Album 1, Part 11 (pages 41-44)
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Gwen Grandchamp, Mary Lemin, Larue on Lemin's back porch.
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Mary's mother Rose (Ed's sister) taught four grades in the school next to the house. The house was 3 rooms and came as part of the teacher's pay. Father Fred Lemin was away and wouldn't be back home for a long time. Mary had a brother George who also lived there. He was away for a while, too. He was 20 or 21. There are no photos of him. He died under mysterious circumstances several years after this photo was taken. He had married and had two children. The children were lost to the family until about 1991 when one son contacted Mary. It was a surprise to learn that George had given him the name Ednar. Did George in his very brief acquaintance with Ednar Lindberg find something extra special about him that he admired so much that he named his own son Ednar? Mary wonders about that. Ednar was a very generous person and may have helped Rose and her family because Fred was gone. |
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Larue, Don, Dot, Bob, and Bert at a "Tourist Cabin" on the way to
Lansing, Michigan from Duluth
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Tourist cabins like these were very primitive and were the forerunners of Motels. The innovation was for motorists to be able to stop and park their auto right next to the door. Hotels had no parking lots, making motor travel inconvenient. Tourist cabins became popular almost overnight and spread all over the U.S. |
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Bert, Dot, Bob, Larue, and Don on the Mackinac ferry
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The ferry crossed the Straights of Mackinac between the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan. The straights connected the north end of Lake Michigan on the west to the north end of Lake Huron on the east, link to map. The ferry was a big side-wheeler with a large lower deck for autos. The trip with loading and unloading a car took about 2 hours, not counting the wait for the ferry. There is now a magnificent bridge across the straights, as seen on the modern map from the above link. Note the formal dress for the trip because of the crossing and meeting relatives at the end of that day's journey. |
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Arrived in Lansing at Ed's sister Larue Ralston's home.
Back four: Larue, Ed, Don, Orin Ralston; Front three: Bert, Ron Ralston, Bob.
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Ed and Dot named their daughter Larue after this sister. The Ralstons had a baby son Marshall. All of Ed's children were intrigued by Marshall's toes. The two middle toes on each foot were webbed. Larue Sr. was working as a nurse at the University of Michigan. Oren's profession unknown. At the time, they were living in a garage they had built as the first step of a home being built on the front of their property. There was one more stop on this journey. It was in Milwaukee to visit Ed's sister Rachael and her two children Muriel and Billy. Rachael was expecting a third child very soon. Her husband, who had suffered a brain injury when his head hit a goalpost during a high school game, had disappeared. Something was going very wrong with his thinking and he was having seizures. Rachael was having a very scary and difficult time. She fed Ed's family a baked bean dinner -- inexpensive but filling. During the entire trip, Larue had spent much time with a dish towel in hand drying the piles of dishes from the big family dinners or, worse still, with her hands in a dishpan washing dishes and scrubbing pots and pans. Throughout the whole meal she kept eying that bean pan with all the baked goo wondering if she would ever finish cleaning it in time to go play with her brothers. When the meal was finished, Ed in his usual magnanimous fashion announced, "Boys, go out and play. Larue, help your Aunt Rachel and your mother with these dishes." -- "No!!" Aunt Rachel almost yelled. Everyone was startled; then she continued, "Why should Larue have to stay in and work while her brothers play? That's not fair!" She looked at Larue, who was thrilled at the possible reprieve, and said, "Go out and play." Larue didn't move -- Ed had the last word. Ed started to object but Rachael stood her angry ground and Ed allowed Larue to play. That was the first time Larue had ever heard anyone except Ed's older brother George stand up to Ed. Rachael dared to do it and she won. From that day on Rachel was Larue's idol and later her mentor. No photos were taken at Rachel's. Dot probably ran out of film or else it was too dark by the time Dot, Ed and children arrived in the evening, or too dark when they left early the next morning. (Photos 1_29_04.jpg and 1_29_04.jpg are pictures of Larue holding Billy while Bert and Muriel play in the sand, taken in Milwaukee on an earlier visit when Billy was a baby.) |
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Ed and the boys cleaning out the old chicken yard. Don in background with Ed,
Bert with spade, Bob with hoe.
Ed replaced the high chicken wire fence with a lower fence of heavier,
attractive cross-grid wire.
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Fun on ice-covered Karlov in front of 3149 (out of picture on left).
Mostly sledding, but Bob (second from right) was skating. Bert on right with
sled.
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Same day, facing the other way (3149 is out of picture on right)
First two houses on left are Steinmetz' and Swanson's
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More sledding action
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The streets became covered with freezing rain like this only a few times each winter, so when it happened everyone came out for the special-time fun. More usually, the streets would become covered with snow, which passing cars packed down solid. This was actually better for "belly flopping," in which we'd run as fast as we could with the sleds in our hands and then simultaneously put the sled on the snow and jump onto it for a ride as far as we could make it. The first snowfall of the year was awaited with great anticipation. One year Bert awoke to a snow-covered street and rushed down into the basement to get his sled. He went into the street, ran as fast as he could, and belly flopped onto his sled. This time, however, the sled just stuck to the snow and his body kept going. He smashed his face into the sled and then onto the hard street. He hadn't realized that throughout the long year in the damp basement his sled's runners were accumulating rust. From that day onward he was always careful to take sandpaper to the runners until they were down to the metal and shiny smooth. Ice skating in Chicago was always an iffy proposition. It always became cold enough to freeze water, but then a week or so later the temperature would shoot up by 30 degrees and melt the ice. This did not encourage the local parks to flood for ice ponds. When park personnel did flood some playgrounds for skating, as often as not the wind would blow so hard that the ice froze into a washboard. The few years in which it stayed cold enough, long enough, with still nights for ice to stay nice, were remembered fondly. One year the Fox River froze from shore to shore and we skated on it for miles. Another year we had an ice rink on the Big Prairie (link to map) and then had a heavy snow fall. Shoveling the ice off resulted in snow banks around the rink several feet high. Playing hockey that year was especially fun because you almost wanted to be body-checked into the snow bank! Each winter Pa Lindberg (Ed) would set up a pot-bellied stove in the kitchen. Larue recalls that on these cold winter days our toes would get freezing cold and tells a story about warming them on this stove. (These stories are articles by Larue that she published in her "From the Front Porch" column in the Guadalupe newspaper). |
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Perhaps June Swanson on left, probably Bob Mackall in center with sled. Note two
more kids on skates.
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Ed carrying music stands for his Gay Don's dance band.
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Ed had played saxophone and clarinet since high school. He and a couple fellow musicians formed the Gay Dons and were very successful. They were offered full-time work at one of the big Chicago dance halls. It was just one step below the famous Aragon and Trianon ballrooms where all the big-name bands played. The Gay Dons members decided that they wanted to keep their steady jobs and use their Gay Dons work as fun and second-job extra pay. They used to practice in the parlor at 3149. Ed was probably setting up for practice here. |
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Chicago Lake Michigan beach. Left to right: Bert, Bob, Don, June Swanson, Larue.
It was too windy and cold to swim so everyone is wading with rolled-up pants.
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Same day at the beach -- everyone understandably glum.
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Don raking leaves in front of 3149 S. Karlov. Girl unknown.
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Front porch of 3149 is apparent
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Ed and boys in Sunday best: Bob, Bert, Don, Ed
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Ed, Don, Bob, Bert in car (1937 Chevy?) at 3149. Mackall's house in background
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Bert (kneeling), Bob and Larue at the Crawford Avenue bridge over the Drainage
Canal.
More extensive picture from the same occasion follow in Part 12. Link
to map.