Jack Bleidt's First Communion, May 17, 1936

My regular blog reader Aleksandra commented on my last post, which was a photo of my dad, Frederick Henry Pape (1929-2017), on his First Communion Day.  She asked if there were any traditions regarding First Communion Day presents.  

Well, I don't know for sure what my dad got, but it was probably more or less the same as what his first cousin and classmate, John Charles "Jack" Bleidt (1928-1973), who was only nine days younger than him, got.

Above:  May 17, 1936, First Communion Day for Jack Bleidt (age 7).  He is pictured with his grandfather John Pape (1851-1945), and older sister Mary Jane Bleidt Herring (1924-1965).  Photo courtesy cousin Bill.

Below:  Jack's First Communion certificate, from St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Chicago, Illinois.  It is signed by its pastor and founder, Father George McCarthy.  Photo courtesy cousin Bill.

Jack received what appears to be a prayer book (it's too small to be a complete Bible) from his maternal grandfather, John Pape.  It is inscribed near the beginning as follows:  "To my dear grandson Jack in remembrance of his First holy Communion, May 17th 1936, from his loving Grandfather John Pape."  Below are some images of the first few pages of the book.

Above and below:  photos from the interior of the book given to Jack Bleidt by his grandfather John Pape for his First Communion Day, May 17, 1936.  Photos courtesy cousin Bill.

I'm pretty sure my great-grandfather John would have given my father the same thing.  Besides being first cousins, just nine days apart in age, and first-grade classmates at St. Margaret Mary Catholic School, at the time of First Communion, Jack's family was living practically across the street from Dad's in Chicago.  Based on the address Jack wrote in the book, the Bleidt family lived at 2084 [West] Lunt Avenue.  Dad and his family lived at 2093 West Lunt.  And in 1936, John Pape was living at 1949 West Lunt, just a few blocks away.

© Amanda Pape - 2022 - e-mail me!

Those Places Thursday: Lagoon at Dawes Park, July 1939 and August 2017

The proportions aren't quite right on this one - but here is a then (July 1939) and now (August 2017) picture of the Arrington Lakefront Lagoon at Dawes Park in Evanston, Illinois.  The boys in the photo are my dad, Frederick Henry Pape, and his nine-days-younger first cousin John Charles "Jack" Bleidt (1929-1973).  The boys were ten years old here, and apparently had a model boat in the water.

Here's a photo of the lagoon from August 10, 2017, one of many photos I took of it that day.

© Amanda Pape - 2017 - click here to e-mail me.

Mappy Monday: Chicago Nostalgia Trip

I just got back from a week-long visit to Chicago that included visits to all the sites in green (both pegs and diamonds) and orange.  Diamonds are museums or libraries; pegs are mostly houses, apartment buildings, or churches.  Green indicates an original building that I visited and/or photographed; orange means the original building is no longer there but I visited the site.  Blue indicates facilities I didn't get to visit this time that are still standing; red means I also didn't see it this visit but the original building is gone.  Purple pegs and yellow stars are other points of reference for this visit, not relevant to family history.

You can use the plus or minus in the lower left corner to enlarge or reduce the size of the map.  Click on a marker to read more about it - and maybe even see a photograph!  You can also click on the map and drag it around to better view different areas.

Markers are in Wilmette, Evanston, Rogers Park and West Ridge in far north Chicago, and Bridgeport and Marquette Park in the near south side of Chicago.  There are a number of other markers for places on the north side of Chicago that I was not able to visit on this trip; those will be for the future!

Watch this blog for future posts on these sites!



View Evanston and North Chicago, Illinois in a larger map


© Amanda Pape - 2017 - click here to e-mail me.

Those Places Thursday: "Uncle Lee's house in Wilmette"

While writing about the Wilmette, Illinois, townhouse my paternal grandparents lived in briefly in the mid-1950s, I decided to see if I could find (via Google Maps Street View) the long-time Wilmette home of my paternal great Aunt Gret and Uncle Lee, Leo John Pape (1893-1979) and Margaret Anna "Gretchen" Reis Pape (1886-1947).

The house was located at 210 17th Street in Wilmette, and Lee and Gret lived there from at least 1927 (according to the Evanston City Directory, page 843, which included Wilmette).  The 1930 Census shows a couple of lodgers, 63-year-old public school teacher Marion A. Long and 65-year-old insurance saleswoman Emma V. Hubbard, both born in Maryland, living with them in the large house.

After Gret's death in 1947, Lee invited some of his single and widowed siblings (including Walter Pape and Martha Pape Bleidt) to live with him, until he died in 1979.  Only Aunt Martha outlived him - she moved to a retirement home after Lee's death. 

The house was built (according to real estate records) somewhere between 1923 and 1926.  Here is a photo of the house from about 1947, taken by a member of the Bleidt family (Charles, his wife Martha Pape Bleidt, and children Mary Jane and Jack - whose godparents were Lee and Gret):

1947? "Uncle Lee's house in Wilmette" 210 17th St., Wilmette, IL - photo courtesy Bill Parker

My father described the house's setting a little when reminiscing about a bicycle trip he and Jack made to the house:

They owned two adjoining lots with the house and garage on one lot. Aunt Gret had a huge well-cultivated garden which occupied most of the other lot. They grew lots of greens like lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, etc., and cooking vegetables like potatoes, carrots, green beans, cauliflower, etc. We had fun picking some of the ripe vegetables with her. I really liked the radishes. She also gave us some to take home.

The second lot, with the garden, is apparently to the left of the house in the photograph above.

This next picture, which shows a car in the driveway on the other side of the house, also gives a view of the house next door.  This was helpful when trying to pinpoint the house in Google Maps Street View, as the addresses in that tool aren't always quite accurate.

Jack Bleidt - 1947? "Uncle Lee's house in Wilmette" 210 17th St., Wilmette, IL - photo courtesy Bill Parker

Here is Uncle Lee and Aunt Gret's house, with its white stucco neighbor to the right, as they appeared in about August 2011:

And here is the house as it appeared in about March 2013.  The vacant lot to the left is gone, with a house in its place that was apparently built in 1966. 

This 2,655 square foot house on a 6,400 square foot lot recently sold, on August 12, 2013, for $642,000.  It was described (abbreviations spelled out by me) as follows:

Lovely,sunfilled traditional home w/natural woodwork and charm throughout. Large living room with gas fireplace. Kitchen with pantry and breakfast room. Formal dining room with built-ins. 1st floor family room or 5th bedroom with new full bath. Master bedroom with fireplace. 3 additional bedrooms plus sitting room and bathroom. Open unfinished basement . Lots of storage. Nice back yard and 2 1/2 car garage.

The photos of the inside (no longer available online) were gorgeous.  It's probably been remodeled and refurbished since Uncle Lee and Aunt Gret lived there, but with the basic bones of the house, there was a lot to work with.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Tombstone Tuesday: Charles J. and Martha Pape Bleidt

Charles Julius and Martha Elisabeth Pape Bleidt are my great uncle and great aunt.  Thanks to Jim Craig for taking this photo at St. Boniface Catholic Cemetery in Chicago.  Jim has two great blogs, Toloff Photography Evanston, featuring the work of photographer Joseph David Toloff, and Under Every Stone, which tells interesting stories about tombstones and the people under them in various cemeteries in the Chicago area.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Wordless Wedding Wednesday: Another J. D. Toloff Photo

Martha Pape Bleidt on her wedding day, May 11, 1921
Photo by Joseph David (J. D.) Toloff (1888-1957), Evanston, Illinois

Jim Craig has an excellent blog post about Toloff, with more examples of his work.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Wordless Wedding Wednesday: Martha Pape Bleidt, May 11, 1921

 Photo by Joseph David (J. D.) Toloff (1888-1957), Evanston, Illinois.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Surname Saturday: PAPE Cousin Bait - part 3

Martha Elisabeth Pape, 26 years old, about 1916 or 1917.
Photo by J. D. Toloff, Evanston, Ill.

For the past two Saturdays, I have shared a letter written by my great aunt Martha Elisabeth Pape Bleidt (1890-1980), my paternal grandfather's older sister, in 1969.  She sent it to a distant cousin, Lawrence Pape, who'd found me through this blog.

I learned something interesting about Aunt Martha while having lunch with my dad last Saturday.  She was quite a singer in her younger days, but a tonsillectomy damaged her vocal cords and ruined a potential career.

Aunt Martha's letter started out "Grandfather Pape [Jacob Pape, and his wife Elisabeth Gierse] had 4 sons:
John - Joseph - Anton - Lawrence."

The first two parts of the letter talked about Joseph and Anton.  The next part is about Lawrence (or Laurenz, as it is spelled in Germany, or Lorenz, as he apparently spelled it after coming to America).

Lorenz was the youngest of the four sons, born October 30, 1862, in Bödefeld, Westphalia, Germany.  Sometime in or before 1889, he married his first wife, Maria Henrietta Kamp, who died sometime between 1896 and 1899.  As it says below, they had six children:

Transcription:  "Your grandfather Lawrence Pape had two wives.  Your grandfather and his first wife had six children.  Karl, Joseph, Ewald.  These are your uncles.  August - your father.  Marie and Nellie.  These are your aunts.  Your grandfather and his second wife had two children, Margaret (your Aunt) and Lawrence (your uncle who lives in Germany).  If you write to your Uncle Ewald who lives at 7440 - 4th Place Downey Cal. 90241 he would be able to tell you all about your father's family."

Karl James (1889-1958), Joseph John Anton (1891-1936), Maria/Mary [Mrs. Herman Walter] (1892-1977), August Peter (1893-1947), Ewald Theodore (1894-1976), and Petronella "Nellie" [Mrs. George Arendt] (1896-1930), were all born in Düsseldorf, Germany.

By 1899, Lorenz had married again, a Maria Brauman, and had two more children:  Lorenz Jr. (1899-1977), and Margaret "Grete" [Mrs. Louis Travaglini and Mrs. Arthur Hammes] (1901-1988), were also born in Düsseldorf.

Lorenz, Karl, and August arrived in Boston on May 27, 1913, aboard the Marquette out of Antwerp, Belgium.  Joseph, Maria, Ewald, and Nellie arrived later that year, on December 4, in New York, aboard the Friedrich Der Grosse.  They all went to stay with my great-grandfather, John Pape, at his home at 1043 Sherman Avenue in Evanston, Illinois.

The following year, the family is listed in the 1914 Evanston City Directory as living at 1622 Forest Avenue in Wilmette.  Lorenz, Karl, and August are all painters.  In June 1917, the family is still at this address, according to the World War I draft registration cards of Karl, Joseph, August (who all work for Lorenz) and Ewald (who works as a millman for Evanston Labor Co.).

Sometime between June 1917 and May 1919, Lorenz, Karl, Maria, Ewald, and Nellie moved to Wisconsin.  Joseph and August both married Chicago-area girls (in 1918 and 1919 respectively) and stayed in Wilmette, operating the painting/decorating business.

Maria married German immigrant Herman Walter (of Nekoosa as of 1917) on May 27, 1919, in Nekoosa, Wisconsin.  Lorenz is on the 1920 census in nearby Port Edwards, owning his own farm, with sons Karl and Ewald and daughter Petronella.  She married Illinois native George Arendt (who'd been in Wisconsin since at least 1910) in Nekoosa on May 18 of that year.  By December 11, 1920, Ewald is in Fort Logan, Colorado.   An article in the March 18, 1921, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune states, "Lawrence Pape was among the German Settlement residents who visited in Nekoosa on business Thursday."

However, by July 2, 1923, Lorenz and Karl are apparently back in Wilmette, Illinois, according to the passenger list for the arrival of his youngest daughter Grete from Germany that day.  Karl and Ewald both married Illinois girls later that year, but in Ewald's case, the marriage took place in Vancouver, Washington, and he moved to Portland, Oregon, shortly thereafter, where he had a successful architectural career. (Interestingly, half-brother Lorenz Jr, who stayed in Germany with his mother, was also an architect, in Solingen.)  Like his other brothers and father before him, Karl was a painter and decorator.

Daughter Nellie's July 28, 1930, obituary indicates Lorenz Sr. was living in Chicago, but I could not find him anywhere on the census that year.  He died March 23, 1932, following six weeks of illness with pneumonia, at the home of his daughter Mary in Nekoosa, Wisconsin, and is buried in Sacred Heart (Riverside) Cemetery there.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Surname Saturday: PAPE Cousin Bait - Part 2

Martha Elisabeth Pape, 26 years old, about 1916 or 1917.
Photo by J. D. Toloff, Evanston, Ill.

Last Saturday, I started to share a letter written by my great aunt Martha Elisabeth Pape Bleidt (1890-1980), my paternal grandfather's older sister, in 1969.  She sent it to a distant cousin, Lawrence Pape, who'd found me through this blog.

The letter stated that "Grandfather Pape [Jacob Pape, and his wife Elisabeth Gierse] had 4 sons:
John - Joseph - Anton - Lawrence."

Martha had said, "We know nothing of Joseph as he lived in Germany and my father never told us anything about him."

Since 1969, though, we learned a little about second son Joseph, who I wrote about last week.

The second part of  the letter talks about Anton Pape, the third son, who was born September 28, 1854, in Boedefeld, Westphalia, Germany, and who arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 5, 1883, on the Weser out of Bremen, Germany.  He was traveling with his son Hugo Aloysius Pape, then age 3, and a 22-year-old woman listed as Regina Pape, who I assumed to be Hugo's mother.

I was a little surprised to find a marriage certificate dated a little over five weeks later, on May 13, 1883, for the marriage of Anton and Regina Elisabeth Allers, by Father A. J. Thiele, rector at St. Henry Catholic Church at Devon and Ridge in Rose Hill (now part of Chicago's Far North Side).  I just assumed they were married again for some sort of legal reasons in the United States.  Aunt Martha's letter clarified that mystery - but left some other puzzles unsolved:

Transcription:  "Anton Pape had three wives.  The first wife and Uncle Anton had a son - Hugo.  When Hugo was a very little boy, his mother died.  Uncle Anton married a sister of Hugo's mother which was his second wife.  Of this union a daughter was born named Emma.  After a few years Emma's mother died.  After a few years Uncle Anton married a third time.  Her name was Katherine Hoffman and this is the only Aunt we knew.  No children were born of this marriage."

The new piece of information for me here was that Anton had THREE wives, and that Hugo and his sister Emma Genevieve Pape Childs were actually half-siblings, and also cousins, as their mothers were sisters!

I feel this provides more evidence for my assumption that Regina is Emma's mother, although I have found no proof of that yet.  I think this letter does confirm that Katherine "Kate" Regina Hoffman (1860-1927), is NOT Emma's mother, but is the stepmother who actually raised Emma.

It looks like Emma was born somewhere between 1883 and 1886 (based on censuses, birth records for her children, and her marriage record).   I believe I have found a record for the death of Regina, on the Illinois Statewide Death Index, Pre – 1916.  This Regina died March 15, 1887, in Cook County, at age 25, meaning she was born around 1862, which is about right (based on the April 1883 Baltimore passenger list, and her marriage certificate with Anton Pape).   Since Regina died when Emma was age one to four years old (approximately), and Anton married Katherine a little over a year later (May 8, 1888, at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Evanston, Illinois), I think Katherine raised Emma and that is why Emma referred to her as her mother (and why Katherine was the only aunt that Martha, born in 1890, ever knew).

Aunt Martha went on to write, on page 2:

Transcription:  "Hugo and Emma were first cousins of your father.  Hugo was married to Josephine Didier.  Hugo had five children.  Hugo and his wife passed away about nine years ago.  Emma was married to August Childs.  They had 8 children.  Emma passed away in 1937.  I don't remember when August died."

The "your father" she refers to is Lawrence Pape's father, August Peter Pape.  The information for Hugo Pape (1879-1961), his wife Josephine Didier Pape (1880-1960), and their five children, match up.  Emma was married to August Solomon Childs (born 1882), and I did find records for seven children, although it appears only four lived to adulthood.  Emma's great-granddaughter told me Emma died in 1937 in Wisconsin, although I have no proof of that.  And unfortunately, no one seems to know when August died (although he was still alive in 1942).  Nor, for that matter, is there a date for Anton's death.  I believe he died about 1893, because at that point, Katherine is listed as a widow in the Evanston [Illinois] City Directory.

I'll post the third part of Aunt Martha's letter next Saturday.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Wedding Wednesday: Martha Elisabeth Pape & Charles Joseph Bleidt

My great aunt, Martha Elisabeth Pape (1890-1981), the older sister of my grandfather Paul Robert Pape (1896-1970), married widower Charles (Carl) Joseph Julius Bleidt (1870-1959) at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Evanston, Illinois, on May 11, 1921.  According to the marriage certificate (further down this post), Paul was an official witness to the marriage, as was his and Martha's sister Rhea Maria Pape (1892-1977).  Therefore, I think my father is correct that Rhea is the bridesmaid to the far left in the picture below.  Martha and Rhea's other sister, Clara M. Pape (1889-1975) may be the bridesmaid to the right of Martha.  I'm not sure who the bridesmaid on the far right is.  It may be one of Charles' Bleidt's nieces, either Gertrude (born 1895) or Mildred Bleidt (born 1897), as they would have been about the right age.  Charles had two older sisters, but they would have been in their mid-50s at the time of the wedding.

These two photos are embossed with "J D Toloff, Evanston, Ill."  Joseph David Toloff (1888-1957) was a Russian immigrant who owned a photography studio located (at that time) at 1623 Orrington Avenue in Evanston, according to an ad on page 71 of the 1922-1923 R. L. Polk & Co.'s Evanston City and North Shore Directory:

Here is the beautiful marriage certificate for Charles and Martha:

Thanks to my cousin Bill for sharing these images of his grandparents' wedding and their marriage certificate.

© Amanda Pape - 2012 - click here to e-mail me.

Sentimental Sunday: Mary Jane Bleidt and Pat Pape, July 1947

These two lovely ladies are my dad's first cousins, Mary Jane Bleidt Herring (1924-1965) and Patricia "Pat" Pape Hunter Parks (1923-1967).  The photo was taken in or near Des Moines, Iowa, in July 1947, when Mary Jane visited Pat there.

I've written a little already about Pat.  Here is some more information about Mary Jane:

According to family records, she was born October 4, 1924, in Evanston, Illinois, the oldest child of Charles Joseph Julius Bleidt (1870–1959) and Martha Elisabeth Pape (1890-1981).  She married John Herbert Herring (1926-2008) on May 20, 1950, in Chicago.  They had two children, Arlene and Thomas.  Sadly, Mary Jane passed away from a muscle-wasting disease on February 21, 1965, at age 40.

Pat also died young, at age 44, on April 15, 1967.  She was alone and turning her car into the private drive of her Emmitsburg, Maryland, home, when the rear was struck by a car that had gone out of control at a high rate of speed.  Pat was thrown from her car and pinned under it, and died of a fractured skull and broken neck.  She left five daughters, ages 8 to 17, and an older stepdaughter who joined the family when her own mother passed away.  Pat is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, along with her husband, Col. Gordon Merritt Parks, and son Kevin Richard Parks, who was born 4 months early in April 1958 and only lived 24 hours.

© Amanda Pape - 2012 - click here to e-mail me.

Those Places Thursday: 2093 West Lunt Avenue, Chicago, Illinois

Recently my cousin Terrie and her daughter Lisa checked out the house our dads and their siblings grew up in, at 2093 West Lunt Avenue in the Rogers Park area of Chicago. These photos are courtesy of Terrie and Lisa.

The house is on the corner of Lunt and Hamilton, and one record I found said it was built in 1927. That sounds about right. Terrie's dad, my Uncle Bob Pape, was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in January 1926. Bob and my dad's sister Betty was born next, in October 1927, but in nearby Evanston. My dad, Fred, was born in February 1929. They all appear, along with my grandparents Paul Robert and Elizabeth Florence Massmann Pape, at this address on the 1930 census.  My dad says,

Your grandfather Pape had the whole attic refurbished into three rooms plus a bathroom with a tub...Your great grandfather Massmann built this bungalow along with his mansion which was one block [east] at the northwest corner of Lunt and Ridge Avenues...

In the picture of the west side of the house [below] there is one small window behind the front door [for a hall] where people could take off or put on coats which were put in a closet across the hall.  In this same picture you can see two large windows which were part of the good sized dining room. The kitchen then was directly to the [right, in the photo] of the dining room.

Dad says his and Bob's bedroom was the one on the second floor at the front of the house, in the photo below. He said this "was a good size room there which [Bob] and I occupied for many years until [Bob] was recalled into the Navy and I went into the Air Force during the Korean War....On the second floor in the same picture you can the chimney abutting another dormer which was on the second floor bathroom."  Their parents' bedroom was on the main floor, in the first (front) area that juts out on the left.  The bedroom shared by their younger sisters, Rosemary and Marilyn, is in the second (back) jut-out area.   Terrie says there is stained glass at the top of the windows in the front; I assume this area was the living room.

Below is a view of the back of the house. Dad says,

In the picture taken at the rear of the house, the two windows to the right of the back door were part of the third bedroom on the first floor. When we had a live-in maid she had that room. Later it became a guest room and Mom's sewing room.  Also in the rear house picture on the second floor, that dormer was part of your Aunt Betty's room until she entered RN [nurse] training at St. Francis Hospital [nearby in Evanston; the hospital where I was born] where she lived while in training. 

In the same picture the window to the left of the back door faced on the breakfast nook where we ate most of our meals during the summer. The kitchen was directly in front of the breakfast nook.In the shadowy area right below that window were the steps that led to the outside door of the basement. The basement ran the full length of the house and was furbished enough for parties or a great play area when we were young kids.

Dad also says,

The old 2093 Lunt Ave. house has not changed much in the last 53 years except the landscaping looks much better. There are more shrubs and flowers. The roof is different also. We had an old heavy Spanish tile roof. The tiles were made of a stone material which I thought would last forever but they were breakable...

In the middle of the back yard (most of which you see) there was a large sour red cherry tree. Another sour red cherry tree stood next to the garage. In summer time friends and neighbors would ask to pick some of the cherries in pails which they brought. The folks usually gave their permission.

 Terrie said the neighborhood was safe and clean. Records I found online show that this house has 1881 square feet and two bathrooms and a detached garage (not visible in these photos) on a 8,850 square foot (0.20 acre) lot.  It last sold in May, 1983, for $98,000, and is estimated to be worth $338,500 today!

I have a number of photographs taken outside this house in the mid-1940s that I will try to post soon.
View Evanston and North Chicago, Illinois in a larger map


Other family members lived very close by. Dad's grandfather John Pape and his third wife, Agnes Hedwig Burkhardt Reimer (about 1873 - 1937), lived at 1949 Lunt in 1930; while his other grandparents, Frederick and Elizabeth Dienes Massmann, lived at 7000 Ridge Boulevard (at the intersection with Lunt) for at least 1927 through the mid-1930s. Dad's cousin Jack Bleidt and his parents, Charles and Martha Pape Bleidt, lived across the street at 2084 Lunt in at least 1936. Nana and Grandpa (Paul and Elizabeth) were married at St. Jerome's, 1709 W. Lunt, in September 1924. And my parents were living at 2059 W. Touhy, at its intersection with Ridge, just a few blocks north of Lunt, when I was born in 1957.  Click on the pins in the map above to see these places today.

© Amanda Pape - 2011 - click here to e-mail me.

Sentimental Sunday: Aunt Gret, Cousin Jack, Uncle Lee

My second cousin Bill has graciously shared a number of photographs and images of items his grandmother, my great aunt, saved years ago. This is a portrait of Bill's father, Jack Bleidt (1929-1973) on his First Communion day, May 17, 1936. He is with his godparents, my great aunt Gretchen Anna Reis Pape (1886-1947) and great uncle Lee (Leo) John Pape (1893-1979).

My dad says "Aunt Gret" (who shares her birthday with me) was a lot of fun. I will share something later that she did when Jack was born. Here's a story my dad remembers from his childhood:

Jack and I decided one day to ride our bikes out to Wilmette [from their homes in Evanston, Illinois] to visit Uncle Lee and Aunt Gret. I don't remember if we had our parents' permission. We had plain old two-wheel single gear bikes. The trip was probably eight to ten miles, maybe more. It took us all morning and we were tired when we got there. Uncle Lee was working somewhere (he was a first class carpenter). Aunt Gret was home and she fixed us a great lunch complete with lemonade and homemade cookies. Uncle Lee came home early and we got to ride in his pickup truck. It was the first time Jack or I had ridden in a truck, which was a lot of fun. They owned two adjoining lots with the house and garage on one lot. Aunt Gret had a huge well-cultivated garden which occupied most of the other lot. They grew lots of greens like lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, etc. and cooking vegetables like potatoes, carrots, green beans, cauliflower, etc. We had fun picking some of the ripe vegetables with her. I really liked the radishes. She also gave us some to take home. Around 5 o'clock we were going to go home on the bikes, but Aunt Gret had Uncle Lee put our bikes in the back of his truck and he drove us home. We were happy not only to ride home in the truck but, being tired, we appreciated not having to pedal those bikes all the way back to my house.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: St. Margaret Mary First Grade, Chicago, 1935

This is a picture of the first grade class of St. Margaret Mary Catholic School in Chicago, Illinois, in 1935 (click on the photo for a larger view). My dad, Fred Pape, is in the second row, all the way to the right, on his knees in front of the nun. Dad says he was placed there because he was a troublemaker. Dad's cousin, Jack Bleidt, is in the front row right behind the "1" sign. They both would have been about six years old in this picture.

This photo was provided by my second cousin Bill from a collection belonging to his dad, Jack, and grandmother, my great aunt Martha Pape Bleidt.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: Fred Pape and his cousin Jack Bleidt, July 1939

Although the only information on the back of the photo is the date "July 1939," the boy on the right is Jack Bleidt, and I believe the one on the left is his first cousin, my dad, Fred Pape. They were born within days of each other in February 1929, so they would both be age 10 in this photograph. I believe it was taken at the same time and place (Dawes Park in Evanston, Illinois) as this photo of my great-grandfather and their grandfather, John Pape. Even today, Dawes Park still has this lagoon, originally constructed in 1933 as a Works Progress Adminstration project, and recently reconstructed. Dad says you could ice skate on it in the winter.

This photo was provided by my second cousin Bill from a collection belonging to his dad, Jack, and grandmother, my great aunt Martha Pape Bleidt.
© Amanda Pape - 2010