Memories of 100 Years Ago – Aunt Charlotte
Day-by-day, it was getting more dangerous to live in the city. Mother put me in the buggy and shouted to dad to grab the half of loaf of dark bread and follow her. That was all the food there was in the house. Mother was running down the street with me in the buggy and as she turned a corner, she was almost bayoneted by a soldier. Father was running behind and instead of the bread; he had grabbed a blanket in his excitement. During the revolution the shelves were bare in the stores and the people suffered greatly from the scarcity of food. Even after the Bolshevik revolution, there was a great scarcity of food for many years.
During this Christmas, I received an eight of a pound of butter that was pressed into a mold the shape of a sheep. Butter had been off the market for years and could only be obtained through the black market. The butter was quite a treat for me. I held it in my hand so long that it lost its shape.
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At this time, I was out of the cast but still couldn’t walk very well. The one hip didn’t stay in place so —I had to have another operation and stay in bed for another year with a cast on the whole length of the one leg and half of the other. After I was out of the cast and had learned to walk over again, my parents tried to obtain visas to come to America. They had to travel to Berlin from Gotha three times and the last trip they were successful. It wasn’t too long after the war and immigration was almost impossible.
…It was getting close to the time when our ship would depart for America from Bremerhaven. On the way there we stopped off at Wilhelmshaven to say goodbye to dad’s brother Arthur. An incident I remember, my cousin Ewald, who was several years older than me, wouldn’t let me cross over to the orchard across from his house because there were a lot of bees and he thought I may get stung. I remember I was rather perturbed at him as it was such a thrill to be able to walk a little and I just wanted to go exploring
Vaguely the big ship and the endless water were etched on my mind. I loved to watch the sun in the evening as it seemed to slip down into the water. On the boat, my father bought an orange – the first one I had ever seen. He peeled it so it looked like a flower. It was so fascinating that that I’ll never forget it.
When we docked in New York, we had to go to Ellis Island for our health exams. We were held in quarantine over one week-end. The authorities wired my grandmother in Salt Lake City to confirm a place for us to stay and if there was a prospect for a job for my dad.
I also remember having to demonstrate my walking ability to the authorities. No one was allowed in the country if you couldn’t walk across the room. I could do that even though both my legs were in braces. My great uncle Kuno Wolfram met us in New York and gave me a big box of chocolates. I had never seen so many all at once before.
I don’t remember the train ride to Salt Lake City. Grandmother met us at the depot with my aunt Bobby and my uncle Charley and several of her friends. We lived with grandmother for about two months and then my parents rented a place out on Wentworth Avenue. My brother Henry was born in Gotha just six months before we came to America. Mother said that the relatives in Germany were shocked to think that she would take a boy so small on that long trip. Arthur was born while we lived on Wentworth Avenue.
While we lived there I was invited to my first birthday party. Mother bought me a story book to give to the little girl but I kept insisting that I should give her butter because mother had so much of it now. Mother had a hard time convincing me that the little girl would like the story book better.
… My parents moved to 1519 Roberta Street to a small frame house with a double lot which they were buying. …It was very hard on mother at this time as Dad had started to build our home around the little wooden house. He did all the work himself and mother had to help him all the time.
Economic wise our parents were very poor at this time. Dad and mother, building our home, me down in bed needing care — Henry and Arthur went to 9th South and Main to a Piggly Wiggley store and stood out on the side walk trying to sell “Liberty” magazines for a nickel a piece. They also went door to door and sold a few. This small amount of income really helped economically. All I could do was to pray for them that they would be successful with a lot of sales.
One Comment
Investing
The story vividly captures the struggles and challenges faced during a tumultuous period in history. The scarcity of food and the dangers of living in the city are depicted with stark realism. The family’s determination to find a better life in America despite numerous obstacles is both inspiring and heartbreaking. The small joys, like the shaped butter, highlight the resilience and hope that kept people going. Why was immigration so difficult after the war, and how did families manage to navigate such a complex system?