CAN YOU BELIEVE A MALT, A SUNDAE OR A PIECE OF PIE JUST TWENTY FIVE CENTS AND A COKE FOR A DIME. THOSE WERE THE DAYS. (CLICK ON MENU FOR AN EASIER READ).
Monday, April 6, 2009
AN OLD WOOLWORTH'S MENU
CAN YOU BELIEVE A MALT, A SUNDAE OR A PIECE OF PIE JUST TWENTY FIVE CENTS AND A COKE FOR A DIME. THOSE WERE THE DAYS. (CLICK ON MENU FOR AN EASIER READ).
Friday, January 9, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
FOOD FOR SENIORS
This picture was taken in November by a News Gazette photographer, when I took packages of food for the FOOD FOR SENIORS program. I'm hoping everyone is helping with the food drives. With the economy as it is, so many people need food.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
ELLIS-HOWARD WEDDING AUGUST 21, 1943
Sixty Five years ago today, (August 21, 1943) I was married in Storrs, Connecticut. The wedding wasn’t very elaborate according to today's weddings.....Now it is the long white dress, veil, church full of people, large dinner, lovely cake and a honeymoon.
Then it was just two young people, far away from home, during war time....and being married in the Mayor's home, where I was rooming. An Army buddy stood up with Dale and a UConn Student (I'd only known 2 weeks) stood by me. I even wore her shoes, as mine weren't nice enough. Mrs. Hall played the piano while I came down a few stairs. The Minister from the Congregational Church in Willimantic Connecticut married us......Mrs. Hall (June) had set the table with a nice linen tablecloth, a vase of garden flowers and she had baked a cake.....it had no icing because of sugar rationing.....lucky to just have a cake. All four of the Hall kids and Burt ( their Dad) were there...and they thought it a big deal.
After the ceremony and the cake......we had to ride to Willimantic with the Preacher (we gave him either $5 or $10) for marrying us.
Once in town, we stopped at a restaurant and we both had a spaghetti dinner....Dale was so nervous, he hardly ate a thing, but I ate mine and finished up his.....(must have been a charming bride, sitting there eating spaghetti and garlic bread).
We had reservations at the Nathan Hale hotel for that Saturday night. Sunday evening, we hopped on a bus, and headed back to Storrs. Dale's Army group had to stay at a dorm on Campus, and I went back to the Halls and the room I shared with the college student .....There was no honeymoon to some distant island, a cruise, or even any free time because Dale was in Service and due in Class on Monday morning I had to be back at my new Secretarial job with the Department of Engineering on the Storrs Campus.
I had taken a vacation from my job at the U of I, and our getting married depended upon me being able to find a job in Connecticut. I was fortunate as I was hired on my first interview. It’s a good thing because we had only $98 between the two of us.
Later Dale was transferred to Medford, Oregon, then to San Luis Obispo, California, and from there sent to the South Pacific.
He was in the Philippines, and the Invasion of Okinawa, returning home January 1946.
In 1993 we celebrated our 50th Anniversary. Our three sons planned the affair with many attending, beautiful gifts, and Roger baked us the most beautiful wedding cake…….This time the cake had icing (and lots of it).
Dale passed away just two months before our 59th Anniversary.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
MY FIRST JOB AT THE U OF I
This is the typewriter I used when I started my first job with the Home Economics Extension Department at the University of Illinois, February 1942.
Jobs were very hard to find. I had graduated in May 1941 with a scholarship to a small College or a 3 month scholarship to attend Danville Institute of Business. There was no way my folks could help me with College expenses so I went to Business College and worked at Kresge's Five and Dime on Saturdays. I worked eight hours and earned $1.98 as they took two cents out for Social Security.
After finishing the 3 months at Danville Institute of Business, I went to work for Illinois Printing. That lasted only a few months. Then they started laying off....I was the last hired so the first to be let out.
I had heard there were openings at the University of Illinois and that the jobs were secure if you could get hired and worked really hard. I went to the Nonacademic Office and was sent on job interviews. Everywhere I interviewed I heard the same comment "I'm sorry, but you have no experience". When I arrived at my third interview, I was getting tired, upset, and felt I would be going home without being hired. When Mrs. Klockner in Home Economics Extension said "I'm sorry, but you have no experience", I spoke up and said "I don't know how I will get experience if no one will hire me".
I have no idea how I had the nerve to do that. Anyway, she went into another office, then came back and said "come to work on Monday morning". I thought they were the sweetest words I had ever heard. Years later, she told me that she felt I was spunky, and since I had the nerve to speak up, I would probably be a good worker.
I was a Clerk Typist and the L C Smith was my first typewriter. I typed letters, manuscripts, speeches, etc. At times had to make 10 copies and to do that, put a steel platen into the typewriter, and used 9 sheets of carbon paper. Certainly didn't want to make an error as it was a real pain to put a small piece of paper behind each carbon, erase, then remember to take out each piece. We had no copy machines at that time.
We worked a 44 hour week and my monthly check was $76. At that time, it seemed like lots of money. I roomed with two other girls and we each paid $10 a month rent, and when I went home on weekend, my parents would send food back with me. I had enough money to start a Savings Account.
They now call those "THE GOOD OLD DAYS".
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
NEW TENNIS SHOES
A 1950's photographDuring the 1950's we didn't have two incomes, credit cards or much money in the bank.
One time we scraped together enough money to buy all three boys a pair of tennis shoes, (on the same day).....They were happy and their Dad and I were so thrilled they all had new shoes at the same time, I took the above picture. They weren't the name brands of today....Air Jordan's, Nikes, etc., but it made no difference to my boys. In those days. name brands weren't the "in" thing as they are nowadays. My kids were happy just having new, clean "tennies".
Friday, June 6, 2008
THE LITTLE RED WAGON
ARLENE, JOAN, MARY SPRING 1930 LITTLE RED WAGONS BRING BACK FOND HOLIDAY MEMORIES
Tom Jennings
For 50 Plus Lifestyles November 2004
For Mary M. Ellis, it was a wonderful life, particularly when, at age 9, Santa Claus paid an unannounced, if somewhat noisy, never-to-be forgotten visit to her and her sisters. It happened on a farm near Homer, IL, one long, crisp, cold but very clear December 24 night into day.
"I remember looking out the window and seeing stars in the sky....then quickly tucking my head under the covers so Santa wouldn't see me," says Mary.
When the trio of tots went to bed that eve, visions of sugar plums and scarlet carts danced o'er their beds. Mary and her younger Sister, who shared the same bed, donned the appropriately snug flannel pajamas (they may have been red). The baby of the family, just 8 months old, sported a nightgown and slept in a baby bed. they all shared the same room.
"We didn't have the luxury of our own rooms with bath and bushels of toys as kids do nowadays," she says.
Then..........Well, let's let Mary tell the tale in her own words.
"My sisters and I had gone to bed and were anxiously awaiting Santa. three excited little girls could not sleep because of the excitement," Mary recalls with fondness. "Suddenly the sound of sleigh bells was heard." That was outside the farmhouse. Inside, not a peep but the chest-pounding heart beats of the threesome.
"Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed. "It must be Santa, and if he found us awake, he would not leave us toys." The children quickly, instinctively, formed a course of action. "We pretended to sleep...and finally did sleep."
Early the next morning, the giggling girls couldn't stand it any longer. They were up at dawn to see what Santa had brought them. Would the jolly elf go that extta mile for them, or would reality intrude and leave them disappointed? In those Depression days, toys were hard to come by and getting something like that was almost unheard of.
"We were farm people and always had plenty to eat and to keep us warm but not many frivolous things," Mary explains. "There were our socks, full of an orange and nuts and other little gifts, but the grandest was the little red wagon. We had wanted a wagon, and there it was," she says.
Mary alone, did not hog the crimson four-wheeler; she was brought up better than that. Her first thought was to share her joy and chauffeuring skills with her siblings. "on Christmas Day, I could pull that wagon with my little sisters riding along in their warm snowsuits," says Mary. The ever-challenging Midwestern winter weather did not deter the intrepid three amigas, as fortune and a snowstorm smiled upon them the very next week. From then on, I think I pulled my little sisters many miles in that red wagon." states Mary.
For every prepubescent boy and girl who grew up in America during much of the 20th century, the aptly named Little Red Wagon signified countless voyages into the land of fairy tales and sugar plum fairies. "Their beauty, simplicity and standards of safety become magical qualities that nurture the wonder of childhood and bring imaginations to life. Radio Flyer wagons are truly icons of Americana." During the 1930's, Radio Flyer's exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair made Radio Flyer world famous. By the '50s. Radio flyer began to design specialty wagons inspired by popular movies and TV shows of the time, such as the Mickey Mouse Club and Davy Crockett. Today, the company, ever expanding its product line, still lives and continues to breath life into the imaginations of children and adults alike.
From October 1979 through March 1992, Mary and her Late husband, Dale, were Barefoot Bay, FL homeowners, living in the Bird Section at that time, reports the busy senior. "My years in Barefoot Bay were very enjoyable. We did love it there. Vero Beach was my favorite town, and we spent many Saturdays there shopping on Ocean Drive out along the beach," Mary recalls. An artist of some renown, Mary who belonged to both the Barefoot Bay Art Guild and the Sebastian Art Club, reminds, "I'm sure there are many around Vero Beach with one of my paintings."
To this day she stays quite active. "I feel fortunate to have good health. Maybe it was that Florida sunshine while living in Barefoot Bay," she says. Constantly on the go, Mary, on the original committee that helped form the Barefoot Bay Spinners club, continues to keep up the pace in Urbana-Champaign, IL. where she used to be employed by the University of Illinois, as was her husband. She was secretary to Head of Department of Food Science, and Dale was a Printing Pressman and Offset Plate-maker with the University Print Shop.
They raised three sons, Steve, Mark and Roger, and they all have wives and families.
"Oh yes, I never grew tired of the red wagon, and we had it for many years," Mary, now 82, says. Credit for the wonderful, still farm-fresh memories goes to her parents, a.k.a., Santa and Mrs. Claus. "My parents were great people, and I'm sure their hearts swelled with pride when they dug up enough money to buy that little Red Wagon and found that we kids were so happy," says Mary.
"In later years we realized that sound of sleigh bells was our Dad, running through the yard with the old bells they used years ago on their sleigh,". "they had always hung on a nail in our barn. What a wonderful thing that Dad decided to use them that night. It is a Christmas I will never forget."
"I remember looking out the window and seeing stars in the sky....then quickly tucking my head under the covers so Santa wouldn't see me," says Mary.
When the trio of tots went to bed that eve, visions of sugar plums and scarlet carts danced o'er their beds. Mary and her younger Sister, who shared the same bed, donned the appropriately snug flannel pajamas (they may have been red). The baby of the family, just 8 months old, sported a nightgown and slept in a baby bed. they all shared the same room.
"We didn't have the luxury of our own rooms with bath and bushels of toys as kids do nowadays," she says.
Then..........Well, let's let Mary tell the tale in her own words.
"My sisters and I had gone to bed and were anxiously awaiting Santa. three excited little girls could not sleep because of the excitement," Mary recalls with fondness. "Suddenly the sound of sleigh bells was heard." That was outside the farmhouse. Inside, not a peep but the chest-pounding heart beats of the threesome.
"Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed. "It must be Santa, and if he found us awake, he would not leave us toys." The children quickly, instinctively, formed a course of action. "We pretended to sleep...and finally did sleep."
Early the next morning, the giggling girls couldn't stand it any longer. They were up at dawn to see what Santa had brought them. Would the jolly elf go that extta mile for them, or would reality intrude and leave them disappointed? In those Depression days, toys were hard to come by and getting something like that was almost unheard of.
"We were farm people and always had plenty to eat and to keep us warm but not many frivolous things," Mary explains. "There were our socks, full of an orange and nuts and other little gifts, but the grandest was the little red wagon. We had wanted a wagon, and there it was," she says.
Mary alone, did not hog the crimson four-wheeler; she was brought up better than that. Her first thought was to share her joy and chauffeuring skills with her siblings. "on Christmas Day, I could pull that wagon with my little sisters riding along in their warm snowsuits," says Mary. The ever-challenging Midwestern winter weather did not deter the intrepid three amigas, as fortune and a snowstorm smiled upon them the very next week. From then on, I think I pulled my little sisters many miles in that red wagon." states Mary.
For every prepubescent boy and girl who grew up in America during much of the 20th century, the aptly named Little Red Wagon signified countless voyages into the land of fairy tales and sugar plum fairies. "Their beauty, simplicity and standards of safety become magical qualities that nurture the wonder of childhood and bring imaginations to life. Radio Flyer wagons are truly icons of Americana." During the 1930's, Radio Flyer's exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair made Radio Flyer world famous. By the '50s. Radio flyer began to design specialty wagons inspired by popular movies and TV shows of the time, such as the Mickey Mouse Club and Davy Crockett. Today, the company, ever expanding its product line, still lives and continues to breath life into the imaginations of children and adults alike.
From October 1979 through March 1992, Mary and her Late husband, Dale, were Barefoot Bay, FL homeowners, living in the Bird Section at that time, reports the busy senior. "My years in Barefoot Bay were very enjoyable. We did love it there. Vero Beach was my favorite town, and we spent many Saturdays there shopping on Ocean Drive out along the beach," Mary recalls. An artist of some renown, Mary who belonged to both the Barefoot Bay Art Guild and the Sebastian Art Club, reminds, "I'm sure there are many around Vero Beach with one of my paintings."
To this day she stays quite active. "I feel fortunate to have good health. Maybe it was that Florida sunshine while living in Barefoot Bay," she says. Constantly on the go, Mary, on the original committee that helped form the Barefoot Bay Spinners club, continues to keep up the pace in Urbana-Champaign, IL. where she used to be employed by the University of Illinois, as was her husband. She was secretary to Head of Department of Food Science, and Dale was a Printing Pressman and Offset Plate-maker with the University Print Shop.
They raised three sons, Steve, Mark and Roger, and they all have wives and families.
"Oh yes, I never grew tired of the red wagon, and we had it for many years," Mary, now 82, says. Credit for the wonderful, still farm-fresh memories goes to her parents, a.k.a., Santa and Mrs. Claus. "My parents were great people, and I'm sure their hearts swelled with pride when they dug up enough money to buy that little Red Wagon and found that we kids were so happy," says Mary.
"In later years we realized that sound of sleigh bells was our Dad, running through the yard with the old bells they used years ago on their sleigh,". "they had always hung on a nail in our barn. What a wonderful thing that Dad decided to use them that night. It is a Christmas I will never forget."
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