Wilmette Public Library Local History Digital Collection

Frances A. Goodhue (1886-1983) oral history

Description

Track 5

Track 5

Transcription

TRACK 5


 
RA: They felt that about No Man's Land too didn't they
 
FG: Um hum. Oh, and another thing that crossed my mind. We were very interested in watching the development of the Bahai Temple. And they never ask for any funds outside of their faith, and so it dragged on for a good many years. We had what we called a sheep barn
 
RA: Tar paper over it level with the ground
 
FG: And finally the structure went up, and there was a lot of scaffolding all around it. And I had a front room. And I was conscious since I was little and I could just feel at first and then I realized when my eyes opened there was this flare going up and down seemingly across the Meta's house which was built by that time. So I jumped out of bed and the whole scaffolding around the temple was on fire.
 
[Audible gasp] 

FG: It was quite something
 
RA: I never heard about that. For heaven's sake. And how did they…? Did they get…
 
FG: Well they got our fire department and put it out. That was quite a picture.
 
RA: Can you remember other exciting things that happened in the town?
 
FG: Well, I don't think they're very exciting. We used to have a lot of kind of irritated fun you might say, occasionally, by having the men from the, ah.., I guess they call them guards, do their something or other at the elevated, would come over and see that house standing there at the corner of Third and Linden and there were fruit trees in the yard, and why not make use of it. And we had quite a little trouble. I know once our next-door neighbor, Mrs. [inaudible] looked out and saw our crabapple tree jiggling in such a queer way, and then she saw a blue leg coming down. And here a man had a large carton down below and he was picking the crabapples off our tree as fast as he could. And sometimes little boys would come…and I remember once Louise looking out and seeing this little boy pulling up beets out of father's garden. "Oh," he said, "the man at the elevated told us to come and get them." 

RA: [inaudible] They were city people who came out to the country. 

FG: [chuckling] That was it. Free
 
RA: No Fence around. No building on the corner. Just clean sweep.
 
FG: I'll mention one thing we're speaking about my sister, Mary. Of course she was very much loved. But my sister, Louise, was equally loved.
 
RA: I didn't have…
 
FG: She was a Kindergartner, and her work was all in Chicago. And when we first came to Wilmette she had to find a room somewhere on the South Side. She was working over in the stockyard district. She loved the work with those little Polish children. They had so little in their homes. And, ah, so she stayed on for a little while, and finally she got transferred to Rogers Park. And then of course [inaudible]. She was very active in the Kindergarten work in the city, and the president of a Kindergarten…well, I misremember what they call that one. And was very much loved. And then was so active with young, high-school kids in the Congregational Church.
 
RA: Didn't she do a… yes…I had understood…
 
FG: and she left a little fund for a room for the high-school age young folk and left quite a number of her books to them, and I imagine that her name is still on the door there. But she was very much loved. 

RA: [inaudible]

Creators

Goodhue, Frances A., 1886-1983, Interviewee

Adler, Rhea Saul

, Interviewer

Karen Miller

, Transcriber

Media Type

Audio

Text

Item Type

Audiocassettes

Description

Interview with Frances Goodhue by Rhea Saul Adler about 1977 in Wilmette, Illinois. Transcribed by Karen Miller, June 2009.

Place of Publication

Wilmette, Illinois

Date of Original

1977

Subject(s)

Oral histories
Wilmette (Ill.) -- Residents

Local identifier

R 977.31 GO

Language of Item

English

Geographic Coverage

Bahai Temple

Illinois, United States

Latitude: 42.07447 Longitude: -87.6845

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Copyright Date