was learning the French language in her High School classes and would share phrases with us kids. This was our introduction to foreign language. Which was such fun. Our Aunt Mary [Maime] and Uncle Mike were with us for a time. My suspicion is they were helping my folks pay the apartment rent. They added lots of mirth in the family circle. I remember hating the kidney beans in my bowls of chili and I would pick them out. That’s why I most always mash them. 

For a time we had a male roomer in the front bedroom, for extra cash and wow did his feet stink. In the apartment’s bathroom hung a single light bulb from the ceiling with no shade, and with a pull chain to turn it on and off. I discovered that if I stared even a moment at that singular bulb I would see hearts in my eyes. I thought perhaps something was going wrong in my head. Scared me yet I wouldn't tell my parents. I must have felt they had enough of problems without mine. I learned this from my Raggedy Ann book to always wear a smile. Hers was sewn on. She could be my model. I surely could be her imitator. 

We were reenrolled at Gesu Grade School. Billy was now in the first grade classroom with same Sr. Mary Jean Allen as his instructor. In first grade Billy was wearing this leg brace and needed help lacing up his high-top boots he wore in the winter. Each day in winter I'd come over from 3rd grade classroom to get him ready for his walk home. The brace went through holes in each side of the heel of his right boot.

Boys all wore knickers. I found this bit when I Googled ’knickers’. "Boys usually wore their knickers buckled above the knees in the 1920s. Younger boys especially wore them above the knees. Boys would often prefer the more manly style of buckling them below the knee. Some mothers would insist that their son buckle his knickers above the knee. The boy, however, after leaving the house would rebuckle his knickers in the preferred below the knee position. This mother/son struggle of the 1920s was immortalized in the Music Man. By the 1930s the problem was resolved and below knees accepted.”  The knickers Billy wore were always below the knees and I recall cuffs, not buttons.

                                                                          

I was allowed to be in the boys play at Gesu because they needed more children. I was to  play Little Boy Blue. Mother was upset that I had volunteered for my costume rental cost was 35 cents. One lunchtime she did put exactly 35 cents into my hand. I held that money tightly while I was waiting patiently in the hall line outside the 3rd grade classroom. When I went inside the classroom the money was gone. Best scenario would be I lost the money in the cloakroom at the back of the classroom, a narrow room jumbled with coats and book bags, lunch bags, galoshes. Now I would need to explain my carelessness to mother. This was a very, very big problem. Problem was finally resolved and  I wore a costume of beautiful blue satin. When the girls turn arrived to put on a show I played Little Miss Muffet. 

My third grade teacher, Sr. Mary Cuthbert,  was not a pleasant [happy?] woman. I have come to believe all nuns were not happy because there were only 2 places for women in the Religious, well 3 if I count cloister. These were in schools teaching or in hospitals as nurses and suppose neither of these were her forte. And did you realize the nunnery in bygone times was that place where a young girls could live so she wouldn’t have to marry that man parents would choose? Some unhappy women taught in schools. I loved math in third grade, especially the pass-out papers. Until one day sister came by my desk and yanked my hair hard for some math reason. I wet my panties. I was uninterested from that point on. And hated her. I loved reading. I had learned to read so well. And I loved to read aloud, I suppose to exhibit my skill. One day sister went almost totally around the classroom because no one was able to read a particular word. My turn came and I read proudly the word, 'mosquito' , and kept right on reading. I was fluent in the flow of words yet I recall that I often did not comprehend what I read.

During Lent we went to morning Mass as one class with our classroom nun sitting behind all my classmates. Now I would need to prepare a double sandwich-- one for breakfast and one for lunch. We were to fast from midnight, no food and no drinks and eat our sack breakfast after Mass.  One morning as I prepared my 2 sandwiches I licked the knife which had grape jam on it, or was it apple butter.  Remember my awful nun? I was afraid not to go to Communion. I weighed the problem, procrastinating, but  I ended up receiving Communion. And the possible mortal sin haunted me for years.  I wouldn't talk about it in the Confessional.

We 3 small siblings would often walk together down 12th Street to the Public Library on Wisconsin Avenue and check out books.

Building as it looked in 1990 from TREK RV

There was a special smell in that book building, paper and ink, old book covers. Occasionally we would visit the museum which was connected. In these rooms we would see these great historical displays, behind windows, of early American history, Indians, barely clothed and beautiful feathered head-dresses and teepees around fires all in natural settings. There were battleground windows with soldiers in blue and gray aiming their rifles toward the enemy, the Redcoats, and some being shot or lying bloody wounded and dead on the earth. We never tired of these trips together to the museum and library. 

Early photo of museum/library

We were often at the grandparents Morris with all the family about. I remember puzzling why my Aunt Florence and Aunt Alice, would let themselves get so fat. Then the next time I would see them they had nice slim, beautiful female figures. They were pregnant obviously yet no one talked about that. There were many new babies, Florence and Jack Collins, Judy Dobeus, Barbara, Karen and Doug Morris. These homes had these huge sliding oak doors. We, cousins, would sometimes plan out a show-time. Elayne would be the manager and I assist. After some short rehearsals the adults would gather in the adjacent living room . We would roll back the sliding doors and perform. Much clapping and oohs and ahs. Most every Sunday we were extended family all together. Time would come when some of us kids would be sent down 12th street near Wimpy's hamburger shop, to purchase a brick or bricks of ice cream. We had to hurry back as fast as our legs would carry us. The adults would open the cardboard box and cut slices from the brick or bricks. Grandmother had an ice box and a window box cooler. No such thing as a refrigerator, much less a freezer compartment in one. So we needed to serve the ice cream before it melted. We kids often tried to hang onto our ice cream so we'd be the last one with some when the other plates were empty. Must be there weren't  2nds to be had. The day arrived when my grandmother had a brand new Norge refrigerator. Height about 5 ft.

How I loved to roller skate! I loved athletics, save swimming. I didn't have as much attention from my grandaddy as my big sister did. I already told you that special grandfather story. The Irish, or at any rate this family, gave special attention to the first born. Elayne and he had a warm and loving relationship, often talking or doing something together and a dollar for her birthday.  My mother  complained about this when she was growing up. She said her brother John and sister Florence got preferential treatment. She thought this the reason her talents were not encouraged. My parents made an effort to treat each of us children equally. That ended favoritism as they knew it. 

Little brother, Jimmy, was born on just about as cold a day as Milwaukee ever has, Dec. 21, 1935. I believe it was -20 degrees and wind [wind chill??]. It was so cold. We had early dismissal at noon from Gesu elementary school due to the dropping temperature.  My parents, involved with little brother Jim's birth, were unaware of any changed school day schedule. There was no one to pick us up.  I, 8 years old, had to stop in doorways, out of the wind, and then into the tunnel which ran under Wisconsin Avenue at 13th street providing safe crossing of Wisconsin Avenue for us school children. In the tunnel I warmed up a bit, my tingling fingers and toes, yet I was a long way from home. I must have been walking home with Elayne and Billy.

JAMES KIRBY BERGIN


We were very proud of our new little brother so the freezing walk home proved well worth our inconvenience. A number of times I was sent around the corner down 12th street to a small grocery and purchased cans of Pet milk for mother to make a formula. I marveled at the way my baby brother moved his legs, as if riding a bicycle. He was dressed always in flannel kimonos, diaper, rubber panties [no such thing as plastic] , and long cotton stockings pinned to the diaper. These would get wet constantly and needed changing, along with diaper. 

Times sure must have been hard. After missing our toys for a few weeks suddenly they turned up again on that Christmas morning, '35. A bit like a survival mode. My daddy had painted all our old toys, green and black, very practical. As I recall the green paint he used wasn't that great. There was a wicker doll carriage, a dump truck, kiddie car, doll crib,a steam shovel [he didn't paint that ]. We possibly received no new presents as best I remember, though possibly clothing.   Mother must have been in the hospital for Christmas. I have a hunch our Christmas in '35 was the day our parents brought our baby home. 

Seems to me as a child there was no real hardship. I am certain my parents felt as all other parents the lack of goods and ability to purchase what the family needed. Yet we were fortunate because we had each other and the larger family circle all about us. Those make really the best of times after all. I thought of my mother expecting a child so near to Christmas. She must have lived the first Christmas Story, tough times, poor accommodations. And then she did give birth to her baby boy. We sort of lived the real thing that year.

Just about this time my father landed his job, employed permanently as a chemist  at American Printing Ink Company in Chicago. We would move from this intimate extended family circle never again to come so close together. Morris, Bergin, Collins, Dobeus. 

Days With Extended Family

My Aunt Florence and Uncle Tom lived in a beautiful large, white, frame home in Oconomowoc, WI. This was an estate with long, wide, green front yard, in the rear a fish pond, tennis court, Martins house, many trees. Always the bluejays calls which sound I learned to love with all the happy memories that go with.

The home was across from Lac La Belle, a couple blocks to the beach. I wasn't crazy about being at the lake, often cold water. My little cousin, MaryAnn took to the water like a fish. She told me recently that her father called their home 'Sundown Cottage' with all it's lovely sunsets. 

Uncle Tom had a black Packard which he parked in a garage beneath the house

                                          I would often see this big car from the side porch.

We cousins had so many special times together. The children had a toy room of their own off the kitchen near the back door. There were many toys to play with. At times it was an utter mess. Sometimes we would play in the back yard. And then there was  this wide and long front porch. We loved playing out there on the huge white wooden furniture, rockers and straight chairs, tipping them over sometimes in our imaginative play. I am using this picture once again for it shows the view to the street as we played on the front porch. 

Elayne and Grandaddy on the front lawn in Oconomowoc

There was also a screened in side porch upstairs where we could sleep on very hot summer nights. One can see the porches in the home photo above.

I recall the fun in the upstairs children's bedrooms with maids to watch over us and clean up pillow fights, make up our beds, etc. I have special memories as we cousins ran downstairs and back and forth through the large sprawling living room, our running footsteps sounding, thump, thump, thumps, on the wood floor as as we passed behind our parents visiting together seated on plush furniture beside a roaring, crackling fire in the fireplace. Along with this came the smell of the fresh lake air. These were special, delight-filled, times for the entire family, grandparents, too, all the aunts and uncles and cousins. Maids often fed the children all together in the kitchen. I recall the ice cream they made in refrigerator trays, and dished out for us, rather crunchy, icy. Recall they used a kind of pudding base. Electric refrigeration and freezing was a modern convenience in the thirties.  

Aunt Florence, Uncle Tom Collins with Baby

Is this not a lovely family group marveling at their newborn? I have a similar photo of our Kevin and Charlene beaming over their 2nd son Paul Francis Bergin Stewart.

"Beautiful", they always say, as they beam with love and pride and joy.

This is Tommy as a toddler

Later MaryAnne was born and I recall how nice and slim my Auntie Flo  looked. I was happy for her to have lost all that weight. She is/was my godmother. A few years Auntie Flo would put on belly fat once again. And then my cousin Florence was born. Eventually, Jack joined the family. Here you see some toddler pictures of our cousins. 

MaryAnn and her Sister Flossie [Florence]

Sunday drives were a big entertainment. Stores were locked up tight on Sundays. Sundays were for Church and for family together time. Routinely,  Sundays I could smell beef roasting in the oven or a pot roast for family dinner. Often family, all together, would take an outing in the automobile, adding to making this a special day. Spring and summer we’d have the windows rolled down all the way to feel the breezes on our faces and through our hair. Without air conditioning this was a welcome relief from midwest heat.  Often we would have our grandparents along with. Mother, sisters, and uncles called my grandparents Mama and Papa. Daddy would motor to a lakeside.

Little Brother Jackie

We kids would walk along the beach and collect bottle caps from orange pop [orange ones] and grape soda [purple], root beer [brown]. We used these bottle caps as play people with individual identities. Each had a personality. We had several red and white coca cola caps, too. In later years these 'people' were replaced with lead soldiers with transferred personalities. There would often be one I’d call “Barbara”. Elayne  would consistently use the name “Joan” with her play people. 

Another Outing-

Also, though not as often, we visited our Grandparents Bergin on their farm in Fond du lac, WI., north of Milwaukee. And when there, although we would occasionally see cousins, our treats were the young uncles, watching them do farm work, coming to the house for meals, chickens and ducks, collecting eggs. My Aunt Marion, Uncle Ed's wife, worked at a Children's Home. She was a nurse. Never had children of their own. I thought her job was the greatest and would often day dream about what it was like to be in such a home or to maybe have one like that when I grew up. Our Aunt Helen, a nurse, and Aunt Veronica were often home. Mother used to remark what beautiful young girls they were. Mother and dad told us of Veronica’s marriage to Harry. This was such a sad story because Harry disappeared the day after their wedding. She became a divorced lady, so young. From a Catholic view this was a tainting. For sure she was never to marry again. Some years later she did remarry and had a child, a son. She married a German Wisconsin farmer. I got the impression it would have been far better had he been Irish. Occasionally there were picnics or meals when the extended family gathered together to share, and we would play with cousins, Dorothy, Jack, Virginia, Uncle Frank's children. Francis was the eldest of my grandparents’ children, daddy's big brother.  There were more cousins later when Helen and Tim and Veronica married. Uncle John [Mansfield] never did marry and Uncle Dave, who's twin died at birth, married way late in life. He and his spouse bought me my first Martini when in college Elayne and I visited them. 

The long, gravel driveway leading from the main road to their farm home always fascinated me.

I will return at a later time to these grandparents when I was about 9 or 10 years old.