CAROLE'S PERSONAL PAGE
Monday, October 18, 1937
[The Day I Was Born ... St. Joseph's Hospital ... Flint, MI ...
to Leonard & Anne Ballard La Flamme]
Top News Headlines This Week:
Oct 1 - Pullman Co formally recognizes Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Oct 2 - FDR visits Grand Coulee Dam construction site in Washington State
Oct 10 - NY Yankees beat Giants 4 games to 1 in 34th World Series
Oct 15 - Ernest Hemingway novel "To Have & Have Not" published
Oct 18 - Leonard & Anne La Flamme announce the birth of
a daughter, Carole Anne La Flamme
Oct 21 - Franco-troops occupies Gijon
Oct 25 - Casey Stengel signs to manage Boston Bees
Top Songs for 1937
That Old Feeling by Shep Fields
Once In Awhile by Tommy Dorsey
It Looks Like Rain in Cherry Blossom Lane by Guy Lombardo
September In the Rain by Guy Lombardo
The Dipsy Doodle by Tommy Dorsey
The Moon Got In My Eyes by Bing Crosby
Sweet Leilani by Bing Crosby
Boo Hoo by Guy Lombardo
Goodnight, My Love by Benny Goodman
Whispers In the Dark by Bob Crosby
US President: Franklin D. Roosevelt
US Vice President: John N. Garner
1937 Prices
Bread: $0.09/loaf
Milk: $0.50/gal
Eggs: $0.56/doz
Car: $675
Gas:$0.20/gal
House: $6,622
Stamp: $0.03/ea
Avg Income: $1,789/yr
DOW Avg: 121
Academy Award Winners:
Best Picture:
The Life Of Emile Zola Produced by Warner Bros
Best Actor:
Spencer Tracy in Captains Courageous
Best Actress:
Luise Rainer in The Good Earth
People born on October 18
1889 - Fannie Hurst novelist (1019?)
1934 - Inger Stevens Stockholm Sweden, actress (Katy-Farmer's Daughter)
1939 - Lee Harvey Oswald JFK assassin, born
1971 - Bob Whitfield, NFL tackle (Atlanta Falcons)
1405 - Pius II, [Aenea S Piccolomini], Italian pope (1458-64) (Cynthia)
1925 - Melina Mercouri Athens Greece, actress/politician (Never on a Sunday)
1939 - Mike Ditka coach/tight-end (Bears, Cowboys, NFL rookie year 1961)
1972 - James Stream Thurmond Jr, son of US senator Strom Thurmond
1937 - Carole Anne La Flamme Beighey (Author-Waddodle Series)
1811 - Hugh Thompson Reid, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1874
1926 - Chuck Berry St Louis, rocker (Roll over Beethoven)
1958 - Jean-Claude Van Damme Belgium, actor (Kickboxer, No Retreat)
1818 - Edward Otho Cresap Ord, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1883
1970 - Shane Bonham, NFL defensive linesman (Detroit Lions)
1831 - Frederik III NK of Hohenzollern, German Kaiser/king of Prussia
1951 - Pam Dawber Detroit, actress (Mindy-Mork & Mindy, My Sister Sam)
1890 - [Agathe] Henri‰tte [M de Beaufort], Dutch author (Rembrandt)
1902 - Miriam Hopkins, Bainbridge GA, actress (Becky Sharp, These Three)
1922 - Little Orphan Annie comic strip character
1919 - Pierre Elliot Trudeau (L) 15th Canadian PM (1968-79, 1980-84)
1956 - Martina Navratilova Prague Czech, tennis (Wimbledon 1989,79,82-87)
1921 - Jesse Helms (Sen-R-NC) right-wing
1942 - Willie Horton baseball slugger (Detroit Tigers)
1926 - George C Scott Wise Va, actor (Patton, Bible, Taps, Hardcore)
1950 - Patrick L Swindall, (Rep-R-GA, 1985- )
Gary Hoyle (2nd Cousin)
Larry Murtha, Jr. (2nd Cousin)
Meg Harrington (Annie's Friend)
Hot New Toys in 1937
1936 - Monopoly
1936 - Scientific Football
1934 - Radio Flyer "Streak-O-Lite"
1934 - Parker Brothers' "Sorry!"
1930 - Mickey Mouse Dolls
1929 - Duncan Yo-Yo
1928 - Chinese Checkers
1924 - Tootsietoys
1919 - Pogo Stick
1917 - Radio Flyer "Liberty Coaster"
1916 - Lincoln Logs
1915 - Raggedy Ann
1914 - Tinkertoy
1913 - Erector Set
1903 - Crayola Crayons
1902 - Teddy Bear
1901 - Lionel Trains
1892 - Ouija Boards
1888 - Gund Soft Toys
1888 - Tiddledy Winks
1870 - Snakes and Ladders
1867 - Parcheesi
1865 - Cap Guns
Spinning Top
Rubber Baby Doll
Wooden Building Blocks
Top Books in 1937
1937 - U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos
1937 - Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
1937 - Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer
1936 - Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
1935 - The Studs Lonigan Trilogy by James T. Farrell
1935 - The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money by John Maynard Keynes
1935 - The Strange Death of Liberal England by George Dangerfield
1935 - Dobry by Monica Shannon
1934 - I, Claudius by Robert Graves
1934 - Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara
1934 - Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1934 - A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
1934 - Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
1934 - The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
1934 - Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell***
We lived in the small village of Linwood, Michigan, on a corner lot on Center Street, right next to the Linwood Recreation. My father was a barber and had his shop kiddy-cornered across the street next to the Linwood Hotel.
It was the early 1940's. My sister, Nancy, was born and WW II was in progress. The United States entered the war when the Japanese surprisingly bombed Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands where we had bases and ships in port. Many people died there. Back home, times were hard. People were enlisting and off to war. The town emptied of its young men who used to frequent The Linwood Recreation next door. When a relative decided to sell The Recreation, my father purchased it and began adding on an addition for a home. The Recreation was not the run-of-the-mill pool room, it was family oriented with a juke box, pin ball machines, ice cream, a popcorn machine ... pop and lots of fun and laughter. The older kids hung out there and many adults came, both men and women. Business slowed down some now that many of the boys left to join the military and fight our war.
Before the addition was completed, we moved into our new home. It was a humble home as building materials were not readily available while the war was on. We had an outdoor privy while we waited for our toilet and sink to be installed. Wood was at a premium and we had only light lavender paper stretched across the walls dividing the 6 small rooms ... a kitchen, living room, 2 bedrooms, laundry room, bathroom. [Later, the rooms were plastered by a good friend, Johnny Pelky, but that was a long time coming.] By the time the men came to plaster, the paper walls were torn and uglier than before from poking our fingers through it and making the holes larger and larger. I was eager to be rid of all the torn paper.
We did have a room attached to our house that separated our home from The Recreation. We called it the Middle Room. It is where my father stored the supplies for the store. It did have a public restroom. Our upright piano was in this room, my mother's push treadle sewing machine, a coal stove, an antlered deer head hung over the piano, later my mother had a dryer tucked behind the door going into the kitchen ... but that, too, was years and years later. The Middle Room gave us a little extra room and we used it a lot to play. The only telephone for the house and store was located here. The room was furnished with a few comfortable chairs and a few wicker pieces my mother loved ... and atop the wicker table stood a colorful Tiffany's style Victorian lamp with tassels hanging from the light switch. In an alcove off the main room was a section used for stacking soda pop bottles for the store. We also kept our dog blanket and Trixie's dog dish next to the stove. The room was filled with memorabilia and interesting bric-a-brac artifacts that Mom collected and had no place in our small home to store them. Everything we had no room for seemed to end up stashed in the Middle Room.
The Middle Room was painted a light pea green ... not too cheerful, but Mom said it was a relaxing color. She loved the colors green and yellow. Our kitchen was bright yellow with dark green counter tops, the living room pale green, the bathroom was tinted pink, the folks bedroom a restful pale green and all us kids, three of us at the time, my brother, Rich, who had a daybed and my sister, Nancy and I slept together in a double brown iron bed in the blue bedroom. There wasn't enough room to install a bedroom door so for years we slept in a bedroom with no door, which was fine as we could get more heat from our oil burner in the living room with the door open. [Years later, when my little sister, Joey, was born, she took my place when I went off to nursing school ... until then, it was necessary for her to sleep on a cot in my parents bedroom ... not an ideal situation, but it was the best my folks could afford. Also, while I was away at school, my folks built an addition to their living quarters, adding on a good size living room with a fireplace, another bedroom, and a lovely screened-in porch.] Many mornings I woke up so cold I would run into the living room and Dad would help us dress with the clothes he placed across our stove to warm them. One of the nicest memories I have is my father sitting me on his lap and rubbing my feet to warm them before he put on my socks.
Mom would be in the kitchen cooking breakfast, either oatmeal, cream of wheat, scrambled eggs and toast or pancakes, if she had time. Ovaltine, a chocolate crystals we stirred into our milk was a regular, as was hot cocoa when it was cold outside. We all had the daily dose of cod liver oil and a multiple vitamin. On the radio we heard Squeaky and Sputters, Eddie Arnold singing, news reports, or Happy Hank singing his birthday song, "I know a girl who has a birthday today, I know a boy who has one, too ...". Mom would braid my hair in pigtails, always neatly pulled tight ... shiny clean. Mom rinsed our hair with vinegar to get all the soap out and make it shine. We got teased by the other kids that our pigtails were pulled so tight, we looked Chinese ... and that we smelled of vinegar ... at least until we had our hair washed again. We didn't care what they said, we knew we looked fresh and clean. Mom would always tie colorful ribbons on the end of our braids. She kept us all neat and clean ... taught us table manners, insisted we respect all adults, and reminded us that The Blessed Virgin was watching over us which encouraged us to always behave ... and of course we all knew our Guardian Angels were right with us to protect us at all times.
We were a proud family, well behaved, and deeply loved. We put on our winter coats and galoshes, mittens and scarves and we walked to school along the sidewalks that followed Center Street. It seemed a long way then but in reality it was only about 1/4 of a mile. We only got driven to school if it was raining.
When school was out for summer, Mom would always have a hired girl to help out with the housework so she could work in the store while Dad barbered in the shop that he had built in connection with The Recreation. My parents worked long hours. Later, after selling the pool tables, juke box and pin ball machines ... they converted The Recreation into a dairy bar/lunch counter ... sold greeting cards, newspapers and magazines, ice cream and some clothing ... and carried a line of Feather's baked goods brought in from Bay City. It was more like a General Store. Later, my folks bought out the local drug store from Jenny Yakel and moved it into our building ... now selling patent medicines, all sorts of drug store fare except prescriptions. We had no pharmacist. My brother, Richard, began his college studying pharmacy, intending to return to our store when he graduated but he ended up teaching elementary school when he received a full scholarship from the Ford Foundation with the understanding that he would have to study teaching. So our Drug Store never did have a pharmacist ... but we had everything else ... and still ran the dairy/lunch counter. We had many coffee guzzlers daily, sometimes coming in twice a day, morning and afternoons sort of their social life. During the big smelt runs, hundreds of smelt fishermen descended on the whereabouts of Linwood and my folks would keep the lunch counter open all night ... and I worked all night. [One night I was so exhausted I dropped a bowl of hot chili in the lap of one of the sportmen. It was embarrassing but he was a gentleman about it and of course my folks did not charge him for his late night snack ... and my father helped clean him up, heard the smelt were running good and sent him back on his way fishing with a smile on his face.]
Linwood Beach was the place to go at one time. Many lovely cottages lined the shore. Years ago well-to-do families would come, by train, for the summers and return to the city for the school and winter season. The Beach had a pavilion with big bands playing where dances were held and people came in by boat and train from Bay City, Saginaw, and Midland. It still is a lovely beach and many of the original cottages remain with their original families. Many have remodeled them, restored to their original condition and some are just the same as they were in the beginning ... well tended and loved, and Linwood Beach still remains a lovely place to own a second home ... although more and more people are making Linwood Beach their permanent residence.
One Christmas in the 40's when we still owned The Linwood Recreation
I was about eight years old when we had a December with no snow. It was nearly Christmas. Every kid in town was worried how Santa would get to us. The village streets were bare ... the grass bare ... not a snowflake fell the whole month of December. I was not only worried, but I was sad. Here it was Christmastime and it didn't feel a bit like Christmas. Dad and Mom were late picking out our Christmas tree. When it came, it seemed ages before it was fit to decorate. Dad, a Christmas tree perfectionist, was busy cutting holes in the trunk and redistributing branches to cover the bare spots. The Christmas tree was a big deal at our house. Mom loved the tree, as did we all. After Dad was satisfied he'd covered all the bare spots, he covered one or our pool tables with a tarp, set the tree in a stand ... put it atop the pool table and lifted each of us kids up on the table to help trim the tree.
My father was fussy about the decorations and we all liked the icicles, taking great pains to hang them one by one so they hung gracefully from the branches. Dad was bigger on stretching cotton over the branches to make it look like snow. The ornaments were special and each had a story. My favorite was the soft little brown teddy bear that was one of the first ornaments they bought for the tree when my brother was a baby. There were beautiful hand blown glass violet and aquamarine bells that had been on every tree that I remembered. I wanted to put some of them on ... and when I picked one up, it fell and broke and I was devestated and cried forever it seemed. Initially, Dad gave me a sour look, but later, hugged me and said that maybe I had better stick with the ornaments that weren't so fragile. I never forgot that incident. Every time I decorate a tree I think of that broken bell.
Anyway, there was still no snow on Christmas Eve. As usual, a bunch of us went Christmas caroling in the neighborhood and returned home for hot chocolate and Christmas cookies. It was time to prepare for midnight mass. Our house was unusually quiet. Mom and Dad had closed the store and were resting up before going to church. It had been a busy week and up until I left for caroling, Mom was still wrapping gifts.
We all went to Midnight Mass together, leaving early about 11:00 as Midnight Mass was always well attended at St. Anne's and although our church was large for a small town, it would be crowded ... by the time mass started, there would be standing room only. As we approached the church steps, Mother saw how sad I looked and asked me what was wrong. "It's Christmas, Carole. You should be happy."
"I know, Mom. I am happy, but I am disappointed that it is not snowing. All the little kids are worried about Santa arriving."
"Not only the little kids," Richard said. "You look a bit concerned yourself."
"I am concerned as to how he'll get here but, like always, I'm more concerned about how he will get into our house. We don't have a big enough chimney for him to crawl down. How does he get in?"
"We don't really have a chimney at all, just pipes from the oil burner," Richard said.
"Santa has all kinds of transportation, kids ... airplanes ... trucks ... not only reindeer and a sled," Dad reminded them "Remember, just the other night Santa was checking and left his big red truck on our lawn."
"Yah, right, Dad," Richard said.
"That was Gene Sauve's Gasoline Truck, Dad. He was filling our oil tank. We knew that even though he tried to scare us by tapping on our windows and pretending he was Santa Claus." Claus."
Dad smiled. "Just pray for snow then, kids."
"I'm praying hard," I said. "I've been praying for snow all week."
Christmas Mass, as always was beautiful. The Adult Choir sang and the Children's Choir, which Nancy and I belonged to. It was hot in church with our winter coats on and by the time the long line of communicants finished, they were hot, tired and ready to go home.
All I could think about was seeing our Christmas tree, and sitting curled up on the couch in front of it and just watching it. When we opened the doors to leave church, I gasped! Looking up, I cried, "Look Everybody! It's snowing! It's a miracle!"
"See, kids. Your prayers were answered," Mom said, smiling. "Now Santa will get here for sure."
Happily they headed for home where Dad and Rich would eat oyster stew and the rest of us would have a piece of Mom's famous meat pie with cranberry sauce. They laid out a snack for Santa ... Christmas cookies and milk with a little bowl of sugar for the reindeer. Then it was time for bed and sweet dreams of Santa flying through the air while the snow fell paving his way to deliver his toys to all the boys and girls. It would be hard to sleep tonight as we listened for the reindeer to land on our roof and hoping Santa would find his way in.
You may wonder why I have so many pieces about soldiers and the war in my blog. It probably stems from my childhood, growing up during WW II and listening to all my family's daily discussions of the war. It was prime news at our dinner table. Several relatives of my family were involved in that war. Many in our town were serving. Some came home; some did not. Some came home ill or injured. It took its toll on everyone in my hometown. And I will never forget it.Many windows in the homes proudly displayed stars depicting they had a member of their family in service, dead, missing or wounded. Every day, we kids made our trip to check the Honor Roll next to our Post Office to see if there were any new stars by the names of our boys, meaning they were dead, missing or wounded. People laid flowers under the Honor Roll. The church bell tolled when bad news was reported. We children took our turns at school scouting the sky for suspicious aircraft ... usually a younger child [K-5] paired with one of the upperclassmen [6-8]. My father served as a blackout warden. My mother worked with the Red Cross.A favorite teacher, Mrs. Blue, with her perfectly groomed upsweep hairdo with a faint blue tint, sat proudly pumping out patriotic songs on the old oak organ every school morning and again when the kids paraded through our room on the way to the lunchroom. Mrs. Blue didn't believe in wasting a minute ... having to teach four grades in one room, she had not a minute to waste. We had our music class while singing to the students as they passed back and forth for hot lunches. We all sang at the top of our voices, showing off, thinking it was great fun. We had a small country school ... only three rooms for K-8 but we had everything we needed, including a great hot lunch program with great cooks who catered to the students ... even bringing in mid afternoon snacks such as peanut butter and honey balls rolled in cornflakes or apples ... sometimes milk or orange juice. Not all schools as small as ours had a hot lunch program. If we had all our work done, we were allowed to go to the kitchen for an hour and help the cooks prepare for the following day, by peeling potatoes, buttering bread, etc. Our parents took good care of us to see that we were well fed. Our town was not wealthy financially. For some of the children, this was the only hot meal they received all day.The hot lunch program was a wonderful addition to the school but the addition I remember the most was when I came to school and found we had inside bathrooms with flush toilets and running water in sinks and drinking fountains in each room. The year before, when in Kindergarden, we had to use an out house, which was a scary place to me, as when using it one day, a mouse ran across the floor.The boys favored wearing leather air helmets with chin straps, high top boots with a pocket for a jackknife, knickers, camouflaged shirts and pants, the metal hats worn by the infantry marching in combat; everyone pledged the Allegiance with respect. The boys played war, the girls played Army nurses. We went to the store with our coupons and tokens and bought what we could during the rationing. Chocolate and bubble gum were at a premium, as was coffee, sugar and butter. Victory gardens were everywhere, some sharing gardens with neighbors. We were allowed only two pairs of shoes a year ... and for growing children, that is tough. When our shoes got too small, my father would cut out the toes ... when they got holes in the soles, he cut out cardboard innersoles and lined them to try and keep out the dampness. No one complained about the shortages ... they shared what they had and were thankful for what they did have knowing many throughout Europe and Asia and other countries were without. We saved our paper and tied it in bundles and my brother wheeled it to school in our red wagon. We saved our tin cans, squashing them flat ... any iron or rubber ... it all went to storage. I still have my certificate for all the paper I saved during the war in my scrapbook. WW II music was special, some of the best music of my lifetime ... romantic and wonderful ... the big bands played; the movies depicted what was going on during the war. Every movie had a newsreel, unlike today, there was no television news. We saw Hitler, Tito and Mussolini on the newsreels. I was petrified seeing Hitler raging his 'Heil Hitler' .. his looks frightened me. I had nightmares as a child picturing the Germans or the Japanese breaking into our house and taking my family away ... or worse. One boy from our town, Donald Friedinger, died on the beaches of Normandy. When I visited there, I saw his name engraved on the American Memorial and have a video of it. My brother and I, who remember D-Day, looked over the clifts and wept, wondering how our men had the courage to climb those trecherous clifts, know when they reached the top they would be facing the German guns aiming directly at them. One man I knew when living in Pennsylvania lost his eye during the Normandy invasion. A boy from my home town was shot down over the Baltic Sea during the Korean War and was never found. One of my cousins was shot down in France early in the war and was a prisoner of the Germans throughout the war. He went in the army with dark hair and came home totally white. Two of my cousins who served in the islands occupied by the Japanese came home with malaria that surfaced on and off throughout their lives. Another was thrown overboard in a naval attack and spent several long hours in the ocean before being rescued. Yes, ... that is just a few of the soldiers, sailors, marines, coastguardsmen and national guardsmen from our hometown who were affected during the wars. Our town paid a tremendous debt for their courage in battle and we are all very proud of them. One of the nice things that came out of that era was the patriotism of the people everywhere. We were all in this together and we all pulled together to win the war. That is why America is so great ... it is the people who love her and fight for her that made our country the greatest country in the world. I wish our people today would follow the same message the people exhibited during the big war ... WW II. I will never forget those days. They made an indelible impression on me. It instilled in me my great love and admiration for our country. Our teachers instilled in their students the feelings of patriotism. My father flew the American flag over our store every day of the week and took it down every evening. When I think of my dad, that is one way I remember him best ... raising and lowering his flag and shoveling the great amounts of snow we had as a kid ... and always working so hard. And my mother, too. She loved the kids in our home town and they loved her. When they went away and came home from school or the service, they all came to see 'Aunt Anne'. When the Mexicans came in the summer to pick the pickles and sugar beets, they traded at our store remembering the kindness and fairness my parents showed them. My mother stood for more than one little Mexican baby's baptism. When I see a serviceman, I thank him for his service. If it weren't for men like him, I would not be here in this great country living the free life I enjoy ... and neither would you. When you see one, let him know he is appreciated. That is the least we can do for the sacrifices they have made for us. The family erected a flagpole in the Memorial Park by the bay to honor our brave men; a memorial donated in memorandum of my brother, who had great respect for our armed services and served in the National Guard and taught in the Guard for the duration of his duty.
I love my country. GOD BLESS AMERICA! GOD BLESS US ALL! GOD BRING PEACE THROUGHOUT OUR WORLD.
