Wilmette Public Library Local History Digital Collection

Sydney Weedon Templeton (1894-1994) oral history

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Track 5, Transcript p.13-15: Track 5, Transcript p.13-15
Transcription: Track 5 p.13 ST: No, there was nothing, a wilderness. RA: And it belonged to no one. ST: Apparently. I don't know now, whether it belongs to Wilmette or Kenilworth. RA: It is Wilmette, now. It has been annexed. A number of..oh, back in the late 40's or early 50's, I believe. It was taken into Wilmette. And has a very elegant shopping center. ST: Oh, Don't I know. I've been back there in late years. In fact, Edna's sister had a beautiful apartment facing the lake in one of those big buildings that was put there. She doesn't live there now, but she did. She lived there at the time mother died. RA: Oh, yes. ST: But, when we were children, and Mother would put us to bed quite early, and read, to us. And she would read things like The Back of the North Wind, and Hans Christian Andersen, and then when Daddy came home, she went down stairs. And then they had their reading time and then we were not supposed to make any noise after that. And they had a great many hobbies. One of them was bookbinding. RA: Really! ST: Yes, and they were very much taken with Elbert Hubbard. And Elbert Hubbard was getting out a magazine at that time. And they bound, all his published works. He p.14 ST: later had a scrap book, I believe, that was sold in book form, which I acquired. RA: Did you? ST: Well, as I say, of course my father was a book worm. He thought - . He would visit all the second hand book stores, and he would just come home loaded with books, some of which, I presume, came to be quite valuable. But when we girls closed the house, and moved away, we had to dispose of most of the library because a central room was bookcases to the ceiling, on every wall. RA: Oh, yes. ST: And I remember my Father used to sit on a three-cornered chair, and he was a pipe smoker, and the pipes were all on a little rack, and he had a student lamp with a green shade, And I remember my Mother filling the oil lamps every day, and cleaning them. RA: That used to be my job, as a child. ST: Oh, did it really? Well, I remember when Father brought home the first gas mantels. Well, first of all, we just had things that stuck out of the wall, which lit with a flame. Then they invented this gas mantel. HA: Little white balls? ST: Yes, little white things, and I remember distinctly installing it - - . And burning it off, then it burned up and made a funny smell. And then, of course, we had those. I don't know how much light they gave. RA: They gave more than the other. And I understand they p.15 RA: were manufactured in Chicago, and when they quit, they had many on hand. A friend of mine in St. Charles, husband, who was connected with the firm. And they are buried out in Lake Michigan, because for a very definite reason, but they took them way out into the lake because they were not to be lying around, after, and they couldn't dispose of them in any other way. But then, did you have later, electricity, and gas? ST: Oh, later, yes. No we didn't have a phone for a long while, and my father hated it. Actually, he did, and I can't tell you just when electricity went into the house. But I think it must have been quite later on. Probably about the time I was in high school. Although that, I cannot remember dates on, because I just can't remember. I was an avid reader from the time I was 6 years old. Oh, I was reading Arabian Nights, and Murders in the Rue Morgue. And things like that when I wasn't more than 6 or 7. And I wonder I didn't actually ruin my eyes because I used to read in dark corners and things like that, and Father had these special reading lamps!
Creators: Templeton, Sydney Weedon, 1894-1994, Interviewee; Adler, Rhea Saul, 1906-1990
, Interviewer
Media Type: Audio; Image; Text
Item Type: Audiocassettes
Description: Interview with Sydney Weedon Templeton by Rhea Adler in June, 1976.

ABSTRACT:
Locale of childhood from 1895 presently lives in Scarsdale, NY

Family lived in Wilmette Father commuted to Chicago from Llewelyn Park Station

House built for Weedon family by a local carpenter, surrounded by fields, unpaved streets

First motor cars on Hill St. (now Maple)

Wild flowers bloomed profusely then

Cows, abattoir on Isabella; Horse-drawn carts and carriages

Grocery orders taken in person - delivered later the same day

Laundry man injured by a run-away horse

Mother Weedon's school --Public school routes traveled, all wooded, wooden sidewalks, spring wild flowers grew under them, walked

High School at New Trier - rode trolley or bicycled

Typhoid fever, dress alterations, Anniversary, gardening, chickens, ducks, rabbits, root cellar, baking

Swimming in Lake Michigan

Reading Elbert Hubbard - bookbinding

Oil lamps - gas lights - mantles, electricity

Art, Hull House - Jane Addams --"The Cow" , framing, Van Gogh, Nova Scotia, Ginger Hill

Amy and husband, botanists; Dorothy and husband - trip to visit sisters

Winifred Weedon - Vivian Weedon

Carleton Washburne, Winnetka system - book publishing

Victoria's jubilee,Father's trip to England - his mother grew up at Court - Hardy
family
Place of Publication: Wilmette, Illinois
Date of Original: June, 1976
Subject(s): Oral histories
Wilmette (Ill.) -- Residents
Personal Name(s): Templeton, Sydney Weedon
Local identifier: R977.31 TE
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: 1976
Copyright Holder: Wilmette Public Library
Copyright Holder Contact Information: 1242 Wilmette Ave.
Wilmette, IL 60091
U.S.A.
Contact: Wilmette Public Library
Email:refdesk@wilmettelibrary.info
Website:
https://www.wilmettelibrary.info/

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