By Lorraine L., June 27, 2017 — As a child my home was three rooms, a kitchen, living room and one bedroom where I lived with my parents and older brother Robert “Bob.” My grandma owned the home and rented out each floor. Grandma lived close by and we spent a lot of time together.
My dad Elmer was a labor at the steel miill and also worked for Cray Moving. He was always on time for work and church, but late for everything else. A family joke was that he would be late for his own funeral which actually happened due to a bad snow storm. My mom Matilde was mostly a stay at home mom; however she did seasonal work at a local flower shop.
I went to Roosevelt Elementary School, where I could go home for lunch every day. When they build the new school, John Minadeo Elementary, I was no longer able to walk home from school for lunch because of the distance. My class was the first class to graduate from John Minadeo Elementary. I had a parakeet named Smokey who loved to land on my dad’s bald head. I also had a dog named Rusty.
I remember that an egg man came around selling eggs and chickens, an umbrella man who came around to fix umbrellas, the hackler who brought fruits and vegetables and other items on his truck. My grandfather was the shoemaker and the milkman, and used a horse and buggy to travel. The mailman went from door to door and the first motorized fridge was from back in this time era.