Electricity!

I may eventually delete this post and include these documents in a larger entry about The Brown House.
There are a lot of papers and pictures to process.
For now, though, here is a bill from 1926 for an occasion that Mother clearly remembered. She was eight years old at the time.  Her comment must have been added to the envelope in the 1990s.
How typical that it is in pencil.  She would not have wanted to do anything irrevocable to the document.

Next question:  Why was this building always referred to as the Brown House?
Maybe what I should be looking for is documentation of its re-siding.

The caption on this picture is Grace's.

House on Naaman's Road built by Nils Kwick C 1920.

 
The house was brown shingled in 1947, but I'm sure that the siding was far from new then.

Yes, that's me.  Twelve days old.

The Simon Lake Connection

I was recently asked about Grandpop Kwick's diving, so went looking for a story I had heard once.
Sure enough, Mother had documented it.

Simon Lake was an inventor of the submarine, both for military and commercial uses.
Here is a link to information about his salvage machines.
http://www.simonlake.com/html/salvage_subs.html
It is not difficult to find more about him online.

Simon Lake visited Grandpop Kwick in 1934.
And then wrote to him later.

In 2000, Grace wrote:
" I remember the visit that Simon Lake refers to in this letter.  He came to the house one evening and he and Pop talked a long time while a taxi waited in the driveway.  Impressive!
..
Simon Lake was interested in Pop's diving to help raise the de Braak which had recently been discovered sunk someplace along the Atlantic Coast.  Apparently that fell through, but the de Braak has been in the news off and on ever since, and I think it was finally recovered in the 90s.  Someplace I have a newspaper clipping about it.
At the time of his visit I was under the impression that he was the inventor of the submarine, but I don't think that is right.  I'll have to look that up."

The HMS de Braak was recovered in 1984, apparently somewhat irresponsibly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Braak_%281795%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Maralia/HMS_De_Braak


It is interesting to note that Nils was 59 years old in 1934.
While the 1910 Census listed his occupation as "submarine diver", in 1920 he is called a carpenter, then in 1930 he is again listed as a diver.
I think there are more records to find.

More diving-related pictures are in this post from January 6, 2012
http://stuffstories.blogspot.com/2012/01/january-6-grandpop-kwicks-birthday.html

Well Loved Little Rocking Chair

This little upholstered rocker appeared in my life when I was two or three.

I think of it as always being around.
It featured in early Christmas Card pictures.

There was some way we played with it - probably making forts - that involved lying on the floor with the chair upside down over our heads.  I remember this because it was such a shock one day to realize that I was too big to do that anymore.  My shoulders wouldn't fit between the arms.

My kids sat in it, and I am still looking for  more photographic proof of that.I know there are more pictures to find.
Here are Sarah in Grantsburg and Karen in Range.

At some point the chair was reupholstered in blue, and was at the Bon-Keen's.
Amanda and David both sat in it.

Karen and Brian had it for a while for their kids.

 Now it stays at my house.  Waiting for another generation.

Another Ruth employer

This is the west entrance to Black Point, another of the mansions on the Gold Coast in the Hamptons, featured in various books on the fabulous architecture of the Gilded Age in the area's history.

Cousin Ruth's photo albums don't have pictures specifically labelled for this location, but I suppose that some of her photographs of groups of servants were taken here.

We do know that she worked here, because there is this letter - unfortunately undated - presumably from the head housekeeper for Mrs. H.H. Rogers.

"She is leaving of her own accord rather than spend the winter in Southampton."
Love it.
Also interesting that "she is specially talented at arranging flowers."

(I am tagging this 1920s because this mansion was torn down in the mid 30s.)

Donnie Donaway

Donald L. "Donnie" Donaway Sr.

Age 68, of Frankford, died Saturday, January 28, 2012 at his residence.

Born in Wicomico County, he had been a truck driver for many years and most recently he was a trolley driver for the Town of Bethany Beach. He was a member of St. Ann's Catholic Church in Bethany Beach and a Friend of Bill's.

He is survived by his mother Leola (Donaway) Richards of Wilmington; a brother, Bruce Richards and his wife Cindy of Hockessin; a sister, Christeen Richards of Wilmington, DE; his daughter, Sharon Harris and her husband Steve; his boys, Michael Doherty and his wife Jinny and Daniel Doherty and 5 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his son, Donald Lee Donaway Jr. in 1990, a grandson, Justin Lee Donaway in 2005 and his soul mate, Ruth Alice Rowles in 2010.
----

Published in The News Journal on February 5, 2012
----

Donnie. I am very glad that I had the chance to know him a little bit when I visited Ruth several times in the last few years.  Mother had always remarked on what a remarkable and improbable combination Ruth and Donnie were, and it was indeed wonderful to be around them.

I am very glad to see Ruth's family included as his own in this write-up.
The worst aspect of Ruth's funeral was that the priest in Virginia simply refused to acknowledge Donnie at all.  That made me very angry.  The priest at their home church was fine, but this guy ... 

The obituary says that Donnie was a truck driver.  Well, he was driving a truck, carrying feed for some southern Delaware chicken operation when we met him.  However, if you got him talking, you found out that earlier in his life he worked on fishing boats - ocean or bay, I am not sure, but I think Ocean or both.  He also could tell stories of storms and damage to the whole Ocean City, Maryland area, and the associated changes in the shoreline over the years.

On my last visit there before Ruth got so very ill, Donnie drove us around back roads through the little towns just inland from the tourists.  We visited Assateague State Park when it was practically deserted (October).  The non-commericalized uninhabited beaches made a huge impression on me.   Then, of course, Ruth and Donnie knew some great little small town place to eat lunch...

The last time I visited, Donnie was amusing us by making a big story about how the town bigwigs wanted a special sign on the tourist trolley for the Labor Day parade, so they had one printed up on a magnetic sheet.  Fine.  Except that the body of the trolley is fiberglass.
We decided that duct tape would be an appropriately classy solution.

Donnie was a fun and gracious man, who rescued and beautifully supported and loved my cousin.  Glad I knew him.

Here is a picture of the the two of them that will have to do until I find one that is better of Ruth.

Just because it is such a great picture of Carl

 

Alice, Swea, and Carl.

This picture must have been taken in the spring of 1907.

Alice was born in September of 1905 and Swea in November of 1906.

Big brother Carl was born in August of either 1903 or 1904 depending on what records you believe.

This picture of him always make me smile.

Here is the Uncle Carl I remember.

We didn't see him often.  He was the only one of Mother's siblings who didn't live in the Wilmington area.  He worked for DuPont in Clinton, Iowa, at a cellophane plant.

We knew when he was visiting, though. If we came home from school to the smell of a cigar in the house, it was, "Uncle Carl was here!"

If he visited in the summer, it was probably an excuse to have a picnic at Alice's.

Carl was a safety engineer for DuPont.  I remember his saying that one of the things he had to do was make sure that no jewelry was worn around the machinery.  He said that it was not unusual for a young man to resist taking off a new wedding ring, but that he had some pretty unpleasant pictures to show the machine operators the reason for the strict rules.

huh.. (4/30/2012)  I found a postcard of the DuPont Cellophane Plant in Clinton.

Found a cousin!

This postcard had been rattling around in the 'Ruth Berlin' pile for years, and it seemed to be just one more of her many pictures of various friends.
I finally looked at it more carefully.
1913.
This girl is not from the Olson/Krantz side at all.  She is Judith Kvick.  Mother's first cousin.
Born in 1895.
She sent the postcard to her father, John (Johannes), Grandpop Kwick's brother, who had come from Sweden without his family.

*Very* loosely translated, this says: Happy Birthday from daughter Judith.  I wonder if you know that I can ride a bicycle.  This is not my bicycle. My girlfriend took a picture of me standing beside it.

This is the first I have realized that we had any surviving communication from Kwick relatives in Sweden in Judith's generation at all.
We heard that Uncle John and Uncle Charlie (Johannes and Carl) had come over, but since they died around the time Mother was born, there has not been not much awareness of them.

Garage House - 1978

This was a major adventure.  We reclaimed the well*, put in the septic system, and built the garage (well, Max and Mike did)  to live in  for the summer while we started the house.  Alan was on sabbatical.  The house didn't  really get started until later.  You can see the foundation in one of the pictures.  

* there is another post about the well. http://stuffstories.blogspot.com/2011/11/meaningful-mineral-memento.html

Features of the garage:

• Wood burning cook stove, fueled by wonderful clean oak blocks which were available as scrap from a factory in Siren. Took the chill out of mornings, made good cookies.
• Propane stove for more serious cooking.
• Electricity, but we used oil lamps, too.
• Water  "walked in and ran out".  Electric pump out back near the power pole.
• Outhouse with a real toilet positioned over the septic tank. Bring your own bucket of water for flushing.
• Cardboard "sheetrock" to keep wind and mosquitoes (mostly) out of the sleeping areas.
• Thunderstorms as multi-media experiences, with a tin roof to maximize rain noise and fiberglass garage door and south roof to emphasize lightning. Noisy enough that I would get up to look at the children to see if they were awake and/or bothered by the storm.  Couldn't have heard them.

The garden was not good.
There had been a schoolhouse on the front acre of the property, and when that building was razed, the topsoil wound up about three feet under clay.  We could see that when the area around the well was dug up.  A load of manure from the farmer across the road was not enough to make good soil on short notice, and we were not there long enough either to improve that soil or establish a garden elsewhere on the property.

What I remember is that it was LOUD

Ran across this program booklet today.
I know that we attended this.  I remember nothing of the displays or demonstrations.
It was a hassle to get there.
It was crowded.
It was the first time I had seen a sign saying "In Case of Fire Dial 999." (not comforting)
It was indoors, so VERY LOUD.
We didn't stay for long.

However, the booklet is full of photographs and short histories, and - especially - advertisements with a military spin.

Piggy Bank

This little guy has been with me since I was in grade school.
He is six inches tall.
I like him because he is just so much cooler than the plain pink four-legged plastic one that preceded him.  Unlike the plastic pig, this one has no plug to take out to empty him.
I remember pictures in books of children taking a hammer to their banks to get to the coins.
Unthinkable in this case.
However, if you are patient, you can stick a table knife into the slot and shake coins around until they line up on the blade and slide out.  Just be sure that you don't fill the pig to capacity, or there will be no space for the knife.
For the record:  He is currently completely empty.

Ruth worked for H.C.Frick at Eagle Rock

Cousin Ruth worked as a maid in several large houses in New York City in the early part of the century.  When the households moved to their summer places, she sometimes went with them.
That was the case with the Henry C Frick's. 
Ruth liked gardens, and she liked to take pictures.  Judging from the number of photographs taken in the gardens at Eagle Rock, the Frick mansion at Prides Crossing, she really enjoyed her summers there.

Here is a commercial postcard of the place.

And one of the gardens.

Ruth took pictures of the gardens, too.

And pictures of her friends on the staff...

And pictures of herself on the grounds...  there are a lot of these, most of very poor quality, so here are just two.

And one more commercial postcard

When she left the Frick house, Ruth got this form letter of reference.

When she got back from Sweden, she worked for John D. Rockefeller, H.H. Rogers, again for Frick, and several times for W.K.Vanderbilt, being laid off and re-hired as houses were closed and opened as seasons changed. These other families provided very positive references, which I may post in another entry someday. 

Toll House Cookies and me

 

I can smell chocolate chip cookies just looking at this jar.  It was always visible in the kitchen when we were growing up. I wonder if it was a wedding present to my parents.

Toll House is the only kind of cookie I remember being in it.

This is not a particularly large cookie jar, but then it used to be that a batch of cookies was smaller than we think of today.  A bag of chocolate chips was only 6 ounces.

Cookies - especially chocolate chip ones - seem to be a recurring theme.

I first made cookies by myself when we lived in Ohio in fourth grade.  I particularly remember measuring out six tablespoons of brown sugar.  Since brown sugar holds it shape, I could make it look as if there were half a dozen small brown eggs in the bowl  (hey, I was 9).

The summer after that, back in Delaware, I made a lot of toll house cookies and sold them door to door in the neighborhood.

Fifteen cents for a quarter of a pound.  I think that some relatives must have bought some, too.  There was an option to buy a whole tin full for $3.  I really do not remember what the arrangement was for buying ingredients, but I don't think they just magically appeared.

In any case, at the end of the summer I bought a Brownie flash camera with the proceeds.

And yes, I still have the camera, though I don't know if it still works.  127 film.

I took at least one tin of Toll House cookies to Dr. and Mrs.Webber in the summer after 10th grade, when I audited a pre-calculus class Dr. Webber was teaching at the University of Delaware. It was a course designed to help incoming freshmen, and I aced it with a lot of maternal coaching on the trig parts.  Dr. Webber was just amused to have me in class since he had been Mother's advisor on her Masters Dissertation and thought very highly of her. I'm sure Mother asked him to let me sit in on the course to provide me with something productive to do with my summer.  

There were 18 year old boys in that class, too, but that is another story.

Toll House cookies also were provided to the Tower Hill Summer School faculty lounge in 1963, or whatever year it was that I took a small but arduous course in score reading and conducting from Mr.B.  I was no good at all at transposition, and only adequate at conducting.   The cookies, however, were well received.

At some point - after Deluxe, I think -  I started baking cookies to take to work.
Target(IBM), MSI, and a couple of customer offices all benefited(?) from my signature cookie*, plus experiments with other chip/fruit combinations.

*oatmeal chocolate chip with dried cherries.

January 16 - Grandmom Kwick's birthday

Gerda Augusta Olson was born in 1881. She is 18 in this picture.

She married Nils Kwick in 1902.


POST IN PROCESS...  More to be added!

Lunchtime Salt Curling

Ha!   I just found these four little plastic curling stone thingies in a box in the attic.  I bought them in the late 80's with some thought of playing with them at work, which never happened. They have a ball bearing in the bottom for easy sliding. You can use them for a bunch of different games, but the primary one is described on a board game site as:
"Based on Curling, players move their two Sliders across the table or another smooth surface. Score 1 point for being closest to the edge, 2 points for a 'cliffhanger'. First player to score 10 points wins."

This is exactly what we used to do with salt shakers at school!
I don't know that we kept score, but this game was definitely played by seniors at lunch.
Since seniors were first through the lunch line, we often had some time to kill while waiting for the underclassmen to finish eating and announcements to be made before we were dismissed.
Naturally we found a sophisticated game like this to play.
Perfect because the faculty didn't like it, but it really was not rowdy enough to warrant intervention.

January 11 - Grandmother Keen's birthday

Mary Emma Stuck Keen was born in 1893. This portrait was taken for a church directory in the 1970s.
I have recently found pictures that make me think I never knew her at all.

We grew up hearing fewer Keen stories than Kwick ones, and we spent more time with the Kwick grandparents.  I am only now coming to some understanding of the Keen side.
 .

Here is the woman I remember growing up.

The picture was taken at some Christmas in the 50's or 60's.

She was certainly pleasant enough, but less accessible, somehow, than some other relatives.  (I wonder if I am not somewhat like her in this regard.)

Here are a few of a number of rather solemn photographs of Mary taken throughout her life.

Age 8

Wedding

Age 19

And this quite scary family portrait from maybe 1927?

Marjorie, Mary, Newlin,Walter, Evelyn, Jack

But the pictures that  intrigue me more are the un-solemn ones that showed up.
I was surprisingly glad/relieved to see these.

Picnic with friends (including Walter)

Youngest son Jack was being funny?