Prompt #29 from The Book of Me – What sort of purse do I carry and what is in it?
I usually carry this bag with me. I made it from scraps of mud cloth several years ago. It’s lined with some navy blue fabric I had on hand but it should have been lined with black. There is plenty of room for the items below, plus my camera, a notebook, a book or whatever else I need at the time.
Altoids case – actually has various pills in case I get caught out at dinner time without them.
Bimah case with drivers license, debit card, cash.
Two ball point pins.
A pencil from Ikea.
A dime.
A striped case holding my checkbook and various papers.
A glass case for my distance glasses.
A glass case for some extra reading glasses.
My keys with a reindeer horn thing from Norway and the car open/closer.
My cell phone.
I usually carry this bag with these things in them. I keep meaning to make a very small, under my coat/jacket/shawl bag just large enough for cell phone, keys and license. Unfortunately, I don’t remember until I’m on my way out the door.
When I saw Prompt 18 – Your First Gift, in The Book of Me, I was sure I had a list of what I received when I was born in my baby book. Unfortunately, when I checked there was a list of people who gave me gifts, but not a mention of a gift. I remember having a little silver cup and a silver fork and spoon but I have no idea who gave them to me. I don’t know where they are now and I can find no photographs of them.
Something I did notice was that the handwriting and the language used in the baby book appears to be my father’s and not my mother’s. I had always thought it was my mother who kept the book. Only a few pages were filled out at the time. There is some information I added years and years later when I was about 12 – When I started to talk and walk, what childhood illnesses I had, and a list of some of my elementary school teachers.
One last thing about the baby book – it was found in pile of trash to be thrown out with other papers from my father’s office at the church but someone saw it and saved it. Why was it in the office? Anyway, I’m glad it was rescued.
Looking again, I see that Dearie Reid brought my going home outfit to the hospital. I’m thinking that she bought it. I wonder what I wore home. It must have been the second week in September in Springfield, MA by that time. Maybe cool? Maybe hot?
I did this “map” of my life during the years from 1966 to 1974 several years ago. The original is on a piece of stretched canvas 18 inches by 24 inches. At one time it had something painted on it but I covered that with Gesso, then ran off contact sheets with photos, drawings, writings and other material from that time. I wrote dates and thoughts that I would understand, although others might not. I blacked and whited out some stuff and that’s it. The prompt for The Book of Me this week is “Memory Board”.
Here are some links to other posts written about that time period.
Me and Beatrice 1947, Springfield, Massachusetts in my backyard.
The first toy that I remember is the bear I am holding in the above photograph. Her name was Beatrice. She wore a frilly, light blue pinafore. In this picture she looks quite fresh. Maybe I received her for my first birthday. I had her for a very long time. I don’t remember when she disappeared or was thrown out.
Here is collage of me with a variety of my early toys. They included a wagon, old pots and pans, a wooden push mower, plastic records, a ball, a tin dollhouse, a little Beauregard doll with a bottle that emptied and refilled, little flat plastic cowboys. I had several buggies and strollers and an endless supply of dolls. Books aren’t really toys but I had many little golden books during this time. The swing that Pearl is putting a doll in, was made of wood and blue. The tin ferris wheel was also hers and took many a little doll for a ride until it was no longer around.
After my sister Pearl was born when I was 2.6, I played with her most of the time because she was always there. And, of course, she was a delightful playmate. One of the best addition to any playthings we had during those years was our imagination. I remember in later years making bows and arrows from sticks, strings and bottle caps, riding on saw horse and playing endless imaginary games with our cousins. We had a good supply of Little Golden and Wonder books.
Playing Scrabble. Early 1960s. I’m on the couch, Pearl has her back to us and my mother must be winning!
The first board game I remember was “Sorry”. We played it often in the evenings the summer that we spent at my mother’s parents. My grandfather, Poppy, played with us while eating his snack of grated cheese and ritz crackers and a glass of buttermilk. Later I remember playing cards on the basement stairs of my cousins, endless games of “War”.
When we were older one of our gifts at Christmas would be a board game and we would play it over and over during that Christmas. Some never saw the light of day again but some we played throughout the years. Monopoly was popular for awhile. Chess was a staple. The summer of 1966 when I met my future husband at Wayne State University, we played chess almost everyday. He also taught me to play Solitaire.
We still play a lot of games in my family. “Five Crowns” is popular with my grandchildren. My husband and I play “Sequence” a lot. When I play games with my grandchildren I never let them win or make it easier for them than I would an adult. I don’t try to crush them, but if they win, they really won.
Two granddaughters playing Sequence – Christmas holidays 2013.
There is a toy trunk in the collage that I received as a gift one Christmas. That is as close as I could get to the well packed travel case below. Next time I go anywhere, I’m going to take a picture of my suitcase.
St. John’s Congregational Church through the snow. Springfield, MA 1949. Photograph by my father, who was the pastor of the church at the time.
I remember looking out of the door to see the snow even with the porch. I was about two years old.
Winter 1949 me with my sister Pearl. Springfield, MA. We played out in the snow and pulled each other on that sled when we were older.I remember March blizzards when my sister and I would be about the only students at Roosevelt Elementary school. Most people stayed home, although the schools never closed. We lived on Calvert, two blocks from the school and our mother was a teacher there, we all walked there together.
Christmas 1968, my sister and me with my grandmother in the window. A week before my trip to New York and the blizzard of 1969.
The New York Snow Storm 1969: Right now there’s a blizzard going on outside. I was out earlier to wash and I got soaked. You can’t hardly see a block and it’s already at least 5 inches (maybe 3) and giving no sign of stopping.
Thanksgiving of 1975 my husband, my two daughters and myself traveled by bus from Charleston, SC to Detroit to visit family. There was a heavy snowfall the night before we were supposed to leave and the buses stopped running. After waiting at the bus station, we called a friend who took us back to my parents house where we stayed until the buses started running the next day or the day after. We slept downstairs in my grandparents flat, which was empty as they had died the year before. That is the same flat that my grandmother is looking out of the window above. Those couple of days might have been the most pleasant of the trip.
Two of my daughters sliding down the hill in front of our Excelsior Springs house.
Excelsior Springs: In the winter the roads were snowy and icy. I had learned to drive in the South and was not use to winter driving. When the first heavy snow fell, I went out in the yard with the kids and played in it. We couldn’t understand why none of the neighbors were out there. After several more years, snow didn’t seem so glorious. Still nice though.
The kitchen window and the garage/apartment in the background.
Thanksgiving 1991: My memories of this Thanksgiving begin with the snow storm that dumped at least a foot of snow on us. It started the day before and continued into Thanksgiving day. I remember waiting for people to arrive, standing out in the yard looking through the woods at the road and seeing cars coming through the snow.
For several years my 4th daughter Tulani taught her dogs to pull a dog sled. I took one ride on it. Even though it was going very slowly, I felt like I was racing along the road at break neck speed.
In 1998, my oldest granddaughter was Baptized in Detroit. I drove down from Idlewild. When we went into church big, fat snowflakes had started to fall. By the time we came out snow covered everything. I think this was another March snow storm.
Several years later, after a stay in Oceanside, CA, my daughter and her family moved back to Michigan. They came up to Idlewild that winter and experienced snow for the first time. Here I am pulling the same sled my sister is sitting on in the earlier photograph as another granddaughter follows.
View of the house from Water Mill Lake
This is one of my favorite snow pictures. I took it at the last house we lived in before moving to Atlanta. I love looking at the snow and walking in it, but driving on it is not fun, especially if it melts and freezes as ice. When I asked my husband his memories of snow he said sliding off of the road and driving to work in the snow.
My street in an Atlanta snow two years ago.
We live in Atlanta now where we don’t get the big snows of Michigan but almost every year we’ve had a day or two with snow on the ground.
My maternal grandparent’s names were Mershell Cunningham Graham and Fannie Mae Turner Graham. They were both born in Alabama in 1888. Mershell was born in Coosada Station, Elmore County. Fannie was born in Hayneville, Lowndes County. Both counties are near Montgomery.
Before moving to Detroit, Mershell worked on passenger trains in the dining car. After coming to Detroit in 1917 he worked on a Great Lakes Cruise ship as a steward and finally put in 30 years at Ford Motor Company in the parts dept at the River Rouge Plant, before retiring.
My grandmother Fannie, managed her uncle Victor Tulane’s store in Montgomery before her marriage. After their marriage in 1919, she didn’t work outside of the home. They both lived until I was in my mid-twenties. My grandfather died in 1976 at 86 years. I was 26. My grandmother died in 1977 at 87. They both died in Detroit. We spent every Saturday at their house when I was growing up and for the last year of college, they lived downstairs from us. They lived in that flat until they died. So I knew them and also research them.
Albert & Pearl 1922. Detroit
Albert & Pearl 1950s
My paternal grandparents were Albert Buford Cleage and Pearl Doris Reed Cleage. Albert was born in Louden county, TN in 1883. Pearl was born in Lebanon, KY in 1886. They were married in Indianapolis in 1910. My grandfather worked on a Great Lakes Cruise line summers until he finished Medical school and became a family physician.
We lived down the street from them for several years when I was 5 and 6 years old. We saw them often. My grandfather died in 1957 after being ill for awhile. He was 73. I was 11. My grandmother lived until 1982. She was 96. I was 35. I knew both of them. I also research them.
Below are links to some of the many posts about my grandparents on this blog.
I have kept many journals during my life. Unfortunately I’ve only kept them for short periods of time, sometimes a day, sometimes several months. I have used all sorts of journals and sometimes just plain notebooks. I think that because the pages are spread out in various journals, I should type all the entries into one file on the computer. I could print it out. Or I could take pages from where they are and put them in acid free sleeves in a binder. Right now I’m sure they are not much use to anyone. Even I find it hard to locate information from a particular time and place.
I do have several journals from family members. I have my grandmother Fannie’s Little Book and a big scrapbook. I have my grandfather Mershell’s work notebook. And I have my Uncle Henry’s Diary kept in 1936.
Below are more or less random pages from 4 of my journals from 1967, 1972, 1981 and 2001. I’ve transcribed with some correction of grammar or spelling where it makes it easier to understand.
December 4, 1967 – Bronze pour, junior year Wayne State University. I was 21 years old.
12/4/67
The fire’s green, noisy, can’t hear voices hardly. getting ready to cast – pour. have big cans set up. 2 to do it. Katze (note: the teacher in charge of pour) has visor on. (room) smells dusty, dusty. hard to breath. dirty. sand all over floor. fire flame big, roars, loud – dust – loud dust. Can’t be ready yet. glasses just ran downstairs. sculpt must really get involved in it.
Can even hear roar on steps. Like train. Sounds like burning. Smells like hot metal – no wonder. at other end of room someone works with some tool – makes sparks & higher buzzing noise off and on combines with steady roar. Room covered with white dust didn’t answer – the (maybe the um sound was yes)
They poured and it ran out so had to heat more, spilled it on floor, started fire. Burned 3 folks feet. not badly. Oxygen stored in there. Fireboxes not hooked up! no evacuation of building. Linoleum on floor. Total chaos.(Note: before the spilled hot, liquid metal, everyone thought the floor was cement but it turned out that there was cement looking linoleum.)
man holed up in his house on west side.
February 3, 1976 – Raising rabbits and tomatoes, Simpson County, MS. I was 29 years old.
2-3-76
Fed goat & rabbits twice. pollinated tomatoes & pruned more for transplanting in greenhouse #1. Those need watering. soaking them overnight to get better start. Those with roots do better (& small leaves) than large leaves & no roots. Fill holes with water when transplanting.
Found 2 red tomatoes in #2 when pollinating. found Velma rabbit had ear canker. looked in Rabbit book & called Ruth Shiers about treatment says common & should treat rabbits monthly as precaution. Put Vaseline on it. Need camphophenic to treat it & all others as a …
July 4, 1981 – Trip to Norway. I was 34 years old.
July 3, 1981 friday
Started out a very sunny warm day until after lunch – ended up being cold & RAINY. Went to the theater to see a fairy tale of a princess a would be prince who had to get 3 feathers of a dragon to win her. Very good – even understood a few words. Before it started, a tall man came up & said he should have written a synopsis & did I know the story – then he started telling it to me. (Note: He was the playwrite.) The people who organized this outing, neglected to call in reservations & we had to wait for cancelations, luckily there were some. After we went in the cold rain to get varme polster, pomme frit og ice!(?) It was COLD with dress, bare legs & sandals but a good evening & it’s nice to be back & warm. Paul was at Blinern stop.
Class is harder – ie. lessons are, class remains the same. Spent more time in language lab today. Mary Kate reads at 3,000 words a minute. Now to bed.
July 4, 1981 Saturday
Classes in morning. Sunny day went downtown in afternoon with Joan & Kari. Walked all the way over to St. Olaf’s Church.
Campus party was tonight. Jilo (Note: my 11 year old daughter.) went & stayed until midnight, danced a few dances with a nice Howard student. I went for a moment with little Kari & her mother. It looked like everyone was having a good time. Reminded me of those terrible parties & never danced. it also made me miss Jim.
Went for a long walk with Joan, little Kari, her mother & a lady I can’t remember, who also never liked parties. Walked all over in a different direction, to the stadium.
June 29, 2001 – Train trip home to Michigan from Seattle. I was 54 years old.
June 29, Friday
“This land is your land, this land is my land…”
Woke up in Montana. isolated cabins on the sides of wooded mountains. mountain (rushing streams) line of parked cars in the middle of no where. a deer on the side of the tracks, pine trees, poplar or is it aspen? “Big sky” low clouds.
James, the Chinese steward, had a laugh this morning with the Irish woman across the aisle. He’d thought she’d be Chinese (note: because her name was “Lee”.)… “Robert E. Lee wasn’t Chinese”, she pointed out, a bit peevishly.
I awoke around 7:30 (6:30) Seattle time) yawn. Could have slept longer. Mountains of feathery pines. So close together. The highway right below, a stream leads up, up, up the mountains to a meadow. “I knew the mountains would make you well.” Breakfast of yogurt parfait.
On closer view, what appears to be meadow may be bushes. Least that’s what the one we passed was. Going through open covered tunnels? bridges? Better than the dark holes.
Rock is gray, slate like layers, dirt was mauve this morning. Began taking photos. Why didn’t I do that all along??? What a waste. Oh well. Jilo & ife have bot expressed an interest in cross country travel.
Down the corridor a couple are discussing their vacations & train trips. The rocks do look like the earths bones. I need to use the bathroom…
Are we lower or higher? trees are smaller, fewer. More grass. God’s golf course out there?
Montana high plains. rutted dirt road comes out of fields to the truck. Several piles of dumped household stuff. Irrigation. Houses, small, alone. A man with orange flags. Clouds I could reach out the window and touch. Sage brush again every where. Wonder if it’s like my sage.
April 5, 2004 Shared Journal with my daughter ife. I was 57 years old.
My daughter and I were going to fill this journal up, mailing it back and forth from Idlewild, MI to Seattle, WA. We started it when her twins were 6 months old. We never completed the book.
Monday morning April 5 – full moon 11:04 AM
Waiting until time to leave for Ludington for my first mamogram. Another sunny, cold day. Yesterday I saw a robin on my walk and there was a crocus in the garden. Spring is really here. (my entry from Michigan)
Tuesday 8…….A quick sketch of the Deifenbaccia that is in front of the west window of the living room. it is doing much bettwer since it was repotted inot a larger pot and now that it gets nice strong light. I spend a lot of time watching it grow.
Both Sean and Sydney are finally napping.. they don’t want to be moved from my lap though… cuts down on being able to use this time… (ife’s entry from Seattle)
I found this front page of the Springfield Republican for August 30, 1946 – the day I was born – on Genealogy Bank. Click on it to enlarge. You can read my birth story here – Friday’s Child is Loving and Giving.
click to enlarge.
12 Responses to Front Page News – The Day I Was Born
Great minds think alike. I downloaded the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald for the day I was born just this week but I posted it on my Book of Me private blog. I wasn’t as brave as you – my age is no secret but I couldn’t bring myself to share publicly.
Can’t wait to see those later prompts. But it does give me a chance to do other things in between, either related to the Story of Me or all that other stuff I need to do!
I gave it a try and Genealogy Bank doesn’t have any newspapers in my area in my birth year, let alone birth date! Perhaps in the future… Such a great idea!
Awww. Maybe there’s a front page from somewhere nearby? Or for the week you were born? I have lived places that only had a weekly paper and didn’t have any world news, just local things.
I checked the whole state for the whole year. I’m sure that as Genealogy Bank adds papers, one will pop up. Oh, I should check for my hubbs and son though!
Nope. Not for hubbs and son either. Well darn! Guess I could do a national paper like the NY Times or something though. That would give a good idea of world events…
I am the first daughter, born during a thunderstorm in the middle of the night.
I was born at Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts, August 30, 1946. My parents arrived there the fall of 1945 when my father was chosen as Pastor of St. John’s Congregational Church. My mother was 23 and my father was 33. Although I was one of the people present in the delivery room, I’ve had to rely on the memories my mother shared with me. My mother was given a wiff of ether as I crowned so she did not see me born. I had a head full of dark hair, enough that a nurse pulled it up into a little pony tail and tied a ribbon around it. The nurse told my mother that all of the dark hair was going to come out and I would have blond hair. She was right. All of that fell out and I had a small amount of blond hair. It would be years before there was enough to pull up in a ribbon. My eyes were blue/gray.My mother said that she was unable to breast feed me because she had no milk. I always felt very sad about this, not so much for me, but because I think that if I could have gone back in time with what I learned about nursing when my own babies were born, I could have helped her make a go of it. After ten days in the hospital, we went home. A member of the church, Reginald Funn, drove us to the parsonage because my parents didn’t have a car until I was 8 years old. Looking at my baby book, there were many visitors and gifts from friends, family and neighbors.
Reginald Funn and car.
Both of my grandmothers came from Detroit to help out. I was the first grandchild on my father’s side and the second on my mother’s side. My maternal grandmother, Fannie Graham, had a cold so she was regulated to washing clothes and cooking and other duties that kept her away from me so I would not catch her cold. My Grandmother Pearl Cleage had the care of me. My mother said that her pediatrician told her not to give me any water because it would make me drink less milk. Below is a letter my Grandmother Pearl wrote home about it below. Poor baby me.
In this letter, Toddy was my father’s family nickname. Louis was his MD brother. Barbara is my father’s oldest sister, left in charge while her mother was in Springfield.
210 King St Springfield Mass Monday 23/46
Dear Barbara,
How are you? How are Gladys and Daddy and the boys?
We have had atime with this baby, the first nights and all last week Toddy and I were up allnighteachnight! She cried and cried and screamed until she would be exhausted and so was I! Last night and today, so far, she has slept a lot better. Before we talked with Louis I’ve put her feedings 3 hours apart, justlastnight because she acted like she would burst open, with crying. This a.m. we got the Bio Lac and are giving her water regularly too and she is acting 100% better!
When I would have given her water before, they told me her stomach would not hold it and food and had me stop her feeding at about 3 ounces, for fear she couldn’t hold it all, not to feed her too much, and Kris just starving to pieces! I did as they told me until I said I was going to talk to Louis because I had never seen a baby eat and be dry and then just act like she was starving to death and never sleep!
***************
I regret that nobody took any photographs of little me with either of my grandmothers.
Two excerpts from a letter my father wrote home in January. Actually, I did look like him, and more and more so as the years passed until now, if he were still here, we could pass as twins.
January 1, 1947
“…Doris and Kris welcomed in the New Year in their own inimitable way…at home. They got out only once during the holiday…on Christmas day we went to a Turkey dinner at the Funns. We had a tree “for Kris (and Doris) which Kris ignored…disdainfully. Our double-octet went out caroling to the hospital Christmas eve (yes Louis, for the white folks) and came back by and sang carols for us afterwards. Kris listened to them with her usual disdain…and they all agreed that “she is the most sophisticated looking baby they had ever seen!”
“…. She loves to play from 2 until 4 a.m. She had the sniffles for part of one day…but seems to have so far avoided a serious cold…even with us and the rest of Springfield down with Flu, Grip and everything else… She weigh 11:4 (last week) She’s learned to yell or scream or something…and will scream at you for hours if you’ll scream back (Just like M-V) and seems to love it…then after an hour or so…her screaming will shift into a wild crying…and then she must be picked up and played with for several more hours…SHE LOVES ATTENTION…No, mama, we do not let her cry…and her navel seems to be doing O.K. AND SHE DOES NOT LOOK LIKE ME! All reports not withstanding!”
March 18, 1947 – from a letter to my father’s sister, Anna by my mother.
“Kris (with her 2 teeth) says anytime for you all laughing at her bald head – I fear it’ll be covered all too soon with first one thing and then another.”
__________________
March 31, 1947 – From a letter to the Cleage’s from a friend of my parents in Springfield
“Last night at home, Kris had quite a time with her teeth and I think Doris was quite anxious. Reverend Cleage had to leave for Loring before Kris really let go so he didn’t know how much the baby suffered. I know it won’t last long, tho’ for mother says some teeth give more pain than others, but it is soon over with.”
__________________
From an April 7, 1947 letter my father sister Gladys wrote home while visiting Springfield.
“Kris is no good- but cute! Head’s not like the picture – kids! I definitely have no way with babies – I have truly lived!”
________________________
June 29, 1947 (from a letter by my father’s visiting sister, Anna)
“… Doris went to a reception today and I watched Kris. I tricked her, I played some soft music on the radio and waltzed around the room with her a few times, then eased into a rocking chair and first thing she knew she was asleep – so I put her in her crib and the next thing she knew Doris was home waking her to feed her.”
_______________________
I seem to have done fine, as you can see below, with my dirty bare feet I am sitting on the porch with my father’s father and my parents. I started walking at 9 months and my first words were – “Bow wow.” soon followed by “Some manners if you please!” My mother said that people didn’t usually understand what I was saying when I came out with that.
My paternal grandfather, Dr. Albert B. Cleage Sr. sitting on the railing. My mother, Doris Graham Cleage, holding me. My father Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr. Summer of 1947 on the back porch of the house on King street.
You can read the front page of the Springfield Republican for the day I was born here.
Prompt #29 from The Book of Me – What sort of purse do I carry and what is in it?
I usually carry this bag with me. I made it from scraps of mud cloth several years ago. It’s lined with some navy blue fabric I had on hand but it should have been lined with black. There is plenty of room for the items below, plus my camera, a notebook, a book or whatever else I need at the time.
Great minds think alike. I downloaded the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald for the day I was born just this week but I posted it on my Book of Me private blog. I wasn’t as brave as you – my age is no secret but I couldn’t bring myself to share publicly.
I figure I’m still the same age, if I tell or not. Unless I can find that time machine LOL.
Where is that flux capacitor when you need it?
Exactly!
That is great Kristin. You will enjoy one of the later prompts……
Can’t wait to see those later prompts. But it does give me a chance to do other things in between, either related to the Story of Me or all that other stuff I need to do!
What is interesting is seeing where the prompt takes the discussion within the Facebook group and where it leads individual participants.
I gave it a try and Genealogy Bank doesn’t have any newspapers in my area in my birth year, let alone birth date!
Perhaps in the future… 
Such a great idea!
Awww. Maybe there’s a front page from somewhere nearby? Or for the week you were born? I have lived places that only had a weekly paper and didn’t have any world news, just local things.
I checked the whole state for the whole year. I’m sure that as Genealogy Bank adds papers, one will pop up.
Oh, I should check for my hubbs and son though! 
Nope. Not for hubbs and son either. Well darn! Guess I could do a national paper like the NY Times or something though. That would give a good idea of world events…