Glenda Teske Memoirs

 Glenda Teske Memoirs

                                                MEMOIRS - GLENDA M. TESKE

 

 

I was born on October 7, 1935, to Louie and Mabel Hinrichs with Dr. A. P. Milliken, our family doctor, in attendance.  I came into the world at 10 lbs. 6 oz. in our downstairs bedroom at the farm 4 miles west of Papineau, Illinois. I’m pretty sure this is the way it happened, although Daddy always told me I came out of the mud puddle down by the tool shed.   I was born with a strawberry birthmark covering most of my upper left leg.  Mother said before I was born, she was feeding my sister, Marian, strawberries one morning before Church and Marian turned her head quickly and the strawberries spilled down the front of Marian’s white dress.  She said she knew then that I would have a birthmark and was very concerned that it would be down the front of my chest.  I didn’t talk until I was about 4 years old and my father said that once I started, I never stopped.  They didn’t realize how lucky they were until it was too late.

 

 

 

                                                                      COME MEET MY FAMILY

 

My family consisted of:      Louie E. Hinrichs, Father                    6-10-01  -  5-10-85

  Grandma Lucy (Rock) Hinrichs and Grandpa Hans Hinrichs

  Daddy’s Sister, Della, and husband, August Schroeder

  Daddy’s Sister, Frieda, died in her teenage years of__________________

 

                                                Mabel (Kelting) Hinrichs, Mother     12/1/02   -   2-21-86

  Grandma Christina (Voss) Kelting and Grandpa Henry Kelting

  Mother’s Brother, George Kelting and wife, Donna

  Mother’s Sister, Thelma and husband #1, Ernest Glossop                             9/ 1/ 56

                                                                     #2, Robert L. Tyus                              5/28/92

 

  Brother, Ivan George, firstborn, died of pneumonia at 5 months
  Sister,  Marian Jean, born 12/2/33

 

 

 

(We never used Aunt and Uncle to address these people, except for Uncle George and Aunt Donna.  They lived in Michigan and we didn’t see them as often as everyone else, thus we were more formal with them.)

 

The way I understand it, Grandma and Grandpa Hinrichs originally purchased the farm where I was born.  Daddy, Della and Frieda grew up there.  Years later when Daddy and Mother got married, Grandma and Grandpa moved to Papineau, however, because of the Depression, they were forced to move back in with Mother and Daddy for about 18 months.  They then moved to a farm house about 2 miles east of the home place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                ENJOYING MY CHILDHOOD

 

The first memory of being in this world was practicing for the Children’s Christmas Program at Church.  We practiced every Sunday afternoon all of December.  I was so excited when Christmas Eve came, but when we walked out and took our places in front of the entire congregation, I wasn’t prepared for all the faces looking at us.  I was horrified, however, I solved the problem by picking up the hem of my dress and  raising it high above my head.  Guess what!  Everyone disappeared and I sang just like we had practiced.  I’m sorry to this day for my parents.  I often wondered if that was why we could never talk Daddy into going to Church with us.  When I had one of the leading parts in our High School Senior Play, it was all I could do to convince my father to come and see me perform.  He was probably still having flashbacks.

 

My sister, Marian, was the perfect little “girl” with long blond banana curls.  I had dull brown hair cut in a Buster Brown style and was a total “tomboy” who mostly wore boys shoes because girls shoes just wore out too quick on my busy feet.  At Christmas, Marian always was the beautiful blond angel in the Church Program and I was always the donkey. 

 

I hated baths.  I played with worms and snakes and climbed trees.  In spite of all that, I was Daddy’s girl and Marian was Mother’s girl.  It was perfect.  Mother and Marian were the girls in the family and Daddy and I were the guys.  After supper, Marian sat on Mother’s lap and I sat on Daddy’s lap at the kitchen table and we’d talk.  About everything.  This lasted through most of Grade School.  In my opinion, our parents were perfect.  My Mother only laid a hand on me once.  At about age 10, I disagreed with something she wanted me to do, shut my eyes and stuck out my tongue.  I got a fierce backhand across my face and never considered disagreeing with Mother again.  When  Marian and I were naughty, Daddy would send us down to the creek to get a willow switch with which to be spanked.  Marian, true-blue as she was, always got a great big one.  (What was she thinking!)  I would get a really little one.  Marian always got her spanking first, because she was the oldest and should have known better and I learned early on to begin crying when she got her spanking.  Who wants to hit a kid who is crying already.  When I misbehaved, I would sometimes catch a glimpse of Daddy hiding a little smile on his face.  It didn’t take me long to figure out that if I misbehaved in a humorous way, punishment wouldn’t be as bad.  Marian was always the good little girl.  I was always in trouble and Marian always made allowances for me and stuck up for me.  When we would return from Sunday School and Mother would ask what all those marks were on Marian’s arm, Marian would shrug it off.  One day, I heard Mother ask so I told her, “That’s from my biting her while we are in Sunday School.  I don’t have anything to do after I finish coloring my picture”.  Marian would never have told on me.

 

But then there was the time we were at Gus and Della’s playing outside.  Marian was all engrossed in playing with a wooly caterpillar on the sidewalk.  I wanted her to play with me - so I simply stepped on the caterpillar, to eliminate the competition, when she wasn’t looking.  She asked if I’d killed it and I said no.  She proceeded to pick up my foot and look under my shoe.  I didn’t like that so I sunk my teeth into her shoulder.  Gus and Della had an ice-box and the iceman would deliver a block of ice every week.  It was a great treat to suck on a little chip of ice in the hot summertime.  My punishment was that Marian got to suck on a piece of ice, as well as put a chunk, wrapped in a washcloth, on her shoulder and I just had to sit and watch.  After 20 minutes of this, we both got up and went back outside to play.  She sneaked me what was left of the ice she’d had on her shoulder. 

 

Marian and I went to the Jones Elementary School about 1/3 of a mile from our house.  We walked to school every day.  There were only about 15 kids in school.  When I was 5 years old, Mother would let me walk to school to meet Marian at the end of the day and walk home with her.  She would see me running just as fast as my legs would go so I could get there before school was out and the teacher would let me sit in one of those wonderful little school desks.  Who could refuse a hot, sweaty little girl who was all out of breath and had to sit somewhere.  Since there were so few kids in our little country school, the teacher let Marian skip 2^nd Grade and go from 1^st to 3^rd Grade.  When I came along, same situation.  I also skipped 2^nd Grade.  Which put us graduating from High School at 16 years old.  Marian was an excellent student and this change didn’t effect her at all.  Me?  A different story.  God wasn’t as liberal with the gray matter he handed out to me and sometimes it was difficult.  We were good kids in school.  We were told that if we ever got into trouble at school, we didn’t know what trouble was until we got home.  We had one really mean teacher.  One of our classmates was doing an Arithmetic problem on the blackboard and just couldn’t come up with the right answer.  The teacher smacked her across the back of her bare legs with a yardstick time after time telling her to get the answer right and she could sit down. The little girl did not have the ability to come up with the right answer and I think the teacher knew that.  We kids knew it.  I think she just liked to be mean.  It was at one of our “Mother and Daddy lap sessions” that we were saying how sorry we felt for this little girl.  She just had a hard time learning.  Daddy was on the School Board, which meant nothing to us, however the teacher was gone shortly after that incident.  And then we got a teacher just the opposite - you got all A’s and all you had to do was show up for school.  OK, now we’re talking!  She was my kind of teacher. 

 

Basically, I think we were thought of in the community as good kids.  We worked hard because Mother and Daddy worked hard and we were expected to do our part.  We hunted eggs, milked cows, fed our sometimes 37 cats in the barn, etc.  The most fun for me was milking the cows and squirting the milk in the cat’s mouths.  They’d catch on to that really quick and some of them didn’t even have to do a lot of cleaning their faces later.  I always had the biggest  crowd of cats because I goofed off the most.  And I always had the least amount of milk in my pail too.

 

Daddy loved horses and we always had a couple of them.  He also got us a pony.  Marian was an excellent horseback rider and the horses loved her.  The pony hated me - and I him.  I always wished they had an On and Off button because “Whoa” didn’t always work for me.  When I was 10 years old, Daddy bought me my own tractor.  I helped him in a field a lot and was a better farm hand than most of the neighborhood teenage boys.  I never broke anything or took out a fence line or gave Daddy an ounce of trouble.  He was always proud of his tomboy.  My greatest feat was taking the disk across the creek to our other farmland.  I had about an inch on either side when I crossed the steel bridge.  I had no trouble making it and Daddy almost popped the buttons on his shirt, he was so proud.  I loved those days.  Sometimes he and I would work all day in the fields and I always felt I accomplished something special.  I was with him a lot in the summer.  I loved getting dirty and greasy and doing guy-stuff.  I loved the smell of gasoline and grease.  When I was in High School, when he needed help in the spring , he’d  let me take an occasional day off school to work in the field.  It was the perfect time to get a great suntan for the High School Prom.  So that worked for both of us.

 

Marian and I also took turns taking care of our baby cousin.  This family lived about a mile east of us and Mother first was doing the babysitting for them at our house when both of them were working in the field.  I don’t think we were much more than 9 and 11 when we started babysitting.  In that day, you babysat for nothing because it was always for relatives or neighbors and that’s just what you did.  One summer, when the family had another baby, I stayed with them while the Mom was recuperating.  I couldn’t have been much more than 10.  I fixed breakfast for the Mom and Dad and watched the 3 year old, did the horrible job of washing the separator (a machine that separates the cream from the milk - they had a lot of milk cows) every morning and fixed their dinner and supper.  The Mom was there to tell me what to do but it was a big job for a 10 year old.  Just taking care of the 3 year old was a job.  Feeding her, giving her a bath, putting her down for a nap, keeping her out of Mom’s hair and bedtime.  About the 6^th day, I saw Daddy drive past in his truck.  I told the Mom I thought I was sick and I’d have to go home for a little while.  I did and I remember sitting on Daddy’s lap and crying my heart out.  I was so tired and lonesome for home.  But I went back the next day and worked until the Mom was well enough to do it alone.

 

When Grandma Kelting got sick with colon cancer, Mother would have to stay with her for 5 days and nights and my aunt, Thelma, and Ernie would come home from Chicago on weekends and do the other 2 days and nights.  Daddy would get Marian and I up at 5:30 a.m. and we would go out to the barn and help him milk the cows (there was probably a little squirting the cats on my part) and do all the chores.  Then we would come in and make breakfast, get cleaned up and go to school.  When we got home from school, it was out to the barn again and then come in and make supper.  This went on for about 6 months.  We never thought of complaining.  Mother was gone and we helped out.  We just felt bad that Grandma was so sick and we missed Mother a whole lot.

 

Even though we were busy all the time, I still had time to go back to Chicago with Thelma and Ernie for a week one summer.  They would go to work in the morning and I would busy myself cleaning their apartment.  They had their windows open a lot (no air conditioning in those days) and it was the first time I got acquainted with the dirt and grime of Chicago air. I loved sleeping on the sofa at night and listening to the street cars a block away.  During the day, I could walk up to the shopping district only a block away and go to the movie or just walk through stores, or whatever.  At that time, it was a very safe place.  I think I was 11 years old at the time.  One day Thelma took me to her office with her.  I spent the whole day there - just watching everyone.  I watched her do her job as Secretary to the President of a big Calendar Company.  She always looked so beautiful and professional when she went to work.  She would take her steno pad and go in and take dictation from her boss.  Then she would come out and type those perfect letters, go in and have him sign them, put them in envelopes and mail them.  I knew after an hour there, this is exactly what I wanted to do when I grew up.  She was the perfect roll model for my career.  Some nights, even though she had a full day at the office, she came all the way back to the apartment to pick me up and drove back downtown on Lake Shore Drive just so I could see all the wonderful lights of the city at night. 

 

 

 

 

We didn’t go on Family Vacations, per se’.  First of all, there wasn’t enough money to do vacations.  We did well to get a couple new articles of clothes for school in the fall.   Thelma, and Ernie would come home from Chicago every weekend and we would always spend time with them on weekends.  Before Church, we’d stop there every Sunday morning and I’d have a dill pickle on a slice of bread for breakfast.  Our other aunt, Della, and Gus lived about 3 miles south of us and we spent a lot of time with them too.  My favorite food at their house was carrots I’d pulled out of the garden.  I’d crawl under the front porch, spit on them to get the dirt off, and eat them.  Now my aunt would have been happy to give me clean carrots to eat, but it was just more fun to do it my way.  I learned a lot from Gus.  He taught me to always scratch my back with my fork before I started to eat.  I thought I should show the family what I had learned when we had the Minister and his family over for Sunday dinner.  Mother was, once again, mortified by my actions.  Gus also taught me to spit on the nail before I pounded it in with the hammer.  He was full of great ideas - and I tried them all. 

 

Actually, we did go on one vacation to Michigan to see Aunt Donna and Uncle George.  They lived in Battle Creek, Michigan and one day we all got into the car and took off.  At that time, cars were pretty unreliable and you always had to have a bunch of wrenches and tools under the front seats in case you had car trouble.  By the time we got to St. Anne, 8 miles from home, I had all the wrenches and tools out from

under the seats and had asked at least 25 times, “Are we there yet?”  That was our one and only family vacation.

 

My mother was a wonderful person in so many ways, but she wasn’t the best housekeeper.  She was real clean, but kind of messy.  She’d clean under it and put it back down.  Her kitchen counter was always a mess.  But in her defense, she did a lot of work outside, milking cows, taking care of the chickens, working in the field with Daddy (before I came along), etc.  My farm aunt, Della, was perfect in my estimation.  Her house was always clean and she never had any clutter.  (But the only time she went outside was to hang up clothes on wash day.  She never had to go to the barn or chicken house).  I knew when I grew up, I wanted to keep my house just like hers.  She was my housekeeping roll model.  She also taught me how to sew.  She made a lot of clothes for Marian and I.  We didn’t go to a Department Store, we’d go with her to the Feed Store and pick out the material we wanted for a dress.  The feed was bagged in the material she used for our dresses.  It was beautiful!  And a new dress to Marian and I was something really special.  Gus and Della would take us to Watseka to the movies once in a while.  We’d go next door to the Police Station to go potty (because Della thought the restroom in the movie theatre wasn’t clean enough) and then we’d go for ice cream.  Do you know how exciting that was for us little kids who seldom went anywhere except to Church.  Speaking of Church, Marian and I would always work the Ice Cream Socials our Church would have every summer.  One year a lady made us all crate paper dresses to wear.  When they were getting us dressed, one lady said to another while dressing me, “She could be such a cute little girl if it wasn’t for that ugly birthmark on her leg”.  I hadn’t even realized that it was ugly until then.  I was about 7 years old.  That stayed with me and is still with me.  The lady has since died, but she’s never been forgotten.

 

I was very close to my father and one of the most important things he ever said to me was, “Girl, you better work on your personality, because you’ll never be pretty”.  I said, “Daddy, what’s personality?”  One might think that was a little cruel, but it was some of the best advice he ever gave me.  And I never was pretty, but you don’t necessarily have to be pretty to get through life.  In fact, the real beautiful people have a much rougher time because they rely on their beauty to get them through.  I worked hard on my makeup and trying to make my straight, ugly brown hair look good.   Daddy also told me that everyone has some good in them.  Even if it’s hard to find, it’s there, and you should look for it.  Especially with someone you may not like real well.  He also said always be kind to people and they’ll be kind to you (that was a personality lesson).  I was not a kind little kid.  I was a brat with a capital B.  I had a sister who loved me, in spite of how bad I was, so I didn’t have to be kind to anyone.  And my family loved me, in spite of how bad I was, so I didn’t think I had a problem.  And then one day I woke up and found there were more people in the world besides my immediate family and it was time to shape up.  Also, Daddy said you should always give your employer a good days work for the dollar he’s paying you.  Boy, I did that!!!  And always be honest!!  Later on in life, I worked for the most difficult person in the world for 35 years.  He said I may not be the smartest person in the world, but I was definitely the most honest.  Coming from him, that was such a huge, huge compliment and I said a little “Thank You” to Daddy for his wise teachings.

 

We were closer to Mother’s parents than Daddy’s.  Grandma Kelting worked very, very hard milking cows, feeding chickens and turkeys.  She had a big turkey pen in the woods behind their house.  She sold chickens and turkeys for the money they needed.  The biggest problem, in those days, were chicken thieves.  People had no money to steal, so thieves took their possessions.  Grandma’s biggest fear was that her chickens would be stolen.  Grandpa Kelting wasn’t home very much.  He spent a lot of time in Michigan with my Uncle George doing carpentry work at Uncle George’s dairy farm.  Marian and I would take turns spending  nights with Grandma as she was afraid to be alone.  She was a wonderful, warm person and everyone loved her dearly.  After Grandpa had been gone to Michigan for over a month, Thelma and Ernie came home from Chicago one weekend, called Grandpa in Michigan and told him to get home NOW or when he did get home, Grandma would be living in Chicago with them.  So he came home.

 

One of my special memories of Grandma was that she would be stirring something in a kettle on the stove and she would be talking softly while doing so.  I though she was talking to something in the kettle.  So one day I pulled up a chair to the stove and looked into the pot.  I didn’t see anything.  She thought that was real funny.  Grandpa was a wonderful carpenter.  He was one of 6 brothers and it seemed his parents (who I’ve never heard a word about) had money.  His father gave each of his boys “x amount of dollars” to make their way in the world.  A couple of the brothers moved to California, invested their money, and were thought to be our rich relatives in California.  Grandpa elected to buy a house 2 miles west of Papineau and remodeled it.  It was the showplace of the neighborhood.  They even had a bathroom and electricity.  And a real electric refrigerator.  No one else had any of this.  He raised baby chickens and had a long low building called a Brooder House,  and it was full of incubators, which are long low heated trays for baby chicks that was also heated by electricity.  These little chicks were “uptown chicks” -  they had it made.

 

Our grandfathers were very unique in that there were 6 brothers (no girls) in each family.  Grandpa Kelting’s brothers were all short and clean shaven.  Grandpa Hinrichs’s brothers were all about 6’3” and all had the same kind of a mustache.  It was hard telling them apart in a picture.  The brothers in each family all looked identical (especially to us kids).  Grandma Kelting was very tall and Grandma Hinrichs was less than 5’ tall.  We always thought the big Grandma and big Grandpa should have married each other and the little Grandma and little Grandpa should have been together.  Besides, we were closer to Grandma Kelting and Grandpa Hinrichs.  We didn’t know Grandma Hinrichs very well because she was always sick and in bed most of the time.  Grandpa Hinrichs always had candy in his pocket.  Grandpa always had candy in his dresser drawer too.  One day I helped myself to some of his chocolate, which turned out to be X-Lax - a powerful laxative.  Needless to say, I had a lot of time to meditate on “asking instead of just helping myself”.

 

Grandpa Kelting was a seed corn salesman and loved to tip a few and talk politics.  One of my worst memories of staying with Grandma and Grandpa Kelting was having to listen to the news on the radio.  I just hated the news.  There was a newscaster named Julian Bentley.  I thought it was Julia and Bentley.  Night after night I waited for Julia to say something but she never got a word in.  There was another newscaster named Gabriel Heater.  He was awful too, but the worst one was Walter Winchel who was real loud, always hollered the news and had a teletype running in the background that was making just as much noise as he was.   I’ll never forget the day the war with Germany was finally over.  I was so happy because now there wouldn’t be anymore news and we’d never have to listen to those guys again.  Wrong!!

 

As I said, Grandpa Kelting would like to tip a few occasionally.  When he’d get done with his selling seed corn, he would go whizzing past the house in his little Plymouth coupe, going to the tavern in Papineau to tip a few and see who he could argue politics with.  The funny thing was, he always forgot to shift into High Gear and drove in Second Gear.  (Our cars had First, Second and Third Gear and you had to shift  into each gear - one at a  time).  Driving in Second Gear made the engine rev so loud, you could hear him coming miles away.  We always laughed as he drove by.  He was so anxious to get where he was going, he didn’t even notice.

 

Grandma died of colon cancer and Grandpa made one more trip back to Michigan to help Uncle George with repairing his silo.  He was high up on the silo and fell backwards.  He was killed instantly.  Thelma and Ernie continued to come to the farm every weekend.  Ernie died in 1956 and Thelma remarried in 1963.  Thelma always marveled at being married twice and having the best two men in the world.  She said many women don’t even get one good one.  Marian and her husband, Earl, bought Grandma’s place.  Earl died unexpectedly in January,1967 and Marian sold the place and moved east of Papineau when the St. Anne High School district took a down turn and she wanted a better school system for their girls, Jeanie and Kay.  She Later married Roy Mogged, who was a great addition to  our family.  He is a very kind person, interested in what all the kids are doing and is always there to lend a helping hand.

 

When I was a kid, one of my best friends was my dog, Rowdy.  He was a blue merle shepherd (I heard Daddy tell someone that).  He would play “Annie, Annie Over” with me when Marian wasn’t around.  That’s when two kids stand on either side of a shed and throw a ball over.  When they throw the ball, they holler, Annie, Annie Over.  The kid on the other side knew it was coming then and had to catch it.  It if doesn’t make it over and rolls back down the roof, you say Pigtail.  Rowdy would go on one side and wait for me to throw the ball over, catch it and bring it back to me.  I could never teach him to throw it back over though.  He was with me constantly.  One day I was shelling corn into a kettle on the front lawn.  (We didn’t have television - we had to make our own fun).  Rowdy was laying near me so I decided to tie my jump rope to the kettle and to his tail for some real togetherness.  He saw something that made him get up and when he did, the corn rattling in the kettle spooked him.  He took off like a shot, kettle tied to his tail, bouncing behind him and scaring him even more.  I went crying into the house.  Mother and I got into the car and drove all over the neighborhood - me bawling my heart out the whole time.  (I never cried - I always bawled - real loud.)After a couple hours, we had to give up because it was time to come home and milk the cows.  We went into the barn and there was Rowdy.  The kettle had gotten wedged under the gate when he ran into the barn and he couldn’t go any farther.  I must have had that jump rope tied pretty tight to his tail.  I was so glad to see him.  One day when Daddy and I were working on some farm machinery,  Rowdy killed a skunk in the woods.  He was so proud that he brought it to us and laid it right down on Daddy’s tools.  We both scattered.  The smell was so bad.  Mother gave Rowdy some milk to drink and after he drank his milk, he went right down to the creek and took a swim.  I guess he didn’t like the smell either.  Then Mother had to give us some milk to wash the tools with.  Farm families just know so much!!!!  It’s all about survival, I guess.

 

Our little country school was consolidated in 1946 and I went to the Papineau Grade School for my 7^th and 8^th Grades.  It was pretty exciting for me to ride the school bus.  At the same time, Marian started riding the St. Anne High School  bus and she wasn’t nearly as excited.  I graduated from Grade School with pretty good grades and got the American Legion Award for being a good citizen.  (Guess that meant I hadn’t driven the teachers totally nuts).

 

                                                                                                                 

                                                                HITTING THE BIG TIME

 

Finally I hit the big time and started St. Anne High School in 1948. Marian had been there for two years already - breaking records with her excellent grades and taking subjects that I could even pronounce.  The teachers were so impressed with her and welcomed me with open arms.  Well, were they in for a surprise!  I didn’t go there with the intent of learning anything.  I was there for the social life.  I’d been a country bumpkin long enough.  Marian had been so busy with her studies, she hadn’t had time for any fun.  Well, I changed all that.  She always said her best years in High School were after I got there.  At least I was good for something.  I certainly wasn’t any good at Algebra.  The teacher took me out in the hall and said there were 142 questions on the test, we’d taken the day before, and I got 143 wrong.  I asked her if I spelled my name wrong.  She really should have sent me to the Principal’s Office for that smart remark but I don’t think she thought I was even worth it.  Biology was horrible.  There wasn’t a thing in that book that interested me and the teacher was so boring.  English wasn’t any fun.  PE was OK but I had asthma so bad, I couldn’t go near the shower room, so after PE, I had to go through the rest of the day less than “fresh as a daisy”.  Civics was a hated subject for me.  But I saw a lot of football games, basketball games and went to all the Proms.  I dated my share of jocks, wimps, macho guys and the best thing was that when I was a Senior, I was only 16 years old and I could also date the Sophomores.  So I had a wide range to choose from.  This was what school was all about.  But then I got to be a Junior.  Along came Bookkeeping, Typing, Shorthand, Public Speaking - hey, this is fun!!!  Once again, my memories of going to work with Thelma surfaced.  All the sudden I was getting all A’s - except for the dreaded History when I was a Senior.  Every 6 weeks I got a big red F on my Report Card.  I even copied test answers off the girl next to me, who was always on the Honor Roll, but my eyes weren’t that good and I wasn’t about to wear my glasses.  (I’d buried them up in the hayloft in the barn years ago.)  One thing that was a big distraction was that our teacher was also the football coach and a real Hunk!  I didn’t hear a word he said, but I never took my eyes off him.  He said he just couldn’t imagine why I wasn’t doing better in class because I was such an excellent listener.  I couldn’t tell him that I wasn’t listening, I was only looking.  I could not graduate without passing History.  I already had a job at First Trust Bank (just because Marian worked there and they expected the same wonderful job from me that she was doing???) and I was already working there on Saturdays.   So, because I was doing so well in Public Speaking, we were assigned an hour speech on any event in History that we wanted to talk about.  I can’t imagine that I even came up with an event to talk about, but I got an A on the speech and that got me out of school.  The teacher called on me to do my speech first and after I finished, he told the class that this would take too long for everyone to do a speech so he was canceling the assignment.  I knew he did this just for me so he didn’t have to put up with me for another year of learning nothing and I really appreciated it.  Another of my good subjects was Shorthand.  I had a wonderful teacher who appreciated my interest in the subject and would let me come to his classroom when he had a free period and I had a Study Hall.  He would dictate as fast as he could and I could always keep up with him.  I really wanted to be a Court Reporter when I graduated but was turned down because I was only 16 years old.  I had told my Shorthand teacher about my aunt and how I wanted to be just like her.  He asked me to write him a letter and let him know when I reached that goal.  (I would write him that letter in 5 years and tell him I’d done even better than my aunt.)

 

While in High School I learned several hard lessons.  First and foremost - never trust your best girlfriend.  My best friend, Patsy, and Dick were going steady.  Elwood and I were going steady.  (If you think Elwood is a funny name, his nickname was Bones because he was so skinny - so take your choice).  The four of us went everywhere together.  Dick and Elwood were on the basketball, football and baseball team. …first stringers - really good!   This little country bumpkin felt pretty special.    One Sunday night Marian and I drove into St. Anne and I suggested stopping by Patsy’s house.  As we neared her house, I was amazed to see Elwood and Patsy just getting into his car - but stopping  first for a long kiss.  I was devastated!  The next morning at school we all met at our lockers - which we had conveniently traded with other people so we could all be together.  Everything was cool.  Patsy was hanging on Dick and Elwood was being a real sweetheart to me.  I knew I hadn’t been seeing things and wondered how long it would be before either of them said something.  It never came and I finally broke the ice.  That was the end of Dick (boy, was he surprised) and I and they became an item immediately.  The sad thing though - she was from a strong Catholic family and he was from the Wichert Reformed Church and the parents forbid them to get serious.  Patsy later married a drunk and soon was  divorced.  Elwood joined the Navy and left town.  When he was out of the Navy, he came into the Bank one day and asked me out.  I just laughed and walked away.  We see each other at the Class Reunions but we don’t speak.  Patsy has lived a real hard life and is a mess now.  Elwood got married after the Navy, divorced and remarried some young, beautiful girl and seems happy.

End of that Chapter.  That puppy love heartbreak took a while to get over.  I was only 15 years old, but age doesn’t matter in some things.  After that, I had few girlfriends.  I found that boys were more trustworthy and had a lot of buddies among the guys.

 

One of the worst things I experienced in High School was explaining my birthmark to everyone.  I got so tired of hearing, “What happened to your leg!”.  In PE, we had to wear shorts so there I was, in full view of everyone.  Occasionally our PE class would have to play volleyball during the lunch hour in the gym and the whole school would sit and watch.  At our first game, I could just hear the buzz in the bleachers wondering what was wrong with my leg. The bad part was that I was trying to impress some of these guys in the bleachers and here I was, Miss Dork!!!  It was horrible and I vowed I would never wear shorts again once I was out of school.

 

                                                                IT”S TIME TO GROW UP

 

I graduated from High School in 1952.  All the other graduates were out partying, but I went home early because I had a job at First Trust and had to be at work at 7:45 a.m.  Marian had a sleeping room (you didn’t have apartments in those days) with a real nice couple about 6 blocks from the Bank.  Mother and Daddy had seen an ad in the paper and they went to meet Paul and Doris McCullough, our landlords.  These people were like second parents to us.  They were such wonderful people and so good to us.  I moved in with Marian.  She wasn’t thrilled about that and when we came home on weekends, she would cry to Mother about what a slob I was and how I never picked up my clothes, etc.  She was right but she was only my sister, so what was the big deal.  We had no provisions to eat in our room so we ate three meals a day in restaurants.  The first 2 weeks I had a Hot Fudge Sundae for every meal.  Marian would fret about this because I wasn’t getting my fruits and vegetables.  I’d eaten fruits and vegetables all my life.    Now it was time for the good stuff. 

 

Marian had a friend she worked with at the Bank, Arlene, and she would sometimes bring her home on weekends.  She became a close friend of our family and Marian and I were also close with her family.  Marian got married to Earl Zeedyk on January 10, 1953, moved out and Arlene moved in with me.  Arlene taught me a lot about how to dress, hair, makeup, etc.  But the best thing she did was make me open a Savings Account at Kankakee Federal and put money in my Savings Account every payday.  I will always appreciate her for this.  We have been friends for years.  We shared a lot - boyfriends, clothes, heartaches, etc.  She was on a date with Marv the first time I met him.  I told her I really thought he was neat and would she mind if I showed an interest.  She said it was fine with her.  I gave her several of my boyfriends too, but I think she always regretted giving up Marv.  I know she did!!  She and I  went on  Vacation to Miami Beach one year for two weeks.  What a great time we had.  We were dead broke in 5 days.  I called home and asked Daddy to send money.  He told me to come home if I was out of money.  Word must have gotten around because the next day Thelma called and said she was wiring me money and to stay and have a good time.  Even after she wired the money, I came home with $.02 and Arlene had $.14.  But we had presents for everyone!  In those days we didn’t have to worry about today’s problems - drugs, sex, liquor, etc.  It was just a lot of fun!  A lot of dancing and a lot of laughs.  A lot of goofy things that make memories.  I dated a lot of guys before I got married, but I never forgot Daddy’s look when he’d say before I left on a date, “Now you be a good girl!”.  I didn’t dare be bad.  It would have broken his heart.  Also, I think he was still having a problem with me being a banker, not a farmer working in the fields with him.

 

One of the biggest influences in my life was my aunt, Thelma.  Remember, Marian was Mother’s girl.  Thelma and Ernie had no children, so I was always Thelma’s girl.  Everyone said how much alike we were.  I was always her daughter at the Mother and Daughter Banquets at Church.  Thelma and Mother were extremely close.  Marian and I loved Thelma.  On Sunday afternoon, we would all three lay on the bed and talk for hours.  About school, boys, nothing.  She always had time to listen to us and was always interested in what we were doing.  When I was a teenager, she’d take me shopping with her when she was buying dresses.  She would always buy a couple that I could wear on date night too.  They were her dresses, but she would let me wear them because we were the same size.  We were tall, skinny and had big feet.  She was such a good listener and loved when we had dates and she could come over and watch us get ready.  One night Arlene and I were double dating.  My date was bringing a blind date for Arlene.  When our dates got to our house, Thelma told Arlene’s date that she was his blind date for the evening.  She loved doing things like that.  She was so much fun.  It was Thelma who one day told me that the family was worried that I would turn out to be a self-centered, selfish, think-only-of-myself kind of person because  I had been such a spoiled brat as a kid.  She said she was happy to see that I seemed to be on the right track and maybe that was all behind me.  After that conversation, I tried even harder to be a better person.

 

                                                         THE LOVE BUG BITES - HARD

 

It was in 1955 that I met Marv.  He was Arlene’s date that night.  We saw him a couple times downtown, cruising the square, after that.  There was something about him that was so exciting.  He was tall, skinny and looked like he could use someone to take care of him……and I was sure I was just the person.  However, I had to get in line.  He was one of the Kankakee Daily Journal’s six most eligible bachelors that year and had a ton of girls lined up waiting their turn.  We dated a few times but he was a hard guy to get on a steady schedule with.  I dated some other guys during that time also, but he once made a remark to me that if he ever saw a girl he dated out with another guy, he’d never date her again.  That sure scared me.  But he certainly wasn’t into dating only one girl.  He was a job jumper and Daddy didn’t like that.  One day he announced that he was going into partnership with a friend of his and would be moving to Clinton, Indiana to run a Dog & Suds Drive-In.  He had a Going-Away Party at Blossom Inn, a nightclub on Route 50 in Bradley.  There were 84 girls and 5 guys.  I wonder who planned this party!!!I went with Marv but I didn’t see him all night (he was busy saying his goodbye’s  - outside) but I knew after all these girls left, it was me he was taking home. After a couple of months, Arlene and I decided to drive down to Clinton and see him.  I told him we were coming but he was still in bed when we got there - after a 3 ½ hour drive!  He didn’t seem especially happy to see us but I was sure happy to see him.  He came back to Kankakee about 6 months later weighing only 155 lbs. and looking like he hadn’t eaten or slept for days.  He started working at Mutual Finance Company.  The single girl in his office was a 42, 24, 36 and I was no competition for her.  However, she got pretty serious with a guy she later married so I had never given up.  Marv later left Mutual Finance and went with Model Finance.  He worked in the Kankakee office for a short time and then they transferred him to Battle Creek, Michigan for more training.  I missed him so much and talked Mother into visiting Uncle George and Aunt Donna so I could see him again.  We got there Friday night and Saturday, Marv and I went to the jewelry store and picked out my engagement ring.  I couldn’t believe it.  I was so happy!  August 18, 1956.  That night he brought me back to Aunt Donna’s and I woke Mother up and showed her the ring.  She was all happy too, however, Daddy didn’t share the same sentiments.  Marv was a job jumper and he’d had two more jobs in the last couple months.  But I just knew he’d found his calling - the Finance Business.  He worked for them for the next 40 some years.  Thelma and Ernie loved Marv.  Especially Ernie who was also a die-hard Cubs fan.  They watched baseball games together and talked sports and were a happy duo.  But Daddy wasn’t so easily won over.  Daddy didn’t like job jumping, sports, drinking, smoking and a lot of other things Marv did.  But, really, I can’t think of anyone Daddy would have been happy with.  Isn’t every Daddy that way????

 

Marv took me to meet his parents in September.  They were farmers but they weren’t like our family.  They were very strong Lutherans and I don’t think his Dad ever missed a Sunday in Church.  My Dad very seldom saw a Sunday in Church.  My folks had two kids.  There were 11 kids in Marv’s family (2 died at birth).  They prayed before eating and there wasn’t a word spoken while they ate.  They were at the table to eat.  Talk later.  At our dinner table, everyone had their mouth going and there was never a moments silence.  I recall that during dinner with his family, I said something and all eyes were on me.  That’s the last time I opened my mouth.  His mother was a fantastic cook and made the best fried chicken in the world.  But food got set on the table that never got passed because no one talked - or would think of asking for it.  If they couldn’t reach it, it just sat there.  I couldn’t understand that.  I helped with dishes and tried to be nice to everyone but I never thought any of them liked me.  I wasn’t about to sit with the women and kids in the kitchen and stuck to Marv like glue. … which put me in the dining room with the men.  Guess that wasn’t appropriate.  But through the many years to come, I never sat anywhere but beside Marv for dinner.  After the boys came along, they sat with us too.  I was the only one though - so I guess that made me different.  But I didn’t really care.  It was only last year that Elaine told me how much she liked me and how tickled she was that Marv married me.  Also one of the nieces told me that I was always her favorite aunt - I was so cool.  So after 50 years, maybe they’ve gotten used to me.

 

We got married at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Kankakee on October 14, 1956.  It was a hot day, 93 degrees.  Fortunately, we didn’t get married until 7:00 p.m. so it had cooled off a little.  We had a candle light wedding and the church was packed.  I told Daddy I was scared.  He couldn’t understand why.  Here was this farmer from the country, in this packed strange Church, and he wasn’t a bit nervous.  There were many, many old girlfriends there, but I had a couple old boyfriends there also, so it wasn’t completely one-sided.  We had our Reception at the Kankakee Hotel.  Daddy and Marv’s dad were in the buffet line together.  Marv’s dad looked at the finger sandwiches and said it sure wasn’t much to eat after picking corn all day.  After honeymooning for 3 days in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it was back to work.  Marv had been transferred back to Kankakee a couple weeks before our wedding.  When we got married, he got a raise and now earned $100.00 a week.  We had an upstairs apartment for $85.00 a month and we bought a brand new orange and white hard-top Mercury Montclair.  We were on our way…………I loved cooking and keeping house for Marv.  We had Daddy over for supper one night when Mother was in Chicago with Thelma and he warned me that  “I was going to kill that man if I didn’t stop feeding him so much’.  Maybe I wasn’t the best cook, but I did put a lot of food on the table.

 

In 1958, Marv was transferred to Elmhurst, Illinois.  He drove back and forth for 3 weeks before I left First Trust Bank and we moved to Elmhurst.  I took my letter of recommendation to a bank in Elmhurst, but they weren’t interested….didn’t even open my letter.  So, that afternoon, I answered an ad in the newspaper for a Secretary to a Sales Manager at American Screen Products Co.  I was amazed when I went in for the interview.  There were about 30 of the most professional looking women I’d ever seen, all decked out in business suits, wanting the same job I was there for.  Here I was in my white blouse and broomstick cotton skirt, straight from the farm, applying for this job.  And I got it!!!  The day I started working for American Screen, I got a call from the Bank.  They had opened my letter of recommendation.  It must have been a good one.  I lost 8 lbs. the first week I was at work.  This was the hardest job I’ve ever had.  My boss started dictating at 8:00 a.m. and went continuously until 10:30 a.m. when we stopped for the morning break.  I’ll never forget when during the dictation, he used the word “nomenclature“!  (My shorthand teacher had never used this word!)  But I didn’t blink.  There wasn’t time.  I just went on.  All the bosses would take their secretaries across the parking lot to Skippy’s - a local restaurant - for the morning coffee break.  I didn’t drink coffee so I didn’t feel I fit in real good!  A lot of girls would eat their breakfast then.  I was so scared, I couldn’t have eaten a thing.  After 15 minutes, it was time to go back and transcribe the dictation.  After lunch, it was more dictation, etc.  At 5:00 p.m. it was time to go home.  I was exhausted - but never let on!  But there were a lot of fun things too.  The company built screen enclosures for swimming pools.  We would have Hardware Shows in downtown Chicago.  We would have a Treasure Chest and pass out keys.  If your key opened it, you got a prize.  Two people were needed to pass out keys.  My boss would have me hire a model to do this and I got to be the other person and he paid me the same as the model.  I was also getting paid  back at the office, even though I wasn’t there.  I’d run across paychecks in my purse that I hadn’t even  had time to cash.  But the very best part of living in Elmhurst was that these old girlfriends of Marv’s were no longer whining to him about why did he get married.  I hated that!  And I heard it constantly - first hand.  Did these women have no pride.  I finally had him all to myself!!

 

                                                                …AND BABY MAKES THREE

 

 

We had our car paid off, money in the bank, two good jobs, but there was something missing.  We noticed it even more after spending time at family gatherings where everyone was having so much fun with my sister’s children, Jeanie and Kay.  We decided that maybe we should start our family.  I had my first bad day of morning sickness on Marv’s Birthday, February 10, 1959.  I don’t think I was able to smile until May. Even though my boss was in his 40’s, he married a girl 19 and they had just had their first baby and he knew all about morning sickness.  Also, our department had been so impressive the last 6 months, we were moved up to the front Corporate Offices.  Mr. Zanetti, my boss, had a beautiful office with his own bathroom and I had a large wonderful office right outside his door - with my own bathroom.  And boy, did it come in handy!  Mr. Z brought in a footstool for me for when I took dictation and gave me permission to hire an assistant just for me who did all the miscellaneous jobs.  He had nothing to do with her.  I worked for him and she worked for me.  Was I on a lucky streak or what!!!  It was time to write my old Shorthand teacher and tell him that I had attained my goal - and more.  I worked until September and my boss and his wife, who had a little baby boy, fussed over me like mother hens.  (I was actually afraid they’d show up at the Hospital when I went in to have the baby.)  We went to Mothers for a family dinner and I was going to keep our big secret until a later date.  My mother took one look at me and knew.  You couldn’t put anything over on my Mother.

 

And the baby did finally come on October 20, 1959.  We went to DuPage County Hospital in Elmhurst, Illinois at 5:30 a.m. and Kevin Bruce Teske was born at 3:15 p.m.  It was a hard birth - he came face first so I didn’t experience it - they told me about it later.  Marv went home for a couple hours break and came back at Visiting Hours with a comb and brush.  He’d seen Kevin and said he had a lot of hair so thought I might need this.  Was life wonderful???!!.  Five days later we could go home so Marv went and got Mother.  She was so thrilled with her little boy.  Maybe it made a difference that she’d lost her baby boy  and then had two girls.  Then Marian had another two girls so Mother finally had her baby boy.  The first night was great, but the next day, Kevin seemed very lethargic.  I thought he was just a good baby.  After he’d had his morning bottle, I got it all back - right in the face.   Next he started hemorrhaging with blood shooting all the way through his diaper.  We called the Doctor and he said to give him nothing but sugar water.  This was an 8 lb. 7 oz. baby who wanted more than water.  We got a pacifier for him.  When he found there was no nourishment in that, he spit that all the way across the room.  Mother walked the floor with him that entire night.  The next day the Doctor told us to get some goat’s milk and try him on that.  All that did was make our apartment smell like a barn.  It did not agree.  Next we tried a soybean concentrate called Mulsoy.  It worked.  We had Kevin baptized at home with only the minister and our families there.

 

At age 3 months, the Doctor said to start Kevin on baby food - chicken and carrots.  Kevin became sick again and ended up in the Hospital.  They took everything away from him except the Mulsoy and sent him home after 3 days and said I could put him back on the baby food.  Same thing, he was back in the Hospital in no time.  The doctors were looking at me like I was abusing my baby.  Was I letting him sleep?.  What was I feeding him besides what they told me to feed him?  What was I doing to make him so sick?  Once again they gave him only Mulsoy, sent him home and said to resume the baby food.  It was then that Thelma called me from work and said she’d been talking with the girls in her office and they told her the worst thing you can feed a baby who has allergies is chicken.  I fed him beef instead of chicken and we had no problem - for a while.  Then he became allergic to that.  We found that he could tolerate only Mulsoy and Gerber rice cereal (and only Gerber) and he lived on that until he was 5 years old.  At that time, he had his first 3 oz. of skimmed milk with 3 oz. of water.  We went slow and eventually introduced him to different foods.  His biggest problem was the consistency of the foods.  He was used to only smooth cereal so anything that had to be chewed was not easily accepted by him.  But eventually he was just like the other kids.

 

When Kevin was 7 months old, Marv was transferred back to Kankakee.  We had enough money so we bought our first house at 1022 South Evergreen in lower Riverview Subdivision, a block from the Kankakee River.  We didn’t have everything the young people of today need, but we got by and I didn’t have to work.  My staying home with our baby was most important to us.  We had three bedrooms, a big living room, dining room and a huge enclosed front porch.  We cleaned up the basement, painted it and this was where Mother taught me how to can vegetables.  This was the height of happiness!!

 

                                                                                                 

                                                CAREER IS ON HOLD - TIME TO MAKE A HOME

 

We had a family Birthday Party for Kevin when he was two years old.  It was at his party that it became very obvious that another baby was on the way.  Kirk was a bit shy coming into the world and had hung back for an extra two weeks.  On Sunday afternoon, April 8, 1961, my doctor called me and said to meet him at the Hospital that night.  It was time to bring this baby into the world - whether he was ready or not.  We called Mother to come up and stay with Kevin.  That night I put Kevin to bed and on our way down Court Street, I told Marv I thought he should drive a little faster.  He dropped me off at the front door and by the time he got the car parked, Kirk Alan Teske was here.  He came into the world at 9:00 p.m. at 9 lbs. 8 oz. and red as a tomato.  The doctor, who didn’t even get there in time for the birth, said he was the ugliest baby he’d ever seen.  I didn’t like that Doctor - even before Kirk was born and I vowed not to give him any more business.

 

Life was good and we lived conservatively because it was important to us that I stay home with the babies.  We obtained our family Christmas presents with S & H Green Stamps.  These were stamps that certain grocery stores would give you for purchasing your groceries from them.  We redeemed them at the S & H Redemption Store in Kankakee.  They had hundreds of gift items in the store so you could spend one book of stamps or 40 books of stamps….whatever you had.  It was just a department store where you paid with stamps instead of cash.

 

Kevin was a very intelligent baby.  He was curious about everything.  He was walking at 7 months and counting to five before he was a year old.  At 15 months he came into the kitchen one day after playing with his rocking horse and said, “Mommy, my horsy is so tempermental”.  He talked at a very early age, but didn’t get a single tooth until he was over 2 years old.  He loved being read to and was very hard to keep up with.  Kirk, on the other hand, could have cared less.  He was happy just laying in his playpen and watching the world go by.  Sometimes I wondered if he knew how to cry.  He was such a contented baby.  He sprouted his first tooth at 6 months and they came fast after the first one.  He walked at 10 months and carried a lot more weight than Kevin.

 

We were outgrowing our house on South Evergreen and had another picked out.  In the meantime we had sold our house.  Then some other buyers got their deposit down first on the house we’d picked out and we lost it.  We couldn’t find anything else so ended up trading houses in 1962 with the people who bought ours.  Theirs was a much bigger and a nicer house with a fenced yard, but not the great neighborhood like the one we were leaving.  We got extra money for our house because of the neighborhoods.  Their house had a big front porch that the neighborhood kids gathered on.  It was fun living at 215 South Sibley, Kankakee, Illinois.  The boys had some good times there.

 

It was at this time that Kevin started Kindergarten.  He was not happy about this change in his life.  When he started Sunday School, I ended up being a Sunday School teacher because he’d cry as soon as we would leave him.  Several days after Kindergarten began, the teacher called me and said he’d have to drop out if he didn’t stop crying.  It was disturbing the whole class.  He stopped crying, but was determined to leave school  and come home.  When I would do morning dishes, I would keep one eye out the window because I was just sure I’d see him coming in the back yard any minute.  One day the teacher caught up with him just as he was crossing Indiana Avenue (old Route 54) with his tennis shoes (for play time) tucked under his arm.  She knew then that he wouldn’t leave school without taking his tennis shoes with him, so all she had to do was stay between him and his tennis shoes.  A friend, whose little boy was in the same class, would pick Kevin up for the ride to school.  We thought that would be easier on him than me dropping him off.  It wasn’t and it was hard on her.  But eventually things got better and he graduated from Kindergarten with real good grades.

 

It was when we lived at this house that Marv, one Sunday afternoon, saw an ad in the paper - Kittens to Give Away.  He decided to take the boys to “look at these kittens”.  I argued that no children just “look” at kittens and we really didn’t need kittens.  To my surprise, when they came home, each boy was carrying his very own kitten.  However, Marv pointed out that Kevin had been trying to make pets out of the bag worms on one of the evergreen trees and he thought it would be a good experience for them to care for a real pet.  They were adorable - the kittens.  Not one time did they have an accident (I think they knew better with me around) and they were a lot of fun for the boys.  As they grew, we put them in the basement for the night.  Every day they got their Fancy Feast with an egg mixed in with it.  They grew to be huge, healthy cats with shinny beautiful coats.  They chased each other around the house constantly.  It was up onto the back of the sofa, to the chair, to an end table and on and on.  And then, one day, I started getting large red welts on my feet, legs and arms.  I couldn’t imagine where these were coming from because there were too many to be mosquito bites and no one else had a single welt.  I was at St. Paul’s School, arranging something for the boys one day, when I looked down and saw something inside my nylon stocking.  I knew then that it was a FLEA!  Horrors of Horrors!  These fleas didn’t bother Marv or the boys, and I don’t think they even bothered the cats that much, but they absolutely loved me.  It was time to dust the cats with flea powder and have the house exterminated. They hated being dusted and did their best to sink their sharp claws deep into my skin in protest.  This was not an easy job - especially when I needed one hand for scratching bites.  They came up from the basement every morning, now the size of cougars, and started the daily chasing each other.  One morning during the chase, they both jumped upon the television set and knocked off a vase of roses Marv had given me for my Birthday.  Broken glass, water and flowers everywhere!  The Cat Chapter had some to an end.  Complying with my strong suggestion, Marv took them to the Shelter and put our four legged children up for adoption.  I hope they found a good home because they were beautiful, extra ordinary creatures.

 

                                                BACK TO WORK TO PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

 

Soon Kirk was in Kindergarten…and then First Grade.  Now both boys were in school and I was home alone and there just wasn’t enough to keep me busy.  It was at that time that I decided to go back to work and maybe we could put some money aside for a nest egg.   I applied at First Trust Bank, but they had no openings.  I applied at Azzarelli Construction Co. as a Receptionist and got the job. Three months later the Bank called and said they had a position for me.  I gave my notice to Azzarelli’s and had my “going away” party. That Friday the secretary to Joseph I. Azzarelli, President, came out of his office, threw her steno book across the room, picked up her purse and was never seen again.  He had the reputation of being an extremely hard man to work for.  He’d had many secretaries over the last couple years.  He called me into his office and turned on his Italian charm, offered me the job and a higher salary.  I called the Bank and told them I was staying at Azzarelli’s.

 

The downside to working was that the boys weren’t in school in the summertime.  I took them to Powell’s Day Care Center a couple miles from Azzarelli’s on my way to work.  This place had an excellent reputation.  But the boys complained.  We listened and decided they just hated Day Care.  It wasn’t like staying with Grandma and, only recently, I realized we should have looked into the situation.  Paying day care, which wasn’t tax deductible at that time, left me no money in the summer, it only held my job.

 

We wanted the boys to have the experience of living in the country, so we bought a couple acres of Daddy’s woods and pasture land and built a new house.  The boys loved living in the country.  One April day, Kirk and I were both very sick.  He had pneumonia and I would later be diagnosed with mono and encephalitis.  You did not take time off in the summer, peak production time, when you worked for a construction company.  Kirk and I were both admitted to the hospital.  I was confined to my room as mono is highly contagious.  I would talk with Kirk on the phone.  He was far away from me.  He would hide his phone under his pillow so he could call me anytime.  The nurses would take it away after he fell asleep at night.  The encephalitis was bad and the doctor said I had to take 6 months off work.  I called and told Mr. Azzarelli that I was quitting because I knew he could not be without a secretary during the summer and I wanted him to get someone else.  He insisted that I take a Leave of Absence and he’d just use one of the other secretary’s while I was gone.  But when I went back in September, I found I no longer had a job.  I had a heated discussion with him for giving me every indication my job would be waiting for me when the doctor said I could return to work, and left in a huff, saying I would collect Unemployment Compensation.  I had never gotten paid for doing nothing before and I thought it would be fun seeing what this was like.

 

I guess news spread fast because when I went into First Bank of Meadowview one day to do some banking, the President asked me if I would come to work for them as Manager of the Installment Loan Department.  I started 2 days later.  I didn’t get a single Unemployment Check!  But I loved being back in banking, and especially in the Installment Loan Department.  I had two girls working with me and we got along great.  The one girl really liked me a lot.  I think she turned out to be a lesbian and I was glad when she quit to go back to college.  It was during those years that the mini skirts became popular.  I was just like everyone else and I had a closet full of them too.  One day, while crossing the lobby, a lady customer stopped me and asked me what happened to my leg.  It was the birthmark rearing its ugly head again.  She went on to say she pitied me that I had such a thing, because I could be quite attractive if it wasn’t for that.  She was a valuable customer so I didn’t hit her.  So much for the public!

 

After school the boys went to a baby sitter a short distance from their school.  Marie was a great gal and the boys really liked her.  Kirk kept talking about the Naughty Chair that she had for the kids who were misbehaving.  Kirk never gave anyone a problem, but one day Marie asked me if she could talk with me.  The boys waited in the car.  She said she couldn’t understand what Kirk’s problem was but he misbehaved so badly, she had to sit him in the Naughty Chair - and she felt so bad about it.  When I got to the car, Kirk was almost bursting with the good news that he’d finally gotten to sit in the Naughty Chair.  His dream had  come true.  Earl, Marian’s husband, got off work at Roper in Kankakee at just the right time so, most days, he would pick up the boys from Marie’s take them home and Mother stayed with them until I got off work and got home.

 

Earl died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 40 on January 4, 1967.  The family was heartbroken.  How he would be missed!  He was so kind and considerate.  He was just good through and through.  He was such a loving husband and father.  I cried for weeks.  He was just so dear to me and so good to me.  He always patted me on the head and called me “Little Glenda”.  That in itself would have endeared him to me because I was always such a big clumsy person, but he was bigger at 6’3” and made me feel little.   When I quit going with his brother (I had met Marv), who the family loved as much as they loved Earl, everyone was real upset with me.  It was Earl who came to my defense.  He said I was 20 years old and I should be old enough to decide who I wanted to go with.  I appreciated his support so much.

 

Soon the boys were having basketball practice and basketball games at school.  It was extremely difficult living 14 miles out in the country when they had these commitments at school.  Eventually we sold the place in the country to some great people who had horses (Daddy enjoyed them probably more than he did us) and we moved into a wonderful four story brick home at 1001 South Evergreen - right across from the first house we owned.  It was probably #3 of our favorite houses of the 14 we would eventually own, live in and sell.  It was while living there that we bought a Shetland Sheepdog (Miniature Collie).  We named her Tinkerbell.  She was a delicate, beautiful little dog.  We never once raised our voice to her.  You could talk in a normal tone and she’d do anything you asked.  We took her to the Pet Beauty Parlor for flea baths frequently.  (Didn’t want that nightmare back again!)  We had her for 12 years before we lost her to cancer.  We will never forget her.  She was more human than most people.

 

It was around this time that Marv was promoted to a Supervisor with Personal Finance and also had the title of Executive Vice President.  As a Supervisor, he traveled to 20 different offices, a position he would have for the next 35 years.  He was usually gone from Monday morning until Friday night.

 

I worked at Meadowview Bank for 8 years and every year Mr. Azzarelli would come in and take me out to lunch, asking me to come back to work for him.  For 8 years, I laughed, said not a chance, and thanked him for the lunch.  The feeling of being let go stayed fresh in my mind for a long time - and it was a really painful feeling.  One day I asked the bank President what I had to do to become a Loan Officer at the Bank.  I was doing the job of a Loan Officer each time the Officers disappeared for an hour on a coffee break, and I liked it - real well.  Now I just needed the title.  The President said women would never be promoted to Officers in his bank.  I though that stunk!

 

One day, scrubbing the basement floor while on vacation, Mrs. Joe Azzarelli called me crying.  She said I just had to come back to work for Mr. Azzarelli because he couldn’t find anyone he was happy with.  I was still miffed and disappointed at not ever being able to become a Bank Officer, so after a few days of thinking about it, I said OK.  Mr. Azzarelli always enjoyed telling people that I wouldn’t come back to work for him, that I came back to work because of Mrs. Azzarelli.

 

Kevin graduated from High School in 1977, got married to Vicky, the mother of his two children, Alicia and Michael, and joined the Air Force.  Alicia was born in Colorado, in a Military Hospital, on November 6, 1977, while Kevin was stationed at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver.  Vicky was an amazing mother and she and Alicia had a special connection.  Vicky could comfort Alicia with just touching her cheek and speaking softly to her.  She didn’t even have to pick her up.  We arrived the day after Alicia was born and helped them move to Clovis, New Mexico where Kevin would be stationed at Cannon Air Force Base.  4 days after Alicia was born, we were caravanning down to New Mexico, new Mom and brand new baby in tow, going into restaurants, etc. along the way.  Alicia was such a good baby.  Kevin was in the service for 5 1/2 years, serving two years in Okinawa, Japan.  Michael was born in Okinawa on July 30, 1980.  Alicia went to preschool there and came home knowing how to speak Japanese.  We knew Alicia as a baby and toddler before they went to Okinawa but first met Michael at the age of two when they returned from Okinawa.  When we picked them up from the airport, Alicia, 4 years old, was sitting on my lap on the way home and asked, “Grandma, do you have any kids”.  I said I did - that her Daddy was my little boy.  She really got a big laugh out of that.  Mommies didn’t have big people.  What a joy these two children were.  Alicia was a most beautiful child and Michael was a most mischievous child.  And they were both so special.

 

Shortly after going back to work for Azzarelli Construction Co., Azzarelli Development Corp. purchased a parcel of 71 lots called Freeman View Subdivision, along the lake in Monticello, Indiana.  Mr. Azzarelli put me in charge of selling these lots.  I knew nothing about Real Estate, but I soon learned.  We were driving 70 miles, one way, over there every weekend, working out of a spec house that Azzarelli Development Corp. had built.  We camped out in the house and showed lots on Saturdays and Sundays.  We cleared lots, mowed parks and roadsides and showed lots on Saturdays and Sundays…and worked our fannies off.  After several months, Marv threw up the idea that we buy a lake lot and build a vacation home.  We had to be over there anyway.  We bought our lake lot for $7,800.00.  Lots along the lake are now selling for over $200,000.00.  Our lot was a mixture of trees, briar bushes, poison ivy and dense brush from the road to the water.  We were 70’ above the lake and the view was the very best on the lake.  Incredible!! Daddy would go over during the week, while we were at work and so some clearing so it was always fun on Friday night to see what progress had been made. We had a wonderful builder, who was building his first house without the help of his father, and we told him to build it as though it were his own.  We weren’t there during the week to make any suggestions so what else could we do.  The finished house cost us $24,000.00 and had a million dollar location.  Our builder did a fantastic job and we began driving to the lake every weekend, even in the winter.  It was like being on vacation every weekend.  I loved that place!  With the commission money we earned by selling lots, we put up a sea wall and built a boat house with a deck on top.  I say “we” because Marv worked just as hard at selling these lots as I did.  What was really exciting was when we’d meet at the end of the day and he’d say, “I sold Lot #60 and I think John Doe will buy Lot #57 tomorrow”,  and I’d say, “I told Lot #34 and they might take Lot #35 with it.”  We had a lot of fun and met some great people who would eventually become our neighbors and friends.  I could not have done this without Marv’s help. 

 

After we built the house at the lake, we sold the big 4 story house at 1001 South Evergreen and bought a small Cape Cod west of Meadowview so Kirk could walk to school at Bishop McNamara High School.  This house, at 560 Zeisler Court, was also convenient for Marv who was now based out of the Meadowview Personal Finance Office.  Occasionally, he would come off the road on Thursday night and be able to go to work a couple blocks from home in Meadowview.  It was a real treat for him.  And he got to sleep in his own bed.

 

Kevin was in the Air Force and Kirk graduated from High School and began working at the Elks Country Club as a busboy.  He attended Kankakee Community College and took, among other classes, Law Enforcement.  This was the last thing in the world I wanted him to do - but we supported him.  While working at the Elks, he became good friends with Dean Thomas, the head chef.  All of the sudden he was interested in cooking.  Dean told him he could set up a dessert table and manage it, while doing his busboy duties.  One thing lead to another and soon Kirk was in the kitchen with Dean and going to Culinary Arts School in Joliet.  Now he was on the Dean’s List.  This was the kid whose grades weren’t that inspiring in Grade School or High School.  But he loved cooking - and law enforcement was history.  Yes!!

 

It was at the Elks that Kirk met Cathy, an attractive dark eyed waitress.  It wasn’t long before they got serious.  They planned on getting married in August and rented a mobile home in the woods right behind my folks house.  Since they were getting married soon, they decided to move in together the last of July….behind my Mother!  I don’t think so.  It took her just two minutes to get over there and tell them this was not going to work.  They had to be married before they could live together.  It was my Mother’s rule and the rule of the neighborhood.  So, they simply went to the Elks, gathered all their friends as witnesses and went to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and got married.  (I still don’t know how they pulled that off at St. Paul’s.  Maybe it made a difference that Kirk had gone to St. Paul’s Lutheran Grade School).    They brought their Marriage Certificate to Mother, and got her blessing, then moved in behind her.  The wedding invitations were out already so they got married again, on the designated day, with all the trimmings.  Top Management changed at the Elks, Dean moved on and Kirk started working at Dionne’s, a high class, expensive upscale French Restaurant in Momence.  Cathy began working at the Bank of Bourbonnais.  A couple years later, they bought a house in Bourbonnais and shortly after, Keith Alan Teske was born on June 10, 1987.  He came into the world at 11 lbs. 8 oz.  What a doll he was!  Every year Cathy entered him in the Baby Contest at the Bourbonnais Friendship Festival.  The first year, he got Third, the second year, he got Second and the third year, he got First.  We thought he should have had First every year.  Another Grandchild to love!  Cathy’s mom, Grandma Carol, and I had a lot of fun “fighting over whose turn it was to baby sit on Saturday morning” while Cathy and Kirk were at work. 

 

                                                                THE EMPTY NEST SYNDOME

 

Relatives of the Dionne’s came home to live and work in the family restaurant so Kirk purchased a Deli in Richton Park, about 30 miles north of Bourbonnais.  There were a lot of long hours, hard wok, a raise in rent every couple months and a lot of worries owning your own business.  I wanted to quit my job at Azzarelli’s and help Kirk.  However, Mr. Azzarelli wouldn’t hear of it and said if I would work for him just one day a week, he’d keep my insurance, pension, 401-K, etc. in force until I could come back full time.  I worked for Kirk for a little over a year.  It was the best job I ever had.  He was the best boss I ever had.  All the employees dearly loved him.  Working at the Deli was like having company and fixing lunch for them, but never having to pay for the groceries.  Marv and I rented a nice apartment at Carriage Creek Apartments just a block from the Deli.  Marv was out of town all week so I would work Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for Kirk.  Thursday I would work for Mr. Azzarelli.  Friday I would meet Marv at the lake house and we would both come back to the apartment Saturday night for Sunday.  Sunday was a short day at the Deli and Marv would spend a lot of time there, running errands for us, etc.  I loved it!

 

The Deli took its toll on Kirk and Cathy’s marriage and they divorced.  Kirk sold the Deli and went to work at Bill’s Place, a fancy supper club, in Calumet City.  There he met Mike, who would become his best friend for the next couple years, however, Mike was killed in a horrible motorcycle accident.  Kirk then came back to Bourbonnais and worked for Marriott Hotels as Head Chef at Olivet Nazarene College.  There he met Eileen, who was to become his wife on December 30, 1995.  She had a daughter, Alyssa, 3 years younger than Keith, who we loved immediately.  It was good to have Kirk  back in the area again.

 

The late nights as a Chef were cutting back on family life for Kirk.  He got a 9 to 5 job working for Handi-Pak, a fresh-cut vegetable business south of town.  This was a great learning experience for him as the owners, Mr. & Mrs. Warren Owenga and his family, took Kirk in as a part of their family.  He worked for them for three years and then they sold the business to DelMonte Foods.  The Owenga’s retired and Kirk became General Manager for DelMonte Foods.  Soon Gage was born on September 30, 1997 and then Sarah surprised us all on January 11, 2000.  Kirk and Eileen had 4 beautiful children.  We were always impressed that it was never Yours, Mine and Ours - it was always Ours.  The “step” children were never stepchildren.  The families all loved them as their own.

 

During this time Kevin had been working in Chicago and the Chicago area.  He’d broken his leg, been involved in several Triathalons and was into physical fitness.  When he came home, he’d bring his bike and ride miles and miles.  He’d run miles and miles.  He swam miles and miles.  All this is necessary when training for a Triathalon.  Frequently he’d bring Michael and Alicia with him.  These were wonderful weekends - especially when we were at the Lake.  The kids loved the water and water toys.  Sometimes the kids came to the lake with just Marv and I.  They were always so good about wearing their life jackets, even though they were excellent swimmers, because Grandma and Grandpa couldn’t swim.  We enjoyed playing with them.  We’d set the table with the good china Kevin brought me from Okinawa and pretend we were in a fancy restaurant and we’d practice our manners.  And Grandpa was the first one to drop his dinner roll and see it roll half way across the floor.  The kids laughed hysterically.  We had a lot of fun playing and pretending.  I wore short pants one day and Alicia asked me about my birthmark.  I told her I wished it would just go away.  She suggested that we pray to God and maybe he’d make it go away.  She was about 7 years old.  Michael just said I should get on some long pants.  One day we had a house full of people for dinner.  We set everyone at the dinner table and Marv and I sat at a card table.  After dinner the adults went out to play in the lake and Alicia and Michael helped us clean up.  They announced that for supper, they were going to sit at the card table so we could join everyone at the big table.  Are these special kids or what!!

 

While we were busy doing our thing, Marian and Earl had bought the farm from Mother and Daddy.  They kept the farm land and sold the woods and buildings to a man from Blue Island who had horses and a mobile home park.  He moved a mobile home out into the woods.  They would have RV Holidays in the woods.  They had the woods all fixed up with lights, flowers, toilets, etc.  Daddy worked keeping the woods and flat land across the creek looking like a park.  It was a real showplace.  I think he was happier doing that than anything else he’d ever done.  He loved taking care of the horses Mr. Smith brought out.  After a couple years, Daddy was having health problems and eventually had to go to a Nursing Home as Mother couldn’t care for him by herself.  Mother lived alone at the farm with Marian helping to maintain the place for her.  In the winter, Mother had been going to her mobile home in Florida just across the street from Thelma and down the street 4 houses from Uncle George and Aunt Donna.  She loved her little mobile home.  Daddy had gone to Florida with her for two years, but this was just too much of doing nothing for him to really enjoy Florida.  And he couldn’t have horses in the mobile home park.    Daddy would spend almost seven years inn the Nursing Home before he died May __1985.  Life was hard for Daddy his last years.  While in the nursing home, they amputated his leg and he had numerous strokes and heart attacks.  His memory was failing him and life was often confusing for him.  In his last months, I’m sure he didn’t know who I was, just that I was someone he was glad to see.  He wasn’t able to speak for his last 3 years because of one of his strokes.  I think his not speaking also had something to do with his mind confusion and he didn’t want to be talking nonsense, so he just wouldn’t say anything.  I would sit and hold his hand and talk to him, asking him if he remembered certain things from my childhood.  I’d remind him of things that happened at the farm and during our years together.  He’d nod and shake his head and smile.  I always thought he was the most handsome and compassionate man I’d ever known.  Losing him was one of the worst things I’ve ever endured.  When they buried my father, they also buried a part of my heart.  He was such a wonderful man.  Now when I think of him, and not a day goes by that I don’t, I smile remembering all the good times.  When I try to do something I’m not sure how to do, many times I wonder how Daddy would handle this and often, the answer will come to me.  I’ll look up and say, “Thanks, Daddy!”

 

After Daddy could no longer maintain the farm, we heard Mr. Smith wanted to sell the place.  In 1982, we sold our house on Zeisler Court and moved to the farm.  It was great to be back with all my childhood memories.  It was a new experience for Marv.  He had also been a farm kid but he’d left the farm when he was 17 and I don’t think he ever wanted to go back to it.  I always wanted to live in the country and to live in the house where I grew up was more than I could have ever hoped for.  Being back on the creek bank was just great.

 

Mother moved in with Marian when we moved to the farm.  She still spent her winters in Florida.  She loved living with Marian, who was working at the National Bank of St. Anne, and enjoyed being with Roy.  I think she and Roy had a lot of special times together.  One cold February night, we got a phone call from Mother at 2:00 a.m.  She said she just called because she was a little lonesome and thought maybe she’d like to come home.  I assured her that was fine and I’d make arrangements at work and we’d be down to get her as soon as we could get a flight out.  I told Marv something was wrong that she wanted to come home.  I called her the next day, but she didn’t have time to talk because she was going to the Mall and would call me later.  I did talk with her that day and that evening and told her we were coming down first thing Saturday morning.  Roy was going to take us to the airport and just as he got to the house, the phone rang.  It was Thelma saying she hadn’t been able to get an answer when she called Mother so they went to her house.  They found her sitting in her chair, neatly covered with an afghan, flashlight still in her hand (she never wanted her light to shine in the neighbors window during the night so would use a flashlight if she had to get up).  Thelma said it looked as though she’d died very peacefully from a heart attack.  We brought her back home and she had her funeral service in the Papineau Church, her home away from home.  No one was more deserving of a beautiful service in the Papineau Church than Mother.  She spent as much time at that Church as she did at home…. cleaning, painting, playing the organ, being a member of the Ladies Aid, etc.  When I would call her, and get Daddy, he would always say she was at the Church.  My Mother was a very special person.  She didn’t laugh a lot and I always felt good when I would do something that would really crack her up.  And I loved seeing her laugh.  I wish I had made her laugh more often.

 

                                                                                                   

                                                                THE NEST FILLS UP AGAIN

 

When Alicia was in 8^th Grade, Kevin and Vicky decided she and Michael should live with us until she graduated.  They were already going to school at St. Anne Grade School so it would be no problem for them to catch the bus at our house and continue.  The big problem was Alicia had to learn the Constitution before she could graduate from 8^th Grade.  Kevin was living in Chicago and Vicky was having a few problems and couldn’t give as much time to Alicia, and her school work, as she was going to need.  Now,

remember how I hated History and Civics!  And now I was going to have to teach it?  If she didn’t like this project any better than I did, we were both in deep trouble.  But I came upon the idea of asking questions of Alicia, saying I didn’t understand this or that, and what did such and such mean.  All of the sudden Alicia was the teacher and did her best to explain it to me so that I would understand.  Ha!  This plan was working!  Alicia graduated with flying colors - and I really didn’t learn a thing.  It went in one ear and out the other  -with nothing to slow it down.

 

It was such a joy to have the kids with us.  It was kind of hard too because Marv was out of town all week and I was still working part time (short days).  Michael and Alicia were good kids but had a bad habit of swinging their book bags at one another and scuffling on the way to the bus and when they got off the bus.  I told them if they didn’t stop, I would walk them to the bus every morning in my pajamas, curlers in my hair, carrying the broom to whack them with if they misbehaved.  I would also meet them with the broom at night.  They were mortified and walked to the bus every morning like little soldiers.  (Wonder if Mike was really practicing for his army career).  They were as good as gold when they came home at night.  It was very hard on Alicia to be separated from her Mother.  She was on the phone with Vicky a lot but Michael made the adjustment a little easier.  Of course, he still had Alicia.  Alicia slept upstairs in a room with twin beds.  Michael was in a room with a double bed.  Every morning when I went up to wake them, Michael would be in the other twin bed.  Eventually he stayed in his own room all night. He was in that big double bed with little Michael on one side and all his clothes for the next day laid out neatly on the other side.  He told me once, “Grandma, I like to look nice when I go to school.”  And he did.  This memory came back to me when he was in the Old Guard in Washington, D. C.  Yes, Michael always did look nice!

 

Alicia graduated and the kids were looking forward to going back with their mother.  However, she told them the night of Alicia’s Graduation that her living arrangements weren’t large enough to take both children back.  She could only take Alicia.  Michael was devastated!  I had planned on going to the lake the next morning, so I just loaded Michael up and we both went.  This time it was hard on Michael.  He and Alicia were extremely close and he missed her - big time.  But he survived and was soon enjoying living at the farm and going to the lake on weekends.  Marv had just bought a new lawn tractor and Mike did an excellent job of mowing - even though he was only 10 years old.  After he finished mowing, he’d wash the tractor, dry it and put it away.  He did not have a single mishap with that tractor.  (Daddy would have loved working with Mike.  He was Daddy’s kind of guy.)  Marv and Mike would go fishing at the lake.  Marv said Mike had the patience of a saint.  He would sit so patiently and wait for a bite.  At 5:00 a.m., he would be up in the morning and down at the dock to check his night line.  He never failed to put on his life jacket every single time.  I’d get up and peek out of our bedroom deck doors to make sure he had his jacket on.  When he was 23 years old, I was telling him how proud of him we were that he was so responsible with that life jacket.  He then admitted that he was scared to death on the dock (the water was 40’ deep) and wouldn’t have thought of going down there without it.  Good thinking, Mike!  Your attitude made us all happy.

 

One day Michael decided he wanted to water ski.  We had only a pair of adult ski’s but nothing for children but Mike said he’d use the adult ski’s.  He was just a little guy - even small for his age.  These skiis were far too large for him but we dragged him through the water and he’d fall time and time again.  For two days we did this.  He had so many welts and bruises, but also a lot of determination.  He said he wanted to be able to ski by the time he was 11 years old and July 30^th was coming fast.  And he did!  One day he came up and he stayed up.  We applauded and our friends next door, Phil and Marilyn Ribbe, were on their deck waving and cheering.  It was a great day for Mike and from then on, he was a skier.

 

Mike was with us all summer.  He’d been sleeping upstairs in a less than fashionable bedroom.  Roy, Marian’s husband, who is a wonderful carpenter, spent a week with us and did a beautiful job of boxing in an ugly furnace stove pipe and built Mike a beautiful bookcase.  Mike picked out his carpeting, I wallpapered the walls, put up new curtains and he was all set.  They laid the carpet and Mike and I moved everything back into his new room.  Vicky called that afternoon and said her brother was going to pick Mike up that evening for a Birthday Party.  After that, Mike was just gone.  He didn’t get to spend one night in his new room.  Vicky had moved, with the children, to Alabama to be near her parents.  She had no one in Illinois.  If only she had told me, but Mike just disappeared.  It took me a week to find out they had moved.  It was my turn to be devastated.

 

                                       NEST IS EMPTY AGAIN - BACK TO WORK FULL TIME

 

Mr. Azzarelli immediately took the opportunity to ask me to work full time again.  There were a lot more things he would like me involved in if I could just work full time.  So, in order to fill the void, I went back to working full time.

 

Life went on, me working full time, Marv being out of town a lot.  Alicia got married to Michael Lovett and they have 4 beautiful children.  We went to their wedding.  Alicia was a beautiful bride and it was a blessing to see her so happy.

 

Marv decided to retire in 1995.  He spent a lot of time riding his bike.  Sometimes almost 30 miles a day.  He looked great.  Real tan and slim from all that exercise.  About then we started getting calls from Thelma and Bob in Florida.  They were beginning to have health problems.  We were always flying down, driving down, sometimes for long periods of time.  Mr. Azzarelli was very patient with giving me time off.  He knew I’d catch up when I got back.  Then Uncle George and Aunt Donna started having problems.  We’d been vacationing in Florida for years, but now there was a lot of care-taking involved in our trips.  Uncle George and Aunt Donna had adopted a little girl named Margaret when she was about 5 years old.  But they were never ever that close.  When Margaret grew up, she had a son Trent.  Aunt Donna had a heart attack and died.  Marv and I stayed with Uncle George for a while but I had to get back to work. Trent had employment problems so he and his wife and baby moved in with Uncle George and took care of him.  Uncle George had deteriorating health (he was almost blind and was a diabetic) and one day had a bad fall.

He spent some time in a Nursing Home healing and Trent and his family left.  Trent was burned out from health care.  When Uncle George got out of the Nursing Home, Margaret stayed with him, but something happened and Uncle George ended up in the Hospital, and died shortly thereafter. Thelma and

Bob had no one left in Florida so wanted to come back to Illinois.  They had so many health issues that it was too much for Marian and I to handle, so, with Thelma’s blessing, we got them into Merkle Nipprath Nursing Home in Clifton.  This was the best nursing home around, but Thelma really wanted to live with one of us.  We just couldn’t swing it.  Bob had a bad fall at the nursing home, spent a week in the Hospital and died.  Thelma was the only one left.  It was extremely hard on her and she was so lonely.  Marian and I did our best to spend time, and meals, with her every day, but I don’t think she ever thought we did enough.

She lived there for over six years and died at the age of 92.  I miss her dearly, but know she and Mother are sitting on their little white cloud in Heaven, having coffee and visiting - Thelma with her feet up on a hassock - just like they always did. And they’re both glad to be back together.

 

 

During this time, Kevin brought Michael back from Alabama to live with him.  He was still working in Chicago, but rented a duplex in Bourbonnais so Michael could attend Bradley-Bourbonnais High School.  It was hard on Kevin, commuting to Chicago and living in Bourbonnais, but Michael did very well in High School.  He was the Master of Ceremonies at a Fashion Show they put on but his biggest accomplishment was being an Iron Man.  BBCHS has had only 4 young men who have had the honor of accomplishing this feat in their history. This is all about bench pressing, lifting weights, etc. and things “females” don’t really understand.(I’ll research this and do a better write-up).  But I was just as proud of Mike as the guys in the family were. 

 

Mike graduated in 19___ and received a scholarship to Kankakee Community College.  Mr. Azzarelli, the man I was working for, had hired Mike to help him up at Mt. Langham.  Mt. Langham was the highest point in Kankakee County.  Mr. Azzarelli built a large 2 acre pond up there,  along with a couple smaller ponds, stocked the ponds with fish, trimmed out the woods with trails for hiking, camping, dirt biking, etc.  He built a “cabin” on the hill above the lake which was a large room with a kitchen and bathroom.  A large patio surrounded the building.  The family did a lot of entertaining up there.  It was a beautiful place, in the middle of nature.  Mike did everything from being Mr. Azzarelli’s right-hand man to doing the mowing, trimming and maintenance to keep the area beautiful.  Mike worked hard and learned a lot from Mr. Azzarelli;  sometimes the hard way, just as I did.  Mr. Azzarelli always said what didn’t kill you made you a better person.

 

Mt. Langham was such a great place and one day Mr. Azzarelli decided to move his office, and me, up to the Mountain.  I didn’t know how this was going to all shake out but in no time, we partitioned off an area which we made into the office for desks, file cabinets, computers, fax and copy machines, etc.  It was a wonderful place to work; especially for someone who loved the country as much as I did.  Before leaving one night, I counted 39 deer in the back yard.  One day a flock of wild turkeys came by.  Another day a fox walked right under my window.  Had the window been open, I could have reached out and touched him, he was that close.  I would often see coyotes in the early morning.  I loved it up there when it snowed.  It was like a fairy land and you could see for miles and miles.  We could see downtown Kankakee on a clear day with the tall Volkman Building and National City Bank Building reaching toward the sky.  Storms were great up there.  You could see them rolling in from the west and it was exciting.  Mr. Azzarelli wasn’t up there nearly as much as I was because he was always “taking care of business” which kept him out of the office a lot.  It was just me and God up there and I was never afraid being up there alone.

 

                                AGAIN, A GRANDCHILD TO KEEP US YOUNG - AND HAPPY

 

Mike graduated from Bradley High School and, once again, moved in with us.  Kevin was able to move back to Chicago again.  This time, it was a different, more mature Mike.  But he was really always the same as when he was little; respectful, honest and doing his best in whatever he did.  He never left the table without carefully putting his chair up to the table again (he sure made us look like slobs), telling me it was the best meal he’d ever eaten (who wouldn’t want a kid like that around!), helping clear the table, keeping his bed made and room clean and just being sweet, lovable Mike.

 

Mike lived with us for 18 months or so and then announced he was going into the service.  The family had a fit as well as Mr. O’Connor, the Student Councilor  at Kankakee Community College, the Azzarelli’s, etc.

But after Michael explained his reasoning to us, Mr. O’Connor was ready to enlist with him and the family gave him their blessing.  But we were going to miss him.  We went to his Basic Training graduation at Fort Benning in Georgia and he told us someone from the Military had come down and he’d been selected to be a part of the Old Guard (The Honor Guard) in Washington, D. C. We didn’t know much about this but would support him if that’s what he wanted.  Then in June of the next year, we rented an oversize van, loaded up Kirk and his family and drove to Washington, D. C. to see what he was doing.  We were most impressed.  Our little Mike had done us proud. We had a wonderful time - except for the time Marv and Eileen went driving through Georgetown, looking for an ice cream shop, with a van too big to park in crowded Georgetown, gave up, came back to the Hotel to find an ice cream shop directly across the street from our Hotel.  By that time, Marv didn’t even want any ice cream anymore.  Mike would be in the Old Guard, carrying the American flag, and looking “real nice” for the next 4 years.

 

One day, after talking for a couple of weeks to people from Personal Finance, Marv decided to go back to work part time in 2001.  The only down side to this was having to work in Olympia Fields, 30 miles north of Kankakee.  The commute was a killer, especially in the winter.  He would work Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 

 

I was trying to quit and retire from Azzarelli’s, but it was difficult.  I had three different Retirement Parties.   Mr. Azzarelli would always talk me into coming back because the girl who took my place didn’t work out, etc. etc.  Around this time, Mr. Azzarelli began having health problems.  He had leukemia and began winding up his work.  He wanted to be buried at Mt. Langham in the old Indian Cemetery up there.  He was going to dispose of some of the Indian graves to make a place for he and his family.  This scared the socks off of me because I’d heard bad stories about people who had dug up Indian graves - and those tomahawks were nothing to mess with.  I don’t care if the Indians are dead or not.  I vehemently begged Mr. Azzarelli not to do any digging - just join them.  He’d been taking care of them for years - he’d be welcome.  I hated this final planning for a man I’d worked for and come to respect, admire and love for over 35 years.  But it had to be done and I tried to handle it with a stiff upper lip.  Thelma, at that time, was failing fast and I could see losing two of the important people in my life within a very short time.  Life was kind of tough right now. 

 

Marv had grown tired of the maintenance at the farm and wanted to move closer in to town.  In 2001 we sold the farm and bought a place along the river by the Elks Country Club. We completely remodeled the house and made a lot of other improvements and it’s a very comfortable place to live.

 

Kevin had moved out to California in May, 2000.  He had been talking with Linda, a girl he worked with at Information Resources, Inc. who had been transferred to the San Francisco area.  He moved out there and soon he and Linda became an item. They were married on June 26, 2004 in a small chapel in Yosemite National Park.  Kevin had brought Linda out to the farm when they both still worked in Chicago.  We liked her immediately.  She fit into the family just fine.  Whenever Kevin and Linda came home, they always went to see Thelma at the Nursing Home.  Kevin was extremely kind to Thelma and sent her many things through the mail over the years. She always enjoyed getting mail and especially enjoyed his mail.

 

Thelma passed away, Mr. Azzarelli passed away and I was working only about 2 days a month so I had a lot of time to spend improving our house along the river.  I missed the farm house bad!  The best thing about the farm house was that Mother and Daddy were still always there.  I never did anything without some guidance from above and I always felt they were with me - while doing both stupid and smart things. I know they smiled and at times, shook their heads wondering - what is she thinking! We had made so many improvements to the farm house and I loved every one of them.  It had grown into a huge place -  but just big enough!!! The only consolation I have in selling it is that we sold it to some people who love it just as much as I did.  They’ve put in about $750,000.00 worth of improvements in the place and it’s definitely the show place of the neighborhood.  We visit them often and are very fond of both of them.  Mother and Daddy are pleased with the new owners, I’m sure!  I hope!

 

                                                                         

                                                                

 

                               

 

                          THE NEST IS EMPTY, WE’RE RETIRED AND IT’S TIME TO PARTY

 

The last week of December, 2006, Kirk and his family moved to Weston, Florida, near Ft. Lauderdale.  Kirk has been promoted to Vice President of DelMonte Fresh Cut and works out of Coral Gables, Florida.

We are happy that we retained our condo in Port Orange as it’s easier to go from northern Florida to see them than from Illinois.  We thought we’d sold our condo in Port Orange last December.  I was sick about selling.  On February 10^th, 2006, after having a Birthday Lunch for Marv at Inlet Harbor, in Port Orange, on the way home we got a call on our cel phone that the deal had fallen through.  I was so happy.  I’d spent a week packing boxes up to the ceiling in the third bedroom and it took me just until 10:30 that night to get everything unpacked and back in it’s place.  Life was good again!

 

After Kirk announced his move to Florida, we put our house on the river up for sale.  We sold it  immediately in August but weren’t going to close until December 1^st - giving us plenty time to pack and the buyers time to sell their place.  Their place wasn’t selling so they got a bridge loan.  We put money down on a small duplex in Bourbonnais with a two car garage - which would house all our left-over furniture.  This was the other half of where my hairdresser, Rodney Jon, lived.  We were all excited about this move.  He was happy to have us as neighbors - we would play in our flowers together.  He’s given me hundreds of  plants and flowers over the years - as well as doing my hair every week.  He and Marv get along great and life was going to be good.  We could still retain residency in Kankakee, but on a smaller scale.  And we could more readily go to Kirk’s if the situation came up.  A month before we were to close, our buyers called and said they were backing out because they didn’t want to make payments on this bridge loan.  We’d had a garage sale, sold our big beautiful dining room set and much of our other furniture in anticipation of moving.  I’d been completely packed except for essentials.  Now it was time to unpack, let the duplex go - but we still had the Florida condo, so that part was good.  Two major real estate sales gone bad within 9 months.  Wasn’t this a record of some kind?

 

We celebrated our 50^th Wedding Anniversary last October 14, 2006.  We wanted to host the event, however, Kevin and Linda and Kirk and Eileen spoiled us for two days.  We spent Saturday night in

Chicago, with a horse and carriage ride over to Ditka’s for dinner, a night in a hotel with champagne and chocolate covered strawberries, a limo ride the following day to the Bennett-Curtis House in Grant Park for a big family luncheon, a corsage and an album with wonderful pictures of the weekend - to say nothing of the two day stay, with a train ride over to Santa Barbara, California from Kevin and Linda and a couple round trip tickets to Florida from Kirk and Eileen.  Kevin made sure Alicia and her family got up here for several days to celebrate with us.  Michael went to Iraq on October 15^th and was the only one missing the celebration.  And Michael was definitely missed!

 

Marv quit working for Personal Finance again in November, 2006.  He was tired of the drive - and just plain tired of working.  Maybe 45 years for one company is long enough.  The Azzarelli family has been after me to come back to work for them for the last six years - on a part time basis.  I haven’t as yet because I told Patty Azzarelli I would not put Kim, the girl who replaced me, out of a job.  Kim knows the only way she held her job was being engaged to Mr. Azzarelli’s son.  They split about 9 months ago. I do miss work and may consider it if they would let me work up at Mt. Langham again and if Kim gets another job.  I just don’t know yet. 

 

 

So here we are….beautiful condo in Florida, nice big home along the river near Kankakee and in pretty good health.  We are truly blessed.  Our most precious accomplishments are our sons, their wives and our grandchildren and great grandchildren.  I definitely know no one else has been as fortunate through life as we have been.  God has been good to us.  The only downside is that Kevin and Linda live in Carlsbad, California, one of the most expensive places in California and Kirk and Eileen live near  Fort Lauderdale, Florida, another extremely expensive place….and it’s hard to keep up with them.  But they are both more successful than we ever dreamed and we’re so happy for them.  Our grandchildren and great grandchildren are all perfect and such a joy.  We could die tomorrow and know we were two of the luckiest people in the world. 

                                                                                I’M DONE.

    

I thought  I was finished with my Memoires, but life goes on and we keep making changes….so I guess I have to log in our changes. 

 

We finally sold our house on Bittersweet in July, 2006 - to the people who backed out in November.  Not quite ready to completely leave Kankakee and move to Florida, we purchased a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, town house at 1466 Timber Ridge Court in Kankakee.  It was on the very south west corner of Kankakee.  We had a large woods that backed up to our back yard and a bean field next to it.  When the farmer harvested the beans in the fall, the coyotes would be very upset to have lost their “bedding down” places in the bean field and would howl in the night complaining loudly.  It was so cool listening to them.   Shortly after moving in, we finished the basement and added a family room, office, bedroom, bathroom and storage area.  It was a great place to live.  The town house was beautiful and the neighborhood was the best.  We enjoyed the neighbors immensely.  Next to the farm, this was probably my favorite place in Illinois.

 

We’d been driving back and forth to Florida every winter and each winter, it became harder to go back to Illinois.  One day we decided to sell the town house and move to Florida permanently.  We put the place up for sale and two days later sold it to the first people who looked at it.  We were very fortunate that they were qualified, etc. so the process was easy and quick.  Within 35 days, we were permanent residents of Florida.  We sold much of our furniture to the new owners and a lot more at a Garage Sale.  After 1 ½ days,  we were completely sold out at the Garage Sale.    Mayflower moved what furniture we had kept and a ton of boxes to a Port Orange Storage area.  As of June, 2009, we were permanent residents of Florida.  And it was hot!!!!  People stay indoors in the summer in Florida like you stay indoors during blizzards in Illinois.  And I do mean indoors.  It’s too hot to ride bikes, go to the beach or do anything outside.  So we’re looking at real estate for the future and getting all our doctoring done.  I’m having removal of cataracts in both eyes over the next two weeks and Marv is looking forward to his colonoscopy.  After the first cataract surgery, while recuperating and waiting for the next, we’re going to visit  “The Villages“, a place we’ve heard so much about and where many people from Kankakee live.  Kirk and his family have seen the places we’re considering and now Kevin is visiting from California, so he’s getting “the tour”.  It’s wonderful to have their opinions and they both bring up situations we hadn’t even thought of.  Love their comments!! 

 

It’s wonderful being at the condo - but a little tight.  Three bedrooms and two baths is a little small when company comes.  We’d like a place where you don’t feel  crowded or cramped when the family is with us.

Of course, Kirk’s family is quite small when only Eileen, Gage and Sarah come.  With Keith and Alyssa both in College, their schedules don’t always allow them to drop everything and go to Daytona Beach.

Alyssa is a cheerleader for her college, Florida Atlantic University, and we’re praying she completes her cheerleading duties without getting injured. 

 

It’s great to have Mike out of the Military.  He’s working and living in Knoxville, Tennessee and seems to be doing well.  Keith is a Senior at the University of South Florida in Tampa.  Alicia and her family are still in  Piedmont, Alabama and doing well.  Kevin and Linda are stilll in Carlsbad, California - enjoying the perfect weather - which we’re looking forward to enjoying on a visit soon. 

 

Next time I add anything, we will have purchased more property to alleviate our “tight quarters”…I think!

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