Two Diaries Speak on Aug. 9, 1965

I had had surgery in July, 1965 at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan, so was not yet back to work at U.S. Life on Maiden Lane in NYC when I wrote this diary entry. Our apartment was in Riverdale.  Calling long distance is still considered very pricey in 1965, as you can guess by my noting the time we talked.  The home office of the ad agency Dan worked for, N.W. Ayer, was in Philadelphia, though the office he went to most of the time was in the Time-Life Building at 50th and 6th.

Monday, August 9, 1965
"I got up at 9 and vacuumed the whole apartment. Then at 11 while I was writing to Dan's parents, the phone rang.  Surprise - my mother called to find out how I am.  We talked for 12 minutes....
The sky was overcast and it rained off and on, so I didn't go to the pool.   Wrote to my parents and continued reading an interesting book - The Heartland:  Ohio, Indiana, Illinois.  Dan called to say he would be in Philadelphia over night, then called from Philly at 7.  I read, baked cookies, watched TV.  Stayed up til 1:00."

 On the same day many miles west of us in Oak Park  IL, my mother, Ruth Kellogg, wrote in her diary.  

Monday, August 9, 1965
"Rain.  Phoned Beth & long-distanced to Diane.  As a result of talking to Diane (who is feeling fine), I started making a shift for Diane out of her former sorority curtains.  She is using shift a lot I made her."

Ruth and John Fly to Palatine to Visit the Pellettieres

Ruth and John Kellogg, Diane's parents, pictured in front of their car in Fl in 1977.  They were 71 and 78.  The diary entries are from 1980.

Sunday, June 22, 1980 - "Early 7 A.M. pick-up by Limo to Tampa Airport where we waited over an hour for 9:15 flight (breakfast) to O'Hare. There 4 of the 5 Pellettieres met us in their yellow Cadillac!  Cindy stayed home.  Later - John found odd things in a pocket of luggage! He had wrong one!  His still at airport.  We're minus shaver and other essentials until tomorrow!"

Monday, June 23, 1980 - "Diane drove to airport first & John EXCHANGED luggage at the lower level while we slowly circled and returned for him.  Then on downtown to D&D's McDonald's which is quite remarkable.  Very attractive.  Diane & Dan told us all about how it runs & J. took some pictures.  Vi in office.  

We had steak sandwiches & later ice cream - after J. & I walked over to State St. and had Sara Jane's Genealogy pages copied for Diane.  We waited an hour or more for D&D to finish at McD & drive home by 5 P.M. - tired!  My feet! - to bed 9 P.M."

Tuesday, June 24, 1980 - "J. & I played little tennis with Cindy (not interested) and Katie, who takes lessons and is good for her age.  Then we saw Dan & team play exciting softball game - 14-6, after salmon cake dinner."

Dan and myself had become McDonald's owners in Sept., 1979, so it was still new and exciting to us and to our friends, relatives.   I'm not sure just what was copied of Sara Jane Wood Tobey's.  "Sally", as my father called her, was a much younger half-sister.  She and John had the same mother, Esther Clara Webb.

Vi Saletta was Veronica, Dan's sister, who was 16 years older and worked in our McDonald's office for 10 years...Cindy was never interested in tennis, probably just doing a good deed, while Katie really did like it. I don't know where Lynn was...Dan has played softball for most of his life, including 2016.  The diary entries and picture are not in Pieces of a Life.

Ruth on Iowa Street in 1938 with Young Ken (7) and Diane (2)

This 1940 photo of Ken (9) and Diane (4) was taken on the front steps of 5458 W. Iowa St., Chicago where grand-parents Lottie and Jim Meredith lived.  At that time Ruth and John Kellogg rented the small upstairs apartment.

Wednesday, Aug. 17, 1938 - "Kenny had tonsils and adenoids out at Douglass Park Hospital, 11 A.M.  He was an A No. 1 patient - cost $12.50, total clinic fee.  Home at 6:15 and to bed."

Thursday, Aug. 18, 1938 - "Kenny won't eat. Whimpers about throat hurting.  Nothing but water, not even ice cream will he take.  Hope he's better tomorrow."

Tuesday, Aug. 23, 1938 - "Card from Martha.  First since they left.  Doesn't like Reading much.  Took Kenny back to the hospital tonite.  They said throat is 'beautiful'.  Now feels better."

  In 1938, they didn't have the surgery cut-off in early Aug. that existed in 1945 when I had my tonsils out at age 9.  The cut-off was due to the polio scare that went on for several years.  One child on our block (1200 N. Euclid) in Oak Park was infected with polio.

The card Ruth mentions was from Martha Allen, a former neighbor.  We did visit the Allens in Reading PA and then later in Dallas in the late 1940s when they moved again.  I have a scar on
my forehead that came from running after the bigger kids in Reading and having a throw rug throw me into the corner of a door!

Kate and Daddy Dan in 1972

Kate and Daddy Dan Pellettiere enjoy a moment together in one of the new chairs in the living room in Palatine.

Grandparents Ruth and John Kellogg flew in from their new home in Florida the night before Kate's 2nd birthday.  They came in for birthday parties for Kate and also Lynn in May - and to babysit while Diane was at with several AOII functions as brand-new alum chapter president.  They stayed long enough to babysit for a week while Diane and Dan were in Las Vegas at an ad agency business golf function.  Ruth's diary entry is below.

Saturday, April 22, 1972 - "Seemed like Sunday today.  Girls came in to watch me unpack.  Didn't sleep very well.  Lot of preparation went into birthday dinner for Katie and other grandparents and Vi.  D&D spent morning furniture shopping alone.  Girls (not Katie) went to a party in afternoon.  Olive Kenney phoned.

I went with Diane on a ride to take folks home at 7 - all the way to Austin.  Katie liked birthday presents."

The "other grandparents" were Dan and Josephine Pellettiere, who lived in Austin where Ruth lived from 1922 to 1929.  Dan's older sister, Vi, helped her parents a great deal.  By then they were 80 and 82.  The woman who called Ruth was one of her church friends who was still living in Oak Park.  When Ruth and John visited our family, they also saw some of their old friends from First Baptist.

Ruth & John Celebrate Their 25th in 1954

In the photo Ruth and daughter Diane are about to enter the new 1953 Packard in front of the house,  Nov., 1953.

At age 18, I wrote the following article for the Oak Leaves, published early in June, 1954.  Sounds a bit stilted, but that was the way social items appeared.

Fete John W. Kelloggs' 25th Anniversary
   "The 25th anniversary of Mr. & Mrs. John W. Kellogg was recently celebrated with an open house at their 1210 North Euclid home.  More than 70 villagers and friends from neighboring suburbs conspired to make the occasion a memorable one.

    Of the Kelloggs' two children, their daughter Diane, a senior at high school, was present to take part in the celebration.  Kenneth, their son, a graduate of Northwestern University, is serving in the army, and is presently at Ft. Hood, Texas."

Earlier that day, May 31, I came back from a 3-day First Baptist Church teen outing at a cottage near Sheboygan WI.  Here's a little of the page in my diary from that day.  "Picked up hors d'oeuvres.  Di really beat.  There were about 70 at the Open-House for parents 25th wedding anniversary.  Was a mad house.  Received belle cadeaux.  Bonnie and Di helped me engineer food.  Morey too.  He came home at 7.  Big surprise!"

"Di" was Diane Karis, my best friend.  We met in our alphabetically-arranged home room as freshmen (Kellogg and Karis). "Belle cadeaux" means beautiful gifts for my parents.  "Bonnie" is the daughter of long-time friends, the Ballentines, who were guests.  Morey McDavid was my boyfriend toward the end of high school & had been out of town.  Ken was fulfilling his two-year military obligation after college.  He later went to Univ. of Illinois at Champaign for an MBA.  That's where I went for my Journalism degree.

This was not in Pieces of a Life  nor was the picture.



  

Ruth & John Help Ken & Family Move to Florida - 1971

The picture shows Lynn, Kate and Cindy Pellettiere at Kate's 2nd birthday in April, 1972.  They're in the balloon-clad dining room of the Palatine house with beach pails and shovels on the table in front of them, favors for the kids about to come to the party. The painting is one of Dan's.

Ruth's diary talks about how she and John stayed at Ken's home for a few weeks.  They helped show the house, clean the house, make meals, take care of the boys, do laundry etc. while the Des Plaines house was on the market.  Ken's family would move to one in Clearwater FL that summer, joining Ruth and John as well as Ruth's mother and brother in Largo FL.

June 1, 1971 - 42nd Anniversary!
"I made 2 phone calls to pick up furniture & clothing, etc. before Diane phoned for help.  Out I went to Palatine to stay with ailing Cindy and the baby so she could go register  L & C for summer school.  She or they returned about 11:10 and I had to hurry right back here for boys' lunch, then took them to school and went to beauty shop (Tiffany's - Joann) where had hair done.  

Back here to put roast in oven, clean up lunch dishes  & make a few more beds before Philip got here to go to the store with me.  Roger went right to a birthday party from school.

Anniversary card in the mail from D & D.  She & girls phoned & sang over wire the 'Birthday' song - and substituting Anniversary.  Had good meal for 5 of us at 6:10 - only I and boys didn't like the taste of the sweet potatoes."

The "summer school" was an arts/crafts class at the Palatine Park District facility over on the east side of town.  It was one or two hours each time, met twice a week and ran several weeks.  Lynn & Cindy seemed
enjoy it.  Ken's first wife is mentioned periodically in Ruth's diary.  She must have been living separately, perhaps in a hospital.   Neither the diary quote nor the picture are in Pieces of a Life.  The 5 people who ate Ruth's dinner would have been all Kelloggs - Ruth, John, Ken (39), Philip (10) and Roger (7).

Retirement Life in Florida Not Always Serene - 1973

The picture shows Ruth Kellogg (72) and her mother, Lottie Meredith (91), in Clearwater FL in 1978.

Ruth and John had just returned from a "rugged" 6-day trip to the Yucatan in Mexico.  Ruth was usually calm, didn't seem to let much bother her, except for my father. So imagine my surprise when I read this diary...

Friday, March 1, 1973   -   "Glad to be home and not anxious to leave soon again but that will come all too soon in late May -- to Diane's.  My mother gives me a hard time - trying to make me feel guilty and pliable to her needs.  If I were a stronger personality, it might have helped but now?  Between the various family members and my own desires & pleasures there are so many conflicts.  Now Ken & Nellie and boys seem well-adjusted and not dependent on me.  But how to work out Mom's needs without conflict here is tough!"

Lottie and her son, Jimmie, had moved from Chicago to Mt. Prospect after Ruth & John moved to Florida. They were a mile from me and baby Cindy, toddler Lynn. (Kate was born in 1970.)  I kept an eye on them, taking them on errands, visiting their small apartment. I thought it odd that my parents had left Lottie & Jimmie behind, as though they were forgotten luggage. Jimmie was schizophrenic, having had his first public episode at church in high school, followed by time at Elgin (mental hospital) and treatment off and on from then on.

I knew that Lottie was demanding of my mother, but didn't realize how much Ruth wanted to escape that responsibility. She had helped guide Lottie and Jimmie since my grandfather died of heart problems in May, 1944 at 63.  In either 1969 or 1970, Lottie and Jimmie moved to Largo, Florida, a short car ride from Ruth and John's apartment.  Dan and I helped get them packed up.  

In March, 1973 Lynn was 6, Cindy 5 and Kate 2, so visiting me in 1973 would be much more physical for 66-year-old Ruth.  She had babysat with Ken's boys when they were younger, but by 1973 were 12 and 9 with Mario (Nellie's son) slightly older.  There was a lot of drama when Ken's first wife was in the picture, so Ruth was happy to see life settle down once Nellie and Ken were married in 1972.

Hazy Daisy of Skylark

That was our dog's official name - Hazy Daisy of Skylark - though of course she was Daisy to us. In the picture, we're laughing because Daisy (age 9) walked into the living room and plopped down among us when we were taking a picture for the 1990 Christmas card.  Circling from the left:  Cindy (23), Kate (20), Dan, Diane, Lynn (24).  Her birthday is coming up on Jan. 29.

You're probably wondering when we got her - and where.  We have to go back to 1981 to find out....I didn't write in my diary regularly then. Sometimes there were gaps of months.

August 24, 1981 - Monday    "Monday has always been one of my best days for getting things done.  Here I am at 7 AM doing this instead. Must have been something to do with Daisy's being downstairs.  She's our 7-month-old ( Jan. 29) yellow Labrador retriever puppy, already about 60 lbs. & still growing.  She certainly has changed all of our lives.  

I drove up to Wisconsin (near Waukesha) to buy Daisy from Phyllis Putney in April during spring vacation, having called around the area & finding no puppy for sale closer.  I was very surprised at the size of Daisy even then.  The breeder told us she was 9 weeks old - didn't realize that she had her dates wrong.  Daisy was then 11 weeks."  Kate and Cindy, both on spring break, were with me on the drive to pick Daisy up.   Lynn was in high school at Fremd, which had a different vacation schedule back then.

"I think the first month would have been easier if we had had her at 7 or 8 weeks old.  We had some difficulty house-breaking her - and especially at night.  She pooped in her cage - in great volume - every night.

Daisy is a beautiful animal - white with a little tawny golden hair on her back and some tan on her ears.  However, she's hard to handle because of her size and is not all that absorbed with trying to please the humans around her.  She has improved greatly, but is still more work than I'd bargained for.

I hear her rattling her cage even as I write this.  Yesterday our family project was to work on Daisy's doghouse & run.  We built a doghouse, which stands 4 ft. high, and also tried to level the run, which we had built last spring & filled with cement blocks for flooring."

I went on to say that the adjustment to having Daisy was more of a strain than I had thought it would be. The 3 girls were about to go back to school, so I would be the main caretaker again.  Eventually Daisy became so much a part of the family that it was hard to imagine us without her.

I'd had a torn ligament in my knee from a McDonald's golf/tennis outing in July.  While we were warming up, my opponent hit a ball way to the back of my court.  I didn't realize I was backing up into a puddle of water! Had missed 3 weeks of golf and tennis because of the injury & was wearing a brace temporarily.

, Diane's Surgery in New York City, 1965

Diane's picture was taken in our apartment on Kappock St. in Riverdale, just north of the confluence of the Hudson and Harlem Rivers.  Yes, my hair was long, but done up in a stylish hairdo on top of the head.  

My mother's 1965 diary mentions that I had surgery on July 14 to remove "2 pieces of pencil-like scar tissue and a cyst off of an ovary".  She mentions 10 days later that "Diane phoned during the evening & we all got a word into her - but mostly listened to her - with Ken carrying load of conversation on this end.   She had gone home Thurs. from the hospital."

 I went to Beth Israel Hospital in NYC for an exploratory surgery.  I remember the surgeon later saying he had taken a tiny piece out of the ovary because that would encourage fertility if I should want to
get pregnant.  About 10 months after the operation, Lynn Meredith was born at that same hospital just 5 days before my 30th birthday.

At that point, my parents, Ruth and John Kellogg, were selling the house in Oak Park and about to live in an apartment temporarily.  They were going to have a new place in Clearwater FL re-done, adding a 3rd bedroom and extra bath, taken from the unit next door to them.  The other one became a one-bedroom, one-bath condo.

Christmas, 1992

The 1992 picture was taken in our living room with the tree as a backdrop.  Dan and Diane were 56 with Cindy (25), Lynn (26) and Kate (22).  Diane's diary follows. Neither the picture nor the words are in my book,  Pieces of a Life.

Dec. 26, 1992 - Saturday   "Yesterday was Christmas.  It went well after a tiring Christmas Eve  - ended up cooking til 11:30 PM - had a mishap with the salmon ball that caused a flare-up beween Dan and myself.  

Had the 3 boyfriends here - Tim, Jim and Bruce plus Vi.  Had an 18 lb. turkey and many dishes, mostly new ones.  

This was the first year that we broke our Christmas Eve ritual of putting out cookies & milk for Santa and coming in to see it all gone the next day (on film).  

Heather Reis and her boyfriend ,  Kip, dropped by.  Ended up talking health & vitamins to them because of an injury - twice - Kip had.  Snapped the Achilles' tendon.

Lynn & Jim left right after dinner to go to northern Wisconsin to use their new snowmobiles.  The other 4 were here all afternoon.  We drove Vi to Riccio's at 5:30.  Cindy & Tim stuck around til about 7 or 7:30 - then went to T-Ann's.    

Today Dan and I both did some Christmas errands first thing. Got bogged down in a long Ken phone call about Mom, $$, etc.  They only go well if one agrees with him, no matter how taxing it is to do that.

I think about Mom all the time.  She could live many years.  How sad that she doesn't know she has grandchildren or to be able to picture her own life other than from moment to moment...It's ironic.  She was so careful to diary her life, to keep everything in order."

At this point my mother, Ruth Meredith Kellogg (86), was in an Alzheimer's facility in FL. Her husband, John, had died in 1987 at age 87.  Brother Ken and his wife, Nellie, lived close by her in FL.

Heather Reis was a good friend of Lynn's.  The 3 boyfriends sorted out this way: Tim and Cindy, who dated several years and were living in Seattle,  Kate and Bruce, who dated a shorter time and Lynn and Jim Waldman, who dated 10 1/2 years and were married in 1995.  

Dan's sister, Vi, was 72.  Her husband, Chuck Saletta, who was 10 years older, had passed on.  She was in good health at this point, but that picture would darken later in her 70's.

Another important character in this story is Daisy, our yellow Labrador Retriever.  She had died on Aug. 22, 1992, just a few months before I wrote this page in my diary.  There are many mentions of her and how much I missed her, as did Dan and the girls.

Two Thanksgivings - 1925 (diary) and 1957 (photo)

The 1957 photo, taken in the dining room at 1210 N. Euclid, Oak Park,  misses most of 2 people on the right - Jimmie (46) and Lottie Meredith (71), Ruth's brother and mother.  The others are:  (left side, going around table)  Diane Kellogg - 21 , Ken Kellogg - 26, John Kellogg - 58, Esther Wood - 79 (John's mother), Ruth Kellogg  - 51 (turned toward camera)

Thursday, Nov. 26, 1925 - Thanksgiving Day
    "Got up at 5:20.  Evangeline got here at 6:00.  We went for Mrs. Diehl shortly afterward and got at the Oak Park church at about 6:25. Out at 8:30.  
     All but I went to the Chicago this afternoon.  Papa had never seen the inside before.  Irene came out and helped me with my dress.  She had dinner with us at 5:00.  
     At 8:00 Willard rang the bell and came in.  He had come about the ticket, but asked me to go for a ride for 1/2 hour.  I did.  We had a fine ride in the country.  We sat in car in front for a long while.  Irene stayed all night."

The Kelloggs had lived in Oak Park for 16 years when the photo was taken.  Esther Wood lived in Ann Arbor where she and her husband, G.A. Wood, had operated a boarding house for male college students at the University of Michigan.  By 1957 she had retired.  Ken had married in 1956, but his wife, Beth, took the picture, so is not shown.

In Ruth's diary, she speaks of getting up early, which must have been for the Sunrise Service.  A friend, Evangeline, and Ruth picked up a neighbor, Mrs. Diehl and drove to First Baptist Church in Oak Park. Lottie may have prepared some of the dinner that morning or perhaps was reluctant to go to church be-
cause she was increasingly hard of hearing.  The "Chicago" is the Chicago Theatre downtown.

The ticket Willard mentioned was for the prom.  Ruth invited Willard, whom she seemed to have a crush on through the end of high school.  Willard and Ruth sat in the car one time too many.  In early December Ruth's parents, Lottie and Jim, both reproached Ruth for sitting in the car with him, telling her she could not do that for more than 30 minutes.  They may have been concerned about what the neighbors would think too.


   

Ruth Celebrates Turning 73 in Clearwater FL

The picture (1978) shows us about to leave Clearwater FL after a visit with Grandpa (John) and Grandma (Ruth) Kellogg.  Dan, Lynn, Cindy, Kate are shown with Diane as the photographer. This isn't in Pieces of a Life, nor are Ruth's diary entries.

Thursday, July 5, 1979  - "A year older - 73.  Busy!  Hair done while Mom baked chicken thys while Jim & I shopped.  We got Pepperidge Farm pineapple cake and Mom put 5 candles on it.  Later John phoned to get flowers - none at our store!  I did and hurried home for the Kelloggs - 3 of whom came.  

Philip phoned to say 'Happy Birthday' and how old are you?  He had to work from 4:30 to 1:30 A.M.!

Ken brought cake they ordered & got as requested by John.  Gave me a silver bracelet.  All went well.  Took pictures."

My mother meant "thighs" rather than "thys" in the second line of her diary entry.  She was a good speller most of her life, but later on dementia gradually impaired her language skills.  Evidentally they ate with Lottie Meredith, Ruth's mother, and Jimmie, her brother, at lunch in their small home in Largo FL to celebrate Ruth's 73rd - and then dinner with son Ken Kellogg, wife Nellie and younger son Roger (15) to light the candles again.  Ruth and John lived on the 7th floor of Horizon House in Clearwater FL for many years after leaving Illinois.

I looked for the pictures Ruth mentions, but haven't found any.  I'm not sure if copies were sent to me.

The Steady Hand of the Jim Meredith Falters

The picture was taken in 1939 at Lake Geneva where the Merediths planned to retire...It reminded Jim of southwest Michigan where he grew up.  Diane (age 3), Grandpa Jim, Grandma Lottie and Ken (age 7) are on a bench near the lake.  Lottie is posing with Ken's bow and arrow, which is why Ken is downcast.

Grandpa Jim Meredith had a steady hand on the family, calm, kind and focused with a strong work ethic that sometimes had him at Western Electric 7 days a week. (That happened when the apartment above them was not rented or when someone skipped out without paying them the rent.)

In the summer of 1940, Jim's health faltered, a harbinger of what would come a later.  He was 59.  

These entries come from a tiny diary that I thought was a date or address book  I did not read it until after Pieces of a Life was published.

Thursday, Aug. 1-2, 1940   "Doctor told Papa he has an infected leg...Papa sits in chair with hot towels on leg."

Monday, Aug. 5, 1940   "Papa came home from Doctor's  and went to bed with case of pleurisy.  Very painful."  Two days later, Ruth said, "No relief for Papa yet."

Thursday, Aug. 8, 1940   "Had Doctor over for Papa today.  He bound him up some more and helped a lot."  The following day Papa was up for a few hours, so on the road to recovery."

The medical picture sketched in these lines seems murky.  Was the leg really infected?  How?  Was the pleurisy related to the leg infection?  Ruth skipped many days in the little 1940 diary, so the questions about her father's illness remain a mystery  Also, on Aug. 16 she, Ken and Diane (me) went to Ann Arbor by train to visit John's mother, Esther Wood, and his stepfather, Guy Wood Sr.  Others they saw were Guy Wood Jr., John's stepbrother, as well as Sara Jane Wood and her new husband, Ellis Tobey.  They were married a few weeks earlier.   John drove to Ann Arbor to join Ruth and the kids on Aug. 21.  


 

Ruth's First Granddaughter is Born in 1966

Lynn is in her crib at 4 months old in Mt. Prospect IL at the right.  In the picture below, she is just 4 days old, with new mom Diane in the living room of our apartment in NYC (Riverdale).  It was May 16, 1966, a sunny, cold day for late Spring and we had just driven home from Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan.

Ruth's diary on May 12 says, "No word yet (3 PM) from N.Y.  Am taking pills to ward off a cold and not doing much - just pot roasting beef for supper and knitting & watching TV.
     Dan phoned about 10:20 PM.  Diane had a little girl, about 6 lbs - name Lynn Meredith.  All O.K.  She went in at 9 AM.  Up at 2 AM and birth about 9:45 PM (Central time).  I phoned Beth & Ken the news."

The following day Beth (brother Ken's wife) sent flowers from both families.  On the 16th Ruth flew in to help with the cooking, washing, baby care until May 25 when she flew home again.  During the time Ruth  was with us, Dan flew into Chicago Fri night through Sun night and bought a house in Mt. Prospect.  We had made a list of what we wanted and he followed it.  The house was 3 or 4 blocks east of the 4-year-old Randhurst mall.

Ruth's 3rd Granddaughter, Katherine, Born in 1970

 The top picture shows Diane and baby Katherine in Aug., 1970 at age 4 months.  We were sitting in the family room in the Mt. Prospect house.

The second picture shows a very smiley Kate at 8 months in Dec., 1970 playing with an old Playschool toy.  She was born at 6 lbs., 9 oz. on April 22, but the first time Ruth saw Kate was in Lutheran General Hospital on April 25.  Ruth had flown in earlier in April to help with Lynn and Cindy.  Lynn was 3 years, 11 months and Cindy was 2 years, 9 months.  At 63 the little ones and house were a lot for Ruth to handle, even for a short time.  Dan was going to work and also fitting in friends and other activities whenever possible.


Sat., April 25, 1970
"I saw baby Katherine Diane in hospital nursery this afternoon with eyes wide open and putting on a show for Diane & me.  Diane hadn't seen her eyes open before.  She is a cutey - very much doll-like.  Diane looks good too  Was in a pink perma-prest duo gown & robe - short.

Felt more rested today with Dan here.  I got his suit from cleaners and left one there - also bought a list of groceries he made out, at Jewel near Lutheran General Hospital.  Dan went to see Diane tonight and I put girls to bed.  He got fried chicken out for supper.  I warmed up steak and beans.

Diane had first story acceptance - $10 - in Baby Talk."

I'm not sure what the story was about!

Happy Driving-to-FL New Year, 1966-7!

The picture shows (l to r - back row):  Jimmie Meredith, Ken Kellogg with Roger (3), wife Beth, Grandma Lottie Meredith, John Kellogg;  (front row) Dan, Diane & baby Lynn Pellettiere, Ruth Kellogg, Philip Kellogg ( 6).

It's Christmas, 1966 in Dan's and my first house at the corner of Greenfield and Greenwood in Mt. Prospect, IL. The Kellogg-Meredith-Pellettiere family gathered to have dinner together. Notice 3 of Dan's paintings - and a Van Gogh - behind us.

I'll go back through some of the many events of 1966 another time.  Here's what Ruth said on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 as the Kelloggs left to return to their condo in Clearwater FL.  They no longer had a house or apartment in Illinois for the first time since 1929.

Saturday, December 31, 1966   - "There were few flakes of snow in air as we left Diane & Dan's at 7 AM.  D&D got up to see us off and would probably go back to bed.  We gradually ran out of snow area, taking road slower because of blowing snow over the road.  I ate 2 P.M. lunch alone at Kum Back Inn while J. got the car greased.  I then drove clear here - to Hopkinsville - the last 25 miles after dark - 5:15 J. went for haircut."

Sunday, January 1, 1967  - "We left Ky. Motel at 7:15 A.M.  Had rain & fog last part of trip today, so were glad to get to the Robinhood Motel south of Atlanta, Ga. early - 4:20 eastern time.  We had dinner south of Monteagle (where we first hit fog in mountains, but not hard to see road.) They predict snow tonite in that spot.  I did about 1/2 of the driving today."