A Slice of Ruth's Life in 1940

In the photo, probably taken in Ann Arbor, Diane and Ruth are wearing outfits Ruth had made.  Apparently I wasn't keen on having my picture taken.

Let's view a slice of Ruth's life in the Fall of 1940, as a 34-year-old homemaker with two children, living in the Austin section of Chicago.  Her words are in a tiny diary with 5 days on a page, so brief snippets sketch her activities, thoughts.

Thursday, Oct. 31, 1940 - "Diane got her first permanent.  Her head is full of curls.  Cute.  Cried a little.  "  I remember this. The curlers were attached to a big machine and it was very uncomfortable because of the heat and being unable to move around.  I was only 4 1/2, so I wonder why my mother felt the need for curls on my straight, fine white-blonde hair.  Maybe it was Shirley Temple's fault.  She was a wildly popular, adorable child movie star with curly hair.

Friday, Nov. 1, 1940 -  "Had my hair done and a manicure.  Jeanette drove (with Will) 4 of us to Vange's for sewing club meeting."  This may have been after Evangeline moved very far away to Arlington Heights.  That was considered "the boondocks" by Chicagoans.

Saturday, Nov. 2, 1940 - "Shopped, baked.  Show was 'All This and Heaven Too' with Bette Davis.  Good.   Ruth and John are still going to movies, but now on Saturday, always arriving before 5:00 when the lower daytime prices changed.  Ken and Diane went too.

Sunday, Nov. 3, 1940 - "Took a lot of toys to Nursery of Church.  After ride we ate at new Robin Hood's Barn and then saw show."    Going to the Baptist Church on Sunday was also part of the pattern of their lives.  They had wrestled with the question of whether to go to John's Methodist Church, but decided on Baptist right before they were married. Robin Hood's Barn was a huge, rustic restaurant on Lake St. in Oak Park.  We went there about once a month for several years.

Tuesday, Nov. 5, 1940 - "Voted for Wilkie.  Got my FUR coat finally.  Bought Kenny nice overcoat."  Ruth's fur coat was a full-length mink-dyed muskrat.  I remember the soft feel of it.

Wednesday, Nov. 6, 1940  - "Wilkie lost!"  The other guy running - for his 3rd term - was a chap named Franklin Delano Roosevelt.    My parents were very Republican politically, but wasn't their party's day. They would have been stunned to know that FDR would run in 1944, deep in WW II and win a 4th time.

 

Ruth Kellogg Tells of Daughter's Hospital Stay in N.Y.C.

Daughter Diane (me) is pictured here at 26 (1962) at a windy Chicago beach near Lake Michigan, close to her Astor Street apartment.

In 1964 Ruth and John, Diane's parents, still lived in Oak Park.  After a trip to Florida, they drove back to Illinois on Friday, Feb. 21.  On Feb. 22 Ruth wrote in her diary: "Diane phoned Ken this morning from N.Y. hospital where she's been since Thursday with kidney infection which is being treated with shots every 6 hours.  Tests are being run for cause.  Ken said she sounded chipper."

One day in mid-February, I didn't feel very good with several symptoms - such as back pain.  The only doctor we knew of was one some friends had just met at a cocktail party, so that's who I saw.  He examined me, but missed the kidney infection diagnosis, and sent me home.  In a couple of days, I was back - but this time with a high fever.  The doctor put me right into Beth Israel Hospital in lower Manhattan, where I laid around for about a week. That's where I was when I called my brother, Ken

What were we doing in New York City?  Dan Pellettiere was hired by N.W. Ayer, venerable old ad agency in Philadelphia, in Dec., 1962.  We got married in February, 1963.  At that time I had been working for Continental National Insurance Group in downtown Chicago for about 3 years, training employees in letter and report writing mostly, but also writing and editing materials and manuals.  When I left, I finished a project for them, working out of our apartment in Philly.

We expected to be there for a year, but were transferred to NYC in late April.  I was hired by another insurance company on Maiden Lane at the south end of Manhattan, this time working as a technical writer in the electronic data processing area.  The computer was the size of a room.