Central High School – West Allis, WI
My first trip was to the World’s Fair and Exposition of 1933 in Chicago. We went in the summer of 1934 when I was only three. Naturally I do not remember much of that experience. In fact the only thing I can remember is seeing miniature cars going around a track at the Ford exhibit. My parents tell me, though, that I had a ride on the miniature merry-go-round and showed seemingly endless energy that day.
Chicago World’s Fair (1933) - 1934 - Chicago Centennial Celebration - "A Century of Progress" (1833-1933)
In July, 1936, my Mother, Father, grandparents, and I made a trip to Niagara Falls. We left at 6:00 A.M. on a Sunday morning and went first to Chicago. We stayed in Chicago only long enough to drive through Lincoln Park and went on to Indiana where we saw the sand dunes. Then we went on into Michigan through Jackson and Battle Creek.
We were up bright and early the next morning and I went along with my Father to the nearest grocery store to buy some breakfast food. Since Battle Creek was the home of the Shredded Wheat Company we bought some Shredded Wheat.
We left “The Pines” and reached Detroit in the early afternoon. It was very hot there–the week of our vacation was the hottest week of the summer. We were already tired of soda water so we bought a pail, ice, and some lemons and made lemonade in the car.
That same afternoon we drove to Fort Dearborn, a few miles outside of Detroit, to see the museum owned by the Ford Company. There we saw the Edison Museum containing Edison’s workshop which had been carefully carried there piece by piece and the fire started by Edison which has been kept burning ever since. They also had the chair in which Lincoln was assassinated, examples of every kind of transportation, and an old fashioned general store. We were taken from place to place in horse drawn carriages in keeping with those times.
We crossed the toll bridge across Lake Erie at Windsor into Canada and reached Niagara Falls late at night. We drove immediately to the Falls to see the pastel colored lights shining on the Falls which made them even more beautiful. We took cabins near the Falls and I was thrilled–at last I was at Niagara Falls.
We left the Falls about 1:00 P.M. and went on to Hamilton and then to Toronto. We thought Toronto was a beautiful city with its trees, parks, and brick buildings. That night we took cabins about fifty miles from Callander. The night seemed crisp to us compared to the hot weather we had had in Detroit. The next morning we found a small black kitten outside of our cabin and I fed it some condensed milk.
We drove the fifty miles to Callander, home of the Dionne quintuplets. They were about two years old and were still kept with their nurses in a special nursery. Visitors were able to walk through a screen enclosed building and watch the quints but they were unable to see us. We drove as far as Sault Saint Marie, Canada, that day.
The next morning we crossed by ferry from Sault Saint Marie, Canada, to Sault Saint Marie, Michigan. We saw the lakes there, both Lakes Superior and Huron at the same time and boats carrying iron ore. We reached Wausau, the end of our trip in the early evening.
I hope I can always remember the highlights of our trip to Niagara Falls. It made me feel thrilled to know that I had been… [END]
Nancy: Writing - Papers written on topics such as her family tree, Christmas, dreams, hobbies and more while attending Central High School (1945-1948).
With a Carload of Love... 