Jennifer
Courtney
Lalumier, Cahokia
My Grandma
My Grandma was born in 1930, in Detroit, Michigan. When she
was little, she did not have lots of things I have today. She
did not have TV, microwaves, air conditioning, clothes dryers,
hair dryers, buses, malls, computers, and freezers. She play
games like kick the can, hide and seek, and paper dolls. She
liked to ride bikes, too.
Her favorite radio show was The Jack Benny Show. It was on every
Sunday night. The family sat around the radio and listened to
it.
My Grandma had to walk to school because there were no buses.
My Grandma tells me stories about the old days. I think the
old days were fun, but I'm glad I live now.
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Kristen Bloch
Monroe School, Quincy
Grandma's Good Old Days
My grandma lived in a four room house with a kitchen, a living
room and two bedrooms. There was no electricity or running water.
She didn't have a TV or radio. They burned wood for heat.
My grandma always had to cook for family and hired help. They
ate potatoes three times a day and had lots of bread. The meat
was kept in a snow bank in the winter. In the summer it was
kept in a salt brine.
The girls wore dresses that were made out of feed sacks. She
made her own clothes starting when she was ten.
She had to walk a long way to school. She had an old car that
had to be cranked to start. They used a horse and sleigh in
the winter.
My grandma says the only good thing about the Good Old Days
is that they're over. I think she's right.
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Brittaini McGunnis
Monroe School, Quincy
My Grandma
My Grandma is 70 years old, and she was born Sept. 20th, 1925,
and she lived in Hurdland MO., and she was born in her house.
They only had about 20 kids in her school, and the grades were
1st to 8th grade. 1st to 8th grades all went to the same room,
and she got to school by a bus or their old model T. Sometimes
she walked to school. She went to Liberty Grove. She lived out
in the country. They had a icebox instead of a refrigerator.
They did not have a microwave or a telephone, but they had a
radio. They had kerosene lamps. They even had wood stoves
and iron pans and aluminum pans. They had to pump water out
of a well, had to wash their clothes by a ringer washer and
they have no electricity. Now days she has all of those things
and these are the things she likes. Her favorite color is teal
green and rose. She likes bears because she thinks they're cute.
She lives in Quincy now.
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Stephen
Trankina
Glen Hill School, Glendale Heights
A Funny Story
When my mom was about 6 years old, her brother was about 4.
Her mom left some dish water in the sink. My mom got a glass.
She put dish water in it. It was clear with some bubbles on
top. She said to her brother, "Hey, Tommy. Look at what mom
gave me!" Her brother said, "Can I have some?" My mom said,
"Sure." He drank some!!
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Samantha Peritz
Lake Louise, Palatine
"Zeb's Secret"
My mom's mom was born in Chicago in 1918. I call her Grammy.
Summertime was very hot, back then because they didn't have
air conditioning. Grammy was lucky. Because her family spent
their summers in South Haven, Michigan.
Grammy had a big English Setter named Zeb. One summer when Grammy
was 10 years old, Zeb stopped eating. Her mom and dad weren't
worried because Zeb didn't lose any weight. But everyone wanted
to know where Zeb was eating.
One day Grammy followed Zeb out the doggie door with her baby
sister. They snuck after him and discovered Zeb's secret. Back
then people had milk delivered to their doors in open glass
bottles. In South Haven, you could even get warm cinnamon rolls
delivered with your milk. Zeb ran from house to house, knocking
over a quart of milk to drink and eating a half dozen rolls
at each stop.
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Kiley
E. Phillips
Glen Hill School, Glendale Heights
When my grandpa was in World War II he did well, but when it
was over everyone got to go home except him.
So he waited and waited and he called his parents and said,
"I am not coming home." Then he asked his captain for special
permission to go home. His captain said "Yes."
Grandpa's mother was sick with fever that night. She woke up
her husband and said, "Harold is coming home tonight." My great
grandfather thought she was a little crazy from the fever. She
made him drive her to the station at three o'clock in the morning.
At three thirty in the morning a train came in and my grandpa
walked off the train. He was very surprised to see his parents
there.
"I told you Harold was coming home," my great grandmother said.
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David
Ockrim
Maercker School, Westmont
Caroline Freitag
Caroline Freitag is a great lady to interview. She is a very
nice lady. Her favorite cars must be Chevys because her first
and last cars were Chevys. She lived in Cicero, Illinois. Now
she lives in a nursing home in Westmont with a roomate. She
is a nice lady. She gives you a lot of information. She likes
children a whole lot. I wish her good luck.
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Minna An
Glen Hill School, Carol Stream
When my mom was 10, she went on a picnic by the beach. So they
went swimming first.
The water came up to her neck. Since it was fun, she walked
around in the water. There was a wide hole, but she didn't know
it and fell in.
So she called her big brother. He thought it was a joke, so
he laughed. He thought there wasn't a hole.
Just about when she was going to sink, her big brother dove
in and helped her.
Afterwards, they had a picnic. There was watermelon, yum yum.
so they scooped everything out of the watermelon, and put half
of the shells on their heads! Then they danced around in their
new hats. This is a story my mom will never forget.
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Tiffany
Klotz
Lynda Taylor's Maerker School, Westmont
Once there was a girl Elois Wisner. She was very kind. She went
to Athens Public School. She enjoyed History and English in
school. She had a dog named Queenie. She was born on November
30th, 1912. She had 5 sisters and 1 brother. Her favorite color
is blue. She had a favorite stuffed dog named Fido.
She lived in Wisconsin. Her after school hobbies were with paper
dolls and reading. Her favorite indoor activities were jigsaw
puzzles and reading. Her favorite outdoor activity was playing
baseball. She liked to listen to the radio. She did not like
spinach.
In school she did not like science. Her best friend in school
was Lucille. She had a lot of fun with Lucille. One day she
was running home from school, she tripped on a rock, and started
crying. She had scraped her knee. "I'm bleeding." She said.
She went home and washed it off and put a band aid on it.
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Natalie
Butler
Lake Louise, Palatine
The Exploding Root Beer
When my Grandpa was young he liked making root beer in the basement
of his house. He made the root beer from a special kind of syrup
and fizzy water. He collected glass bottles and filled them
up and then quickly put a cap on the bottles so they wouldn't
fizz over.
My Grandpa would then go to sleep. As he laid in bed he would
hear, "POP", "POP", "POP" all through the night.
The next morning the whole basement was covered in carbonation.
Grandpa would have to clean it all up.
One day his mom told him he should work in an ice cream store
where he could make root beer floats all the time and wouldn't
have to clean up the basement.
He made so many root beer floats that he almost got sick of
doing it. Today he still has fun drinking it.
This story is funnier every time he tells me it
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Kathie Sanew
Glen Hill School, Glen Ellyn
Grandma Sanew's Experience
I remember when I was about 7 yrs old, my mother and father
took us to grandma and grandpa's farm one Sunday. As the day
rolled on, my two brothers got bored and decided to sneak into
GRANDMA'S food "cellar" to check it out. Cellars, as they were
called back then, are like most basements today. However, the
floors were made of dirt and it had no electricity.
Since my brothers were supposed to be "baby-sitting" me, they
had to drag me along. I was a little frightened of the dark,
but they found a kerosene lamp and matches, and they lit the
lamp. Well, the cellar was filled with jars and jars of apple
sauce, peaches, pears, cherries, tomatoes, pickles, etc. So,
one of my brothers decided to open a jar of preserved cherries
and started to eat while the other brother opened up a jar of
cherry juice. I started to cry because they hadn't passed anything
on to me. So to keep me quiet, my older brother gave me his
jar of preserved cherries. He then opened up his own jar of
cherry juice.
Later in the day, grandma and grandpa knew we had sneaked into
the cellar as the three of us became very sick. What we thought
was cherry juice really turned out to be "cherry wine." We knew
we were in big trouble!
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