Wilmette Public Library Local History Digital Collection

Rhea Saul Adler (1906-1990) oral history

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Track 2: Track 2
Transcription: Track 2 RA: Well, his father and mother were at my father and mother's wedding, and I have their signatures in my mother's wedding book. RF: Isn't that interesting? RA: My father had worked for his father when he first came to town. He had come out for the Columbian Exposition in 1893 in Chicago, and he had spent all his money. And he told me this story of going to the old Union Station in Chicago, which was down, approximately near, somewhere in the vicinity of where the later Union Stations were. But, it was an old, old building. And I later used to take the train to Chicago to visit my uncle and aunt, alone, from the time I was about ten. RF: It was safer to do that then. RA: Well, the conductor was known to my family, and they always took me to the station and spoke to him and told him to look after me 'til my aunt took me by the hand at the Union Station. So that . . . I remember my father's telling . . . He looked up at the board, and he had enough money in . . . . there to buy a ticket to the town of Genoa, and he remembered there was one family from Pennsylvania that lived there, that he knew, and he knew if he got there, he could . . . RF: Have them take care of him? RA: Bread and board, today, but he knew he'd have shelter and food. And he found himself a job, and that was how come he landed in my mother's hometown, where she'd been, where, well, let's see, her grandfather was there and his mother, at that time. RF: So, Harry's father lived there also? RA: His father was superintendent of a shoe factory, and he had come out from the city of Chicago where his family lived. So, from both sides of our family we've always had very close ties to Chicago. RF: When you went away to college though, did you keep in touch? RA: He went to Beloit, and I went to Lake Forest. And yes, we were high school . . . . Well, he used to sit, when I had to stay after school because I went on a political campaign once for sheriff of the county when I was in high school. So, the superintendent and our family were friends, and I was called into his office, and he asked what kind of punishment he thought I deserved. And I said well, I had gone without permission, and I supposed making up the time was an important factor. So I was kept after school that time, I remember. RF: But Harry was . . . . You were his sweetheart, then, more or less in high school? RA: Well, he sat . . . the story was, that he was sitting on the front steps to walk me home. RF: Ohhh. RA: So, [laughs], and he was. Our families lived on the same lot on two contiguous streets, and we walked through one lot to get to each other's front porch or back porch, either way. So that, all through high school, he'd . . . RF: And then you went to college, and he went to a different school than you did. RA: That's right. RF: So, when did you meet up again and get married? RA: Well, he decided that he wanted to be an engineer in the beginning, and Beloit didn't have any engineering courses. And so, after he worked one summer on building a concrete road for the state of Illinois between Marengo and Genoa, he decided he was not cut out to be an engineer, and he wanted a business course. And so, I had been one year at the University of Illinois, and he had gone to Wisconsin, but he didn't like being that far away. So he transferred in February from Wisconsin to the University of Illinois. . .; Fleischer, Regina
, Interviewer; Adler, Rhea Saul, 1906-1990
, Interviewee; Barnett, Amanda
, Transcriber
Media Type: Audio; Text
Item Type: Audiocassettes
Description: Interview of Rhea Adler by Regina Fleischer at 401 3rd Street, Wilmette, IL, in 1985.
Notes: Photograph of the first public library in Wilmette, Illinois
Place of Publication: Wilmette, Illinois
Date of Original: About 1985
Date Of Event: About 1985
Subject(s): Libraries
Oral histories
Wilmette Public Library
Personal Name(s): Adler, Rhea Saul
Language of Item: English
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