A Big Family Birthday Party for Ruth's Granddaughter Cindy - 1968

The photo shows Cynthia Jo Pellettiere with her mom, Diane, in  Cindy's bedroom in their first house in Mt. Prospect IL. Cindy (probably 18 months) is wearing a green jumper made by Grandma Ruth Kellogg.

Floridians Ruth and John were visiting us to enjoy and help with Cindy's first birthday party (July 13). Ruth's diary entry is not in Pieces of a Life, nor is the picture.

Sunday, July 14, 1968
"A hot day.  I fixed deviled eggs while Diane arranged the buffet table this A.M.  Lynn wouldn't nap so had to be amused somewhat while Cindy slept.  I phoned Mom & arranged to get them at 3 P.M.  

It was bedlam here after Vi's Schnauzer dog arrived on the scene.  Then, even though they put the dog downstairs behind gate, Lynn hung on Dan & Diane, so it was very hard for them to handle food end of the party.  The crying was bad & D & D very nervous.  We couldn't do anything to relieve them.  All the P. family was here and we had 4 tables in yard.  I took (finished) one roll of movies with some help from Marie & John's daughter, Debbie.  Vi & I did up dishes before they had to leave for another party about 8."

My recollection is a little different.  I was walking in and out of the kitchen with food, drinks often - and on one trip, saw that Cindy was crawling on the grass under the tables, chasing the dog, Hughie.  Before I could get to her, Hughie had finally had enough - turned around and snapped at Cindy - but did not bite.  Everyone saw it and that's when Hughie was "jailed" behind the gate.

The "Mom" that Ruth refers to is her mother, Lottie Meredith, age 81.  Ruth picked up brother Jim (age 57) and her mother, who had moved to Mt. Prospect, living there briefly before moving on to Florida near the Kelloggs. Lynn was 2 years and 2 months old.  The house didn't have air conditioning, so was very uncomfortable in that hot summer.  We did have it put in later that year.

Ruth's World in 1990

Sept. 8, 1990  
A SURPRISE GIFT (the diary from Amparo)

"So - I start using it NOW - the date of receiving.  Amparo here to keep me company now & then.  She decides & comes for a few days at a time - it's up to her.  As I don't have a car anymore, it's a nice interval when Amparo comes & we go out to eat a meal 'here and there'."

Amparo is Ruth's daughter-in-law Nellie's mother, 7 years younger than Ruth.  Nellie would figure out when Amparo would go to spend time with Ruth as a companion and paid her for doing this part-time job about half of each week. It was a way to keep Ruth in her apartment a little longer.  That would change soon.

There's also a note inside the diary that says, "Dear Ruth,  Happy Birthday   Love, Amparo"

Ruth's birthday was July 5.  Perhaps Ruth set the diary aside when Amparo gave it to her and began to use it in September.  She only wrote about 15 times, starting on Sept. 8 and ending Nov. 5.  These were small pages with a writing area of 3 1/4 by 3 3/4 inches.

Ruth's gradual withdrawal into dementia started years before in the late 1970s or early 1980s.  John passed away in January, 1987 at the age of 87.  By the fall of 1990 when she was 84, Ruth was still living in Horizon House on the Causeway between Clearwater and Clearwater Beach, FL.  She and John had moved there in 1966 when it was a new building.  They had 2 bedrooms, 3 baths and a den with a couch that could be a bed.  So there was room for visitors like the Pellettieres.

The photo is earlier, from 1979.  You can see that Ruth (73) and John (80) had been playing tennis with Dan (age 43).  The missing player, Diane, took the picture.  I'm sure that our 3 girls, Lynn, Cindy and Kate, were at the pool or beach nearby, but not in the picture!  Neither the diary entry nor picture is in Pieces of a Life.

The Kelloggs Travel to Ann Arbor and Buffalo in 1940

 The pictures show John, Diane (4) and Ken (9) standing by the Lincoln Zephyr in Lancaster NY and Ruth standing in front of the car, probably on the bridge between the US and Canada near Niagara Falls.

On Friday, Aug. 16, Ruth, Ken and Diane took the "streamlined Mercury train" to Ann Arbor to visit John's mother, Esther, and his step-father, G.A. (Guy Ashford Wood Sr.).  John joined them by car on Wed., Aug. 21, bringing gifts.  One was a GE Iron for half-sister Sara Jane, who had just surprised the family by marrying Ellis Tobey when her parents were out of town.  The others were an automatic toaster for G.A. and a juicer for his mother.  Maybe anniversary gifts?

On Aug. 23, the Kelloggs took off for Niagara Falls and Burlington Beach, Ontario.  They drove to Grand Island, where Esther Webb Kellogg Wood had grown up on a farm and where John spent part of every summer as a boy.  Esther was the granddaughter of Potato Famine Irish.  Many of her relatives lived on Grand Island.

Saturday, August 24, 1940 - Went on
The Kelloggs also saw the Falls from the American side and went into Buffalo to stay over night at the Graystone Hotel.  John had grown up in Lancaster and Buffalo. Before leaving, they drove by the home owned by John's much-older half-brother, George Kellogg. They didn't stop, I'm sure, nor make any attempt to see George and his family.

Blood isn't always thicker than water.   John felt early in his life that his Scottish-English Kellogg relatives looked down upon Charles Kellogg's young second wife, Esther, because she was Irish.  Perhaps John thought that he and sister Dorothy were regarded as a step below the other Kelloggs.  

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.

Ruth Meredith and John Kellogg Marry

Ruth and John married in the Meredith's flat at 5458 W. Iowa St. in the Austin neighborhood on the far west side of Chicago.  I don't know how they managed it - must have moved much of their furniture into the 3 bedrooms in order to have room for 24 guests, who also had dinner there.

Saturday, June 1, 1929 - My Wedding Day!!!
"Up early.  Lady upstairs washed and set my hair.  Gifts arriving all day.  Pressed my wedding veil -- some job
   Had 24 at ceremony & dinner.  I was excited when I was repeating after Dr. Gardiner, but John seemed very natural.  Mr. Brenken drove us to the photographer's & back.  Tin cans on our car.  During dinner they tried to get us flustered.  I cut wedding cake.  Florence caught my bouquet from front porch.  Sausen stole me after that.  Finally at Hotel Morrison.  Forgot dresses.  Folks brought them down."

From there Ruth and John went to Detroit for their wedding trip, an area John was familiar with, having lived there as a teen.  After a week, they went on to Ann Arbor where John's mother and step-father lived.  Most of this is in Pieces of a Life.

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.

1966 - Ruth, Diane and Lottie with the Fourth Generation, Lynn Meredith

Ruth Kellogg's diary entry and the picture of her with daughter Diane Pellettiere and mother Lottie Meredith are not in Pieces of a Life. This picture was taken in Mount Prospect IL in Aug., 1966 after Diane and Dan, both 30, moved back from New York City.  One of Dan's clown paintings is on the wall above Lottie.

The scab on Diane's leg came from a fall she took running into Randhurst to buy more paint for the walls she was painting.  Though Diane was carrying Lynn in her arms at the time, the baby was unharmed.

Thursday, May 12, 1966
   "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 at 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.  I phoned Beth & Ken the news."

Ruth uses Central time rather than Eastern for each event.  For instance, Lynn (6 lbs. 7 oz.) was born at 10:38 PM at Beth Israel Hospital in New York...The Kelloggs had two other grandchildren by then, Philip Alan (5) and Roger Winslow (2), but this was the first girl.  There would be two more, Cynthia Jo and Katherine Diane.

Ruth (60) flew to NYC to help out from May 16-25.  During that time, Dan flew to Chicago and looked at houses over a weekend, driven round by Diane's brother, Ken.  Dan and Diane had discussed what they wanted in a house before he left, so Dan worked off of that list - and bought a house on May 22 at 1101 Greenfield Rd., Mount Prospect.  They occupied it in August and were happy there until they outgrew it and moved in 1971.

Ruth and John were packing to leave for Florida on any day when they weren't babysitting for us (or Ken). They were now able to occupy their condo with the renter having moved to NYC.  They left on Monday, August 29, started unpacking boxes in FL, but then flew back to Chicago on Sept. 4 to do more packing and also see the Ken's and Diane's families as well as Lottie and Jim, Ruth's brother.  The Greyhound Moving Van came on Sept. 9 and Ruth and John left on Sept. 12, spending the next few weeks unpacking, making small changes in their condo.

It was an enormous change for both Ruth and John.  They both cried on Sunday, Aug. 28 when their Gamma Nu Sunday School class gave them a parting Revere Bowl.  They had been at First Baptist since 1941 when they moved to Oak Park.  One blessing that made it easier was the many church friends who either moved to Clearwater or vacationed there.