Stories tagged "Family": 94
Stories
A Career Change
"I did have a job at the same place where my father worked. But I wasn't really too happy with it. I did hear about Bethlehem Steel, which is outside of Buffalo. It's about 45 miles away. And I felt that, with my education and smarts, I could do…
Family and the Great Depression
"The depression had a devastating effect on all of the families because most of the workers were dependent on manufacturing products. And families really struggled. The families were too proud to apply for welfare. And they tried to do this on their…
Childhood on Lake Erie
"As I mentioned earlier, Dunkirk is on the shore of Lake Erie. Our house was just a few houses away from the shoreline. Swimming was the most important activity for us. We would go as often as possible throughout the day, practically every day. Up…
Matriarch
“To meet Anke was to remember her. Vivacious in youth, determined and resolute in her final years, she was a force of nature."Editor's Note:This quote comes from Anna Boon's obituary in the Charlotte Observer July 26-27, 2019.
Emigration to the United States
“(My father) moved to Denmark. He was an engineer. My dad worked for Curtiss Wright for a government contract near Clearfield, Pennsylvania. (Their neighborhood) was just sidewalks…(a) Beaver Cleaver kind of neighborhood. We knew about (the POW…
Girlhood
“She had a younger brother five years younger and his name was Hans. They were going back and forth between Indonesia and the Netherlands, she and her brother, because my grandmother and grandfather felt they needed what they called 'a proper…
Early Life
“If you know a little about Indonesia, actually the Europeans exploited the Indonesians because they had rubber, oil, sugar, and generally they became a colony of some European nation and it was Holland at the time, the Netherlands. And so, the…
Boarding School
“So, she was received, and she was put in boarding school, I believe the family lived in Kent or Sussex. So she was put in boarding school there, and then when it was no longer safe, and they were getting people out of, kind of what I call 'the…
Childhood
"Mother and Dad started dating again after the war, and with Grandma Fred’s coaxing and Mother’s proposal they were married and started a family right away. We three children were born two years apart. So my parents went from the war to domesticity.…
Retirement
“Well, it brings back good memories. It brings back some bad ones. But — whatever I know is over — and I don’t have to live them again.”“I guess I should [feel proud]. I went into a country that was against us and I made it. And I hope that I…