Ruth and John Kellogg Visit the Pellettieres in Palatine - 1973

1973 - Katie (3), Lynn (7) and Cindy (6) Pellettiere sitting in the family room at the house in Palatine.  Grandma and Grandpa Kellogg flew in from Clearwater FL on May 19.

Friday, May 25, 1973  - "Today was not quite so hectic but still - it had its moments.  I went with Diane to her beauty shop to have haircuts for all 3 girls this afternoon.  It took an hour longer than it should have due to the operator having a long, unscheduled customer.

It was fortunate that I was there to help.  Lynn & I went out for candy and gum, which also helped.  Katie got the "prize" haircut - cute as a button - short & shaped to the natural curl she has.  

The two older girls were an hour late to a naborhood birthday party.  This bothered Diane enormously, knowing how much such things are planned by mothers.  Also we were late in getting the spareribs into oven for supper, but we ate a little later, which was O.K.  I shortened a new long daytime skirt for Diane.  Dan phoned his flight time for early A.M. arrival tomorrow - John to go for him at 5:30 A.M. from here."

Ruth and John were 67 and 74 at that time and still functioning well, though the pace in Palatine was much faster than in FL.. With Dan in to Las Vegas twice, it was helpful to have them visit.  Dan and I both went to Las Vegas on May 28th for the pro-am golf tournament he was in charge of,

As much as everyone else liked the haircut, Kate did not.  Looking back, she probably wanted her hair to be longer like Lynn's and Cindy's.  This diary entry is not in Pieces of a Life.

"Help Me!"

One day Lottie Meredith phoned Ruth, crying hysterically, "Ruth!  Ruth!  Help me - my finger is caught in the sewing machine."
Trying to be calm, Ruth said, "What do you mean 'caught'?"
"The needle came down right into my fingernail.  It's bleeding and it hurts so much!"
"Can't you just release the needle - turn the wheel on the machine so it comes out?"
Still crying, Lottie said, "No, I can't.  I'm afraid I will just make it worse."

I was home so Mom (Ruth) and I ran to the garage, backed her Packard sedan into the alley and drove the two miles to the my grandmother's two-flat on Iowa Street in Chicago.  We had lived there until 1941 when we moved to 1210 N. Euclid in Oak Park.

Ruth was able to turn the wheel on the side of the sewing machine to pull the needle upward out of Lottie's bloody finger. Then she had me put ice in a bowl so that Lottie could put her finger in it.  This was 1949, so Grandpa Meredith (James) had passed away.  Her son, Jimmie, still lived with Lottie, though he was out when this happened.

Was this just a random accident?  Not exactly.  In the Nov. 5, 2013 post I mentioned that Lottie was very poorly coordinated because, as a lefty, her teachers tried to force her to use her right hand.  They tied her left hand behind her back.  It didn't work.  She still used her left hand to write, but was forever after awkward in doing tasks around the house or yard.  It seems barbaric, but tying up the right hand was an accepted practice in the late 1800s when she was a child.

Oddly enough, my father, John, was the first person to notice that our middle daughter, Cindy Pellettiere, was left handed.  When he and Ruth were visiting from Florida, he started to hand food or toys to little Cindy's right hand - until we realized it!  That was in 1968 when she was about a year old.

The picture is not in Pieces of a Life.  Taken in June, 1949, it shows my brother, Ken Kellogg (age 17), dressed for the Senior Prom at Oak Park High, with his mother, Ruth (age 42), and grandmother, Lottie Meredith (62).  They're in the Kellogg living room, framed against swirled plaster walls that were a pale aqua.  Past Ken you can see the arched entry to the dining room and the Danish Modern furniture, quite stylish at that time.