My quest for today is to find four pictures of four generations. Jaeme, Rachel, myself, and Mother.This is mother. Her family moved to the Chicago area sometime in 1929. Mother attended school in Shiller Park, which is a suburb west of Chicago. Her sister, Viola, would have been with the family also. Viola would have been fourteen in the fall of 1929.
Why did they move to Chicago? Phillip had been layed off on his job for the railroad. He had brothers living in Illinois and suggested he come there for work. Phillip and Mae were married there. Mother would attend at least second and third grade there. I have a certificate of Attendance from Lincoln School where she was awarded graduation on the fifth of June, 1931.
For those of you reading this, I thought what the back of the report card would be of interest:
"This is a conscientious report on the work your child is doing in school. Please study it carefully before signing and returning it.
Grade D signifies that the pupil is in danger of failing, while grade E shows that the child is failing. Do not wait until promotion time to find out the reason for the low marks. See the teacher right away. At the same time, don't be impatient with the child so long as he is well behaved and industrious. Let your first concern be the report on deportment and application.
Irregular attendance retards the progress of the whole school as well as the individual child. There should therefore be positively no absence that is not absolutely necessary.
Your child will receive this report on the dates listed below. Please ask to see the report on these dates and sin it so that it may be returned immediately. Your signature indicates that you have inspected the card, not necessarily that you approve of the work". (Each year changes but it comes out to every six weeks).
The marking scale was
A 100-94
B 93-87
C 86-81
D 80-75
E Failure
Mother spent the last three groups of six week periods with her birth mother, Clara Henry. Mother circled the times she signed her report and wrote "love". Her sixth grade marks jumped into the A range. In the three report cards I have, she was never tardy. In three years, she missed nine days of school. And for those of you who think about it, she was 15% below average in weight three years running.
2007-1931= A long time ago!
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