Nancy Goes to Junior High

My first year of school in Michigan came to an end. Summer was long and boring--no Day Camp at Herbert Hoover Junior High School, no kids gathering for games under the streetlights, no friends, no cousins seen regularly. While my little brother had lots of kids his age on our street, there were only a few my age and they were either a few years older or a few years younger. The lack of a shared history and mutual experiences made it hard to connect.

Dad and I shoveling snow

I did still bike over to see Gail, even after my grandparents moved to another house a few miles away in Berkley.

Gail M. and Me

I had cousins but they were all younger than me. My mother's sister and one of her brothers lived in Metro Detroit.

Me and my Ramer cousins. I am on the left and my brother is in blue.

Seventh Grade meant a new school, Jane Addams Junior High, over a mile's walk away. We had to wait in lines outside the building for the doors to open. It was there I experienced bullying, albeit a mild sort.

I wore a  Mod cap hat. There was a group of girls called "greasers," dressed in black leather coats and sporting dark eye liner and teased hair. One decided to take my hat and toss it. I got mad. So of course, she did it again the next day.

My teacher Mrs. Green liked outgoing kids and was concerned about my shyness. Even in elementary school my teachers would say I was "coming out of my shell," but with the move and school change I was even more shy. Mrs. Green told my parents there was something 'wrong' with me and Mom got pretty upset. Actually there was something 'wrong'; I was depressed and homesick for Tonawanda. In November I wrote, "I wish I could go back to Buffalo--I miss the street, the houses, the people, the friends."

I was lonely and made up a friend, Homer the Ghost, who kept me company on my long walks to school. I made up a whole ghost family. I knew he was imaginary. When others learned about Homer they were not so sure.

Homer the Ghost

The school had Friday night Boy-Girl dances. I did not (would not) like rock and roll, I was a klutz and had no interest in dancing, and I did not like boys "that way." No, Friday nights were for The Man From Uncle, and I was a card-carrying member of the fan club. I wrote about it here.

A teacher asked who was going to BOGI, the boy girl dance; my hand stayed down. She decided to have a boy ask me to the dance. I was outraged. He was popular so I knew he could not really like me, the weird, uncool kid. Girls encouraged me to go, that he meant it, but I did not believe it. He tried again the next day, too. I never forgave or forgot that experience.

Later when that same boy learned about Homer he asked our art teacher if my ghost was real. She said, "Nancy's pulling the wool over your eyes." I didn't know what that even meant, but until graduation day that boy would ask me, "How's Homer?" with a knowing gleam in his eye.

Mom, me, Dad, and Tom 

What did change my life were the electives classes: a quarter year spent in sewing class, cooking class, art class, and music class.

Drawing exercise in Art Class 

My grandmother bought me a piano that year and my lessons resumed. I discovered I liked to sew and was good at art, and I was thrilled to be in chorus again. I drew a lot and kids asked for my pictures.

My horse drawings

Imaginary friends

Mr. Russell Henckel was our choir teacher. He was fun, but strict when the boys acted up. There was a paddle in his office and he was not afraid to use it. We listened to Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta Iolanthe in class while the words were projected on a screen. One day we arrived in class to see projected a note: "Help! I'm being held prisoner in the projector!" The next day there was a picture of the captive. We also studied Mozart; I wrote that he had a sad life with only his dog at his funeral.

On November 20, 1964 I started to read Jane Eyre and liked it. That fall I wrote my first poem, a very lousy poem called The Bat, and later one called The Poem.

On the anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy I wrote,

"A year ago today, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I remember walking down the hall and passing a class watching a TV--an educational channel. They were the first to know. Mr. Saffronoff and our class went to the library. Everyone was in a daze, no one knew really what happened. Only that the President was assassinated. Mr. S talked to us about how the President was assassinated and about the president. We couldn't accept the fact at first. I was confused. We went back to our room --Mr. S left us for a minute. Some didn't believe it--thinking it was a hoax. Others said the killer must be insane. I felt very sad, depressed, as I walked home alone; I cried. I didn't know much about him--I wasn't interested in politics. When I got home I acted naturally and all after that, like it seemed it didn't matter."

There was a Mock Election held at school. I was still clueless about politics. I was asked if I would vote for LBJ or Barry Goldwater. Then I was told about LBJ's Great Society and war on poverty. I decided to vote democrat. It was one of the few winning votes I have ever cast.

On November 25 I read The Lost Continent of MU, perhaps a book from my Grandfather Ramer, and Stop the Typewriters! about an eleven-year-old girl named Nancy who wants to be a writer.

Over Christmas break, my family returned to Tonawanda. We left December 31. I wrote it was a sunny, muddy day. I wrote about seeing a Glendale street and recalled the song 442 Glendale Ave. My brother said the twin Grand Island Bridges belonged in Ripley's Believe It Or Not.

We stayed with my Aunt Alice's family, which now included Grandma Gochenour. I have no idea how they fit us all in! We visited all our old friends and I saw all my cousins ("they act and mainly look the same but, boy, they have grown" I wrote) and we stopped at the Kuhn's house.

I spent a day with Nancy Ensminger and we had our photos taken in a photo both. Her mom fed us canned spaghetti.

Me and Nancy Ensminger

Nancy Ensminger, Christmas 1964

By spring I had made some friends, Dee and Diane, two girls whose families had moved from the South to Detroit for jobs. Dee and I just started talking on the long walk home from school. She lived a few blocks away. Diane lived next door to Dee.

I joined a Girl Scout troop, although I was disappointed the girls were more interested in watching Hullabaloo on television and talking about boys than scouting. But I was thrilled with our 'adventures,' like this one I wrote about in my diary:

"We sold calendars at Hollywood grocery. Betty Sue and Besty went to Edward's but were kicked out. The manager said they were bothering the customers. They went to Frentz & Sons Hardware, who bought two, one to hang in the store. At the Funeral Home--Spiller-Splater? Or is it Spitter-Splatter? Or Spiller-Splitter? Well, anyways, Betty Sue started to go in but Betsy said they'd better ring the door bell. Four or five rings later a very mad man answered. He took Betty by the collar and asked what she wanted. "I want to sell you a Girl Scouts Calendar," she said calmly. "I don't want any," was his answer and he turned away. Halfway, he came back. "OK--how much?" Betty Sue said he just didn't want the funeral home to have a bad reputation. At Rambler and Pontiac Betsy told a man that her brother bought a car from there and if he didn't buy a calendar he'd return it. "Get lost," was his affable answer. At Pontiac they were real nice and gave them some booklets, too. Lynn, Cherie, Cindy and me and Mrs. D stood at the entrance of Hollywood. One man said he'd buy one when he came out. We were there three hours and he never came back out! Another man answered no, but don't tell his wife he had a Playboy one already. A boy who worked there we asked every time he came by. Once, we didn't ask him and he looked surprised."

Already I was recording the life around me in detail.

I was invited to visit a church and saw an altar call. I saw people whose belief in God was so real they were crying. It made me consider issues of faith for the first time, and I committed to developing a believe in God.

My Grandfather Ramer took me with him to St. John's Episcopal Church.  Having grown up in the Broad Street Baptist Church in Tonawanda, with it's immersion Baptism and stained glass windows, being Episcopal was an adjustment. We genuflected, knelt, had responsive readings, plus the church was modern and huge. I had several schoolmates in the confirmation class, plus my friend Gail's family were members.  My first communion I sipped from the Communion cup as instructed. I hated the sour wine and I learned to dip my wafer into the wine!

St John's Episcopal Church, Royal Oak MI in the 1960s

I made friends in the neighborhood, including a boy named Mike D., a year younger than me. Mike and I took Dad's telescope into the back yard and looked at the moon and stars, making up stories about outer space. We enjoyed pretending stories about Homer the Ghost.

My imaginary gang, Homer the Ghost and friends

One day his younger sister asked if I would like her brother to be my boyfriend. I was upset. First, because I valued friendship above everything and had no interest in boys, and because, actually, I had a crush on him, too, but was not about to admit it. I alienated a friend, and then he and his siblings moved away. I was heart broken, having lost a true kindred spirit friend. But nobody knew.

I still listened to CKLW on the radio in bed at nights. In the spring of Seventh Grade I heard Stop! In the Name of Love by the Supremes. I liked it.

It was the beginning of the end of childhood. I liked a boy and I liked a rock and roll song. My long-held promise to my Grandmother Gochenour was being broken, for I was unable to be Peter Pan and avoid growing up.

Here I am at the end of Seventh Grade

The Orson Starr House Mystery Quilt

The Mystery Quilt of The Orson Starr House

My Mother's Day visit to the Orson Starr House of Royal Oak, MI made my day when I saw a very interesting quilt.

A second floor bedroom displays this pieced quilt. It was noted as made about 1900 by Anna O. Greene of Royal Oak. The sign said she lived at 325 W Harrison in Royal Oak and in 1928 moved to Texas and gave this quilt to Helen Clees, whose daughter Elizabeth inherited the quilt; Elizabeth donated it to the Royal Oak Historical Society.

The quiltmaker's use of fabric is just wonderful. With only two fabrics she has given the illusion of a more complicated quilt.

I thought it was much older than 1900 and shared the photo with the Facebook group "Quits-Antique and Vintage." Quilt appraiser Teddy Mc Mahon Pruett and quilt collector and quilt maker Pepper Cory agreed that the quilt was closer to 1845 than 1900. 

 

Detail of print

The stripped center blocks are composed of  a square of Prussian Blue ombre printed fabric. The same fabric plus a solid light fabric is used in the pieced Wild Goose Chase sashing. Prussian Blue was popular between 1830 and 1850, especially in ombre prints. 

Ombre is French for 'shaded', referring to the gradual shading of color; here the dark blue fades into a lighter version;  a beige and blue print appears between the blue stripes. The print seems to have a floral motif. That part of the fabric is badly decaying, likely because the brown dye used included minerals that have eaten away the fabric. Read more about ombre prints at Barbara Brackmans' post here.

The blocks are bordered with pieced Wild Geese. You can see another quilt in this pattern at Tim Latimer's log post here. and samples at The Quilt Index here  and here.  This type of quilt block is called Sash and Block. 

Learn more about Prussian blue fabrics at Barbara Brackman's Civil War Quilts blog post here  and her blog Material Culture here;  look at the second antique fabric sample for another Prussian Blue stripe.  According to Roderick Kiracofe in The American Quilt  Prussian Blue, or Lafayette Blue, was a mineral dye first used in America in 1832. Brackman notes the dye formula was developed in 1770.

The quilt bock pattern is a Wild Goose Chase variation. Kiracofe also writes that pieced quilt patterns became commonplace during the second quarter of the 18th c, including Wild Goose Chase. 

The quilt is beautifully hand quilted. Cotton batting can be seen under the decayed parts. 

Who Was Anna O. Greene?

I went to Ancestry.com to learn more about Anna O. I discovered her husband was Orville W. Greene.

On March 20, 1862 Orville W. Greene, age 21,  enlisted as a private in the army and was in Company 1, Michigan 16th Infantry Regiment and mustered out July 8, 1865 at Jeffersonville, IN. He appears on an 1890 veterans list.

In 1870 Orville W. Greene appears on the Ann Arbor, MI census boarding with a chemistry professor and attending university. He attended University of Michigan in 1869-70 but did not receive a degree. 

On October 16, 1872 Orville, age 28 and born in Hulla, MI, and Anna O. Wright, age 20 and born in Wrightstown, WS, were married in Greenville. Orville was a banker.

Orville and Anna appear on the 1880 Greenville, Montcalm MI Census. Anna, age 28, and Orville, 36, had children Mabel, age 6, and a two month old unnamed son. Orville was a "jeweller" [sic]. 

The 1900 Census of Greenville, Montcalm, MI shows they lived at 510 Clay. Anna was born January, 1853 in Wisconsin. Orville W. was born February 1845 and was a bookeeper. They had children Otto, born January 1878, and Edwin W., born October 1883. A sister-in-law Ida E. Abbot, born October 1856, and a domestic servant lived with them. 

The 1920 Census shows that Orville, 77, and Anna, 66, Ida, 63, and grandson Willoughby,11 were living together. 

By 1924 Anna and Orville had moved to Royal Oak. 

By 1930 Anna, 77, was living in Royal Oak with her son Otto, 52, who worked in an auto plant. 

Anna's death certificate shows she was born January 23, 1853 in Wisconsin and died of apoplexy on March 9, 1933 in Alamo, TX. Anna Orilla's parents were Lucien Wright and Marietta Thompson both of Wisconsin. Her burial was to be in Royal Oak. 

Anna's Ancestry

Anna's parents were Marietta "Etta" Thompson (1844-1860) and Lucien L Wright (1870-). 

Lucien L. Wright's parents were Margaret (1822-) and Lucien B. Wright(1825-1868); Lucien B. appears on a Civil War Draft Registration in Wrightsville, WS. 

Marietta's parents were Orilla Tabitha Palmer (1844-1860) and Delanson Thompson (1817-1860). 

Orilla Palmer's parents were Elias Palmer (1789-1825) and Anna Haven (1778-1864). Anna Haven's ancestors date back to Richard Haven who was born in England in 1590, arrived in America in 1644, and died in Plymouth, MA in 1703; he was a carpenter, a deacon in the church, and served in King Phillips War.

Did Anna Make The Quilt?

Now the problem is this: If Anna O. Greene pieced this quilt, lets say at age 14, then it would have been made around 1867. And yet some believe the fabric is older than that time period. SO...who did piece that quilt? Did Anna's use fabric from a dress belonging to a family member? Pepper Cory suggested the quilt could have been made for Anna's birth. Or did Anna's mother make the quilt? Or even her grandmother?

It is a mystery.

From My Files

I have been tossing and organizing. I found my high school newspapers. I was in journalism and the newspaper staff for three years. 

A great fashion ad! 

But also in these old school newspapers were articles about the social issues that had become youth culture issues.

 In 1970 Earth Day came to school. I still have my Give Earth a Chance button!

Anti-war demonstrations took place across the country on October 15, 1969. Including in the Royal Oak, MI Memorial Park.

 A special edition of the paper came out after on April 22, 1968 about the assassination of
 Rev. Martin Luther King.

 I had not remembered the hiring of the school's first African American teachers in 1969.

And I sure didn't recall writing this article on student's reaction to including minority studies in the curriculum. (Note: I had an elective history class in Modern History that included reading about the creation of Unions and on Civil Rights. Rad.)

An article that totally threw me was in the March, 1970 issue: The KKK had visited KHS! The student reporters, one of whom was a good friend, reported that the head of the Michigan KKK (who admitted to being a bigot) was promoting Gov. George Wallace for president in 1972. He said the American Independent Party was for the "white, lower-income, middle class American".

I had not realized when I picked up these papers that I would be gaining insight into the social issues of my high school years.