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.

Christmas 1973: Clearwater FL and Palatine IL

 Christmas 1973  (Ruth's Diary)
"I made a large bowl of cole slaw with halved grapes and nuts.  Also prepared lge. quantity of candied sweet yams.  This was our dinner contribution at Ken & Nellie's.

We phoned Diane & Dan at 9:15 AM & Cindy answered first.  They all got on different phones & thanked us for the gifts.  Diane especially liked the string purse & onyx necklace - was surprised, pleased.  Girls liked rings and doll dresses.  

We picked up Mom and Jim & got to Ken's by noon & got right into package opening & picture taking.  The dinner - 16 lb. turkey & dressing - was all good.  We had pie & fruit cake & coffee 3 hours later.  Had fun with a 'sponge' ball. "

The picture of Kate, Lynn and Cindy in our Palatine house was taken in about 1973 - ages 3, 7 and 6.  The picture of Ruth Kellogg (left) and her mother, Lottie Meredith, was taken in 1978 in the house son Jimmie and Lottie shared in Florida.  Ruth was 72 and Lottie 92.

Our lives changed dramatically when first Ruth and John moved to Florida, followed by Lottie and Jim, then
divorced son Ken with his sons Roger and Philip.  Ken met and married Nellie in Florida.  Dan and I had our holidays with friends or the Pellettiere family.  We saw my parents occasionally, but less and less as the years went by.

1994: The Pellettiere Part of Ruth Kellogg's Family

There we are in the living room of the house in Palatine:  (couch) Kate (24), Diane, Dan, (front) Lynn (28), Cindy (27).  As you can see from the little Santa in the foreground, this picture was on our
Christmas card, so probably taken within a week of Thanksgiving.

Nov. 24, 1994 - Thanksgiving
"Everything went well today, except that the turkey took an hour longer to cook than the directions indicated!  We ate everything except the turkey - then had it later - and dessert still later.

Thought the meal was good.  Vi brought ravioli from a store near her - and sauce.  She brought some artichokes as well as cheese.  The artichokes were disappointing.  Also had a fruit salad, a broccoli & carrot dish with horseradish sauce, sweet potatoes, oven-roasted potatoes, herb scones, Applejack Pie, French Chocolate Cake - plus the turkey and traditional Bread Stuffing.

The stuffing recipe's origin is lost in antiquity.  It probably was Mrs. Millard's, the woman who raised my grandmother when her own mother, Viola Hawley Weekes, died in 1896.  ..I must check the 1900 census & see if William Weekes is on it & if any of the children are shown with him.  

Vi and Dorothy Heitschmidt both joined us for dinner.  Kate picked them up & Dan & I drove them back to Vi's.  Jim was here too.  He had had a dental patient - emergency - in the morning.  He was working on Lynn's car too.  Was in a very good mood  in the afternoon .  He did a lot of the dishes with Dorothy drying for him!  Jim's back was bothering him."

Vi was Dan's much-older sister and Dorothy was one of her closest friends.  Jim Waldman and Lynn were engaged and would marry on June 3, 1995...The grandmother I referred to is Lottie Meredith, Ruth's mother.  Lottie was 9 years old when her mother died of "chronic gatarrhal gastritis" when she was 38.  Two of the 4 children had died.  Only Lottie (Carlotta Lola Lucretia) and her younger brother, Lewis Henry, were left with William, their father. 

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.


   

After Lynn's Birth in 1966, Ruth's Diary Entry & Diane's Note

 The top picture shows 4-month-old Lynn Meredith Pellettiere with mom Diane in the living room of our new house in Mt. Prospect IL Sept., 1966.  The second is a smiling Lynn looking over Grandma Ruth Kellogg's shoulder.  She was born at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan.

May 25, 1966, Wednesday   I packed this AM after a restful nite.  Baby Lynn only awoke once at 3:45 AM and slept soundly again until eight.  Dan got home early and got me to the airport early.  There I had to wait one hour longer so long-distance phoned John.  In at O'Hare Airport at 9:30 PM. Home 10:10.  John I found reading in airport luggage return area.

I wrote the following note on the night of May 25th, using a "Mrs. Daniel A. Pellettiere Jr." note card.
"Dear Mom,
Right now you're winging your way to Chicago, ending what what seemed a very fast 10 days with us.  I'm glad that you were here to lend a hand and to give moral support in these early days with Lynn.  The night feedings were especially helpful.
        I'm sure that you will enjoy sleeping straight through and in a regular bed instead of on a 
daybed.  But you probably will miss Lynn too - at least her daytime personality.
       She had water at 8:00 PM and should waken any minute for a bottle, so I guess I should end this now.  Hope you're feeling good.     Love, Diane"

John Works His Way Through U of Michigan

Ruth Meredith's future husband, John Kellogg, worked both during school and at vacation time - often one full-time job and one part-time.  Not all of his plans worked out well, but he was able to save an amazing amount of money.  In the picture John is in college, probably about 20 years old.

The quotes are taken from John's autobiography, written at 74.  "You may recall that in my first college year I sold stuff at the football concession stand.  Mainly food and pop.  I talked to another young man and we agreed to enter a joint bid for the concession as partners the second year.  A local druggist had had that concession for years.  How much should we offer?  We did not have any idea at all and finally put the bid at $700.  To our surprise, we got the bid."

"I had intended to put up my half from my earnings the past summer.  Then the other fellow ran out of money about one month after he started, and said he would rather not earn any money to pay his way as it was not dignified.  He just dropped out of college and took a job selling like his older brother."

"That meant I would have to put up all the money, that the risk was all mine, but that all the profit (if any) would likewise be mine.  To raise the $700, I took my war savings stamps from the safety box and got a loan on them from the bank.  I could easily have cashed them at the post office, but had I done that, I might never get them back from the proceeds of the venture.  They had come so hard, one by one, I did not want to give them up.  Hence, I borrowed on them, paying interest."

How did it work out?  During the football season at Ferry Field, John was disappointed.  It was a lot of work in sweeping, planning and there was limited time for the spectators to buy food.  John had to hire some other students to help him.  He didn't even earn back the $700 advance.  However, baseball was a different story.  There were fewer in the stands, but vendors could sell all of the time.  At the end of the season, he had got back his $700 advance plus another $600.  For a second summer, he headed back to the Belle Isle Casino in Detroit to work.  This story and others about John and Ruth are in Pieces of a Life.

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.