Ruth Meredith Kellogg Turns 24 in 1930

The photo shows Ruth in 1930 wearing a black fox stole John had given her for her birthday.  They had been married one year in June.  
Saturday, July 5, 1930 - "I'm 24 years old today.  Folks gave me hose -- also rec'd 3 birthday cards.  Made a big bowl of potato salad.  More varnishing & polishing.  Went to show with folks & had ice cream at Walgreen's."

On June 25 Ruth and John had moved from 4705 Byron in Chicago to 5841 W. Superior St.  The "varnishing and polishing" is in their new apartment.  Ruth's parents, Lottie and Jim Meredith, helped too.  They did not live far from Ruth and John.  The unpacking and getting settled went on for several days.

The Great Depression was in full swing, but John and Ruth still had jobs in July.  Ruth bounced from one job to another at Montgomery
Ward as the sales dropped and people were fired.  She must have been well thought of because it would have been easy to fire her when a job she was in was eliminated.

Tuesday, July 8, 1930 - "Very tiring day.  John brought a mirror and end table home without consulting me!  He was late too!  Started to eat without him.  Took hot bath."

John is the kind of guy who wants to get things done right away - very industrious.  To him, it doesn't make a lot of difference which mirror or end table is picked, just that the task is done while Ruth would be concerned with the color, style, etc.  Neither the picture nor the diary entries are in Pieces of a Life, 

The Merediths at Baron Lake MI in 1916

"Summer 1916, Rutlage's Resort, Baron Lake, Mich" is on the back of the picture in my grandfather's writing.  Brought up in Berrien County on the southwest corner of Michigan, James R. Meredith loved the green forests and the lakes, including the big one, Lake Michigan, that formed the western edge of Michigan. 

Jim didn't have a middle name, so used "R." as his middle initial.  I've always thought it was because of his grandfather's name.   
Benjamin R. Meredith from Kent Co., Maryland had that initial.  Did it stand for a name?  Maybe.  Born in 1801, he was a soldier in the Florida War and the Black Hawk War.

Jim and his wife, Lottie Weekes Meredith, did travel from Chicago back to Michigan often to see his family at this stage, only married 11 years (Nov. 23, 1904).  Jim was doing well,
after moving to the big city, Chicago, for a job and a better life.  In 1916 he was working for a major company, Western Electric, where he would be employed for the rest of his life.

The small woman seated between the two children must be Jim's mother, Ruth Parks Olmstead Meredith, age 68.  She appears in another picture a few years later.  The girl is Ruth Viola Meredith, named for both grandmothers, at age 10.  The boy is James William Meredith (5), who is named for his father and his mother's father, William Walter Wilson Weekes, from Wilkes-Barre PA.  They called him "Jimmie."

Standing behind them are two women I'm guessing are a cousin and an aunt of the man in the middle, Jim Meredith.  Lottie, Jim's wife, wasn't in the picture.  Maybe she was behind the camera.

This is a casually posed picture with three of the subjects looking off to the right side, drawn to something - a dog barking, laughter, someone heading their way.  Young Ruth, my mother, looks strikingly like I did at about that age, right down to the somewhat bored vibes.  It looks like there's a house or a cabin behind those pictured.

Pictures from the past give you a feel for what life was like, but dredge up more questions than answers.  They make me want to study further what life was like at that time and especially for my ancestors.

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.