39th Street

Moline, Illinois

Stories set here

Treasured Presents, Music, and Bicycle RidesBarbara remembers Iris’s gift of a comic-book subscription and Bernie’s love of Mario Lanza records and thoughtful birthday presents after leaving home. Bob teased her and helped her do flip-overs; she took Carol’s outfits while Carol worked, and Dee styled or cut her hair before school. Barbara played most with Diana, riding bicycles on 39th Street, where a dog once tried to bite Diana but 'got the wrong leg.'
Midwest Seasons, Family Outings, and the First School BusDee recalls gardens, suntanning, summer treats, drive-in movies, and Fourth of July fireworks. Family trips took her to Chicago’s Museum of Art and Science and The Loop, then to Clarence’s farm in Worthington, Minnesota. Halloween brought homemade treats and Bernie’s prizewinning window paintings; winter brought sledding, snow figures, and Bernie and Bob’s newspaper-worthy igloo. Her earliest school memories are of crying before the kindergarten bus and refusing warm milk at Roosevelt school, where Mrs. Johnson played piano.
An Enchanted House Full of Family MemoriesDelores remembers moving at age two into a four-room house on an acre, originally addressed 3209 39th Street. The house, garage, and land cost $2,750, with another $100 for the chicken house; payments were $25 monthly after $500 down. The orchard and yard were a childhood wonderland, while the small house eventually held ten people. She describes crowded sleeping arrangements, hand-pumped water, an outhouse, coal heat, rabbits, and time with her father in his workshed. Her father added two bedrooms and a bathroom without professional help in 1950. Later changes included removal of an interior wall, new carpeting, and white vinyl siding with hunter-green shutters. After three-quarters of the land was sold, the address became 3205 39th Street. Preserving the house helps her keep family memories alive.
A Mother and Daughter's Butterfly GardenDelores and her daughter Susy landscaped the entire yard by hand, turning it into a bird and butterfly sanctuary. Susy helps add flowers and shrubs to attract butterflies. They hope to tag Monarchs the following season and follow their migration to Mexico, as gardening becomes an avid hobby for Delores.
An Acre and Four Rooms to Call HomeCarol remembers moving to 3209 39th Street in 1942 at age four, running through empty rooms and jumping through windows. The $2,187 house stood on an acre in South Moline Township and initially had four rooms, an outhouse, and a well, but no bathroom, basement, or garage. Her father built a basement. A family of ten shared the small house, with the girls' living-room beds put away each morning and Grandpa Williams living there until his death in 1953.
The Garden That Fed the FamilyThe orchard and garden supplied fruit, berries, and vegetables that Carol's mother preserved for winter, with help from Grandpa Williams and Iris. Carol recalls shelling peas, snapping beans, apple pies, and the sound of canning lids sealing. About 1950, she helped her father prepare tomatoes for sale to Sam Gnatovich at three dollars a bushel and kept the proceeds. Her father later sold the garden land to George and Evelyn Sajben. In later years, family members could not reproduce their mother's dill pickles and suspected her well water made the difference.
Ice Deliveries, Party Lines, and Summer in the BasementCarol describes well water pumped beside the sink, water heated on the stove, an icebox supplied by an iceman, and glass-bottled milk delivered during the war years. She contrasts her family's circumstances with school friends Juanita and Lavelle Nelson, who lived in a boxcar and cooled food in a hillside hole. She recalls distinctive party-line rings and secretly listening to conversations. In summer the family lived and ate in the cooler basement; her father eventually cut up their oak dining table to make a punching bag ceiling-mount.
Goodbye to the Outhouse on 39th StreetCarol recalls living in four rooms on 39th Street and the family's happiness when Daddy added an indoor bathroom and two bedrooms. Their gray-board outhouse had two holes, no heat, and sometimes Sears Roebuck Catalog pages instead of toilet paper. Nighttime trips were frightening, and Mom accompanied the children with a flashlight. Carol concealed the outhouse from school friends because she associated it with being poor. Daddy initially kept it as a backup after indoor plumbing arrived, but her brothers demolished it while he was at work and got into trouble. Carol ends by imagining a prettily decorated modern outhouse with decorating advice from Martha Stewart.
Mom's Kitchen, Backyard Roasts, and a Special Sunday DinnerCarol recalls homemade meals, sweets, Friday-night treats, and bedtime snacks, including Lloyd teaching the children to dunk peanut butter sandwiches into cocoa. She remembers coloring margarine and refusing ten cents to eat liver. After the move to 39th Street, Mom raised chickens, Bob had a pig, and Grandpa Williams raised rabbits. Watching a chicken being killed terrified Carol, though chicken dinners and competing for the wishbone were memorable. Daddy prepared backyard wiener roasts. Restaurant meals never occurred and dinner invitations were rare, making a Sunday ham dinner with Ruth and Tom Johnson especially memorable.
A Mother's Everyday Care and Treasured HandworkRobert remembers his extraordinary mother's work raising seven children with help from her dad, Iris, and neighbors. Childhood in the four-room house on 39th Street included Saturday baths in a galvanized kitchen tub, an outhouse, clean school clothes, cocoa with a peanut butter sandwich, and repeatedly reused lunch bags. His mother made thirteen-egg angel food birthday cakes, tended and canned a large garden's harvest, and silently taught him to pick beans thoroughly by collecting three more buckets after he said he was finished. He treasures her doilies, Christmas ornament balls, and Santa dolls; his boys Steve and Brian also have ornaments.
From Kindergarten Tears to a Published SketchRobert recalls crying on his first day of kindergarten until Iris came for him, attending several schools after a move, and graduating in 1955. He remembers junior high plays, working on scenery and props, taking art classes, and having a log cabin sketch published in Illinois Junior Historian. He reports good grades and continued learning through classes, workshops, seminars, and the school of “hard knocks.”
Little Glimpses of an Early ChildhoodBernie recalls playing with the rubber buttons on his sun suit, a vague sensation of bouncing on Grampa’s Williams’ knee, a humming red top, and a wooden duck toy. He does not remember his birthplace house, but introduces the fragmented memories of the family's second house at 127 35th Street as material for a poem.
The Little House That Grew with the FamilyBernard remembers the small house on 39th Street that became the family's enduring home. He believes Mom secured the loan to move the children away from the river and railroad tracks. Dad gradually transformed the four-room house with a basement, furnace, well, enlarged kitchen, bedrooms, indoor plumbing, siding, garage, and work shed. Memories of moving day, Grampa's songs and knee rides, the McFarlands, and freedom to play convey the deep closeness of the family.
Penny Candy, Hollyhock Dolls, and Front-Porch DaysIris recalls a small grocery store in a converted home's front room across from 1015 29th Street, where bread, milk, and penny candy were available. Living between the river and railroad tracks, the family received visits from hobos seeking food, and Mom shared despite the family's own limited supplies. Grandpa gathered dandelion greens for Mom to cook in bacon drippings. Iris remembers River Drive, Dad's beloved Model T Ford, a short-lived rabbit hutch, and making dolls from hollyhock blossoms beside the garage. One summer she badly hurt her knee falling from her bicycle on a black-cinder-covered street and spent long days recovering on the porch swing and cutting paper dolls. After Carol's birth, Mom was ill and weak for a long time; Iris tentatively recalls Grandpa being there part of the time and remembers Uncle Lloyd's brief visits. Grandpa Williams and Dad exchanged sharp words, while Saturday evenings also brought card games with Mom, Dad, and friends.
Dances, Seven Children, and Grampa’s Helping HandsAfter moving to Moline, Ethel met Floyd through Mary Hill and married him in 1928. They raised seven children, while Ethel worked several jobs and survived goiter surgery. Ed became a permanent member of their household, contributing childcare, housework and money, despite drinking and a serious workplace injury. Lloyd served in the Army Signal Corps, suffered lasting injuries and eventually lost contact with the family, leaving fond memories and a cocoa-dunking breakfast tradition. The passage gives conflicting dates for Ed’s death and funeral.

Events here

One time
A dog tries to bite Diana
A dog at the end of the street tried to bite Diana but 'got the wrong leg.' Barbara describes the dog as surprised.
When the narrator was two years old
Moving into the four-room family house
Eight family members moved into a four-room house with an acre of land. Diana and Barb were born afterward.
Years later
Land sale changes the house address
Three-quarters of the land was sold, and the address changed to 3205 39th Street.
By the time of writing
Preserving the house with new siding
With help from her brothers and sisters, the narrator had new siding put on the house. Contractors removed speckled green asphalt siding; the house now has white vinyl siding and hunter-green shutters.
By the time of writing
Landscaping a bird and butterfly sanctuary
Mother and daughter landscaped the entire yard by hand and were adding butterfly-attracting flowers and shrubs. Tagging Monarchs and following their migration to Mexico was a hope for the next season, not a completed activity.
other
Purchase of the family home
Carol found a receipt in her parents' strongbox showing a purchase price of $2,187. The house initially had four rooms, an outhouse, and a well.
One of the first things Daddy did
A basement built beneath the house
Carol's father built a basement, later used for living and eating during hot summer months.
from 1942 until about 1949 or 1950
Living in four rooms on 39th Street
Carol recalls the family living in four rooms. The ending year is given as approximately 1949 or 1950.
when Carol was about twelve
An indoor bathroom and two bedrooms added
Daddy built a bathroom and two bedrooms onto the home, to the family's delight.
after the inside bathroom was installed
The brothers tear down the outhouse
Although Daddy wanted to retain the outhouse in case the indoor plumbing failed, Carol's unnamed brothers tore it down while he was at work. They were in trouble when he returned that night.
When we first moved to 39th Street
The family moves to 39th Street
Carol associates the early period at 39th Street with Mom raising chickens, Bob having a pig, and Grandpa Williams raising rabbits.
other
Ed funds room for seven teenagers
Contributed $2,000 from postal savings toward two bedrooms and a bath.

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