School Daze....

Mom and her sister... @1935.-36 I don’t know who the other girl is, but Mom’s on the right and her sister is on the bottom...

When we last left the letters, Mom and her sister were in Kentucky. Her mother had just married, and they were in Oakland, California. It’s my belief that Chick (her husband) didn’t want children, so the girls were in boarding school until Mom met Dad. In 1935 the girls moved to Mabel Scott Rancho school. The school was in Southern California, far away from her mother. Then my grandparents moved to Mobile, Alabama.

My mother briefly mentions the dust storms while living in Kentucky.... just a small mention of such an enormous event in United States history just tickles me. She says the dust “wasn’t even clean dust.... it smells dirty”. lol!

Mom is discovering things about herself. She writes “In art today I drew a girl in charcoal. Even if I do say so myself I think it’s wonderful. You know, it’s funny, whenever i’m sad or mad, or something is wrong, I always draw better., It seems to draw all the pain out of me and that turns in my pictures.” I told you she was mature at 15.

Later she writes, (I told you this was going to get long!) “The orphans’ home from Louisville got flooded out and they sent the kids over to KY, to be adopted or kept until the Home was opened up again. Each sorority took a child and we got sisters. They’re very small and quiet and nice. They haven’t seen their mother, who is living, or written to her. The Home won’t let them. Gosh, Marmee, if I couldn’t see you or write to you, I’d just go off and die! We were all hoping the school would adopt them, but they are leaving tomorrow morning. They are so pitiful looking. One is 12 and the other 10 and they are only in the 3rd grade. The Home doesn’t teach them school work, and they only go outdoors 15 minutes a day. They were all down in the Town Armory and the farmers adopted them to make them work on the farm. Their little hands are hard and sore, and their finger nails broken.

On Marmee, I wish I was grown up so I could adopt them myself. Believe me, when i do grow up I’m going to adopt about 20...”

Of course, then she had me and decided that I was more than enough to handle!! (grin)

Mom and her sister in 1937...


On to Mabel Scott Rancho... One of the good things About Mabel Scott , besides the fact that Mom met my father, was that she got to ride. They played polo at the school, and my mother and her sister got very good at the sport., It scared my father, as Mom was so small.. he worried all the time.

One more short story before I go for the night. She writes, of the riding part, “Sheila (her sister) fell off the horse the first day we went riding. Nothing serious, she just broke off a part of her front tooth. We took her to the doctor and he said he was pretty sure that at her age it would GROW IN AGAIN!!”

egad...

Mom and a horse!