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!

Diane Meredith Makes an Appearance

On the back porch of our 2nd floor flat, Diane (me) at age 1 is shown in a wheeled contraption, longingly looking at her birthday cake. The arms holding me in place belonged to Grandma Lottie Meredith, Ruth's mother.  Ruth took the picture in May, 1937.  Going back one year...

...Ruth Kellogg was 29 in May, 1936 when she and John were about to have their second child.  Back then, of course, they did not know the sex, but I've been told that they wanted a girl after having had a boy, Ken, in 1931.  Ruth and John were living in the flat above Ruth's parents and brother Jimmie on Iowa Street in Chicago.  The Great Depression was gradually receding, somewhat like the Ice Age.  Most of this post is not in Pieces of a Life.

Wed., May 6, 1936
"Stuck to ironing until finished.  Wrote letter to Ida Beal who, Charlie told John over the phone, is expecting second arrival in August.  Mama visited at Decker's.  Went to Doctor tonight.  Gave me pills for a trace of albumin."
Ida and Charlie Beal were close friends of John and Ruth.  The Deckers were good friends of Lottie Meredith.  I don't know anything about the pills for albumin that Dr. Tucker gave to Ruth.

Fri., May 15, 1936
"Went downtown to Doctor tonight.  He hinted there might not be another trip down there.  On way home got ice cream cones."
Ruth was due on May 24, so would have had another appointment around May 22 - though it turned out that it was not needed.

Sun., May 17, 1936
"At 4 A.M. we arrived at hospital.  At 6:12 A.M. baby girl was born -- 6# 5 oz.  Left Kenny home asleep.   It happened just one week early."
On this page of Ruth's diary I added a note in cursive writing and some decoration when I was 8 years old.  It said "Birthday of Diane now 8" across the top and there was a circle around the date.  That was done in 1944, during World War II.

Tues., May 19, 1936
"Baby is getting cuter every day.  Named her Diane Meredith.  Letter from Alice tonight.  Jim  & John came tonight.  John brought fresh roses."
Women were in the hospital a week or 10 days back then.  Kenny was 3 1/2 and would have been in the care of Lottie mostly with John in charge when he came home from work.  Lottie probably made dinner for
Kenny and John too.

1935 - A Pivotal Year for the Young Kellogg Family

Pictured are Kenny (3) and John on Thanksgiving, 1933 on the Meredith's front porch in the Austin section of Chicago.

1935 was a difficult year for the country and also for the extra stress The Great Depression was putting on young families like the Kelloggs.

I went through Ruth's diaries for the early months of 1935.  The more I read, the more Ruth's anger and depression seeped through the pages.  She didn't understand how desperate the economic situation was, so blamed John for working too much - 6 and 7 days every week, denying her of his company and simple social events with friends.  He was in business for himself - like being way out at the end of a limb.

John had seen his family knocked from well-off to barely hanging on when his father died suddenly in 1913.  He was probably terrified in the early 1930s, knowing how easy it would be to plummet again in this situation, with families all around him doing just that.  He would never have told Ruth that he was afraid, but would have nagged at her not to spend even on things they needed.  She was not a big spender during my life time, even when money was ample.

Friday, January 4, 1935  -  "Mama stayed here with Kenny (afternoon while he was sleeping) & again tonite when I went to Club.  John worked all night.  I'm mad.  Mama is too, as she had to stay until I arrived at midnight from Cecile's."

Saturday, February 5, 1935 - "As John phoned he wouldn't be home in time for show, I asked Mama to go with Kenny and me."

Ruth's life was built around 4-year-old Kenny, but her role models were her parents.  Her father worked long hours at Western Electric, taking a Sunday shift as well when money was tight.  But he never had to worry about the business itself collapsing as John did.

"I'm Kind of Worried..."

This picture of Grandma Esther Webb Kellogg Wood (John's mother), Kenny Kellogg and Ruth Meredith Kellogg was taken in Ann Arbor within a few months of the time the entry was made in her diary.

September 21, 1935 - Saturday
"I'm kind of worried, as I just heard an extra paper about Austin Maniac beating another woman today - that's about the 4th this month. First is in serious condition in hospital.

Baked a sponge cake& made lime Jell-O veg. salad for tomorrow.  Bought rolled veal roast.

John home early enough to eat good meal & I got dishes done before time to go to show.  Saw 'Orchids to You' - John Boles & Jean Muir."

Ruth probably meant to say that she read or heard about an extra edition of the newspaper concerning the "Austin Maniac."   Ruth's preparations for the following day were for her father's birthday.  Jim Meredith was turning 55 on Monday, Sept. 23.  Lottie, Jimmie and Jim went upstairs for the celebration.  At that point, the three Kelloggs were living in the flat above the Merediths.  John had bought the Sealtex business the year before and was still working very long hours, at least 6 days a week.  Because Ruth was back in a familiar neighborhood with her parents and brother, she was happy in spite of John's being gone so much.

Ruth, John & Kenny Surviving the Great Depression

The photo shows Kenny Kellogg at age 3 (9/ 6/34),  on the front steps of the stucco Iowa Street 2-flat where he and his parents, Ruth and John, lived. You can see his 3rd birthday cake to the right on the ledge.   He's sporting a beret. Neither the picture nor diary entry were in Pieces of a Life.

The Great Depression was still going on, with money tight and jobs hard to find.  John was working a 7-day week and often nights as well, trying to make a go of the Sealtex business that he took over, debts and all, in July of 1934.  He fired the factory workers and his secretary, explaining that he would re-hire them in the Fall when he had the money from bandage orders. He also moved Sealtex into a much cheaper, smaller basement space.  Part of  the money coming in he set aside to pay off the bills run up by the previous owners.  He also negotiated with some of the creditors, who quickly realized that half of the money owed them  by the previous owners was a lot better than none!

Ruth's diary (age 28) reveals that she was depressed about being alone so much and, of course, the restrictions of being on so small a budget. Occasionally, she had friends in or went out, but everyone was cutting back, trying to provide a meal on a shoestring.  She and Kenny were together every day while Ruth did the housework, with Lottie babysitting maybe once a week for an hour.  It surprised me to see how little structure there was to Kenny's schedule.  He really didn't have any!  At one point, Ruth mentioned that  it was the 6th of the month and John was late with the rent. Fortunately, the landlord was Ruth's father, Jim Meredith, who knew all too well about the Depression and how much John was working.

Friday, March 22, 1935
"Spent the day cleaning & preparing for Cecile & Ted's visit tonite for supper.  She & baby came about 5.  They stayed until 9:30.

Spent most of time arguing with John to go with class Sat. to Swedish restaurant and Lawson Y.M.C.A.   No Sale with him!  Darn it.

I took Dorothy down to show her to folks -- they think she's a little doll."

Cecile and Ted Duncan were close friends of Ruth's through the Austin Baptist Church.    Their baby girl was "Dorothy."  Evidentally Ruth couldn't persuade John to go to the restaurant and YMCA with the Yomarco (Baptist adult Sunday School) class because of his working much of Saturday and also not wanting to spent any extra money.

A Hot July in 1934...and Even Hotter at the Biograph Theatre!

Ruth (28) and Kenny Kellogg (not quite 3 years old)  returned from Ann Arbor MI on July 16, catching a bus in Ypsilanti.  They had visited John's mother, Esther Wood, and his stepfather, Guy Wood as well as seeing Dorothy Hiltner, John's sister and Sara Jane, Guy Jr., his stepsister and stepbrother.  The picture of them was taken on the Wood's front steps in Ann Arbor. I've used it before and think it's also in Pieces of a Life .  Ruth had stopped there for 5 weeks on the way back from staying with John in NYC for  month.  He was working for Sealtex on the East Coast.

It was a hot summer,which Ruth mentions time and again as she does the housework, ironing, cooking in the flat above her parents' apartment on Iowa Street in Chicago. The washing was done in the stone basement, so would have seemed much cooler. Also, she was washing and ironing John's shirts and other clothes, which meant carrying heavy boxes to the post office to mail them to New York City.

On July 22, Ruth says, "Gangster  Dillinger shot to death tonite by police & gov. men as he came out of the Biograph Theatre. Another hot day!  We got ice cream bars every day.  Played Hearts in cool breeze of porch tonite."

Ruth mentions on the 24th that it was "Hot! 105 degrees in the shade."  I wonder if she had been aware of John Dillinger.  He became a famous figure because of all of the newspaper coverage of his shady career, not to mention the movies later made about him.

Ruth's Second Baby Arrives Early

On May 17, 1936, Ruth said, "At 4 A.M. we arrived at hospital.  At 6:12 A.M. baby girl was born - 6# 5 oz.  Left Kenny home asleep.  It happened just one week early.  Folks came at 3 P.M."

On the top of that diary page is written in my early cursive handwriting "Birthday of Diane now 8".  I read everything in sight, including Gone With the Wind" at 9 or 10 years old.  Evidentally my mother's diaries were not out of bounds!

Because the Kelloggs were living with Ruth's parents in their two-flat, Ruth could easily ask Lottie and Jim Meredith to keep an eye on sleeping Kenny and give him breakfast when he awakened.  Ruth couldn't have been too surprised at the early birth.   When she saw the doctor on May 15, "He hinted that there might not be another trip down there."

On May 19, "Baby is  getting cuter every day.  Named her Diane Meredith."  I was told that my first name came from the heroine of a movie called "Seventh Heaven," starring Janet Gaynor.

At that time women were hospitalized for about 10 days after a birth and very gradually got back to normal tasks.  Ruth came home on May 25.  "Sure enough I came home tonite.  Doctor Tucker is so nice.  Have to see him in 6 weeks & another Doctor Kartoon is to examine baby in 4 weeks.  In the shot above, I'm 7 weeks old and Ken, only part of him pictured, would be 5 in September.  Ruth might have been celebrating her 30th birthday, which was on July 5.  For more about the Kelloggs and Merediths, see Pieces of a Life.