Photo Album -- 1936 to 1957

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This is just a beginning -- many more photos to add plus a lot of journaling.

It's been fun to go back in my life to see myself as a baby, a toddler, a sister and daughter and granddaughter, a young student, and a teenager. I am including all family photos here that I have, though there are so many more of me -- maybe because I was the first child -- or maybe because there are photos somewhere I don't have.
Dolores

Dolores

First Christmas

1937



On January 30, 1940, sister Diane was born.
Our mother said that when she came home from the hospital with the baby, I bit my great-grandmother in the leg to get some attention. Now I had to share the spotlight.



Our dad made this table from an old wooden refrigerator top with pipe fittings for legs. It lasted for as long as I can remember.





     


Our grandmother, our mother's mother, Eleanor Reindl, was only 38 when I was born. I can remember people saying to her, "Oh, you're much too young to be a grandmother." I can also remember thinking that she really liked those comments. When I became a grandmother at 38, I found myself enjoying those same comments. Ah, vanity.

We spent a lot of time at Nanny and Unkie's house, and in summer enjoyed many happy hours in the 'screen house' seen in the background. It was stored away in fall and had to be reassembled each spring. We played and ate out there -- my great-grandmother Louise and I occasionally slept out there on army cots -- a wonderful alternative to an upper flat without air conditioning.
Our Nanny loved to dress us up and curl our hair -- mine was stick-straight. So you can see on this photo that it took a bit of effort for this result. She had only one child, our mother, and we were her little darlings.

The house on 47th Street near Burleigh where Nanny and Unkie lived and where Diane and I spent quite a bit of time. They lived upstairs,
so all you can see on this photo is the awning over the living room window. The entrance was at the side of the house.

 

(left) Diane and I in front of 2618a North 19th Street. Behind us is the alley in which we often played. I remember enjoying the snow melting and gushing into the storm sewers because we made little dams to divert the water.
Diane got her sidewalk bike for her birthday on January 30, 1947, the year of the big snow, so the photo was probably taken about 1946. My dad never had a bike as a child, and he made sure we got them.

Fourth Grade

 

When Marilyn was born in June 1946, Nanny and Unkie
took Diane and me on a vacation to northern Wisconsin.

 

 

Our father Merle went to work in Alaska in 1943 with his brother Carl to earn a 'nest-egg' with which to build a home. We had lived in old rental upper flats for as long as I could remember. After a month unloading ships in Skagway, Merle spent six months in the Arctic Circle building the Canol Pipeline in the Northwest Territory, working as a mechanic, electrician, and jack-of-all-trades. The $3000 saved during those long months purchased two adjoining building lots in undeveloped Milwaukee's northwest side. The photo below shows the property before construction. The lots turned out to be quite swampy and had to be drained and then filled.

 

 

Sister Marilyn was born June 30, 1946,
while we were still living on 19th Street.



 

On June 15th, 1947, the basement was dug for the family's new home. On December 30, 1948, just after my 12th birthday, we moved into the new home, at the time not much more than a roof over their heads. The stairs to the upper floor was not finished, and for a while the children slept in the living room. The outer walls were covered only by tarpaper; it was about a year and a half before the stone was added. For the first few days the only water was a pipe in the basement, and the floors were rough flooring waiting for tile and carpet. I remember sweeping the floor in the living room; the dirt just went through the spaces in the rough flooring into the basement below. It was a large home, eventually four bedrooms, and had been built by Merle pretty largely single-handed (though some labor was traded with friends.) He was to spend several years, all his spare time, finishing the job, but doing most of the work himself left them with a relatively small mortgage. But it was theirs, the first and only home of their own.
 

The first photo of me and a boyfriend -- named Fritz, I think, whom I'd met at the roller rink where we spent many hours. I think his family owned the rink, but the he made the mistake of letting me drive and crashed his car -- I was only 14. I never told my parents.
Janice Janes (now Lewein) and Nancy Clough (now Schroeder) and I were best friends through high school -- and still keep in touch. Here we are at a church camp at Green Lake, Wisconsin; I went there two or three summers for a week at a time, I think.
The swimming pool at Hoyt Park was almost a two-mile walk or bike ride for us, but we spent many, many hours there -- mostly 'working on our tans.' We had no idea how unhealthy that was. The three of us bought identical swimming suits, differing only in color.

 
Sister Bev was born February 1, 1949, less than six weeks after we moved into our house.
Bev -- about 1952
About 1952 -- a party with my best friends. Judy Roloff (now Bullock), Sue Matter (later Wagner), me with Dave Larsen, Janice James (now Lewein), and in front Nancy Clough (now Schroeder) and Judy Juhl (now Greenhagen.) The only one I lost track of is Sue -- the rest have remained friends of mine.