My Scrapbook

Harvey, Illinois

1899-1929

This was such an exciting day for my parents. My mother and father went to see Chicago for the first time for their wedding trip. It took so long to get there. They had this picture taken riding on Lake Shore Drive. Father told me all about this trip and about the water right beside Chicago. Father said that it is Lake Michigan.

The year was 1906. Mother and Father and I were all very excited that day. There was a fire in this building and father went to look at it. There wasn’t anything more frightening than a fire. Especially since the great fire destroyed so much of Chicago in 1871.

There was a gentleman from the Chicago Daily News here taking pictures. Mother cut these pictures out of the paper.

The photographer even took pictures of the Harvey firemen and policeman in front of the burnt building.

Here was our Thornton TownshipHigh School basketball team.

My father took us to all of the basketball games at our high school. I was very young but I remember going to see them play.

We also went to football games. Bob Boyd was such a great football player for Thornton High School.

Carl Bender was the basketball captain at Thornton High School in 1922. Carl is just a little older than I am and I make sure to go to the games with my father.

When I was in high school, a photographer from the newspaper came to take some pictures of us. Here is a picture he took of us while we were in our science class doing an experiment.

Here we were doing our calisthenics. It is important to do push-ups to stay healthy.

Near our home is the Calumet. Our family sometimes packed a picnic lunch and went down there on hot summer days. Father sometimes would catch fish there for our dinner.

We are so excited. We can now take the electric train to get into Chicago and the other towns north and south of us. Electrification Day was August 7, 1926. I think that being able to take the electric train is going to make our lives very different.

Sometimes, when we have a little extra money, we take the train to the Homewood Race Track to watch the horse races. We can't afford seats in the grandstand so we stand on the fields by the race track. There are always many people at these races.

Harvey is growing so quickly. Father just got an automobile for the first time. That is his automobile right in the front of the photograph.

Thank You for Looking

Well, that is the end of my scrapbook for 1929. Our country is having problems with the economy. Father says it is the Depression.

I hope when things get better, I will get to add more photographs to my scrapbook.

Click here to close the book.