Ruth Meredith at Austin High, Chicago in 1925

I love my mother's graduation picture, taken in the Spring of 1926.  Ruth Viola Meredith's marcelled dark blonde hair was very stylish.  Too bad the photo isn't in color.  Her "cat's eyes", as she called them, were greenish hazel.  My guess is that the blouse was either dark green or navy blue with a red bow.  Ruth was very aware of fashion and made most of her clothes.

Tuesday, Jan. 13, 1925 - "Today we had dandy exercises in Gym.  In Typing I have started on the first exercise in the 13th lesson, which isn't so bad, because Wanda is only on the 11th exercise.  I hope she gets through though.

Mr. Nichols showed us a Wild Western of the life on a ranch in the History class today.  Of course, it was a moving picture, supposed to fit in with the lesson, but it didn't this time."

Wednesday, Jan. 14, 1925 - "Nothing special occurred today, sorry to say.  Oh, but when I think of the many, many things that have to be done, both in and out of school hours, I just have to gasp.  The end of the term is only a few weeks away.  I didn't get any farther in Typing today.  In Industrial History class we were shown a moving picture concerning Westward movement in the early days."

Friday, Jan. 23, 1925 - "Today was better than yesterday although I had to go through three finals.  They were Shorthand, English and Industrial History."

Ruth mentions Wanda Thiele, her best friend, on Jan. 13.  She and Wanda both had to work hard to get through high school.  In Ruth's case, I suspect that being a preemie in 1906 was involved.  She was placed in a coal oven with the door ajar as an incubator for a week or more.  Her mother, Lottie Weekes Meredith, probably got that idea from a midwife or another mother.  Lottie was 19. Her mother, Viola Hawley Weekes, had died when she was 9.  Lottie left school in 7th or 8th grade to keep house for her father and little Lewis.  Ruth's father graduated from high school through Western Electric where he worked for many years.

Moving pictures were new when Ruth was in high school.  "Talkies" were about to come out.  She loved going to the moving picture theatres of the 1920s.

Ruth was disappointed with some of her grades, but happy to get an E in Gym, an 88 and an E minus on two English tests.  Mr. Nichols gave her S on a map and E on another History test.  Those were all better than her grades in Shorthand and European History on the preceding Monday.  The diary entries are not in Pieces of a Life, but the graduation picture is.  Sadly, few pictures of Ruth as a teen and around 20 have survived.

Seek and - Sometimes - Ye Shall Find

Finding the pieces of a life can be daunting.  Dead ends abound.  And then, with luck, something drops in your lap.

In Pieces of a Life, I relied on my mother's early diaries mainly.  One day this week I was going through a large box of diaries from later in her life, which should have been labeled "paydirt".  It turned out to be a treasure trove.

Hidden at the bottom of the box were two autograph books.  Both were from 1922 when Ruth Meredith graduated from Emmet grade school in Chicago.  On the first page was written her name and her address, 644 Leamington Ave.  I'd never had that address before!  The Merediths lived there before they moved to Iowa Street.  Autograph books were used in 8th grade so that friends, classmates could leave a name with a poem, silly limerick or just their good wishes before moving on to a huge high school, Austin High.  For instance, "By the river, By the sea, By the hillside, Think of me.  Your schoolmate, Sinah Kitzing" is one example.

Then two pictures fell out of the diaries.  The one you see is blonde Ruth at age 2 with a toy bear.  It is so thrilling to be able to see where they lived back in 1908.  Yet still another new-to-me address - "Fulton St. house" is written on the back of the picture in Lottie Meredith's distinctive lefty handwriting. Fulton Street is east of Iowa Street, near Leamington.

The figure at the top of the stairs could be Ruth's father, Jim Meredith.  What about the other picture that fell in my lap?  I'll use that one in the next blog.