Kristin and Pearl Christmas in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Christmas 1950
Tag Archives: #Springfield
My First Gift
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?
A Plea for Peace – April 1, 1948
Today is the International Day of Peace. My post includes a petition, “A Plea for Peace and for American Democracy” signed by my father, Rev. Albert B. Cleage (later known as Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman) in 1948. It was printed in The Springfield Union newspaper of Springfield Mass, April 1, 1948 edition.
I have included several pages from a document prepared for the USA Senate titled Report on The Communist “Peace” Offensive. This includes a list of people who signed the petition in Massachusetts and a few other states. This happened as the anti-communist era got underway, leading directly into the McCarthy era. You can read more about it here McCarthy Era. As always, click on any picture to enlarge it.
A song written and sung by Victor Jara ends this post. Víctor Jara was a Chilean teacher, theatre director, poet, singer-songwriter and political activist. He was also a member of the Communist Party of Chile. When the USA supported coup against the elected government of Chile took place on September 11, 1973, Victor Jara was taken to the football stadium where his hands were cut off, his guitar smashed and after taunts to play his guitar now, they shot him to death. To read more, see this link Bruce Springsteen Honors Chilean Folk Hero in Santiago.
Front Page News – The Day I Was Born
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.
12 Responses to Front Page News – The Day I Was Born
Friday’s Child is Loving and Giving – My Birth
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.
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 a time with this baby, the first nights and all last week Toddy and I were up all night each night! 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, just last night 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.”
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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!”
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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.”
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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.
You can read the front page of the Springfield Republican for the day I was born here.
Moving Day Springfield to Detroit 1951, Revisited
Back in November of 2011 I wrote Moving – Springfield to Detroit 1951 for Sepia Saturday 102. I mentioned that I remembered the little girls in the photograph, but I couldn’t remember their names. Well, I found them!
During February, I was working on a post about turtles I have owned, when I came across the photograph below.
I recognized them as the Funns and realized that the other man’s name that I remembered from Springfield, “Lindsey”,must be the name of the father of the girls in the photographs. How could I find the last name? I decided to Google “Lindsey St. John’s Congregational Church, Springfield, MA”. The first item that came up gave me his last name, Johnson. I Googled “Lindsey Johnson, Springfield, MA” and came up with several articles. This was them! Sherrie was the oldest daughter, the one who poured milk in my dinner on that day so long ago. Below are some of the articles I found and some photographs of the Johnsons and also an article about Mr. Funn. Goggle and newspapers – it’s hard to beat them sometimes.
“K” is for King Street
This post continues a series using the Alphabet to go through streets that were significant in my life as part of the Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge. Click on the link to see links to posts by other participants in this challenge. It’s too bad the streets in my life weren’t alphabetically and chronologically coordinated because the years are all out of order. Here we go back to the beginning and my first home – 210 King Street.
My father became pastor of St. John’s Congregational Church in Springfield Massachusetts in the fall of 1945. The parsonage at 210 King Street is pictured above. This is the house I came home to when I was born in 1946. I was the first child of Rev. Albert B. Cleage and Doris Graham Cleage. We moved from King street before my sister Pearl was born in December of 1948. I was 2 years old and I don’t have clear memories of the house. I found the description below online.
1947 – on the steps with my mother. What is she holding that I am so excited about?
My father and his congregation were involved in a church fight at this point. A former Minister had separated most of the churches property from the control of the church when he retired. My father and members of the church were trying to get it back or get the church compensated. Before my sister was born, they did sell the Parsonage and we moved into the Parish house. It was right next to the church and we lived in 4 room (plus bathroom) on the first floor, along with church offices, a big meeting room and I don’t know what else. There were roomers on the second floor. In 1948 they were trying to get $7,500 for the house. Today it is selling for $47,000. From reviews the neighborhood is crime ridden and drug infested so I don’t know if they will get that or if that is a low price for a 100+ year old house in that neighborhood of Springfield.
My mother describes the purchase of the new GE refrigerator in a letter to her in-laws below. She says that I am completely recovered. In an earlier letter she described my bout with roseola.
I don’t know if these are the refrigerators my mother and I saw that day in 1948 but they were both 1948 models. The one I remember had one door, like the Philco.
Visitors from Detroit
Mary Vee was my mother’s sister. Dee Dee was Mary Vee’s daughter. Kris was me.
Dear Member, I am writing to enroll you in our Lenten-Easter Program!
Negro History Week – Springfield, Mass. 1946
There is no letter this time. I am posting several newspaper articles mailed home about various Negro History Week activities in Springfield, Massachusetts in February, 1946. Included are some articles I found at GenealogyBank.I thought I would post them as African American History Month draws to a close. Something not covered by newspaper article is that there were only six more months until I arrived on the scene!
Heroic Infantryman
Fifty uniformed members of the new Crispus Attucks post, VFW, attended a memorial service for Pfc Carl L. Talbot yesterday morning at the St. John’s Congregational church. The service for Talbot, who died as the result of wounds received in Italy with the 355th infantry regiment, 92nd division, was also attended by his mother, Mrs. Z. Carl Talbot of New York city, and his widow, Mrs Georgia Mae Talbot, also of New York.
Before a congregation, which filled the pews and extra chairs, Richard H. Snyder, Jr., post commander, presented the mother of the soldier a Gold Star certificate and bouquet, and the widow a Bible bearing the post’s name and a reading by its chaplain, John Cranshaw.
A memorial sermon was preached by the pastor, Rev Albert Cleage, and Comdr Snyder made a memorial address.
_____________________
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Chapel of Air Lists Events
Special programs will be presented observance of Negro history week, which starts today, and Brotherhood month over the chapel of the Air program sponsored by the Greater Springfield Council of Churches.
Tomorrow and Tuesday members of the international seminar, meeting here at Hope Congregational church, will speak. They are Rev Sabapathy Julandran, Chaplain Gernanda Laxamana and Miss Manawora Powar of India.
Rev Albert B. Cleage, pastor of St. John’s church will be speaker for the balance of the week. His topics will be “The Christian Dilemma” on Wednesday; “Pigmies and Supermen” on Thursday; and “Hope vs Reason” on Friday. The program is scheduled at 1:30 over WSPR. (Schedule transcribed from The Springfield Sunday Union and Republican. February 10 1946)
Civil War Called Economic Contest
George W. Goodman Asserts It was Fought Because Slave and Free Economies Were Opposed
The Civil War was not fought for the emancipation of the Negro but was a contest between two economic theories – slave economy and free economy – with the Negro as the scapegoat, was the declaration made by George W. Goodman, director of the North End Interracial Community Center in Hartford, in his talk last night at the observance of Negro history week conducted by the Springfield branch National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at St. John’s Congregational church.
Fluently expressing his thoughts on his topic of “Democracy at the Crossroads,” Mr. Goodman further declared that the present-day racial troubles in this country are not accidental but the result of an accumulation of negative attitudes and differences throughout the 300 years of this country’s existence.
Emphasizing that America must face squarely the matter of justice and equality for all men as being a basic moral issue, the speaker added “We’ve been talking democracy for about 200 years but we haven’t come close to actually applying it.”
Citing his experiences while a Red Cross worker for two years in England, Mr. Goodman said that the English people showed unreserved friendship to American Negro soldiers due to the friendly attitude and sense of humor the colored soldier displayed.
A part of the meeting featured the awarding of merit certificates issued by the national office of the NAACP in New York to eight members of the local unit who had been instrumental in increasing the membership during the campaign last year. The presentations were made by Rev. Albert Cleage, pastor of St. John’s church. Miss Marguerite Carson, president of the Springfield branch, was chairman of the meeting.(Transcribed from The Springfield Daily Republican, Springfield, Mass, Thursday, February 14, 1946)
“In a combination of choral speaking, music and plain speech, a program of Negro folklore called “The Negro Speaks” was presented at the YWCA last night. In three movements which took almost two hours, the speech choir, soloists, quartet, speakers presented a rhythmic, sibilant tone and word picture of the progress of the Negro from slavery to the present.”
“Choral speaking is the oral interpretation of verse possessing many of the qualities of the Negro spiritual. The speech choir was led by Langston Hughes. Soloist was Carol Somerville and the quartet was composed of Constance Taylor, Joanne Wilson, James Herbert and William Barnett. Speakers were William Woods, Isiah Hill, John Carter and Marguerite Carson. Other singers were Clarence Calloway, James W. Johnson and J.R. Johnson, Frances Jones accompanied.”
Members of the speech choir were Alfreda Desmond, Myrtle Desmond, Edith fuller, William B. Hill, Malcolm Lasseter, Nile Pettijohn, Joan Carole Porter, Charles Wiley, Willa Mae Porter, Lindbergh Pulley, Barbara Seymour, James Spruill, Alberta Walker, Dorothy Walker, Rodman Ware, Alfred B. Wimbish and W. Orrin Woods.
The program was a part of Negro history week which ends today. Opening remarks were made by Mrs William A. Lawrence.
According to The History of St. John’s congregational Church, published in 1966 “He (Albert B. Cleage) also wrote dramas; one of them coauthored with four other recalled ‘eighty years of progress’ since Emancipation and “the significant role the Negro played in our country’s history.'”
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…