"Coal Scavenger"

Gram and her four brothers often took a (wheel-barrow sized?) wagon to scavenge coal along the railroad tracks and burn it in the black stoves. The kitchen stove, which Gram indicated “could burn anything,” was often fed this coal, as was the other in the middle of 2nd floor that was vented upstairs for warmth. This stove sustained the family during the cold winters, but would burn wood when the coal ran out. It also held an iron on top that was used to press the wrinkles from their clothing. The home/kitchen also had a kerosene stove for cooking and baking. They baked fresh bread every day and would use extra dough to make other pastries.

"Now We're Cooking, Er, Rather, Cleaning With Gas!"

In the backyard, Gram’s oldest sibling, Myrtle, would spend a day each week to wash her long dresses with gasoline. Washboards and tubs filled with stove-heated water were the common tools used to wash clothing. Meanwhile, a garden in the front yard provided fresh produce for the family, a necessity in a time of greater scarcity before grocery stores became more accessible and affordable. Though not a generally sought after entree, Gram also tells of the family catching and cooking "bullhead" catfish for sustenance. The preparation involved nailing down the fish by it's head, then promptly skinning, gutting and cleaning. A little breading and deep frying likely made the fish more palatable.

"Bottles as Currency"

In addition to coal, the kids often found bottles during their scavenging along the railroad tracks. Their journeys between home and school also provided ample opportunity to collect and recycle the glass for a penny or two apiece. Ten cents was a usual threshold enabling them to purchase their favorite candy at the store in town.

"A Mile Longer and a Foot Deeper..."

...goes the retort to legendary stories of parents as children, walking to and from school uphill both ways in the snow during an earlier era. Gram went to school on the farm in early grade school, but later, she walked 2.5-4 miles to and from the local grade school every day. You'll hear no mention of such conditions from Gram's retelling, but a few times, she recalls taking shelter from severe weather, lying face down in roadside ditches to avoid being swept away by a funnel cloud.

"The Tempest"

Once, when Gram was a girl, a tornado struck while the family was at home. The clan promptly descended to the basement "cyclone cellar," save for their mother, who stayed at the kitchen table. She reasoned that “if it was her time to go, it was her time to go.” The storm took out the "the cows' house" (barn) and the worker’s foyer that had both been recently added on, leaving the kitchen and their mother physically unscathed. The events, however reinforced how Gram's mother had longed, since childhood, to escape the farm life.

"Contrary to Her Desires...Until One Day"

Gram’s mother spent most of her younger life on the farm, with a few exceptions, such as when Gram’s father owned a bowling alley and a service shop in town. She’d (perhaps strategically) married a man, Gram’s father, who did not work or live on a farm, but as fate and livelihood demanded, so the family followed. Right around the time Gram became an adult, however, her mother finally had her chance, as the family departed Cosmos. Gram remembers how the Cosmos home was stucco. The upstairs had three bedrooms, the middle one with a stove for heat, but it was now time to move on. Her father and brothers went to California to test their fortunes, while her mother opted to stay in Minneapolis with Gram's older sister, Myrtle. Lucille, Gram’s younger sister, also opted to stay in the vicinity, eventually marrying the owner of the grocery store chain in MN where she worked.

"To Be Educated or to Work"

All of the children attended high school, including Gram, but only the oldest few children, Myrtle and the older boys, went on to finish. The high school was ~25 miles away, in either Springfield or New Alban, and accessible by bus, but they had to have money for bus fare. The remaining children eventually dropped out to work for other families in order to earn money for their own.

"Stoker Coal"

As a teenager, Gram worked in large homes where the coal stove had a stoker. The families would order deliveries of stoker coal, small cubes cut from much large chunks. She would shovel the coal into the stoker, which sat in the first floor and was used to heat both levels. One of the homes was a duplex, where each family lived on a separate floor.

"The Jawbreaker"

In her earlier years, Gram worked in the home of the local dentist and his family, assisting with housekeeping and cooking. The family was very kind and the dentist would tend to Gram’s dental needs as they arose, including the gift of a little gold mouth bling in place of a broken lower front tooth. Just prior, Gram’s brother told her to “close your eyes and open your mouth” whereupon he placed a jawbreaker candy and instructed her to chomp down. The resulting broken tooth was quickly remedied, thanks to her employer.

"A League of Gram's Own"

Somewhere at a bank, deep in the heart of Hutchinson MN, hangs a picture of young Gram and her travelling softball team. They wore white cloth "duck suits" and shorts. It was only upon Gram's return to her nearby hometown to prepare for her daughter's pending marriage that the photo was discovered. The town veterinary supply store, Holmquist Poultry Remedies, sponsored the team and league. The two Holmquist brothers and their wives even drove the teams to their away games. What a ballplayer Gram was back in the day!

"Tip Top Tap"

Gram came to Chicago in her early adulthood and never looked back. Her cousin, Albie, ran the Fountain in the Allerton Hotel (home of the “Tip Top Tap”) and lined up a job for Gram during what would otherwise have been a weeklong visit. Gram met “Aunt DeeDee,” who would come into the Allerton cafeteria for lunch – by way of the pastry shop – from her sales job across the street in the purse department of I. Miller’s. Fatefully, she met her future sister-in-law, Marion, through Aunt DeeDee and together they convinced Marion to work with Gram in the pastry shop.

"The Girls' Dorm"

Gram initially stayed with her aunt, uncle and cousin when she took her first job in downtown Chicago. She awoke at ungodly hour of 4am for the commute. After some time, she took up residence at the “girls club,” dormitory-style housing for young women in the city, whose doors closed and locked every night at midnight (hope you didn’t miss your curfew!). As Gram tells it, there was actually no great tragedy should she miss that dorm curfew. She could simply stay in a room at the hotel, complements of the hotel management. Gram made many close friends at the girls club. One friend, Evelyn (wait, another one?), who grew up in WI and worked at the memorable eatery, Pixley and Ehlers, accompanied Gram to see Gram's sister, Myrtle, in Minneapolis. Her friend met, and ultimately married, Myrtle’s then-boyfriend. Oh well, Myrtle had more important things to attend. She was a talented pianist and she had a successful career as a private nurse who provided home healthcare to several well-to-do gentlemen nearing end-of-life.

"Mr. Harding and Mr. Sheridan"

Gram speaks fondly of Mr. Harding, who owned several buildings, including the Allerton, where Gram first worked in Chicago. As the most recently hired in the Fountain soda shop (it was still her first week!), Gram was reassigned to work in the pastry shop of the hotel. Gram met Marion’s older brother Jack when he took Marion home after her shift. Jack Sheridan was a handsome college student working at the South Water Market. By her mid-20s, Gram was married.

"The Drake and The Army are Calling"

Florence, a friend from the Allerton Beauty Shop, introduced Gram to the manager of the Drake, who frequented the shop to do her hair and nails. Two or three years after Gram first arrived in Chicago, she began working at the Drake Hotel as a receptionist/hostess in “The Lantern Room.” She enjoyed the job for a short time, notably, having served Hollywood actress and singer, Jeanette MacDonald. She soon left Chicago to accompany her husband, Jack, for 6 weeks of stateside (near Philly) Army training, following his enlistment, testing, and placement as an officer. Once Jack took his assignment, bomb retrieval on an island overseas, Gram relocated to the Sheridan home near the 8100 block of St Lawrence (a VERY Irish neighborhood back then!) but did not return to work.

"The Beginning of a Large New Family"

Before Gram's recently drafted new husband went off to war, she soon found herself pregnant with her oldest daughter. Gram went to Washington DC for Jack’s homecoming at the end of his war deployment. They bought a Jeep and drove back home to Chicago, where Jack taught Gram to drive the Jeep, manual transmission and all, as well as to shoot a gun. Later came a second child, a son who was also born in the family home. The family eventually added 3 more boys and 2 more girls.

"Gram's Incredible Recovery"

Gram nearly lost her right foot in an accident as the family was leaving Davenport (then part of the "Tri-Cities" in Iowa) to visit a cleaning plant that Jack planned to purchase. She went to stand up, looking down to see her foot “dangling by a thread.” Surgeons reattached it, and she underwent many months of convalescence, eventually making a full recovery. On a side note, Jack and Gram did eventually come to own a laundromat in Stoney Island. Gram left out a few details, including one about how she dragged herself several blocks to the hospital, on both ends of a train ride, because her foot became infected. Her recovery seemed equally as arduous as it was miraculous.

"The Mattress"

Gram once purchased a new mattress, which her two oldest sons assisted in delivering from the store. Unfortunately, the bounce in the bed of their truck was too much for the tie-downs and the mattress took a tumble off the back during transit. The quick thinking brothers opted to run the now-soiled mattress through a car wash upon retrieval from the roadway, leaving Gram to ponder how her brand new bed came to be soaking wet (but nonetheless clean!).

"The Scenery Changes as the Family Grows"

Jack worked in a number of places and roles as he and Gram continued to raise a family, leading them to relocate across several parts of the Midwest. There was the large home on the corner, the one in the Tri-cities/Davenport, previously owned by the flour company, and another large home in Cleveland at a time when Jack’s job expanded to a region of 3 states.

"George"

Gram carried a flame for two great loves in her life. Some years after the kids were grown and her longtime husband, Jack, passed away, she met George. He is remembered fondly by her family as a great man and a loving grandfather. They lived in a village just south of Chicago, until he passed some years later. One of the more amusing stories from that time, was when Gram's young granddaughters, the "Angels," stayed with George during a work day when they were on summer vacation. So the story goes, Gram was working at the nursing home that day, but the girls needed a sitter. Athough George and the girls hadn't yet become well acquainted, he spent the day with them in a nearby park, to everyone's delight.

"The Blarney Stone"

Gram and her sister-in-law, Marion, set sail on a European vacation to celebrate their midlife. Gram's brother, Richard, a 20 years veteran in the military with a wife and a little boy in Germany, was eager for their visit. But first, they ventured to the Blarney Stone in Ireland, at the behest of Marion, who sought the stone’s kiss to grant her the legendary gift of mystical eloquence (i.e. “gab”). They rode in horse drawn carts, placed not behind the horse, but at the side. The two experienced an unfortunate turn of events on a day of heavy rain, as the cart overturned and Gram sustained broken ribs, many many miles from the nearest hospital. She opted to “tough it out” and continue on their itinerary, after considering that not much could be done to repair, aside from time and rest.

"The New 'Hood"

A few years after Gram's second husband died, Gram sold their residence to her son, filling the home with his 3 energetic young ladies and two vibrant infant boys. Gram joined her adult daughter's family in a neighborhood just west of Chicago, starting a new phase of her life. The family still reminisces about time well spent in the neighborhood – and to this day, they still make the occasional pilgrimage for their favorite Italian Beef.