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Note: BIOGRAPHY From a photograph, Mother was apparently a student at Rawlings, Jr. High. The photo is captioned "Ossifers of R.G.C '25" I think that means Rawlings Glee Club, 1925. In fact, in the same book is a photo of the Rawlings Glee Club, 1925.
Mother graduated from East Tech High School in 1929. She is shown among the photos of graduating January seniors on page 15. The information under her name includes that she lived at 14204 Orinoco Avenue. She was active in Palladium, Vice-president Gym Captains, Friendship, Student Council, Home Room President, Style Seekers, Cap Committee. She was in the Non-college Course. Palladium is listed as a honor society "to develop higher scholarship among the girls." Mother is not listed, nor is she in the photograph, in the yearbook. Friendship was "organized to promote a friendly spirit throughout the school." Mother was also not listed nor shown in the group for that year. Mother is listed in the Girl's Gym Captains but I do not see her in the photograph on page 88.
Mother once spoke to me about a tea room that was part of the high school. There was a teacher who was extremely particular about how table settings were placed. Mother is not listed as part of the East Tech Tea Room but there is a page about that. "A class in tea-room management are largely responsible for the food and service of the East Tech tea room. The girls of this class are learning how to operate or manage a tea room." From another part of the article, "About fifty teachers who are most appreciative of the atmosphere of the room and the tasty food, lunch here." it would seem that the operation was the lunch room for the teachers. I got the impression that Mother did not like the teacher she was talking about.
Mother told me that she was a switchboard operator for the Perfection Stove Company in Cleveland. Prior to marrying, her boss told her that if he did not find out that she was married she would not lose her job. Since the Great Depression was ongoing, any married woman was expected to stay home so that her husband could support her and another person could have the job.
On the 1930 census, she is listed as being a clerk at a stove company.
From the Cleveland City Directorys, the following addresses and occupations are found:
From 1929 to 1939 she is living in the home of her parents. She works at Perfection Stove Company. Her occupations are given as clerk, "comp opr", and telephone operator (in 1939).
On Jun. 20, 1937, a personal identification card was issued, apparently for access to the Great Lakes Exposition. In identified one Helen Ruth Dalton, a telephone operator, age 27 on 12-7-37. She is described as 4' 10 1/2", weighing 101 pounds with brown hair and grey blue eyes. Interestingly enough, the date on the card, apparently for the exposition, is 1936, not 37. The card was issued by the "Department of Police, Cleveland, O Bureau of Identification, Geo. Koestle, Supt."
She told me two tales that I thought were interesting. The first concerned an event that happened at the end of the ocean voyage to Japan in the 1940's. When the wives started getting off, the husbands had been informed already which ones had been found in the cabin of someone other than her husband. She said that one husband removed the wedding rings of his wife and threw them into the bay. Mother opined that she didn't think the husbands should have been told and that many, or at least some, had probably indulged in some of the same activity.
The other was that she thought that it was interesting that while my father was stationed at Fort Knox, while WWII was still going on but he had scored enough points to rotate stateside, that the POW's would often be seen walking about the post without guards while the American soldiers from the stockade always had an armed "chaser" following them. I remember those guards from my childhood at different posts.
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