Lisa
Buettner
Porta High School, Petersburg
My parents' wedding day was full of many funny and unexpected
events. Before the wedding day, my parents had decided that
they wouldn't buy each other wedding presents. After my mom
woke up, she went to the beauty parlor to get her hair done.
While she was gone, my grandfather told my dad that my mom was
buying him a present. My dad and my uncle then ran to the jewelry
store where my dad got my mom an emerald necklace.
In the meantime, my mother returned home and found out that
my father was buying her a present. So, she quickly drove back
to the shopping mall where she had gotten her hair done and
bought him a scanner. However, on the way back to her house,
she got stuck at a railroad crossing. The world's longest freight
train pulled across the crossing and parked there for 20 minutes.
My mom barely got to the church on time.
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Anna
Garcia
Reilly School, Chicago
My grandma was born in the Philippines in the year 1920. She
married my grandfather when she was 16. My grandma had eight
children, three boys and five girls. My mother is the youngest.
When my grandma was in the Philippines, she had many adventures.
She lived when the Japanese occupied the Philippines and, at
the time, she had a business where she would buy candies, canned
foods and live crabs and sell them for profit. At one point
in her life, she sold fish at the market and also had a fast
food restaurant.
When my grandma came to America she didn't have a job like she
had in the Philippines, but had the even more important task
of caring for her grandchildren.
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Aaron
Saxe
Mt. Vernon High School, Mt. Vernon
My grandmother is the type of woman that you would swear was
pulled from the age of Vaudeville and Charleston. She was a
pioneer woman demanding education, job equality, and a champion
for education.
"I was born very early in the morning," she said slowly, "at
my grandmother's home in Albion, Illinois." She was born Carolyn Veree McKinney on August 15, 1917 making her 78 years old this
year. She was a very intelligent child learning to walk and
talk at a very early age. Her entire life was dedicated to education.
She taught for more than 36 years receiving the Teacher of the
Year Award more than three times.
Today my grandmother, Carolyn, lives in a home on the outskirts
of Albion with her husband of fifty-three years. She continues
to be happy, energetic, and truly enjoys life to the fullest.
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L'Erin
C. Ragon
Saline Co. 4-H Assoc./Eagle, Harrisburg
Remember When: A Story of What is Now Mt. Township,
As Told by Mrs. Ora Ritsch
Mrs. Ora Hurd-Ritsch-Sherrod, is 91 years old, and was born
in 1904. Her life is like a time capsule. She remembers our
small rural community in it's original form. She remembers when
she would walk home from school, in the dark and know that she
would be safe. Or walk 2 miles to sell Pink Root to the local
merchant.
She even used to pay bills for her dad at the age of eight.
What happened to our trusting society. We as the next generation
have many things to learn from our elders. So take this advantage
to learn your heritage. It is the future that we will control,
not the past...........
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Amy
Wisdom
Frank H. Hall, Aurora
My Intergenerational Friendship
I have a special friend. It's my mom, and she's thirty-nine
years old. I trust and love her very much. I also depend on
her for many things.
We have a lot of things in common. We like to play basketball,
roller skate, cook, and go shopping.
Without my mom, I wouldn't be here today. Without our great
friendship, I wouldn't' have all the laughter and great times.
I wouldn't have all the special things that she provides me
with. Although most important, without my mom I wouldn't have
her love, and I couldn't live without that!
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Mike
Quill
Jay Stream, Bloomingdale
Childhood Memories
When my grandfather was growing up in Chicago in the thirties,
life was a lot different for him and his friends. They had weird
nicknames like Beans, Shorty, Lefty and Jiggs Jagla.
For example, they played some different games too. Like marbles,
where you make a big circle and each person would put three
or four marbles inside. Then, someone would take a marble and
shoot it inside the circle. Whichever marbles came out, you
kept.
They also played games in the street that kids still play today.
Some were 16-inch softball, tag football, and street hockey.
They didn't have TV, but they went to the theater and they could
stay there all day and watch movies and cartoons for 25 cents.
Now my grandpa and his friends are grown up, but they'll never
forget their childhood.
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Peggy
Bobb
Lincoln Jr. High School, Lincoln
School Days Back When
I gather my books and rush out the door,
Mother blows my a kiss that nearly hits the floor.
I run the two miles to school alone,
Wishing I was a bird and could have flown.
I get to school just as little John rings the bell,
I say something funny and they all make a sound.
I get sent to the closet for a switching,
"To think I was only at home, or that's what I was wishing."
The bell rings for lunch,
We all head out in a bunch.
I walk home for lunch this time with a friend,
We only have an hour to walk two miles home and eat,
Then back to school again hoping to beat the heat.
We get back to school,
To get in our white blouses and blue bloomers,
Only to look like fools,
All of us schoolers.
Then we head off to gym to play basketball,
Only hoping I would not get tripped because then I would fall.
Once out of gym and our last lesson done,
Now I can go home and have some fun.
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Brett
Brown
Oakford
My grandpa was a great baseball player. He could hit 450 foot
homers and throw a 90 mph fastball. He even had offers from
minor league ball clubs. People said he could throw harder and
hit farther than anybody they knew. He always told about how
he could hit a ball over the roof of his high school; which
was about 475 feet away.
When my grandpa was a senior in high school he went to a try-out
for a minor league ball club. Hundreds tried out that day, but
only six were allowed to come back the nest day and he was one
of them. But when they found out he was still in high school,
they told him to come back the next year. He never went back.
He got married and had my mother. Sometimes I think if my grandpa
would have tried out that next year he might have been a major
league baseball player.
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Tiffany
Grant
Porta High School, Petersburg
The day my Dad learned how to drive
My grandpa had been driving on the road for 14 hours and couldn't
wait to get to this fishing resort so he could get his mind
of work, and telephones and such. When they got to the resort,
they discovered a lake at the bottom of the hill and cabins
on the top of the hill, and right next to the lake.
My grandparents cabin was atop the hill. Slowly they drove up
the sand driveway. As soon as they reached the cabin, my grandpa
put the emergency brake on and began unloading. Grandma and
grandpa were so busy unloading the car they didn't realize my
dad, in the car, "pretending" to drive. My dad, being the inquisitive
mind he is, pulled every know and lever in the car. Eventually
getting to the emergency brake.
The brake was released, and the car went rolling down the hill,
and while in pursuit my grandpa pulled his hamstring! Eventually,
my dad was stopped in his runaway car by a State Senator's car
that happened to be in the way! And my grandpa's relaxing two
week vacation was spent on crutches.
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Chrizita
Calixto
Reilly School, Chicago
Santa Victoria Santana
Santa Victoria Santana was born in a small town called Guabota,
Yabuccoa in Puerto Rico. When she got older, everyday she would
gather chicken eggs and tend to the farm crops such as; bananas,
plantanos, yautia, malanga and batatas. She sold the eggs daily.
Once a week, she'd go into town to sell vegetables.
At 13, her father died and she went to live with her sister-in-law.
She lived there for five years. She always dreamed of leaving
the island and coming to the United States. At the age of 18,
she became a live-in nanny and attended night school. While
in school, she met Frank Gonzalez. Two years later, they married.
Santa lived her dream and moved to Chicago where they raised
their seven children.
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Emanuel
Aguilar
Reilly School, Chicago
My Great Grandfather
My great grandfather was born in 1910 on a ranch in Guanajuato,
Mexico. On the ranch, there were 20 families, each with cows,
horses, and chickens. There was also a church and a school.
He had three sisters and four brothers. He did not go to school
because he was the oldest and had to help his father feed the
animals and gather the food they grew. He was able to go to
school when he was a teenager, but only one day a week.
This school was where he met my great grandmother. When they
married, he was only 17 years old. During their marriage, they
had 12 children, seven boys and five girls.
My great grandfather taught all of his children how to be good
farmers. He loved hunting and camping in the mountains. He died
on July 10, 1982 at the age of 72. My great grandmother is still
alive and well at he age of 87.
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