Wilmette Public Library Local History Digital Collection

Barbara Schneider (1919-2023) oral history

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Transcription: Patience Kramer 0:01 Today is June 22 2022. My name is Patience Kramer and today as part of the Wilmette Historical Museum's oral history project, I'm speaking with Barbara Schneider. Today Barbara is accompanied by her daughter, Terry Mikos. And Barbara's family was among the early settlers of this area came to the Gross Point over in West Wilmette in the mid 19th century. Today, you can see some of the Roemer history because Roemer Park on old Glenview road is named after Barbara's family. Barbara, I think you had a birthday lately. Last week, you had a significant birthday. What birthday was that? Barbara Schneider 0:52 June 13th. Patience Kramer 0:54 And how old? Barbara Schneider 0:56 1919 Patience Kramer 0:57 Oh, so that makes you 103 Okay. Were you born here? Barbara Schneider 1:05 Yes. Patience Kramer 1:08 in Evanston or hospital. Evanston or Wilmette? Barbara Schneider 1:13 Well, it's Evanston now, but at that time, it was Gross Point. Patience Kramer 1:19 Okay. Okay. So you grew up around here? Barbara Schneider 1:23 Yes. Patience Kramer 1:24 Did you go to grammar school here? Barbara Schneider 1:26 Yes. St. Joseph. St. Joseph. Patience Kramer 1:29 Okay. Going back to your family history. I looked at some research. I see that a Peter Roemer was here in 1855. He had some land. Yeah. Was he a grandfather? Barbara Schneider 1:49 Peter Roemer, I think so I'm sure. Patience Kramer 1:52 Okay. Can you tell me a little bit about your grandparents? Barbara Schneider 2:00 Well, I had a father. Oh, my dad had a father and mother lived close by where we lived. And I can't think, my mother had had a family too that lived close by where we lived. We lived on Lake Avenue and Ridge Road. And it was what then it was, was Wilmette and Evanston. And it was Evanston even when, when I married there, it was Evanston. Patience Kramer 2:36 Okay. What was your mom's maiden name? Barbara Schneider 2:41 When they was Anna Roemer, Anna Roemer. She was one of the Roemers that lived on Glenview road. She came from a family of 10. And she was the oldest. So that's all I know about her. Patience Kramer 3:00 That's a big family. Barbara Schneider 3:02 Yeah, that's a big family. Patience Kramer 3:04 And your dad's name? Barbara Schneider 3:06 Peter Kirchens is his name. And he was a he was a brother to three other women. And his family was a family of four, three women, and one man. My dad was the only man Patience Kramer 3:29 did they farm out there? Barbara Schneider 3:31 Yeah, they farmed, they farmed. Yeah. Let's see. What else did they do? They farmed they planted all kinds of vegetables, gardens. Let's say that I don't know if my father did anything else. Patience Kramer 3:52 So how did you meet your husband? How did you meet your husband? Barbara Schneider 3:58 Well, it's a long story. I knew him a long time ago. Patience Kramer 4:03 Were you neighbors? Barbara Schneider 4:05 Well, not really, but but I don't [unintelligible.] He was in the Gross Point band. And I guess they call it the Wilmette Band now. Yeah, this is what they call a Schneider band almost all of these are Schneider's are related to the Schneider's. Yeah, my husband is sitting down here, way down here. I always call it the Schneider band, because they they're all related. Patience Kramer 4:46 It was a big family. Yes. Did the Roemer family did your family have any kind of like a farm stand or anything to sell their vegetables or Barbara Schneider 4:59 well Schneider family. They had, they had some kind of a stand. I guess they sold vegetables. They raised vegetables Patience Kramer 5:19 we have a picture of the stand. Barbara Schneider 5:20 Yeah. Oh, that's that's the one on Glenview Road. Yeah, see, this is the Schneider [family]. That was before you were born. Yeah, it's true. This is the Schneider band. This is the Schneider band. These, they were all related. So they you know that it was really called the Schneider band. Patience Kramer 5:49 Okay. I have a question about the the New Trier garage. Now what kind of work did your husband do? Did he work at that New Trier? Barbara Schneider 6:00 He worked for his father in the garage. They repaired cars. That's what they did. And New Trier was there for a long time. Patience Kramer 6:09 Okay. Did you did you ever go over there to watch himwork or? Barbara Schneider 6:21 Well, at that time, I didn't drive. Okay. And we only went there to, my husband went there with it. He put tires on and things like that. He did all kinds of repair work. He worked for his father. He and his brother. They worked for their father.They came from a family of ten too children. But he my husband wasn't the oldest. But he was the youngest one. He was single, the last one Patience Kramer 7:02 Did they have, they must have had big family get togethers. Barbara Schneider 7:05 Yes. Yes, they did. When they'd have the Schneider picnic, they all got together. They all knew who was who. Who came from my family. But they were all big families. So yeah, Patience Kramer 7:21 Do you have any particular memories of those picnics? Barbara Schneider 7:25 Well, I came to one the last years. But you just packed it. Pack the basket lunch and just went wherever they went. You just followed Patience Kramer 7:38 Where was the picnic usually held? Where was the picnic usually held? Barbara Schneider 7:44 Well, usually was likely. Usually it was they had picnics right in that Schneider yard. That was on Glenview Road. On Glenview road. That's where my husband lived. And there was picnics were more or less in there. In there, on their property. And it was nice, very nice. Patience Kramer 8:07 Are the homes still there? Barbara Schneider 8:09 Yeah, the home is still there. It's belongs to something. They sold it to somebody else. That was one of the younger girls lived with a mother there for years and years and years, then she died. Her husband died. They didn't have any children. And so the mother and father both lived there. But they didn't have any children. Then they both died. The property was sold. Now who bought it? I don't know. But it was so, so now someone else is living in the homestead. Patience Kramer 8:49 Can you tell me a little bit about your childhood growing up in what was then Gross Point. Was that where you grew up? Gross Point, West Wilmette. Barbara Schneider 8:59 I didn't understand. Patience Kramer 9:01 Did you grow up in Gross Point? Barbara Schneider 9:03 Yeah, I grew up in Gross Point. And then it's when I went to school there. I graduated there from grammar school. That's as far as I went. I didn't go to any high school, because my parents needed all of us kids to work. And that made me and my family there was only four children. Three girls and one boy. And we all had to go to work. So we went to grammar school and graduated. Then we went, we just did. We just did all kinds of work to help my parents get along. Patience Kramer 9:44 What kind of work did you do? Barbara Schneider 9:47 More or less did a lot of house work? That's all I, that's all I knew what to do. Because I went to grammar school, graduated from eighth grade. And from there I just went to work. Patience Kramer 9:58 Did you ever work on the farm Barbara Schneider 10:01 no, not that I know of. I didn't, I didn't do anything on the farm. Patience Kramer 10:09 So was it a good size farm? Was it a large farm? Barbara Schneider 10:13 No, it wasn't a large farm. Okay, it was just a small farm Patience Kramer 10:21 what are some of your fondest memories of living here for so long? Barbara Schneider 10:29 So many years? I really don't know. I really, I really don't know. Patience Kramer 10:39 How has the village how has Wilmette changed? Barbara Schneider 10:44 Well, it just goes from one to another, you know, first its one and then it's another. It just goes from one town to another, just changes. That's what I think about that. I would say no, it was it was this this this this name of the town so for so long, then a changed to another name. So we just go along with it Patience Kramer 11:16 what did you, do you have some memories of their Schneider picnics? Some more that you would like to talk about with the picnics? The Schneider family picnics? Barbara Schneider 11:26 Well, they were fun. I mean, they, people sold tickets for for whatever they were selling. And we had I don't know just all kinds of ideas. Somebody could offer him an idea. Well, let's let's try it. So that's what it was. Patience Kramer 11:47 What kind of idea? Barbara Schneider 11:50 Well, can I gotta think about what they did that. They just did that. They just did. What did we have? Gotta think again. I don't know. Patience Kramer 12:13 Okay. What did they, were they selling tickets? You said they're selling tickets? Barbara Schneider 12:23 Yeah. Well, they sold tickets at the picnic for it anything that they were raffling, they had a raffle of some guy did sell tickets. And everybody would buy a ticket. Somebody would win. Patience Kramer 12:40 What did they raffle? What was the price? Barbara Schneider 12:44 Oh, I'm trying to think of what the prices were. I don't know how it probably was 10 cans of beer or something like that? Patience Kramer 13:02 Did you ever? Did you hear the Gross Point band play, another band? Barbara Schneider 13:08 Yeah, they played. They played lots of times. It was fun to hear. Patience Kramer 13:15 Okay, so at the picnics, the picnic, I understand that they played music but also people danced. Barbara Schneider 13:23 Oh, yeah. Did they dance wherever? Wherever the music was, is where the people danced. Even if it was only that, the dirt, dirt on the ground or something? They just danced Patience Kramer 13:35 Sounds like fun. Did you dance? Barbara Schneider 13:43 Yeah. whenever somebody asked me I danced, a long time ago. Oh, well. Patience Kramer 13:53 Yeah, yeah. You know, I'm going to look forward to when you and your husband married. What was his full name? Martin Schneider. Where did you live after you're married? Barbara Schneider 14:06 Oh, after we were married, we lived in a little? Well, what would I call it? Just a little house on the property that belonged to the Wilmette golf club. My husband worked at the Wilmette golf club for years. And so we lived there for five years. Then we moved by his mother and made an apartment on the second floor. We moved. We moved there, and we lived there for five years. Then after that, we just rented a place after that. And we were offered to live in the Wilmette golf club and we lived there because my husband worked there. We lived there. We lived there for 18 years. Then after that it got sold to somebody else. And so we just moved into Plymouth place. And then we moved on from there. We moved to another place. I forgot what that was. But we just, we didn't buy anything. We just, we just moved there. Live there from time to time. Patience Kramer 15:28 So you raise your children here, Barbara Schneider 15:30 right? That's it. Patience Kramer 15:34 Your daughter? Barbara Schneider 15:34 Yeah. My daughter. Patience Kramer 15:38 And did she go to school here too? Barbara Schneider 15:40 Oh, yeah. There's that St. Joseph, St. Joseph. And then she went to Regina Dominican High School? Oh, yeah. Patience Kramer 15:52 Can you tell us a little bit about your school days when you were at St. Joseph? Maybe how many kids were in your class? How big was your class? Barbara Schneider 16:04 Oh, I'm trying to think. I think 35 or something like that. It was a nice class, you know? Patience Kramer 16:18 Where you were, you're close enough to school that you could walk to school? Barbara Schneider 16:24 Oh, yeah. We walked from where we lived on Ridge Road in Wilmette, and that was Wilmette then and then it went to Evanston. And it's still Evanston. Patience Kramer 16:37 So you'll have seen some changes here. Barbara Schneider 16:39 Oh yes. Oh, yes. Patience Kramer 16:46 Is there anything that I haven't asked you that you think would be of interest that you'd like to tell people about your long life here in the area? Is there anything you'd like to talk about? Living here for so long? Barbara Schneider 17:01 Not much? Just live from day to day. That's all. Today I live with my parents. Let's see. Where did I get married? 10 years ago? 20 years ago. That's about all that's about it Patience Kramer 17:24 That's a long life. You have any more recollections for the family reunions? Or the family picnics? Barbara Schneider 17:32 Yeah, they were, they were they were fine. until about the last 10 years. But the last 10 years. They didn't. They didn't really communicate together at all. Patience Kramer 17:45 How many people were at these picnics? That sounds like it would be really a large gathering Barbara Schneider 17:51 Schneider Schneider family. It was pretty big. You know? And I think there probably would have been 25, 35 people maybe more than that Patience Kramer 18:08 you said they packed lunches, packed lunches and brought their lunches. Okay, what would that usually be? Sandwich? Barbara Schneider 18:20 Yep, that's right. You just picked up maybe homemade lunch. You made your sandwiches at home and brought them and your pop, whatever you want it. You just brought your own. Here you brought your own food. Patience Kramer 18:36 So let's go to your birthday now last week, how did you celebrate it? Barbara Schneider 18:46 Oh she and my niece, they did most of it. Nice. We just had a party at her apartment. Patience Kramer 18:59 Okay that sounds like quite an event . I also understand that there was a special mass at St. Joseph. Yes? Barbara Schneider 19:24 Father [unintelligible] or what's his name? Was it who said the Mass, I forgot Patience Kramer 19:40 and that was last week. Oh, that's Father Watts. Father Watts, Wayne Barbara Schneider 19:49 Yeah. Okay. Okay. Well, he runs it now. He runs St. Joseph church now. Hey, yeah, he's a nice priest. So that's what he said. Patience Kramer 20:15 So you really have a deep history right here on Ridge Road. I also was curious about the Borre food locker, the Borre food locker. What was that? Like? Was that related to the farm stand or where was that? Barbara Schneider 20:45 What I'm trying to think. See the Borres, the Borres were sort of were related to my mother. Okay. My mother's mother was a Borre. And when she married her husband, her husband, she married a Roemer. So then that's where they kept on building up. So that that's when there were 10 children there. My mother was the oldest of the 10. Now, I think they're all gone. Patience Kramer 21:18 Where was the food locker, the Borre food locker. Where was that located? Barbara Schneider 21:22 That was located in the corner of Rigde and Wilmette Avenue. It's still there. It's still there. But the Mr. Borre that run it at the time that I was living there. He's not living anymore. I don't know if he sold it to someone. I don't know. Patience Kramer 21:43 What about Blasers bowling alley? There was a bowling alley on Ridge and ..... Barbara Schneider 21:47 It's still there still still there. Where it always was, Patience Kramer 21:52 who are the Blasers? Barbara Schneider 21:53 Blasers, Blazers Bowling Alley Patience Kramer 21:57 Are they related to your family? Barbara Schneider 21:59 Maybe way back [unintellegible] Schneider's and the Borres and that seems like they're all was related to another, you know. Patience Kramer 22:13 Large families. Yeah, right. Yeah, Barbara Schneider 22:16 they had large families. They all had big families so they were all related to each other. Patience Kramer 22:25 And that bowling alley is also on Ridge Road? Barbara Schneider 22:28 Yeah, it's on Schiller Street, it is still there. Were it always was. What it is now? I don't know. I think it's still part of the Blasers. That probably owned it. I don't know much of the Blaser family. Patience Kramer 22:47 Did you ever go there? Barbara Schneider 22:49 Oh, yeah, I've been there. Yeah. Any other bowling alley looks the same way. Patience Kramer 23:01 Is there anything else that we haven't talked about that you want to share? Barbara Schneider 23:05 I don't know what else there would be. Schneider family is big. The [unintelligible] family is big. So they're all big families together. Patience Kramer 23:26 Well, Barbara, I want to thank you very much for sharing your memories with us today. Barbara Schneider 23:31 You're welcome. Patience Kramer 23:32 It's again a very rich history. You have a rich history. Thank you so much. Barbara Schneider 23:39 You're welcome.
Creators: Schneider, Barbara, Interviewee; Kramer, Patience
, Interviewer
Media Type: Audio; Text
Item Type: Sound recordings
Description: Interview with Barbara Schneider by Patience Kramer in Wilmette, Illinois, on June 22, 2022. Barbara reflects on her life in the Wilmette area. As one of the Roemer family descendants, Barbara shares memories of family picnics, the Schneider band, and her husband's work at the New Trier garage. The interview provides glimpses into the history of the Schneider and Roemer families, the changing landscape of Wilmette, and Barbara's personal experiences growing up and raising a family in the area.
Place of Publication: Wilmette, Illinois
Date of Original: 22 Jun 2022
Playing Time: 23:41
Subject(s): Oral histories
Gross Point (Ill.) — History
Personal Name(s): Schneider, Barbara ; Roemer, Peter ; Roemer, Anna ; Kirchens, Peter ; Schneider, Martin
Language of Item: English
Copyright Statement: Protected by copyright: Uses other than research or private study require the permission of the rightsholder(s). Responsibility for obtaining permissions and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Copyright Date: 2022
Copyright Holder: Wilmette Historical Museum and Wilmette Public Library
Contact: Wilmette Public Library
Email:refdesk@wilmettelibrary.info
Website:
https://www.wilmettelibrary.info/

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Wilmette, IL
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Barbara Schneider (1919-2023) oral history

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