1951
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned fifty-one while living in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
Mother was always the perfect hostess – and when any of the East Troy cousins were in the area would see that they had a good time – taking them to the movies, trips to Chicago, swimming at the pool in Naperville. After Alice was married and I went away to college, Charles and Dolores each came to Wheaton College and Muriel (Murt) attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Mother had them for dinner frequently, and whenever we got together for family visits in later years they had to talk about how much they loved “Aunty Alice” and what fun it was to spend time with her.
MAY 2 – Allen Albert Haeger, the first grandchild and grandson of Lam and Alice, was born in Dallas, Texas to Nancy (27) and Al Haeger (32).
JUNE – After Al graduated from college he started training with Dr. Pepper [the soda company] in Dallas, Texas.
One month later, Al had completed his training and was told that his territory would be in Durham NC. A Dr. Pepper company had been started there and they were now anxious to present the new drink all around North Carolina.
Al was to drive the Dr. Pepper Company car following me in the convertible.
But what about the baby? He was only a month old. After some discussion with Mother Haeger [61], we called my mother [51] (from this point on I will call the two mothers Anna and Alice). Dr. Pepper was holding a town house for us in Durham, but we couldn’t bring the baby until our belongings reached us and we had bought some furniture. Of course, Alice said yes and Al arranged everything with her. So … we took Anna and Allen to the Dallas airport and sent them home to Alice in Glen Ellyn IL.
The Dr. Pepper Company was looking forward to our arrival. The head of the company and his wife took us to dinner and showed us through his building. Then they took us to a nice hotel in town and said that they would be going with us the next day to help us buy furniture. Well, the baby’s crib was about the largest thing that was being shipped to us and so all that day, that is exactly what we did. We had to buy furniture and the new town house needed everything from drapes to washing machine and dryer, rugs, baby equipment, tables, chairs, and so on. You name it, we needed it.
While Al went with his boss the next day to tour the state of North Carolina, promoting Dr. Pepper, Nancy was left home alone. The next day she was waiting for all of the furniture and everything to be delivered. Their personal belongings were still in Texas, however.
The first people to arrive was the man who was going to put in my telephone and I thought, “Oh, good. Now, I will finally be attached to the United States and I can call the mothers if I have to so I can see how my baby is.” I couldn’t help but be crying a little bit because, good grief, I had only known my little son for one month and we had already determined that it was not going to work for him to be breastfed because we knew that we were going to be sent away someplace and we were not sure whether or not we would always be able to take the baby with us. So we were kind of between a rock and a hard place for a few weeks there …
At 1:30 p.m. the truck came up full of my new furniture. A car with two other men followed the truck up. So I was busy telling three very helpful men where to put everything as they brought it in. And the two ladies in the car said that they would be hanging my curtains and my drapes. It took them about three hours, but when they left, the house looked beautiful …
When I was alone, I went into the kitchen and there was the baby’s highchair – with no baby. In the living room was a square table with a seat kind of out in the middle, but the seat was empty – no baby to play with the toys surrounding the chair. I called Alice and Anna to see about the baby. They said he was doing very well and was the center of a lot of attention. I told Alice that I had furnished the house and would call her as soon as our belongings had arrived from Texas so that Anna could bring my baby back to me.
We had been told that there might be a small delay in sending our belongings because it was necessary to fill a van before sending it on its way. I called the local moving company and was told that the van was still not filled. I waited for another week – same answer. I asked if they could give me any estimate as to how soon we would be able to get our things. They told me they couldn’t say for sure. I called Alice again. She said, “Come home.” At first, I didn’t think it was possible, but she didn’t lose much time in convincing me that I was getting kind of spacey by being alone so much. So I agreed to contact Al and tell him what I was wanting to do and to give him my mother’s address and telephone number so that he could call me there on the same basis that he would be calling me in Durham where we were supposed to be living together … I got aboard the first plane to Chicago with only one change.
Alice and Anna were so glad to see me and Anna told me that she had loved taking care of little Allen, but she was getting a bit tired. I thanked her and gave her a hug and told her I understood. It was great getting to see the family and mother’s friends, but it was another three weeks before I got the telephone call I had been waiting for. Our goods had arrived and had been delivered to our house. So there was a big rush to get ready to leave.
Alice, Anna, Allen and I flew to Washington DC. Anna’s daughter, Ruth, who lived in Falls Church VA, met us at the plane and took Anna home with her. Then Allen and my dear Mother and I had a nice trip down to Durham NC. We took a taxi to the house and I called the boss’s wife right away to tell her that I was home with my mother and my baby. She came right over with a package of chocolate chip cookies and said she was so glad that everything had turned out okay. I had left my convertible with her before I flew home and so she had driven over in it. After some chatting with Mother and admiring the baby, I drove her back to her house.
I had bought a playpen for Allen and so I unfolded it and put it up. By the time he had had his bottle, he was already asleep. So I took him up to his room and put him down into the playpen. Mother said that before she left she would help me put the crib together. Mother had a little nap while I cleaned out the refrigerator of spoiled food since I had been away for so long.
When both Mother and Allen had woken up, Mother and I put Allen’s stroller in the trunk and him in his car seat which Mother had bought for him back in Illinois while we were waiting to come to Durham. Then we were off to the grocery store. On the way, we passed a store that was advertising television sets. Mother told me to stop. I looked at her and pulled into a parking space in front of the store. I asked her what she wanted and she said, “Your husband is going to be away a lot and you need to have a television set to keep you company.” Mother had bought one of the first television sets in Glen Ellyn and we had watched it with delight while there with Anna waiting to come to Durham. Mother said, “You would like to have one wouldn’t you?” I grinned and said, “You know I would.” And so into the store we went pushing Allen in his stroller to see what a television looks like. We got one of the first television sets sold in Durham NC. It was a black and white set which was installed in our house by a pleasant young man that very afternoon after we got back from the grocery store. He told us that the list of programs that were available were in the Durham newspaper. So after he had left, I went out to the nearest drugstore to get a copy of the newspaper and then when I came back I called and ordered a seven-day weekly newspaper subscription. Al called me that night and told me that they were on their final stop and that he would be home in five days and that he would be able to stay home for a couple of weeks before he would have to go out again. Then I told him that Mother had bought us a television set. Al said, “Oh, I am so glad. I kept thinking about it all the time because I thought it would be a good thing for you to have but so far I wasn’t earning enough money to buy one.” I said, “Well, my precious Mother bought it for us and Allen is already laughing at Howdy Doody.” [although Allen would have just been a few months old] Al said, “At what?” I said, “At a kid’s show called ‘Howdy Doody Time.” Al said, “Oh, I can’t wait to see that.” He said, “I love you and I miss you like the dickens and I can’t wait till I get home. Goodbye Darling.” I said, “Oh, goodbye Al, I can’t wait for you to get here. I love you too.” Mother said that it was probably time for her to go home then. And after she left, it was really wonderful to have the television set to keep from getting lonesome.
NOVEMBER 1 – Stephen Allen Kudebeh, the second grandchild and grandson of Lam and Alice, was born in Elmhurst, Illinois to Evelyn (24) and Bill Kudebeh (26).
1952
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned fifty-two while living in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
FEBRUARY 6 – King George VI of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon “died suddenly and unexpectedly in his sleep … at the age of 56.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34116373/ His twenty-five year old daughter Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth the II.
JUNE – After about a year in Durham, Al and Nancy moved back to Texas via Glen Ellyn.
We were very glad to get to Mother Allen’s home. She was excited and happy to see us. I was staying in Glen Ellyn with baby Al while Al continued on to Dallas. I could drive my little car (the one I had received when I was in high school) and Al filled his car with all that he would need in Dallas until the furniture had arrived.
DECEMBER – At first Al and Nancy lived in a townhouse in Dallas but by Christmas they had purchased a home.
My mother (Alice) was anxious to see our new house and so as soon as the weather got nice again she drove down to Dallas with my Aunt Lill to show off our baby. Well, Allen was a little over a year old [19 months] and was walking and everything and so they got a good look at him and we always enjoyed having Aunt Lill Duncan with us. She was like a member of the family. One night over dinner, I told my mother and Aunt Lill something that I had been keeping a secret. I was pregnant again. We didn’t know if it was going to be a boy or a girl, but I always thought I wanted to have a girl, but either way was okay with us. I said, “Well, Mother, if it is a boy, they will only be two years apart and in that case they might become very good friends.” We always thought that we would want to have two or three children and that we would want to have them two years apart.
And of course, it was always good fun when Mother visited because she was always on the go. She wanted to show Aunt Lill some things and she would take me and Allen along wherever they went. There was one night that we wanted to go to a movie and so we got someone to look after Allen that time, but the rest of the time he was along with us. When he got tired he would just fall asleep in somebody’s lap. And we had a walker for him and he would just fall asleep while we were shopping or visiting with friends or doing other things. We didn’t have any trouble with him at all.
1953
This year Saran Wrap began being marketed for American homes. https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-pvdc-4070927
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned fifty-three while living in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
I have written about the way our basement [in Glen Ellyn] used to flood. I was married in 1948 and a year later moved to Kingsville, Texas. Evie was married in 1949 and lived in Elmhurst, a town about 15 miles away. Aunt Olga’s mother lived in a Swedish neighborhood in Chicago and Mother would drive her there for visits. There was a Swedish bakery in the neighborhood and Mother would bring home a selection of the pastries each time they visited. She bought a home freezer mainly for the purpose of preserving these goodies. She had a refrigerator with an upper freezing unit by this time where she could keep a limited amount of frozen meat and poultry, but could now use the freezer to hold all of that as well. The freezer was on the platform at the bottom of the basement stairs. This is really Evie’s story … Mother was out of town and it had been raining for two days, Evie and Bill went to check on her house and found that the electricity had gone off during the storm, the basement pump didn’t work and the water had risen in the basement. The pastries were ruined, and by the time the water receded all the meat was defrosted. They emptied the freezer, took the meat home and invited the entire neighborhood to bring their barbecue pits to their backyard to cook and eat as much of the meat as possible, and gave the rest away. After calling Mother, Bill and a couple of his friends brought the freezer to his house, they cleaned it up, repaired it and Evie said she had it for years – even had it shipped here [to Littleton] when they moved to Colorado in 1960. Mother said that after that the City of Glen Ellyn finally revamped the sewage system.
JANUARY 20 – Dwight Eisenhower was sworn in as the 34th President of the United States.
MARCH 26 – A vaccine against polio – “American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announces on a national radio show that he has successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio.” https://www.peterainsworth.com/
JULY 27 – An armistice was signed ending the conflict of the Korean War which had lasted three years and a month and in which 2.5 million people had died. The president of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, would not agree to the division of Korea into North and South and did not sign the agreement. https://www.history.com/news/korean-war-peace-treaty-pows
SEPTEMBER 10 – Swanson and Sons sold their first “TV Dinners”. https://www.history.com/news/tv-dinner-history-inventor
SEPTEMBER 18 – Scott Shelton Haeger, the third grandchild and grandson of Lam and Alice, was born in Dallas, Texas to Nancy (30) and Al Haeger (34).
Mother had come down to see our new house and she also wanted to be here when the next baby was born. She was not able to be here the first time. She was all excited that the baby was here.
The next day, Mother and Allen came up to see me [in the hospital]. Mother was able to take Allen up to the place where the babies were sleeping and the nurse picked up the little boy, Scott, and came to the window and showed Allen. I can only imagine that he was very impressed. He was asking a lot of questions, “When will he come home?” and all of that. As they left, I was able to see them out of my window walking back to their car. After they had gotten home, my mother, Alice, called me and told me that “on the way home I asked Allen what he would like to eat for lunch and he said, ‘French toast.’” I said, “Oh, yes, that is one of his favorite foods.” Mother said, “Nancy, how do you make French toast?” I said, “Mother, you used to make French toast for me all the time.” She said, “Yes, but that was a long time ago and I don’t remember how to make it.” So I had to tell her how and she wrote it down.
Back in those days, they used to keep you in the hospital for four or five days. When Al came up to see me on the third day, he had a big smile on his face as well as a beautiful pot full of flowers …
My mother, Alice Allen, was always ready to come down from Glen Ellyn IL to Texas to see what was going on with the family, especially when there was a baby due. She was not able to come down when Allen was born, but she was able to come down very soon afterwards. And then when it came time for Scott to be born, she came down and this time she was going to stay and take care of him until I was out of the hospital and feeling good. Unfortunately, when Scott was a little baby he had bad colic when he drank his bottle in the middle of the night. That meant that Mother was up with him several hours every night, rocking him in the rocking chair until he fell back to sleep again. This went on for several nights and about the third night I got up and said, “Mother, you go back to bed.” And then when I started getting too tired of holding the baby, I sent Al in for awhile. When we finished up, Mother said, “If you have more babies I won’t come to take care of him. I’ll just find out if there isn’t somebody who would come to your home and take care of the baby for you.”
30 December – “In the United States the first color television sets go on sale, for around $1,175.” http://www.fsmitha.com/time/1953.htm
Sometime this year Manton and Smith was liquidated as a company. Alice and Edward, who had inherited stock in the company after their mother’s death in 1944 (Alice owned 1400 shares and Edward probably the same) had wanted to be bought out. Per the grandson of H. P. Manton on an online forum:
Manton and Smith was an ornamental iron company that started building bike frames for other companies in the early 20’s. Among their early accomplishments was the assembly and installation of Buckingham Fountain in Chicago and the facades of most of the buildings along Michigan Ave. They also had a little structural steel business called Chicago Bridge and Iron which they sold off after the stock market crash. The interest in bicycles came from one of the owners (there were three partners) JS Manton’s interest in six day bicycle races which he was proficient at. He built his own bikes. The other partners were HP Manton and Mr. Smith. Smith suffered a stroke long before the company started building bikes, but was kept on out of loyalty. It was his heirs who demanded the liquation of the company in 1953 because the company was unable to buy them out after Smith’s death.
I have no way to verify but have never heard that Alice’s father had had a stroke prior to his death from colon cancer in 1934. Per the April 2nd, 1930, U.S. Census he had worked the previous working day as a “Bronze Worker” and the Oak Park directory in 1930 listed him as an iron worker. So, it appears he was actually working through the 1920s when Maton and Smith began building bicycles.
1954
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned fifty-four while living in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
APRIL 26 – The Salk polio vaccine trials began. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/polio-vaccine-trials-begin
MAY 17 – Brown v Board of Education – over ninety-one years after the Emancipation Proclamation and eighty-nine years after the end of the Civil War – The Supreme Court ruled in “Oliver L. Brown et. al. vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, (KS) et. al. Mr. Brown was the assigned lead plaintiff in the Kansas class action suit … the U.S. Supreme Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for students of different races to be unconstitutional. The decision dismantled the legal framework for racial segregation in public schools and Jim Crow laws, which limited the rights of African Americans, particularly in the South.” https://www.nps.gov/articles/brown-v-board-of-education.htm
1955
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned fifty-five while living in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
APRIL 12 – Kent David Kudebeh, the fourth grandchild and grandson of Lam and Alice, was born in Elmhurst, Illinois to Evelyn (27) and Bill Kudebeh (30).
JULY 17 – Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/disneyland-opens
DECEMBER 1 – Rosa Parks “helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus.” https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/rosa-parks
1956
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned fifty-six while living in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
SEPTEMBER 30 – Shelton Allen (30) married Arline Catherine Friesen (30) in Yokohama, Japan.
1957
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned fifty-seven while living in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
JANUARY 12 – Joy Janine Haeger, the fifth grandchild and first granddaughter of Lam and Alice, was born in Dallas, Texas to Nancy (33) and Al Haeger (37).
Although Joy was born in Dallas and the Haeger’s didn’t move into their house in Littleton, Colorado until Joy was 10 months old, Nancy remembered the following about Alice not wanting to babysit any more.
Well, as it turned out, we found a very good person for little Joy. She was a woman who was hired by most of the wealthy people in Colorado. She loved babies and she would take care of the wealthy mothers as they came along. Mother let that woman take care of baby Joy until I was well up on my feet. Then when Mother was sure she didn’t have to do any babysitting she came down and had a wonderful time with all three of her grandchildren. The strange thing is, this time little Joy went to bed at night and never woke up all [night]. And if she did wake up it was because of wet diapers and she immediately would go back to sleep.
My mother stayed with me long enough to realize that three babies so close together was going to be a problem for me. Allen was four, Scott was two, and Joy was a new born. So Mother immediately said I needed to have a lady come in to take care of my house and do the washing and ironing. SO with that in mind, she hired a very nice young black lady who loved coming to houses where there were babies. And the babies soon figured out that she really liked them. Scott would be sitting in his highchair eating his breakfast and he would see her come in the back door and he would put out his arms wanting to be picked up. Scott would squeal with delight and throw his arms out to her, and of course she would pick him up out of the chair and walk him around the room and Scott would be laughing. It was obvious that she treated the two babies really well while Allen and I were away at a movie or the grocery store or a toy store. This would happen one day a week. On the other days, Allen and I would make sure that Scott and Joy were sleeping and then we would go sit on the swings in the backyard that their dad had made for him and Allen would talk to me all the time.
JANUARY 20 – Dwight Eisenhower was sworn in for his second term as President of the United States.
SUMMER – Alice’s son-in-law, Al Haeger, took a job with Martin Marietta in Littleton, Colorado.
In due time, we found a buyer for our house [in Texas] and Mother came down to help me move up to her place in Glen Ellyn Illinois … We were to live there until our house was built in Colorado.
We finally moved into our house on Thurman Street in Littleton Colorado when Joy was only ten months old.
OCTOBER 4 – The Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the “world’s first artificial satellite … [which] took about 98 minutes to orbit Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race.” https://history.nasa.gov/sputnik.html
1958
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned fifty-eight while living in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
JUNE 15 – Keren Catherine Allen, sixth grandchild and second granddaughter of Lam and Alice, was born in Newton, Kansas to Shelton (32) and Arline (32) Allen.
1959
JANUARY 3 – Alaska became the 49th State to be admitted to the Union.
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned fifty-nine while living in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
AUGUST 21 – Hawaii became the 50th State to be admitted to the Union.
OCTOBER 10 – “Pan American Airways begins offering regular jet-powered commercial flights around the world.” http://www.fsmitha.com/time/1959.htm
1960
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned sixty while living in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
MAY 25 – Glenn William Kudebeh, seventh grandchild and fifth grandson of Lam and Alice, was born in Elmhurst, Illinois to Evelyn (33) and Bill (35) Kudebeh.
Sometime after this the Kudebehs also moved to Littleton, Colorado and none of Alice’s children were left in Illinois. So, Alice “decided that, since she was living in that big house alone by this time, it was time to sell it and then moved into an apartment in Wheaton.”
AUGUST 7 – Sharon Jean Allen, seventh grandchild and third granddaughter of Lam and Alice, was born in Tokyo, Japan to Shelton (34) and Arline (34) Allen.
OCTOBER – Lam’s sister Mabel died in Miami-Dade, Florida at the age of eighty years and seven months old.
1961
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned sixty-one while living in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
JANUARY 20 – John F. Kennedy is sworn in as the 35th President of the United States.
MAY 5 – “Alan Shephard became the first American in space.” https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/60-years-ago-alan-shepard-becomes-the-first-american-in-space
SUMMER –
Alice and her favorite friend, Olga, took a trip to [the two-year-old State of] Hawaii on a cruise ship. I was so happy that they were going. It was a place my Mother always wanted to go. Well, it wasn’t long after they arrived in Hawaii that my Mother stumbled over a tree stump. She ended up breaking her leg and ended up in the hospital for several days. After a few days she was able to get out of the hospital. She was in a wheelchair and thank goodness her friend Olga was there because she was able to wheel Mother around. They were able to see the rest of Hawaii before they came home.
Alice and her best friend Olga Anderson on the cruise ship to Hawaii
When I got the call, I told Mother that she could come and stay with us and I would take care of her. So Mother came to Denver and stayed with us while her leg healed. It turned out to be a very frustrating time. She was in a lot of pain and she decided that she would not walk. I had to tell her, “Mother, you are too young not to walk.” So the time came when we decided it was time for Mother to go back to her home in Chicago. Mother was very stubborn about this, but she did fly back home. She had a friend in Chicago help her and finally, slowly but surely, she started to walk.
AUGUST 13 – A wall was built between east and west Germany that would stay in place for twenty-eight years and three months. “The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep so-called Western ‘fascists’ from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West.” https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/berlin-wall
1962
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned sixty-two while living in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
JANUARY 17 – Ruth Alice Allen, eighth grandchild and fourth granddaughter to Lam and Alice, was born in Tokyo, Japan to Shelton (36) and Arline (36) Allen.
APRIL 16 – Walter Cronkite became the anchorman of the 15-minute CBS nightly news broadcast. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Cronkite
JUNE 1 – Alice’s brother Edward died in East Troy, Wisconsin at the age of sixty-three years, nine months, and ten days old. Her daughter, Nancy, later wrote, “Mother and Uncle Ed were very close all their lives.”
OCTOBER 15 – THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS – One of “the scariest events of the Cold War. The 13-day showdown brought the world’s two superpowers to the brink of nuclear war … CIA analysts spot launchers, missiles and transport trucks [in Cuba] that indicate the Soviets are building sites to launch missiles capable of striking targets nearly across the United States.” https://www.history.com/news/cuban-missile-crisis-timeline-jfk-khrushchev
OCTOBER 22 – “In a dramatic 18-minute television speech, JFK shocks Americans by revealing ‘unmistakable evidence’ of the missile threat, and announces that the United States will prevent ships carrying weapons to reach Cuba, while demanding that the Soviets withdraw their missiles.” https://www.history.com/news/cuban-missile-crisis-timeline-jfk-khrushchev
OCTOBER 26 – “Castro sends a letter to Khrushchev, urging him to launch a nuclear first strike against the United States, which the Soviet leader disregards. Instead, Khrushchev sends a letter to President Kennedy, in which he appeals to the U.S. president to work with him to de-escalate the conflict and ensure that they didn’t ‘doom the world to the catastrophe of thermonuclear war.’” https://www.history.com/news/cuban-missile-crisis-timeline-jfk-khrushchev
OCTOBER 28 – THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS ENDED when “Khrushchev concedes, writing an open letter to Kennedy saying that the Soviet missiles will be dismantled and removed from Cuba. The Kennedy White House portrayed the withdrawal as the result of the president’s tough stance in the face of Soviet aggression. In reality, as [Peter] Kornbluh [a senior analyst and Cuba expert at the National Security Archive in Washington] says, ‘the resolution of the crisis owed to the president’s commitment to negotiate and find common ground in a dangerous nuclear world.’” https://www.history.com/news/cuban-missile-crisis-timeline-jfk-khrushchev
1963
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned sixty-three while living in Illinois.
NOVEMBER 18 – Telephones with Touch-Tone dialing were first introduced. https://www.cnn.com/2012/06/28/world/gallery/phone-history/index.html
NOVEMBER 22 – President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. He became the 8th President to die while in office and the 4th to be assassinated. His vice-president Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States.
1964
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned sixty-four while living in Illinois.
OCTOBER 19 – Nathan Edward Allen, nineth grandchild and fifth grandson to Lam and Alice, was born in Newton, Kansas to Shelton (38) and Arline (39) Allen.
1965
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned sixty-five while living in Illinois.
JANUARY 20 – Lyndon Johnson was sworn in for his second term as President of the United States.
FEBRUARY 16 – Shelton’s wife Arline (39) died of leukemia in Newton, Kansas. After the funeral Alice took her four-month-old grandson Nathan to Wheaton with her. Shelton would not separate the three young girls – Keren (6 ½), Sharon (4 ½), and Ruth (3) and kept them with him. Alice would care for Nathan for a few months until he began to crawl and she had more trouble keeping up with him. At that point Evelyn and Bill (who had three sons of their own, Stephen [13], Kent [10], and Glenn [5]) took him to Littleton, Colorado to care for him.
MARCH 8 – THE VIETNAM CONFLICT – The first U.S Combat Troops were deployed to Vietnam, just over eleven and a half years after the end of the Korean War. The last troops would not leave until over ten years later. https://www.cfr.org/blog/twe-remembers-first-us-combat-troops-arrive-vietnam
NOVEMBER – Alice was living at 1307 College Avenue in Wheaton, Illinois.
NOVEMBER 20 – Shelton (40) married Dorothy Marie Bond (40) in Muscatine, Iowa. After the honeymoon Shelton and Dorothy picked up Nathan in Littleton, Colorado from Evelyn and Bill and took him home to join his sisters in Michigan.
1966
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned sixty-six while living in Wheaton, Illinois.
This year Al Haeger took a job with Boeing in Seattle, Washington and moved his family away from Littleton, Colorado.
1967
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned sixty-seven while living in Wheaton, Illinois.
MARCH 22 – Luke Shelton Allen, tenth and youngest grandchild and sixth grandson to Lam and Alice, was born in Tokyo, Japan to Shelton (41) and Dorothy (41) Allen.
SEPTEMBER 20 – The first color photos of earth from space are taken. https://www.geographyrealm.com/the-first-color-images-of-the-earth-from-space
1968
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned sixty-eight while living in Wheaton, Illinois.
APRIL 4 – Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/assassination-martin-luther-king-jr
JUNE 15 – Lam’s sister Esther Virginia “Genna” Allen Carter died in Hillsborough, Florida at the age of ninety-four years, nine months, and seventeen days.
DECEMBER 24 – Apollo 8 reached the moons orbit: “The Apollo 8 astronauts, Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James A. Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William A. Anders, were the first human beings to venture beyond low Earth orbit and visit another world. What was originally to have been an Earth-orbit checkout of the lunar lander became instead a race with the Soviets to become the first nation to orbit the Moon … Apollo 8 entered lunar orbit on the morning of December 24 [and] for the next 20 hours, the astronauts circled the Moon … They took photographs, scouted future landing sites and on Christmas Eve read from the Book of Genesis to television viewers back on Earth. They also photographed the first Earthrise as seen from the Moon. Apollo 8 proved the ability to navigate to and from the Moon and gave a tremendous boost to the entire Apollo program.” https://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/Mission/miss/30
1969
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned sixty-nine while probably still living in Wheaton, Illinois.
JANUARY 20 – Richard Nixon was sworn in as the 37th President of the United States.
JULY 20 – Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr. became the first men to walk on the Moon. https://www.infoplease.com/history/us/us-history-mid-century-and-cold-war-1950-1999
1971
Two Years Later
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned seventy-one while probably still living in Wheaton, Illinois.
Sometime this year Al Haeger was laid off from his job at Boeing in Seattle, Washington and the family moved back to Littleton, Colorado. It was most likely around the same time that Alice decided to leave Illinois and move to Littleton, Colorado to be near both of her daughters. In fact, she would move in with Evelyn and her husband at 389 W Caley Drive. Bill and Evelyn’s boys were growing up; in 1971 Stephen turned 20, Kent turned 16, and Glen turned 11. The home had two bedrooms on the main floor, Alice moved in to one. Bill had converted the entire downstairs basement into a family room with bedrooms for the two boys who were still at home.
1973
Two Years Later
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned seventy-three while living in Littleton, Colorado.
JANUARY 20 – Richard Nixon was sworn in for his second term as President of the United States.
JANUARY 27 – THE VIETNAM WAR – Hostilities in Vietnam were ended with the Paris Peace Accords. https://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html
MARCH 29 – THE VIETNAM WAR – “The last remaining American troops withdraw from Vietnam … America’s longest war [thus far] and its first defeat, thus concludes.” https://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html
MAY 14 – American’s first space station, Skylab, was launched. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/skylab-america-s-first-space-station
OCTOBER 12 – With the resignation two days prior of U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew “over charges of corruption and income tax evasion”, President Nixon chose Gerald Ford as his new Vice President. https://www.infoplease.com/history/us/us-history-mid-century-and-cold-war-1950-1999
1974
JANUARY 2 – The following is a letter Alice received from Lam’s niece, Ethel Mary Briggs Cook (84). Although she was the daughter of Lam’s sister, Roberta, she was ten years older than Alice (her aunt by marriage). She is the one who transcribed the letters of Catherine “Kitty” Spence Pitts which were written in 1828 and 1848 and which I have dissected in “A Convoluted Saga From the Pitts Side”.
13781 El Dorado Drive, 12-J,
Seal Beach, California
January 2, 1974
Dear Alice:
At “long last” I can start a letter to you, the last I must write in answer to notes received at Christmas time. Some friends and many of Oliver’s Iowa Highway associates, now retired, had not heard of his death. These letters have taken time and as you know were hard to write.
Yesterday I had photo copies made of the DAR record I prepared some years ago. Am sending you the original application form and keeping the copies. Now as I look it over I find some dates are lacking, the birth and death of Grandpa Allen. You may be able to fill in from Uncle Lam’s records. I knew the fiftieth wedding anniversary was in 1910. I have thought grandpa was 80 when he passed away but he was living when I returned from Chicago in the spring of 1912, so I judge he was born in 1858 or perhaps in ’57. I find Aunt Mabel sent me a great deal of information concerning cousins whose names I recalled, and there are letters from Aunt Genna also in answer to my inquires. I shall have to wait for time to compile, condense these records. Eunice and I did not find any record of War service for any Pitts or Spence ancestors. Eunice sent me information concerning the Richardson and Lambeth families which I did not have.
As you say, 1973 was a trying year, Oliver and I had everything in Joint Tenancy, a home town boy from Delta in whom we have complete confidence, made our wills shortly after we came here. Though there was no Probate, I found California has a way of making residents who came from other states pay for the privilege of living in California. Though we were just under the line for Federal and States taxes, so we thought, because all of our estate was earned in Colorado and Iowa, I had to pay 3% of Oliver’s half. Had it been earned or saved here in California – no tax. Since our attorney lives in L.A. I’ve had hours of exhausting research of old files, so many letters. The laws seem very unjust, but there was no way out. Anyway, we did thoroughly enjoy the fifteen years of our retirement living, Oliver so loved it here, away from the rigors of Iowa climate, so that’s that!
My main problem was getting back to normal health as I collapsed just before Oliver was taken to hospital, kept him at home as long as possible. Am now almost back to former weight, though still on medication and probably always will be. With returning strength it is easier to strive for some purpose in living.
Eunice took a Caribbean cruise during the Holidays, urged me to go with her but I preferred to follow doctor’s advice “not to push”. Lola and Henry came here, but Ernest refused to come this far from home, though his health has improved greatly.
In August I had the opportunity to drive with the nephew of a former Delta friend, to Delta. Dale was an excellent driver, took two other ladies also, very pleasant companions. It was much nicer than trying to make arrangements by plane or bus, connections very poor either way. I was in Delta ten days but had little time for visiting with old friends as I found Frank’s wife, Katherine was in the hospital for very serious surgery, clots near the brain resulting from an injury five or six weeks before a bump on head from the sharp corner of new cupboards installed in kitchen. They thought little of it till violent headaches developed. She was given fifty-fifty change only, but skilled surgeons operated under local, she was conscious all the time, was back in intensive care in an hour, home in a week. Doing very well. Amazing the miracles that are now performed.
It seemed for a time our entire family was falling apart, Lola had Shingles, but all now are on the up and up.
I certainly enjoyed hearing of your family. Had kept pictures and notes of last year and year before so as to place each one. I know you enjoy all thoroughly, and it is wonderful to keep busy and interested. Am glad you and Evelyn have time for fun also. I am thankful that I have Duplicate Bridge for recreation, a life saver at times. Then I’m getting back into clubs but can not keep the pace I once did. Was gratified to receive a four year extension of my driver’s license – the maximum, now I’m trying to conserve though I’m happy to be able to run taxi for others less fortunate than I.
We enjoyed wonderful seventies all fall and up to a week ago when there was a five day deluge. For the first time in eleven years I elected to walk in the rain to the clubhouse, thought it safer than driving, many erratic drivers who know nothing about driving in the rain. I can take a mini-bus anywhere but had never bothered to study the schedules. Will start doing it now in case of an emergency. A predicted storm has veered off and temperatures in seventies are forecast for today, I’m finishing this letter Sunday A.M.
Will keep working on files and if there are any questions you wish answered I’ll try to furnish same. There are many old pictures of grandma, her sister, Emily etc, etc.
I’ve listened to TV sermons, think I’ll drive over to shopping center this P.M. hoping new styles will entice me to buy something new. I’m so tired of seeing nothing but pant suits advertised or displayed, all right in their proper place, which definitely is not on most Senior Citizens, who fail to look into mirrors for the darier view.
Thanks for your Christmas Greetings,
With love to all,
Ethel
My typewriter is showing signs of age and I find is not a good speller, so many words look unfamiliar and I have to pause to confirm.
The following is an abbreviated family tree showing the relationships of the people mentioned in this letter. (Not all of Robert and Ellen Allen’s children are shown.) Even though Ethel Briggs Cook and her siblings were Lam’s nieces and nephews, all but the youngest nephew were older than their Aunt Alice, which is probably why Ethel was writing to Alice and not her cousins Nancy or Evie.
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned seventy-four while living in Littleton, Colorado.
Alice and her car outside the home she shared with Evelyn and Bill in Littleton, Colorado.
[The picture is a bit grainy, but I remember this car, or one like it, when we were visiting Grandma and Aunt Evie in Littleton, Colorado in the early 1970s on our way back to Japan. Grandma took us shoe shopping, buying us each three pairs, from my recollection. What I remember about her car are the “wings” on the back and that it had a “speed control” that would beep if she got over a pre-set speed.]
AUGUST 9 – Richard Nixon resigned as President of the United States over the Watergate Scandal and his vice president Gerald Ford was sworn in as the 38th President of the United States.
DECEMBER – Nancy Ellen Allen Haeger (51) was granted a divorce from Elmer Albert Haeger (55).
1976
Two Years Later
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned seventy-six while living in Littleton, Colorado.
JANUARY 21 – The first commercial super-sonic jet services, the Concorde, operated by British Airways and Air France “took off from London and Paris on the same day.” https://simpleflying.com/concorde-first-commercial-flights/
APRIL 1 – The Apple 1 desktop computer was introduced. https://www.thoughtco.com/the-history-of-apple-computers-1991454
1977
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned seventy-seven while living in Littleton, Colorado.
JANUARY 20 – Jimmy Carter was sworn in as the 39th President of the United States.
The following is a picture of Esther Mary Briggs Cook (1890-1978), the daughter of Lam’s older sister Roberta Richardson Allen Briggs. She is the one who transcribed, the letters of Catherine “Kitty” Spence Pitts which were written in 1828 and 1848, shared them with Lam’s daughter Nancy (my Aunt) who then shared them with me, which I then dissected in “A Convoluted Saga From the Pitts Side”, a true multi- generational collaborative family project (as I hope this project I am working on continues to be even after I am long gone), even though she or Aunt Nancy never knew it.
On the back of the picture is written:
Fashion Around the World
Carousel Lounge, The Island Princess
Thursday, March 31, 1977
Can you top this at 87?
Ethel Cook
1978
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned seventy-eight while living in Littleton, Colorado.
Most likely sometime this year Alice’s grandson Kent Kudebeh (23), her daughter Evelyn’s middle son, was married to Recina Leah (23).
1979
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned seventy-nine while living in Littleton, Colorado.
JULY 28 – Alice’s grandson Scott Haeger (25), Nancy’s second son, was married in King, Washington to Sherryl Ingrid Lever (35).
SEPTEMBER 24 – CompuServe, the “first online service for consumers … begins offering a dial-up online information service.” Their advertisement read “Last night we exchanged letters with Mom, then had a party for eleven people in nine different States and only had to wash one glass.” https://www.wired.com/2009/09/0924compuserve-launches/
1980
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned eighty while living in Littleton, Colorado. There was a big celebration planned by Evelyn, Nancy, and her daughter Joy. Alice had made her own “sparkling black dress” and “looked like a queen” according to Nancy. The catered event took place at Evelyn’s home where Alice also lived and was attended by about fifty people.
Nancy (57), her daughter Joy Haeger (23), Alice (80), Pepe the poodle, Kent Kudebeh (24)
According to Nancy’s memoirs, the picture in the background is one that Grandma painted after they moved to Glen Ellyn “using the trees in the park across the street as her inspiration.”
Joy Haeger (23) and Alice Allen (80) Kent Kudebeh’s wife Racine (24), Alice (80), Pepe
JUNE 1 – “CNN (Cable News Network), the world’s first 24-hour television news network, makes its debut. The network signed on from its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, with a lead story about the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. CNN went on to change the notion that news could only be reported at fixed times throughout the day. At the time of CNN’s launch, TV news was dominated by three major networks—ABC, CBS and NBC—and their nightly 30-minute broadcasts.” https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cnn-launches
AUGUST 19 – Alice’s granddaughter Joy Haeger (23) was married to Charles Edward Ramsey (22).
SEPTEMBER 10 – Alice’s first great grandchild, Korey Sean Kudebeh, was born to Kent (25) and Racine (25) in Denver, Colorado.
1981
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned eighty-one while living in Littleton, Colorado.
JANUARY 20 – Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th President of the United States.
APRIL 12 – The launch of the Columbia Space Shuttle into earth’s orbit began “a new era in space flight”. https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/first-shuttle-launch/
JUNE 5 – The first report of what would later be known as AIDS was released by the CDC. https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/history/hiv-and-aids-timeline
AUGUST 12 – “IBM announces the IBM Personal Computer, the smallest and — with a starting price of $1,565 — the lowest-priced IBM computer to date.” https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1981.html
SEPTEMBER 19 – Alice’s second great grandchild, Jo Ann Julia Ramsey, was born to Joy (24) and Ed (24) in Jacksonville, Florida.
1982
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned eighty-two while living in Littleton, Colorado.
This year Alice’s third great grandchild, Alice Ingrid Haeger, was born to Scott (29) and Sherryl (38) in Washington State.
OCTOBER 20 – Alice’s grandson Allen Haeger (31) was married in Los Angeles, California to Susan McKeon (27).
1983
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned eighty-three while living in Littleton, Colorado.
OCTOBER 5 – Alice’s fourth great grandchild, Joseph Christian Ramsey, was born in Jacksonville, Florida to Joy (26) and Ed (26).
OCTOBER 13 – CELL PHONES – “The Motorola DynaTAC 8000x became the first mobile phone approved by the FCC in the United States. It was also the first portable cell phone small enough to be easily carried. It offered 30 minutes of talk time and 8 hours of standby, and a LED display for dialing or recall of one of 30 phone numbers. It was priced at $3,995 … David D Meilahn placed the first commercial wireless call on a DynaTAC from his 1983 Mercedes 380SL to Bob Barnett, former president of Ameritech Mobile Communications, who then placed a call on a DynaTAC from inside a Chrysler convertible to the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell who was in Germany for the event. The call, made at Soldier Field in Chicago, is considered by many as a major turning point in communications.” https://historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=971
1984
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned eighty-four while living in Littleton, Colorado.
JANUARY 24 – Apple Computer introduced the first Macintosh. https://appleinsider.com
MAY 12 – Alice’s grandson Stephen Kudebeh (32), the oldest son of Evelyn and Bill Kudebeh, was married in Boulder, Colorado to Karin Jean Ostland (36).
This year Alice’s fifth great grandchild, Valerie Ellen Haeger, was born to Scott (31) and Sherryl (40) in Washington State.
1985
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned eighty-five while living in Littleton, Colorado.
My mother Alice lived with my sister until she was about 85 years old.
It was sad to put my mother in a nursing home but she needed extra care. I took care of all of her money affairs and anything that she needed. I would visit her once a week and I liked to bring her little treats. Her favorite was ice cream and M&Ms.
JANUARY 20 – Ronald Raegan was sworn in for a second term as President of the United States.
JUNE 29 – Alice’s granddaughter, Keren Catherine Allen (27), the oldest daughter of her son Shelton (59), was married in Santa Clara, California to Landgon Beeck (29).
1986
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned eighty-six in a nursing home in Littleton, Colorado.
JULY 26 – Alice’s grandson Nathan Allen (21), the oldest son of her son Shelton (60), married Krista Palmquist (23) in Minnesota.
1987
JANUARY 4 – Alice turned eighty-seven while living in Littleton, Colorado.
Mother was still with us, but she had been in a nursing home for the past two years. She was frail and infirmed physically. Fortunately (or unfortunately, I haven’t decided which) she was still extremely alert mentally, so she could not adjust to the fact that she was old and unable to do things like she used to. I sometimes thought it would be easier on my sister, Evelyn, and me if she were senile and didn’t know where she was, but I went through that with my father and don’t recall that it was easier.
JANUARY 24 – Alice’s granddaughter, Ruth Allen (25), the youngest daughter of her son Shelton (61), married Chris Carothers (25) in Reno, Nevada.
OCTOBER – Chris and I visited my grandmother Alice at the nursing home where she was living. She did not know I was coming to visit and at first did not recognize me. But when she did she asked, “What happened to your curly hair?!” At that time I was in the habit of blow drying it straight(er). She then showed us the novels she would read by authors like Nora Roberts and Danielle Steele, many of which she said were about places she had traveled, to remind her of the things she had done in her life. It was a sweet visit and I’m so glad we went as she died just a few weeks later.
Alice (87) and her granddaughter Ruth Alice (25)
Sometime this year Alice’s granddaughter Joy Ramsey (29) was divorced from her husband Ed Ramsey (29).
NOVEMBER 25 – Alice died in Littleton, Colorado, the day before Thanksgiving, at the age of eighty-seven years, eleven months, and twenty-one days old; and 37 years, eight months, and 14 days after Lam.
In 1988 Nancy and Evelyn and Evelyn’s husband Bill took her ashes back to Chicago, Illinois to be placed in the family plot in Oakridge Cemetery alongside those of Lam’s, her mother Julia, her father Edward, and her grandmother Julia Winckler. Twenty-five years later the ashes of Lam and Alice’s daughter, Nancy, would be the last of the family to be interred there.
When Alice died all three of her children as well as all eleven grandchildren, and five great grandchildren were living.
While Mother was in the nursing home, a few years before her death in 1987, I gave her an audio tape recorder with several tapes and asked her to reminisce about her childhood and young adulthood. I couldn’t get her to do it. When I asked her why, she replied, in her usual caustic fashion, “Well, I didn’t want anyone to think I had gone nuts if they came in and found me talking to myself!” So we agreed that during a part of each visit together I would ask her questions and we would just chat about the answers. I did manage to get almost three sides of two tapes covering up to about the time I was born and I will leave them with this history so that those of you who remember her can hear her voice.
Currently (2024), I believe Nancy’s daughter Joy Haeger Duncan is in possession of these recordings.
Alice, circa 1980s, Littleton Colorado Alice, circa 1950s, Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Alice was always a classy woman … We all loved her!
Alice’s oldest grandson Allen Haeger later reminisced: “Here’s a picture postcard of life with Mom. I’m sitting opposite her at the card table in Aunt Evie’s living room. Grandma Allen is on my left, decked out in her jewelry and curly hair and elegant dress even though it’s the middle of a hot summer afternoon, across from Ev who is entertaining us with tall tales of escapades with her neighborhood girlfriends. We’re guzzling ice tea, bidding trump, and just enjoying each other’s company, and I knew for certain at that moment how much I loved those 3 ladies, and how they always made my life a warm, good, safe place to be.”
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