Thirty Years in Questions

Thirty years has come and gone, three times over to be exact. So much has happened over 90 years; wars are fought and won, fads come and go, ball games are played, movies are made, and most importantly babies are born. We start our story in the 'Roaring Twenties' and meet a baby who will create a life who in turn will create another; me. This story is not only mine but my mother's and grandmother's as well.

The 20's are mainly known for 'the Crash' but for the Steider family the 20's brought little baby Katherine; the last of their eleven children. Wait, eleven children? ELEVEN CHILDREN!? Obviously my great-grandfather Henry, thought my great-grandmother Katherine, was the cat's meow. No, they were not big city dwellers so she may not have been a flapper but she caught his attention. They may not have been effected by the prohibition, but then again maybe they were. They welcomed their baby girl while Calvin Coolidge was president. Harry Houdini was making magic happen. Hollywood decided it was time to honor the actors for their work and thus started 'the Oscars' in 1927. The world seemed to be picking up steam after WW1; they didn't know what was coming. The era ended on a bad note. The New York Stock Exchange crashed in Oct 1929, Katherine was only 5 years old. America started a new era, with little to no hope and a 'Great Depression'

I have found when asking about the Depression many of the generation that lived during it do not really want to talk about it. The title sums it up;it was depressing. I wonder if Roosevelt's  fireside chats brought comfort to families that hadn't ate in days, or families that wondered if they would have to ship their children off to other relatives because they could not afford to support them. Did my great-grandparents have this problem? Did they have the time to pick up John Steinbeck's new book titled 'The Grapes of Wrath' or were they too busy living it out? Did their younger children learn to read with the popular 'Dick and Jane' books that came out in 1931? Maybe Katherine, did indeed, see. spot. run.

Unemployment was up to 25%, how many of my family members were affected by this? I imagine many forming the lines at shelters whistling the tune to 'Brother can you spare a dime' and wondering if that question would ever be answered with 'Yes'. I hope that even in a time of despair the small things may have brightened days. Zipper's became popular during the thirties, I daydream about ten year old Katherine zipping up a dress to go play in and think 'Wow that was so much faster than buttoning 20 buttons.' Was she as impressed with them as I would have been? A year later money was brought into the home again! Monopoly gave new hope to families even if it was only during the quiet evening after a hard day in the field, or on the streets in search of work. Had word traveled from the World's Fair about the box that played pictures and brought the stories from the radio to life?

It would seem to me that growing up in such a dark time would be hard, especially when WW2 broke out. I want to know if all hope was lost or did the light at the end of the tunnel still shine bright enough to encourage those at the end of their rope to not give up?

I know that even with the horror's of war still going on in the world the forties brought new hope for a teen aged Katherine; a job that would lead to the man she would marry! She started working for Maude and George Shetler in 1940 as a live-in housekeeper for $3 a week. Boy, did she earn her keep! She had to deal with their punk kid Merle who was 2 years younger than her all the while trying to keep house and make sure an older Shetler boy might take notice of her. She was with them for only two weeks. Since the gas rationing was still going on their youth group at church would have to meet at people's houses. She was warming herself by the potbelly stove with Merle (yeah she might have thought of him to be punk kid but he was starting to grow on her) asked her for a date. She said yes; seeing as the older Shetler boy she had her eye on hadn't asked once during the 3 years she was there.

The movies have it wrong when they show young couples driving around town on first dates during the 1940's. There was a war going on which mean there was gas rationing. Young couple's were not able to cruise around town without a destination in mind or alone for that matter. If they were going somewhere they would take as many people as possible that would want to go! Katherine and Merle decided to go for ice cream  at Isley's Ice Cream Shop one Sunday night after church and instead of bringing flowers and chocolates Merle brought two younger brothers. 



I have to say I am thankful my grandpa did not go off to war; even though my grandma was a 'working woman' she was not a working woman that took her out of the home.She had no need for the latest innovations of the kitchen. She was home to cook fresh meals at night and did not need the new frozen dinners or Tupperware to save leftovers. This was a couple that lived through the Depression; there were no leftovers!

In 1948 their family started to grow with the addition for another baby boy; Charles. I wonder if my uncles knew of the children's films from earlier in the decade; Bambi and Dumbo? Was it the talk of the kindergarten class or was that only in the big cities?

The 1950's were all shook up with Rock-n-Roll! I imagine a young wife, expecting baby number three listening to the radio and covering her ears when Jerry Lee Lewis came on and saying 'Why does he have to play the piano so loud?' Did she enjoy Elvis pre or post war?  1953 brought a baby girl into the Shetler household; Janet. Did she keep her mother company in the kitchen, entertain her as she mothered her baby dolls? Did she place her hand on her mom's tummy to feel the next sibling in line kick?

1955 brought a second daughter to the Shelter household; Theresa! As she enters the world we leave Katherine and follow her latest and greatest daughter into the next thirty years. Dwight Eisenhower was president. Barbie just made her appearance on the toy shelves; and to think 40 years later Theresa's daughter would have an ever growing collection of them. 'A Streetcar Named Desire' wasn't a big hit but ended up being an epic film. Lassie was faithfully following Timmy and letting the family know when trouble was near.

As Theresa grows; was she always pestering her older brothers and sister? Did she realize she was going to be a big sister and the young age of two? The 1960's seemed to be a decade that brought so much soon to be unforgotten history that little Theresa probably did not realize what laid ahead at age 5.

There were 70 million post war baby boomers that were headed into their teen years; my uncles included. No wonder the 60's had so much emotion running through the years, all the talk about love and sex. 70 million people were going through puberty! Luckily for Theresa her biggest worry was probably if she would be able to fit a book in between chores and homework Did she pick up 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and realize it was classic before it was even called a classic? Would she listen to the Righteous Brothers on the radio and think they were groovy?

She was at ages during the 60's that seemed to exclude her in the events going on in the world. She was either to young to understand the start of Vietnam and then too young to join the hippies and protests later on in the decade. I wonder what it was like to watch TV for the first time in 1965; did she and all of her siblings sit within 2 inches of the screen as I did as a child? Did they think the TV show, Hazel, was funny or just an old lady show that their Grandma Shelter liked to watch?  A major event happened without her even knowing it; a pregnant woman was allowed not only to continue to work as a teacher during her pregnancy but she was photographed as well! This may not really seem to be a significant detail but to think 18 years later Theresa would start a job dealing with pregnant woman is semi-fascinating.

Plus we all already know about the obvious details of the decade, war, hippies, drugs, Black Panthers, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, and the space race. I can see her imagination running wild as the family gathered around the radio to listen to broadcasts and new reports of the first shuttle launch and listening to Neil Armstrong say 'This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.' 

In 1970 my mom would have been 15, awkward and hating her teen years like everyone else without even realizing they were hating them because they were too busy hating their parents and other authorities. I can see her in her earth toned clothes and mood rings on her fingers. Did they celebrate the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 or did it pass without much mention? During her junior year the family got their first television set, they would watch it just to watch it because it was something new and exciting.  


Did they watch the '72 Olympics and cheer on Mark Spitz or did they stick to 'The Brady Bunch'? I wonder on her trip to Indiana all by herself at the age of 17 was she singing along to Three Dog Night or the Carpenters? If anyone would have told her she would be back to Florida to go to junior college for nursing; would she have believed them? 


She decided to move back to Indiana after she finished junior college. My uncle Stan and aunt Janet were in a town called Elkhart so that is where she headed. She ended up at a NYE party in 1977 with my aunt Janet because there was a guy there, Ed, that Janet thought Theresa would be good with. They hit it off well enough for her to give him her number, she never heard from him. He would ask my aunt and her friend all the time if they had seen my mom that day/week and how shew as doing; they encouraged him to call her. You'd have to ask my dad if it was fate that he ended up spraining his ankle in a pick-up basketball game. My grandma taught my mother well - the way to a man's heart was through his stomach! She ended up baking him a variety of cookies, including his favorite (she didn't know this at the time) peanut butter. She took them to his house, rang the bell; he didn't answer. Mom didn't realize Dad had sprained his ankle and that is why he didn't make it to the door. Lucky for her, she makes a mean peanut butter cookie. To quote my father 'Anyone that makes a peanut butter cookie that good; I have to get to know. He ended up calling her in August of '78. 


My mom not only hit it off with my dad, but his young son, Greg, as well. He would enjoy sitting on her lap and say 'I like you. You're not like my dad's other girlfriends; you have nice big legs to sit on!'  Thank goodness the first thing Ed ate was Theresa's cookies and not the cold spaghetti that she had planned one night for dinner. She wanted it to be 'fancy like a restaurant' and kept the pasta separate from the sauce. Ed ran late and they ended up having to reheat the meal; needless to say you should always mix the pasta with the sauce before you reheat it. 


The Eighties would end up being a great decade! They were known for the generation of status seekers and the 'Me!Me!Me! attitude. (No wonder my generation is so into themselves! The saying 'Shop Til You Drop' seemed to roll off tongues more often than their credit cards had rest. My parents generation, baby boomers, were soon labeled the splurge generation. Minivans and camcorders were the must haves for young parents; and for their young children, such as my older brother, video games were 'totally awesome!'  Before I came along did my parents go on date nights to see 'The Big Chill' or 'Tootsie'? Was my mom reading Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, or Tom Wolfe? Who would have thought 40 years after being written 'The Grapes of Wrath' would be banned from schools; and why? For telling the truth about an era, did the future really not want to remember the past? 

In 1985 my mom and dad had ME! Ronald Regan was president ('The actor? Yes the actor!) 'Back to the Future' came out, Rock Hudson died of AIDS, and Nancy Regan was 'Just Saying No to Drugs'  I remember watching Alf on TV and mothering my Cabbage Patch kids. We have the pictures to prove how much of an 80's child I truly was. My mom dressed me in neon outfits and cut my hair into a mullet. I. Was. Rad. already at the age of four. 


I remember 1990 because of my love for the New Kids on the Block and my princess Disney movies like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. I do not remember much about the Gulf War but I do remember the '92 election between Bill Clinton and President Bush. I drew a picture in second grade with Clinton's name in a circle and a big red line going through it; who knew I would be so political at the age of seven! Fourth grade brought many memories; the OJ Simpson trial and the Oklahoma City bombing. It was also the year that I would cry myself to sleep and dread going to school because of my teacher and my inability to be learn long division.  Did my mom and Grandma have subjects that brought them to tears? Teachers they would dread seeing? The 90's were a time where obesity at a record high, roller blades were very cool and the cell phone was the same size as a brick. Beanie Babies were the craze, seriously people were going crazy for them!

I am a product of the 90's. I have ADD and the first medicine I was put on was Ritalin. I got my first WWJD bracelet when I was in 7th grade.I loved N'SYNC, Britney Spears and all things cliche that a teen would love. High school was a fun time for me, I played sports, was in the choir, and had some great friends. During History class we would talk about the Great Depression and 'The Crash' I should have realized I could have gotten a first hand lesson from the person that lived through it; my grandma. I experienced my own major event that I would be asked about; September 11, 2001 by my children. I didn't even know what was going on because my first teacher of the day decided to skip morning announcements so we could study for a test. I was in the hallway wondering why everyone was so somber until a friend of mine told me what happened. I don't think 16 is old enough to truly comprehend what was going on in the world. I just knew I was scared and I didn't know what this would mean for me, my family, boyfriend and country. 


I fell in love at 16 thinking he was the one I would marry; like every other girl that falls in love for the first time. I went off to college, something that people my age take for granted now. I learned things from books, professors, charts and graphs; when I would come home Grandma and Grandpa would ask how life was going - fine, thanks. Why did I not bother to ask them about their life or give them more information about mine? I met my future husband in 2006 in the big city of Chicago where we would end up living four years later. We did everything that was fun; went to see movies, listen to our ipods. We would talk through email and text messages. I would write 'real' letters to be romance, like they did 'back in the old days'. 

We were married in 2008,  a presidential first was about to happen and our country was still at war. I think about what I've seen in the movies about the 30-40's and realize our war is nothing like WW2. I think it effected people more back then. Funny how that is, they were not as technologically connected as we are in the current day and yet I feel back then people were more connected. We have skype, cell phones that can reach all over the world, email, text, facebook - if anything we should be the ones that feel so connected and yet the more 'plugged in' we are then less connected we are with people. 


The world is moving fast and it probably was back then as well. I have not reached my 30's year so I can not tell you what the next four years hold for me. The one thing that I hope I will do before time runs out it to get to know my grandma and mom better. They were here before me, they are the ones I can learn from the most. I want the questions in this story to be answered. I want to connect better with the women that mean so much to me. This is our story a story I want to pass on to my children. I want to be able answer their questions when they as about their great-grandma and grandma. The problem is I only know bits and pieces; even though this is a story I share with them I only know one-third of it the most. 

You see 90 years has come and gone and another 90 years will come ahead. Wars will be fought, movies will be made, ballgames will be played, and most importantly babies will be born. Babies need bedtime stories and what better story to share over and over through the years than the story of us; Katherine, Theresa and Emily.