Aunt Eleanor's Journal, January 13, 1982

The following journal entry tells of her time in Minneapolis about 1923 or so.

Jan. 13, 1982

Here I sit twiddling my thumbs nothing to do. What better time to sit down and write in here. We have had some record breaking cold the past few days, not just here in Minnesota but all thru the central and eastern part of our nation and in Europe too. Hard winter so far in 1982.

Well to go back to the past. I stayed at Grandmothers for about a month then I went back to Minneapolis to look for work. Times were hard, work was or I should say jobs were scarce. I stayed that the Lutheran Hospice there I met a girl named Leona who had a sister named Violet. Violet and I were both looking for work. I finally got a job with the Savage Co putting addresses on catalogs. It only lasted 2 weeks and there I was again pounding the side walk, wearing out my shoes, broke, and rather hungry. Violet and I had taken a room in an apartment building on Hennepin Ave. near the Public Library that was on 11^th St. at that time. I had to write to my Mother for money to pay the rent and when that was used up Violet and I had still no jobs. I wrote again and when Mother sent me some more money she said “if you don’t find work come home” I didn’t want to do that so we tramped the streets some more. One day Violet and I had a nickel between us. We bought a banana and split it that was our food for that day. We met some young men who worked in a bakery and one evening we stopped in at the bakery and they gave us some rolls. I guess it must have been a matter of a month or so that things were bad. Violets sister Leona helped us a couple of times. One evening when we were walking to our room we were talking about where we would go to sign up for work the next day, some young lads were walking right behind us and overheard what we were saying. One of them asked me if I wanted work. He said he knew of a job opening I wasn’t too impressed but he insisted. His sister worked at this place and she was quiting. He gave me the address and got a note from his sister for me to give to the boss of this place, saying she knew me. The next day I went there and I was hired. That was the “Minneapolis Pleating and Button Co. Our problems were solved. Funny but the Lord must have put those young men behind us that evening to hear us talking about our troubles and they were ready to give the help we needed. The one who spoke to me was Jim Toohy and his brother who was along was Bill. I got to know their sister too. Very nice family. This was the middle of April. I had eaten so very little for most of a month that the second day I was at work I fainted away and I was sent home. Violet and I stopped in at a little restaurant close to where we lived and asked the owner if we could charge a meal ticket till payday he was very kind and we finally got meals twice a day. From then on things improved. Violet got a job in the kitchen in a Hospital. I enjoyed my work at the Button factory. There is where I got acquainted with Helen Church and many others. We used to go swimming, skating, tobogganing, dancing, hiking and to the movies. In Aug. that next summer Ned returned from the Marine Service and we started seeing each other than he went to Swanburg and we corresponded. We made plans to get married on my birthday but gave that up because of financial circumstances, and he went to Butterfield in southern Minnesota{thats where the Stoutenburgs came from} there he spent most of the winter with relatives there. In the spring he came back to Minneapolis and got a job at the Minneapolis Rubber Co., On June 13, 1925 we were married in a Lutheran parsonage at 912 21^stave. So. and we lived with Joe and Mable Castle for a few months. I had been boarding with them for several months, Violet had married and so I gave up living in a room and eating out and went to live with the Castles. Thats how it happened we moved in with them. It didn’t last long because Mabel was left with all the work, while I worked away from home. Mabel’s brother Bill Denson was married to Florence who worked at the Button Factory and they wanted Ned and me to rent an apartment with them and seeing we both worked the same hours and all, we thot that would be better and our 1^st move was made. We got an apt. on 4^th ave. right on the street car line and the noise of those streetcars all nite long left something to be desired so in a few weeks we made move number 2 to an apartment on 24^th and Emerson Ave So. We managed to live there thru the winter, but in the spring Bill and Florence decide to move to a farm in Cedar Minn.and Ned and I finally moved into an apartment by ourselves on 24^thand 1^st ave. So. that was move number 3. While there we bought a living room set and our own dishes, pots and pans, always before that we had used what belonged to others. We lived in this place for quite a while. Helen and Orville got married and they rented the apartment next to ours. We had many happy times while there. Ned changed jobs at this time. He got in with the Firestone Co. and traveled all over the states of Wis. no. and so Dak. and Minnesota. It wasn’t long till he wanted me to quit my job so I would be at home when he came in and also I could go along on some of the trips. I quit and I did go along on many of the trips. I enjoyed that. Things were going great and in Aug. of 1927, Helen and Orville Ned and I made move no. 4 to a house near the Veterans Hosp. We didn’t stay there too long tho. For some reason or the other we decided we wanted to be closer to down town. I was pregnant and I felt pretty sick most of the time. Helen had increased her family by 2 Audrey and Donald she worked and I took care of the little ones during the day. It got too hard for me so Helens folks took Audrey and I took care of Donald.

Helen’s folks kept Audrey and raised her. At this time, Bertha came to stay with us and go to school. She went to Roosevelt. Well we made the move (move no. 4) to a nice home on 3437^th and 39^thave So. and that’s where we lived until May when we made move no. 5 and then we lived by ourselves. Edward was born at 3437. We didn’t move far only into the next block and it was in May. As soon as school was out Bertha went home but Leola was with us. She came down to be with me when Edward was born. We had waited 2 years and 9 months for this baby and he truly was so very much wanted. And prayed for. To be continued.

To be continued...